Think globally, act locally

December 2, 2024 • Health and Safety Articles • 2 min read

December 2, 2024 Health and Safety Articles 2 min read

Talking climate breakdown in schools

By Dorothy Wigmore

“We are teetering on a planetary tight rope,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned the world in late October, referring to his agency’s latest greenhouse gas emissions gap report. “Either leaders bridge the emissions gap, or we plunge headlong into climate disaster, with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most.”

It’s scary stuff. New Jersey faces more and worse storms, floods, blizzards, heat domes, wildfire smoke, droughts, infectious disease outbreaks and other climate breakdown consequences.

For example, New Jersey now is warming at a faster rate than the global average, and faster than other northeastern states. Then there was Superstorm Sandy, 2021’s Tropical Storm Ida and 10 other hurricane-related storms since; related flooding hit coastal and inland areas, affecting schools and their communities.

Job-related health and safety implications for schools include:

Increased pesticide use to deal with the more tick-related infections (e.g., West Nile, Lyme).
More asthma, heart-related and other health problems from indoor and outdoor air pollution.
Increased heat’s toll on the kidneys, heart and other systems, and heat stroke deaths.
More difficulty to teach and learn in hot classrooms and school grounds, sometimes leading to verbal or physical abuse.
More cancer-causing ultraviolet (UV) radiation for outdoor workers.
Harm from cleaning up after storm and other damage (e.g., from asbestos, musculoskeletal strains, electricity).
Wet conditions contributing to mold growth, affecting school air quality and staff and student health.
School bus drivers face dangerous road conditions.
Increased stress levels for reasons related to life inside and outside schools, including eco-anxiety and the effects of closing schools because of poor air quality, heat domes, storms, etc.

Heat stress is one of the most obvious hazards. An indirect effect on staff is the harm to children’s ability to learn.

“Overall, it’s stressful to teach in that heat. It’s sad, because the kids don’t learn as much,” says recently retired New Jersey science teacher Alice Freund. “One school I was in, we had to wheel in this giant floor fan. But where to put it? The kids all wanted it near them and if it was too close to someone, papers blew off their desk. It’s very disruptive, like it is with kids getting water bottles filled.”

“I often wonder how much class time is lost thanks to the climate breakdown,” she adds.

Bringing climate breakdown into the curriculum

In 2020, New Jersey became the first U.S. state to include climate breakdown in its K-12 New Jersey Student Learning Standards.

Using interdisciplinary units, the goal is to help students “understand how and why climate change happens, the impact it has on our local and global communities and to act in informed and sustainable ways.” The first seven subjects came into effect in 2022 (social studies, world language, visual and performing arts, computer design, health and physical education, career readiness, and science). English and math were added in 2023.

“It’s an amazing set of standards, especially affecting non-science teachers,” Freund says. “‘For them it’s, ‘What? I’m doing third grade, and I have to teach climate change?’ There’s a lot of work to do around implementation.”

The state allocated funds for this, including collaboration across school districts. State and non-profit groups have resources too. Freund is active in Divest New Jersey and Third Act Educators, which produced a handout and resources to implement the standard.

“The standard matters because we need to build awareness of how our lives as human beings affect the planet overall,” says Atlantic County special education math teacher, and NJEA Executive Committee member, Melissa Tomlinson. She uses graphs about things such as rising sea levels and temperature trends in her data unit.

“It leads to broader conversations about how to alleviate things that could happen in our schools and communities,” she says. Like Freund, she wonders what schooling will look like if temperatures get so high, or air quality is so bad, that schools are closed.

She is part of NJ21 United’s efforts “to track what implementation of the standard looks like, what’s going on in terms of environmental justice and what educators think should be in their schools.”

Tomlinson also continues to learn from the pandemic, keeping air filters going in her classroom. The filters clean the air of viruses, pollen, wildfire smoke and other often-invisible particles.

“We shouldn’t have to fight for effective units in each classroom,” Tomlinson says. “Maybe we’ll have to get legislation to make it happen.”

What is to be done?

Health and safety activists and committees can:

Support S-2422/A-3521, which would provide heat protections to New Jersey workers by establishing a heat stress standard and Occupational Heat-Related Illness and Injury Prevention Program. Visit actioncenter.njea.org to take action.
Take and promote the NJ21 United survey and other efforts to assess and support use of the standards and related occupational health and climate justice issues. (See “Resources” sidebar.)
Develop and advocate for a district climate action plan accounting for occupational health and safety hazards (e.g., assessments to determine which workers are vulnerable, when, how, and why) and how emergencies are handled.
Emphasize ways to reduce heat in schools (e.g., better insulation, white reflective paint or green plants on roofs, shade trees around buildings).
Use the plan in walk-throughs.
Use those walk-throughs to inventory and evaluate ventilation systems, air conditioning and air filters/cleaners, following up to improve school air quality.
Investigate and support opportunities for just transition and green jobs (ones including healthy and safey work, not just an environmental focus).
Support teachers and students taking the Sustainable Jersey for Schools 2024-25 Student Climate Challenge, especially those adding an occupational health lens (e.g., the healthy school environment and green cleaning, design and purchasing topics).

Dorothy Wigmore is a long-time health and safety specialist and WEC consultant. She has worked in Canada, the U.S. and Mozambique, focusing on prevention and worker participation to fix job-related hazards.