By Alix Nikolic de Jacinto
The climate emergency is the issue of the day, the headline scrawled across news outlets, and near the center of political discourse. Yet the topic still remains a point of contention in the United States, from federal climate policy to the role of climate action in our education system. This attitude has bred a powerful youth movement that skyrocketed in engagement over the past few years, largely due to mass-student support and emerging youth voices. This youth initiative exemplifies a key element of inequity that climate change provokes: the prior generations responsible for the crisis will escape the worst of its effects, leaving impossible odds to today’s youth.
As time closes in on the climate emergency, we the youth find power in organizing and mobilizing within the movement. We amplify one another and are bolstered by honest climate education, but the issue of strategy and structural change remains prevalent. Students and young adults alone are virtually powerless to do more than demand action from corporations and our governments. This raises the fundamental question: how can we empower and educate students on an issue that affects them, and yet one they have little control over? Effective climate education is the key to galvanizing the necessary public support and transforming climate action from the ideals of a movement into a reality.
There is no age at which a child is ready to cope with the climate crisis, just as there is no specific time when they are too young to be aware of its reality. We should not divert the responsibility of the crisis onto our children, nor should we alarm them with a defeatist lens. However, young students deserve the truth of their situation. It is imperative that our climate education provides a scientific, constructive view of the challenges facing our country and our Earth. Unfortunately, climate change has increasingly become a political debate in the U.S. and around the world. Global warming began to draw attention in the early 19th century and was scientifically regarded as an emergency 60 years ago, and yet it has only been incorporated into American curriculums in recent decades.
Even now, many courses remain largely perfunctory, with some red states going so far as to question the legitimacy of the emergency. One international UN survey concluded that out of 1500 science teachers, the mean time spent on climate change per year was between zero and two hours. For youth movements to persevere and prompt change, students need to have an understanding of the science and history behind it. There is no ideal curriculum, and climate education is perhaps more effective when tailored to regional impacts, but we must implement something now before it’s too late— whether it be a blanket curriculum or not.
The wealth of educational and communicative resources provided by modern technology is not to be overlooked.
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