I agree with those saying climate change is a huge stressor for young generations. I had the same argument with a friend about fear of nuclear war into the 80's, but she convinced me it wasn't the same. They are both existential fears, but nuclear war was something that only the military could make happen, and as long as it didn't happen, life could go on as usual (well not really, we know now). Whereas climate change is happening slowly but surely all around and everyone will have to change their behavior to avoid it.

My wife and I cannot talk about climate change around our kids because they understand how scary it is and we see their fear about the consequences.

I think this, in some way, can be interpreted in a way favorable to the original parent's comment. Kids being stressed by climate change to the point that their feelings overwhelm all of their coping mechanisms is not an effective strategy for actually fixing the root cause.

Ideally, kids would develop, by trial and error, effective strategies for identifying solvable problems and dealing with them, and not being extremely negatively affected by (directly) unsolvable problems. It would be beneficial for society if people heard about climate change and thought, "Okay, that won't be good, so what are some things I can do in the short term and in the long term to make a positive impact?" The great thing about such an approach is that it's omni-applicable, such as when one's car breaks down on a long drive, etc.

Parents who constantly hover around their kids presumably interfere with this vital process, perhaps because these important lessons can only be discovered, not forcibly taught.

To me this is akin to saying that kids under slavery need to learn coping strategies. Yes, it could help, but there is no reason to think it would counteract the inherent effect of their environment - and it lays the blame in entirely the wrong place.

Nuclear war has a chance of not happening, so I don’t see how it can be substituted for climate change.

If climate change is like nuclear war then we are sending nukes out every day.