Climate Corner: Perspectives of a new dad…one year in

Mar 7, 2026

Griffin Bradley

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

As my son approaches his first birthday later this month, I’ve found myself doing a lot of reflecting on what’s been easier or harder than anticipated. The long nights, balancing a full-time job with the needs of being a full-time dad, and so much more. And especially in a first year of global conflict and rapid change, it feels like an extra weight is applied to an already heavy time of life.

Being a parent is a truly magical and life-altering experience. It completely changes the way you look at everyday things. How you talk, who you engage with, how you engage in public, et cetera. But one thing that I have grappled with more than I anticipated was my sense of safety for my son. Not just in the traditional “lock the cabinets and keep sharp objects out of reach” kind of way, but also thinking about the world in which he will live.

When I was growing up in the area, we didn’t give as much thought to the threats of the industrial economy. The impacts it has on the air, water, and wildlife were secondary — or sometimes outright disregarded — when compared to the economic positives it presented. We all had family members who worked at the local plants or factories, providing pensions and what seemed to be generational opportunity. Now that we see many of these facilities slowing down production or closing, we are left with less prosperity and more clean up and challenge.

How much damage has been done that cannot be changed? What have we left for the next generations of people here that will make life harder, unhealthier, more expensive?

Environmental change is not an abstract science, but rather an immediate concern in our area. Think back to your childhood. Were multi-week heatwaves normal? Were droughts and floods happening annually? Today we see all of this and more, coming with significant environmental and economic impacts. Farmland is becoming more difficult to tend, driving food scarcity and higher costs. Land increasingly desolate or industrialized, water and air dirtier by orders of magnitude than in previous decades.

At its core, I am my son’s provider. My job is to feed him, clothe him, put a roof over his head, and do all of the things that traditionally mean to care for him. But in a challenging world, I hope many of us parents can take the definition of “provider” to a different level. Let’s do everything in our power to provide our children with the healthiest, most prosperous world we can. Leverage your power as a citizen and voting member of society to push for policy changes to that end. Hold your elected officials and community to account and be an example of civic duty in action. These are your most powerful tools for change.

So, like many of you, I will put my son to bed tonight. I will kiss him on the forehead and wish him sweet dreams. I will look at him with all the wonder I can imagine, knowing I would do anything to give him the happiest, healthiest life possible. And that is why I choose to fight the good fight on environmental issues. Because he deserves a world of opportunity, not the continued environmental degradation and harms we have experienced here for far too long.

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Griffin Bradley is a lifelong Wood County resident, graduate of West Virginia University, and a contributing author for Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action