Jim Clifford is the epitome of a changemaker. He has spent his career creating positive changes in education in Connecticut and has, if anything, appeared to ramp up his efforts since he “retired” from the classroom. He has been building a climate education hub in Connecticut with SubjectToClimate. His collaborative work in making climate change education more accessible to teachers is already remarkable. Read on to learn more.

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Joan Haley: Thanks for joining me, Jim. Before we delve deeper, could you briefly share your journey to climate education?
Jim Clifford: I'm relatively new to the climate education field. This is my third career. When I graduated from Georgetown, I taught high school by day and went to law school at night. I went into law initially and was a trial lawyer for 11 years. Eventually it had too much of an impact on my wife and two little girls, so I returned to my first love, which is teaching, and I taught social studies for 27 years before moving into climate education. 

Is there a pivotal moment that drove you to dedicate yourself to climate change education?
Jim: The key moment was when my first grandson, Colby was born. I'm holding this four-day-old baby. Climate change became very real for me. In my hands, I'm holding someone who will be living through 2050, 2070, 2090...and I felt this immense responsibility — and opportunity to do whatever I could.  

What’s an important insight you’ve gained about climate change education as you've worked with students? 

Jim: I’ve always loved working with high school seniors, who have lived through so much, and are about to move on to the next phase of their lives. When I asked them about the environment, their responses were rather subdued and mixed with negativity. So, I shifted my approach. I asked them, "When was the last time you felt a sense of awe, or a sense of wonder?" I was sad that their few memories of awe and wonder were quite distant, dating back to kindergarten or early childhood days spent outdoors. My students had lost their connection with nature.

This insight was my “a-ha moment”, leading me to use language other than "climate change," which can sometimes inhibit conversation. Instead, I brought up the honey bee colonies at our school, which intrigued the students. When we learned that a third of the bees had died off, we brainstormed how we could help them and we created pollinator gardens at our school. Once this connection was made, it reminded me that, "What you love, you'll protect." This approach helps us to cope with, or put into context, the often paralyzing climate projections, and focus instead on what we care about and want to protect.

What are you currently working on to advance this important work in Connecticut?

Jim: There are several things. In 2021, Connecticut began revising its Social Studies standards, so I joined the process and wrote new climate change and environmental literacy content standards for K-12 social studies classes. These standards were adopted in 2023 and that led to an invitation to draft climate and environmental content for the Connecticut Model Social Studies, which is ongoing. While doing this work, I learned of SubjectToClimate, a nonprofit online connector for K-12+ educators of all subjects, which provides credible and engaging climate change materials at no cost. They began building individual climate hubs in several states so I invited them to build one in Connecticut. We are guided by an advisory committee with representatives from over 30 Connecticut schools, universities, environmental organizations, and five students. We are now assembling Connecticut-specific resources and will be training teachers how to use them when we launch the “CTClimateHub.org” later this year. 

What do you feel is one of the most important aspects of climate justice that we need to address in the Northeast and how are you trying to address it?

Jim: I would say "environmental justice" because it resonates with students, because they care about fairness and a healthy environment. I learned so much about environmental justice when I ran a summer program for urban and suburban high school students, called Exploring Justice. It integrated my experiences in law, teaching, and working with young people. 

My current work with SubjectToClimate also helps to promote environmental justice, particularly by featuring young climate activists who are on the frontlines of climate change. I’m also an officer with the Connecticut Outdoor and Environmental Education Association (COEEA), working with schools in overburdened and under-resourced areas. COEEA is taking a prominent role with the CT Climate Hub, with SubjectToClimate and other like-minded organizations, like the Cooperative Educational Services, which specializes in training Connecticut teachers particularly in underserved communities.  

Looking forward, what changes do you hope to see in the field of climate education?
Jim: I hope to see more Adult Education. We're making great headway in climate change education, and environmental literacy with the younger people. But I feel that if we're going to accelerate our efforts, we need to get older people involved too.

What gives you hope for the future regarding climate change?

Jim: There are a number of things. One is, I have a new understanding of the word “hope,” which I learned by reading Joanna Macy's book, Active Hope. Hope, for me, is more than a feeling or an emotion. It does not need to be based on what’s happening in the outside world. It's more of a mindset that is empowering, and inwardly motivating. It enables one to take intentional action that is designed to achieve a hopeful outcome. Active hope prepares me that I may not see the fruits of that labor now and focuses me on what I can today to make a difference. I am also energized and inspired by working with young people. Their energy and enthusiasm recharges me when I need it. I'm also incredibly motivated every day by my love for family, particularly, my children and grandchildren. 

I also feel hope from my experiences as a history teacher for so long. I have a broader perspective of time than most people. I know that we're facing some major challenges, but we have faced other challenges in the past and we can learn from those successes and setbacks.

Before we conclude, Jim, could you share a favorite saying or mantra that keeps you motivated?

Jim: My favorite saying or maxim is “The answer is always 'No' until you ask, or until you try.” I learned this when working on a high school fundraiser when I asked the principal if the police department would donate the services of a police officer to limit our costs. The principal said, "If you haven’t asked yet, then the answer is 'No.' But it has a great chance to become a 'Yes!' if, and only if, you ask." This advice has stayed with me for nearly 40 years and emboldened me to act.

In this candid interview, high school students from 350NH, a youth environmental group in New Hampshire, share their experiences and insights from their campaign to integrate climate change education into the school curriculum. Despite the resolution being indefinitely postponed last week, their stories of civic engagement, collective action, and unwavering hope offer a compelling narrative of their power to shape the future.

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Joan Haley: How did you get involved with 350NH and climate change?

Taylor: I've been passionate about environmentalism for as long as I can remember. Sophomore year, someone I knew encouraged me to join the team. It provided me with an avenue to interact with people just as passionate about the environment as I am and make real, positive change in my community.

Sonya: I attended one of the asphalt rallies 350NH helped organize. That’s when Taylor realized I was interested, and she really brought me in and recruited me. Feeling like I could do something really engaged me.

Oishik: A friend of mine recruited me. I got involved and now, being a fellow, this whole resolution process has honestly been pretty meaningful to me.

What inspired you to focus on climate education in the curriculum?

Amelia: Living right on the seacoast, I've always seen the effects of climate change. We don't talk about the ways you can get involved in the future and how you can make a difference. I really wanted that to be something we talked about.

Sonya: Taking an AP Environmental Science class was super eye-opening for me. This is knowledge that every student should have access to. Why do I have to take an AP class to learn all of this?

Oishik: The education system is a great way to outreach to students. Standardizing education about climate and other climate-related concepts is a great way to inform younger generations through education.

Although the resolution has been indefinitely postponed, how do you feel about the process and what you've learned?

Sonya: Building a movement and these networks...I think we can call that a success. Even though HR30 might not have passed, we've built something meaningful here.

Oishik: Before this, I barely knew anything about how the legislative process works. Speaking in front of the House Education Committee was nerve-wracking but a really good experience learning how everything works.

Taylor: It was extremely frustrating to see the Education Committee and House invalidate our anxiety. However, we knew that they weren’t likely to be receptive of HR30. The fact that HR30 made it as far as it did proves how much support is behind implementing climate literacy curriculum in New Hampshire. It has been super empowering to gather that support.

What kind of support have you received from organizations or the community?

Taylor: We've connected with New Hampshire Environmental Educators and the NH Environmental Education Project. They've been super helpful in educating us about how to incorporate and distribute resources for environmental education. We've been reaching out to a ton of organizations, developing new partnerships across the state. It's been really cool to see people unite behind the campaign.

How do you envision climate literacy being implemented in schools?

Oishik: Project-based learning would be a really good opportunity intermixed within climate literacy. It's a chance for students to apply real-world learning.

Taylor: Our curriculum would make climate change seem less formidable. It would provide solutions to the climate crisis and empower students to take action.

What message do you have for other students experiencing climate anxiety?

Amelia: You're not alone. Many of us feel this way. But there's power in action, in being informed, and in knowing we're all in this together.

Sonya: I've been able to make peace with my climate anxiety by knowing I'm trying to do as much as I can as an individual to make a change.

Taylor: Avoiding the subject of our anxiety is only going to worsen it. Talking about it and bringing it to light will make it better.

What is the most important lesson you've learned through this process?

Sonya: Success could be the resolution passing, but success is really about building a movement, building these relationships. So I think we really did that. We can call that a success.

Oishik: Learning how actual bill legislature works, how to pass house resolutions, how to talk to representatives, and formulating a testimony was enlightening.

Amelia: Turning our emotions and our anxiety into action is crucial. Giving people hope and showing them movement on how people are changing can really inspire others to join and make a difference.

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As these students continue their work, they carry with them the lessons learned, the friendships forged, and a determination to make a difference. Their journey is a powerful reminder of the impact that informed, passionate voices can have in crafting a more sustainable and just world.  By partnering with youth, we can lay the groundwork for a future where education empowers action, where anxiety transforms into agency, and where young voices lead the charge in addressing the climate crisis.

We're excited to share Debbie Archer at Audubon Vermont’s frontline practitioner perspective, highlighting some of the real life challenges and rewards of doing this work.

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Joan Haley: Tell us a little bit about yourself and Audubon Vermont.
Debbie Archer: I am the Education Manager at Audubon Vermont. Our mission is to protect birds and the places they need today and tomorrow through conservation and educational programming for folks of all ages. Here in Vermont, our education programs are very much embedded in this place. We're fortunate to have the Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington. It's a lovely site because it features some unique habitat types and is part of a larger corridor of forest and wildlands. This gives us a place where the conservation work that we do at Audubon, and even the policy work, can be in concert with the educational opportunities we provide, which sets us up really nicely to also do some climate change education.

How have your strategies and beliefs about climate change education shifted?
Debbie: Teachers bring their kids here for two hours, and that might be the only time we spend with those kids until their teacher signs them up to come for a field trip here next year. We had been in a place where we said, okay, do we explain to kids when they get here what climate change is? That can take up a huge portion of the program and they might be here to learn about salamanders.  So we try to integrate it throughout, when relevant. We also see a lot of really young children, which means we have lots of conversations about what climate change education looks like at the early ed level.

How else has your programming shifted to include climate change education?

Debbie:  We’ve learned that climate change education works better when we have programs with repeat kids. In our forest classroom program, those kids are here for an entire day, one day a week. So there's just so much more space to be able to talk about, for example, the “heat trapping blanket” effect. You can introduce it one day, and then you can come back to it to explore in more depth at a later time. Whereas just the one-time field trip model feels pretty restrictive when trying to do something as meaningful as climate change education.

Tell me what partnerships you rely on and why they might be important.

Debbie: Schools are our most important partners, absolutely. We partner with other youth-serving organizations too. Vermont is a small place, so with a number of nature centers and outdoor ed serving organizations here, it could be a very competitive environment.  We live in a tiny place with 600,000 people. You can throw a rock and hit someone who works in conservation. And we know that. So let's not compete. Let’s work together. For example, we meet with folks at the North Branch Nature Center just to talk and ask,” how do you do this? How do you do that?” There’s a real culture of collaboration in Vermont and we feel lucky to have such great partnerships. The Collaborative has absolutely reinforced this ethos in me as well.

What do you feel is one of the most important aspects of climate justice that we need to address in the Northeast?

Debbie: This is a hard one. Because when I think about climate justice, and I'm thinking about Audubon as a whole, too…It really is, it's about being in community with people and in their community. They know their issues and we need to support them by listening to them and not just assuming to know what their community needs. Letting them take the lead and being a supportive partner that might have resources and expertise to support the community’s effort for a cleaner/safer/more resilient environment.

What is an important lesson you've learned about moving people from awareness to action when it comes to engaging local climate change mitigation?
Debbie: There is a diagram in my head from a paper, I think, that moves from appreciation of nature, to understanding, to action. It is so deeply ingrained in how I’ve thought about environmental education. But recently, I came across something that pushed back, saying just because you enjoy and know about nature, and you are in it and appreciate it, does not mean you're gonna do anything on the action front. I’ve really been ruminating on that.

What gives you hope or has been inspiring lately?

Debbie: What gives me hope is that I don't necessarily feel that young people have given up. It's a daunting challenge what they are faced with and yet, an impending sense of doom and gloom is not the only thing I get from young people. I don't think that young people feel entirely that way, and that to me gives me hope and is amazing. Maybe we’ve gotten better at giving teens more autonomy, and letting them take initiative. If we say, yes, go for it!  I see the impacts of that in them—they're like, “heck, yeah, I can do this! We can take action, we can protest, and we can help solve climate change.”

What's your favorite saying or quote to keep you going during trying times?

Debbie: I have this quote from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. She says “It's a woman's business to be interested in the environment.” That one's on my wall behind me. She later says it's an extended form of housekeeping, and I choose not to take offense to that. She was born in 1890. The quote specifically calls  women to the conservation field that has left many people that are not white, Cis, men out. The fact that she then goes on to say "it's an extended form of housekeeping;" I like to imagine oh, that's “women's work.” Heck, yeah! Taking care of the environment as “women's work” is a little bit like reclaiming the patriarchy. Yeah, this is our field. And we have to be part of the solution and it's not gonna get better without us.

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About Debbie Archer, Audubon Vermont

Growing up in a military family, Debbie moved around the country throughout her childhood. But, as a fourth-grader, she made a declaration that she would live in Vermont when she grew up. Many years later she is very happily putting down roots here in Vermont and working for Audubon. Debbie joined the education team in 2015 with a Master of Science in Environmental Science from Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She gained experience in outdoor education working as an educator, naturalist, and camp program manager at environmental education camps in Alaska and California. She lives in Montpelier where she continues to be excited to see and experience all that Vermont has to offer during each of its seasons.  

An interview with Collaborative member Jen Kretser illustrates why the Wild Center was just nominated as a best science museum in USA TODAY's Readers' Choice Awards. Delve into the insights of a trailblazer in climate education in this conversation between Collaborative facilitator Joan Haley and Jen.

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Joan: Your work at The Wild Center over the past 16 years has become a gold standard for climate change education work. Your ample experience facilitating youth climate summits, the creation of the youth climate summit toolkit, and your climate solutions exhibits are all helping to lead and support climate change education in the U.S. and around the world. What sparked the idea for the Youth Climate Summits and how have they evolved?

Jen: It all started when a student, after attending an adult conference, emailed me in the middle of the night saying, ‘Hey Jen, that was awesome. But everybody there was really old... Can we do a Youth Climate Summit?’ I immediately said yes...That’s how we started the first Adirondack Youth Climate Summit in November 2009.

Since then you’ve had 13 Adirondack Youth Climate Summits and inspired 170 throughout the world. How significant are partnerships in your climate action work?

Jen: Partnerships are crucial...The most powerful partnerships often happen with the least likely partners...like our unexpected yet pivotal collaboration with the New York State Office of Climate Change, who initially were hesitant but now see us as an essential partner.

In what ways do you ensure climate justice and equity are central to your programs?

Jen: We’ve shifted our focus to prioritize justice and equity...It’s about embedding these elements deeply into our work, not just tokenizing them. It means sharing diverse perspectives, ensuring our speakers and programs reflect the audience, and really focusing on that intersectionality with equity and justice. We cannot have climate solutions without climate justice.

When it comes to collaborating on a project, for example, how do you move toward greater power sharing? 

Jen: In an ideal world, it's the co-creation of the project or initiative proposal, the narrative, and the budget together. It's a sensitive issue because if you're the granting organization holding the money, you already have power. There's no one-size-fits-all approach. With our first funding opportunity, it was in consultation, but we had to readjust later on. We realized the scope was bigger than our budget. We also had an internship program involving Mohawk interns, and we had to rethink that too. It was a learning experience, but we had help rethinking and being more expansive. It's about deconstructing our initial ideas and co-creating something. It took humility and a steep learning curve. But now, one of our former interns is the museum coordinator of the Akwesasne Cultural Center, another is doing a residency in New Mexico, and some are working as consultants for other museums. We've maintained close relationships, both personally and professionally, even though the project officially ended three years ago. Building these relationships is crucial.

Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for the field of climate education?

Jen: I’d love to see more collective fundraising and action...Imagine if organizations came together for a common goal, like funding Youth Climate Summits across regions, instead of competing for the same resources.

Finally, what personal philosophy or quote inspires you in your work?

Jen: A quote by Maya Angelou inspires me daily: ‘Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.’ It reminds me that it’s okay to make mistakes, but crucial to learn and improve from them.

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About Jennifer Kretser, Director of Climate Initiatives - The Wild Center

Jen is the Director of Climate Initiatives at The Wild Center in the northern Adirondack Mountains in NYS. She has worked at The Wild Center for the last 15 years managing and supporting interpretive and education programming as well as community partnerships.  Jen’s primary work is managing the nationally and globally recognized Youth Climate Program which recently participated at the UN COP 26 conference in Glasgow as a delegation as well as UN COP 21 in Paris. Jen founded The Wild Center’s Youth Climate Program in 2009 with the first Adirondack Youth Climate Summit. Since then the program has grown around the world with over 170 youth climate summits in 9 countries and 25 states.  Jen helped to catalyze youth climate summits in Finland, Germany, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Nigeria, Bermuda, and Canada. She has written numerous articles on teaching climate change education and has spoken around the world on the role of youth in climate change education and the importance of engaging all of society in climate change action. Jen serves on the board for the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN), founding steering member of the Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE),  Adirondack Diversity Initiative and the Adirondack Mountain Club.   Prior to her work with The Wild Center, Kretser served as Director of Education for the Adirondack Mountain Club for 7 years focused on educating for responsible recreation, stewardship, and interpretive planning.  For her work in the Adirondacks, she was the 2006 recipient of the ADK Education Award,  2017 EPA Region 2 Environmental Educator Award, 2018 NYS Environmental Excellence Award and 2022 Adirondack Conservationist of the Year from the Adirondack Council.  Her past experiences include teaching and developing programs at the Cincinnati Zoo, the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, the Adirondack Park Visitor’s Interpretive Center, and Zoo New England in Boston.  Through her strong interest in international conservation, Kretser has participated in two professional exchanges to Siberia to work with park officials on creating education programs for their National Park system. In addition to her work in Siberia, she has traveled extensively in Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Nepal and India – exploring parks and meeting people.  Kretser graduated from Cornell University with a BS in wildlife ecology and a Masters of Science in environmental science and education from Antioch University New England.  Originally from Saranac Lake NY, Jen is passionate about life in the Adirondacks. She can be found hiking, paddling, painting, picking blueberries and cross country skiing with her family, friends and Lila the dog.