Playing outside at recess, watching salmon return to spawn and practising your sport of choice on a field are among the childhood experiences many adults today can look back on fondly.
Now, many children are making memories of cancelled field trips, fewer outdoor lessons and sports practices postponed because of poor air quality.
“I never had to worry about my soccer practices being canceled because I couldn’t breathe outside and it was unsafe for me to run outside but (now) my kids are facing that,” said Julie Ainscow, a parent and teacher at Pacific Heights Elementary school in Surrey.
Ainscow was among a group of speakers who urged the school district, during the April 19 board meeting, to declare a climate emergency and commit to specific goals to reduce emissions and enhance climate literacy. Pacific Heights and East Kensington Elementary school students also wrote letters and designed artwork for trustees to express their concerns around climate change.
Ainscow was joined by Hilary Wardlow, a teacher at Morgan Green Elementary, parent Allison Richardson and students Sonya Chatterjee and Ria Kaeley.
Teachers like Wardlow are hearing from students that they’re not being given the tools they need to navigate the future.
Many youth today feel overwhelmed, hopeless and frightened about what may come in the months and years ahead, said Sonya, who is in Grade 12 at Semiahmoo Secondary.
“The climate anxiety that we may have is not something that’s addressed as much in schools,” Sonya told Peace Arch News.
“It’s hard to navigate these emotions because a lot of folks are first-generation immigrants with families back home who are suffering the heavier brunts of the climate crisis in the global south, in Southeast Asia, in South Asia and so helping students navigate these emotions and (learn) how to act is something that would definitely be beneficial.”
Several other school districts across the province have declared climate emergencies in recent years.
A focus of New Westminster school district’s climate emergency declaration that proponents in Surrey would like to see adopted is a commitment to enhancing climate literacy in schools.
“They hired someone in the district to oversee that portion of it – who worked with teacher-librarians – and they came up with resources to integrate climate literacy from kindergarten to Grade 12,” said Wardlow.
Currently, specific climate-change curriculum through the provincial education ministry is scarce. Ainscow notes that there are some lessons during Grade 7 science, while nothing is outlined in secondary education. Elective science courses for Grades 11 and 12 could include lessons on climate, but it would be dependent on the teacher.
Elective courses are not always offered at every high school every semester, either.
“It would just be nice to see a more consistent, integral approach, so teachers can go ‘Here is a list of all the lessons I can access for each grade, for different topics and for different age levels,’” Wardlow said.
Ria, a student at Grandview Heights Secondary, said that youth are affected by events they see in the news and “demonstrated significant worry for the effects of climate change, particularly on animals and the future.”
Integrating environmental education and knowledge into every sector should be the goal because climate impacts everything, said Richardson, who is also a member of Surrey for Future — a climate advocacy group.
“It’s a huge issue and people are overwhelmed and they want to put it aside and focus on recycling or biking to work once a week, and those are great things, but we need large-scale solutions,” Richardson added.
The group would like to see the district strive toward a goal of reducing emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050, while advocating for provincial funding to reach these goals and accelerate climate education.
Seeing the district commit to climate equity is also important, Sonya notes. This, she said, can be enhanced by consulting with students, staff and the wider community.
When it came time to vote on the motion during the May 10 meeting, trustees voted unanimously to declare a climate emergency. The board did not, however, make any specific commitments, but members said they would advocate with the province to make an action plan and urged the Surrey school community to do the same.
“The concern was always to not make commitments that we can’t keep. I wouldn’t want to set lofty goals that we’re just not going to meet. Really, this motion is symbolic – nothing more, nothing less, to be honest,” Trustee Bob Holmes said during the meeting.
“This is work we’ve been doing for years, we will continue to do, we will continue to work on what we can do for climate change with the budget we are provided.”
Holmes went on to say that asking for funds from the education ministry for several different issues is not realistic.
“We are trying to concentrate our advocacy right now on the portable issue, which also affects climate change, but that’s where our big focus is going to be,” he said, referring to how over-crowding in Surrey’s schools is leading to increased use of portables.
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In an emailed response to the board’s declaration and comments, Richardson, Ainscow and Wardlow said they are glad that a declaration was made but disappointed that the board did not make any specific commitments.
“We hope that the province recognizes the need to speed up greenhouse gas reductions in the education sector and provides additional support to do so,” the comment continues.
@SobiaMoman
sobia.moman@peacearchnews.com
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