A Climate Crisis: Educating the Future for Their Future
Education has had a key role in preparing young people to gain the skills necessary to enter the workplace. However, as the world changes and society evolves, the reason for our education must change along with it. Children need to be capable of civically engaging in their communities, countries, and worldwide as their decisions can have long-lasting impacts far beyond what they see. This is especially important in the sector of environmental education as human activity, especially greenhouse gas emissions, is considered the dominant cause of temperature increases related to climate change [1]. The world has already warmed by more than 1°C directly contributing to ocean warming, shrinking ice sheets, sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and ocean acidification to name a few [2]. The scientific evidence of reaching the point of no return is unequivocal and urgent action needs to be taken to reverse the effects and put into place a sustainable way of living. One way to follow through with this goal is through the implementation of American state mandates on requiring courses to be taught about environmental literacy in grades k-12. In America, many states already have requirements relating to physical and health education for students to graduate. According to the 2016 Shape of the Nation study of 50 states and the District of Columbia, 39 require elementary school students to take physical education, 37 have that requirement for junior high school students, and 44 make physical education mandatory for high school students [3]. Given that these classes are required to improve a student’s mental and physical wellbeing that influence their quality of life, why is environmental education also not taught? The changes happening in the world due to an unsustainable living will have a direct impact on all living things on earth no matter where you live. Interestingly, one survey from the Teachers College of Columbia University found that 77% of Americans already support mandating teaching primary and secondary school students about global warming and climate change [4]. Now, it is only a matter of creating a curriculum that encompasses environmental awareness and its impacts and mandating it. By engaging students with climate science and related topics, it can help young people grasp the reality of the climate crisis and push them to be more involved in reaching a climate-safe future for themselves and those who come after them.
[1] https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/2/
[2] https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
[3] https://study.com/academy/popular/states-that-require-physical-education.html
Notes:
- Title: I am considering “Environmental Education: Using the Power of Education to Create a More Sustainable Future” because it explains the topic better, but it has less of a ring to it haha.
- The intro kind of has a lot of topics in it so I am thinking of separating it into a couple of paragraphs (1=the traditional point of education- pragmatic and economic-based to what we need now-social and civic based, 2=climate crisis facts and why it is urgent, and 3= explaining why climate education is important)? But maybe this is stuff I should go more in detail to in the actual brief because there are already a lot of sources in my intro which probably isn’t good
- My thesis is in the middle of the paragraph which is also weird and kind of confusing so I need to figure a way to change that
- I was planning on talking about America specifically because it would be too hard to focus on education systems from around the world and be specific with facts, but I think I am not making that very clear.
- Overall this intro seems to need a lot of work but I am hoping with a more solid plan of where I want to go with this issue brief that things will fall into place? Hopefully
- Also, my sources arent cited correctly because I am sure things will change so I just left them as links