phones.) If you’re teaching at a rural school that has a field trip in the city, introduce your students to public transit by hopping on a bus, subway, or light-rail. In shop class, students can learn not just how to fix cars, but how to do basic repairs on a bicycle.


Wrapping it all up Climate change will require huge shifts in our society. We need to change the way we eat, the way we move and the way we create energy if we want to avoid the dangerous levels of warming that would be catastrophic for our futures. This is not a small challenge; it involves changes to our culture and our ways of thinking, and few people are better positioned than educators to help make these changes possible.


Seth Wynes is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia. He studies the ways that we can mitigate climate change through personal behaviours, education, and policy. His book SOS: What you can do to reduce climate change is available from Penguin Random House.


with our comprehensive understanding of the urgency of the climate problem, these minor actions (though beneficial) are no longer sufficient. Teachers looking to engage students with the actions that


make the most difference should focus on communicating high-impact actions:


• Eating a plant-based diet • Avoiding air travel • Living car-free My research has found that eating a plant-based diet is


four times more effective at reducing climate change than comprehensive recycling and eight times more effective than changing household lightbulbs8


. These high-impact actions


are not only beneficial for the climate but come with a host of co-benefits. For instance, plant-based diets are associated with reduced risk for cancer and Type II Diabetes9


, and less


time traveling in cars is associated with a lower Body Mass Index10


. Discussing these high impact actions is a great place to


make connections with other important learning goals. For example, plant-based diets require less resources and produce fewer greenhouse gases, largely because energy is wasted as it flows up the food chain. In Geography classes, car-free living can be used to talk about urban design, specifically the way in which cities designed for personal vehicle use require more parking spaces, roads, and highways — and therefore more urban sprawl. But simple knowledge alone is unlikely to lead to large


shifts in behaviour. Educators willing to take the next steps can teach skills that reduce the psychological barriers of change. Teachers can go beyond telling students that plant- based diets have lower emissions by giving them a long list of ingredients and their respective carbon footprints11,12


Endnotes:


1. Cook J, Oreskes N, Doran PT, Anderegg WR, Verheggen B, Maibach EW, et al. Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human- caused global warming. Environmental Research Letters. 2016;11(4):048002.


2. Roozenbeek J, van der Linden S. Fake news game confers psychological resis- tance against online misinformation. Palgrave Communications. 2019;5(1):12.


3. Sandner L, Ellis C, Lacy D, Little C, Mace HA, Nowikow I, et al. Investigat- ing Science 10. Ensor L, editor: Pearson Education Canada; 2009.


4. Urban MC. Accelerating extinction risk from climate change. Science. 2015;348(6234):571-3. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa4984.


5. Masson-Delmotte V, Zhai P, Pörtner HO, Roberts D, Skea J, Shukla P, et al. Global warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate pov- erty. In: IPCC, editor. Geneva, Switzerland: World Meteorological Organization; 2018.


6. Frieler K, Meinshausen M, Golly A, Mengel M, Lebek K, Donner S, et al. Limiting global warming to 2 C is unlikely to save most coral reefs. Nature Cli- mate Change. 2013;3(2):165.


7. Reidmiller D, Avery C, Easterling D, Kunkel K, Lewis K, Maycock T, et al. Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume. US Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA. 2018.


8. Wynes S, Nicholas K. The Climate Mitigation Gap: Education and Govern- ment Recommendations Miss the Most Effective Individual Actions Environ- mental Research Letters. 2017;12(7). Epub June 12, 2017.


9. Tilman D, Clark M. Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health. Nature. 2014;515(7528):518-22.


10. Frank LD, Andresen MA, Schmid TL. Obesity relationships with community design, physical activity, and time spent in cars. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2004;27(2):87-96. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2004.04.011. PubMed PMID: WOS:000222893100001.


, and


then having students design and prepare their own low-car- bon meals. (Bonus points if they can figure out the footprint of the meal when they finish. You can make this easier by having them download the IdematLightLCA app on their


Page 24


11. Poore J, Nemecek T. Reducing food’s environmental impacts through pro- ducers and consumers. Science. 2018;360(6392):987-92.


12. Hoolohan C, Berners-Lee M, McKinstry-West J, Hewitt C. Mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions embodied in food through realistic consumer choices. Energy Policy. 2013;63:1065-74.


Green Teacher 121


Photo by pixabay.com/Andrzej Rembowski


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