In the fall of 2021, I resigned from a tenured teaching position at a Quebec university in conscientious opposition to education as usual with a “green twist.” I have been teaching Earth and Climate Science in this system for nearly 15 years, and I finally fully understood the implications of what the science had been telling me (and them) all along. That means the young people in my classroom didn't have a chance. Unless adults take a step forward, a viable future will be far away. Since then, I've been trying to educate the “adults in the room” about the climate and ecological crisis, but understandably, not many people want to know the details. So when I heard that my alma mater was hiring a new executive director, I decided to apply for the position. Below is a slightly modified version of my cover letter.
John Abbott University Secretary Cover Letter, February 16, 2024
My vision for this CEGEP is guided by one question: What do students, as young people on earth, need from higher education during these extraordinary times??If the answer to this question is based on scientific consensus, preparing students for the future requires nothing less than “transformative systemic change in all aspects of society” (IPCC 2018) . To put it bluntly, climatologist Kevin Anderson says: “There is no longer a non-radical future.” As adults in the lives of young people and as educators, if we are to meet their needs, we need to embrace and embed fundamental systemic change, collective action, and emotional support into higher education. there is.
I propose three initiatives to begin this scientifically necessary transformation. 1) Climate literacy training for all employees, including the science behind climate, ecological, and related emergencies and the actions to meaningfully address them, with expert psychological support and training. Mandatory. 2) reflect systemic changes at the societal level that need to occur to address multiple overlapping existential threats, such as participatory democracy and citizen assemblies that allow teachers and students to be directly involved in all decisions; Restructuring of university governance. -Create; 3) How the industrial activities of a privileged few humans have successfully broken through the boundaries of these systems, and about the earth and the ecosystem that allows us to live on this earth. Reorganization of the curriculum centered on a deep understanding of Our global economic/political system that intentionally exploits, conquers, trades, and accumulates for everyone and our current climate-ecological crisis and economic, racial, gender, and social learn that the world is a common cause of deep inequality. Additionally, courses, departments, and programs that train students to explicitly contribute to growth-oriented capitalism and the violence that underpins it, such as mainstream economics, marketing, and police techniques, are being eliminated and replaced with courses and programs in collective political action. It will be replaced. , make a difference, and build communities of mutual aid.
These changes are supported by more than just a double-peer-reviewed consensus in the physical sciences. Students are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety about their future. Young people need adults who will be honest, open and courageous about the defining challenge of our time: the rapid and preventable collapse of the Earth's climate and ecosystems. This is a message I've heard from students in my more than 15 years of teaching about Earth systems and climate change. In my experience, what young people fundamentally need for their well-being is a climate-savvy support framework that includes all the adults in their lives, especially their teachers. Messages must be consistent and integrated throughout the curriculum and college experience. Teaching our students piecemeal about an existential threat that they did not cause and that they will most likely be affected by, while absolving the same educated adults, is a service we cannot serve. We are modeling the structures that created these threats, while tantamount to systematic gaslighting of the very people who deserve them. Face the crisis and prepare students for a future that doesn't exist.
This conclusion is supported by large-scale data from several recent studies examining 'environmental anxiety' among young people, with the majority of young people (59 per cent) saying they are very or extremely concerned about climate change. , 84 percent indicated they were at least moderately concerned. about it. Perhaps the causes of young people's environmental anxiety are more obvious.research in lancet found that anxiety about climate change and dissatisfaction with government responses are prevalent among young people around the world and are impacting their daily lives. “Climate change distress is associated with young people's realization that they have no future and that humanity is doomed, and with feelings of betrayal and abandonment by governments and adults.” The study reported, adding:
Climate change and government inaction are chronic stressors that can have significant long-term negative effects on the mental health of children and young people.
The study highlights that the perceived failure of governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with increased distress, stating: “Governments' inability to adequately address climate change and its impacts on young people is could potentially cause moral injury.”
In a Canadian study, young people evaluated their government's response to climate change negatively, reporting more feelings of betrayal than reassurance. More than three-quarters of young people reported that they believe people have not taken good care of the planet. According to the authors,
The data shows that Canadian youth need a variety of coping supports and believe the formal education system should do more to support them.
The implications of these studies are profound and should inform our decisions about how to transform higher education to meet the needs of our students. If the educational system that was established more than 50 years ago continues to operate as it is, it will not be possible to address the concerns of young people about their futures. The world was completely different then. If we had moved away from fossil fuels and towards a steady state economy and a society of private fulfillment, public luxury, we would not be facing multiple existential threats today. We tell the young people we teach every day, explicitly or implicitly, that they will study hard and get an A+ on their calculus exam, or that they will get an A+ on their calculus exam, or that they will get into college. We will not leave the possibility of a planet unsuitable for human habitation, thinking that everything will be fine. You can also take advantage of great university programs, plant trees on campus, and reduce your personal carbon footprint.
We need to be honest with ourselves and with them about the challenges they will face in the future we are entrusting them with, and talk openly about it. Isolating the climate crisis, relegating it to voluntary learning for young people only, and avoiding the problem by sticking more and more “green” band-aids on it is essentially a lie of inaction and a failure to prepare adults as adults. end up avoiding the responsibilities of life. For their future. We need to be courageous during these extraordinary times and learn to be vulnerable enough to be the guides and advocates our students need.
This transformative and radical restructuring of education will help institutions of higher education recognize their role in the polycrisis, teach us how privileged groups of humanity got us into it, and It begins with educating people on how to live within a just planetary operating space. In this way, we help students face and thrive in their futures as adults who have benefited from a fundamentally unequal and destructive current system. This is a higher education job.
Shoreworker and philosopher Eric Hoffer writes:
In times of change, learners inherit the earth, but they find themselves wonderfully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Dr. Heather Short I am a climate literacy educator. She has a PhD in Earth Science and she has been teaching undergraduate students for 25 years.
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