Classrooms need role in reframing climate change
Print Edition
Humankind is facing great peril. Global temperatures are increasing, oceans are getting more acidic, and sea levels are rising. Our consumption choices contribute greatly to these global problems. Apathy among individuals remains widespread and needs to be reversed.
I believe the key to creating a new generation of responsible consumers is to retell the story of the environment. We need to reframe climate change as a global problem far removed from our individual lives to an issue interwoven with our day-to-day choices.
Schools need a role in this change. Energy efficiency lessons should be integrated into classes to guide students towards greener lifestyles.
At the Shanghai American School’s Pudong campus, we have been working tirelessly to improve energy efficiency through the Million Solar Star Initiative. Our goal is to upgrade our current 4-kilowatt solar-power system to a 600-kilowatt solar array system and to encourage 10 other schools this year to adopt solar energy in the future.
We do not see solar panels as just a way to decrease dependency on fossil fuels but also as an educational opportunity that can be used in disciplines across grade levels. From elementary kids building toy solar wind mills to high school students collecting data from solar powered model cars, the applications of renewable energy in our classes are endless. SAS Pudong and Roots & Shoots hosted a workshop at the YES International Forum in Shanghai to give ideas to teachers on how to integrate renewable energy into their schools’ curriculums.
A generation of conscientious consumers hinges on the public’s perceptions of climate change itself. We can only create change if we care enough to change. Through schools, we need to turn climate change from a tedious, faraway danger into a problem that we can fight.
(James Zhang is a Grade 12 student at Shanghai American School’s
Pudong campus.)
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