‘MeteoHeroes’ TV Series Is Taking Climate Education Directly To Children In American Schools
One mustn’t live in California to feel climate change related anxiety. In fact, according to a study by Bath University published in 2021, 84% of children around the world are worried about climate change. And many adults are too.
Such was the case for Luigi Latini, meteorological scientist attached to Meteo Expert, one of Europe’s biggest private firms in applied research and forecasting for meteorology and climatology. An employee at the company since 1995, Latini and his team were at the forefront of understanding climate change, back in the early 2000s.
“At that time, we understood that something was changing,” he told Cartoon Brew. “But people weren’t ready to hear it back then. When I started thinking about the show around 2016, climate change was getting more media attention and adults and children alike were asking more and more questions. After speaking with Italian children’s author and psychologist Luigi Ballerini, I decided to move on with this [MeteoHeroes] project.”
In collaboration with American executive producer and children’s television veteran Kenn Viselman, Latini and his collaborators created two seasons of MeteoHeroes with Mondo TV studios, which didn’t go without obstacles as the first 52-episode season was hit hard by the pandemic. “You can choose to call this team extremists, or extremely passionate”, joked Viselman. “Even though we were under those conditions, we didn’t miss a single production deadline. For Luigi, it needn’t be an Italian tv show, and that helped us reach an international level in terms of production and content”.
Latini further added, “In China, where the lockdown was even stronger than in Europe or the U.S., the owner of our animation partner asked for a government permit to go back to the studio, picked up all the computers, and then distributed them one by one to all the employees, so they could continue to work remotely. During production, we created this huge community around the world, also because we all felt it was necessary to share these stories. Eighty per cent of those people I never met in person, but I’m truly grateful we were able to reach such a result internationally. It has become more than a cartoon; it’s a movement. And kids picked it up right from the start.”
MeteoHeroes has already aired in Italy, France, Spain, South America, and has been sold in Asia to several territories. But in the U.S., Viselman and business development consultant Rita Lepicier wanted to try another approach.
“For us, the show was already more than a show, so we wanted to do things differently,” Viselman explained. “If we talk to kids, maybe they can educate themselves and the generations after, and we could change the future with the power of storytelling. In order to educate, you have to engage. And so, our Global Climate Education Initiative was born.”
Partnering with the educational platform Adventure2Learning, San Bernardino County, and local PBS stations, the duo built a strategy of public-funded climate education through entertaining and science-backed content, providing also a companion series Real Heroes Don’t Wear Capes, co-produced with the Kids First! coalition.
“We had local and state support, with various networks and legislators backing the project,” said Lepicier. “I’ve been in the business for a long time now, and I always had to raise my own money through public and private funding. We were confident this initiative would appeal to the authorities, and it did. Right to the point we discovered our line item was cut at the last moment from the state’s budget.”
While a political setback left the initiative stranded, the team’s spirit remained unshaken, according to Viselman. “Two years later, we still don’t know how the line disappeared. But our trust in this strategy is still intact. I know it’s a bizarre thing for a producer to say ‘Fuck Tvs; we’re going to work with schools.’ Yet in this context, with this show, it has proven to be unbelievably effective and fulfilling. Today, based on the tests we’ve done in U.S. schools with Adventure2Learning and the international awareness we’ve built, along with huge word-of-mouth spread by the kids themselves, we have more than two hundred thousand followers on social media.”
And teachers and children alike yearn for more. In Italy, test programs conducted in several schools have shown that kids respond very well to the adventures of the pint-sized climate-conscious heroes. “We always wanted to offer adventure, action and fun with a scientifically accurate message,” said Latini. “That’s why each episode ends with a piece of advice, and at the end of the series each kid will be able to start a conversation with their parents or teachers about climate change.”
A goal that the project wants to achieve in the U.S. is providing age-graded, in-school curriculum ranging from four-to-ten-year-olds, accessible to all schools.
“Our ultimate goal is to make MeteoHeroes part of the zeitgeist”, concluded Viselman. “The show is cleverly written, can match that broad audience ranging through different ages, and has the ability to raise climate awareness with very little investment from the public. What we need now is dedicated people who want to help fund such initiatives. People who, as we do, believe in the children’s imagination. Children who would use their imagination triggered by the MeteoHeroes, and then who would turn off the tv, get out in the world and build the future.”
