August 14, 2023 • 44 mins
Bryce Coon and Emily Walker head up the education team at EARTHDAY.ORG which firmly believes that every learner in every school worldwide should receive fully integrated, assessed climate and environmental education with a strong civic engagement component.
Bryce joins as the Associate Director of Climate Education, while Emily joins as the Education Coordinator. As Associate Director of Climate Education, Bryce plays a central role in crafting the organization's overarching goals and roadmap to increase climate literacy worldwide. Moreover, Bryce is instrumental in driving the efforts dedicated to the climate and environmental literacy campaign, working year round to cultivate a nationwide movement aimed at bolstering climate literacy across various educational institutions, ranging from k-12 schools to universities, trade schools, and graduate schools.
As Education Coordinator, Emily plays a vital role in bolstering the growth and diversity of EARTHDAY.ORG’s education partners. She also conducts in-depth research and assists in the development and continuation of curricula, web resources, and supporting materials for Earth Day 2024. Furthermore, she keeps a close eye on federal, state, and local initiatives in the key policy areas EARTHDAY.ORG is dedicated to, ensuring the organization remains informed and actively engaged in advocating for impactful educational policies.
Prior to joining EARTHDAY.ORG, Bryce and Emily both dedicated their careers to education and climate literacy. For more than a decade, they have used their roles as educators to find opportunities to incorporate climate education into various courses and encourage youth climate advocates in the classroom. Outside the classroom, Bryce participated in various international fellowships where he studied climate education and policy in Asia, Europe, and Oceania, while Emily used her passions to promote sustainability through environmental literacy initiatives with park authorities.
EARTHDAY.ORG’s mission is to diversify, educate, and activate the environmental movement worldwide. Growing out of the first Earth Day (1970), EARTHDAY.ORG is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with more than 150,000 partners in nearly 192 countries to build environmental democracy. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day actions each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. Learn more at earthday.org.
Bryce joins as the Associate Director of Climate Education, while Emily joins as the Education Coordinator. As Associate Director of Climate Education, Bryce plays a central role in crafting the organization's overarching goals and roadmap to increase climate literacy worldwide. Moreover, Bryce is instrumental in driving the efforts dedicated to the climate and environmental literacy campaign, working year round to cultivate a nationwide movement aimed at bolstering climate literacy across various educational institutions, ranging from k-12 schools to universities, trade schools, and graduate schools.
As Education Coordinator, Emily plays a vital role in bolstering the growth and diversity of EARTHDAY.ORG’s education partners. She also conducts in-depth research and assists in the development and continuation of curricula, web resources, and supporting materials for Earth Day 2024. Furthermore, she keeps a close eye on federal, state, and local initiatives in the key policy areas EARTHDAY.ORG is dedicated to, ensuring the organization remains informed and actively engaged in advocating for impactful educational policies.
Prior to joining EARTHDAY.ORG, Bryce and Emily both dedicated their careers to education and climate literacy. For more than a decade, they have used their roles as educators to find opportunities to incorporate climate education into various courses and encourage youth climate advocates in the classroom. Outside the classroom, Bryce participated in various international fellowships where he studied climate education and policy in Asia, Europe, and Oceania, while Emily used her passions to promote sustainability through environmental literacy initiatives with park authorities.
EARTHDAY.ORG’s mission is to diversify, educate, and activate the environmental movement worldwide. Growing out of the first Earth Day (1970), EARTHDAY.ORG is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with more than 150,000 partners in nearly 192 countries to build environmental democracy. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day actions each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. Learn more at earthday.org.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Welcome back to another episode of Sciencethree sixty. This is Tim Stevenson,
your host, and on this episodeI have Bryce Kohn and Emily Walker of
Earthday dot Org, which I'm prettysure you've probably heard about. That they
have a billion people every year participatein Earth Day activities. That's pretty impressive,
(00:26):
and they want teachers to play amajor role in climate education, and
they're going to give you a handdoing it too. Earth Day is something
that I've been amplifying at my schoolfor several years. As the teacher leader
(00:46):
of our Green Team. I've supportedmy students in developing and hosting an environment
conference, and we host it onApril twenty second birthday. Generally, we
have local and federal politicians come speak, as well as environment mental organizations like
the Plastic Bank, the Ocean Legacy, and the Langley Environmental Partners Society.
But we also have students speak abouttheir connection to the planet and their hopes
(01:10):
and dreams for the future of Earth. We also organize the Lights Out Hour
each year. We ask all teachersto power down what they can to safely
run their classes, and we reportback on the draw up and electrical consumption
for that hour. We're just tryingto promote an awareness among the student body
and the teachers that we're all apart of something bigger, something more than
(01:32):
ourselves, and collectively we can makea difference. The conversation I have here
with Bryce and Emily from Earthday dotOrg was a refreshing moment with two people
who I share a common mindset with, and as stated during the episode,
these sort of conversations are essential aswe continue to raise the awareness of the
finite nature of Earth's resources and thelimited abuse it can take from our wanton
(01:56):
disregard for the sanctity of nature,And as I've stated many times in this
platform and others, education is keyto the livability of this planet. The
summer of twenty three is one wherewe're seeing another mass bleaching event in the
Great Barrier, reef unprecedented heat wavesacross Europe, raging forest fires in the
Boreal forest of Canada, and simultaneousdroughts and flooding in China, and incredibly
(02:23):
high ocean temperatures off the coast ofFlorida. The planet is speaking to us.
Are we listening? I hope youtake advantage of the resources at earthday
dot Org and raise your student's levelof awareness and understanding of the changing climate.
I contend that this should be centralto all curricula and is perhaps the
most important science we can be teaching. Have a listen now to my conversation
(02:47):
with Bryce Kohon and Emily Walker ofearthday dot org and allow it to affect
your teaching. I know I'm doingmy best to teach where I can in
my class them on this topic,and I'm counting on you to do the
same, and so is everybody else. That's definitely important. I know,
(03:09):
I feel like my friends and Iwe listen to podcasts more. I feel
like they're popular because the family,you're in the room, it feels so
right there. And I think there'ssomething just very important about that and impactful.
When you think of the number ofpeople that are of great influence on
a global level that now are talkingin an interview style, discussion style and
(03:35):
putting it online for free, theinformation, the access we have the information
is alarmingly high, and I thinkthe wise people will be taking advantage of
those opportunities and listening into these conversationsand allowing them to influence what they do
and how they think about the worldand what's going on, and there's just
(03:58):
too much information that people are willingto give away. And I think it's
wonderful. I think it's great.We never used to have access to the
sort of things that we have today. So but Earthday dot Org Okay,
I I've been uh uh involved inEarth Day activities for years and now I'm
(04:20):
actually speaking to people who are workingfor the organization, right, So is
it is it possible with Emily andBryce one or the or both of you,
really if you could jump in andjust explain what Earthday dot Org is,
what's your mission, what's your goal? It's around a global level,
(04:41):
because you are kind of global,right, Yeah, So I've you our
mission to educate, inform, andreally inspire advocacy around environmental issues. So
I think when a lot of peoplethink of birth Day, they think of
that not just necessarily learning about environmentalissues, but that now step of what
are we going to do for thiscause? And yeah, as you mentioned,
(05:05):
we are one of the world's largestrecruiters in the environmental movement. We
have one hundred and fifty thousand partnersin under ninety countries, so we we
have a very large audience and Ithink it was a billion people participated in
one way or another. In theprevious Earth Days, a billion people have
(05:27):
participated. Is that on an annuallevel, Yes, it's an amazing amount
of people that but you know,I think that depends on how we quantify
participating in Earth Day. But evenyou know, something that might not have
that measurable of an action, buthaving a conversation of climate change when you
didn't have a conversation about climate changein the weeks or months before, that's
(05:50):
still very important and helps us movethe needle in the direction we want to
go. Yeah, I think it'smeant to make you think as long as
you can start thinking about climate,climate education, Earth Day, it's meant
to just kind of make you justwhat is that? Let me look into
that a little bit more, andthen you kind of find yourself diving into
(06:11):
it. And there's so many differentways to think and be involved in Earth
Day, which I think is amazing. And whether you're you know, five
or year fifty five, you know, I mean, I think everyone can
be a part of it. Ithink that's the cool thing about it.
Really. What's what's sort of theorigin story of Earth Day? Because I've
(06:32):
heard one thing, but then whenI read your press release, what I
heard wasn't actually included. So whydon't you tell me what the kind of
origin story is and I'll tell youwhat I've heard before. We'll see if
we can compare notes a little bit. Yeah. Sure. So when I
think of the start of Earth Day, I think back to nineteen sixty nine,
(06:53):
nineteen seventy. I think of thiseffort to create these teachings around around
the country. So I just readan interesting article recently about one of the
founders of the First Birthday, DennisHayes, and he was talking about how
people were not talking about the environment. He actually said in the article that
(07:13):
if you if you ask someone whatis the environment of? What do you
know about the environment? If theyhad an answer for you, it might
be more in the context of psychology, you know, just your environment,
like in which you're raised in.So you know this need for teachings to
increase people's awareness of environmental issues.You know, we we were in an
(07:38):
era where cars were big. Ifthe local factory was blowing smoke in the
town, the solution was to simplybuild a taller smoke stack. The idea
that the smoke will just blow away, you know, a way where well,
we didn't really care about that.The ocean was largely a great place
(08:01):
to run our sewage through a pipe. You know, you think back to
that era. One of the mostfamous images I can think of, Uh,
do you recall the this is youknow, somewhat politically incorrect now,
I suppose, But do you rememberthe crying Indian commercial that ran on TV?
Yeah it was an Italian American right, Yeah, it wasn't even in
(08:24):
that American Yeah, you know,but that our attitude back then was so
different. But something happened in thelate sixties, in the seventies and earth
they started. Can you can youspeak to what was changing in people's minds
at the time that would spur onthings like the Clean Water Act and the
Environmental Protection Act? I think it, you know, it must have been
(08:46):
a product of the things that youwere just just mentioning, just the you
know, the production the United Statesjust increasing so dramatically and creating so much
waste, and the infiltration of allthese chemicals, and you know, disasters
that rivers catching on fire, thingsthat shouldn't happen. Finally brought people's attention
(09:07):
to this. In that article Imentioned, Dennis Hayes was talking about how
when they were doing one of theirfirst rallies in New York City for the
first Earth Day, he didn't reallyknow what to expect. It didn't expect
a ton of people to be there, he said. He kind of expected
to be similar to some of theanti war protests that were popping up in
(09:28):
you know, around the country,and you know something about it. Just
spoke to two Americans because he saidhe just looked out at a sea of
people in New York City and itwas just block after block. So something
was definitely resonating during that time.Yeah, I think there was a big
culture change. I think this,you know, not just traditional way of
(09:50):
life. Life was changing. Ithink so everyone was just kind of becoming
aware. It's like people were wakingup, kind of just noticing what was
around them and everything was too Ithink of sixties seventies culture changes, just
shock in generals between the US.I think such a growth period. So
it makes sense for this to comeout of that, this movement as something
(10:15):
that is really become integral for howwe respond now. I always think of
the story of Apollo eight that wasthe one in late nineteen sixty eight when
they took that photo earth Rise.And now I don't think I don't actually
(10:37):
think that earth Rise, the photoearth Rise spurred on the formation of Earth
Day, but I think the firstEarth Day was a couple of years after
that, and it was an influentialmoment when we looked at the entire planet
from the distance of the Moon andrealized, my gosh, the fragility of
that blue dot in the blackness ofthe cosmo. We need to take care
(11:01):
of it because there's no you knowwhat they say, planet b. So
I I often hear of the environmentalmovement coming on the heels of a very
famous photograph taken by the Appallo astronauts. Thoughts on that, you know,
I was thinking about that. Ihave thought about that before, and I've
(11:22):
seen the magazine cover. I don'tknow which magazine it was, but just
you know, this new view ofspace, and really what that made me
think was that, having not beingalive during that time, that I have
always been alive, you know,with that view, you know, with
that picture existing, and mini pictureis similar to it, and so it
(11:46):
really made me, you know,think about people might have felt Earth or
space prior to that. So thatwas really interesting thought exercise, and then
it did make me look at thepicture a little bit more thoughtfully and to
you know, to think of whatdoes this mean and to you know,
for people who were existing on theplanet and not maybe able to really capture
(12:07):
the scale of Earth, but alsojust how special it is just floating out
there in the sea of black andthis. You know, you can the
blue and the green, and it'sjust it looks so full of life,
and it's it's beautiful from that distance. And then yeah, maybe people see
that beauty from a distance, andthen they also zoom in on their town
(12:30):
and they see the pollution and theysee the litter, and you know,
they won't want to keep it beautiful. Yeah, we've kind of moved from
litter, right, pollution and litter, and you know that was sort of
the essence of environmental act action.Uh, let's let's not have litter on
the side of the highway. Butwe're we've we've come a long way since
(12:52):
since then. And now because it'sbecome so mainstream, everybody knows that the
cut green is associated with environmental action. There's sort of these lightning Rod,
people like Greta, and there's youknow, the talk about the Paris Agreement
in twenty fifteen. Everybody sort ofhas become part ingrained in our culture.
(13:16):
But I'll tell you something what happensbecause the two of you are kind of
involved in the education side of thingsat earthday dot org. Even in schools
today, you still and then thiscould just be me. I don't know.
I sense there's still an element of, oh, we're gonna talk about
the climate, okay, when whenwe're ready to talk real science, let
(13:41):
me know sort of thing. AndI wonder why people I still get that
feeling. And I could be wrong, maybe I'm misreading my audience, but
there seems to be an element of, well, you know, environmental stuff.
Is it really an issue or isit just a you know, a
cycle that the sun's going through.That In the education piece, I can
(14:03):
kind of speak on my time inthe classroom and kind of coming from elementary,
middle school to the younger students.I think the view teachers have a
lot of times. It's not thatthey don't want to teach it. I
think we understand the importance of connectingto the earth, understanding the systems that
it represents. But I think isthere time Do the standards your curriculum reflect
(14:28):
the ability to have that ability tokind of teach these base learning around these
concepts of time and education, thebig things that kind of need you to
really kind of think and oh,wow, that's a problem. We use
a lot of classic in our schoolor wow our electricity, things like that.
I think it's not that we don'twant to, our teachers don't want
(14:50):
to. I think it's just notin the institution. It's not in the
structure itself. I think, especiallyin the US, I think we follow
a lot of the standards that areset by the school boards, the districts,
the state. So I think itbecomes a little bit more of like
an institution up. But I knowsome amazing teachers who are incorporating it and
(15:13):
little things while they kind of talkabout like when they go outside, little
things, you're able to incorporate theclimate like education speak sort of into the
classroom in little ways the best theycan. But I just think it's a
time issue. It's a time issue. A lot for educators is in the
(15:33):
US is the is the curriculum incorporatingmore climate education? Yes, we have
next Generation Science standards which are reallyincorporating those big concepts of climate education.
I think right now we have twentysix states that have adopted those standards for
(15:56):
science. So it is that whatit's actually called next generation science standards,
Yes, okay, yeah, andI think they right now who have adopted
them. The CI taught in didnot have them, so we follow different
science standards. So I think becomingmore prominent, I think it could definitely
(16:21):
be a little further along. They'rehome being taken to kind of incorporate it
at a higher level down to kindof give that those opportunities for educators and
students to respond to what they're seeingin their communities, their state, and
the country and globally to acknowledge thatthere is some efforts being taken. I
(16:42):
think there could be more, andI think that's kind of where we're focusing,
I think on the standards curriculum,you know, making it easier to
incorporate. Yeah, yeah, goahead, Yeah, Tim, I want
to answer your previous question related toyou know, when students are presented with
(17:03):
climate education, is there's a senseof you know, oh here we go
again, or it's not real science, or any of those feelings, and
I just wanted to share from ahigh school perspective, So I just left
the clues from Easter eleven years andwhen issue climate issues would come up,
it was more what I noticed moreof my students was just a sense of
(17:25):
apathy and that kind of it wastoo late. And so that's, obviously,
as an educator, very disheartening.And so you know, it makes
me think of this fine line wherewe had, you know, famous documentaries
and you know, these advocacy leaderswho needed to bring the alarm bells,
(17:45):
but in doing so, maybe wewrung them to the extent that people are
so scared and just feel like there'snothing it seems too monumental. So with
my students, I didn't see nothairing or not thinking something they should have
an understanding of, but just feelingso over overwhelmed by it. Yeah,
(18:07):
the messaging that came out in theearly days of climate education was here's what
you should do. You should switchyour light bulbs to LEDs. You should
turn the light off if you're notusing it, turn the television set off,
turn your thermostat down, and youknow, oh, and if you
(18:29):
can convince your parents to buy anelectric car, then my gosh, you're
an a lister. But the messagingthat came out was all about what you
you, you, you, andyou need to do. It became kind
of the individual's responsibility, and Ithink people got buried under the pressure of
mean, I have to do it, I have to save the world.
(18:49):
Like, Okay, I'll turn thelight off. But is that really going
to make a difference. When didit become my fault? When did it
become my problem to solve? Soif I keep hearing that, which is
what you heard for going back twentyyears, that's what you heard, is
it becomes too much, right,I mean, the messaging has to change,
Like how is the messaging at earthdaydot org different from what we've always
(19:12):
heard, you know, from fromwhat I've just described. That's a great
point. I think you know Ihave in fact checked this, but I
feel like I see this a lotnow that this idea of this carbon footprint
was created by the fossil fuel industrythat they hire with this, and it
(19:33):
shifts the blame from the production sideto the consumption side. And that is
something that we are definitely talking aboutand trying to make institutional changes. And
even though climate education. You mightthink of it as we're going to teach
you about the climate, and thatseems consumer focused. It's also about you
(19:56):
know that these these young people aregoing to be someday part of these institutions
that are going to be making thesedecisions. So how are they going to
have the skills and the knowledge andthe innovation to solve these problems. So
maybe not solve them as an individual, but this climate crisis is going to
be around, obviously for decades anddecades, so we have people who are
(20:18):
in elementary, middle, high schoolwho are going to need to be the
leaders on this and to solve itan institutional level, whether that's corporations or
governments, there's a step above awareness. You have awareness, but then you
have change makers. You have thisdifferent lens on the world. And I
(20:38):
think starting with youth, incorporating thisholistically into how we speak not only in
schools but everyday life, I thinkthat creates a different world lens of Wow,
this earth, We're part of it. We're not separate. It's not
just our job, it's everyone collectively. We have to work together solve problems.
We have to create skills or wecan make changes. Not now but
(21:03):
in the future, and I thinkthere's this wider lens we need to have
on everything, And that's kind ofwhat I think Earth today is focusing on
the green skills, innovation, creatingthis sense of I'm a change maker,
we're all change makers, let's dothis. So I think a wider lens
and a different different view on theworld is needed institutionally. Deservesday dot org
(21:26):
put pressure on governments to reel inthe producers a little bit on their contribution
to the climate. You know,I would say Emily and I are probably
more focused on Earth Day's actions inregards to education and in terms of pressure
on governments that looks like trying toencourage countries to include climate education in their
(21:52):
NDCs for the Airs Climate Agreement,so to make movements to climate education.
Yes, so you're focusing really onthe education piece in your roles, right,
Yeah, and so for example,like part of your role to produce
curriculum ideas that teachers can use intheir classrooms, that sort of thing.
(22:15):
Yes, I think a big partof it is our organization focuses on partnerships.
How can we work together, shareresources? The last thing a teacher
wants to do is create something whenthere's already so many things out there.
There also is the sense the almosttoo much information sometimes and it's like where
do I go? So I thinkstreamlining where resources are available and how they're
(22:41):
presented. I think through books.I think that's a great way to connect
to private education curriculum, and Ithink giving a plethora of books. There's
so many great books on climate justice, climate change, I think climate related
videos. I think connecting that way. But also of most students, I
(23:02):
think that's a big part of thisas well. Efficacy, having advocacy tools
for teachers can kind of give tostudents and kind of work on this together
and make it something that is notjust teacher and a student, but kind
of community. I think that's abig focus where we're going to kind of
(23:25):
be kind of focusing on, right, Steven, do you want to add
anything to that, No, justthat we're working on that. We have
curriculum, we're working on developing morecurriculum, and then, like Emily said,
just trying to put it in anice space that is organized for teachers.
So that is the thing that wethink is really important that we're working
on. Yeah, because you havesuch a huge reach like you've already had,
(23:45):
Like you mentioned a billion people globally, I guess an enormous number of
people who are like everybody knows EarthDay is April twenty second, all right?
That and it gets so much publicitywhen it comes around. It's such
a great jumping off point for teachersto say, Hey, there's this day
(24:06):
coming up. Let's hold a conference, Let's let's have an activity week where
we focus on our energy consumption inthe school, or are the way we're
recycling, or we'll do a shorelineclean up? Why oh, because it's
Earth Day? You know. EarthDay is this sort of this moment in
(24:26):
time that draws everybody together to focuson the same thing. And that that
really is a beautiful aspect to whatto what your organization is doing, right
I mean? And so with thatin mind, like is there are are
there focus areas at Earth Day?Is there? Is it plastic? Is
it greenhouse gas emissions? Is therea focus area? Or are you just
(24:51):
hitting trying to hit them all?Well? For this year? Each year
Earth Day has kind of this themea focus point. This year it's planet
as plastics, so we are focusingon plastics and we have some amazing people
doing some great things. Aiden iskind of running that campaign with plastics,
kind of just looking at microplastics,how the health implications, just all the
(25:18):
different facets to plastics in our environment. We are so dependent upon them,
I'll use them and kind of that'skind of where we're putting our focus this
year, and that's kind of we'llwrap around to Earth a Day and that
will kind of be an Earth Weekwhere we really focus in own plastics.
And of course they'll be for teachersto use to kind of see what they're
(25:42):
using in their classroom. Our communitiesas students can kind of take notice of
their plastic consumption seeing that with there usable bags. I know, when
I go to the grocery store nowyou have to bring your own bags because
they no longer offer plumistic bags.I think there are these little changes that
(26:03):
are being made slowly. But that'skind of way we're opentting our focus in
as far as our organizational campaign.Right, did you want to add anything
just? I mean, that's theholistic theme for Earthday for this year.
But then there's the education part wherewe can make connections to schools. So
I think Emily said, you knowshe's worked with for fast Fashion and making
(26:25):
the connections between fast fash, fastfashion and plastics. We're going to do
some stuff looking at school lunches andthe you know, plastic wear and the
plastic containers, and just any waythat we can educate the public. Statistic
that's been going around the office recentlyis that I think it was American seventy
(26:47):
three percent of Americans did not knowthat plastics come from petroleum and oil.
So there is a lot of potentialto educate. This podcast is a proud
member of the Teach Better pie castnetwork, Better Today, Better Tomorrow,
and the podcast to get you there. You can find out more at Teachbetter
dot com slash podcasts. Now,let's get back to the episode. Yeah,
(27:10):
I mean, and there's so manyorganizations out there, you know,
and if your focus is on plastic, so is you know Boyan Slot with
the Ocean Cleanup. We have agreat organization here that's based in Vancouver called
the Plastic Bank, who's doing globalwork and sort of monetizing the collection of
plastic and third world countries and otherorganizations such as out here. There's one
(27:34):
called the Ocean Legacy, which istaking plastic from the oceans. In fact,
in Canada, the government has incentivizedfishermen to convert their trawlers into skimmers
for plastic. They're getting paid moreto bring plastic back to the port than
(27:56):
fish in some cases, which isreally neat to see. So there's there's
a global movement on plastic. There'san attack on plastic. There's also a
lot of plastic into fish that they'rebringing in. Oh, it's just like,
what do you do Like, there'sjust so many but we've got to
do something right. And so themore organizations like Earth Day, the more
(28:19):
awareness will raise and and there's definitelya shift. People are very conscious,
like you mentioned Emily, you mentionedthe grocery store. People are very conscious
about the bags that they use.And we're still seeing produce individually wrapped in
plastic. You know mentioned schools.I try to talk to people where I
(28:41):
can, but sometimes they'll put outplastic utensils wrapped in plastic. This is
going to stop? It? DoesI think that to be stopped? I
remember when I just go we hadwe didn't have to have the silver aware
anything like that. I think schoolI'm not gonna say where we used plastic
(29:06):
cutlery that was wrapped in plastic onlike a dior homer, like a cardboard
lunch tray for students. And Iguess because of the water usage, they
didn't want to have to wash allthe dishes. It's easier clean up.
I get that it's convenient, butin the long run, plastic ends up
everywhere else in our bodies, inour environment. It's just it's collucting and
(29:30):
there's nowhere for it to go,and eventually we have to kind of stop
and look around. Yeah, yeah, and be thoughtful. Emily, you
probably remember we grabbed lunch near theoffice last week and I need I wanted
a napkin with my with my lunch, but the napkin was wrapped with a
fork and a knife. I didn'tneed a fork or a knife. Uh,
(29:52):
And the plastically that was all wrappedin plastic, And then, you
know, I just come from ameeting about plastics, and now I feel
responsible for this fork and knife,but I don't need it at this moment.
So you know, that thoughtfulness,you know, and this comes back
to putting it on the consumer.That thoughtfulness needs to happen somewhere else,
because you know, I can bringthis plastic fork and knife with me around.
(30:15):
I can bring it back to work, I can bring it home.
But really, napkins should not bewrapped in plastic with plastic wear because people
might not need the plastic war Andyou know what, when I talk to
people who like baristas at Starbucks,for example, the people who come into
Starbucks with like a like a reusablemug, like a travel mug, right,
(30:38):
are are not teenagers. The teenagersdon't carry him around because it's inconvenient.
I don't want to have a dirtymug and put in my backpack,
so they go in without really anycare of thought. I see all the
time in our neighborhood groups of teenagersgoing into the Starbucks are all walking out
with their whatever their drink is,it's in a single use plastic cut up.
(31:00):
And the people walking out with thetravel mugs are people in my generation
because for some reason, we care. So I watched that. I think,
dang it. You know that thatmeans that the education hasn't gotten to
those kids because they're not even reallythinking about it. But this conversation,
these sort of conversations just have tokeep going out into the public so more
(31:22):
people go Yeah, yeah, ActuallyI'm guilty. I need to change and
it needs to change. You know, what is what is cool? Right?
Because I mean, as someone who'syou know, taught high school for
eleven years round, change is alot and won't pick on any specific any
company, but there's a lot ofbranding and imaging with you know, pup
(31:45):
and carrying it around and I thinkthat I think that's been intentional. And
I think when you go in anduse your really reusable cup, I don't
think that's I don't think that's cool. So how do we make that cool?
Trying need to ask a young person, I make that cool? I'd
even get cool to care. Ihave kids walking into my classroom when they
(32:07):
got their plastic cup with their latteor their cappuccino or whatever they have or
their frap, and I say,oh, you don't care about the planet.
They say, what do you mean? I'm just kidding. I'm just
giving you a hard time. Butso I don't say it in a mean
way, but just in a jokingway. But it does make them stop
(32:29):
and think for sure, And that'swhat we need on the plastic front,
for sure, is they get peopleto stop and think. So for twenty
twenty four, Earth Day's focus isgoing to be plastic. Have there been
major victories for earth Day? Arethe things you say, yes, we
were a part of making that changehappen. I think climate literacy brought to
(32:52):
the forefront by Kathleen who kind of, you know, kind of the face
of earthday dot org right now.This idea of green skills and job opportunities
will come out of this has beenkind of something we're really started to focus
on. Because we kind of ledthe way, We've kind of paved it.
(33:14):
People are starting to think other organizationsare starting to be like, Okay,
that's actually important. These skills willtake you everywhere. And you know,
jobs are important. Everyone's you know, when jobs are involved, I
think everyone looks corporations, organizations,everyone looks at the opportunity for jobs.
But it's connecting climate literacy that makesyou a better job applicant. What do
(33:36):
you bring to the table. AndI think connecting those two is so powerful
because corporations are taking interest and Ithink that's kind of where you get a
lot of the change. Just toadd on to that, I remember Kathleen
Rodgers, President talking about how yearsago when you know ten years ago when
she first started talking about climate literacyclimate education, no one was talking about
(33:58):
that, and now it is showingup with NaNs, it's showing up the
government level, state levels, isgetting into curriculum. So I think,
you know, a beautiful thing isthat there might be fewer things that we
can individually point out at and saywe did that, But it's a very
collaborative space, and the fact thateveryone is now talking about some that are
(34:22):
thinking about education is not a badthing. It's a great thing, and
the change can happen quickly. Backin twenty seventeen, I had this great
sort of opportunity to do a localted talk, you know how they have
those ted X talks, sort ofa locally developed thing, and I did
one where I was able to focuson the rapid success of the Moon mission.
(34:49):
Being an astronomy teacher, I alwayslike to tell the story about how
when Sputnik went up in nineteen fiftyseven, it kind of rallied the country
and there was an immediate change inthe school curriculum, which focused on science
and math engineering kind of what wewould call today is your stem or your
(35:12):
steam subjects. So that was infifty seven into fifty eight. Well,
in nineteen sixty nine Neil Armstrong setfoot in the moon. That's only twelve
years. And what I came tofind out in my preparation for that talk
was that the average age of theground control crew, the people at Houston
(35:34):
Johnson Space Center, was twenty eight. That means they were the high school
students back in the days of sputand in twelve years they successfully completed the
mission that President Kennedy inspired them tocomplete before the decade was out. If
they can do that, why can'twe do this? You know the change
(35:59):
is going to happen fast because itcan't. We just need people to care.
No. I think that's a greatpoint. You know, speaks to
climate education. Emily and I wentto education Smithsonian Education summit recently and we
listened to Frank Neopold, who doesclimate education at Noah, and he was
(36:22):
saying that, you know, ourgoal is to be carbon neutral by twenty
fifty, So that means someone whois born today is going to be twenty
seven at that point. So theseare checking my math, Yeah, me
too. You know, these aregoing to be the people in ground control
(36:45):
hopefully, and these are going tobe the people who come up with these,
you know, the projections for howwe're going to reach carbon neutral there's
known technologies and then hopefully, luckilythere's going to be these known technologies that
are going to help us get toto where we need to get to soon.
Emily, you're going to say somethingtoo. I was going to actually
(37:07):
talk about the sum that we wentto, but a different side of it.
I think it's about bringing makings andsee themselves in the space they're in.
I think of young people, theyhave to see that they can make
a difference. They're a part ofit. I think part of that is
bringing these to climate change and excisepieces for them they can see themselves in
(37:34):
it. I think that's bringing localproblems, whether it's with you know,
they're a watershed or with a youknow, maybe a species that's endangered.
I think it's soon the problems locallywhere they feel did within their community.
I think that's very important and that'svery powerful in that and not just this
big thing like oh I can't it'stoo much. It's making it easier to
(37:55):
understand when it's brought locally, andI think by doing that it's you will
create more change makers by when theysee themselves in the situation. Yeah,
I mean, there's definitely a movement, and there's momentum. I always concern
I am concerned with the dates thatare branded. You know, by twenty
(38:15):
fifty will be carbon neutral, orby twenty forty there won't be any gas
power cars available for sale. Andthen I go back to Kennedy when he
said by the end of the decade, like before this decade is out,
I want a man on the moon, and I want to return him safely
back to Earth on a rocket wehave yet to develop. That's a bold
(38:39):
He was always described as that wasa being a bold move, and I
worry that in the climate crisis thatwe're presently in, we're just not that
bold. We're not willing to makethat bold. But we'll say things that
will buy twenty fifty because that's twentyseven years from now and I'm I'm probably
going to be retired, maybe evengone by I don't know, so it's
(39:00):
not really my twenty seven years.Let's make a twenty sixtys thirty seven.
It gives me more time, youknow, we need to. If I
were to give advice to anybody inan organization like Earth Day push for the
bold move, you know, stopsaying by twenty fifty. I want to
hear by twenty thirty. I wantto hear before the decade is out.
(39:21):
I want to hear one leader,one an American leader. I don't know,
I mean USh, you know AlGore guys, he makes bold statements.
I'm not a politician. I'm nota historian. I certainly don't.
I'm not an expert on American politicsby any stretch. But gosh, when
(39:42):
Al Gore speaks, he can movemountains. That's what I think. We
need somebody who can make those sortof bold statements and with a compelling way
of speech, and orator who canrally the troops. But we do have
momentum, and it's because of organizationslike yours that the momentum exists. So
(40:04):
more power to you when you thinkabout what you're doing. It's it's very
very important. It's part of abig machine. There's all kinds of pieces
that we're all pushing towards the samething. And you're right, we are
aware. We do know more wherekids are more conscious, teachers are bringing
it to the classrooms more than theyused to, so there is movement and
(40:28):
you guys are part of it.So thank you for doing that coming up
in April next year. In fact, looking back at the last few years,
we've run conferences at our school Apriltwenty second. We have an environmental
team and they organize this thing.We bring in speakers, we bring in
other schools. Is that something you'repart of school based conferences? Well,
(40:52):
we haven't yet, but I couldsee. I don't see why we want
to do that. Of course,maybe it would be cool if there was
sort of a database where all theschools across the US and Canada that or
maybe around the world, or holdingApril twenty second conferences, and maybe a
place where we could drop photos orquotes that came up, or what if
(41:15):
there was a poster or some sortof an activity that we're all doing and
we're all contributing to, and wecan upload our results from our conference to
an earth day dot org database rightwhere, and then we can see the
efforts. Yeah, of all thestudents around the world who the things that
(41:37):
are the ideas that they've come upwith. I think that's great. I
think that's why social media is soimportant in this too. I think that's
something that we're really going to befocusing on, I think as an organization
and the education team moving forward,to kind of bring educators together to kind
of show what they're doing in theirclassrooms or in their state with the students,
(42:00):
what are the students doing, tokind of just around everyone up and
kind of show, hey, it'sall the great work that people are doing
so everyone can see. And Ithink that creates a community making. Social
media as a freak component in allof this. And you do have an
Instagram account right earth day dot orgI think is the handle. Yes,
(42:22):
I know there's always stuff on LinkedInas well as that it's true, yes,
yeah, okay, all right,but people know, people know earthdaid
dot org. There is a presence. You guys do have a presence,
and so I just think that it'ssomething that as we move forward, if
you keep doing what you're doing,it's just going to continue to raise the
(42:44):
awareness and encourage teachers to take thatbold move and bring it to their classrooms
and not be afraid to hear thekids go, oh, no, another
climate change. Are we going todo some tree hugging? Hey know,
you guys, I think it's allabout empowering the educators and to take that
(43:06):
leap to incorporate in the classroom.Yeah. So, I guess I want
to thank you both for coming onand sharing this information, and without a
doubt. In the show notes onthis episode, I'm going to put links
to earth Day and and any resourcesthat you might have, you can give
them to me and I'll put themthere. And I want to just encourage
(43:27):
people kind of globally. What's theglobal reach of my podcast. I'm sure
it's massive, but just to takethat step and continue with the education piece.
What I've always said, right backto that Ted talk I gave,
is the solution is education. Andif we're going to conquer this problem,
(43:47):
people just need to be educated.They need to know that plastic comes from
fossil fuels. For pe to say, yeah, what is it? Knowledge
is power, Knowledge is power,It's very true. True. Well,
thank you for taking the time tointerview us. I really appreciate it.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, so, thanks again for coming on today.
Be sure to check out the teachingresources and all the information found at earthdaya
(44:12):
dot org, and continue to lookthrough the titles on my podcast Science three
sixty. I hope there's lots morein there that you'll enjoy and can learn
from until the next time. Ihope you have a great day. I
talk to you soon.
Welcome back to another episode of Sciencethree sixty. This is Tim Stevenson,
your host, and on this episodeI have Bryce Kohn and Emily Walker of
Earthday dot Org, which I'm prettysure you've probably heard about. That they
have a billion people every year participatein Earth Day activities. That's pretty impressive,
(00:26):
and they want teachers to play amajor role in climate education, and
they're going to give you a handdoing it too. Earth Day is something
that I've been amplifying at my schoolfor several years. As the teacher leader
(00:46):
of our Green Team. I've supportedmy students in developing and hosting an environment
conference, and we host it onApril twenty second birthday. Generally, we
have local and federal politicians come speak, as well as environment mental organizations like
the Plastic Bank, the Ocean Legacy, and the Langley Environmental Partners Society.
But we also have students speak abouttheir connection to the planet and their hopes
(01:10):
and dreams for the future of Earth. We also organize the Lights Out Hour
each year. We ask all teachersto power down what they can to safely
run their classes, and we reportback on the draw up and electrical consumption
for that hour. We're just tryingto promote an awareness among the student body
and the teachers that we're all apart of something bigger, something more than
(01:32):
ourselves, and collectively we can makea difference. The conversation I have here
with Bryce and Emily from Earthday dotOrg was a refreshing moment with two people
who I share a common mindset with, and as stated during the episode,
these sort of conversations are essential aswe continue to raise the awareness of the
finite nature of Earth's resources and thelimited abuse it can take from our wanton
(01:56):
disregard for the sanctity of nature,And as I've stated many times in this
platform and others, education is keyto the livability of this planet. The
summer of twenty three is one wherewe're seeing another mass bleaching event in the
Great Barrier, reef unprecedented heat wavesacross Europe, raging forest fires in the
Boreal forest of Canada, and simultaneousdroughts and flooding in China, and incredibly
(02:23):
high ocean temperatures off the coast ofFlorida. The planet is speaking to us.
Are we listening? I hope youtake advantage of the resources at earthday
dot Org and raise your student's levelof awareness and understanding of the changing climate.
I contend that this should be centralto all curricula and is perhaps the
most important science we can be teaching. Have a listen now to my conversation
(02:47):
with Bryce Kohon and Emily Walker ofearthday dot org and allow it to affect
your teaching. I know I'm doingmy best to teach where I can in
my class them on this topic,and I'm counting on you to do the
same, and so is everybody else. That's definitely important. I know,
(03:09):
I feel like my friends and Iwe listen to podcasts more. I feel
like they're popular because the family,you're in the room, it feels so
right there. And I think there'ssomething just very important about that and impactful.
When you think of the number ofpeople that are of great influence on
a global level that now are talkingin an interview style, discussion style and
(03:35):
putting it online for free, theinformation, the access we have the information
is alarmingly high, and I thinkthe wise people will be taking advantage of
those opportunities and listening into these conversationsand allowing them to influence what they do
and how they think about the worldand what's going on, and there's just
(03:58):
too much information that people are willingto give away. And I think it's
wonderful. I think it's great.We never used to have access to the
sort of things that we have today. So but Earthday dot Org Okay,
I I've been uh uh involved inEarth Day activities for years and now I'm
(04:20):
actually speaking to people who are workingfor the organization, right, So is
it is it possible with Emily andBryce one or the or both of you,
really if you could jump in andjust explain what Earthday dot Org is,
what's your mission, what's your goal? It's around a global level,
(04:41):
because you are kind of global,right, Yeah, So I've you our
mission to educate, inform, andreally inspire advocacy around environmental issues. So
I think when a lot of peoplethink of birth Day, they think of
that not just necessarily learning about environmentalissues, but that now step of what
are we going to do for thiscause? And yeah, as you mentioned,
(05:05):
we are one of the world's largestrecruiters in the environmental movement. We
have one hundred and fifty thousand partnersin under ninety countries, so we we
have a very large audience and Ithink it was a billion people participated in
one way or another. In theprevious Earth Days, a billion people have
(05:27):
participated. Is that on an annuallevel, Yes, it's an amazing amount
of people that but you know,I think that depends on how we quantify
participating in Earth Day. But evenyou know, something that might not have
that measurable of an action, buthaving a conversation of climate change when you
didn't have a conversation about climate changein the weeks or months before, that's
(05:50):
still very important and helps us movethe needle in the direction we want to
go. Yeah, I think it'smeant to make you think as long as
you can start thinking about climate,climate education, Earth Day, it's meant
to just kind of make you justwhat is that? Let me look into
that a little bit more, andthen you kind of find yourself diving into
(06:11):
it. And there's so many differentways to think and be involved in Earth
Day, which I think is amazing. And whether you're you know, five
or year fifty five, you know, I mean, I think everyone can
be a part of it. Ithink that's the cool thing about it.
Really. What's what's sort of theorigin story of Earth Day? Because I've
(06:32):
heard one thing, but then whenI read your press release, what I
heard wasn't actually included. So whydon't you tell me what the kind of
origin story is and I'll tell youwhat I've heard before. We'll see if
we can compare notes a little bit. Yeah. Sure. So when I
think of the start of Earth Day, I think back to nineteen sixty nine,
(06:53):
nineteen seventy. I think of thiseffort to create these teachings around around
the country. So I just readan interesting article recently about one of the
founders of the First Birthday, DennisHayes, and he was talking about how
people were not talking about the environment. He actually said in the article that
(07:13):
if you if you ask someone whatis the environment of? What do you
know about the environment? If theyhad an answer for you, it might
be more in the context of psychology, you know, just your environment,
like in which you're raised in.So you know this need for teachings to
increase people's awareness of environmental issues.You know, we we were in an
(07:38):
era where cars were big. Ifthe local factory was blowing smoke in the
town, the solution was to simplybuild a taller smoke stack. The idea
that the smoke will just blow away, you know, a way where well,
we didn't really care about that.The ocean was largely a great place
(08:01):
to run our sewage through a pipe. You know, you think back to
that era. One of the mostfamous images I can think of, Uh,
do you recall the this is youknow, somewhat politically incorrect now,
I suppose, But do you rememberthe crying Indian commercial that ran on TV?
Yeah it was an Italian American right, Yeah, it wasn't even in
(08:24):
that American Yeah, you know,but that our attitude back then was so
different. But something happened in thelate sixties, in the seventies and earth
they started. Can you can youspeak to what was changing in people's minds
at the time that would spur onthings like the Clean Water Act and the
Environmental Protection Act? I think it, you know, it must have been
(08:46):
a product of the things that youwere just just mentioning, just the you
know, the production the United Statesjust increasing so dramatically and creating so much
waste, and the infiltration of allthese chemicals, and you know, disasters
that rivers catching on fire, thingsthat shouldn't happen. Finally brought people's attention
(09:07):
to this. In that article Imentioned, Dennis Hayes was talking about how
when they were doing one of theirfirst rallies in New York City for the
first Earth Day, he didn't reallyknow what to expect. It didn't expect
a ton of people to be there, he said. He kind of expected
to be similar to some of theanti war protests that were popping up in
(09:28):
you know, around the country,and you know something about it. Just
spoke to two Americans because he saidhe just looked out at a sea of
people in New York City and itwas just block after block. So something
was definitely resonating during that time.Yeah, I think there was a big
culture change. I think this,you know, not just traditional way of
(09:50):
life. Life was changing. Ithink so everyone was just kind of becoming
aware. It's like people were wakingup, kind of just noticing what was
around them and everything was too Ithink of sixties seventies culture changes, just
shock in generals between the US.I think such a growth period. So
it makes sense for this to comeout of that, this movement as something
(10:15):
that is really become integral for howwe respond now. I always think of
the story of Apollo eight that wasthe one in late nineteen sixty eight when
they took that photo earth Rise.And now I don't think I don't actually
(10:37):
think that earth Rise, the photoearth Rise spurred on the formation of Earth
Day, but I think the firstEarth Day was a couple of years after
that, and it was an influentialmoment when we looked at the entire planet
from the distance of the Moon andrealized, my gosh, the fragility of
that blue dot in the blackness ofthe cosmo. We need to take care
(11:01):
of it because there's no you knowwhat they say, planet b. So
I I often hear of the environmentalmovement coming on the heels of a very
famous photograph taken by the Appallo astronauts. Thoughts on that, you know,
I was thinking about that. Ihave thought about that before, and I've
(11:22):
seen the magazine cover. I don'tknow which magazine it was, but just
you know, this new view ofspace, and really what that made me
think was that, having not beingalive during that time, that I have
always been alive, you know,with that view, you know, with
that picture existing, and mini pictureis similar to it, and so it
(11:46):
really made me, you know,think about people might have felt Earth or
space prior to that. So thatwas really interesting thought exercise, and then
it did make me look at thepicture a little bit more thoughtfully and to
you know, to think of whatdoes this mean and to you know,
for people who were existing on theplanet and not maybe able to really capture
(12:07):
the scale of Earth, but alsojust how special it is just floating out
there in the sea of black andthis. You know, you can the
blue and the green, and it'sjust it looks so full of life,
and it's it's beautiful from that distance. And then yeah, maybe people see
that beauty from a distance, andthen they also zoom in on their town
(12:30):
and they see the pollution and theysee the litter, and you know,
they won't want to keep it beautiful. Yeah, we've kind of moved from
litter, right, pollution and litter, and you know that was sort of
the essence of environmental act action.Uh, let's let's not have litter on
the side of the highway. Butwe're we've we've come a long way since
(12:52):
since then. And now because it'sbecome so mainstream, everybody knows that the
cut green is associated with environmental action. There's sort of these lightning Rod,
people like Greta, and there's youknow, the talk about the Paris Agreement
in twenty fifteen. Everybody sort ofhas become part ingrained in our culture.
(13:16):
But I'll tell you something what happensbecause the two of you are kind of
involved in the education side of thingsat earthday dot org. Even in schools
today, you still and then thiscould just be me. I don't know.
I sense there's still an element of, oh, we're gonna talk about
the climate, okay, when whenwe're ready to talk real science, let
(13:41):
me know sort of thing. AndI wonder why people I still get that
feeling. And I could be wrong, maybe I'm misreading my audience, but
there seems to be an element of, well, you know, environmental stuff.
Is it really an issue or isit just a you know, a
cycle that the sun's going through.That In the education piece, I can
(14:03):
kind of speak on my time inthe classroom and kind of coming from elementary,
middle school to the younger students.I think the view teachers have a
lot of times. It's not thatthey don't want to teach it. I
think we understand the importance of connectingto the earth, understanding the systems that
it represents. But I think isthere time Do the standards your curriculum reflect
(14:28):
the ability to have that ability tokind of teach these base learning around these
concepts of time and education, thebig things that kind of need you to
really kind of think and oh,wow, that's a problem. We use
a lot of classic in our schoolor wow our electricity, things like that.
I think it's not that we don'twant to, our teachers don't want
(14:50):
to. I think it's just notin the institution. It's not in the
structure itself. I think, especiallyin the US, I think we follow
a lot of the standards that areset by the school boards, the districts,
the state. So I think itbecomes a little bit more of like
an institution up. But I knowsome amazing teachers who are incorporating it and
(15:13):
little things while they kind of talkabout like when they go outside, little
things, you're able to incorporate theclimate like education speak sort of into the
classroom in little ways the best theycan. But I just think it's a
time issue. It's a time issue. A lot for educators is in the
(15:33):
US is the is the curriculum incorporatingmore climate education? Yes, we have
next Generation Science standards which are reallyincorporating those big concepts of climate education.
I think right now we have twentysix states that have adopted those standards for
(15:56):
science. So it is that whatit's actually called next generation science standards,
Yes, okay, yeah, andI think they right now who have adopted
them. The CI taught in didnot have them, so we follow different
science standards. So I think becomingmore prominent, I think it could definitely
(16:21):
be a little further along. They'rehome being taken to kind of incorporate it
at a higher level down to kindof give that those opportunities for educators and
students to respond to what they're seeingin their communities, their state, and
the country and globally to acknowledge thatthere is some efforts being taken. I
(16:42):
think there could be more, andI think that's kind of where we're focusing,
I think on the standards curriculum,you know, making it easier to
incorporate. Yeah, yeah, goahead, Yeah, Tim, I want
to answer your previous question related toyou know, when students are presented with
(17:03):
climate education, is there's a senseof you know, oh here we go
again, or it's not real science, or any of those feelings, and
I just wanted to share from ahigh school perspective, So I just left
the clues from Easter eleven years andwhen issue climate issues would come up,
it was more what I noticed moreof my students was just a sense of
(17:25):
apathy and that kind of it wastoo late. And so that's, obviously,
as an educator, very disheartening.And so you know, it makes
me think of this fine line wherewe had, you know, famous documentaries
and you know, these advocacy leaderswho needed to bring the alarm bells,
(17:45):
but in doing so, maybe wewrung them to the extent that people are
so scared and just feel like there'snothing it seems too monumental. So with
my students, I didn't see nothairing or not thinking something they should have
an understanding of, but just feelingso over overwhelmed by it. Yeah,
(18:07):
the messaging that came out in theearly days of climate education was here's what
you should do. You should switchyour light bulbs to LEDs. You should
turn the light off if you're notusing it, turn the television set off,
turn your thermostat down, and youknow, oh, and if you
(18:29):
can convince your parents to buy anelectric car, then my gosh, you're
an a lister. But the messagingthat came out was all about what you
you, you, you, andyou need to do. It became kind
of the individual's responsibility, and Ithink people got buried under the pressure of
mean, I have to do it, I have to save the world.
(18:49):
Like, Okay, I'll turn thelight off. But is that really going
to make a difference. When didit become my fault? When did it
become my problem to solve? Soif I keep hearing that, which is
what you heard for going back twentyyears, that's what you heard, is
it becomes too much, right,I mean, the messaging has to change,
Like how is the messaging at earthdaydot org different from what we've always
(19:12):
heard, you know, from fromwhat I've just described. That's a great
point. I think you know Ihave in fact checked this, but I
feel like I see this a lotnow that this idea of this carbon footprint
was created by the fossil fuel industrythat they hire with this, and it
(19:33):
shifts the blame from the production sideto the consumption side. And that is
something that we are definitely talking aboutand trying to make institutional changes. And
even though climate education. You mightthink of it as we're going to teach
you about the climate, and thatseems consumer focused. It's also about you
(19:56):
know that these these young people aregoing to be someday part of these institutions
that are going to be making thesedecisions. So how are they going to
have the skills and the knowledge andthe innovation to solve these problems. So
maybe not solve them as an individual, but this climate crisis is going to
be around, obviously for decades anddecades, so we have people who are
(20:18):
in elementary, middle, high schoolwho are going to need to be the
leaders on this and to solve itan institutional level, whether that's corporations or
governments, there's a step above awareness. You have awareness, but then you
have change makers. You have thisdifferent lens on the world. And I
(20:38):
think starting with youth, incorporating thisholistically into how we speak not only in
schools but everyday life, I thinkthat creates a different world lens of Wow,
this earth, We're part of it. We're not separate. It's not
just our job, it's everyone collectively. We have to work together solve problems.
We have to create skills or wecan make changes. Not now but
(21:03):
in the future, and I thinkthere's this wider lens we need to have
on everything, And that's kind ofwhat I think Earth today is focusing on
the green skills, innovation, creatingthis sense of I'm a change maker,
we're all change makers, let's dothis. So I think a wider lens
and a different different view on theworld is needed institutionally. Deservesday dot org
(21:26):
put pressure on governments to reel inthe producers a little bit on their contribution
to the climate. You know,I would say Emily and I are probably
more focused on Earth Day's actions inregards to education and in terms of pressure
on governments that looks like trying toencourage countries to include climate education in their
(21:52):
NDCs for the Airs Climate Agreement,so to make movements to climate education.
Yes, so you're focusing really onthe education piece in your roles, right,
Yeah, and so for example,like part of your role to produce
curriculum ideas that teachers can use intheir classrooms, that sort of thing.
(22:15):
Yes, I think a big partof it is our organization focuses on partnerships.
How can we work together, shareresources? The last thing a teacher
wants to do is create something whenthere's already so many things out there.
There also is the sense the almosttoo much information sometimes and it's like where
do I go? So I thinkstreamlining where resources are available and how they're
(22:41):
presented. I think through books.I think that's a great way to connect
to private education curriculum, and Ithink giving a plethora of books. There's
so many great books on climate justice, climate change, I think climate related
videos. I think connecting that way. But also of most students, I
(23:02):
think that's a big part of thisas well. Efficacy, having advocacy tools
for teachers can kind of give tostudents and kind of work on this together
and make it something that is notjust teacher and a student, but kind
of community. I think that's abig focus where we're going to kind of
(23:25):
be kind of focusing on, right, Steven, do you want to add
anything to that, No, justthat we're working on that. We have
curriculum, we're working on developing morecurriculum, and then, like Emily said,
just trying to put it in anice space that is organized for teachers.
So that is the thing that wethink is really important that we're working
on. Yeah, because you havesuch a huge reach like you've already had,
(23:45):
Like you mentioned a billion people globally, I guess an enormous number of
people who are like everybody knows EarthDay is April twenty second, all right?
That and it gets so much publicitywhen it comes around. It's such
a great jumping off point for teachersto say, Hey, there's this day
(24:06):
coming up. Let's hold a conference, Let's let's have an activity week where
we focus on our energy consumption inthe school, or are the way we're
recycling, or we'll do a shorelineclean up? Why oh, because it's
Earth Day? You know. EarthDay is this sort of this moment in
(24:26):
time that draws everybody together to focuson the same thing. And that that
really is a beautiful aspect to whatto what your organization is doing, right
I mean? And so with thatin mind, like is there are are
there focus areas at Earth Day?Is there? Is it plastic? Is
it greenhouse gas emissions? Is therea focus area? Or are you just
(24:51):
hitting trying to hit them all?Well? For this year? Each year
Earth Day has kind of this themea focus point. This year it's planet
as plastics, so we are focusingon plastics and we have some amazing people
doing some great things. Aiden iskind of running that campaign with plastics,
kind of just looking at microplastics,how the health implications, just all the
(25:18):
different facets to plastics in our environment. We are so dependent upon them,
I'll use them and kind of that'skind of where we're putting our focus this
year, and that's kind of we'llwrap around to Earth a Day and that
will kind of be an Earth Weekwhere we really focus in own plastics.
And of course they'll be for teachersto use to kind of see what they're
(25:42):
using in their classroom. Our communitiesas students can kind of take notice of
their plastic consumption seeing that with there usable bags. I know, when
I go to the grocery store nowyou have to bring your own bags because
they no longer offer plumistic bags.I think there are these little changes that
(26:03):
are being made slowly. But that'skind of way we're opentting our focus in
as far as our organizational campaign.Right, did you want to add anything
just? I mean, that's theholistic theme for Earthday for this year.
But then there's the education part wherewe can make connections to schools. So
I think Emily said, you knowshe's worked with for fast Fashion and making
(26:25):
the connections between fast fash, fastfashion and plastics. We're going to do
some stuff looking at school lunches andthe you know, plastic wear and the
plastic containers, and just any waythat we can educate the public. Statistic
that's been going around the office recentlyis that I think it was American seventy
(26:47):
three percent of Americans did not knowthat plastics come from petroleum and oil.
So there is a lot of potentialto educate. This podcast is a proud
member of the Teach Better pie castnetwork, Better Today, Better Tomorrow,
and the podcast to get you there. You can find out more at Teachbetter
dot com slash podcasts. Now,let's get back to the episode. Yeah,
(27:10):
I mean, and there's so manyorganizations out there, you know,
and if your focus is on plastic, so is you know Boyan Slot with
the Ocean Cleanup. We have agreat organization here that's based in Vancouver called
the Plastic Bank, who's doing globalwork and sort of monetizing the collection of
plastic and third world countries and otherorganizations such as out here. There's one
(27:34):
called the Ocean Legacy, which istaking plastic from the oceans. In fact,
in Canada, the government has incentivizedfishermen to convert their trawlers into skimmers
for plastic. They're getting paid moreto bring plastic back to the port than
(27:56):
fish in some cases, which isreally neat to see. So there's there's
a global movement on plastic. There'san attack on plastic. There's also a
lot of plastic into fish that they'rebringing in. Oh, it's just like,
what do you do Like, there'sjust so many but we've got to
do something right. And so themore organizations like Earth Day, the more
(28:19):
awareness will raise and and there's definitelya shift. People are very conscious,
like you mentioned Emily, you mentionedthe grocery store. People are very conscious
about the bags that they use.And we're still seeing produce individually wrapped in
plastic. You know mentioned schools.I try to talk to people where I
(28:41):
can, but sometimes they'll put outplastic utensils wrapped in plastic. This is
going to stop? It? DoesI think that to be stopped? I
remember when I just go we hadwe didn't have to have the silver aware
anything like that. I think schoolI'm not gonna say where we used plastic
(29:06):
cutlery that was wrapped in plastic onlike a dior homer, like a cardboard
lunch tray for students. And Iguess because of the water usage, they
didn't want to have to wash allthe dishes. It's easier clean up.
I get that it's convenient, butin the long run, plastic ends up
everywhere else in our bodies, inour environment. It's just it's collucting and
(29:30):
there's nowhere for it to go,and eventually we have to kind of stop
and look around. Yeah, yeah, and be thoughtful. Emily, you
probably remember we grabbed lunch near theoffice last week and I need I wanted
a napkin with my with my lunch, but the napkin was wrapped with a
fork and a knife. I didn'tneed a fork or a knife. Uh,
(29:52):
And the plastically that was all wrappedin plastic, And then, you
know, I just come from ameeting about plastics, and now I feel
responsible for this fork and knife,but I don't need it at this moment.
So you know, that thoughtfulness,you know, and this comes back
to putting it on the consumer.That thoughtfulness needs to happen somewhere else,
because you know, I can bringthis plastic fork and knife with me around.
(30:15):
I can bring it back to work, I can bring it home.
But really, napkins should not bewrapped in plastic with plastic wear because people
might not need the plastic war Andyou know what, when I talk to
people who like baristas at Starbucks,for example, the people who come into
Starbucks with like a like a reusablemug, like a travel mug, right,
(30:38):
are are not teenagers. The teenagersdon't carry him around because it's inconvenient.
I don't want to have a dirtymug and put in my backpack,
so they go in without really anycare of thought. I see all the
time in our neighborhood groups of teenagersgoing into the Starbucks are all walking out
with their whatever their drink is,it's in a single use plastic cut up.
(31:00):
And the people walking out with thetravel mugs are people in my generation
because for some reason, we care. So I watched that. I think,
dang it. You know that thatmeans that the education hasn't gotten to
those kids because they're not even reallythinking about it. But this conversation,
these sort of conversations just have tokeep going out into the public so more
(31:22):
people go Yeah, yeah, ActuallyI'm guilty. I need to change and
it needs to change. You know, what is what is cool? Right?
Because I mean, as someone who'syou know, taught high school for
eleven years round, change is alot and won't pick on any specific any
company, but there's a lot ofbranding and imaging with you know, pup
(31:45):
and carrying it around and I thinkthat I think that's been intentional. And
I think when you go in anduse your really reusable cup, I don't
think that's I don't think that's cool. So how do we make that cool?
Trying need to ask a young person, I make that cool? I'd
even get cool to care. Ihave kids walking into my classroom when they
(32:07):
got their plastic cup with their latteor their cappuccino or whatever they have or
their frap, and I say,oh, you don't care about the planet.
They say, what do you mean? I'm just kidding. I'm just
giving you a hard time. Butso I don't say it in a mean
way, but just in a jokingway. But it does make them stop
(32:29):
and think for sure, And that'swhat we need on the plastic front,
for sure, is they get peopleto stop and think. So for twenty
twenty four, Earth Day's focus isgoing to be plastic. Have there been
major victories for earth Day? Arethe things you say, yes, we
were a part of making that changehappen. I think climate literacy brought to
(32:52):
the forefront by Kathleen who kind of, you know, kind of the face
of earthday dot org right now.This idea of green skills and job opportunities
will come out of this has beenkind of something we're really started to focus
on. Because we kind of ledthe way, We've kind of paved it.
(33:14):
People are starting to think other organizationsare starting to be like, Okay,
that's actually important. These skills willtake you everywhere. And you know,
jobs are important. Everyone's you know, when jobs are involved, I
think everyone looks corporations, organizations,everyone looks at the opportunity for jobs.
But it's connecting climate literacy that makesyou a better job applicant. What do
(33:36):
you bring to the table. AndI think connecting those two is so powerful
because corporations are taking interest and Ithink that's kind of where you get a
lot of the change. Just toadd on to that, I remember Kathleen
Rodgers, President talking about how yearsago when you know ten years ago when
she first started talking about climate literacyclimate education, no one was talking about
(33:58):
that, and now it is showingup with NaNs, it's showing up the
government level, state levels, isgetting into curriculum. So I think,
you know, a beautiful thing isthat there might be fewer things that we
can individually point out at and saywe did that, But it's a very
collaborative space, and the fact thateveryone is now talking about some that are
(34:22):
thinking about education is not a badthing. It's a great thing, and
the change can happen quickly. Backin twenty seventeen, I had this great
sort of opportunity to do a localted talk, you know how they have
those ted X talks, sort ofa locally developed thing, and I did
one where I was able to focuson the rapid success of the Moon mission.
(34:49):
Being an astronomy teacher, I alwayslike to tell the story about how
when Sputnik went up in nineteen fiftyseven, it kind of rallied the country
and there was an immediate change inthe school curriculum, which focused on science
and math engineering kind of what wewould call today is your stem or your
(35:12):
steam subjects. So that was infifty seven into fifty eight. Well,
in nineteen sixty nine Neil Armstrong setfoot in the moon. That's only twelve
years. And what I came tofind out in my preparation for that talk
was that the average age of theground control crew, the people at Houston
(35:34):
Johnson Space Center, was twenty eight. That means they were the high school
students back in the days of sputand in twelve years they successfully completed the
mission that President Kennedy inspired them tocomplete before the decade was out. If
they can do that, why can'twe do this? You know the change
(35:59):
is going to happen fast because itcan't. We just need people to care.
No. I think that's a greatpoint. You know, speaks to
climate education. Emily and I wentto education Smithsonian Education summit recently and we
listened to Frank Neopold, who doesclimate education at Noah, and he was
(36:22):
saying that, you know, ourgoal is to be carbon neutral by twenty
fifty, So that means someone whois born today is going to be twenty
seven at that point. So theseare checking my math, Yeah, me
too. You know, these aregoing to be the people in ground control
(36:45):
hopefully, and these are going tobe the people who come up with these,
you know, the projections for howwe're going to reach carbon neutral there's
known technologies and then hopefully, luckilythere's going to be these known technologies that
are going to help us get toto where we need to get to soon.
Emily, you're going to say somethingtoo. I was going to actually
(37:07):
talk about the sum that we wentto, but a different side of it.
I think it's about bringing makings andsee themselves in the space they're in.
I think of young people, theyhave to see that they can make
a difference. They're a part ofit. I think part of that is
bringing these to climate change and excisepieces for them they can see themselves in
(37:34):
it. I think that's bringing localproblems, whether it's with you know,
they're a watershed or with a youknow, maybe a species that's endangered.
I think it's soon the problems locallywhere they feel did within their community.
I think that's very important and that'svery powerful in that and not just this
big thing like oh I can't it'stoo much. It's making it easier to
(37:55):
understand when it's brought locally, andI think by doing that it's you will
create more change makers by when theysee themselves in the situation. Yeah,
I mean, there's definitely a movement, and there's momentum. I always concern
I am concerned with the dates thatare branded. You know, by twenty
(38:15):
fifty will be carbon neutral, orby twenty forty there won't be any gas
power cars available for sale. Andthen I go back to Kennedy when he
said by the end of the decade, like before this decade is out,
I want a man on the moon, and I want to return him safely
back to Earth on a rocket wehave yet to develop. That's a bold
(38:39):
He was always described as that wasa being a bold move, and I
worry that in the climate crisis thatwe're presently in, we're just not that
bold. We're not willing to makethat bold. But we'll say things that
will buy twenty fifty because that's twentyseven years from now and I'm I'm probably
going to be retired, maybe evengone by I don't know, so it's
(39:00):
not really my twenty seven years.Let's make a twenty sixtys thirty seven.
It gives me more time, youknow, we need to. If I
were to give advice to anybody inan organization like Earth Day push for the
bold move, you know, stopsaying by twenty fifty. I want to
hear by twenty thirty. I wantto hear before the decade is out.
(39:21):
I want to hear one leader,one an American leader. I don't know,
I mean USh, you know AlGore guys, he makes bold statements.
I'm not a politician. I'm nota historian. I certainly don't.
I'm not an expert on American politicsby any stretch. But gosh, when
(39:42):
Al Gore speaks, he can movemountains. That's what I think. We
need somebody who can make those sortof bold statements and with a compelling way
of speech, and orator who canrally the troops. But we do have
momentum, and it's because of organizationslike yours that the momentum exists. So
(40:04):
more power to you when you thinkabout what you're doing. It's it's very
very important. It's part of abig machine. There's all kinds of pieces
that we're all pushing towards the samething. And you're right, we are
aware. We do know more wherekids are more conscious, teachers are bringing
it to the classrooms more than theyused to, so there is movement and
(40:28):
you guys are part of it.So thank you for doing that coming up
in April next year. In fact, looking back at the last few years,
we've run conferences at our school Apriltwenty second. We have an environmental
team and they organize this thing.We bring in speakers, we bring in
other schools. Is that something you'repart of school based conferences? Well,
(40:52):
we haven't yet, but I couldsee. I don't see why we want
to do that. Of course,maybe it would be cool if there was
sort of a database where all theschools across the US and Canada that or
maybe around the world, or holdingApril twenty second conferences, and maybe a
place where we could drop photos orquotes that came up, or what if
(41:15):
there was a poster or some sortof an activity that we're all doing and
we're all contributing to, and wecan upload our results from our conference to
an earth day dot org database rightwhere, and then we can see the
efforts. Yeah, of all thestudents around the world who the things that
(41:37):
are the ideas that they've come upwith. I think that's great. I
think that's why social media is soimportant in this too. I think that's
something that we're really going to befocusing on, I think as an organization
and the education team moving forward,to kind of bring educators together to kind
of show what they're doing in theirclassrooms or in their state with the students,
(42:00):
what are the students doing, tokind of just around everyone up and
kind of show, hey, it'sall the great work that people are doing
so everyone can see. And Ithink that creates a community making. Social
media as a freak component in allof this. And you do have an
Instagram account right earth day dot orgI think is the handle. Yes,
(42:22):
I know there's always stuff on LinkedInas well as that it's true, yes,
yeah, okay, all right,but people know, people know earthdaid
dot org. There is a presence. You guys do have a presence,
and so I just think that it'ssomething that as we move forward, if
you keep doing what you're doing,it's just going to continue to raise the
(42:44):
awareness and encourage teachers to take thatbold move and bring it to their classrooms
and not be afraid to hear thekids go, oh, no, another
climate change. Are we going todo some tree hugging? Hey know,
you guys, I think it's allabout empowering the educators and to take that
(43:06):
leap to incorporate in the classroom.Yeah. So, I guess I want
to thank you both for coming onand sharing this information, and without a
doubt. In the show notes onthis episode, I'm going to put links
to earth Day and and any resourcesthat you might have, you can give
them to me and I'll put themthere. And I want to just encourage
(43:27):
people kind of globally. What's theglobal reach of my podcast. I'm sure
it's massive, but just to takethat step and continue with the education piece.
What I've always said, right backto that Ted talk I gave,
is the solution is education. Andif we're going to conquer this problem,
(43:47):
people just need to be educated.They need to know that plastic comes from
fossil fuels. For pe to say, yeah, what is it? Knowledge
is power, Knowledge is power,It's very true. True. Well,
thank you for taking the time tointerview us. I really appreciate it.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, so, thanks again for coming on today.
Be sure to check out the teachingresources and all the information found at earthdaya
(44:12):
dot org, and continue to lookthrough the titles on my podcast Science three
sixty. I hope there's lots morein there that you'll enjoy and can learn
from until the next time. Ihope you have a great day. I
talk to you soon.
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