Micro-Climate Blog: Ongoing Challenges of Relevance in Climate Education

By Marcy Rockman, Lifting Rocks Climate and Heritage Consulting, for the SHA Climate Heritage Initiative

At the university level, attention to climate change as a field of study is increasing. As reported in this piece by InsideClimate News, some universities (such Arizona State University and University of California, San Diego) will be requiring students to take courses in climate change, while others (such as Columbia, Stanford, and Harvard) have established climate change schools. A recent $10m gift to Penn State will support their Penn Climate Sustainability Initiative.

 What I look for in each of these initiatives is whether and how social sciences are included. For example, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability highlights the following focus areas: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geophysics, Earth & Planetary Sciences, Earth System Science, Energy Science & Engineering, Oceans, Environmental Social Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Programs. The Environmental Social Sciences includes behavioral sciences and global environmental policy; there is no visibility for anthropology, archaeology, or history. 

With this in mind, I appreciate InsideClimate News including the observation that “‘Most faculty and students don’t see the relevance of their courses and major areas of concentration to climate change,’ said …Karl Maier, a psychology professor. A lot of work needs to be done to convince people that climate change is interdisciplinary…It does not only have to do with the environment or geology. Sustainability… applies to subjects as varied as economics, psychology, engineering, and sociology.”

A key challenge I see for anthropology and archaeology is to build both outward visibility for the climate connections of these subjects and confidence and connections within the fields to support that. If this blog can help with this in some small way, that’s what I want it to do.

Featured Link: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17082024/aspen-institute-calls-for-systemic-approach-to-climate-education/

For a listing of all blog posts in this series, visit our Climate Heritage Initiative page.

Photo credit: Scene linked to new Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University. Photo provided by Harvard University to InsideClimate News, shared at link above.