Five Mistakes School Leaders Make on Climate Change
And some helpful resources coming up:
In 2022, almost every day brings some new climate change news. Thankfully, a some of the stories are good news: for instance, Congress has just (finally) passed historic legislation that will make it cheaper and easier to green the US economy. It’s not perfect, but it does aim to reduce greenhouse gas pollution in a 10x bigger way than any other US legislation has ever achieved. And California recently announced it would phase out sales of most new gas cars by 2035.
On the other hand, there has been plenty of bad climate news:
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Pakistan has just seen devastating floods that have killed at least 1100 people (see image below).
Greenland’s massive ice shelves are melting so quickly that even if we stopped producing greenhouse gases today, we would still see a foot of sea level rise.
In the American West, the Colorado river is in such crisis from climate-related drought that the future of Lake Powell is in doubt.
Carbon levels and global temperatures are still rising. All of the symptoms we see now are with the earth’s average temperature at 1.2 degrees warming above preindustrial levels. The most aggressive climate mitigation actions might limit us to 1.5 degrees, but that seems unlikely. So we know we’re literally baking in more severe climate disasters over the coming decades.
In the face of this incredible challenge, there are five mistakes I see school leaders making:
Ignore. In most cases I don’t mean that school leaders are denying the underlying science behind climate change. However the vast scope of the challenge can make it hard for to understand how to take appropriate action, how to position the school in the world to meet the challenge. Besides, there is a long-list of everyday urgencies in running a school. The result can be practical inaction. A close relative of ignoring is resting on our laurels, being content with what we did in the past, and not continuing to stretch and dream.
Delegate. In normal conditions, delegation is a managerial superpower. In the climate crisis this doesn’t work. It’s not enough to give this to your science team, your facilities team. The climate crisis needs our best effort and collaboration, and a powerful vision.
Individualize. You do know that it was the petroleum industry that popularized the idea of personal “carbon footprints”? We need to be far savvier about understanding the motivations of various actors, and about our own collective agency and responsibility.
Hope for a hero. All due credit to Greta Thunberg and other young climate activists, but waiting for “the next Greta” to emerge from one’s school community is not a robust strategy.
Diminish. We’re not doing justice to this challenge if we think it’s only in the realm of science. When we fail to see—and critically, help our community see—how climate intersects with so many other issues, we can’t design and build a future where all of our students will thrive.
The good news (and I promise you, you can face this crisis head-on and find good news) is that creating appropriate responses to the climate crisis brings our schools in touch with their deepest purpose and their boldest dreams.
I am creating a few ways to help schools move this work forward boldly, and can’t wait to tell you more.
If you work in a school in California, send a team to this year-long professional development series I am leading with the California Teacher Development Collaborative.
If you’re not in California, or need something more customized for your school, let me know! (Send an email to info (at) makeknowledge.org, if we’re not already connected.)
We’re also growing our new cohort of schools that commit to year-over-year progress on climate impacts, and engage their community in generative design work. Last year we worked with a group of Stanford engineering students to develop generative school dashboards, and piloted them with four Bay Area schools to inspire bold action.
Do get in touch if you want your school to be a part of this work.