Lead the Change

Students: Worried about climate change? Ask your teachers to #MakeClimateAClass. Imagine millions of students asking tens of thousands of teachers—every term—to Make Climate A Class. That means, every term, tens of millions of students worldwide, in their classes,  talking about climate solutions. 

This takes courage, but it doesn’t take time—10 minutes tops. So copy and paste the email below, and just do it. You will be surprised how many teachers will say yes, and thank you for doing it. 

To: Professor Karen Suarez
From: Greta May

Hi Professor Suarez, 

I am writing as a student in your class with a request. Could you please devote one hour of discussion in class later this term to climate change solutions and justice, from the perspective of[HISTORY/ECONOMICS/ART/ETC].

You don’t have to be an expert on climate change, because of resources available from a global education project based at Bard College in New York. Here is an easy teachers guide to #MakeClimateAClass with discussion questions for a climate-focused class through the lens of your subject area. The templates include a homework assignment directing us to watch a  university-hosted webinar on climate solutions and climate justice specific to our region.

Here is a blog post from Dr. Eban Goodstein, economist and Director of Graduate Programs in Sustainability at Bard, explaining the idea of making climate a one-hour class in any discipline, and the teacher’s guides they have made available. And here is a 2-minute video of Dr. Goodstein talking about the project. He provides links to subject-specific resources, and also discusses the video homework focused on our region that you can use to spark the discussion. 

There is nothing more important for my generation than solving climate change, this decade. As an educator, please help us learn how [HISTORY/ECONOMICS/ART ETC..] can shed light on solutions to this existential challenge to our future. Thank you for considering this request. 

Sincerely, 

Greta May

Teachers: no excuse. Just because your lesson plan is done for this semester, doesn’t mean you can’t change it.  And we have teachers guides and region-specific resources to make it easy,

Time is short. If you are a teacher, if you are a student—or if you know a teacher or a student—take action today, and build the worldwide movement to #MakeClimateAClass. Take the pledge to learn more, and visit Solve Climate By 2030.

Solve Climate by 2030 is a project of the Center for Environmental Policy at Bard College with support from the Open Society University Network.