"Climate Change is…" at New Roots Charter School
Prior to getting laid-flat by the flu for two full weeks (!!!), and around the time of my last post (January 18th) I did something really fun; I went to New Roots Charter School in Ithaca, New York, and talked with two classes of 9th graders about Climate Change.
One of the questions I had going into the classes was whether this particular set of 9th graders was going to be more or less informed, polarized, alarmed, engaged, etc., than the typical adults I can “sample” (friends, colleagues, grocery store checkout people). After about the first 5 minutes going around the circle of students, it became pretty clear their thoughts were fairly representative of mine and those I encounter elsewhere. So that became part of my job too; to help them see that as 9th graders, they were not necessarily any less informed, or less entitled to their own reactions, than any adult is.
I did one exercise where I asked everyone to think of one word, one adjective, to describe what Climate Change is to them…”Climate Change is…?” The answers were so great. In addition to four “bads” and two demurs, here are the words that came to these students, along with a my paraphrasing of the student’s elaborated meaning:
Climate Change is Skewed-
Referring to the widespread misrepresentation of the “debate” in some media outlets.
Climate Change is Problematic-
Referring to the need for more buy-in from more people.
Climate Change is Dangerous-
Referring to threatening the lives and well-being of people and animals and even species
Climate Change is Important-
Referring both to deserving more attention than it gets, and also to being a multi-generational problem.
Climate Change is Exaggerated-
Referring to the belief that it isn’t as serious as it is often represented.
Climate Change is Changeable-
Referring to the fact we have some power to make changes.
Climate Change is Unchangeable-
Referring to the fact we can’t fully stop Climate Change, and that we are locked in with obstacles we can’t change by ourselves because systems are in place put there by others that we are forced to work within.
Climate Change is Sad-
Referring to people who are not on board despite how important the issue is.
Climate Change is Disappointing-
Referring to the fact “we” as a society have known about it for so long, but still haven’t responded appropriately.
Climate Change is Overwhelming-
This descriptor was chosen by my friend (and the co-conspirator who invited me into her classroom) Danielle Angie. As the other adult in the conversation, she voiced what I know a lot of us feel: we are more in the habit of thinking of ourselves as responsible for fixing the things/ problems we see, but with Climate Change there is so much…we don’t know where to begin.
Climate Change is Consequential-
Referring not to what is coming in the future so much as the fact that Climate Change is the result of, or the consequence of, our own previous actions.
Climate Change is Unstoppable-
Referring to latent time between when carbon is emitted and when the effect kicks in, so we already have more change built into our future no matter what we do. Plus, we need 100% consensus to make things happen, and we don’t have that.
Each of these word choices are great, right? But the clarifications? That’s when you really got to hear what each of them was really thinking about and was disturbed by.
One idea that sat among the above thoughts and came up over and over again, was this idea that “no one is doing anything.” It was the sort of observation that was expressed with feelings of frustration, bewilderment and disappointment. Very much how I felt as I came to understand the “ways of the world” when I was their ages.
That’s what I feel now too. No one’s doing anything! Maybe most of us feel this way at some level. But if you think about it, it is a funny reaction, right? First off, it is not true. What is true is that lots and lots of people, all around the world, are doing lots and lots of useful, important, and absolutely necessary things in order to educate, motivate, and influence other people in relation to the issue of Climate Change, and hundreds of other important issues as well. People are trying in any way they can think of to reduce, minimize, reverse, solve, ameliorate, etc., Climate Change. In addition to knowing about it and thinking about it and reading about it, millions of people are looking for small ways to reduce their ecological footprint. Like by recycling, changing out less efficient light bulbs for more efficient ones, maybe buying more locally-produced goods, like food. Other people are actively searching for bigger level changes they can make, like switching over to renewable energy sources, buying a more fuel efficient vehicle, eating less red meat. Still others have gone further, making their careers or life’s-work about mitigating Climate Change.
Because of all this good work, the problem can’t literally be that no one is doing anything. But it remains true that enough of us aren’t doing enough. I think what bothers us sometimes is that everyone isn’t doing everything to make things right. Or at least that more of us aren’t doing more.
The good news is, everyone does not need to do everything . This is a major point I want to make better later, but the bottom line is we can actually get really far and be satisfied with all of us striving to do more. I would argue that whatever “more” comes naturally to you at the moment is good enough, given that your “more” will change and grow with time as you choose to engage with the problem. And some where in between where we are now—with not enough of us doing enough—and where we might dream of being—with every one doing everything—is some effective majority of people, working together, and doing the best we can, and making the biggest difference we can put together.
What would that look like? First of all, it would likely include finding yourself in more conversations with other people about this and related issues. Some of us might experience it in the form of examining and reexamining our lives, trying to figure out the relative importance of the things in it. We might find ourselves making small but meaningful changes more easily. We could one day discover ourselves tied in close and important ways to friends and family and communities through efforts to make whatever changes we can in our own little corner of the world. In the best of all possible worlds, it would also include lots and lots of people—thousands of people, ten of thousands, hundreds of thousands—wait, we already have hundreds of thousands—millions of people, united together behind the single cause of “improving” our management of the world for better human and environmental health, with the looming specter of Climate Change driving us to prioritize this above all else. I think thatwould look a lot like the other major, historical events of the past hundred years. Events like the World Wars, but different. Movements like Civil Rights, but different. People talking. People working. People gathering.
Thinking specifically of those 9th graders at New Roots, if I could do it again I’d try to slip this idea in: it only feels like no one is doing anything until you join up with the someones who are doing something. Once you do that, you might just feel like together, we all might be able to do anything.
Comments