Episode 39: Does Climate Change Really Impact Schools?

Are you doing these critical things to help your child succeed academically? Take the quiz now to find out the important actions you can take to enhance your child's education. Go to my website, liberationthrougheducation.com quiz and take the quiz today. Foreign welcome to another episode of K12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr. Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with with school administrators and educators, as well as the micro discriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. If you're looking to find out more about current topics in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. On today's episode, I'll be discussing how climate change impacts K12 schools we've all heard about climate change. Some believe that it's a real thing and others think that it's a conspiracy theory. There is sufficient evidence to indicate that it is a real thing. There are definitely changes in the climate that are noticeable. The question to address is how does climate change impact K12 schools? I'll explore the very real ways in which climate change affects schools and the students who attend them. I hadn't really considered the impact of climate change on schools until I dug into the research which revealed surprising facts and figures about the energy consumption of schools. It's bigger than you may realize. Let's dive in. Fossil fuel companies are the main drivers of climate change. As early as the 1950s, scientists warned that the release of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels would increase Earth's temperature. About 58% of the American population agree that global warming is is mostly human caused. As with the reactive response to the pandemic, schools and districts seem to be putting more than energy toward reacting to the effects of climate change rather than on the effects to reduce their carbon footprints. Schools are one of the largest public sector energy consumers in the country. They operate what equates to the nation's largest mass transit fleet and they generate over 530,000 tons of food waste every year. There are nearly 100,000 public schools in this country with over 50 million K12 students and 13,000 public school systems residing on 2 million acres of land, operating 480,000 primarily diesel buses, and serving over 7 billion meals each year. Additionally, schools emit as much carbon 72 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. In fact as 18 coal plants or 8 million homes annually, according to the analysis of the U.S. department of Energy data by the advocacy group Generation One Hundred and Eighty. Schools need to be the models for climate solutions, and those solutions need to become embedded into the students lived experiences. Experts have indicated that inaction on the issue of climate change could take a severe toll on humanity and the planet. As with most things related to education, this topic is politicized as well as Lawmakers in several states have even tried to strike the term climate change from state standards for science education in recent years in the state by state review of K12 state standards. In 2020, six states including Alabama, Georgia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia earned an F from the national center for Science Education and the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund for for their inclusion of climate change. An additional 11 states earned a C or worse. Examples of high profile weather calamities include wildfires that destroyed school buildings and shut down instruction in California, Colorado, New Mexico and Tennessee rising sea levels that forced school building relocations in Alaska and hurricanes that wrecked communities in Louisiana, New Jersey and Texas. All of these examples are tangible effects of climate change that make it difficult for an issue to be ignored. When a school building lacks working air conditioning or the building is in a state of disrepair, this makes it very difficult to conduct instruction in the classroom. Many school districts are putting climate action plans in place. These plans include pledges to convert to renewable energy within the next three to five years and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 50% within the next 15 years. Hundreds of school districts have started operating electric school buses as an alternative to diesel fuel. School boards in Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, Green Bay, Wisconsin Lake Tahoe, California Madison, Wisconsin Montgomery County, Maryland Oakland, California and Portland, Oregon have approved plans for their school districts to strive for 100% clean energy between 2030 and 2050. As recently as May of 2022, Michelle Wu, the Democratic mayor of Boston, unveiled a $2 billion Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools investment package which with the goal of modernizing all 100 plus buildings in the district within the next decade. So how do students actually feel about climate change? Interestingly, high school students are more likely than adults to agree with the scientific consensus that climate change is real and that it's being basically driven by human activity. However, many teenagers remain confused about the underlying causes of global warming. These teenagers are eager to learn more about how climate change will affect the future of the earth and society, and they want to personally know what they can do to lessen the effects. Unfortunately, the vast majority of states don't require comprehensive instruction on climate change outside of a high school science class, and students tend to have several misconceptions about climate change. In 2022, New Jersey became the first state to require that climate change be taught in all schools across grade levels and subjects. It's imperative that schools teach students to develop critical thinking skills so that they can distinguish between credible sources of information and manipulative ones. Some of the more common misconceptions that students believe is that solar flares and increased radiation from the sun have been major drivers of global warming and that volcanoes are a major source of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Both of these statements are false. Teachers are the main source of information for students on climate change, followed closely by information provided by parents. For the most part, what students learn about climate change differs depending on where they go to school. Experts indicate that climate change education is spotty and limited across the country. Students say that climate change is a topic that is of great personal interest and relevance to them. Although teachers may not always teach on the subject with accuracy, relevancy, and meaningfulness, only about one fourth of the teachers have received any professional training or education on how to teach climate change. An Ed Week Research center survey of 538K12 teachers in December of 2022 explored how teachers covered the topic of climate change with students. The survey revealed that 60% of teachers across grade levels and subjects indicated that they had addressed the topic and some capacity, although the way they have addressed it varied widely. Most of the discussion centers on what students can do personally to lessen the effects of climate change, and about 44% of teachers stated that they talked about how climate change would affect the future of the Earth. Less than a third of the survey respondents talked about the science behind climate change. The fact is that rising global temperatures are leading to widespread changes in weather patterns. The school year is becoming harder and more severe, and frequent natural disasters are disrupting the lives as well as the learning time of students. Teachers, for the most part, have been left to their own devices to figure out how to address climate change issues with students who want to know what they can do to help their world and protect their environment. About 3 in 10 high schoolers feel helpless when they thought about climate change and its effects. High schools tend to indicate that they want to learn more about climate change and how it will affect the future of the earth and society. Many teens learn about climate change from social media, which, as you know, can be a cesspool of misinformation, lies and conspiracy theories. Theories According to a recent Edweek Research center poll, 56% of 14 to 18 year olds said that they learned some or a lot about climate change from social media apps such as YouTube and TikTok. Social media is the third most cited source on climate change after teachers and parents, according to a nationally representative sample of teens surveyed by the Edwig Research Center. In the fall of 2022, 2/3 of teens said they learned something about climate change from teachers and 64% said they learned some information about climate change from their parents. YouTube is where 60% of teens say that they've seen information on climate change. Facebook was the second most common source of information where 46% of teens came across climate change information. These two apps were closely followed by TikTok and Instagram. One of the issues with social media is that it can give voice to climate deniers, and teens may be unable to differentiate the veracity of these sources. The nonprofit organization Action for the Climate Emergency, or ace, creates reputable social media content on climate change and it also helps support a national network of young climate activists. Many teachers, principals and district leaders believe that climate change poses an imminent threat to their schools. One in four teachers, principals and district leaders have stated that climate change is impacting the school district to some extent. But according to a survey of results from educators by the Edwig Research center In February of 2022, school buildings across the country have been destroyed or forced to close in response to wildfires, extreme heat and flooding due to hurricanes. These severe and frequent disasters, which are usually linked to climate change, have affected students learning and physical and mental health. Even with this information, 8% of educators in ed weeks nationally represented online survey of 960 responses indicated that they do not believe climate change is real. Compare this to 14% of Americans who don't believe global warming is happening. According to a 2021 summary of public opinion surveys conducted by Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, most school districts haven't taken any action in the past five years to prepare for more severe weather related to climate change. This according to 84% of principals and district leaders who were surveyed by the Edwig Research Center. The main reason for this lack of response was that school and district leaders felt that their campuses were located in areas that that they didn't expect to be severely impacted by climate change anywhere in the near future. Additionally, they felt they had to deal with more immediate crises competing for their attention, like the ongoing pandemic mental health catching students up academically and debates over how race should be taught in schools, to name just a few of the issues on their immediate priority list. Many district leaders and other stakeholders are not convinced that climate change is an area that districts should be spending their limited time and resources on. The issue is that thinking about how climate change is going to impact schools is much broader than just the impact of extreme weather on that school. Climate change and extreme weather could also change the economy and what kinds of jobs will be in demand in the future. Jobs that could possibly be needed in the future would center around clean energy or jobs for adaptation or emergency management. And school systems need to keep up in order to ensure that they are providing students with the skills they need to be successful in those jobs. Workforce education about how to prepare students for jobs that could help mitigate the effects of climate change have been slow to provide answers to or even to revamp training programs. Teenagers seem to be interested in learning more about job opportunities related to sustainability and climate change. Unfortunately, only a few of them are hearing about these kinds of careers in school. In fact, only 22% of teachers say that they talk to students about these kind of career opportunities. To help bridge this lack of information, a proposal in Washington, D.C. from the civilian Climate Corps has been floated by Democrats in Congress. The Biden administration penned an executive order aimed at getting the Corps started, but so far Congress hasn't passed legislation needed to officially create it. Although there seems to be significant public interest in the program, this Climate Corps could help conserve public lands, increase reforestation, protect biodiversity, smooth the transition to renewable energy sources, and help communities recover from hurricanes and other weather related disasters. A key piece to this program is that it would help establish career pathways for those interested in pursuing careers created to help mitigate climate change. Here are this episode's takeaways. Schools are one of the largest public sector energy consumers in the country. They operate what equates to the nation's largest mass transit fleet, and they generate over 530,000 tons of food waste a year. There are nearly 100,000 public schools in this country residing on 2 million acres of land, operating 480,000 primarily diesel buses and serving over 7 billion meals each year. Additionally, schools emit as much carbon as 18 coal plants or 8 million homes annually. Climate change is another political hotbed. 84% of liberal Democrats accept that climate change is caused mostly by human activities, whereas 26% of conservative Republicans believe this. In the past three years, legislatures in states like Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, and West Virginia have launched attacks on on the treatment of climate change in state science education standards and classrooms. Students of color and students from low income families disproportionately suffer the consequences of climate change. One example of this is urban heat islands, which tend to be more exacerbated in the inner city. Urban heat islands are created under conditions when the heat from solar radiation and different urban activities can make city temperatures rise in certain areas simply because of the way that a city is structured. Many inner city neighborhoods lack an abundance of trees. In contrast, there is an abundance of concrete and pavement. Some of the ways in which this condition could be mitigated would be to incorporate more green spaces, more trees, change the type and material of pavement surfaces as well as building types and materials. Increased heat in these areas is known to increase mental, emotional and physical issues. Many teachers, principals and district leaders believe that climate change poses an imminent threat to their schools. One in four teachers, principals and district leaders has stated that climate change is impacting the school district to some extent. Jobs that could possibly be needed in the future will center around clean energy or jobs for adaptation or emergency management, and school systems need to keep up in order to ensure that they are providing students with the skills they need to be successful in those jobs. The Aspen Institute's K12 climate action is a collaboration of education, environment, youth and civil rights leaders. Led by Education Trust CEO and former U.S. secretary of Education John King Jr. Along with former Environmental Protection Agency administrator and New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman. This organization is putting actionable plans in place to support school districts nationwide in order to mitigate the effects of climate change on schools and communities. If this is the type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please subscribe to my podcast or whatever service you're listening to this also, I'd love to hear from you. So please leave me a rating, a review, or a comment and share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. I'd really appreciate if you would recommend my podcast to a friend directly on Twitter and to mention my show in your tweet. Additionally, you can connect with me on Instagram and Facebook with the handle kimjfields. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K12 educational discussion with even more exciting topics to untangle. By the way, if you have a burning question about a current situation at your child's school or a specific topic that you'd like me to discuss, shoot me a quick email@kimberationthrougheducation.com to let me know what your question is. Anyone whose question is selected to be discussed on one podcast episode will receive a $25Amazon gift card. Be sure to stay tuned. 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