Prioritizing Climate Change Knowledge and Agency
As global warming intensifies, educators at Framingham State aim to build students’ understanding of global warming in ways that inspire them to take action
By Sharon Aschaiek
Students are increasingly concerned about the impacts of the climate crisis.
“We had to work together to sustain the environment so that all of us could feed our cattle and maintain our livelihoods,” Guthrie says. “It was interesting to see which students would think about themselves, and which ones would consider the greater good.”
Professor Lawrence McKenna says his goal with this assignment is for students to meaningfully understand the tragedy of the commons, a socioeconomic concept positing that self-interested behavior can deplete shared natural resources and harm society. He has structured it in a way that if some students prioritize personal greed by allowing their cows unfettered access to the grass, they can maximize their profit and earn an A grade — but their classmates would all fail. But if all students center the needs of the whole, everyone gets a passing grade.
Professor Lawrence McKenna challenges students to consider their obligation to their fellow humans in his courses.
“It all hinges on trust … trusting relationships allow for making collective action decisions that lead to the long-term regulation of a resource,” says McKenna, chair of the faculty. “It gets students reflecting on whether or not they have an ethical responsibility for other people on the planet, and how their actions affect others.”
McKenna says considering our obligation to our fellow humans is a core focus of the course, which covers the scientific, ethical and policy dynamics of climate change. Students learn about the processes of Earth’s land, air and water systems, how human actions have fundamentally altered these processes, and our moral responsibility to leave a habitable climate for the next generation. Classwork includes computer modeling temperature-rise scenarios to determine how to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by various dates. McKenna also introduces current media articles on local and global climate change issues, such as the impacts of rising sea levels on the Boston coastline and in the Maldives.
“I help them understand their sense of agency by giving them a thorough footing in the science,” says McKenna, who is currently finishing a textbook on climate change. “I want them to have the tools and experience necessary to discern how these issues could be addressed by policy action.”
At a time when the hazards of global warming — including floods, droughts, wildfires, ecosystem collapses, species loss — have never felt more urgent, and can sap one’s sense of hope, McKenna says the faculty focuses on educating students about the climate crisis in ways that emphasize their personal agency to take action. He says that like educators across the board at FSU, professors in the faculty are deeply passionate about teaching, and use innovative pedagogical methods to deliver lessons about topical climate change issues. They draw on studies by climate scholars, reports from science and policy organizations, media stories and their own professional academic and research networks to identify current local and global climate change developments that they can incorporate into their curricula.
Faculty draw on studies by climate scholars, reports from science and policy organizations, media stories and their own professional academic research.
“What we do is fully immersive teaching, and continually adapt our courses in real time so that our content is always up to date,” McKenna says. “The emphasis has been shifting from pure science to some of the more policy-related aspects of climate change, and the ways in which we can adapt to and mitigate this crisis.”
Professor Judith Otto's approaches include creating a complex mental map on the whiteboard to help students understand the interconnected causes and effects contributing to everything from the destruction of coral reefs to the premature blossoming of apples. In her Introduction to Physical Science course, Professor Santosha Adhibhatta engages students in researching how the urban heat island effect impacts different community members in Boston.
Professor Judith Otto creates a complex mental map on the whiteboard.
Meanwhile, small class sizes afford students the benefit of considerable individual attention as they explore the physical, natural, cultural, economic and political aspects of climate change, and how human activity in the age of the Anthropocene is significantly and perhaps irreversibly reshaping Earth’s climate. Professors address topics such as the greenhouse effect, extreme weather, food insecurity and climate injustice across a variety of courses in disciplines such as geography, geology, physics, physical science, meteorology, urban studies and public policy.
— Lawrence McKenna, Professor
Students of Professor George Bentley use geospatial technologies to examine U.S. Census Bureau data to understand how sea-level rise may be disproportionately affecting low-income individuals or people of color. Professor David Merwin has students use remote sensing, geographic information systems and artificial intelligence to examine topics such as the correlation between human land use methods and wildfire events, and the overuse of irrigated water in drought-prone areas.Professor Vandana Singh takes a transdisciplinary approach to illuminate how climate change is having uneven impacts on marginalized communities in the U.S. and worldwide. In her course Climate Change and Social Justice in the Arctic and Beyond (RAMS 101), students connect with the public health department in Framingham to research how heatwaves in Massachusetts disproportionately affect seniors. The assignment involves a community service component of developing an infographic for public health officials to promote to the elderly on how they can avoid and treat heat illness.
Professor Vandana Singh published her textbook Teaching Climate Change: Science, Stories, Justice, last December.
Meanwhile in her course Physics, Nature and Society (PHYS 111), Singh highlights the social inequities of climate change impacts, and the resiliency of diverse communities in protecting their at-risk habitats. She introduces the experiences of Indigenous peoples in Alaska who share their cultural knowledge of the land with scientists to support research on melting permafrost. Another case study looks at members of an agricultural village in India whose livelihoods and lives were threatened by extensive deforestation, until the community’s women organized a successful effort to regenerate the forest.
“One lesson I want students to understand is that climate change impacts are inherently a matter of justice …. Vulnerable populations have not created this crisis, but they are the ones being affected by it the most,” says Singh, whose textbook Teaching Climate Change: Science, Stories, Justice was published last December.
Professor Lawrence McKenna performs a demonstration in class.
— Merlin Clive, student
Among the students who say they have become energized by the knowledge they have gained about climate change is Merlin Clive. The self-described climate activist is particularly interested in how we manage one of our most valuable resources — water. As a freshman last year, they created a presentation for the Climate Change Is Now course on how human actions are affecting Earth’s water processes, the trend of granting personhood status to rivers, and the need to better manage our freshwater resources. In the course Introduction to Environmental Science and Policy (ENVS 101), they produced a paper on why and how the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should enhance urban stormwater drainage systems to more effectively deal with increases in floods. And for the course 10 Ways the Earth Can Kill You (RAMS 101),
they studied the issue of water privatization, and the need for governments to safeguard access to water as a human right.
“Freshwater is a scarce and precious common pool resource — how do we protect it for everyone?” Clive says.
Clive says what they have learned so far about global warming at FSU has inspired them to consider climate change career roles that serve developing countries struggling to deal with the impacts of our heating planet.
“The world needs people who understand these issues and how to fix them,” Clive says. “I care about the environment, and I want to do something that is going to contribute to its well-being.”
Meet Dr. Megan Mayer, Framingham State’s Campus Sustainability Coordinator.
