The grade 6 social studies curriculum seems to be mostly based on environmental issues. This is causing my son a lot of anxiety. He feels like he's getting it from all sides. Science topics have lead to discussions on solar flares destroying the world, robots and AI destroying the world. Other topics like climate change, overpopulation and general end of the world scenarios are haunting him.
Two general approaches to dealing with these fears are to
(1) decide not to worry about things you can do nothing about OR
(2) do some research and convince yourself that the sky is not falling.
People were talking about overpopulation in the 1970s, too, and I remember worrying about it as a child. Since then, fertility rates have declined dramatically around the world, and I'd argue that the bigger problem is that many developed nations have fertility well below replacement level. Does your son know how much fertility has declined around the world?
The U.S. is cleaner than it was decades ago. Air quality used to be terrible in some major U.S. manufacturing centers. In general, things are getting better.
