Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Last year, the Annenberg Institute at Brown University launched a research initiative looking at how the US’s education system is intertwined with climate change. The initiative is called SustainableED
Nat Hardy and Will Malloy from our Possibly Team are here to tell us more.
Nat Hardy: Hi, Megan!
Will Malloy: Hello!
Megan Hall: So you spoke with the director of this new initiative?
Nat Hardy: Yeah, that’s right, Matt Kraft - he’s an education policy researcher. But he told me that a few years ago he changed his focus completely.
Matt Kraft: I can tell you the exact moment. I was putting my then-second-grade son to bed one night. And that night, as he was falling asleep in the kind of twilight moment, he turned and said, “Dad. Global warming is bad. Well, what are we gonna do?” And it rocked me.
Nat Hardy: After that question, Matt felt a real sense of responsibility to do something. So he looked for the intersection between the work he was already doing, and climate change.
Will Malloy: After a couple years, his quest led to the launch of SustainableED, a research initiative at Brown looking at how climate change and education are linked.
Megan Hall: What are they doing?
Nat Hardy: Basically, they’re looking into two main topics--how climate change is affecting our schools, and the opposite, how our schools might affect climate change.
Will Malloy: Let’s start with the way climate change affects schools.
Matt Kraft: The reality is that schools are a cornerstone social institution in our society,
Nat Hardy: Even if you don’t have kids, schools are an important part of how American communities function!
Will Malloy: Like Megan, where do you go to vote?
Megan Hall: I go to a school.
Nat Hardy: And if there was an emergency and you had to evacuate your home, you might end up at a school gymnasium.
Will Malloy: Schools are a key part of our infrastructure. And so it’s especially important that they are prepared for climate change.
Matt Kraft: So one out of every four US public schools is located in a census tract, a small area, that has been designated at very high risk for at least one environmental hazard.
Will Malloy: Matt and his team recently published a tool that lets people look up their local school, and see the risk levels for different environmental hazards.
Nat Hardy: Schools are already being affected by these risks. Insurance on school buildings is getting more expensive. School districts that didn’t used to need air conditioning, are starting to need it. And during heatwaves some playgrounds are too hot for students to play on.
Will Malloy: And climate risks are keeping kids out of school too.
Matt Kraft:In the most recent academic year, over 9 million students had school disrupted or closed due to climate pressures.
Nat Hardy: So Matt and his team say that education policy needs to respond. Education doesn’t work if the schools aren’t open.
Will Malloy: Then there’s the other side of this equation - the fact that the education system could be a key way to respond to climate change.
Megan Hall: Like schools cutting down on their carbon pollution?
Nat Hardy: Yeah, reducing the greenhouse gases from schools is definitely part of it. But it also means thinking about how schools teach students about climate change.
Matt Kraft: How do we help them have a core foundation in climate science to understand the experiences that they’re having in their lives?
Will Malloy: The kind of education students get will shape how they respond to climate change as an adult– maybe they won’t fall for climate misinformation, or they’ll find a job addressing the climate crisis.
Nat Hardy: They’re also hoping to research how extreme weather affects students’ success at school. There’s a lot of things to look into.
Megan Hall: What do they hope to accomplish?
Will Malloy: Well, SustainableED is just getting off the ground, so it’s too early to know what kind of an impact their work will have. But I think this all comes back to that question Matt’s son asked him about climate change.
Matt Kraft: I think part of my response to him has been not what I say, but what I do. I have a ton more to learn. But I’m still motivated by trying to find the answer to that original question.
Nat Hardy: I think a lot of people feel a responsibility to do something about climate change, but they’re not quite sure what to do.
Will Malloy: This project is a good example of the fact that you probably already have the skills you need to make a difference; you just have to find your way to apply them.
Megan Hall: Got it. Thanks, Nat and Will!
