THE BY SARAH LOWES T
WORLD NEEDS A LESSON
eachers, we need you. Teachers, we maintain an impera- tive position in teaching and leading students, families and communities into climate action. While it feels un- comfortable to read about climate change and climate change is often considered too depressing to talk about,
before you stop reading know that avoidance is a much more deadly strategy. If you’re not having a visceral response or a flutter of adrena- line reading today’s climate related headlines, you’re living in denial. If you go a whole day without considering climate change, you’re not hearing the urgency of the situation. Pain for the world, including guilt, dread, grief, outrage and despair are normal, healthy and wide- spread responses of compassionate humans to a world in trauma. Dr. Joanna Macy, a respected voice in peace and ecology movements, sug- gests that confronting the pivotal psychological reality of our time is necessary to move from inaction to agency. Let’s briefly acknowledge the immensity of the planetary emergency together before equipping ourselves with the tools of healing, hope and transformation to lead the way in climate change education. Growing evidence exists that children feel hopeless about the fu-
ture of the planet. Perhaps you’ve had a child come to you, as I have, in tears about their uncertain future. Or heard an adolescent wonder if they will be able to live out their full life before it becomes a nightmare. This is a frighteningly rational response when faced with the possibil- ity that our children could be one of the last generations of the hu- man species. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that there are 10 years left to make significant changes to avoid catastrophic consequences from climate change. Since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962, which propelled governments, scien- tists and citizens into action globally, the environmental movement thus far has made statistically no impact on carbon emissions nor our
28 ETFO VOICE | SPRING 2020
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