Climate justice is possible if climate actions are equitable.

Teaching about climate justice is supported by nine key concepts:

A. With careful planning and execution, actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate risks can be carried out in ways that promote climate justice in the United States, which involves ensuring benefits from climate action are shared equitably and fairly. Achieving sustainable outcomes that promote equity in the United States, rather than exacerbate inequities, involves understanding how the impacts of and responses to climate change affect different groups of people, including those who have been marginalized and underserved. Including affected communities in decision-making can help reduce risks and distribute benefits equitably. Learn more about climate justice

Bringing these ideas into your classroom

The following strategies for teaching climate justice were designed for CLEAN's climate mental health pages.

Acknowledge people from under-resourced and overburdened communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change

Under-resourced and overburdened communities have fewer opportunities, training, and means to act in response to natural disasters, and often face political, social, and economic barriers to mitigating impacts and adapting to a changing climate. White people and those with more wealth are often able to secure more federal recovery aid after a natural disaster. Hurricane Katrina is one of many examples in which climate change has disproportionately impacted minority populations. In the aftermath of the hurricane, the mortality rate among African American residents of New Orleans was four times higher than that of white residents, and, due to lower insurance rates, the reconstruction and return rates to New Orleans in the first year among African Americans were much lower (42%) than of white people (70%). Navigation of these challenges, in addition to the pain experienced through historical oppression, has led to people of color experiencing climate grief more deeply than white people.

Include diverse sets of voices, especially those most impacted

To successfully imagine a sustainable future and take collective climate action, a multitude of voices are needed including those of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and Pacific Islander communities that are already living through and adapting to a changing world.

Include other ways of knowing

Much of the science taught across the curriculum is based on Western scientific approaches. Incorporating other ways of knowing about the natural world, such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, or Indigenous Knowledge, refers to knowledge systems that Indigenous people have acquired over hundreds and thousands of years through their direct connection with the environment.


Teaching materials from the CLEAN collection

 

Middle school

  • Energy Justice Lesson Plan - This resource utilizes an easy-to-use tool to discuss energy justice and household energy burdens. The lesson plan covers a variety of different topics that discus the complexity of energy use and socioeconomics.
  • Merging Social Justice with Environmentalism - Students will learn about the environmental justice movement from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries through reading about key movements in time.
  • Tackling Climate Change through Environmental Justice (Middle School) - This multi-lesson set is focused on environmental justice and social science. It asks students to consider inequality and justice in the context of their own lives and the environment through a series of both hands-on and research-focused activities.


High school