Third graders at Public School 103 in the north Bronx sat on a rug last month while their teacher, Kristy Neumeister, led a book discussion.
The book, “Rain School,” is about children who live in a rural region of Chad, a country in central Africa. Every year, their school must be rebuilt because storms wash it away.
“And what’s causing all these rains and storms and floods?” asked Ms. Neumeister.
“Carbon,” said Aiden, a serious-looking 8-year-old.
Ms. Neumeister was one of 39 elementary school teachers from across the city who participated in a four-day training session in the summer called “Integrating Climate Education in N.Y.C. Public Schools.” Its goal was to make the teachers familiar with the topic, so they can work climate change into their lesson plans.
Which is great if an educated populace is your goal. But my goal is to stop raising global average temperatures etc. Those things don’t directly correlate (at best it may change some votes once the educated become voters, but politicians aren’t super reliable either even when they do get in). I’m not saying I prefer ignorance, I am saying solutions that directly address the problems are the things that actually have a chance at working in a useful timeframe.