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One of the most significant impasses that we face towards a more sustainable future is the roadblock affecting the youngest members of our global society! In the first article resource, Worth (2022) provides an excerpt from her book Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America. Worth goes through a few of the main factors that make teaching climate literacy challenging in the classroom, such as political divide, conflicting narratives in the community, teacher hesitation to avoid conflict, and a disconnect between the lived realities of our youth and the changing global climate patterns. For instance, Worth (2022) cites the experience of a seventh-grader from Paradise, California, named Nakowa Kelley to illustrate this disconnect. Kelley wondered, if global warming presents a significant issue, then how was there still so much snow during winter recently?
Article Link: Why Climate Change is a Tough Topic to Teach
One hopeful takeaway from the article implies that our youth strives for solutions when it comes to the global climate crisis! When Frank Niepold of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asks what the youth think about climate change, they express a desire for less talk of doom and more of answers: “Right now, climate education is maybe 99 percent problem, 1 percent solution. Young people want 20 percent problem, 80 percent solution."
Are there better ways to teach our youth climate literacy?
Are there better ways to teach our youth climate literacy?
In a 2017 literature review by Monroe et al., an analysis was conducted across 49 various climate curricula being taught to our youth. What was found to be the most effective? After examining the purpose for intervention, method of assessment, and pinpointed strategies, Monroe et al. (2017) finds that increasing engagement and connecting climate change to how it affects a learner's local community were found to produce the most positive effects of intervention!
In this TEDx Talk, Thomas Isaac outlines the gap between how different generations perceive climate change and, more importantly, how educating the youth can expand their understanding of climate literacy and inspire a willingness for prosocial action and change. He also talks about a solutions-based game for teaching climate literacy called Stabilization Wedges, which involves breaking down the seemingly-insurmountable goal of reducing 200 gigatons of CO2 emissions into smaller, manageable 'wedges'. This game aims to introduce the idea that climate change can be tackled by not just one, but a combination of answers.
Connecting the impacts of climate change to our students' local communities
These 3 resources are meant to bridge the disconnect that some youth feel with the global impacts of climate change. Each provide interactive maps that show different types of impact that climate change has had in/near their local communities!
This map illustrates how climate change has contributed to devastating phenomena, such as melting glaciers and increasing wildfires in our province and nearby communities. The picture shows the impact of rising temperatures in British Columbia, where an iceberg has broken off the Porcupine Glacier near the Alaska-Canada border.
Université Laval
This map reveals the vulnerability and exposure of populations of both urban and rural communities to heat waves across Canada. For example, the picture above shows the varying degrees of heat wave exposure among cities in the Lower Mainland.
Climate Atlas Canada
This map shows the projected climate changes (in terms of temperature, precipitation, etc.) over the next 55 years in Canada. Different scenarios can be projected based on either a low-carbon future (less climate change) vs. a high-carbon future (more climate change).
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