Youth Climate Action and State-Level Legislative Change
Learning Targets: Engaging in Climate Action
This series of lessons drew upon three strands:
making connections to the natural and built environment in their neighborhood and city through walking tours.
encountering an environmental racist history of Springfield, once the nation's Asthma capitol, where minority neighborhoods are razed or cut off to build an internstate and used as locations for toxic manufacturing plants.
exchanging stories with partner classrooms in Puerto Rico, a colonial territory where the US military claimed and poisoned the island of Vieques for target practice, and where the climate crisis is threatening island life in many ways now.
Through these connections, our students were ready for visits and lessons from regional and state youth climate activists:
Youth Climate Action Now, who work with Mass Audubon to host Youth Climate Action Summits in our area, and the Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition, who work with Our Climate to lobby the state for climate education standards.
Youth Climate Action
Do students have a role to play?
Have students affected change before?
What youth groups are organizing now in our region and across MA?
LT 3: Personal Connections to Nature and Neighborhoods
Exploring an urban watershed preserve and surrounding neighborhoods to connect to natural and built habitats, and noting how wealth disparities are reflected in tree cover, green space, and other neighborhood differences in climate resilience.
LT 4: Climate Justice Partners: Springfield and Puerto Rico
Connecting across the climate justice divide with classroom partners helped our students, many of whom have Puerto Rican ancestry, appreciate the experience of those who remain in a US territory with a history of colonial exploitation, environmental injustice, and increasing vulnerability is responding to hurricanes and other climate impacts.
LT 7.2: Civic Action with the Youth Climate Action Network
Appreciating how we can all change how our leaders address the crisis beyond the ballot box, and what young people across the world and around here are doing. Fellow student Anabel Lopez is a member of the Youth Climate Action Network, and is joined by founder Ollie Mae Perrault for a class presentation, discussions, and climate action visions.
Questions?
Contact bmoreinis@springfieldrenaissance.org to get more information on the project