How Yorkshire schools can get their hands on TV presenter Ade Adepitan's book teaching kids about climate change

The Paralympic medallist is helping his two-and-a-half-year-old son Bolla gently explore nature, hoping to instil in him a love for the environment.

“He’s absolutely fascinated by all the creatures and all the plants, and it gives me an opportunity to talk to him about how they work, how they’re interconnected, and why they’re so important for us as humans. I can tell him this in such a simple way,” says Adepitan, 50.

“He’s so inquisitive – children are like sponges. He’s constantly talking about the bees, butterflies and insects, and I really enjoy helping him learn about our environment, and seeing his excitement and sense of wonderment.”

The former wheelchair basketball player, who fronted BBC series Climate Change: Ade On The Frontline in 2021, has teamed up with Zurich to create a book aimed at helping all young children understand an important part of the climate change problem – marine ecosystems.

“I think it’s really important that this new generation don’t make the same mistakes we did,” says Adepitan, who has also hosted travel documentaries and sports programmes during his broadcasting career. “It’s first and foremost getting our kids to understand the beauty and the wonderment of this planet. And when you understand that, then you want to cherish it, you want to take care of it.”

A team effort, the book was created by Adepitan and written by children’s author and former head teacher Neil Griffiths, with illustrations by Erin Mackay. The story follows Seanna the Seahorse and her friends, focusing primarily on seagrass and the carbon it sucks from the atmosphere, blue carbon.

More carbon is stored in coastal and marine marshes and seagrass meadows than in the world’s rainforests, and some species of seagrass can take carbon from the atmosphere up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests. However, as much as 92 per cent of seagrass meadows – also a vital habitat for endangered wildlife – have disappeared around Britain’s coastlines over the last century due to dredging and pollution, says Zurich.

“A lot of us know the importance of trees for our environment, and seagrass does the same thing, but for our oceans and seas,” explains Adepitan, who lost the use of his legs when he had polio as a young child. "These seagrasses are natural mechanisms to suck up the carbon from the atmosphere, but most people don’t really know about it.”

“I think kids can be this really beautiful vehicle to help adults change their ways,” he adds. Zurich is offering schools free copies of The Secret Garden Under The Sea (the first 300 to email: [email protected] will be sent a hard copy). To download a free e-book, visit zurich.co.uk/sustainability/our-planet/seahorse