Making Space for Critical Climate Education

Abstract

Many students have expressed that they feel highly distressed by the state of the world they are inheriting. Extreme weather and wildfires around the globe, and increasingly sobering assessments about projected futures by researchers, activists, and global leaders have led to a growing consensus that the world is at a turning point when it comes to the social and ecological impacts of climate change. Education itself is entangled with and dependent on the same unsustainable political-economic system that has led to climate change in the first place. University educators will need to invite deepened engagement with the realities of climate change on and beyond their campuses, and create more opportunities for climate education across all areas of the university.