It’s an all hands on deck month here at Climate Generation as the team prepares to host the Summer Institute for Climate Change Education in July. More than 239 educators are registered for this transformational event so far, panelists are confirmed, and we are uploading the lineup of fantastic workshops into the virtual platform. As an informal educator, I love this event. It is so much more than a professional development opportunity, it is a community of practice, and a space where we are building a movement. This sentiment is confirmed by this year’s collectively chosen theme: Changemakers in Action.
We have had a few funding partners ‘break up’ with us this year. They love our work, of course, but have decided to fund “solutions” to the Climate Crisis. Sigh. As much as I appreciate our departing funding partners, I can’t help but shrug my shoulders to this short-sightedness. Because we here at Climate Generation believe Education is the Climate Solution.
Students, educators, and school systems are essential to solving the climate crisis. We need high-quality, interdisciplinary, locally rooted climate education that centers not just on the problem, but also on solutions.
According to a study published in the Lancet, 59% of youth and young adults said they were very or extremely worried about climate change and more than 45% said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning. Our young people are not naive, they see what is happening around the world and millions have already lived through powerful climate-related disasters. Education can and should be the space where young people learn the skills and develop the resilience to fight climate change.
By the end of high school, young adults should have a robust understanding of humanity’s relationship with the Earth. Climate change education should equip young people with communication and collaboration skills, data analysis skills, critical thinking and creative problem solving skills, and plant the seeds for green stem careers. Climate change education must happen with a social justice lens — Who is impacted by extraction? Who makes and who discards fast fashion items? Who is growing food and in what ways? Who has power to make decisions and why?
Climate justice education is how we provide young people with the tools, mindsets, and skills needed for the just transition. Climate justice education is how we support students’ resilience, agency, and leadership so that they can pioneer the necessary solutions to the climate crisis.
Education is the climate solution.
There is a beautiful groundswell movement of individual states to mandate and provide standards for climate literacy and education. To date, three states have codified climate education, including New Jersey, Connecticut, and California. Despite these advances, a 2020 study found, the education standards of at least 20 states failed to include the basics of human-caused climate change. Climate change deniers are showing up in school districts across the country to fight climate change education along with Ethnic Studies, Social Emotional Learning, and what is erroneously referred to as ‘critical race theory.’
We recognize that youth will inherit the unparalleled impacts of climate change and are among our most powerful advocates. Educators are critical messengers of climate and energy literacy, and schools and nonformal learning centers provide powerful examples of sustainability in communities. We will not get to the Just Transition, my friends, without education.
Are you ready to support Climate Generation’s work to bring climate literacy and climate justice education to our students, families, communities and schools? Let’s make the Just Transition happen!
Susan Phillips
Executive Director
