‘It’s about inspiring young people to act’: students get lessons in climate change

When teacher Patrick Kirwan first raised the question of sustainability and climate change in his school he didn’t get the answer he was hoping for.

“Nobody was talking about it;” says Kirwan, who teaches at Ardscoil na Mara in Waterford. “Nobody was talking about plant or about biodiversity loss.”

So Kirwan started the conversation. He began by taking steps towards creating a sustainable school. Now, the students are starting to see the woods – because of their trees.

Kirwan involved students from his school and others in a “plant a planet” initiative and, as a result, more than 1,200 trees were planted in back gardens around the country. The project helped highlight the importance individual actions can have when tackling climate change.

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“You might think individual actions aren’t significant or can one tree make a difference? But over 1,200 trees, that’s pretty cool,” says Kirwan.

Kirwan believes no school is an island when it comes to educating students about climate change and, because of this, he has continued to branch out. In 2020 he established the Irish Schools Sustainability Network (ISSN).

The network, which started with just two schools, currently has 100 schools registered on its network. Students and teachers meet online once a month to discuss environmental topics. “It’s not about teachers, or students,” says Kirwan. “It’s about working as equals to address this.”

As part of ISSN’s drive to create increased awareness and education around climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainability in education, they are running an online climate and nature summit this week. The event is deliberately being run at the same time as the United Nations Climate Change Summit, Cop27, from November 7th to 11th.

More than 3,000 teachers registered to participate in the debut summit in 2021 and Kirwan hopes they will exceed that number this year.

Former president of Ireland Mary Robinson has recorded the opening address for this year’s summit. In her speech she draws the students’ attention to the topic of climate justice. “The worst impacts are being felt by those least responsible,” says Robinson.

There will be two video-based lessons available daily during the summit for primary and post-primary schools and teachers can access them at times convenient to their school day.

Kirwan has been co-ordinating the programme for post-primary schools and says the focus is on sparking meaningful debate and critical thinking through a series of thought-provoking workshops.

The lessons deal with topics such as fast fashion, greenwashing, Irish rainforests and, while the subject matter may be serious, Kirwan has managed to incorporate some humour with a session from Colm O’Regan on “doing comedy in a crisis”.

[ Ghana’s next generation of clothes designers blow the whistle on fast fashion ]

Mary Moore, a primary schoolteacher with a PhD in sustainable schools, is leading the section of the summit aimed at primary level. She decided to build on the work done in the previous summit by adopting a thematic approach to the activities for primary schools. “I wanted to have a thematic approach this year to make the planning and roll-out easier for teachers but also because it’s the way children learn,” Moore says.

This approach will help give sustainability education a wider reach by not confining it to science and geography. “Those subjects are great entry points, but this summit is for the child who loves the challenges of music or drama as well.”

Moore decided that she wanted literacy to be the starting point for the primary school summit and her first point of contact was Fighting Words, the company that promotes creative writing by facilitating free writing workshops for schools. “They promote the idea of critical thinking and creativity,” says Moore. “If you’re planning thematically, you need to connect it to literacy.”

Collie Ennis, research associate Trinity College Dublin’s department of zoology, has also been enlisted by Moore for the summit and will be talking to primary schools about how to create a school pond. She believes this activity will provide schools with an attainable idea for action as they take steps towards promoting sustainability.

“It’s all in the move to take action, however small that may be,” she says. “But it’s through action that we will change mindsets, and think differently about how we deal with things, how we live, and how we interact with the world around us.”

ISSN is not alone in helping schools tackle climate change. Elaine Nevin, director of Eco-Unesco, has been involved in promoting action in environmental education since 1995. Along with supporting the upcoming nature and climate summit, Eco-Unesco also works with young people through a variety of workshops and practical projects that focus on action and empowerment.

“We engage young people, we educate them, we inspire them, and we support them to act,” says Nevin. “One of our flagship programmes is the Young Environmentalist Awards. It’s about young people taking action on environmental issues at a local level.”

Students who wish to participate in the awards can register now for next year’s event. They can choose any environmental issue that interests them but Nevin says there is one area that is non-negotiable. “We always encourage good research and using trusted sources of information: that’s really important,” says Nevin. “And then the real focus is about taking that and putting it into action.”

The most recent report compiled by the World Meteorological Organisation for the UN tells the unsettling truth that current mitigation measures will not succeed in keeping global warming below 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels and that mitigation pledges need to be seven times higher.

While this news is daunting, it is important that the delivery of the message to students is managed so anxiety is avoided and action is achieved. Nevin says keeping the focus local can help reduce eco-anxiety.

“When you look at things from a global perspective, they can become very frightening, it can become overwhelming,” says Nevin. “Encouraging the students to use the global perspective to inform how they will act on a local level can help to give them a sense of empowerment and see the importance of their actions ... You’re doing the action locally but you’re also looking at it from that global perspective,” says Nevin.

Moore says that, to prevent eco-anxiety among primary schoolchildren, the focus should be on positivity. “In primary schools, if we are doing anything in this area, it has to be about hope and hopeful endeavour,” says Moore. “We need to instil in children a sense of positivity with regards to the future, the climate and the environment.”

Pádraig Cawley, principal of Ardscoil na Mara, says while it is important to have the climate change conversation with students, schools must moderate it to prevent anxiety.

“It’s about getting the conversation started, not putting the onus on them to fix it. We must be mindful that, along with growing up, getting a job, and going to college, they don’t feel that they must fix the planet too,” says Cawley. “We need to have an awareness around not putting the burden on the kids because they’re not the problem, but they are definitely part of the solution.”

The school has several initiatives in place that promote sustainability on an ongoing basis. ‘Five Minutes of Sustainability’ is a series of videos sponsored by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). They provide bite-size tips, presented by students, on how to make manageable and meaningful changes to daily habits that can help reduce the impact of climate change. The school also runs a ‘become an environmental influencer’ course as part of their wellbeing programme.

Cawley believes that, while teaching the students about sustainability is part of a school’s role, it can be done in subtle ways. “There are simple steps that can be taken by both staff and students to engage them,” says Cawley.

“I love the idea of the awareness being developed in schools, and there’s a lot of subtle ways that can happen. For example, we’re asking people to just check that the machines are off in the evening and to switch off their projectors, all simple stuff. It’s not rocket science.”

Climate resources in schools:

Irish Schools Sustainability Network (issn.ie): A network of schools committed to pushing sustainability up the agenda

Environmental education (earthday.org): Earthday.org, a global environmental movement, provides lots of lesson plans and resources

Green Schools (greenschoolsireland.org): An environmental management and award programme, it works with primary and secondary schools across the country

Eco-Unesco (ecounesco.ie): An environmental education and youth organisation that works to conserve the environment and empower young people