While writing a blog entry about extreme heat and PBL for work, I gathered up a variety of wonderful primary sources and representations of data in visual form. So much information that has little impact on our day to day. It reminded me of a book I picked up (via Amazon Kindle, of course), a book that lost me at first with it’s lack of narrative form, jumping from place to place, perspective to perspective. Yet, Chapter 1 grips you.

                         Source: CNN via YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfZA3vBlQ6o

Consumed by Fire

As I saw how badly our world is doing, watching Maui go up in flames (how to help those affected from The Weather Channel), I couldn’t help but think back to the opening chapters of Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future.

And then the sun cracked the eastern horizon. It blazed like an atomic bomb, which of course it was…The heat coming from it was palpable, a slap to the face.

Solar radiation heating the skin of his face, making him blink…He looked at his phone: 38 degrees. In Fahrenheit that was–he tapped–103 degrees. Humidity about 35 percent. The combination was the thing. A few years ago it would have been among th ehottest wet-bulb temperatures ever recorded. Now just a Wednesday morning.

But for many, this isn’t about climate change. The heatwaves sweeping America, the world, are normal. Some groups are educating children about what’s happening, but others…are not.

Climate change is a shared challenge that requires our united action…to learn, act, and make a positive change for our planet.(source)

The Need for Climate Change

Take Action Global (TAG) reports school districts taking action:

In 2020, the state of New Jersey became the first U.S. state to mandate climate education for all across K-12 content areas and grade levels. This past spring, districts across the state took the lead in implementation by joining together with Take Action Global for the 2023 Climate Awareness Program, a six-week community-based program that ran from April through June 2023.

TAG offers a variety of resources., as well as an app. The app is the EarthProject app (screenshot right) with the goal of enabling classrooms to track the positive impact they have on the climate through daily actions. 

You may also find this Climate Action Day 2023 blog entry of interest.

Also, TAG articulate five phases of climate awareness, including:

• Knowledge
• Awareness
• Critical thinking
• Action
• Stewardship

I found the idea of AI (Appreciative Inquiry) intriguing:

AI is used to develop a realistic and realizable vision for the future and a commitment to take sustainable action. AI creates a positive mindset by talking about success rather than being defined by past failures.

The inquiry starts with appreciating the best of what is, thinking about what might be and should be, and ends with a shared commitment to a vision and how to achieve it. It is based on a basic principle: look for successes—look for what works well and do more of it. (source)

But wait, are ALL school districts able to teach about climate change and what causes it? In writing my blog entry on extreme heat in Texas, I stumbled upon some concerning articles.

Simmering Climate Change Denial

Texas schools may find it problematic to even mention “climate change” in the classroom, even as the reality simmers around them. Consider these headlines:

• Scientific American: 
• Texas Weakens Climate Science Education
• Subverting Climate Science in the Classroom
  
•  Texas Observer:
• Texas Students Are Receiving a Miseducation on Climate Change
• Climate Grades:
• Making the Grade? How State Public School Science Standards Address Climate Change
• KSAT 12 (San Antonio)
• How Will Climate Change Be Taught in Texas Classrooms?
• National Center for Science Education (NCSE)
• Disappointing News for Texas Climate Education
• Texas Tribune
• Texas Education board considers how middle schools teach climate change and sexuality as officials fight over library books
• Gizmodo
• Texas Education Officials Want to Rewrite Climate Science in State Textbooks

It should come as no surprise that Texas politicians want to rewrite climate science. They’ve ignored the pleas of Uvalde, Texas parents and survivors on gun violence, are actively working to destroy Texas public schools by underfunding them, censor books and ideas, oppress and kill foreigners and refugees at the border, it’s no surprise “climate science” or science of any kind is distorted.

When is enough, enough?  Perhaps, 1984 was a few years too early. And Texas politicians in power are trying to save us all from thoughtcrimes. Perhaps Texas legislators’ goal is to make thought, scientific thought in particular, impossible.