Getting climate action on the education agenda

Opinion

Last school year, a student of mine posed a question that reverberated through my thoughts long after the class had ended: “So, how are you advocating for climate action as an adult?”

It’s the kind of question that I hope many of us are thinking about, but frankly, I think many of us are unsure about how to answer.

As adults who care for the well-being of children and the environment on which we are all dependent, it’s crucial that we are able to respond to this question. One place requiring these kinds of action-oriented answers is our education system.

Education can be a carbon capture and emission reduction strategy. According to a 2020 research study, effective climate education can decrease carbon emissions, comparable to the impact of major mitigation efforts like the adoption of rooftop solar panels or the use of electric vehicles. School grounds across Manitoba, often large barren fields of Kentucky bluegrass and dandelions, are valuable learning sites for capturing carbon through (re)introducing tall grass Prairie species, pollinator and food gardens, and reforestation.

It is important that we make the education system a visible climate action player and signal to young people that climate action is valuable and possible. A recent 2023 study revealed that 73 per cent of young people find the future of climate change frightening, and 64 per cent feel like our government has not done enough to avoid climate catastrophe. What the education system needs is the leadership to develop strategic climate action plans and ignite this work — and we should be looking to Manitoba Education, school boards and divisional leaders to answer this call.

In Manitoban communities, we’re witnessing first-hand the consequences of a changing climate — from more frequent and vast forest fires and smoke, extreme drought, floods, and severe heat waves to shifts in agricultural patterns and ecological disruptions.

As pillars of our communities, our schools cannot remain passive in the face of such challenges.

Looking across Canada, only three out of 380 school boards have climate action plans. In Manitoba school divisions, climate action plans are beginning to take shape. The Winnipeg School Division has a motion to develop an environmental committee and policy. The Seven Oaks School Division has hired a full-time Climate Action Divisional Teacher Team Lead. These are commendable steps being spearheaded by passionate and concerned leaders, and we need to see this action scaled across the province to reclaim our once nationally recognized leadership in the environment and education.

Fortunately, there are important resources to help continue with this work for all school divisions in Manitoba. Lakehead University has produced a report to support the development of climate action planning. The organization Climate Caucus has produced a resource-laden handbook for school trustees.

These resources outline a roadmap for responding to our climate emergency and developing targets aligning with international agreements. These responses could take the form of cost-saving, deep-energy retrofits of schools to reduce emissions. They could also take the form of transforming 30 per cent of schoolyards into sites of ecological-cultural restoration as learning projects. Identifying and removing barriers and increasing supports for teacher-champions to engage learners in this action-centred learning is an achievable policy goal for school divisions.

It is crucial that professional development is continued to support educators to move beyond awareness of the climate crisis. Children need meaningful, context-based experiences outdoors and with Indigenous knowledge of land — both of which support academic and emotional growth. Furthermore, as prominent environmental scholar David Sobel has written, “What’s important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it, before being asked to heal its wounds.”

The responsibility of healing the wounds done to our planet by human action doesn’t rest on the shoulders of our kids, but rather with us adults — and particularly for those of us in leadership positions.

With a vested stake in the well-being of our kids and those yet to arrive, we all must consider what planet we leave for them.

Our kids need our voice and advocacy to encourage school divisions to develop — and continue to develop — climate action plans that scale action to mitigate, adapt, educate, and advance equity surrounding the climate emergency. The alarm has been sounded — we need the courage, advocacy, and leadership in education to answer the call.

» Scott Durling is a teacher in Winnipeg, graduate student at the University of Manitoba, and a member of People for Public Education and Educators for Climate Action (ECA) of Manitoba. This column was originally published in the Winnipeg Free Press.