Opinion: Hope lives in our schools taking action on climate
Our youth are telling us it’s past time to act on climate change. They tell us at home, in school, and in polls. They are the voice of a hotter and more turbulent planet. Our legacy to them depends on educational leadership now.
March 2024 was the warmest March ever, capping a 10-month streak in which every month set a new temperature record. In the last few years, record heat shut down schools in the desert southwest and Philadelphia. In the West, massive wildfires destroyed school buildings and forced communities to evacuate. Heat drove more intense precipitation in Pennsylvania that closed roads, killed motorists, inundated homes, and caused mold outbreaks, all of which threatened kids.
Kids are rightly worried. Over 80% of American young people expect to make life decisions based on the state of the environment. Many believe that if we don’t take action to reduce carbon emissions some parts of the planet will be uninhabitable. At Penn State University Park, a survey of over 1,000 students in 2022 found that 78% of students reported being alarmed or concerned about climate change, 20% higher than the national average. Follow-up surveys last year showed the same thing. Knowing the threat and seeing the worry, we must respond.
From kindergarten through higher education, climate change and sustainability must be integrated across subjects. Schools should integrate sustainability into career and technical education: kids who want to play with electronics can learn solar panel installation while the engineering and architectural design kids draw up rooftop or utility-scale solar arrays. There are similar pathways for us to respond in art, math, history and social studies, literature, and accounting. With the Pennsylvania state standards incorporating sustainability across grade levels, this is possible.
Climate and sustainability education should be human, local, and both fact- and story-based. While the climate challenge is often discussed as a distant thing, it has been happening where we live. We already have stories. Some of them are more obvious, like on farms where rapid climate change has disrupted the annual cycles of life and death. Others are more subtle, hidden in the narratives of the ruins in Scotia, historic homes like Centre Furnace Mansion, or wind farms on coal fields along the Allegheny Plateau.
Administrators, university and trade school leaders, and elected officials must lead by example — not just talk, but act. Our schools must transform into bastions of health: filled with natural light, designed for full accessibility, and brimming with clean air. Nature must weave through our playgrounds, not just fringe them. Embracing onsite solar, renewable energy, high-efficiency HVAC systems, electric fleets, and routes friendly to bikes and pedestrians should become standard practice, not rarities. Thanks to supportive measures like the bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act and initiatives like Solar for Schools, these changes are more feasible than ever. Yet, there is still more ground to cover.
All together, we have to be more active and purposeful. From planting a garden in elementary school and seeing plants grow to participating in a climate-focused undergraduate degree or service program in college, there are lots of opportunities. To magnify these efforts, we call on educational leaders to innovate and expand climate education programs that not only inform but also involve students in real-world problem-solving. Let’s make more. It’s essential for these programs to be broadly implemented, reaching students in diverse environments, from dense urban settings to rural areas.
The climate crisis requires an all-of-school response. It requires us to prepare our youth for tomorrow’s workforce and citizenry through a project of realistic, purposeful, and forward-looking empowerment. Schools should integrate climate action into their infrastructure and everyday practices, encouraging students to engage actively with sustainability initiatives. This approach will draw down emissions, prepare them for the future, and empower them to contribute positively to their local communities and beyond.
Bella Briseño Elalfi, Penn State Class of 2023, is program coordinator at Sauntr; Peter Buck is the co-director of Penn State’s Local Climate Action Program; Doug Goodstein is the associate director of student engagement, Penn State Sustainability; Brandi Robinson is co-director of Penn State’s Local Climate Action Program. The authors write on their own behalf and do not speak for Penn State University or any other organization.
