werthwine  you are here 48 you are here kate werthwine, pasco county schools, florida, usa artist statement “you are here” is an excerpt from a zine exploring how literacy, embodiment, and climate literacy intersect in the classroom. the zine reflects on the role that place-based learning has in my teaching practices and on some of the challenges i face trying to incorporate place-based pedagogy into my teaching. i initially created the zine during a writing retreat with other florida-based educators. over the course of the retreat, a major theme that kept coming up was shared vulnerability—that is, being willing to share our stories and hear the stories of others. perceptive and proficient readers need more than “skill and drill.” students need to engage with the stories of the people and places around them to develop their literacy skills and their understanding of the environments they live in. some invitations for reflection: ● think about the environment where you live and teach. where is your “here”? ● what stories can you tell about this place? whose stories are they? ● whose story is missing? keywords vulnerability, embodiment, zine, place-based learning, place-based pedagogy https://www.climatelit.org/topic/place-based-education/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/place-based-pedagogy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/vulnerability/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/embodiment/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/zine/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/place-based-education/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/place-based-pedagogy/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 49 editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 21 reconnecting with nature through haiku lorraine kerslake, universidad de alicante/ gieco, instituto franklin, uah, spain abstract this reflection outlines how haiku can be used as a creative form of writing to help students reconnect with nature, raise climate and environmental awareness, and promote change. it is based on a teaching experience described in more detail in the chapter “raising environmental awareness and rewriting education through haikus,” written by lorraine kerslake and mª encarnación carillo and published in literature as a lens for climate change: using narratives to prepare the next generation (rowman & littlefield 2022, pp. 171-193). keywords poetry, haiku, nature, environmental awareness acknowledgements i acknowledge that the seeds of this teaching experience come from a collaborative project called “the poetry reading project” developed during the 2019-2020 academic year by dr. maría encarnación carrillo-garcía and dr. lorraine kerslake. we live in a culture that is profoundly and systemically anthropocentric. this dominant culture considers humankind as superior to nature and other animals. it is guided by the assumption that it is only in relation to humans that anything else has value. now, more than ever, imagination is key in envisioning change and rethinking the way we interact with the world around us. the climate and ecological emergencies expressed in the multiplicity of interconnected phenomena—global warming, water pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and others—are part of a broader problem, one deeply connected to our dysfunctional, anthropocentric relationship with nature. language is a human construct. it is largely aligned with culture and often positioned against nature, affirming humanity as an entity separate from the rest of nature. if so, how can we use language to rewrite the world? or to reimagine the relation between the human and non-human world? specifically, as educators, how can we promote forms of critical thinking that raise https://rowman.com/isbn/9781498594110/literature-as-a-lens-for-climate-change-using-narratives-to-prepare-the-next-generation https://rowman.com/isbn/9781498594110/literature-as-a-lens-for-climate-change-using-narratives-to-prepare-the-next-generation https://www.climatelit.org/topic/poetry/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/haiku/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-awareness/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/global-warming/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/pollution/marine-pollution/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/deforestation/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity-loss/ kerslake reconnecting with nature 22 environmental and climate awareness? how do we encourage students to relate and identify with the world around them? using the classroom as a place for climate literacy conversations is one way to start. the integration of climate issues in the classroom can contribute to developing a more humanistic way of understanding and interacting with the world. from primary to tertiary education, literature is listed in the curriculum as one of the tools for the successful implementation of sociolinguistic, sociocultural, and emotional aspects of teaching. as educators, we face the challenge of creating spaces for helping our students learn to use language as a tool to recognize the embeddedness of humans in nature. in this context poetry can be a particularly useful tool to foster environmental and climate awareness. poetry is a unique and complex form of language. in most education contexts since the 1990s, teaching poetry has often been stigmatized as unnecessary, lacking practical purpose or value that matters in real life. unsurprisingly, at least in our experience, poetry is the genre that students seem least comfortable with. one way to introduce students to the power of poetry and connect it to climate literacy is to show them that they can become poets for a day. because poetry, especially its format called haiku, has unique affordances to reconnect students to the wonder of nature. a haiku is a traditional form of japanese poetry inspired by nature. a haiku poem includes three lines with a set syllable pattern, in which the first and last lines have five syllables, and the middle line has seven. the simplicity of its seventeen syllables, condensed in haiku’s 5-7-5 pattern, works as a structure around which a thought is written in an inspired moment. rather than communicate what to think and feel, haiku poems stress particular importance of the here and now. take basho’s “frog” poem: an old pond; a frog jumps in – the sound of the water. what makes this haiku interesting is not the fact that basho was the first to describe a frog but how the poem appreciates the sound of the frog jumping into the water, making the episode come alive before the eyes of the poet and the reader. the appreciation of the ordinary and the emphasis on the present moment allows haiku poems to capture and imagine events from a participatory point of view. this being with, the act of empathy and the ability to identify with the other, is also key to creating a more caring relationship with nature. the visual image that is conceived when reading and writing haiku can help develop environmental awareness and climate literacy while learning a language that brings one closer to nature. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-awareness/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 23 among teachers who use haiku, one practical challenge is whether to insist on the use of traditional conventions, including a strict syllable count of seventeen syllables: 5-7-5. although this convention should not be deemed rigid, students can be encouraged to respect the traditional haiku format together with three other “golden rules” as guidelines about what a haiku should do: • capture the essence of a moment in time: a sort of poetic photo snapshot. • find the extraordinary in the ordinary: imagine you are looking at nature for the first time. • reconnect our world to nature. a simple way to do this is to invite students to choose a topic related to a particular element of nature. it could be a season, a particular ecosystem, or larger environment: the sea, the mountains, whatever comes to mind. close your eyes, feel what surrounds you. sense it. smell it. breath it. feel it. become it. then brainstorm words related to the theme. try to write down the number of syllables next to each word. this is the basis of your haiku. now you are ready to draft it. given its brevity and evocative imagery, writing haiku can be a successful way to encourage students’ creativity. being only three lines long, a haiku is an easy and effective way to show the power of poetry even in a short class activity. it can be a particularly useful tool for students to express their thoughts and emotions freely and creatively, regardless of their age and level. in our experience, haiku poems often serve as an emotional outlet for students to reflect on their own feelings whilst connecting them to nature. given the inherent anthropocentrism of western culture, these connections can also nurture deeper ones that, in turn, foster a critical awareness of the myriad systems that shape all forms of life on earth. the main purpose of reading and writing haiku is sharing moments of our lives and experiences that have moved us. on the deepest level, this is surely one of the greatest purposes of all art, not just poetry. haiku can be implemented in the classroom at all grade levels as an approach to creative writing and an effective way to encourage students to use language as a form of connection between their inner selves and the natural world. writing haiku poems can contribute toward a more thoughtful appraisal of the role humans play in the world. it can help change our attitudes and move us beyond the present crisis toward a more sustainable way of being with earth. editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement coltman ú humanity’s reliance 70 humanity’s reliance on the morethan-human in shaun tan’s tales from the inner city julia coltman, vancouver island university, vancouver, bc, canada abstract various aspects of human life—including art, media, and culture—are becoming increasingly informed by the climate and environmental crises. shaun tan’s tales from the inner city illustrate and respond to this emergency, rising questions about the consequences of humanity's disconnect from the nonhuman world. tan’s message is wistful but not hopeless: although reestablishing balance with nature will not be easy, it is the only goal that matters. keywords climate literacy, anthropocentrism, empathy, ecocentrism, nonhuman persons acknowledgements: i would like to thank dr. terri doughty of vancouver island university for her continued encouragement and support in the development of my interest and publication of my work in this journal. understanding the complex relationship between the health of our climate and the wellbeing of living creatures is important more than ever before. this understanding, an https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy https://www.climatelit.org/topic/terminology/anthropocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-emotions/empathy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/terminology/ecocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/non-human-personhood/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 71 individual’s ability to critically consider both the impact that the climate crisis has on human wellness and the consequences that the demands of human life have on our environment, is a key component of “climate literacy,” especially in the domains of earth care and kinship care. it involves more than the necessary understanding that we, humans, should be doing better for our planet: it also implies a realization that when we actively choose against doing better to preserve our earth, the consequences are fatal. our culture is becoming increasingly informed by climate literacy concerns, and the rising climate and environmental sensitivity lies at the heart of much storytelling today. shaun tan’s tales from the inner city, a collection of elaborately illustrated, ecocentric short stories and poems offer a fresh perspective on why fostering healthy mutual connections between ourselves, other living beings, and our environment is of vital importance for today’s society. it stands as a compelling illustration of the power literature holds for climate literacy education to create a more climate literate culture. many works in the environmental and climate literature genres are often melancholic; in part, tan’s collection is no exception. however, tales from the inner city also includes stories that share a lot of hope. not only do they communicate how much we long to move away from environmentally abusive lifestyles, but they actively encourage our ability to do so. tan’s illustrations convey the way this longing is spurred by the haunting, ever-present if somewhat suppressed awareness of what once was. accompanying these illustrations are short narratives which suggest that the echoes of the past are still accessible to us, especially if we set aside our anthropocentric conceit and open our ears to them. tan’s collection communicates that, with enough effort, we may achieve a better state of balance with nature. his tales each do so, uniquely, often by finding refreshing ways of expressing an equality or partnership between humanity and the world’s nonhuman beings. each of the tales speaks to different aspects (and species) of this longing—as do, for example, the stories called “sheep,” “pig,” and “fox.” however, when taken as a collection, they present a powerful, unified ecocentric voice that challenges us to reconsider and redefine our relations with animals and the natural world. many of the stories in tales from the inner city suggest that humanity’s arrogance and capriciousness is one of our greatest downfalls. the idea that human intelligence and consciousness are superior to those of all other species—animal or plant—keeps us https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240/3334 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5438/3407 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5438/3407 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/tales-from-the-inner-city/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/tales-from-the-inner-city/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/solastalgia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocentrism http://climatelit.org/topic/ecocentrism https://www.climatelit.org/literature/tales-from-the-inner-city/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocentrism coltman ú humanity’s reliance 72 from understanding how much we gain from taking a step back from ourselves and respecting nonhuman lives as equal to our own—even instead as more-than-human. the tale “sheep,” for example, takes place in a classroom: the teacher is attempting to convince the students of the importance of respecting the sacrifices animals and other living beings make (often by our demands) to help us live well. the teacher’s lessons do not fall on completely deaf ears: the students understand and take to heart the way that the sheep’s life and sacrifices are “something much bigger than any lesson” (tan, 2018, p. 135). however, they still struggle to let go of the comforting idea of human supremacy. their awe and respect for the sheep is thrown off by the “rank breeze that roll[s] in from the…livestock ship” (p. 135), reminding them of their belief in the greater sophistication and refinement of human intelligence and sentience. the students bustle out of the classroom before their guilt can counteract their ego and self-importance. while doing so, however, they have to “tr[y] hard to think of something else” (p. 135), which suggests that they will not be able to unsee the respect for nonhuman lives they were just allowed to glimpse. stepping away from human arrogance and self-importance takes a conscious effort: an effort we are each capable of enacting, with enough determination. many of tan’s tales speak to concerns surrounding human/nonhuman interaction. peppered throughout the book are passages and single-line phrases, which make us realize just how far humanity has become removed from understanding what our morethan-human counterparts need from us. in fact, tan suggests, we have become so far removed that we are hardly even aware that there is an alternative to human selfishness and self-importance. in the story “pig,” the narrator wonders: “[t]he pig doesn’t cry or make much noise. but maybe pigs suffer in a way we can’t know. who can say for sure what another animal is feeling?” (p. 86). the story concludes with the narrator— presumably a child disobeying their parents’ rules—setting the pig free. in doing so, the child is actively choosing to counter human superiority, the supposed “natural” order of things. the tale further suggests that treating all living beings with the same respect we would offer to our fellow humans is maybe not such a strange obligation after all. in several other tales, tan depicts the importance of fostering humanity’s awareness of other creatures’ dignity. “fox” expresses the way that we, humans, often think of ourselves as being above the nonhuman, even though our very existence relies on the existence of the world’s other creatures. we are, as if, haunted by the biological climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 73 truth we so much wish to suppress. with this idea in mind, the illustration accompanying the story depicts the pale, near-ghostly image of a person lying in their bed, while hovering above them is the figure of a bright, red-orange fox, in stark contrast against the dark neutrals of the background (pp.192-193). the fox, as the tale’s narrator, explains that all of our decisions and actions in our world are always already informed by our suppressed memories of humanity being embedded in the same web of life as the nonhuman and more-than-human beings: don’t you know that i am as old as the blood in your veins?... i know your every thought and feeling, more than you do yourself, every craving, every fear and dream and vice and embarrassing secret, i know them all. so please, pay me no mind as i ransack the bottom drawers of your subconscious. there’s nothing here that i haven’t already seen a thousand times before (p. 191). in this passage, tan asserts that human lives are irreversibly intertwined with those of nonhumans, whether we recognize it or not. if we deny or reject the interconnectedness between nature, animals, and ourselves, we condemn ourselves to being instead haunted by that mutual need and reliance. as the fox questions: “where could we live if not in the bottomless den of each other’s shadow?” (p. 191). the missing pieces to our self-awareness are provided by the bonds we form between ourselves and other living creatures, including between our wellbeing and the wellbeing of our environment. we would not be where we are, nor even who we are today, without the foundation that those relationships provide us with. the nonhuman gives shape and form to our homes and identities. taken together, these three tales illustrate that we have drifted away from a sense of being entangled with the nonhuman beings—a self-induced separation that is significant and undeniably harmful, yet not irreversible. the bonds between ourselves and the rest of the planet’s lifeforms—those sentient or not—still hold great potential, if only we act on the call to reject our arrogant comforts and to redefine those relationships. it is vital today that we foster a culture informed by climate literacy, and one of the most powerful ways we can do this is through literature and other forms of popular media. shaun tan’s tales from the inner city offers an invitation to a larger community of species https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy https://www.climatelit.org/literature/tales-from-the-inner-city/ coltman ú humanity’s reliance 74 kinship. it exposes our despair and anxiety caused by separation, yet it affirms unrelenting hope that the human-nonhuman connection persists. the conclusion we may draw from the collection is that change is always possible as long as we commit to it. references oziewicz, m. (2023a). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1 (1), pp. 34-38. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240/3334 oziewicz, m. (2023b). the click framework: a care-centric conceptual map for organizing climate literacy pedagogy. climate literature in education, 1(2), pp. 1-7. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5438 tan, s. (2018). tales from the inner city. tundra: penguin random house. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240/3334 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5438 midkiff & austin  “the next right thing” 44 “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism emily midkiff, university of north dakota, grand forks, nd, usa sara austin, kentucky wesleyan college, owensboro, ky, usa abstract in “the disneyfication of climate crisis: negotiating responsibility and climate action in frozen, moana, and frozen 2,” we argue that frozen, frozen 2, and moana encourage young people to identify with princesses who take action against metaphorical climate change. although the films are hampered by disney’s own capitalist framework, extratextual discussion and activities can push young viewers past these limitations. this article demonstrates how to use frozen 2 as a springboard for effective ecopedagogy in elementary-school settings. keywords ecopedagogy, disney, youth participatory action research (ypar), activism, frozen, frozen 2, moana in “the disneyfication of climate crisis: negotiating responsibility and climate action in frozen, moana, and frozen 2,” we argue that frozen, frozen 2, and moana encourage young people to identify with princesses who take action against metaphorical climate change, even if the films do not achieve fully effective ecopedagogy as defined by scholars such as moacir gadotti, angela atunes, richard kahn, and greta gaard. the films themselves are hampered by disney’s own capitalist framework, but extratextual discussion and activities can push young viewers past the limitations of the films toward a more fully realized and active ecopedagogy. this article focuses on using frozen 2 as a springboard for effective ecopedagogy in elementary-school contexts. our original “disneyfication” article is guided by gaard’s analysis of ecopedagogy, which can be condensed into three questions to ask of children’s environmental media: 1) does it challenge the binary and power imbalance of human/nature?; 2) does a community or solitary child solve the environmental issues?; and 3) does it describe nature as having subjectivity and agency, or is nature passively rescued? (pp. 327–30). as we conclude, frozen 2 does particularly well at giving nature its own agency, satisfying the third of gaard’s criteria. however, frozen 2 does not quite meet the https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecopedagogy/ https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/frozen/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/frozen-2/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/frozen-2/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/youth-activism-marine-conservation-and-ecofeminism/ https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://www.climatelit.org/literature/frozen/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/frozen-2/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/youth-activism-marine-conservation-and-ecofeminism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecopedagogy/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 45 other two criteria. in order to mobilize the film as an effective ecopedagogical tool, the work started in the film must be finished outside of it through discussion, research, and projects. from the start, expanding on the ecopedagogical potential of frozen 2 must be grounded in a willingness to let go of the traditional power associated with adults and teaching. gaard argues that effective ecopedagogy challenges the binary and power imbalance of humans versus nature as well as the parallel relationship of children versus adults. therefore, research and activism extending from this film should be youth-led. this means going beyond constructivist principles of education and farther into surrendering adult control over the learning situation. the youth participatory action research (ypar) approach offers guidance for adults who want to learn how to put power in the hands of young people to develop more equitable adult-child community partnerships. ypar is designed with middle and high-school-aged young people in mind, but children in elementary school can achieve similar levels of leadership through an intentionally designed sequence of lessons that utilize p. david pearson & margaret c. gallagher’s model of gradually releasing responsibility. children who are accustomed to top-down structures in their classrooms, especially, will benefit from a slow introduction to having the power to direct research and produce solutions alongside adult collaborators. the process of gradually helping children recognize their own potential as activists can begin with the modeling present in frozen 2 itself. the characters anna, elsa, and kristoff may be much older than elementary school students, but we describe in our “disneyfication” article how these protagonists are designed to encourage children to identify with them. in order to prompt children to think more about how these characters are problem-solvers, students can be asked to describe how each of these characters recognizes a problem and takes action to resolve it or help another character resolve it. this conversation can lead into discussion of individual heroism versus community solutions. in our “disneyfication” article, we show how frozen 2 relies too heavily on individual action rather than community activism, which is another of gaard’s criteria for effective ecopedagogy. pairing the film with nonfiction books about community activism could produce more helpful comparisons about how real people take action and how this looks similar to and different from the action the characters take in the film. ideally, these books would demonstrate adults and children working side by side rather than “heroic” but isolated celebrity child activists. examples might include christina soontornvat and rahele jomepour bell’s to change a planet, books about indigenous community relationships to the natural world such as traci sorell and frane lessac’s we are grateful: otsaliheliga, or books about communities in nature such as tara kelley and marie hermansson’s listen to the language of the trees. teachers might also be tempted by project books such as penny arlon, susuan hayes, and pintachan’s the extraordinary book that eats itself, and while having a few such books on hand for students to see as models might be helpful, one of the foundational principles of ecopedagogy is that children develop projects for themselves rather than rely on adults to provide the ideas and materials. in addition to encouraging activism in young people, frozen 2 offers natural opportunities to explore the topics of damage to water and forest ecosystems, colonial violence against nature https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0361476x8390019x?via%3dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0361476x8390019x?via%3dihub https://www.climatelit.org/literature/to-change-a-planet/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-grateful-otsaliheliga/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-grateful-otsaliheliga/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/listen-to-the-language-of-the-trees/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-extraordinary-book-that-eats-itself/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/animals/forests/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/colonization/ midkiff & austin  “the next right thing” 46 and indigenous people, and intergenerational responsibility in the real world. however, learning more about the real versions of environmental damage or colonial violence may elicit big emotions. here, again, the potency of using frozen 2 characters as models comes into play. anna’s song “the next right thing” would be a powerful way to model dealing with the unpleasant emotions that come along with damage, violence, and accepting responsibility. environmental destruction and failed attempts at fixing it may produce strong climate emotions in children, including sadness or hopelessness, especially if the destruction in question has led to sickness or death for people or animals. children may have heard adults complaining that environmental problems are too big or someone else’s responsibility. discussing the lyrics of this song and encouraging students to apply anna’s situation to their own potential feelings—say climate grief or climate anxiety—would pair well with social-emotional learning goals and give them additional language for when they may encounter these emotions. having discussed their own potential as activists through the lens of frozen 2, students can explore local environmental issues and consider how they can be resolved. expanding this outside the film means taking the fictional agency depicted in the film, where nature spirits have the power to trap a whole forest and demand help from elsa, and transferring that fantasy-based concept into conversations about what nature can do in real life and where it needs human help. just as this framework establishes adults and children as collaborators, the final task is to frame research projects and activism as a collaboration with nature. some possible resources to begin thinking about this collaboration might include the white house’s nature base solutions resource guide, a 43-page document that includes a list of federal priorities for climate change reduction, the national environmental educational foundation’s citizen science initiatives which includes a list of ongoing federal projects that require local volunteers such as tracking butterflies or frogs, or mapping bird habitats, and the national science teaching association study on climate education in alaska. while not directly accessible to elementary-aged students, these resources, along with the youth participatory action research (ypar), might help guide educators in thinking about student-led collaborative activism. references bradford, nick. (2022). “citizens observing a changing climate.” neef. retrieved december 22, 2022, from https://www.neefusa.org/nature/plants-and-animals/citizens-observingchanging-climate frozen 2. (2016). directed by jennifer lee and chris buck, disney. gaard, greta. (2009). “children's environmental literature: from ecocriticism to ecopedagogy.” neohelicon, 36 (2), 321–34. doi: 10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7 hayes, s., arlon, p. & pintachan, (2021). the extraordinary book that eats itself: every page turns into an eco project that helps you save the planet. insight editions. kelley, t., & hermansson, m. (2022). listen to the language of the trees. dawn publications. midkiff, e., & austin, s. (2021). “the disneyfication of climate crisis: negotiating responsibility and climate action in frozen, moana, and frozen 2.” the lion and the unicorn, 45 (2), 154-171. doi: 10.1353/uni.2021.0013 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-destruction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-emotions/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-grief/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-anxiety/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/nature-based-solutions-resource-guide-2022.pdf https://www.neefusa.org/nature/plants-and-animals/citizens-observing-changing-climate https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-april-june-2018-0/connected-climate-change https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home https://www.neefusa.org/nature/plants-and-animals/citizens-observing-changing-climate https://www.neefusa.org/nature/plants-and-animals/citizens-observing-changing-climate climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 47 schier nolan, j. e. (2022). “ypar hub.” retrieved december 22, 2022, from https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home soontornvat, c., & bell, r. j. (2022). to change a planet. scholastic press. sorell, t., & lessac frané. (2019). we are grateful: otsaliheliga. findaway world, llc. spellman, k. v., sparrow, e. b., chase, m. j., larson, a., & kealy, k. (2018). “connected climate change learning through citizen science.” nsta. retrieved december 22, 2022, from https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-april-june2018-0/connected-climate-change white house council on environmental quality, white house office of science and technology policy, white house office of domestic climate policy, 2022. nature-based solutions resource guide. washington, d.c. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wpcontent/uploads/2022/11/nature-based-solutions-resource-guide-2022.pdf https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-april-june-2018-0/connected-climate-change https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-april-june-2018-0/connected-climate-change https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/nature-based-solutions-resource-guide-2022.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/nature-based-solutions-resource-guide-2022.pdf editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 9 dispatches from the future speculative fiction and climate modeling in the secondary science classroom luke gliddon, coon rapids high school, coon rapids, mn, usa abstract students in traditional education settings are rarely engaged in the vital act of imagining. instead, they are bombarded with data about the climate crisis that project a degraded and diminished future as a foregone conclusion. here, i reflect on my experiences using published media, highly accessible climate modeling, and a mental time travel project to help students practice inhabiting better futures in a sciencebacked way. these activities are sequenced over at least five days. considerations for various educational settings are included. keywords computer modeling, ecological civilization, future thinking, speculative fiction, imagination acknowledgments i was supported in this work with critical mentorship and support from the center for climate literacy. gliddonú dispatches from the future 10 some years ago, i began using the enroads climate simulator as a way to build systems-thinking as well as a pedagogical device for students to test assumptions regarding our climate systems. previous research has shown that using the simulator in classrooms effects sense of urgency and hope as well as intent to take action across sociopolitical categories (rooney-varga et al., 2021) it required a bit of learning on my part to get comfortable using the simulator, but the resource articles, help videos, and training resources i found made it pretty painless. i was ready to bring it to my classes. it was great! students were indeed being pushed into engaging discussions where they got to test out for themselves just what the latest scientific understandings said about their ideas. they wondered, for instance, whether we can solve the climate crisis and meet the paris climate agreement goals if we just electrify our transportation. at the ends of these lessons, students left with a vague sense that, yes, it is possible to build a better world. more importantly, they had some ideas about paths to get there. nevertheless, an abstract sense of things like pm2.5—otherwise known as particulate matter air pollution—is not too helpful in itself. it is not what drives students to make certain career choices, engage in local civics, or build sustainable businesses. for that, i designed a six-day unit for my 11th grade biology students. after engaging with speculative fiction depicting ecological civilizations, students used computer modeling to simulate future climate scenarios. ultimately, students drew on these mentor texts and computer modeling to design their own futures and create what i came to call a dispatch from the future. part 1: looking forward to begin, i spend up to two weeks introducing students to various speculative fiction that depicts ecological futures. these mentor texts include podcast snippets, scenes from movies, 100-word stories, and more. one text that has proven engaging again and again is the black panther movie. many students are already familiar with the marvel cinematic universe and are prepared to engage in a deeper investigation of the ecological civilization envisioned in the worlds of the story. this popular movie has proven a more engaging way to dig into land use, resources, and the responsibilities of power than other texts i tried. as the class engages with these mentor texts, an activity i came to call looking forward, i ask students to use a journal and respond to these https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/ https://irrc.education.uiowa.edu/blog/2019/01/using-mentor-texts-learn-best-and-improve-students-writing https://grist.org/looking-forward/climate-fiction-drabbles-our-future-in-100-words/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-panther/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 11 questions following each exposure: what do you notice? what do you want? what do you wonder? these questions prompt critical observation, introspection, and discussions that students were excited to engage in. figure 1: class slides used to prompt student journaling exposure to the looking forward mentor texts is important for two reasons. first, each experience shows students that using imagination to explore futures can be a serious business. in discussing these media, i often find students making comments like “i thought that part was really cool. but could we actually do something like that?” second, each mentor text adds to a template of styles, modes, ideas, and themes that students can draw upon in as they create their own dispatch from the future. having students keep a journal helps in this process as it may be several days before they engage with the climate action simulation and begin working on their own projects that imagine actual ecological change. part 2: climate action simulation while the looking forward mentor texts can provide inspiration about futures in fiction, a deeper scientific understanding of climate systems can help students ground their thoughts of futures in reality. the climate action simulation (cas) has been developed by climate interactive and uses the enroads computer model. other amazing resources exist, so my additional notes here are brief. the cas has different interest groups working together to protect their own interests as well as working toward the paris climate agreement temperature goals. the interest groups include conventional energy, world governments, climate justice https://www.climateinteractive.org/climate-action-simulation/ https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/ https://learn.climateinteractive.org/ gliddonú dispatches from the future 12 hawks, agriculture and forestry, banking and finance, and more. i sort my students into teams based on their interests and skills. for instance, i have found success with placing some of my louder and more engaged students in the justice hawks group while placing quieter students with good synthesizing skills as the agriculture and forestry group. for students who already have some background in climate science, i find it helpful to plan about two 60-minute periods for these activities. on the first day, we spend time developing team unity, helping them identify their platforms and goals, and encouraging some deal-making between groups. for instance, i may encourage the climate justice hawks to try to encourage the world governments that their primary obligations are to their citizens. the conventional energy group may work with the agriculture and forestry group to push for nature-based carbon removal. this builds excitement for the next day’s activity and allows you to devote all of day two to a different format. on day two, once your students reach their goal or time limits are near, be sure to spend a few minutes using enroads to examine some of the impacts of their choices (see impacts menu of enroads). i highlight the pm2.5 air pollution and share that there are approximately 8 million annual deaths (vohra et al., 2021) currently, while our future scenario drastically cuts that number. throughout these activities, students will be engaged with various science and engineering practices while exploring different cross-cutting concepts. because the simulations model several processes, there are opportunities to focus on multiple ngss disciplinary core ideas. for example, middle school classes focusing on ms-ls2-5 or ms–ess3-3 could highlight the ecosystem services of different nature-based mitigation strategies or the impacts of some human systems on other connected systems. high school classes may be interested in focusing on hs-ess3-1 or hs-ls2-7 to explore links between human fossil fuel use and sea level or work to consider the societal impacts of different possible solutions. following this review of a possible future scenario, have students reflect on what they would love about living in a world that was on track to do these things. my students have written about many general things, such as having hope or not feeling guilty for simply trying to go to work. with more time given for reflecting on this, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0013935121000487 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 13 students integrate these thoughts on a more personal level and consider specific people and places in their lives. whatever they end up discussing and focusing on here can become perfect elements for their dispatch from the future. part 3: dispatches from the future by this point in the unit, students will have collaboratively explored what the science says is possible. they will have also engaged different visions of the future and seen ways that artists and writers have packaged up those visions so that others can experience them. now it is students’ turn to imagine ecological futures! send students to the future and have them bring some piece of it back. consider something silly and ceremonial to help give them license to exercise their imaginations: flicker the lights with music, blow time-travel-dust, whatever fits for your setting. i prompt my students to begin by thinking about a year (e.g. 2070), then three measures from the enroads modeling, a location, and characters. these prompts help students ground their imaginations in what the science says is possible and sets the pieces they need for assembling something more intimate than a ppm (or parts per million) measurement of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. one student created an audio recording of a dialogue between herself as an old woman recently awoken from a long coma and her granddaughter. another student created a website from a future travel agency based on mars, visiting locations on earth. another created tiktok-style interviews with various people in the future about their lives. others have worked in written stories, performed dance, created video games, and more. once students have completed their projects, i have them present within the class as well as digitize their dispatch so that it can be shared beyond the class with community members. i suggest a minimum of three days for students to work on these projects. i find that more time is always rewarding because of the levels of engagement and the pride students develop when they are working on something so personal and empowering. if time allows, i suggest at least two rounds of project presentations to allow for responses to feedback. gliddonú dispatches from the future 14 at a glance title dispatches from the future: speculative fiction and climate modeling in the secondary science classroom unit time part 1: 5-10 minutes daily and integrated with daily lessons spread over one to two weeks part 2: two days part 3: three to five days grade level(s) 9-12 grade level core text ryan coogler’s black panther (2018) supporting texts mentor texts for dispatches climate literacy terms computer modeling, ecological civilization, future thinking, speculative fiction, imagination objectives the lesson arc builds an understanding of possible future scenarios, grounds those possibilities in the latest science, and has students envisioning ecological civilizations. materials and resources lesson overview doc resources folder reflection ultimately, these lessons provide openings for students to use the tools of science to explore their worlds. the creative freedoms have encouraged students to open up and discuss their personal hopes and dreams for the future, along with their interpretations of the present. after completing these lessons, students reflect on the experience. all their reflections have highlighted their appreciation that the project pushed them to envision futures that counter the common media narratives and back it with science. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-panther/ https://docs.google.com/document/d/12xp-bvafq1eoontuegbhhpoghkugz-io/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=108587456883576430855&rtpof=true&sd=true https://docs.google.com/document/d/12xp-bvafq1eoontuegbhhpoghkugz-io/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=108587456883576430855&rtpof=true&sd=true https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-civilization/ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s7catnin-ncj7bgozqkn-7mfa0zzjazw/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108587456883576430855&rtpof=true&sd=true https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s7catnin-ncj7bgozqkn-7mfa0zzjazw/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108587456883576430855&rtpof=true&sd=true https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1r8vmssrhiwyywmj3fxsqnpod2d-7ns2r?usp=sharing climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 15 ● “this was a super cool project! the project topic of what we want for the future really helped me think through what is happening right now and what is possible.” ● “i think that it has made me more confident in people to save the world, and make the necessary changes. i used many of the topics in class to try to make accurate predictions. i think that everyone should imagine a better future” ● “i’m proud of what i’ve made” references rooney-varga, j. n., hensel, m., mccarthy, c., mcneal, k., norfles, n., rath, k., ... & sterman, j. d. (2021). building consensus for ambitious climate action through the world climate simulation. earth’s future, 9(12), e2021ef002283. vohra, k., vodonos, a., schwartz, j., marais, e. a., sulprizio, m. p., & mickley, l. j. (2021). global mortality from outdoor fine particle pollution generated by fossil fuel combustion: results from geos-chem. environmental research, 195, 110754. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 39 beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming nick kleese, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract boardbooks featuring farmed animals are a staple of literature for very young children. yet their depictions of happy, colorful, and cute barnyard animals obscure the grim realities of farming today, including the fact that industrial animal operations are one of the key drivers of the climate emergency. this article explores this tension and suggests alternative ways to help youngest readers connect to the realities of farming through children’s texts. keywords boardbooks, farmed animals, industrial agriculture, barnyard friends, cafos, slow violence, convenient self-delusions in 1850, the united states federal census counted 11,516 pigs and 5,000 humans living inside 571 square miles of mesquawki land that would soon be named washington county, iowa (u.s. census bureau, 1850). these pigs lived alongside other animals: chickens, sheep, draft horses, milk cows, wild turkeys, foxes, domestic cats, mice, and more. as that century became the next, this agricultural diversity remained largely the same for the 2,500 farms raising over 120,000 total pigs and other livestock (u.s. census bureau, 1910). the growth continued. with the advent of veterinary vaccines, improved concrete formulas, more efficient manure removal, automated watering and feeding infrastructure, and a growing urban public, confined animal feeding operations (cafos) came into prominence as an unprecedentedly efficient technology. cafos segregated pigs into distinct buildings that corresponded with discrete stages of swine growth: farrowing houses, nurseries, and other buildings were designed and built for each phase. farms specialized and consolidated. the markets shifted. overhead plummeted. today, washington county is home to 22,000 humans and 1.5 million pigs: the third greatest concentration of pigs in the u.s. (usda, 2017). the confinement buildings housing these pigs are ubiquitous, lined up along the highways and gravel roads cutting perpendicular across the flatness. you can drive through the entire county and never see an actual pig. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/boardbook/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/farmed-animals/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industrial-agriculture/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/barnyard-friends/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/cafo/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/slow-violence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/slow-violence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/self-delusions/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/cafo/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/cafo/ kleese  beyond the barnyard 40 just as ubiquitous, though less immediately obvious from a passing car, is the havoc of slow violence (nixon, 2011) this industry wrecks: worsening water and air quality, myriad physical and mental health risks, and economic stratification (gurian-sherman, 2008; castillo & simnitt, 2020). in 2004, a study of rural wells in iowa found elevated nitrate levels in half of those sampled and detectable levels of coliform bacteria in nearly a third. in 2018, 700 iowa waterways were found to be polluted, largely owing to nitrates from manure runoff (iowa department of natural resources, 2020). research has also directly linked the intensification of the livestock industry to increased reports of cyanobacteria content in drinking water near livestock operations and to destructive algae blooms across the nation, particularly in the lower mississippi river delta (burkholder et al., 2007). humans who live near cafos are more likely to experience a range of adverse health effects, too, including respiratory disease, hypertension, bacterial infection, and cognitive impairments (casey et al., 2005). in face of this reality, here’s a fiction: the dozens and dozens of boardbook titles that comprise a fictitious genre called barnyard friends: a motley crew containing pigs, sheep, cows, ducks, horses, geese, dogs, and one lazy farm-cat lounging in the haymow (lawrence, 1989). these invite readers young and old to “imagine blissful barnyard friends who eat grass all day in the sunshine and go to warm snug stalls at night” (p. 73). some barnyard friends boardbooks are narratively driven, such as good morning, farm friends (bach, 2018), in which the multispecies cast enjoys life on the same farm over the course of a plot—in bach’s book, it’s a morning routine. other boardbooks, like my friends (tufari, 1987), constitute what bettina kümmerling-meibauer and jörg meibauer call concept books (2005). in these barnyard friends boardbooks, each page includes only one image of a farmed animal set above their common name in text. taken in totality, without plot, the images collectively coalesce into a concept: a diversified, small, sustainable farm. sure, farms like the one depicted in good morning, farm friends do indeed exist. but they are not nearly as common as is suggested by their abundant misrepresentation in boardbooks, nor do they supply a fraction of the total animal product that americans consume annually. moreover, there are zero boardbooks that depict cafos. so, what is at play in the disjuncture between contemporary american agriculture and the prominence of barnyard friends books? are they merely one of our convenient self-delusions? barnyard friends boardbooks are, for many infants, among the first encounters they will have with depictions of farmed animals. yet, the books’ lexical simplicity belies their massive ideological weight. so, in the face of an increasingly industrializing animal livestock industry and an increasing distance between the majority of americans and the animals they consume, i wonder: why should boardbooks be so instrumental in maintaining a lie? here’s another truth: boardbooks are important. they help infants and toddlers develop preliteracy skills that support lifelong literacy. boardbooks orient our youngest readers to the materiality of books themselves. they are made to withstand slobber, mud, paint, rips, bites, and all sorts of destruction wrought by the little hands capable of manipulating their easy-to-turn pages. likewise, the stark visual contrast between boardbooks’ plain backgrounds and simplified focal objects helps young eyes learn to distinguish images; clean fonts, consistently positioned on every page, aids in differentiating text from image. in short, as very young readers learn the sensorimotor https://www.climatelit.org/topic/slow-violence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/slow-violence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/pollution/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep00054.9#metadata_info_tab_contents https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40572-015-0061-0 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/boardbook/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/barnyard-friends/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/farm-friends/ https://www.abebooks.com/9780688071875/friends-tafuri-nancy-0688071872/plp https://www.climatelit.org/topic/concept-books/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industrial-agriculture/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industrial-agriculture/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 41 skills needed to manipulate a book, they are also learning that a book conveys meaning beyond itself. boardbooks also do important cultural work. like all literature, boardbooks suggest something about the way the world is—and, by extension, what their young readers should expect from it. as with any ideological production, barnyard friends came from somewhere and some time. the condensed history goes like this: abc books featuring animals aboard noah’s ark become pastoral odes to an increasingly distant rural life. serendipitously, they proved just right for the simplified content needed for modern boardbooks. cows say moo. this is a pig. can you see the duck? despite its fictionality, the diverse barnyard remains pervasive, even celebrated. this celebration of a pastoral fantasy masks a truth about american agriculture that adults do not wish to admit to themselves, let alone share with the young people in their lives. and yet this reality must be faced if we are to understand the underlying socioeconomic structures upholding the climate emergency. if barnyard friends mask the ecological harm of the livestock industry, what can boardbooks do to help alleviate it? a knee-jerk reaction would be to publish boardbooks that depict cafos. as a thought experiment, this is provocative. but in reality, cafo boardbooks would neither be the most practical nor ethical response. here are three alternatives: 1. instead of purchasing one of the hundreds of barnyard friends boardbooks, adults could choose boardbooks that depict local agriculture that infants could experience firsthand. sara andersen’s vegetables (2008) or a day at the market (2009) could invite talk about the produce seen at farmer’s markets or community gardens while also offering opportunity to develop inside-out pre-literacy skills that center vegetable-related vocabulary. 2. boardbook creators and publishers can produce and promote more books akin to the above: concept books featuring farmer’s markets, regenerative agriculture, permaculture, or community gardens. they should also do so equitably, signing bipoc creators and highlighting bipoc producers and communities that have historically been made invisible in environmental literature, ecofiction, cli-fi, and other genres. 3. collectively, as educators and adults, we must develop the language needed to nuance the distinction between the farms depicted in barnyard friends books and the industrial farms that supply the vast majority of food in the united states. so, too, should we get smarter about what exactly is meant by the terms family farm, organic, industrial, diverse, and more. by clarifying the differences between livestock agriculture as it is practiced, livestock agriculture as we might wish it to be (if we even wish it to be at all), and the ways that it is misrepresented on the page, adults and young people alike can better understand the differences between fiction on the page and truth in reality. we need to learn to confront convenient self-delusions. it will be a necessary skill for continuing the work of facilitating discussions about the anthropocene writ large. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/vegetables/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/a-day-at-the-market/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/regenerative-agriculture/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/permaculture/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/community-garden/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/self-delusions/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ kleese  beyond the barnyard 42 references andersen, s. (2007). vegetables. sara anderson children's books. andersen, s. (2009). a day at the market. sara anderson children's books. bach, a. (2018). good morning, farm friends. random house. burkholder, j., libra, b., weyer, p., heathcote, s., kolpin, d., thorne, p. s., & wichman, m. (2007). impacts of waste from concentrated animal feeding operations on water quality. environmental health perspectives, 115(2), 308-312. casey, j. a., kim, b. f. , larsen, j., price, l. b., & nachman, k. e. (2015). industrial food animal production and community health. current environmental health reports, 2(3), 259-271. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0061-0 castillo, m. and simnitt, s. (2020). farm labor. economic research service: united states department of agriculture. retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farmeconomy/farm-labor/ iowa department of natural resources. (2020). 2018 305(b) assessment summary: 2018 integrated report including the 2018 impaired waters list. accessed 30 oct 2020: https://programs.iowadnr.gov/adbnet/assessments/summary/2018 gurian-sherman, d. (2008). cafos uncovered: the untold costs of confined animal feeding operations. union of concerned scientists. retrieved 9 nov 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep00054.9 kummerling-meibauer, b., & meibauer, j. (2005). first pictures, early concepts: early concept books. the lion and the unicorn, 29(3), 324-347. lawrence, e. (1989). neoteny in american perceptions of animals. in hoage, r.j. (ed) perception of animals in american culture. smithsonian institution press. nixon, r. (2011). slow violence and the environmentalism and of the poor. harvard university press. nodelman, p. (2010). the mirror staged: images of babies in baby books. jeunesse, 2(2), 13–39. tafuri, n. (1987). my friends. greenwillow. u.s. census bureau. (1850). statistics of iowa. (pp. 937-964). retrieved from http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/agcensusimages/1850/1850a-30.pdf u.s. census bureau. (1910). iowa. agriculture: 1909 and 1910. (pp. 505-552). retrieved from http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/agcensusimages/1910/06/01/1833/41033898v 6ch4.pdf united states department of agriculture. historical highlights: 2017 and earlier census years: iowa, 2017. national agricultural statistics service. retrieved from: https://www.nass.usda.gov/publications/agcensus/2017/full_report/volume_1,_chapte r_1_state_level/iowa/st19_1_0001_0001.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0061-0 https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/ https://programs.iowadnr.gov/adbnet/assessments/summary/2018 http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep00054.9 https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072343 http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/agcensusimages/1850/1850a-30.pdf http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/agcensusimages/1910/06/01/1833/41033898v6ch4.pdf http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/agcensusimages/1910/06/01/1833/41033898v6ch4.pdf https://www.nass.usda.gov/publications/agcensus/2017/full_report/volume_1,_chapter_1_state_level/iowa/st19_1_0001_0001.pdf https://www.nass.usda.gov/publications/agcensus/2017/full_report/volume_1,_chapter_1_state_level/iowa/st19_1_0001_0001.pdf editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 1 introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism editorial collective: marek oziewicz, nick kleese, lara saguisag, jana lo bello miller, justyna deszcztryhubczak, lorraine joanna kerslake young, catherine cavanaugh, tanja nathanael, stephanie rollag yoon, alexandra panos, jeff henning-smith, and rebecca young welcome to the first issue of climate literacy in education! the journal is our collective effort to actively confront, in and with education, the climate breakdown and its drivers. climate change is the key existential issue of our time. it is already eroding possibilities for human and nonhuman lives across the globe. if not addressed adequately, it will continue to erode these possibilities at an accelerating pace, leaving today’s young people stranded in an unrecognizable wasteland that may become their future. but this is not the future we are willing to accept. at cle we believe that the story of climate change is yet to be told. it will be told and shaped by today’s youth and by all of us who stand up for young people’s right to futures in which they can thrive without compromising the earth’s biospheric integrity. at cle we believe that mobilizing all teachers on the ground to incorporate climate literacy in their everyday teaching can be a game changer for ushering in an ecological civilization. cle serves as an important tool in this transition. we are an open access journal published by the university of minnesota libraries and available for free to all teachers everywhere. our double-blind, peer-review process ensures that our content is academically rigorous and constitutes scholarship in the emerging field of climate literacy education. our formula of a pocket journal, in turn, ensures that our content—up to 2000 words maximum—is accessible and practitioneroriented. cle is thus designed not as a competition to regular academic journals—in which articles are less concerned with direct classroom use and range anywhere between 4000 and 8000 words—but as an ally to their work. this is why, alongside original research, cle also publishes teacher-usable content sourced by authors from their journal articles, book chapters, and longer publications that have appeared elsewhere. our focus is always on applicability to classroom practice. our primary audience is teachers and other educators who work with young people in formal and informal schooling settings. our goal is to share resources that help teachers build young people’s climate literacy. in every classroom, in every subject area, across all grade levels. on this level, the work of cle aligns with the mission of the center for climate literacy at the university of minnesota’s college of education and human development: to develop research, training, and design solutions for climate literacy education in k-12 classrooms. this work is framed by two premises and three commitments: https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ editorial team  introduction 2 the premises include a recognition of where we are and a vision of where we are going. the recognition part is our acknowledgment that the main systems of the current global civilization— our politics, industries, law, finance, agriculture, education, media, market economy, and others— were created without concern for the biosphere or designed to exploit it indefinitely. but winning a war against the planet will get us nowhere. so, our second core premise is that a different future is not just possible but necessary and nonnegotiable. the vision of where we want to be is a sustainable, just, and ecological civilization. how do we get to that future? the roadmap we envision is reflected in our three commitments: commitment to climate literacy. we believe that in order to transition to an ecological civilization, we need to achieve universal climate literacy. we need to become a climate literate society. climate literacy is an understanding that includes numbers and facts (i.e., climate science) but centers on developing values, attitudes, and behavioral change aligned with how we should live to build sustainable futures. for more on climate literacy, see oziewicz’s “what is climate literacy” in this issue. commitment to education. we believe that teaching about climate change should be at the heart of our educational practice. climate literacy can be scaffolded and must be taught to all k-12 students and across all subject areas: not just in science. for examples, see articles by hartzell, braucht, kerslake, corliss, vicens & young, jennerjohn, and hunt in this issue. centering discussions about issues of climate change in all subject areas and at all grade levels is the most meaningful action we can take to empower young people to become agents of change. commitment to stories. we believe that stories for young audiences are ground zero for building universal climate literacy. literature, film, games, and art forms for young people are not additional but the most important avenues for raising climate awareness and mobilizing action. this commitment to stories rests on the fact that human cognitive architecture is evolved for narrative understanding. stories are portals to understanding, remembering, and making connections between knowledge and emotion. they help us care and better navigate reality. see, for example, articles from kleese, nathanael, werthwine and panos, midkiff and austin, and werthwine in this volume. beyond these premises (which we share with a number of other organizations and journals) and the three commitments (whose specific combination, we believe, is unique to our work), the cle journal fills an important gap. although the vast majority of teachers and parents support the teaching of climate change in schools, teaching about climate change is almost absent in today’s curricula. teachers are not sure if and where climate change fits in their subject areas. school boards have no state policies to guide action, and state education departments have no national policies to build on. leading literacy and educational organizations have acted as if they live on another planet; climate change has been largely overlooked by scholars of children’s literature; and agencies have awarded a mere .12 percent of their funding to support climate-focused research in social sciences related to the change of attitudes, values, norms, and behaviors: a change that has long been recognized as central to any effective climate policy and action. under these circumstances, it seems naïve to wait for requirements and incentives for a transition to an https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5250 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5252 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5186 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5241 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5236 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5322 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5200 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5217 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5261 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5214 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5258 https://www.npr.org/2019/04/22/714262267/most-teachers-dont-teach-climate-change-4-in-5-parents-wish-they-did https://www.npr.org/2019/04/22/714262267/most-teachers-dont-teach-climate-change-4-in-5-parents-wish-they-did https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1300682.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1300682.pdf https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819550/summary https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s2214629619309119?via%3dihub climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 3 ecological civilization to trickle down from school boards, education departments, state, or federal regulators. this change can only emerge from the actual practice of ordinary people, especially climate literacy conversations that teachers can initiate in their classrooms. from classrooms, this conversation can expand to families, communities, and nations. this is the future we can create together, acting in our capacities as teachers, educators, and students. at cle we aspire to publish materials that model, facilitate, and inspire the ecocentric transformation of existing education from within: in all schools, with all teachers, at all grade levels. this effort, of course, is not limited to k-12 education. although our primary audience is classroom teachers, we believe that climate literacy work should also be happening at institutions of higher education, professional education, community education, and in all other spaces where earthlings learn about how to live now. the tools we promote and the resources we share are scalable, adaptable, and applicable to audiences of every age. in all formal and informal educational settings. each issue of cle will include articles in four content categories: curriculum, reflection, critical article, creative & multimodal. for a description of each category, see this page. we start with two issues per year, but we are committed to publishing as many issues as it takes to get these resources out into teachers’ hands. because we want this work to accelerate and expand as soon as possible, we aspire to a one-month turnaround about the publication decision from the submission date. articles will be published on a rolling basis and assigned to an issue open at that point. we will learn as we go, so some policies or strategies may get modified. one thing that will remain is our commitment to this work as a force to accelerate a transition to an ecological civilization. we know you care about earth and all its life forms as much as we do. we know you are concerned about the climate emergency and ready to stand up for the planet. climate literacy education is a practical, everyday effort we can do together in our classrooms. this journal is a space where we share ideas, tips, and inspiration. please talk about cle in your networks. please tell teachers about this work. please consider publishing with us, reviewing for us, and getting involved in any capacity you are able to. we encourage contributions from k-16 educators, k-16 students, scholars, artists, and informed participants in climate literacy learning. we especially welcome contributions from scholars from historically marginalized communities and geographies, in-service educators, and students. for author guidelines, see the submission page. and always, always feel welcome to reach out with any questions or concerns. our managing editor nick kleese can be reached at clejournal@umn.edu . thank you for being part of building universal climate literacy in all schools everywhere! https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/about https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-civilization/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/about/submissions mailto:clejournal@umn.edu editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 19 water aways means something: a symbolism unit plan jay bullock, bay view high school, milwaukee, wisconsin, usa abstract in this article, i present the outline of and possibilities for a high school english unit examining writers’ symbolic use of water. water typically symbolizes life, change, or cleansing. i suggest multiple possible texts in varying genres, as well as climate connections, for each of those meanings. i offer a student assessment prompt, “what water means to me,” which students can write to at the beginning of the unit and revisit at the end. i provide a link to a google folder with references, more resources, customizable activities, and a spotify playlist. keywords symbolism, literature, multimodal texts, authentic connections bullockú water always means something 20 students walk into my classroom and look at the piles, stacks, mounds, and accumulated detritus on my teacher desk and pause. “i’m like water,” i say, reassuringly. “i spread out to cover every available surface.” and that’s the cool thing about water—it not only makes for a good metaphor, it goes everywhere. it doesn’t matter what you’re teaching. you can teach with, about, and through water. as a high-school english teacher, the symbolism of water is a deep well to draw from (i will just say this up front: every water pun that follows is 100% intended. i could have tried to take them all out, but that kind of thinking is all wet). so, i will share, here, a unit i call “water always means something.” usually, i tell students, water represents one of three big things: life, change, and cleansing. what follows is by no means comprehensive of everything you could teach in such a unit, but it is also significantly more than you need to get started. the accompanying link (https://bit.ly/watermeans) and qr code (figure 1) will lead you to a google folder of resources beyond even this overview, including links and full references for texts discussed, as well as a spotify playlist of songs about water for analysis—or simply as a soundtrack. assessment at the end of the unit, students answer the prompt “what water means to me.” students should know this assessment is coming from the start of the unit (backwards design and all…), and it also actually makes a great way for students to dip their toes in, to spitball ideas about water and its importance in their lives to set up the learning for the rest of the unit. to remind students they’re not the only ones swimming in this pool, you can put them in conversation with each other or a mentor text. something like gary soto’s poem, “saturday at the canal,” which is full of teen angst—the speaker watches the flowing water, jealous that it can leave town while they cannot—makes for an accessible comparison. so does alice walker’s poem, “when you see water,” which figure 1: qr code to resources https://bit.ly/watermeans climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 21 explicitly says that water cannot be held or shaped or owned: “and so it is with you,” walker concludes. indeed, throughout the unit, students should be encouraged not only to analyze or criticize one text at a time, but draw connections across texts from different eras, regions, genres, and perspectives. by the end of the unit, students will have an ocean of additional perspectives and ideas to synthesize as they reexamine what water means literally, symbolically, and ecologically in their lives. water means life our human bodies are on average just over 60% water—we are literally just humanshaped water balloons. we can live for weeks without food, but four or five days without water is the limit. and our culture is drowning in this symbolism, from the book of genesis opening with “the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters” to gremlins (from the movie) reproducing when you get them wet. alice walker is on this path with her poem mentioned above. i have used daniel wallace’s novel big fish many times to anchor a water symbolism unit. before we read, i give students the first line: “the day edward bloom was born, it rained.” water means life!, they shout. it’s obvious! and it is. but students have just this one sentence; i ask them to write the rest of the story. who is edward bloom? why is it important to start with the fact that it rained on the day he entered the world? who were his parents? what did he do as he grew up? this builds anticipation for what actually happens in the rest of the book, which is so erratic that the students’ predictions never even come close. the great thing about wallace’s text, which does differ in some significant ways from the (also excellent and watery) tim burton film, is water holds all three meanings that at different times in the narrative. it just happens to start with water meaning life. but you might be looking for shorter texts, so here are three of my favorites, in three different genres. in leslie marmon silko’s short story “the man to send rainclouds,” a catholic priest is awkwardly inserted into an indigenous funeral, and his holy water literally evaporates into the dry desert air. it’s hard for students to miss this. mary oliver’s “waterfall” is as poignant as all her lovely poetry, personifying the falling bullockú water always means something 22 water, her inevitable succumbing to gravity, “always underfoot.” e.b. white’s classic essay “once more to the lake” is a meditation on mortality and the climate connection but this special issue is not just for gushing over texts that use water symbolically. luckily, it is very easy to make connections between “water means life” and some contemporary ecological crises. in 2023, national public radio released a podcast series called thirst gap: learning to live with less on the colorado river that explores how human overuse of natural water sources and climate change are making life harder in the american southwest. water means change this symbolic meaning of water, change and adaptation and movement, feels as natural (or inevitable) as april showers. think about any text with a river, the adventures of huckleberry finn being an obvious one. there’s a great excerpt of mark twain’s life on the mississippi, often anthologized as “two ways of seeing a river,” that is significantly less problematic than huck finn and details how twain’s initial “speechless rapture” in awe of the mississippi changed the more he learned. in the end he laments, “no, the romance and the beauty were all gone from the river.” the mississippi also appears langston hughes’ poem “the negro speaks of rivers,” and in former u.s. poet laureate natasha trethewy’s “elegy [‘i think by now the river must be thick’].” people sing about change and the mississippi too johnny cash’s “big river,” noel gourdin’s “the river,” credence clearwater revival’s “proud mary,” pete seeger’s anti-war “waist deep in the big muddy,” and the too-on-the-nose-titled “a change is gonna come” by sam cooke. beyond the mississippi, waters of change flow everywhere. sandra cisneros’s “woman hollering creek” (fun connection: the legend of la llarona), doris lessing’s “through the tunnel,” and margaret atwood’s “the whirlpool rapids.” the mythical river styx beckons, and sylvia plath’s “crossing the water” answers. linda pastan’s poem “erosion” is an ode change: “we are slowly/ undermined,” it begins. “the waves move their long row/ of scythes over the long beach.” climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 23 climate connection depending on where you are, there is almost certainly a local angle to climate and change. from my classroom windows i can see lake michigan, for example. for the great lakes, the united states environmental protection agency (epa) documents both the temperature and how much the height of the water deviates from historical averages—an opportunity to both talk about climate change and sprinkle in some data literacy. the internet teems with sites like great lakes now and the alliance for the great lakes are great sources of news, essays, and science about the great lakes. and local news is always talking about one thing or another related to lake michigan’s health and safety, from invasive species to bacterial overgrowth that jeopardizes swimmers. would we listen to “the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald”? reply hazy, says my magic 8 ball. water means cleansing there is, of course, the biblical story of the rains and the flood, just one of many examples of the mythic archetype of cleansing waters. there’s every movie and tv show ever that had a character experience an epiphany in a rainstorm. plus, there’s every poet or lyricist who wished for the rain to wash away tears. credence clearwater revival, again, asking “have you ever seen the rain?” and “who’ll stop the rain?” rain, in general, is a giant blue arrow pointing at some kind of cleansing theme. but it isn’t just rain. i love teaching “no name woman,” the first chapter of maxine hong kinston’s woman warrior: memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts. i hate to spoil this book that dropped in 1976, but the chapter ends with the no-name woman of the title throwing herself and her newborn baby into the family well. she cleanses her own sin (which isn’t really her sin) while fouling the water of the family that refused to stand up and support her. climate connections this way of looking at water flows easily into climate change and thus climate activism. it might be worth starting with children’s books, like carole lindstrom’s books autumn peltier, water warrior and we are water protectors. as an ohio expatriate, i might bullockú water always means something 24 throw in barry wittenstein’s the day the river caught fire, and then have students read about the formation of the epa and the clean-up of the cuyahoga river. (counterpoint: have students read about the 2024 summer olympic games and why swimmers did not want to compete in the river seine.) as i write this, the new york times published a story headlined “heat raises fears of ‘demise’ for great barrier reef within a generation.” there is no shortage of frightening news about the state of the world’s water. wrapping it up at this point, it should be clear that students will have a very different answer to that prompt of “what water means to me” by the end of the unit compared to the beginning. of course, we english teachers want to know if students can identify and analyze the way writers are using water in literature. but all of this i’ve included here— and so much more that’s out there, i could barely skim the surface—should encourage students to think about water as not just important symbolically, but environmentally and personally. water is such an immediate, integral part of the human story that—like the piles and piles on my teacher desk—student responses should not be constrained. they should instead be allowed to spread and spill and overflow the classroom walls. students can do more than mere formal essays or research (though students could do that if they choose). students should be encouraged to adopt authentic means to express their new understanding and connections. for example, students could lean into climate activism and write letters, op-eds, informational booklets, or persuasive tracts. if students have a more literary bent, they could write in imitation of the unit’s many poems, stories, memoirs, essays, and songs. they could present their written creations in zines, performances, anthologies of creative writing and visual art, or interconnected and linked pages of a class website. the possibilities are, like open water, nearly endless. oziewicz ú click framework 44 the click framework: a care-centric conceptual map for organizing climate literacy pedagogy marek oziewicz, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract this article outlines the climate literacy capabilities and knowledges (or click) framework for climate literacy pedagogy. the framework includes four domains— earth care, kinship care, people care, and systems care—and is modeled on the care-centric thinking central to the indigenous worldview and to other earth stewardship efforts emerging today. the purpose of this article is to introduce click as a conceptual tool to guide classroom practice. keywords climate literacy pedagogy, click, climate literacy capabilities, climate literacy knowledges, indigenous worldview, indigenous knowledge(s) there are many ways to teach climate literacy. given the urgency of the climate emergency—and the urgency to design climate literacy education pedagogies that speak to age-specific audiences, place-specific challenges, and discipline-specific forms of knowing—the best strategy is to be creative. that said, designing conceptual frameworks for climate literacy education (yes, we need many and diverse frameworks!) can help articulate foundational principles, goals, and questions to guide practice and inspire pedagogical innovation. the framework described in this article—climate literacy capabilities and knowledges (or click)—was originally drafted for the 2022 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 45 “schools for the planet” summer institute. i have since expanded it, based on my research and classroom practice. click is a practical tool, whose uses i intend to unpack in future essays. here, the goal is to outline the framework as a theoretical model intended to help us think about ways to scaffold climate literacy capabilities and knowledges across k-12 education. the click framework builds on three core notions: climate literacy (described in this article), capabilities, and knowledges. “capabilities” is a notion introduced by nobel laureate economist amartya sen— later modified by moral philosopher martha nussbaum to include “the capabilities of nonhuman animals as well as human beings” (nussbaum, 2011, p. 18)—to refer to actual (in contrast to theoretical) things we can do or become, if we so choose (the capability approach). for example, my ability to read is a capability i can use to read the climate book; reading this book becomes a realized capability, or “functioning,” that informs my other functionings, say as a teacher. sen refers to capabilities as “substantive freedoms” to achieve what we value, stressing that thinking in terms of capabilities “makes us accountable for what we do” (sen, 2009, p. 19). applying capabilities to climate literacy allows us to distinguish—on individual and community levels—between ways of doing or living that we can actually achieve and those we cannot (yet). say, eliminating or reducing meat from my diet is a functioning i can achieve. stopping industrial carbon emissions is not, at least not in the current system. the notion of “climate literacy capabilities” will thus refer to functionings—practical ways of being and doing—we can achieve to live as climate literate earthlings. the plural term “knowledges” is a notion derived from indigenous theory and scholarship, which rejects the post-enlightenment monolithic idea of “knowledge” in favor of braided, evolving, placeand experience-based knowledges—the plural acknowledging “both the shared commonalities and the diversity of many indigenous ways of knowing” (kovach 2021, p. 19). collectively referred to as indigenous knowledge—also “indigenous perspectives and thought processes,” “indigenous pattern thinking,” and “indigenous knowledge systems” (yunkaporta, 2020, p. 17)— these ways of knowing combine values, technologies, and culture. accordingly, “climate literacy knowledges” (in the plural) is proposed to refer to a vast body of practical and philosophical knowing—often fragmentary and/or intuitive—that transcends https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240/3334 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/capability-approach/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/capability-approach/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709837/the-climate-book-by-greta-thunberg/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709837/the-climate-book-by-greta-thunberg/ oziewicz ú click framework 46 conventional disciplinary boundaries, is grounded in “resident relationships” with our environments (topa & narvaez, 2019, p. 3), and helps us learn how to live at the time of the climate emergency. so what are these capabilities and knowledges? given that climate literacy is about “developing values, attitudes, and behavioral change aligned with how we should live to safeguard the earth’s integrity in the present and for future generations” (oziewicz, 2023, p. 34), i have followed a line of thought about knowledge as care that has been a trickle in mainstream (western) scholarship and is best articulated by proponents of indigenous knowledge and indigenous worldview (topa & narvaez, 2019). this line of thought affirms that human beings are nature: not apart from, but part of a complex living system that sustains us all. its precepts find expression in statements like robin wall kimmerer’s “know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them” (kimmerer, 2022, p. 89). they can also be heard in arguments like james lovelock’s insistence that “we need to love and respect the earth with the same intensity that we give to our families and our tribe” (lovelock, 2000, p. viii). unpacking the kimmerer and lovelock statements, i propose that values and attitudes that inform our relations with “the ones who take care of us” can be thought of as falling into four domains: relations with the planet, especially its geophysical processes that enable all life; relations with nonhuman beings or persons, especially plants and animals, with whom we share the earth; relations with human people, including strangers, ancestors, and future generations; and relations with human-created systems in which we participate, such as education, economy, etc. the click framework emerges when we map values and attitudes onto a conceptual diagram of these four core domains of care. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240/3334 https://kindredmedia.org/glossary/indigenous-worldview/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 47 important caveat: although the four vectors of care are explored here as separate domains, they are not separate at all. i am inspired by indigenous thinkers to believe that withholding, refusing, or limiting care in any one domain degrades our capacity to care in other domains too. i thus chose to represent these values within the native american medicine wheel which symbolizes balance, interconnection, and interdependence of these values. the click framework thus includes four equally important core domains in which climate literacy values and practice are realized. figure 1. the click framework, domains & rings structure. https://www.kbichealth.org/ojibwe-medicine oziewicz ú click framework 48 earth care: how do we care for the planet, its ecosystems, bioregions, water, air, soil, and geochemical processes—tightly integrated on organic and inorganic levels—whose complex interactions enable life to exist? how do we actively defend, restore, and steward the planet’s wellbeing and the health of planetary-scale elements that support the web of life? this domain requires we actively confront questions about threats to a living earth, say, pollution or global warming, but also that we actively seek to experience the wonder of a living earth and develop a love-care relationship with the land, waters, sky, ecosystems, and the planet. the notion of nature rights; the fight for clean air, water, and soil; all initiatives to curb, eliminate, or clean industrial pollution; recycling; rewilding; conservation; organic farming; leave no trace ethic; the notions of ecological and energy footprints; and a number of other concepts and initiatives are all part of the earth care domain. kinship care: how do we care for nonhuman persons/beings: animals, plants, insects, and all other life forms? what values and forms of relating do we cultivate, and how, versus what types of relationships with the nonhuman should be discouraged or avoided, and how? this domain includes all aspects of human-animal and human-plant relationships, including what we eat, respect for habitats, how we engage with the outdoors, attention to and things we can do for local species. the kinship care domain invites conversations about animal and plant rights; wildlife corridors, sanctuaries, and refuges; protection of endangered species; expanding habitats and supporting nonhuman life even in human-dominated spaces; conservation initiatives such as halfearth, homegrown national park, we are the ark movements; and other initiatives to curb human expansionism in general. people care: how do we care for other humans, those we know and those we don’t, near and far, living today and those yet to be born? how to address historic injustices of settler colonialism, slavery, violence, and exploitation that continue to expose bipoc, poor, and global south communities today to higher risks of climate change-related threats, from floods, droughts, and rising sea levels to food insecurity, energy shortages, pollution, and resource depletion? climate migrations; climate, environmental, social, and racial justice; indigenous land rights; poverty, exclusion, and wealth inequality; access to education and healthcare; human rights and freedoms, democracy vs authoritarianism; opportunities for building communities and supporting communities where relations are local, grounded, and based on recognition of collective responsibility to each other are some of the key issues in the people care domain. https://www.half-earthproject.org/ https://www.half-earthproject.org/ https://homegrownnationalpark.org/ https://wearetheark.org/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 49 systems care: how do we (re)organize our communities, countries, and the global civilization to practice the ethics of care across the board? how do we redesign human-created systems like politics, education, media, finance, economy, healthcare, transportation, housing, food, and others to at least stop eroding the planet’s capacity to sustain life? better yet, how do we reimagine these systems so that they become accelerators for creating a sustainable, clean, just, inclusive, and biodiversity-rich planet that supports thriving human and nonhuman lives? energy transition; circular economy; green technologies; universal basic income; farm-to-table and other local productionconsumption networks; energy and food sovereignty; zero waste economy; system change not climate change; the green new deal; initiatives like a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty, project drawdown, and other systemic solutions—all these belong in the systems care domain. the goal of using the click framework in classroom activities is to help students 1) learn to think about the workings of the world in terms of these four domains, 2) develop an understanding of their role as agents of care and change in a complex living system, and 3) identify, name, and build students’ climate literacy capabilities and knowledges for each of the four domains. using stories—fiction and nonfiction alike—is a practice in which students are prompted to explore questions and issues in the story as they relate to each domain. the story serves as a springboard for considering these issues not just in that single narrative but in other stories and in real life too. the exploration, which the students can scale up or down depending on the project’s scope, becomes an inquiry into each domain which also demonstrates how the four domains are inherently interrelated. in the opening of the last section of the climate book—entitled “the most effective way out of this mess is to educate ourselves”—greta thunberg introduces the swedish word folkbildning, which stands for “broad, free, voluntary public education” (325). she notes that fridays for future was not originally intended as a protest movement but as a folkbildning project: to educate everyone about the climate emergency. the irony, greta says, is that she had to skip school to find climate education. the time is now to bring the folkbildning of climate literacy education front and center in all schools everywhere. the click framework is one conceptual model that can help make it happen. it can serve as a cornerstone for considering climate literacy capabilities and knowledges. it can act as a springboard for a broad range of pedagogical strategies, inquiries, and action. most of all, it can inspire teachers and students everywhere to discuss what we can do, and how, to restore ecosystems and build an ecological civilization. https://fossilfueltreaty.org/ https://fossilfueltreaty.org/ https://drawdown.org/ oziewicz ú click framework 50 references kimmerer, r.w. (2022). all earth entities are sentient. in topa w. & narvaez, d. restoring the kinship worldview: indigenous voices introduce 28 precepts for rebalancing life on planet earth (89-95). north atlantic books. kovach, m. (2021). indigenous methodologies: characteristics, conversations, and contexts. u of toronto press. lovelock, j. (2000). gaia: a new look on life on earth. oxford up. nussbaum, m. (2011). creating capabilities: the human development approach. harvard up. oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1.1, 34-38. sen, a. (2009). the idea of justice. harvard up. thunberg, g. (2023). the climate book. penguin. topa, w. & narvaez, d. (2022). restoring the kinship worldview: indigenous voices introduce 28 precepts for rebalancing life on planet earth. north atlantic books. yunkaporta, t. (2020). sand talk: how indigenous thinking can save the world. harperone. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240 click framework worksheet © 2024. this work is openly licensed via cc by-ny 4.0. your name: story title & summary (1-2 sentences): elements of kinship care you see: elements of people care you see: elements of systems care you see: elements of earth care you see: values operating in the story: knowledges behind characters' understandings capabilities informing characters' actions: use the back of this sheet to map aspects of the care domains, or any values, knowledges, or capacities you notice in the story click framework worksheet © 2024. this work is openly licensed via cc by-ny 4.0. zimmerman ú staying with the climate trouble 58 staying with the climate trouble: on (not) containing the crisis in the classroom lee zimmerman, hofstra university, hempstead, ny, usa abstract trying to introduce the climate crisis into the classroom as a crisis presents us with a pedagogical challenge: how to contain the crisis without foreclosing it? focusing on naomi klein’s how to change everything, i suggest that attempts to contain eco-anxiety mainly by stressing “what students can do” risk foreclosing the crisis by obscuring its real urgency. rather than offering what jenny offill ironically calls an “obligatory note of hope,” we might consider that our deepest obligation isn’t to alleviating eco-anxiety but to helping students listen to and be guided by it: to help students, as donna haraway puts it, “stay with the trouble.” keywords climate pedagogy, climate change, climate crisis, eco-anxiety, how to change everything, “staying with the trouble,” hope in recent years, i’ve framed most of my literature classes in relation to the climate crisis. the premises of such an approach are that “climate change is not a stem issue,” but, rather, “a worldview issue, entangled with our values, perceptions, beliefs, and lifestyles” (oziewicz, 2023, p. 36), and that—because worldviews are established, maintained, normalized, and, perhaps, challenged and changed by stories a culture tells about itself and the world—one important way of studying the climate crisis is studying literature. the first challenge, though, is to establish the crisis as a crisis, to draw on the basic science to justify a melodramatic but apt picture of our deranged present moment: http://climatelit.org/topic/ecoanxiety https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5240/3334 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 59 our planetary house is burning down; the time left to save part of it is running out; but we keep adding more fuel to fire. in a culture where the dominant discourses of climate change domesticate its urgent and existential threat by casting it as a (pretty low priority) political “issue,” it’s hard to make that issue present in the classroom as a truly existential crisis. indeed, even the term crisis can be seen to keep the most disruptive meanings of climate change at a distance, lumped together with other crises, like the “debt crisis.” insofar as the continued burning of fossil fuel in the global north has already been responsible for the death of millions of people, mainly in the global south, and guarantees the death of hundreds of millions, or probably billions, of people in the future, it might be better to replace crisis with terms such as “climate homicide” or “atrocity in process.” for that reason, teaching literature in the context of the climate crisis presents pedagogical challenges akin to those involved in attempts to confront historical atrocities like the holocaust. shoshana felman’s “education and crisis, or the vicissitudes of teaching” (1992) offers a revealing account of some of those challenges. when she taught videotaped testimonies of holocaust survivors, her students felt “at a loss, disoriented, and uprooted” (p. 48). reflecting on that dynamic, felman comes see that her job as a teacher necessarily involves “creating in the class the highest state of crisis that it could withstand,” but doing so without “driving the students crazy” (p. 53). the central pedagogical question thus becomes “on the one hand, how to access, how not to foreclose the crisis, and, on the other hand, how to contain it?” (p. 54). that’s a compelling way to describe the challenge of teaching about climate change. but there’s also a significant difference between containing the secondary trauma of an historical event and containing the traumatic response to becoming aware one is living in the middle of an atrocity in process. for felman, “it is the teacher's task to recontextualize the crisis and to put it back into perspective, to relate the present to the past and to the future and to thus reintegrate the crisis in a transformed frame of meaning” (p. 54) so that the students’ then “contained” knowledge can be “put to use” (p. 53). but the crisis of the climate is precisely that the future cannot function as a stabilizing point of reference. it is that future that is itself at stake, dependent on how knowledge of that crisis can sufficiently be “put to use.” https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/climate-change-heatwaves-deaths-temperature-b1880153.html https://ecohustler.com/culture/could-climate-change-really-kill-six-billion-people-by-2100 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4335779 https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/02/our-climate-discourse-is-gradually-normalizing-an-atrocity zimmerman ú staying with the climate trouble 60 how can it be put to use? discussions of how to bring the climate crisis into the classroom often propose “containing” the crisis by answering that question and thereby offering the students some hope. kirsten hunt (2023), for example, responds to her students’ “palpable anxiety about the future of the planet” by stressing that essential to teaching the class “what climate change is” is teaching “what they can do about it” (p. 24). but knowing that students need to hear what they can do isn’t the same thing as knowing what to tell them. for this, hunt turns to naomi klein’s how to change everything (2021). where she sees that work as providing “actionable tools” and thus offering “a sense of hope for the future,” however, i want to suggest that klein’s book offers less a clear basis for hope than a demonstration of how efforts to “contain” the crisis often function as ways of foreclosing it. the book begins with what are meant to be inspiring stories of young people taking action, sketching the story of greta thunberg, the student strikes she inspired worldwide, and a lawsuit that “sixteen kids from twelve countries” have filed against five countries. these are, indeed, “examples of activism that have been successful to counter climate change inaction on a sociopolitical level” (hunt, p. 25, my italics). however, the difficult truth is that they haven’t (yet?) countered climate change itself—a state of affairs that klein quietly acknowledges by noting that “greta’s speeches brought no dramatic action from world leaders” (p. 23). elaborating on how she sees klein’s forestalling “anxiety about the fate of our planet” by offering stories to inspire hope, hunt turns to klein’s evocation of “the green new deal,” presented as “achievable” in light of the precedents of the new deal and the marshall plan—cases where the u.s. has successfully “dealt with crises in the past.” as with stories of student activism, though, klein's models of the new deal and the marshall plan can offer substantial hope only if you don’t look at them too closely. as one historian of the period has observed, “the new deal made america safe for capitalism,” while “the marshall plan would do the same for europe” (kunz, 1997, p. 164). yet, as klein herself as argued extensively in this changes everything—with its pointed subtitle capitalism vs. the climate (2021)—the climate crisis is fundamentally a problem of capitalism itself. while “what the climate needs to avoid collapse is a contraction in humanity’s use of resources,” klein writes, “what our economic model demands to avoid collapse is unfettered expansion” (p. 21). as precedents for https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5322 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 61 responding to a climate crisis rooted in our economic model, then, evoking programs like the new deal and the marshall plan seems more desperate than it does inspirational. specifically, in klein’s chapter, the “sweeping change” the historical precedents are meant to inspire in the present is the passage of the version of a green new deal (gnd) introduced to the u.s congress in 2019. once more, however, it’s hard to see how that bill actually responds to the urgency of the present crisis. where the legislation effecting the original new deal and the marshall plan mandated specific programs and massive spending—passing those bills was taking action—the 2019 gnd bill asked the house merely to declare its “sense” that “it is the duty of the federal government to create a green new deal” and its “sense” of what the gnd’s goals should be. this gnd sets out goals, that is, but itself takes no action. it expresses a sense of things but mandates nothing. as our planetary house burns down, students are asked to find hope in the prospect that, if their activism is successful, those in power, rather than taking adequate action, would express a sense that they should make a plan to take such action—kicking the climate action can down the road yet again. recognizing that the new deal in fact exacerbated racial inequality, the gnd does stress social and economic justice. but when it comes to the most immediate cause of the crisis, the hoped-for plan calls for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions not fast and fully enough to probably prevent the most apocalyptic scenarios but only “as much as technologically feasible” (my emphasis)—as if the problem was essentially one of as insufficiently developed technology, rather than what klein pithily calls an economy “at war with many forms of life on earth” (2014, p. 21). ultimately, as we bring the more than inconvenient truth of the climate crisis into the classroom, much of what students are told “they can do about it” seems to shy away from another inconvenient truth: despite many local victories, the fight against climate change hasn’t slowed, much less begun to reverse, the steady rise in greenhouse gas emissions. it has often been pointed out that making profound changes takes time—that though the arc of the moral universe is long it bends toward justice. but if the arc of the moral universe is long, in a house on fire time is short. any real hope we might stir in our students must be premised on confronting this urgency. in other words, responding to the students’ “palpable anxiety” by teaching “what they can do” carries its own danger: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/10/when-the-good-is-the-enemy-of-the-sufficient-bidens-climate-plan https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/10/when-the-good-is-the-enemy-of-the-sufficient-bidens-climate-plan https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions zimmerman ú staying with the climate trouble 62 the danger that, in purporting to already know what they can do, one will err on the side of foreclosing the crisis, of minimizing its actual urgency. in lieu of focusing on what students can do, i’ve found it helpful to address what needs to be done—cutting greenhouse emissions fast and fully enough, as defined by the ipcc. i especially stress the following: a) though time is short, it is (as i write this in late 2023) probably not yet too late to do that;2 b) the impediment to doing that is not technical but, rather, political; c) unlike the geophysical laws of nature, political realities are always subject to further negotiation. at least until the house burns down. while i think some students have been stirred by this approach, i don’t suppose it can provide what hunt finds in klein’s book: a way of offering students “fewer moments of eco-anxiety and more moments of hope” (p. 26). perhaps, though, the point isn’t to alleviate anxiety but, rather, to listen to it, to live through it, and to be guided by it. perhaps, as teachers, we might focus less on offering what jenny offill calls an “obligatory note of hope” (p. 67) than on the value, even the necessity, of what donna haraway describes as “staying with the trouble.” if the point is to help students confront the reality of the climate crisis as an existential threat, that is, perhaps our deepest obligation is not to hope but to attending to the trouble itself. we can’t know in advance precisely what that might mean, or whether it will help the process of what hunt calls “finding a way through.” but we can invite students into our own state of not-knowing and thus into the process of finding out (which i hope to describe in a follow up article). and we can hope that in that joint process students might yet help find a way both to stay with the trouble and to arrive at their own sense of “what they can do” to help put the fire out while we still can. 2 in a 2018 report, the ipcc finds that limiting warming to 1.5°c would require greenhouse emissions to be about halved by 2030 (relative to 2018 levels) and brought to “net zero” by about 2050. https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 63 references felman, s. (1992). “education and crisis, or the vicissitudes of teaching.” in shoshana felman and dori laub, testimony: crisis of witnessing in literature, psychoanalysis, and history (pp. 1-56). routledge. green new deal (h.res.332 recognizing the duty of the federal government to create a green new deal) (2019). https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/houseresolution/332/text haraway, d. (2016). staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. duke up. hunt, k. (2023). “finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other.” climate literacy in education, 1(1), 24-26. klein, n. (2021). how to change everything: a young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. atheneum books for young readers. klein, n. (2014). this changes everything: capitalism vs. the climate. simon & schuster. kunz, d. (1997). “the marshall plan reconsidered: a complex of motives.” foreign affairs, 76(3), 162-70. offill, jenny. (2020), weather. knopf. oziewicz, m. (2023). “what is climate literacy?” climate literacy in education, 1(1), 3438. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/332/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/332/text climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 97 my friend, the lake christina randazzo, university of notre dame / university of cambridge artist statement i firmly believe that culture is shaped by the stories we tell. the stories and narratives of a community influence the beliefs and values that surround one’s relationship with the earth, so to create a sustainable future, it is crucial to foster a culture of ecologically conscious narratives, especially for younger audiences. however, many children have limited access to nature or the opportunity to engage in stories that encourage a healthy relationship with the environment. my friend, the lake seeks to fill this narrative gap and encourages readers to reflect on their connection to the natural world. my friend, the lake is a children’s book i created as a capstone project for my minor in sustainability at the university of notre dame. this book was inspired by a project i did for my first sustainability class, in which i wrote about my home, bay village, ohio. bay village is home to the huntington reservation, one of the cleveland metroparks, located on the shores of lake erie. i grew up playing with my friend, lake erie, learning about her at the local nature center, and witnessing firsthand the challenges she faces, such as toxic algae blooms. for this project, i have built from my previous research and personal narratives about lake erie—her importance, impact, and the problems that face her today (specifically toxic algae blooms)—and put them into a picturebook titled my friend, the lake, for early childhood readers. the story is enriched by colorful photographs that tell the story while providing material for visual learning. the book is self-published randazzo ú my friend, the lake 98 and acts as a piece of ecologically-conscious media for children to read, engage with, and form an awareness of problems facing the earth—specifically, lake erie. my objectives were to: 1. find out more about issues facing lake erie and gain a better understanding of how to communicate these topics. 2. adapt the story to be appropriate for early childhood reading (ages 4-8). 3. photograph lake erie to enrich the story and compile a book using canva pro. 4. self-publish, print the book using diggypod and distribute it/upload it online with issue. challenges publishing the book ended up being the greatest challenge of this project. there were unanticipated delays and processes i had to navigate to get the book into libraries so that young readers could easily access it. engaging with the book i was able to share my book with a kindergarten class and actively engaged them with the material as we read together by asking questions from the following categories. sensory • “on this maple tree, the leaves are red! what other colors can leaves be?” • “what a pretty flower! what color is this flower? what does the flower smell like?” • “here’s a family of ducks! what sound does a duck make?” • “these people are swimming in lake erie! what do you think the water feels like?” numbers the number of anything in the photographs can be counted together as a group with the reader pointing as the listeners count aloud. • “those are a lot of ducks! can we count together how many there are?” climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 99 knowledge of nature • “do you have a favorite kind of tree? what is your favorite tree called?” • “what season was this picture taken in? how can you tell? what is your favorite season? why?” • “what a beautiful bird! do you have a favorite kind of bird? what song do they sing?” • “do you have any friends like lake erie? reception the children with whom i shared my friend, the lake in turn shared many different responses to the final question above, “do you have any friends like lake erie?” some friends were imaginary, and some were not, such as: • the cherry tree in their front yard • the cat in their neighborhood • the toad under their porch • the beach they visited in the summer • the fish in the sea problem-solving questions one of the goals of this book is that it will get readers thinking about how they can have a positive impact on their environment and community. this is a great opportunity to give them the space to think aloud about their ideas. • “in what ways can we be better listeners with our friends?” • “how can we be kind to our friends and help to take care of and respect them?” the audience with whom i was able to share the book actively engaged with the story and afterward, said that they wanted to go see places like lake erie! if possible, a fun follow-up activity to reading this book would be discussing the local environment together and then going for a nature walk. to practice ecological literacy, bring a local wildlife identification book along with you and have fun learning the names of local flora and fauna together! my friend, the lake written and photographed by christina randazzo my friend, the lake written and photographed by christina randazzo dedicated to my friend, lake erie copyright © 2023 christina randazzo all rights reserved. this book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. isbn: 979-8-218-18005-8 (hardcover) isbn: 979-8-218-18006-5 (electronic) library of congress control number: 2023912733 front cover image by christina randazzo. book design by christina randazzo. printed by diggypod, inc., in the united states of america. first printing edition 2023. randazzo publishing i love my home! i love the red maple leaves in the fall... 1 the orange monarch butterflies... 2 the bright yellow sun... 3 the lush green grass... 4 the clear blue sky... 5 and the pretty purple irises! 6 there is a rainbow 7 of colors to be explored! 8 most of all, i love to visit 9 my friend, the lake! 10 she gives fresh drinking water to over 11 million people! without her, many people would have no clean water to drink. can you imagine having no fresh water to drink? 11 lake erie is very important! she is also home to half of the fish found in all of the great lakes put together. great blue herons rely on her fish for food, and many people do too! 12 a glacier is a big group of ice that moves slowly across the earth. when lake erie was little, 13 she was a glacier! in the winter, she likes to act like a little kid again! she becomes icy like she was in her glacier days. 14 but that was a long time ago... 12,700 years ago! now, lake erie likes to sit in one place, and i like to sit with her. 15 i love standing on her rocky shoulders and listening to her voice in the waves. 16 in the summertime, i would jump off her rocks and into her arms. 17 sometimes, other friends would join us as well and we would all play together for hours! 18 sometimes, her waves go crazy with excitement! lake erie has different feelings everyday... 19 other times, she feels so calm that i can hardly tell if she's awake! 20 sometimes, she likes to share her colorful glass beads with me... 21 and i have fun making them into art to share with even more friends! 22 lake erie helps so many people! 23 but there are problems facing our friend... like toxic algae blooms! they make lake erie sick. toxic algae make up the icky green covering on lake erie. 24 farmers put fertilizer on plants to help them grow big and strong... 25 how do toxic algae blooms happen? but when the rain comes, it can be washed into lake erie by mistake! 26 27 when this happens, the algae in lake erie eat the fertilizer. they grow bigger and until there is no room, food, or air left for anyone else living in lake erie! bigger what can we do to help our friend, lake erie? 28 we can listen to her and hear what she needs! 29 together, we can listen to our friends like lake erie, share their stories, and take action to help them! we can gather with our family, friends, and neighbors. 30 what will you do to help your friends like lake erie? will you volunteer at your local nature center? will you help clean up and protect your local wildlife? will you share stories like this to help be a voice for friends like lake erie? 31 32 how wonderful it is that there are friends like you! ramos, rodrigues, & rodrigues ú climate change denialism 30 climate change denialism: critical analysis of arguments in confrontation with climate science ricardo ramos, research centre in basic education (cieb), instituto politécnico de bragança, portugal maria josé rodrigues, research centre in basic education (cieb), instituto politécnico de bragança, portugal isilda rodrigues, education and psychology department, university of trás-os-montes and alto douro, vila real, portugal abstract climate denialism is a spectrum spanning outright denial and degrees of skepticism about the reality of climate change. denialism is fueled by disinformation or imprecise information that finds fertile ground on social media and takes advantage of the users’ fears and vulnerabilities, such as a lack of climate literacy and critical thinking. in this article, we offer examples of how to refute climate change denialism and expand notions of climate literacy to include the capacity to both identify and respond to climate disinformation. keywords climate change, climate literacy, education, climate change denialism climate deniers and the real science scientists overwhelmingly agree that climate change exists and is caused by anthropogenic phenomena (lynas et al., 2021). the consensus can be found in thousands of scientific studies from prestigious journals as well as entities recognized climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 31 for their scientific capabilities and veracity, such as nasa and the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc), which report that temperatures have been rising over the last century (nasa, 2015). all the same, since at least 1979, oil companies have paid scientists to deny the realities of climate change (reed et al., 2021). these oil industry-funded scientists have produced studies that deny climate change—a total of 3% of all published articles in the climate sciences (rasmus et. al, 2015). these studies have been analyzed by rasmus et al., (2015), who found them marred by several flaws, including fallacies and misrepresented results. despite the overwhelming consensus on the reality of climate change, these publications continue to feed climate denialism, a term that encompasses both outright denial and different forms of skepticism about the reality of climate change. but denialism can be resolved. below, we summarize a few common arguments posed by climate denialist. we also offer educators tools and resources to respond. is the influence on the climate only caused by natural factors? one of the arguments most used by climate change denialists is the natural variability of the climate. denialists argue that fluctuations in the climate are mainly the result of natural processes and that current climate changes are not unusual. granted, the climate has changed in the past, long before the industrial revolution. the planet has gone through several warm and cold periods (glaciers and interglacial eras). so, denialists think, if global temperatures have already changed naturally, long before human beings even thought of polluting, then the current warming must be of natural origin. below, figure 1 shows both natural factors that influence climate change (volcanoes, solar radiation, and el niño) and their influence on the earth's temperature versus anthropogenic, human-caused influence. ramos, rodrigues, & rodrigues ú climate change denialism 32 figure 1 main influencers of the earth's climate source: lean and rind, 2009 so, despite there being a natural influence on the increase in the earth's temperature, the greatest influence is anthropogenic (lynas et al., 2021). in addition to using this chart to illustrate this distinction, educators can also use en-roads simulator: an online platform that allows students to adjust levels of various factors, such as energy, transport, and land use, to then simulate variations in temperature increase. this also allows students to explore possible future scenarios. https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 33 i don't notice that the sea is rising. worldwide, the average sea level has risen around 9 cm between 1993 and 2021 (copernicus, 2022). but this is not evenly distributed globally, as sea level fluctuations vary from region to region. however, the advance of the sea in the western world, thanks to technology and engineering, may have a "solution." the most severe sea level rise is experienced largely in developing countries, where people have migrated in the face of the advance of the sea (sea level rise, 2020). even if students do not live in proximity to rising seas, educators can lead them through several activities to show the consequences of rising sea levels. several examples can be found at the national center for science education, or on the nasa website. it’s helpful to use a short video “sea level rise” by nasa, which introduces the concept of sea level rise its connection global warming. the video is brief, basic, and clear. students can also play the game “my coastal future”, which explores climate change impacts and encourages students to reflect on adaptation and resilience. the planet has experienced greater heat in the past and terrestrial life has prospered. the last period in which temperatures were higher than they are today was the eocene geological era (56 to 34 million years ago). during the eocene, the increase in global temperatures was due to multiple causes, but the main ones were strong volcanic activity and gas emissions (gradstein et al., 2020). this period was not conducive to a thriving biosphere: of the five mass extinctions that have occurred on our planet, four were caused by climate change, which extinguished between 75% and 86% of terrestrial life (barnosky et al., 2011). from the history of the great extinctions on earth, we can see that the increase in the planet's temperature was often influenced by gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, the same gases that are still released today because of human actions. to explore this notion, educators can use biointeractive’s earthviewer, an interactive map that enables students to explore the science of earth's deep history, from its formation 4.5 billion years ago to modern times. earthviewer dynamically shows how continents grow and shift as students scroll through billions of years. https://ncse.ngo/classroom-elementary-lesson-sea-level-rise https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-melting-ice-causes-sea-level-rise/ https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-melting-ice-causes-sea-level-rise/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msnohupep9i&list=pl9tfrgfq75552g7qva-itoeuo7fy11o5f https://mycoastalfutures.niwa.co.nz/ https://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/earthviewer ramos, rodrigues, & rodrigues ú climate change denialism 34 additional layers let students explore changes in atmospheric composition, temperature, biodiversity, day length, and solar luminosity over geologic time. don't plants do better in environments with very high co2? denialists often argue that carbon dioxide (co2) cannot be considered a pollutant because it is a gas that is indispensable to life, as flora require carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. granted, under controlled conditions of temperature, humidity, water, and nutrients, more co2 indeed induces more photosynthesis (dusenge et al., 2018). but not all plants like extra carbon. and for those carbon enthusiasts in the plant kingdom, co2 is not the only factor controlling growth. moreover, as a result of climate change, we don't always have controlled conditions, like in a greenhouse. if we change some of these parameters, especially temperature and humidity, then, regardless of whether there is more co2, a particular plant will become stressed, even decreasing its level of photosynthesis (bostrom, 2015). at this point, co2 becomes a pollutant, as it "disturbs the ecosystem" (hadipoor et al., 2021). as figure 2 shows, the rise in atmospheric co2 levels has not led to an increase in green areas or forests, woodlands, and the like (wallache, 2022). in fact, the amount of green areas has decreased as a result of the expansion of agriculture or acid rain resulting from excessive pollution. figure 2 deforestation process for agricultural expansion source: ritchie, 2021 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 35 has the amount of ice really been decreasing? if so, what’s the big deal? as you might expect, ice recovers and decreases depending on the time of year, but the trend has been downward over the decades. when we consult credible websites such as the national snow & data center (nsidc, 2023), and nasa (nasa, 2023), we see that the amount of arctic ice has been decreasing, as shown in figure 3 below. figure 3 ice decrease in the arctic region since 1979 source: (nsidc, 2023) melting ice caps can have many unexpected effects. three among them are of particular interest to students: 1) the loss of albedo effect, 2) loss of water, and 3) risk of zombie viruses. first, the albedo is a phenomenon associated with the white color of snow/ice having the ability to reflect solar radiation, causing heat to be returned to the atmosphere and not absorbed (nasa, 2012). using figure 4 (below), educators can https://nsidc.org/home ramos, rodrigues, & rodrigues ú climate change denialism 36 convey this fact to underscore that the loss of white (reflective) zones on the planet means that less of the sun’s radiation will be reflected back into space. figure 4 albedo feedback source: bahlburg & breitkreuz, 2017 second, water on our planet can be found in a liquid state (oceans, rivers, lakes and underground), a gaseous state (clouds, for example) and a solid state in the form of ice. many countries depend on glaciers and mountain snows for their water, which slowly melts and forms rivers. but climate change is melting these glaciers so fast that people are starting to run out of water for farming, cooking and other necessities (national snow and ice data center, 2018). to explore the implications of melting glaciers, educators can combine several resources, such as experiments, video explainers from the united nations, and nasa’s visualizations of ice loss over time. finally, viruses can hibernate for thousands of years in ice caps (lemieux et al., 2021; hunt, 2023). once the glaciers melt, these zombie viruses only need a single host to multiply (makush, 2020). this video can be used to better explain how viruses that are thousands-of-years-old can become active again. https://www.science-sparks.com/melting-polar-ice-caps/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1inafn7am0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1inafn7am0 https://climate.nasa.gov/images-of-change/?intent=131&id=879#879-retreat-of-the-quelccaya-ice-cap-peru https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3k4wirlcbw climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 37 final considerations public opinion on climate change is significantly affected by media coverage and social media posts, which may spread disinformation at a very fast pace, reaching people all over the world. disinformation jeopardizes the efforts needed to mitigate the impacts of climate change. in the face of increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, it is crucial to combat climate denialism through accurate and affective climate communication, which is a skill central to climate literacy. in doing so, we can act collectively protect our planet and ensure a sustainable future for generations to come. references bahlburg, h., & breitkreuz, c. (2017). grundlagen der geologie. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-54931-5 barnosky, a. d., matzke, n., tomiya, s., wogan, g. o., swartz, b., quental, t. b., marshall, c., mcguire, j. l., lindsey, e. l., maguire, k. c., mersey, b., & ferrer, e. a. (2011). has the earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? nature, 471(7336), 51–57. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09678 bostrom, d. (2015). plants cannot live on co2 alone. skeptical science. https://skepticalscience.com/co2-plant-food.htm copernicus. (2022). climate indicators: sea level. climate change service. https://climate.copernicus.eu/climate-indicators/sea-level dusenge, m. e., duarte, a. g., & way, d. a. (2018). plant carbon metabolism and climate change: elevated co2 and temperature impacts on photosynthesis, photorespiration and respiration. new phytologist, 221(1), 32–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15283 gradstein, f. m., ogg, j. g., schmitz, m., & ogg, g. (2020). geologic time scale 2020. elsevier. hadipoor, m., keivanimehr, f., baghban, a., ganjali, m. r., & habibzadeh, s. (2021). carbon dioxide as a main source of air pollution: prospective and current trends to control. sorbents materials for controlling environmental pollution, 1(1), 623– 688. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-820042-1.00004-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-54931-5 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09678 https://climate.copernicus.eu/climate-indicators/sea-level https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15283 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-820042-1.00004-3 ramos, rodrigues, & rodrigues ú climate change denialism 38 hunt, k. (2023). scientists have revived a ‘zombie’ virus that spent 48,500 years frozen in permafrost. cnn. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/08/world/permafrostvirus-risk-climate-scn/index.html lean, j. and rind, d. (2009) ‘how will earth’s surface temperature change in future decades?’, geophysical research letters, 36(15). available at: https://doi.org/10.1029/2009gl038932. lemieux, a., colby, g. a., poulain, a. j., & aris-brosou, s. (2021). viral spillover risk increases with climate change in high arctic lake sediments. proceedings of the royal society. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.23.457348 little, b. (2018). when cigarette companies used doctors to push smoking. history. https://www.history.com/news/cigarette-ads-doctors-smoking-endorsement lynas, m., houlton, b. z., & perry, s. (2021). greater than 99% consensus on humancaused climate change in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. environmental research letters, 16(11), 114005. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2966 makush, d. (2020). there are more viruses on earth than there are stars in the universe. smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/there-aremore-viruses-earth-there-are-stars-universe-180974433/ nasa. (2012). measuring earth’s albedo. nasa earth observatory. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/84499/measuring-earths-albedo nasa. (2015). 2014 warmest year in modern record. nasa. https://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-yearin-modern-record nasa. (2023). arctic sea ice minimum extent. national ocean service. https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/ national snow and ice data center. (2018). why glaciers matter. national snow and ice data center. https://nsidc.org/learn/parts-cryosphere/glaciers/why-glaciersmatter national snow and ice data center. (2023). arctic sea ice. national snow & ice data center. https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ rasmus, b., nucittelli, d., & lewandosky, s. (2016). learning from mistakes in climate research. theoretical and applied climatology, 126. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1597-5 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/08/world/permafrost-virus-risk-climate-scn/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/08/world/permafrost-virus-risk-climate-scn/index.html https://doi.org/10.1029/2009gl038932 https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.23.457348 https://www.history.com/news/cigarette-ads-doctors-smoking-endorsement https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2966 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/there-are-more-viruses-earth-there-are-stars-universe-180974433/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/there-are-more-viruses-earth-there-are-stars-universe-180974433/ https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/84499/measuring-earths-albedo https://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-year-in-modern-record https://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-year-in-modern-record https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/ https://nsidc.org/learn/parts-cryosphere/glaciers/why-glaciers-matter https://nsidc.org/learn/parts-cryosphere/glaciers/why-glaciers-matter https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1597-5 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 39 reed, g., hendlin, y., desikan, a., mackinney, t., berman, e., & goldman, g. t. (2021). the disinformation playbook: how industry manipulates the sciencepolicy process—and how to restore scientific integrity. journal of public health policy, 42(4), 622–634. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-021-00318-6 ritchie, h. (2021). the world has lost one-third of its forest, but an end to deforestation is possible. our world in data. https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-thirdforests snm. (2017). sea level rise to portugal. sea level rise. http://www.snmportugal.pt/index_en.html wallache, o. (2022). visualizing the world’s loss of forests since the ice age. visual capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-worlds-loss-of-forestssince-the-ice-age/ https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-third-forests https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-third-forests http://www.snmportugal.pt/index_en.html https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-worlds-loss-of-forests-since-the-ice-age/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-worlds-loss-of-forests-since-the-ice-age/ rodriguez ú intergenerational healing within waterscapes 88 intergenerational healing within waterscapes: the spiritual connection between girls and water in estiu 1993 and whale rider milena renee rodriguez (mankeme-chorotega), erasmus mundus children's literature, media, and culture, university of wrocław, wrocław, poland abstract since time immemorial, humans have had a flowing communication with water and have been connected to water in infinite ways through ritual, celebration, storytelling, and contemplative practices (leonard et al., 2023). we are water. this essential truth of our interconnected existence has been denied by past and present interrelated systems of violence, such as colonialism, patriarchy, and pollution, which have affected us and our planet (ansloos, 2023). in this article, i analyze the films estiu 1993 (2017) and whale rider (2003), their girl child protagonists frida and pai, and illustrate how young girls find a spiritual connection to themselves, their departed loved ones, and the world through a spiritual connection with the waterscapes they have access to. i also highlight indigenous perspectives about intergenerational healing through embodied water practices and rituals. with the beyond-human world (rodriguez, 2024). i offer suggestions on approaching the films pedagogically, emphasizing the potential to integrate anti-oppression and eco-justice discussions within multigenerational and culturally safe educational environments. keywords seascape, waterscape, rivers, indigenous youth, rights to water climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 89 intersectional trauma awareness estiu 1993 (2017), directed by catalan filmmaker carla simón and set in the la garrotxa volcanic zone national park, won accolades for the vivid and organic portrayal of the catalan landscapes of healthy lifestyles (jones & perriam, 2019). specifically, estiu 1993 depicts the first summer that frida, the protagonist, spends with her adopted family. whale rider (2003) is a film set in a coastal town in aotearoa, directed by non-indigenous filmmaker niki caro and based on a novel written by māori author witi ihimaera in 1987 (de souza, 2007). the success of the film raised critical debates about the limited māori control over their representation in the international film industry (joyce, 2009). both films share several characteristics in common, such as being directed by women, the protagonists’ loss of their mothers, and contexts portraying the heavy collective historical trauma that minoritized nations bear, such as the spanish regime in catalunya (beaney, 2020; jones, d. & perriam, c., 2019) and the british colonial invasion in aotearoa that impacted the lives of several maori generations (de souza, 2007; joyce, 2009). land and water exploitation and dispossession have caused ecosystems detriment and intergenerational trauma in indigenous families in the form of chronic grief, depression, somatic symptoms, and dissociation that can be transferred and deepened over generations (avalos cisneros, 2014). apart from grief and systemic injustice, patriarchy is also a significant wound carried by families in both films. the urgent need for change gives a chance for a new, emancipated reality embodied by the strong and loving women in the films: frida’s adoptive mother and pai’s grandmother. in reality, structural oppression continues to affect children’s lives, selfawareness, and understanding of the world. furthermore, indigenous notions of healing have been stigmatized and invalidated by colonial policies such as the prohibition and criminalization of indigenous spiritual practices (avalos cisneros, 2014). critically viewing either film can open pathways to talk about these topics with children above nine and their families, as well prepare culturally safe spaces to do so, such as intergenerational circles, cultural revitalization workshops, and art-based community stories production. rodriguez ú intergenerational healing within waterscapes 90 water as sanctuary and young girls’ source of spirituality estiu and whale rider make the most of waterscapes, aquatic sounds, and water metaphors, which evoke a sense of immersive experience (d’aloia, 2012). both films provide a depiction of young girls’ nature-based, and particularly water-based spirituality that promotes personal reflection and intergenerational connectivity. according to indigenous epistemologies, elements of the nature are alive and sacred, and connectedness to earth and all beings is a form of spiritual practice, including the practice of perceiving oneself as one with water, experiencing her vastness and endless liveliness (boldo, kephart, and allouche, 2021). in estiu, a notable waterscape that provides frida with a space for healing is the shrine by the creek (figure 1) which frida visits ritualistically and converts into a personal sacred space by seeking connection with her departed mother through the image of the virgin mary as the divine mother. close-up shots invite the audience to appreciate frida’s perspective, water sounds are raw and spotlighted, and the absence of sound effects or background music signifies the director’s intention for the audience to feel immersed in the vivid environment together with frida, like when frida is in awe by the approaching storm (figure 2). frida’s moments of introspection occur by the water (figures 3 and 4). the connection between water and frida’s improving emotional state is performed in scenes where she plays with ana and other local children (figures 5 and 6). figure 1: frida by the virgin mary shrine. the flowing creek and singing birds can be heard clearly. figure 2: frida in awe of the sounds of the approaching storm. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 91 frida bursts into tears in the final scene (figure 7) represents the healing moment of letting her emotions flow, comparable to the power of the rainfall over the land that brings liveliness and health to a dry and fractured soil, and signifies the selfrealization of feeling safe, loved, and spiritually connected to a new environment. figure 3: frida's moment of introspection by the river as ana's parents search for her. figure 5: frida swims, enjoys water, and smiles while playing with ana. figure 4: friday and ana by the river. figure 6: frida plays with local children in the river figure 7: frida cries, overwhelmed, realizing and accepting she has a new, loving family. rodriguez ú intergenerational healing within waterscapes 92 whale rider is, in essence a water-based indigenous spirituality film, as is evident from the slow-motion opening (figure 8). viewers find themselves submerged in deep ocean waters, where recurring shots of whales enforce the idea of pai’s metaphysical connection to these animals. in one specific scene, in which pai leaves the village with her father in a car, the camera captures elements that form part of her home: pai sees the traditional boat carved by her dad, her house, and the ocean (figure 9). the camera moves to trace the transition from waterscape to landscape (figure 10) and the shot of a whale is incorporated as a sign for pai to embrace a spiritual call to leadership (figure 11). the scene continues and the car remains in motion, while pai looks out the window. the camera’s variable focal length conveys the interconnectedness between pai and the ocean (figure 12). the scene ends when pai asks her father to stop the car and runs towards a viewpoint (figure 13) where she requests to be taken back home. her father’s acceptance of her request reveals his respect for pai’s potential leadership based on her passion for revitalizing ancestral culture, which is a key part of māori's well-being (walkermorrison, 2020). later in the film, the audience grasps more about the importance of the ocean in one of the most beautiful scenes of the film when, as a metaphor for the figure 8: the film begins underwater with an origin story of the whale rider figure 9: embracing the spiritual call to leadership in the scene in which pai leaves town with her father. figure 10: transition from waterscape to landscape. figure 11: a whale and her calf are seen and heard while pai leaves town. figure 12: varying focal length expresses pai's connectedness with the ocean. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 93 tremendous difficulty of reclaiming culture, pai dives to recover her grandpa’s reiputa from the bottom of the ocean and is seen submerged in the depths (figure 14). although pai’s life is surrounded by near-death experiences that denote burdensome spiritual journeys, it is noticeable throughout the whole film that water is for pai and her people a source of culture, well-being, and spiritual strength. the drops of healing ripple across generations according to indigenous worldviews, water, who travels through continents and our bodies, is an ancestor with consciousness and memory of our planet (diaz, 2021). connection to water fosters awareness of time and concern for the future. ancient cultures from around the world linked water to rites of renewal (d’aloia, 2012). in both films, the symbolism of water as a place to be reborn can be appreciated with different levels of intensity. while estiu offers a serene river-like experience, dark-filtered whale rider submerges the audience into dramatic waves, near-death events, and rejection. for both frida and pai, water is safe, holding, and caring—like a mother’s womb, an inner world, a place for reflection, a sanctuary (figures 3 and 4). stories of children that tap into the multidimensional—physical, emotional, and spiritual—power of restorative waterscapes (walker-morrison, 2020) and are supported by loving guardians such as in estiu and whale rider can help families who have experienced trauma navigate distressing circumstances and redirect their efforts towards healing. as roni natov (2018) notes, “[h]ealing from trauma requires an affirmation, a belief in the young person, who cannot possibly sustain a sense of self alone.” frida’s and pai’s caretakers understand that “the process of moving back towards one’s culture and community can be fragile and requires support and displays figure 13: pai asks to stop, then runs to a viewpoint. she requests to go back home. figure 14: pai dives deep in search of reiputa. rodriguez ú intergenerational healing within waterscapes 94 of caring” (boldo, 2021). although neither film addresses current struggles of land and water access, they can ignite conversations about children’s rights to healthy waterscapes (chi-kin lee, 2022; gearon, 2006) and water-inspired traditions, which nurture the films’ protagonists’ sense of purpose and collective belonging. these conversations can take form of an ecocultural heritage storytelling workshop, where multiple generations are invited to share water-related rituals that have moved them and would like to sustain. climate change is the most critical intergenerational trauma we face today. due to its intrinsic relation to coloniality (sultana, 2022), discussions of water-related privileges and injustices, health consequences of water-stressed areas, and hydrocolonialism (ansloos, 2023) are crucial for finding just solutions. let us ask ourselves and our communities how observing, resonating, and performing immersive practices within water transform our relationship with her. let us be grateful to water and remember our essence. may water guide us towards renewed ways of seeing ourselves and the world. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 95 references ahenakew, c. (2019). towards scarring our collective soul wound. musagetes foundation. https://decolonialfutures.net/wpcontent/uploads/2019/11/scarring_web1.pdf ansloos, j. (2023). hydrocolonial affects: suicide and the somatechnics of long-term drinking water advisories in first nations in canada. somatechnics, 13(2), 113133. https://dx.doi.org/10.3366/soma.2023.0403 avalos cisneros, n. (2014). indigenous visions of self-determination: healing and historical trauma in native america. global societies journal, 2. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6x06c2x6 beaney, r. (2020). orphans at play in cría cuervos (1976) and estiu 1993 (2017): reconsidering the playspace. forum for modern language studies, 4(56), 367388. https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqaa047 boldo, v., kephart, e. & allouche, z. (2021). vicky boldo/kisêwâtisiwinyôtin: iskwew (gentle wind woman): from individual to intergenerational healing. genealogy, 5(2), 37. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy5020037 chi-kin lee, j. (2022). children’s life and spirituality development and their educations: sensing, spaces, and sources of influence. international journal of children's spirituality, 27(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364436x.2022.2047280 d’aloia. a. (2012). film in depth: water and immersivity in the contemporary film experience. acta universitatis sapientiae, film and media studies (5), 87-106. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=105988 de souza, p. (2007). maoritanga in whale rider and once were warriors: a problematic rebirth through female leaders. studies in australasian cinema, 1(1), 15-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/sac.1.1.15_1 díaz, c.a. (2021). ecologies from below: politics and the memory of water in patricio guzmán’s the pearl button. interdisciplinary studies in literature and environment, 28(4), 1327-1353. https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isaa129 estiu 1993 (2017). directed by carla simon. spain: inicia films and avalon. gearon, l. (2006). children's spirituality and children's rights. international journal of children's spirituality, 11(2). 10.1080/13644360600797115 https://decolonialfutures.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/scarring_web1.pdf https://decolonialfutures.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/scarring_web1.pdf https://dx.doi.org/10.3366/soma.2023.0403 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6x06c2x6 https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqaa047 https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy5020037 https://doi.org/10.1080/1364436x.2022.2047280 https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=105988 http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/sac.1.1.15_1 https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isaa129 https://doi.org/10.1080/13644360600797115 rodriguez ú intergenerational healing within waterscapes 96 jones, d., & perriam, c. (2019). changing identity in small or minority nations: three recent catalan films. bulletin of spanish visual studies, 3, 67–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/24741604.2019.1589266 joyce, h. (2009). out from nowhere: pakeha anxieties in ngati (barclay, 1987), once were warriors (tamahori, 1994) and whale rider (caro, 2002). studies in australasian cinema, 3(3), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1386/sac.3.3.239_1 natov, r. (2018). the courage to imagine: the child hero in children’s literature. bloomsbury. rodriguez, m. r. (2024). indigenous water wisdom – decolonial media from abya yala for intergenerational healing, sovereignty, and climate change solutions. master’s dissertation. university of glasgow. sultana, f. (2022). the unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality. political geography, 99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102638 walker-morrison, d. (2020). haerenga wairua: spirit(ual) journeys in twenty-first-century māori cinema. canadian journal of film studies, 29(1), 122-144. https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/cjfs.29.1.07 whale rider (2003). directed by niki caro. new zealand: south pacific pictures, apollomedia, pandora film, new zealand film production fund, new zealand film commission, nz on air, filmstiftung nordrhein-westfalen. https://doi.org/10.1080/24741604.2019.1589266 https://doi.org/10.1386/sac.3.3.239_1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102638 https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/cjfs.29.1.07 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 51 youth production of digital media to address the climate crisis richard beach, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa (emeritus) blaine smith, vanderbilt university, nashville, tn, usa abstract this article describes the value of having youth produce digital media—videos, social media, digital images/art, digital stories, and online writing to address the climate crisis. while students are engaged with and producing media on their own, teachers and project coordinators can support students by drawing on examples noted in this article to provide students with technical support and examples for producing different types of digital media. keywords digital media, ecomedia, social media, climate activism, youth climate activism youth are highly concerned about the need to address the climate crisis. in one survey, 59% of youth worldwide note that they are extremely or very worried, and 84% are moderately worried about climate change impacts (hickman et al., 2021). given these concerns, 45% experience anxiety related to how climate change is impacting their lives. youth uses of digital media to communicate about the climate crisis to share their concerns about climate change impacts, youth are turning to digital media: their default platform to communicate with others. 13-to 18-year-olds engage in about https://www.climatelit.org/topic/digital-media/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecomedia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/social-media/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ http://climatelit.org/topic/ecoanxiety woodbury ú building a database 52 an average of eight-and-a-half hours of screen media daily, with youtube, snapchat, and tiktok being the most popular platforms (common sense media, 2022). 56% of american youth are frequently referencing climate change topics online and 45% are posting messages about climate change through use of media (tyson, 2021). for example, greta thunberg's instagram post about the school strike for climate in 2018 lead to worldwide youth participation on the fridays for future strikes platform fridaysforfuture.org (hawley, 2022). other youth employ youtube, tiktok, instagram, and twitter to communicate the need for collective action (sorce & dumitrica, 2021). youth employ a range of types of digital media—videos, blogs, podcasts, digital art/music, or online writing—to portray climate change impacts and connect with local/global audiences (beach & smith, in press). to successfully mobilize climate action, young people need to know how to effectively employ different media tools and how to effectively communicate the need for change. they need to be able to employ these tools to assume activist roles and inspire their audiences to activism too. "for the vanguards of the present dreaming up new ways to fight global warming…this is an essential point: that the shape and extent of the change they seek depend as much on the tools they use as it does on their own will and hunger" (beckerman, 2022, p. 2). this suggests the need for engaging youth in projects or classroom instruction that provide technology support and training but also supports students to assume activist roles as change agents when they experience positive uptake from their audiences. this article summarizes youth use of media to address climate change in our forthcoming book, youth media creation on the climate crisis: hear our voices (beach & smith, in press). the book includes chapters on youth producing videos, digital images/art, social media, digital stories, and online writing media production. here, we describe examples of the authors’ own media projects from selected chapters, as well as related research on producing these different types of media. you can access chapter summaries and related links, activities, and readings on the use of media for communicating about climate change on the book’s website. in the introductory chapter, marek oziewicz and scott spicer posit the importance of engaging youth in media production related to addressing climate change. given that media is central to how youth communicate and interact with others in their lives outside https://fridaysforfuture.org/ http://youthclimatecrisismedia.pbworks.com/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 53 of schools, they argue that teachers or project coordinators need to draw on and transfer these experiences for engaging school and project contexts. this can be done by providing technical training as described in spicer’s (2022) book, as well as by creating venues for students to share their media productions—say, a video critiquing the “fast fashion” clothing industry—with the general public. one example of such a venue is the university of minnesota’s student produced sustainability project gallery. oziewicz and spicer also note the importance of producing media based on cultural perspectives related to moral and ethical concerns about the future of the planet. portraying and critiquing how the “stories-we-live-by” have shaped our actions—for example, narratives of domination and conquest of nature—can lead to imagining alternative, novel narratives for a sustainable human interaction with the environment. video youth produce videos to visually portray climate change impacts, record examples of people engaged in protests, enacting adaptation, or mitigation solutions to climate change. in his chapter, steve goodman describes how in the education video center project, youth produce documentary videos about environmental justice issues that adversely impact low-income neighborhoods. for example, shame on you! that can be reused! confronts the adverse health effects of pollution from trucks on people living in south bronx neighborhoods (goodman, 2020). in another project, the climate change initiative at the university of massachusetts, lowell, youth generate psa videos with a more global framing, focusing on the need for understanding climate change as a global phenomenon, as evident in the your voice video. youth may also frame their videos to portray local versus global climate change impacts. as part of the lens on climate change (locc) project at the university of colorado, youth-produced videos spotlight local climate change impact (littrell, 2022), including the effects of droughts in students’ colorado communities. an analysis of youth participation in the locc project found that their participation in the project enhanced students' re-seeing (through their visual portrayals of climate change impacts), as well as their re-enactment (by shaping their thinking around how they could help their communities) that translates into direct action or continued communication with family file:///users/mco/downloads/t.ly/ihrmq file:///users/mco/downloads/t.ly/ihrmq http://z.umn.edu/sustainabilityinvestigationsolutionsvideo https://www.evc.org/ https://www.evc.org/ http://vimeo.com/369988483 http://vimeo.com/369988483 https://www.uml.edu/research/climate-change https://vimeo.com/70140870 http://t.ly/t9w6 woodbury ú building a database 54 or community members about climate change and other environmental challenges after the program (littrell et al., 2022, p. 18). digital images/art/music a number of chapters in the book describe youth’s production of digital images/art related to climate change. in their chapter, michelle jordan, catherine lockmiller, and steven zuiker describe a project in which high school students participate in a summer solar engineering project related to enhancing the understanding of and the need to use media to promote the use of solar energy. students then created multimodal slide presentations to portray what they learned about use of media for promoting solar energy. youth participated in the “polar army” artwork project madder, 2017) and the art for adaptation project, using art in ways that change their perceptions of climate change (bentz, 2020). in their chapter, “addressing climate change and sustainable energy futures through creative music engagement,” evan tobias, kyle bartlett, michelle jordan, and steven zuiker, describe how students produced music related to the use of solar energy. social media youth frequently employ social media to post about climate change (tyson, 2021). they use hashtags such as #climatecrisis #climatechange or #fridaysforfuture to interact with others and organize protests such as the school strike 4 climate (boulianne et al., 2020). as claire napawan, brett snyder, and beth ferguson note in their chapter, youth use social media to communicate with followers in ways that build community and enhance their sense of being climate activists. in her chapter, natallia goshylyk provides examples of how youth insert emojis and images in their posts to enhance audience engagment. in their chapter, david rousell, amy cutter-mackenzie-knowles, and thilinika wijesinghe, describes the creation of the climate action adventure! app as a game-like, social media space for students to share their responses to images and artwork about climate change. https://goo.gl/4dgv23 https://goo.gl/4dgv23 http://polararmy.org/ http://artforadaptation.com/ http://ccme.app/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 55 digital storytelling youth also create digital stories to portray perspectives on climate change. in their chapter, shiyan jiang, blaine smith, and ji shen describe how middle school students adopt the roles of writer, producer, director, cameraperson, or/and editor to create digital stories on sustainability issues, particularly in the miami area (smith et al., 2019). in her chapter, linda buturian describes how her students create digital stories about climate change impacts. by responding to novels, graphic stories, and poems in her course creating identities, learning in and through the arts, students create digital stories—many of which are included in her book (buturian, 2022)—to portray, for example, the adverse effects of flooding or waste deposits on the mississippi river. writing for planning media productions and for communicating on media outlets it is also important to recognize the value of using writing for planning media productions and communicating on media outlets. in his chapter, antonio lopez describes the importance of creating scripts and storyboards to plan for the production of videos or podcasts. youth are also producing writing to share on media outlets such as the youth voices climate change page. in their contribution, liane xu, julian arenas, and ardra charath, youth editors on the youth think climate (ytc) magazine, sponsored by the action for climate emergency, describe how they solicit and publish essays, narratives, poetry, art, and music by and for young people. emily polk's chapter, in turn, describes having students in her stanford university composition courses investigate local climate justice issues to then write about them by creating podcasts, blog posts, or submissions to magazine/news outlets. teacher support for media production in conclusion, while students are actively engaged in using media to communicate about climate change outside the classroom, teachers and project coordinators can certainly provide support for engaging students in media productions as part of the schoolwork. in doing so, they need to consider the digital divide related to variations in students’ access to digital tools as well as differences in their previous experience in employ these http://tinyurl.com/wqmgz9j http://t.ly/xra7 http://cehd.umn.edu/the-changing-story http://goo.gl/z72mgp http://goo.gl/3cdgjd http://goo.gl/q4yscg http://goo.gl/q4yscg http://t.ly/p1lw https://acespace.org/ woodbury ú building a database 56 tools. within school contexts, teachers may want to draw on assistance from school technology support staff. within university contexts, teachers may consider interacting with faculty associated with units, centers, or departments focused on climate change or environmental studies. teachers can support students’ media production by: • having students acquire scientific information about climate change to produce valid information about climate change • having students clarify their purposes for producing media • providing instruction on production techniques, for example, how to employ visual images or graphics (bryne, 2022) • giving students options for use of different media types (bernier, 2020). • creating organizations or clubs within school to support collaborative media production. • providing relevant feedback to enhance student development in media productions • having student share media productions through youth-oriented projects such as action for the climate emergency, young people’s trust for the environment, the uk youth climate coalition, climate change education, youth4climate, young voices for the planet, our climate our futures, connect4climate, and the climate reality project • having students employ digital visualization tools for acquiring data or images about climate change impacts in certain regions or communities using tools, such as climate interactive, community viz, national climate assessment, visualizing change toolkit, or visualizing change. references beach, r. & smith, b. (in press). youth media creation on the climate crisis: hear our voices. routledge. beckerman, c. (2022, february 13). radical ideas need quiet spaces. the new york times review, p. 2. bentz, j. (2020). learning about climate change in, with and through art. climatic change, 162, 1595–1612 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02804-4 bernier, a. (2020). wanting to share: how integration of digital media literacy supports student participatory culture in 21st century sustainability education. journal of sustainability education, 24. buturian, l. (2022). the changing story: digital stories that participate in transforming teaching & learning. pressbooks. http://cehd.umn.edu/the-changing-story http://t.ly/nktw http://acespace.org/ http://ypte.org.uk/ http://www.ukyclimatechange.com/ http://www.ukyclimatechange.com/ http://earth.stanford.edu/climate-change-ed http://youth4climate.info/ http://youngvoicesfortheplanet.com/ http://youngvoicesfortheplanet.com/ http://ourclimate.us/ http://www.connect4-climate.org/ http://www.climaterealityproject/ http://climateinteractive.org/ http://placeways.com/communityviz http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/ http://goo.gl/j2zgpo http://goo.gl/j2zgpo http://vischange.org/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02804-4 http://cehd.umn.edu/the-changing-story climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 57 bryne, r. (2022, september 22). my updated big list of tools for a variety of classroom video projects. [web log post]. retrieved from http://t.ly/nktw common sense media. (2022). the common sense census: media use by tweens and teens, 2021. author. retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-censusmedia-use-by-tweens-and-teens-2021 goodman, s. (2020, april). teaching for environmental justice at the educational video center. journal of sustainability education. http://t.ly/jtt littrell, m. k., gold, a. u., koskey, k. l k., may, t. a., leckey, e., & okochi, c. (2022). transformative experience in an informal science learning program about climate change. journal of research on science teaching, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21750 pew research center. (2021) retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-outfor-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ share, j. & beach, r. (2022). critical media literacy analysis and production for systems thinking about climate change. journal of media literacy. http://t.ly/sk86 smith, b. e. (2019). mediational modalities: adolescents collaboratively interpreting literature through digital multimodal composing. research in the teaching of english, 53(3), 197–222. sorce, g. & dumitrica, d. 2021. #fighteverycrisis: pandemic shifts in fridays for future’s protest communication frames. environmental communication. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/17524032.2021.1948435. spicer, s. (2022a). student-created media designing research, learning, and skill-building experiences (pp. 5–7). ala editions. tyson, a., kennedy, b., & funk, c. (2021, may 21). gen z, millennials stand out for climate change activism, social media engagement with issues. pew research center. retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-zmillennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagementwith-issue/ http://t.ly/nktw https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens-2021 https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens-2021 http://t.ly/jtthttps://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21750 https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 1 introduction: climate literacy work after cop28 marek oziewicz, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa nick kleese, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract in this introduction, we review the key developments of 2023 when it comes to climate, including cop28. we reflect on what they mean for cle and consider their implications for the urgent challenge of building a climate literate, ecological civilization. keywords climate change, cop28, climate literacy education, ecological civilization welcome to the second issue of climate literacy in education! we write these words a week after the end of cop28 in dubai and at the close of 2023, which was not just the hottest year on record, but saw the hottest week ever (in 120,000 years) and the hottest day ever too: the hottest "in at least a hundred and twenty-five thousand years" (mckibben, 2023, n.p.). these numbers are not anomalies. they are indicators of a building momentum that comes from derailing of the planetary system caused by human-driven climate change, especially the burning of fossil fuels. these numbers also come at the tail end of the la niña cold period, which had kept global temperatures lower for the last 18 months, and at the start of a strong el niño event, which is expected to bring even more record-breaking temperatures through at least mid 2024 and will https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-11-30/united-nations-calls-2023-hottest-year-ever-at-dubai-cop28-climate-talks?leadsource=uverify%20wall https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/16/red-alert-the-worlds-hottest-week-ever-and-more-is-to-forecast-to-come https://abcnews.go.com/us/4th-july-breaks-record-highest-temperature-measured/story?id=100702850 https://abcnews.go.com/us/4th-july-breaks-record-highest-temperature-measured/story?id=100702850 https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-un-announces-the-hottest-year?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=tny_daily_121223&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tny_daily_digest&bxid=5fcd10cf43e41d3cd369d63f&cndid=63074334&hasha=896aa87d0eb7a618ff76c8dbbbbcdf0b&hashb=91deeb9f2efd6093c10f9b0ce700bc2513e6be0a&hashc=d78d7cc3461aee85c15d029a87dc08f29fe901dc5de4eab56f9d0d6df79da248&esrc=auto_subs&mbid=crmnyr012019 https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/march-2023-enso-update-no-more-la-nina https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/november-2023-el-nino-update-transport-options oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 2 accelerate the arrival of "unsurvivable heat extremes" in many parts of the world this very decade (vanos et al., 2023, p. 9). the record numbers in temperatures also correlate with rapidly growing costs of climate disasters—2023 being another record-breaking year for billion-dollar disasters in the us—and, equally worryingly, with a rapidly growing number of armed conflicts, international tensions, and rising authoritarianisms all over the world. as if climate, temperatures, and resource scarcity had anything to do with authoritarianisms or wars. there is another war that is being fought globally and is, increasingly, globally called out. it is a war against life on earth, present and future, fought by big oil and their allies. in this war the stakes are power and corporate profit, even if just for a while longer, versus habitability of the planet for human and nonhuman beings—today and for generations ahead. "war against life" is not too strong a word either: its casualties have been 69% of wildlife populations (as compared to 1970 population levels), 49% of wild grassland and 20% of forests (since 1900), six out of nine planetary boundaries that define a safe operating space for humanity (since ever), over 2 million people dead as a direct result of extreme weather events (since the 1970s), with an additional 8+ million dying each year from co2 emissions and air pollution—and about $4.3 trillion in economic damage worldwide (associated press, 2023). if this doesn't count as war, how else would you call it? and if it does—in scope, scale, and impacts—consider who has been winning in this war over the past four decades? and why? it is not wrong to be impatient with the current system. or with its key strategy of "addressing" climate change through negotiations at conference of the parties (cop) summits. cop28 in dubai was unprecedented in revealing the shameless determination of big oil to question, disrupt, deflect, slow-walk, and flat-out refuse any meaningful change. not only was this year's summit led by the ceo of the uae’s adnoc—one of the major oil companies in the world (which used cop28 to strike new oil deals)—and by an oil executive who distinguished himself by being the first-ever cop president to declare that there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels. it also included in negotiations at least 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists, "almost four times as many [as] the number registered for cop27 in sharm el-sheikh—which itself was a record year" (lakhani, 2023, n.p.). with so many high-level professionals pushing the fossil fuel interests, cop28 was largely—and more than ever before—a fossil fuel trade fair. in https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-43121-5 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-sets-record-for-billion-dollar-natural-disasters-climate-catastrophes-in-2023/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-sets-record-for-billion-dollar-natural-disasters-climate-catastrophes-in-2023/ https://www.iiss.org/en/publications/armed-conflict-survey/2023/editors-introduction/ https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-us/ https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-third-forests https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-third-forests https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2023-09-13-all-planetary-boundaries-mapped-out-for-the-first-time-six-of-nine-crossed.html https://www.nrdc.org/stories/fossil-fuel-air-pollution-kills-one-five-people https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/2-million-killed-4-3-trillion-in-damages-from-extreme-weather-over-past-half-century-un-agency-says https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67508331 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/03/back-into-caves-cop28-president-dismisses-phase-out-of-fossil-fuels https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/record-number-of-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-get-access-to-cop28-climate-talks climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 3 particular, the final resolution—article 28, subsection d—replaced the call to phase out fossil fuels (see 2023 global stocktake synthesis report, p. 21) with a vapid call to transition away from fossil fuels, and specifically "in energy systems" rather than across all emission sectors and industries. yet what seems to be another victory for big oil (the final agreement) only accelerates their demise on other levels, especially though what happens in the sidelines. at least since cop21 in paris (2015), cops have increasingly become spaces where thousands of people, groups and organizations—including those from the global south, bipoc, indigenous communities—come together to propose equitable and ecocentric ways to move forward. on these levels cops increasingly succeed to unify global resistance against ecocide: this year indigenous women leaders took center stage, detailed proposals for equitable phaseout of fossil fuel extraction were released, and a number of important declarations were announced (see the full list here and the un list). our favorites include cop28 declaration on sustainable agriculture, the freshwater challenge initiative, and the long-awaited, albeit ridiculously underfunded loss and damage fund. all these are important steps. yet much more needs to be done, especially by the general public. one consensus is this: we need pathways that are alternative or parallel to the cop process, pathways that accelerate the pace of change and public pressure for it. rupert read calls these initiatives "coalitions of the willing": collaborative efforts by groups and individuals who see opportunities for action in the present and are committed to do "what actually needs to be done, if we are to have a future" (2023, n.p.). another climate action leader george monbiot (2023) is calling for adoption of a different voting system that cannot be manipulated by big oil and a more localized system of creating regional treaties that can bypass the gridlocks of the un general assembly approval system. finally, the doyen of climate science james hansen— acknowledging the continuing collusion of governments and financial interests to ignore the climate's delayed response—urges "anticipatory action" (hansen et al., 2023, p. 2), especially with young people, in preparation for a period when "climate will become less tolerable to humanity, with greater climate extremes, before it is feasible to reverse the trends" and restore the climate to its holocene levels (26). https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma2023_l17_adv.pdf https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1144742 https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/cop-26-biggest-achievements-cop-summits-past/ https://amazonwatch.org/news/2023/1214-indigenous-women-leaders-took-center-stage-at-cop28 https://www.ecoequity.org/2023/12/the-challenge-after-dubai-a-just-orderly-and-equitable-fossil-fuel-phaseout/#more-5643 https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/cop28-report-tracker-key-climate-reports-launched-at-the-2023-u.n-climate-summit https://climateaction.unfccc.int/events/cop28?_gl=1*1ptno07*_ga*njmxmjixotywlje2otqynzg1njy.*_ga_7zzwt14n79*mtcwmzewmdmzns4xni4xlje3mdmxmdi2nziumc4wlja. https://www.cop28.com/en/food-and-agriculture https://wwf.panda.org/?10374466/big-boost-to-climate-action-as-37-countries-join-the-freshwater-challenge https://wwf.panda.org/?10374466/big-boost-to-climate-action-as-37-countries-join-the-freshwater-challenge https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/06/700m-pledged-to-loss-and-damage-fund-cop28-covers-less-than-02-percent-needed https://www.nrdc.org/bio/joe-thwaites/cop-28-climate-fund-pledge-tracker https://www.nrdc.org/bio/joe-thwaites/cop-28-climate-fund-pledge-tracker https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-12-13/end-cop-arent-we-all-fed-up-with-this-annual-vapid-self-congratulatory-farce/?utm_source=pocket_saves https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/cop28-rigged-fail-save-planet-climate-summit-fossil-fuel https://academic.oup.com/oocc/article/3/1/kgad008/7335889 oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 4 at cle, we believe in anticipatory action of universal climate literacy education. ours is a coalition of the willing that can transform every classroom but requires the initial investment of research, design, curriculum development and training. this is not an easy work. about a year ago the center for climate literacy was tapped by an organization in uae that asked us for advice on preparing a climate curriculum for showcasing at cop28. although they were eager for the final product, they had never considered details such as how many teachers would get trained, based on what materials, how many schools would participate, at what grade levels or for how long... every new question we asked made it more clear that a climate curriculum can never merely be a product for display. it needs to be a lived reality embedded in classroom teaching, requiring broad cooperation, a support system, and a vision of change. since none of those things are "showcasable," the request was dropped. we do not know what educational initiatives were eventually presented in dubai. we do know, however, that even big oil recognizes the power of stories to shape young minds. if you attended cop28, you had a chance to receive a free copy of i need to know: an introduction to the oil industry & opec, a children's informational book produced by the pr and information department of the organization of the petroleum exporting countries. dedicated to children and young people all around the world, the book is a shameless piece of fossil fuel propaganda on how oil is necessary for the human civilization to survive and how opec has played a key role in advancing humanity's march toward prosperity and stability. and if this message strikes you as contrary to the very idea of cops or climate action, it also suggests that a transformation toward an ecological civilization will first need to be achieved in the realm of stories: in words that recognize the truth of our predicament and help imagine the way forward. contributions in this issue of climate literacy in education put forward tangible, practical, and necessary interventions in education. articles in this issue’s curriculum section offer critical frameworks for engaging students with multimodal texts. nina goga and maria pujol-valls, along with students rebecca agostini, debora carolo, giulia nai, ilaria sardella, giulia silvestrini, discuss insights from the green dialogues project. they show how educating pre-service teachers to use picturebooks that “address both greed and insensibility and welcome young readers to collaborate and engage critically” (p. 7) can raise ecocritical consciousness in both pre-service educators and the students they https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/publications/2333.htm https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/publications/2333.htm climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 5 teach. abby hartzell shares complimentary insights from a secondary perspective, arguing that oziewicz’s click framework offered her ninth class a generative opportunity to reflect their relationship with the non-human world. the reflection section includes two perspectives on and experiences in engaging with climate literacy. neela nandyal describes preliminary findings from her doctoral research in coastal ecuador, noting that ecuadorian youth are simultaneously acutely aware of climate destruction and hopeful about their own capacity to make positive change. mary woodbury, curator at dragonfly.eco, shares her experiences curating one of the world’s largest databases on eco-fiction resources. woodbury’s practical insights prove useful to anyone collaborating on digital platforms. a robust set of critical essays offer readers several insights to think with. marek oziewicz outlines the click framework: a care-centric map for guiding students through climate literacy learning. unpacking the notions of climate literacy “knowledges” and “capacities,” oziewicz argues that the click framework allows students to both articulate relationships of care and understand their profound interconnectedness. richard beach and blaine smith discuss the range of skills that young people are already leveraging in their creation of digital media. they offer a wide summary of examples of youth-created digital media that educators could use in their classrooms. lee zimmerman responds to kirsten hunt’s article on discussing naomi klein’s how to change everything with pre-service educators. zimmerman suggests that blanket insistence on hope risks blunting the need for urgency and action and suggests we “stay with the (climate) trouble.” marcus axelsson and charlotte lindgren’s reading of sven nordqvist’s pettson and findus series argues for leveraging “pre-ecocriticism” books to engage the youngest readers in ecocritical dialogues. julia coltman argues that many of the stories in shuan tan’s tales from the inner city demonstrate human arrogance and put forward more ecocentric alternatives. finally, emma ambrosi introduces us to mr. warbler: a pen-pushing clerk who, feeling work-weary, decides to go on a walk. ambrosi’s gorey-inspired text and her illustrations (which also feature as this issue’s cover) are a call for us all to, like mr. warbler, venture further afield than just a stone’s throw. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5322 oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 6 references associated press. (22 may 2023). 2 million killed, $4.3 trillion in damages from extreme weather over past half-century, un agency says. pbs newshour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/2-million-killed-4-3-trillion-in-damagesfrom-extreme-weather-over-past-half-century-un-agency-says hansen, j. e., sato, m., simons, l., nazarenko, l. s., sangha, i., kharecha, p., zachos, j. c., von schuckmann, k., loeb, n. g., osman, m. b., jin, q., tselioudis, g., jeong, e., lacis, a., ruedy, r., russell, g., cao, j., & li, j. (2023). global warming in the pipeline. oxford open climate change, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfclm/kgad008 lakhani, n. (5 dec 2023). record number of fossil fuel lobbyists get access to cop28 climate talks. the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/record-number-offossil-fuel-lobbyists-get-access-to-cop28-climate-talks mckibben, b. (12 dec 2023). the u.n. announces the hottest year ever. the new yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-un-announcesthe-hottest-year monbiot, g. (9 dec 2023). cop28 is a farce rigged to fail, but there are other ways we can try to save the planet. the guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/cop28-rigged-failsave-planet-climate-summit-fossil-fuel rupert, r. (13 dec 2023). end cop: aren’t we all fed up with this annual vapid selfcongratulatory farce? resilience. https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-1213/end-cop-arent-we-all-fed-up-with-this-annual-vapid-self-congratulatoryfarce/?utm_source=pocket_saves technical dialogue of the first global stocktake. synthesis report by the co-facilitators on the technical dialogue. (8. sep 2023). un climate change secretariat. https://unfccc.int/documents/631600 vanos, j., guzman-echavarria, g., baldwin, j.w. et al. (2023). a physiological approach for assessing human survivability and liveability to heat in a changing climate. nat commun 14, 7653. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43121-5 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/2-million-killed-4-3-trillion-in-damages-from-extreme-weather-over-past-half-century-un-agency-says https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/2-million-killed-4-3-trillion-in-damages-from-extreme-weather-over-past-half-century-un-agency-says https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfclm/kgad008 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/record-number-of-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-get-access-to-cop28-climate-talks https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/record-number-of-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-get-access-to-cop28-climate-talks https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-un-announces-the-hottest-year https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-un-announces-the-hottest-year https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/cop28-rigged-fail-save-planet-climate-summit-fossil-fuel https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/cop28-rigged-fail-save-planet-climate-summit-fossil-fuel https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-12-13/end-cop-arent-we-all-fed-up-with-this-annual-vapid-self-congratulatory-farce/?utm_source=pocket_saves https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-12-13/end-cop-arent-we-all-fed-up-with-this-annual-vapid-self-congratulatory-farce/?utm_source=pocket_saves https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-12-13/end-cop-arent-we-all-fed-up-with-this-annual-vapid-self-congratulatory-farce/?utm_source=pocket_saves https://unfccc.int/documents/631600 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43121-5 kerhsenú life-giver, death-bringer 40 life-giver, death-bringer: instructional ideas for exploring water in the middle grades novel ninth ward julianna lopez kershen, university of oklahoma, norman, ok, usa abstract teaching children about water and symbolism through literature can be an excellent way to engage their imagination while developing their analytical skills. jewell parker rhodes’s award-winning middle grade novel, ninth ward, offers a rich opportunity for interdisciplinary, ecocritical inquiry within standards-based learning and teaching expectations. this article suggests youth participatory action research as an active learning strategy for engaging youth in communitybased investigations of water connected to their study of water's literal and figurative significance in the novel. keywords ecocriticism, middle grades, magical realism, environmental justice, youth research teaching children about water and symbolism through literature can be an excellent way to engage their imagination while developing their analytical skills. jewell parker rhodes’s award-winning middle grades novel, ninth ward (2010), offers a rich opportunity for interdisciplinary, ecocritical inquiry within standards-based learning and teaching expectations. ecocritical inquiry of literature easily fits within the scope of climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 41 next generation science standards for middle grade students (e.g., grades 5-8), specifically ms-ess3-3 earth and human activity and ms-human impacts. using shared novel reading as an organizing framework builds in strategic opportunities for standards-based literacy instruction focused on reading comprehension, literary analysis (e.g., focusing on author’s craft and structure within the novel), and writing production from both historical and literary disciplinary lenses. in this way, ninth ward offers a unique opportunity for younger readers to engage with a magical realist text that weaves together a highly believable, yet supernatural, story of young adults living through hurricane katrina and the devastating floods that followed when the levees broke in new orleans, louisiana in 2005. contemporary magical realism often blends realistic and fantastic elements with the intention of disrupting hegemonic assumptions in realistic fiction on similar topics (zamora & faris, 2000, p. 3). for example, in ninth ward, rhodes employs magical realism to challenge notions of objectivity and singularity in stories of environmental disasters, inviting readers to consider the multivocal and differential effects of disaster experiences. at the same time, the novel centers the perspective of a black female protagonist whose family celebrates african diasporic cultures and histories. in addition to being a multi-layered resource for studying water’s symbolism, ownership, and relation to characters and cultures within the novel, ninth ward is also a rich repository for classroom inquiry into other aspects of the natural world, including trees, sensory embodiment (i.e., characters’ use of smell, sight, sound, feeling, and taste), wind, and nonhuman companions. ninth ward is a magical realism novel that includes the liberatory elements of afrofuturism and afrosurrealism to celebrate the realistic material worlds of african american girls and their families, while incorporating magical events in matter-of-fact terms. rhodes employs the narrative mode of magical realism to connect to the genre forms of afrofuturism (toliver, 2019) and afrosurrealism (toliver, 2021). these narrative modes are used by authors to create new opportunities and (re)imagine historic and ongoing inequities often faced by members of communities in african countries, the african diaspora, and african americans (dery, 1994). afrofuturism has been used by authors like octavia butler as a genre form to recenter and humanize neutralizing and ahistorical narratives of enslaved peoples in her novel kindred (1979). afrosurrealism https://www.nextgenscience.org/ https://www.nextgenscience.org/pe/ms-ess3-3-earth-and-human-activity https://www.nextgenscience.org/topic-arrangement/mshuman-impacts https://www.thecorestandards.org/ela-literacy/rl/6/ https://www.thecorestandards.org/ela-literacy/rl/7/ https://www.thecorestandards.org/ela-literacy/w/6/ https://www.thecorestandards.org/ela-literacy/w/6/ https://www.thecorestandards.org/ela-literacy/rh/6-8/ kerhsenú life-giver, death-bringer 42 has also served as a narrative mode for the creation of emancipatory spaces (toliver, 2021). in similar ways, ninth ward offers teachers rich opportunities for centering the stories of black girls in their classrooms, as well as providing an engaging, accessible text for younger readers that serves as an introduction to rhodes’s oeuvre (kershen, 2023). in ninth ward the central narrator and protagonist, lanesha, and her caretaker, mama ya-ya have gifts of “the sight” (rhodes, 2010, p. 2). lanesha can see ghosts—in particular, the ghost of her mother, who died at lanesha’s birth. mama ya-ya has the ability to see ghosts and foresee future events. completely believed by characters, and believable within the story for readers, these supernatural elements help the characters to interpret and prepare for the impending hurricane. lanesha’s magical gift also serves to humanize the people who experienced the trauma of hurricane katrina, as she narrates the events in her ninth ward neighborhood. lanesha’s narration reminds readers of the multifocality of disasters and invites them to inquire into environmental justice issues (kershen, 2024). this article takes up the latter inquiry into environmental justice, focusing on water’s literal and figurative transformative power. within the novel, water is understood to be lifesaving, cleansing, and restorative, and those aspects are juxtaposed against water’s destructive power. the extended metaphor of transformation through water runs throughout the novel, and while readers may leave the novel with a heart-warming message of survival and resilience, the emotional arc of the novel is steep, even harrowing. importantly, attending to water through an ecocritical lens affords the reader a valuable repositioning of the concepts of natural disaster and environmental disaster. i intentionally use the framing of environmental disaster here, because as students investigate the reasons why hurricane katrina was so devasting for gulf bayou communities and new orleans in particular, they should be challenged to recognize that there was very little “natural” about the aftermath of flooding and the people who were affected. decades of human impacts on the environment, human built design, and racist infrastructure policy resulted in levee breakage that decimated new orleans neighborhoods and continues to harm louisiana communities. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 43 to begin a unit that forwards an ecocritical inquiry focused on water, students must decide together what “ecocritical” means. while not a scholarly or literary resource, collectively analyzing the ecocriticism wikipedia page offers a footing for students to begin asking questions to guide their shared reading. building on the definition that "ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment,” taking “an earth-centered approach to literary studies” (glotfelty, 1996, p. xviii), students can combine their new definitions of ecocritical reading with an analysis of the book’s front and back covers. considered an early advocate for ecocriticism, glotfelty’s scholarship emphasizes the importance of studying the relationship between literature and the physical environment, exploring how texts represent and engage with ecological issues. investigating the book’s covers as document containing a variety of features and peritextual elements, students can proffer up predictions and inferences. bringing these two sets of evolving knowledge together, one set that informs the inquiry as focused on how the story conveys, interacts, and describes the physical environment, and second set containing inferential knowledge gleaned from the book’s covers, readers are well-prepared to begin reading with eyes open to overarching understanding questions like, how do we connect to water as a family or larger community? to whom does water belong? how does water serve as a metaphor in the novel? initially, students can engage the literal roles water plays in the novel, charting their thinking in marginal writing, in reader-response notebook entries, on chart paper, and other forms of dialogic interaction. these ways of recording thinking become rehearsal sites of assurance and confidence for students, as they articulate their thinking into writing that can be used as discussion notes, outlines, and evidence for longer writing and class conversations. within the novel’s plot, water is both life sustaining and life ending, as lanesha stocks clean drinking water before the storm and later experiences the destructive power of the hurricane and rising flood waters. water also shows up in unexpected ways, as tears characters shed and baths that cleanse and renew. each of these literal meanings also connect to a central theme of the novel, transformation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ecocriticism kerhsenú life-giver, death-bringer 44 supplementing a focused ecocritical exploration of water in the novel, students will likely want to investigate what caused the catastrophic flooding and why the levees broke. this investigation brings forward issues of environmental racism and justice that highlight both human impacts on the environment and the disproportionality extant in many environmental disasters. rhodes’s novel does not address the history of racism and redlining in housing opportunities in new orleans, nor does it explain the lack of infrastructure investment that resulted in deadly flooding throughout new orleans neighborhoods, particularly in the majority african american neighborhoods of the ninth ward. however, the novel creates space for students to begin asking questions around these topics and the larger social justice issues of environmental racism and environmental justice (kershen, 2024; figure 1). figure 1: examples of writing prompts for inquiry and interdisciplinary study. ninth ward offers a resonant opportunity for interdisciplinary studies in the middle grade classroom. whether read as a whole class shared text, within small group literature circles, or as an independent novel read during a student choice unit, the incorporation of social studies, science, and english language arts learning outcomes and instruction cohere well. literature can contextualize real-world examples of writing prompts for inquiry and interdisciplinary study • how has the history of water in your community shaped the geography of where you live? • how does access to ample clean water inform your decision-making day-to-day? • how have storms, such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and tornadoes, changed over time during a set time period in your state or region (for example, in the last five years, ten years, or one hundred years)? • where is water scarce in the world? • how is “scarcity” defined in that context, and how does the need for water shape the day-to-day lives of the people and nonhuman species in that environment? • how are communities effected by extreme flooding? • how do communities respond when flooded? • hurricanes katrina and rita hit the gulf coast of the united states in 2005. • how do gulf communities continue to experience the effects of these storms? • how do the lasting effects of large storms shape human life and nonhuman flora and fauna? climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 45 scientific principles as well as scientific concepts, models, and processes that may otherwise be abstracted from student experience and real-world contexts (e.g., climate change, storm development, and infrastructure engineering). ninth ward contains multiple opportunities for students to develop lines of inquiry into many pressing environmental issues that will continue to shape our lives. students can also engage in nonfiction writing projects resulting in the creation of feature articles, scientific reports and presentations, and interviews with local leaders and community experts in fields such as city planning, storm water, and water maintenance. these modes of community engaged research connect to models of youth participatory action research (ypar) (cammarota & fine, 2008; ozer, 2017), in which students are given opportunities to conduct student-led research on issues relevant to their lives. within this framework, teachers serve to mentor and model engaged research, supporting students as they collaborate in research they design and enact in their local communities. ypar affords students interactions to serve as mentors to one another and to be mentored by community members with whom they might not otherwise intersect, whose expertise can open new paths of understanding academic concepts in authentic, real-time situations and contexts. ypar also positions students as developing experts with a chance to give back to their communities. in the case of ecocritical analysis and water studies, students can share their learning with the community in school and civic club meetings, city council sessions, and in art or other performance mediums. these opportunities bridge school-based academics and social justice learning to empower students as community activists (cammarota & fine, 2008; ozer, 2017). reading ninth ward from an ecocritical literary perspective also opens students to creative and personal writing to explore the ways in which water has shaped their cultures, histories, and everyday lives. students may choose to write from personal experience to examine the ways in which water shapes their geographies and daily priorities. as it is in ninth ward, water can also be a powerful source of memory, emotion, and recognition of self. students can select other forms and genres of writing, including poetry, myth, character/setting studies, and short story, to explore their personal experiences with water and the ways interactions with water make them feel and have informed who they are (figure 2). kerhsenú life-giver, death-bringer 46 writing prompts for creative writing • using sensory language, describe an interaction with water in your life. • how does it feel? what does it sound like? look like? smell like? • like in ninth ward, water is often portrayed in literature as having transformative power. • describe a time in your life when water changed you. • write about a family tradition or celebration involving water. • how does water bring people together? • create a myth or short story in which water is a character. • what role would water play in your story? • what character traits would you use to define the persona of water in your story? • create a hero whose strength comes from water. what's their origin story? • describe a magical creature that lives in water. • how does this creature interact with its environment? • write a diary entry from the perspective of a raindrop traveling from a cloud to the ocean. • imagine you can breathe underwater. • what secrets would you discover in a local lake or river? • write about a character who gains a new skill or power related to water. • how does it change them? • write a conversation between a river and a child. • what does the river teach the child? figure 2: examples of writing prompts for creative writing. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 47 ninth ward is a unique text for exploring the complex effects of water in our lives. before hurricane katrina arrived in her new orleans neighborhood, lanesha interacted with water in a series of positive, yet mundane ways—she enjoyed a hot bubble bath, bathed a found puppy and played in the sprinkler with a friend, and helped mama yaya washup dishes after a birthday dinner. these innocuous interactions reiterate the many ways we rely on water in everyday activities. at the same time, these interactions are bittersweet, as by the novel’s end lanesha’s life has been irrevocably changed by the flooding that followed the storm. water that was cleansing and sustaining becomes a powerful enemy. water also serves as a transformative force in the novel, as lanesha begins as a child and ends as an adolescent, washed anew in the flood waters. there is much for middle grades readers to explore in ninth ward, as teachers can support student-centered research into water use in local communities, combine content to craft interdisciplinary studies, and analyze the figurative and literary references to water with students. kerhsenú life-giver, death-bringer 48 references butler, o. (1979). kindred. doubleday. cammarota, j., & fine, m. (eds.). (2008). revolutionizing education: youth participatory action research in motion. routledge. dery, m. (1994). black to the future: interviews with samuel r. delaney, greg tate, and tricia rose. in flame wars: the discourse of cyberculture, 179–222. duke university press. ecocriticism. (2024, july 31). in wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ecocriticism eshun, k. (2003). further considerations on afrofuturism. cr: the new centennial review, 3(2), 287–302. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41949397 glotfelty, c., & fromm, h. (eds.). (1996). the ecocriticism reader: landmarks in literary ecology. university of georgia press. kershen, j. e. (2023). magic as emancipatory in the magical realism novels of jewell parker rhodes. the alan review, 51(1), 22-33. kershen, j. e. (2024) exploring the complexities of environmental disaster, justice, and racism in ninth ward (chap. 1). in k. hinton & k. chandler (eds.), teaching black speculative fiction: equity, justice, and antiracism (pp. 1-15). routledge press. rhodes, j. p. (2010). ninth ward. little, brown. ozer, e. j. (2017). youth-led participatory action research: overview and potential for enhancing adolescent development. child development perspectives 11(93), 173– 177. toliver, s. r. (2019). breaking binaries: #blackgirlmagic and the black ratchet imagination. journal of language and literacy education, 15 (1), 1-26 toliver, s. r. (2021). freedom dreaming in a broken world: the black radical imagination in black girls’ science fiction stories. research in the teaching of english, 56(1), pp. 85-106. womack, y. l. (2013). afrofuturism: the world of black sci-fi and fantasy culture. chicago review press. zamora, l., & faris, w. b. (eds.). (2000). magical realism: theory, history, community. duke university press. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ecocriticism http://www.jstor.org/stable/41949397 redmond ú hope framework 14 the hope framework: a literacy strategy for identifying hope in narratives as a response to young people’s eco-grief colleen b. redmond, university of minnesota-twin cities, united states abstract this article outlines the healing opportunities for processing eco-grief (or hope) framework. modeled on hope theory research, the framework includes four textual markers for hope: 1) motivation for change, 2) belief that change is possible, 3) plans for a path forward, and 4) agency to take action. this article introduces the hope framework as a pedagogical strategy to assist educators in climate literacy practices that spark dialogue and healing through centering hope as a lived practice. keywords eco-grief, hope, hope framework, climate literacy, climate emotions, collective action https://www.climatelit.org/?s=climate+grief https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy https://www.climatelit.org/search-results/?wpv_view_count=1223&wpv_post_search=&wpv-audience=0&wpv-publication-years=0&wpv-topic%5b%5d=climate-emotions https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 15 an introduction to the hope framework not far into madeleine l’engle’s a wrinkle in time (1962), charles wallace, calvin, and meg realize the magnitude of the challenges they face. to offer strength for what’s to come, mrs. who says: “nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything” (p. 61). young people today, too, need hope as they face a magnitude of challenges related to the climate crisis. such hope must include action-based strategies that embrace “a committed and active struggle” (duncan-andrade, 2009, p. 185). this article offers an overview of the hope framework as a tool for educators to integrate hope-centered strategies into their climate literacy practices. modeled on hope theory established by charles r. snyder (2002) and expanded on by joanna macy and chris johnstone (2022), the framework proposed below includes four textual markers: 1) motivation for change, 2) belief that change is possible, 3) plans for a path forward, and 4) agency to take action. the hope framework is designed to help students explore the intersections of hope, eco-grief, and climate literacy through the study of hope as a tangible action-based construct that can be identified in stories and used to spark healing dialogue with youth, especially as a response to eco-grief. the concept of hope-sparking dialogue is grounded in paulo freire’s notion of dialogical action, where “subjects meet in cooperation in order to transform the world” (2018, p. 167). literature offers opportunities for just such dialogical transformation through the discussion of hope and grief represented in a story. this leads to conversations involving the readers’ own experiences and reframes their understanding of what hope is and how it works. hope, eco-grief, and youth this framework emerged in response to the ever-growing evidence of the global mental health impacts on youth due to the climate emergency. as elin kelsey (2020) notes, “the environmental crisis is also a crisis of hope” (p. 4). a 2021 survey of over 10,000 youth ages 16-25 found that when asked about climate change, 75% of youth found the future frightening and 59% were extremely worried. more than half reported sadness, anxiety, anger, powerlessness, helplessness, and guilt. 45% admitted that these feelings negatively impact their lives on a daily basis (hickman et al., 2021). whether or not students are talking about it at school, they are almost certainly https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/growplus/files/2020/02/hope-synder-paper.pdf https://www.activehope.info/ redmond ú hope framework 16 experiencing a range of climate emotions. with this in mind, i began thinking about how hope might be better defined and used as a response to negative climate emotions. as a graduate student in literacy education, i also wondered how stories might be used for this task. the field of climate emotions includes a wide variety of feelings organized in climate emotions wheel (pihkala, 2022; climate barometer 2022). one such term, specifically addressed in the hope framework, is eco-grief: “the grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change” (cunsolo and ellis, p. 275). eco-grief is a phenomenon with global causes. a 2019 report by the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ipbes) estimates that about one million species on earth are facing extinction, a rate which is tens to hundreds of times higher than average and is expected to increase without direct conservation efforts. humans have now notably altered 75% of the planet’s land surface, impacted the loss of over 85% of wetland area, and set in motion ever increasing damage for 66% of earth’s oceans (ibid). a 2017 american psychological association report shows that these losses have not gone unnoticed. the study found instances of emotional dysregulation in children as young as three years old due to both experienced and anticipated climate impacts (clayton et al., 2017). being aware of this deeply personal sense of loss many youths are facing is crucial for engaging with the hope framework. by acknowledging students’ and our own ecogrief, we are better able to understand the need for hope and the opportunities literature holds for healing. rethinking hope as action it is important to understand what is meant by the concept of hope. merriam-webster (2018) defines hope as, “desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment”—a line of thinking focused on expectations illustrated in francis bacon’s notion of hope as “a good breakfast, but a bad supper” (bartlett, 1968, p. 20). by contrast, greta thunberg (2022) describes hope as “taking action” (p. 421). it is this action-oriented mindset, based on the work of c.r. snyder, joanna macy and chris johnstone, that informs the hope framework. according to snyder, hope consists of https://climatebarometer.org/research-details-wide-array-of-climate-emotions/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 17 “the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways” (p. 249). hope is likewise action-oriented for macy and johnstone. in active hope, they assert that hope involves three steps: 1) facing a realistic view of the problem that acknowledges emotions, 2) identifying a vision for what needs to change, and 3) creating a concrete plan to move in a new direction (pp. 4-5). central to the promise of the hope framework is a large body of evidence showing consistently positive impacts for people with higher levels of actionbased hope in quality-of-life indicators such as healthy eating, exercise, resilience to stress, and overall mental health, including lower rates of anxiety and depression (gallagher & lopez, 2017). as kelsey notes, “hope improves our capacity to engage with the real and overwhelming issues we face” (p. 11). snyder likewise asserts specific potential for hope in education: “the results to date indicate that hope, taught in the classroom context of a school setting, can be raised” (p. 262). oziewicz’s proposal about planetarianism and the potential of planetarianist stories to help students develop “hope-oriented anticipatory imagination” is another example of advocacy for story-based hope work in the classroom (2022, p. 242). in other words, hope not only heals but also can be taught. exploring the use of the hope framework in climate literature the textual markers on which the hope framework is based include motivation for change, belief that change is possible, plans for a path forward, and agency to take action (see figure 1). by recognizing these elements in narratives, whether published texts or in the students’ own stories, a framework for guiding the discourse toward hope is created. this hope framework allows hope, an often nebulous concept, to become visible through the characters’ actions. the story then becomes a springboard for conversations around climate literacy while also spurring on figure 1 redmond ú hope framework 18 readers’ reflections on their own motivations, beliefs, plans, and agency. to illustrate the hope framework in action, i examine shaunna and john stith’s picturebook black beach: a community, an oil spill, and the origin of earth day (2023). black beach tells the story of sam, a girl living in santa barbara, ca, during the union oil spill in january 1969 and of the events leading up to the first earth day. the story revolves around the consequences of people's actions on the environment and how the characters move forward with hope toward solutions. the four hope markers of motivation, belief, plans, and agency guide readers to identify elements of hope in the narrative and to recognize opportunities for processing their own eco-grief. in black beach, after sam learns of the spill, she runs anxiously down to see her beloved beach. “with each step, she could feel the weight of her worry.” later, she stands on the beach with her parents looking out into the oil-filled water. “it was even worse than she feared” (fig 2). although this is certainly a terrible event, it serves as figure 2 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-beach-a-community-an-oil-spill-and-the-origin-of-earth-day/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-beach-a-community-an-oil-spill-and-the-origin-of-earth-day/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-beach-a-community-an-oil-spill-and-the-origin-of-earth-day/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-beach-a-community-an-oil-spill-and-the-origin-of-earth-day/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 19 motivation for sam to take steps toward action. in the context of the hope framework, as unlikely as it seems, this step is part of hope. although motivation does not always need to be tragic, it often is. grief, however, can paralyze motivation which brings up an important point of discussion within the hope framework. after the oil spill in black beach, sam sits by herself on the beach looking out at the polluted water. “sam felt helpless. all she could do was sit back and watch” (fig 3). this is the lowest point of the story. it is important to note that, at first, sam faces her ecogrief alone. as the book continues, it is only by working together with others that sam can move forward. this power of collective action is a key element of hope and an essential part of engaging students through the hope framework. the importance of collective action is illustrated in black beach when sam joins her friends in filling bottles with oily sand to send to politicians, believing this would make a difference. “if the people in power saw what had happened, then maybe they would work to prevent it from ever happening again” (fig 4). this belief has an impact. senator gaylord nelson visits santa barbara which sets in motion plans for the first earth day. examples of the hope markers— motivation, belief, and plans—appear multiple times in black beach and build upon each other. figure 3 figure 4 redmond ú hope framework 20 this is true as well for the fourth element of hope: the agency to take action. sam finds agency as she carries out the plans for earth day: “the more sam learned, the more powerful she felt.” she puts up signs on the beach to protect it and bring awareness of environmental issues. “there was still more work to do, and sam and her friends were just getting started” (fig 5). each event described above serves as an excellent entry point for dialogue with students. each helps them recognize hope and eco-grief both in the story and as part of their own emotions in relation to the climate crisis. bringing hope and eco-grief into classroom conversations educators know well the power of stories to inspire students and build inroads for learning. stories, too, serve as launching pads for topics that can often be hard to know how to begin, including climate change and the myriad emotions that come with it. fear, anxiety, and helplessness are just some of the feelings youth face each day and with the ever-accelerating climate emergency the impact of eco-grief is of particular concern. it is now, more than ever, that young people need to find hope in their future, and this is where the power of stories comes in. hope is much more than wishful thinking. it is an emotion driving action and healing. it can reveal itself as such in stories if we know what to look for. the four hope markers presented here help not only find hope in literature but also frame discussions around motivation, belief, plans, and agency that allow students to share their worries and fears for the planet. besides black beach, many other picturebooks engage with a collective response to eco-grief. among them are juana martinez-neal’s zonia’s rainforest (2021) and meeg pincas’ ocean soup (2021), both of which also work well for bringing hope markers into the classroom. the hope framework can also be used for exploring stories for older readers, such as alan gratz’s two degrees (2022), amy allgeyer’s dig too deep (2016), and katherine applegate’s willodeen (2021). the figure 5 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/zonias-rain-forest/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/zonias-rain-forest/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/dig-too-deep/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 21 hope markers are adaptable to a wide range of literature, and there is likely a story already waiting to try out on your bookshelf. ultimately, the power of stories comes not just from the author’s words but from the ideas they inspire. using the hope markers empowers students to voice and honor their eco-grief while also realizing that hope can exist both in published stories and in their own. in the end, it is this realization that will help us all move closer to hope and healing. references clayton, s., manning, c. m., krygsman, k., & speiser, m. (2017). mental health and our changing climate: impacts, implications, and guidance. american psychological association and ecoamerica. cunsolo, a., & ellis, n. r. (2018). ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. nature climate change, 8(4), 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2 duncan-andrade, j. (2009). note to educators: hope required when growing roses in concrete. harvard educational review, 79(2), 181–194. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.2.nu3436017730384w freire, p. ([1968] 2018). pedagogy of the oppressed. bloomsbury academic. gallagher, m. w., & lopez, s. j. (2018). the oxford handbook of hope. oxford university press. hickman, c., marks, e., pihkala, p., clayton, s., lewandowski, r. e., mayall, e. e., wray, b., mellor, c., & van susteren, l. (2021). climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. the lancet planetary health, 5(12). https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00278-3 ipbes. (2019). summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services. zenodo (cern european organization for nuclear research). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3553579 kelsey, e. (2020). hope matters: why changing the way we think is critical to solving the environmental crisis. greystone books. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2 https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.2.nu3436017730384w https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00278-3 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3553579 redmond ú hope framework 22 macy, j., & johnstone, c. (2020). active hope: how to face the mess we're in without going crazy. new world library. merriam-webster. (2018). hope. merriam-webster.com. https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/hope oziewicz, m. (2022). planetarianism now: on anticipatory imagination, young people’s literature and hope for the planet. in paulsen, m., jagodzinski, j. and hawke, s.m. (eds.). pedagogy in the anthropocene: re-wilding education for a new earth. palgrave, 241-56. pihkala, p. (2022). toward a taxonomy of climate emotions. frontiers in climate, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.738154 snyder, c. r. (2002). hope theory: rainbows in the mind. psychological inquiry, 13(4), 249–275. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1304_01 stith, s., & stith, j. (2023). black beach: a community, an oil spill, and the origin of earth day. simon and schuster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hope https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hope https://link.springer.com/book/9783030909796 https://link.springer.com/book/9783030909796 https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.738154 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1304_01 2 acknowledgements we are grateful for the generous support of the late dr. pete palmer, whose contribution allowed us to ferry this first issue from concept to publication. we are also grateful for the support of the university of minnesota libraries in helping us to bring this open-access, digital journal to fruition. a special note of thanks goes to emma molls and laureen boutang. they were—and continue to be—central in guiding us through this process. taylor goetsch, winner of the center for climate literacy’s inaugural arts for the planet visual media award, provided the cover illustration. izzy sheen created and generously donated rights to the logo to climate literacy in education. this logo will soon be digitized. editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 27 andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia tanja nathanael, san josé state university, california, usa abstract the reflection describes my experience of using andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet as a hopeful guide toward classroom discussions about sustainable futures. magnason’s novel helps students appreciate the environmental choices we are currently facing and provides an outline for what needs to be done. just like the children of the blue planet, we face similar challenges to overcome resistance to climate literacy and action. magnason’s message is hopeful and gestures at an ecotopian future. the book suggests that the choice to live sustainably is not as hard as it may seem. keywords anthropocene, climate action, consumer culture, utopia, dystopia, ecotopia, development, greenwashing, ecological overshoot, ecological destruction, system change, degrowth, ecotopia, story of the blue planet in august 2019, icelandic author andri magnason and a group of his researcher friends placed a plaque at the top of ok mountain commemorating the loss of the ok glacier in iceland. titled “a letter to the future,” the plaque acknowledges the loss of the glacier to human-driven climate change. it states boldly, “this monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. only you know if we did it” (magnason, 2019). this challenge to actively protect the environment is at the heart of magnason’s work, especially his ecotopian fable the story of the blue planet. since its icelandic debut in 1999, blue planet has been published or performed in 40 countries. it was also the first children’s book to receive the icelandic literary prize (magnason, n.d). i teach blue planet in my children’s literature course to facilitate discussions about climate change and our responsibility to the planet. i believe magnason’s novel helps students appreciate the choice we are currently facing and outlines what needs to be done. magnason’s blue planet is the home of eternally youthful wild children who live carefree lives on their idyllic island. with no adults around to tell them anything, the children are free to do as they please. one day, however, gleesome goodday crash lands his rocket onto the island, https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/consumerism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/utopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/dystopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecotopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/development/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/greenwashing/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-overshoot/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-destruction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/system-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/degrowth/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecotopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-story-of-the-blue-planet/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-story-of-the-blue-planet/ nathanael towards ecotopia 28 bringing with him all the trappings of civilization. gooday manipulates the children into selling him a fraction of their youth in exchange for the ability to fly. but best friends brimir and hulda soon discover that the price of their fun may be far more than they are willing to pay—perhaps the death of the planet itself. ultimately, the wild children must choose to give up their newfound powers in order to save their world. what i find personally interesting about the narrative arc of this text is the emphasis on the children’s awakening to their negative impact on their environment (i.e. ecological overshoot) and what they need to do next (i.e. system change). this growth in the characters’ climate awareness illustrates a move from the increasingly dystopian utopia toward ecotopia. the beginning of the story shows the wild children living in relative harmony with the natural world but fully unconscious of their impact on it. the children live in bliss, but it is a bliss of ecological and climate ignorance resulting from their human-supremacist worldview: “the wild children ate when they were hungry, slept when they got tired, and in between they played without anyone interfering” (magnason, 2012, p. 10). indeed, the world exists only for their pleasure. when brimir is first introduced, he is contemplating stealing penguin eggs for supper. shortly after that, hulda arrives with a dead seal and offers to share a meal with him. “it was no big deal,” she says, “i knocked it out with a club” (p. 14). they proceed to skin, grill, and eat the seal. this cultural marker points to the northern origins of the text, where seal is a common staple, especially among indigenous tribes. however, including this episode at the beginning also serves to illustrate the characters’ ignorance about their ecological footprint. beauty is all around them, and they exclaim rapturously about it, but nothing requires the children to reflect on their surroundings or on their role in sustaining the planet. with the arrival of gleesome goodday, a strangely garbed adult who represents consumer culture, the ignorance of the wild children is exploited. goodday is attired in a hawaiian shirt and carries a briefcase—arguably symbols for two significant exploiters of the environment: tourism and corporate business. proclaiming the children “horribly underdeveloped,” goodday declares that he will show them “real fun” by making their wildest dreams come true (p. 27). one such dream is the ability to fly. having arrived in a rocket ship, goodday is equipped with all manner of tools and gadgets, such as the “ap xu 456r 2000 super vacuum cleaner” (p. 30), which he uses to vacuum up the butterfly powder that enables the children to fly. at first, the children express their concern for the butterflies. but once they are assured that the butterflies have not been harmed— other than having their ability to fly stolen—the children reason: “there are no laws on this island so it must be okay to vacuum-clean butterflies” (p. 30). previous to goodday’s arrival, watching the annual flight of the butterflies was the wild children’s greatest joy (p. 27). now they are willing to trade that joy for the ability to fly themselves: a thought-provoking illustration of human expansionism. significantly, they emphasize their own lawless state to defend the theft of the butterfly powder. but the “fun” doesn’t stop there. although goodday seems to give the children only what they desire, the wild children enthusiastically embrace anything he offers, sadly at the expense of other children and beings on the blue planet. when the children discover that the butterfly powder https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-overshoot/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/system-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/utopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecotopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-ignorance/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/human-supremacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-footprint/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/consumerism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/consumerism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/human-expansionism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/human-expansionism/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 29 only allows them to fly in sunlight, the children complain to goodday that they are bored at night. so goodday nails the sun to the sky to keep it shining all the time (p. 39). when clouds obscure the sun, the children ask goodday to fix the weather once again. this time, goodday creates a giant wolf from the smoke of his cigar to chase the clouds from the sky (p. 43). none of the children give a thought to what may be happening on the other side of their world due to the imbalance they have created by hoarding natural resources for themselves. before they can become climate literate, brimir and hulda must recognize the damage their fun has generated: the dystopia created from the wild children’s greed. when brimir and hulda are blown off course to the other side of the blue planet during a flying race, they discover a land in darkness. here, cut off from the sun, children and animals are starving and plants are dying. significantly, brimir and hulda discover that they no longer smell like real children due to the “teflon wonder stuff” (p. 48) that goodday coated them with. a bear refuses to eat them, believing they are either “plastic children or zombies” (p. 61). because brimir and hulda smell faintly of butterfly powder, the wild animals call them the “butterfly monsters” (p. 69). brimir and hulda take advantage of that fear to demand that the animals serve them food. their fun is cut short when the animals deliver to them a weak and pale child. befriending the boy darrow, they follow him back to his camp where they are introduced to other ghost children (p. 78). not actual ghosts, the ghost children are in a desperate condition due to the slow violence of being deprived of sunlight on their side of the planet. they relay their plight to brimir and hulda and proclaim what i argue is the core message of the text: “if the forest dies, we die too” (p. 81). embarrassed at their role in creating the dark side of the planet (i.e. environmental degradation), brimir and hulda mislead the ghost children into believing that their side of the world is suffering as well. the sympathetic ghost children gift brimir and hulda with precious food and supplies and most especially with a balloon that will get them home. brimir and hulda return from their journey with the knowledge that a choice must be made and the daunting task of convincing the wild children to make it. key to the resolution of the narrative is collective climate action and democratic process. brimir and hulda’s revelations meet with resistance from both goodday and the wild children. the wild children prevaricate, saying “somebody must do something sometime” (p. 95). they also put their decision to democratic vote, which is heavily influenced by goodday’s greenwashing. he argues that they can have their fun and save the ghost children, too: “if we all pull together and send the children in the darkness food and blankets and shoes, then we’ll save their lives and we can still keep the nail in the sun” (p. 103). but brimir and hulda know that the imbalance of resources will not alleviate the suffering of the ghost children. in due course, it is the generosity of the ghost children themselves that finally turns the tide, when they send crates of supplies across the sea. goodday initially plays off the fears of the wild children and tries to convince them the crates are full of bombs. instead, the crates are full of food, clothing, and stories. ultimately, the wild children agree to what is the book’s version of degrowth and respect for ecosystems balance: they return the butterfly powder to the butterflies and to unpin the sun. what is refreshingly absent from this text is active violence in resolving the problems of the blue planet. the wild children make conscious choices to change their world by changing themselves https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy https://www.climatelit.org/topic/dystopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/slow-violence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-degradation/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/greenwashing/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/degrowth/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecosystems-balance/ nathanael towards ecotopia 30 and the way they interact with their environment (i.e. system change). goodday is not killed, banished, or punished, but instead given a more limited role. this may suggest that regenerative economy and consumer culture built on respecting planetary limits may be possible. hulda provides the breakthrough when she asks goodday what he dreams of. when it turns out that he wants “to be a king” (p. 121), hulda and other children grant goodday’s wish, observing that a king in a castle is “like a monkey in a cage” (p. 124). by granting goodday his wish, the wild children will be able to keep an eye on him. the events that follow demonstrate that the wild children have learned from goodday, although perhaps not in the way he imagined. in exchange for his castle and title, goodday is persuaded to return the children’s lost youth and to unpin the sun. in the end, he even learns to appreciate fairy tales, starry skies, and the flight of the butterflies. the impact of the human enterprise on the environment cannot be denied, as the fate of ok illustrates. we can no longer pretend that what happens in one corner of the world has no effect on another. magnason maintains, “the melting of the glaciers is an issue all future generations will have to deal with and adapt to. as the glaciers are not vanishing and becoming nothing, they are becoming a rising ocean that will come splashing at the city gates of the world” (2019). magnason’s novel provides a hopeful, planetarianist narrative about people learning, coming together, and making informed choices for humanity and for the planet. the same choice is placed before us, just as it was for the children of the blue planet: can we undo what we have done? can we unpin the sun? and what ecotopian future are we brave enough to dream into being? references magnason, a.s. (n.d). books. www.andrimagnason.com. accessed 21 december 2022. http://www.andrimagnason.com/books/ -----. (2019). ok-glacier in memoriam // a letter to the future. www.andrimagnason.com. accessed 21 december 2022. http://www.andrimagnason.com/dreamland/2019/07/ok-glacier-in-memoriam-a-letterto-the-future/ -----. (2012). the story of the blue planet. (á. jónsdóttir, illus.; j. meldon d’arcy, trans.). triangle square. (original work published 1999). https://www.climatelit.org/topic/regenerative-economy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/regenerative-economy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/human-enterprise/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/planetarianism/ http://www.andrimagnason.com/books/ http://www.andrimagnason.com/dreamland/2019/07/ok-glacier-in-memoriam-a-letter-to-the-future/ http://www.andrimagnason.com/dreamland/2019/07/ok-glacier-in-memoriam-a-letter-to-the-future/ editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 7 the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy mary-alice corliss, cogniatm lisa vicens, cogniatm rebecca l. young, cogniatm abstract in this article, we first outline an inquiry-based pedagogical model for studying scientific phenomena through the lens of a story. then, we offer a middle school example that educators can pilot in their classrooms or use as a guide for constructing their own. the middle school pilot opportunity explores the science behind coastal erosion and the impacts of sea level rise in julie bertagna’s exodus. keywords climate change, sea level rise, climate science, pedagogical models, science fiction, fantasy, exodus a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories storytelling is a practice that has a long history in helping humanity make sense of the world. stories are powerful because they help bring data to life, allowing learners to connect meaningfully with information that may otherwise feel abstract. stories, therefore, can be valuable teaching tools for promoting deeper learning of complex phenomena such as climate change and its impacts, direct and indirect, on each learner. as a universal lens, narratives about the environment can facilitate conversations about the impacts of climate change by encouraging exploration into the patterns of human behavior that https://www.climatelit.org/literature/exodus/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/climate-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sea-level-rise/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-science/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/pedagogical-models/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/science-fiction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/fantasy/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/exodus/ https://ncte.org/statement/teaching-storytelling-position-statements/ corliss, vicens & young  the science behind the stories 8 contribute to them. leveraging cognitive research on mirror neurons, narrative empathy, and theory of mind, a transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy positions storytelling as a framing lens for critical topics that engage k-12 students in climate literacy education. investigating the science behind stories that address the impacts of climate change can help teachers guide collaborative problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication. we offer here a visual (see figures 1 and 2) and written outline of a 9-step inquiry-based pedagogical model designed to foster students’ climate literacy, empathy, and collective agency. if you are a teacher interested in piloting this model to help your students examine coastal erosion and sea level rise through the lens of julie bertagna’s young adult novel exodus, please contact mary-alice corliss and rebecca young (maryalice.corliss@cognia.org; rebecca.young@cognia.org). we are seeking educator and student feedback as we continue to develop this model and to build task designs merging stories and scientific phenomena across grade levels. real-world performance task design read the narrative read a story or narrative excerpt that addresses an aspect of climate change. this story (fiction or nonfiction) frames the instruction and must feel relevant to students because of its setting, conflict or characters. choosing an emotionally engaging story or episode cannot be emphasized enough— https://www.climatelit.org/topic/coastal-erosion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sea-level-rise/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/exodus/ mailto:maryalice.corliss@cognia.org mailto:rebecca.young@cognia.org climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 9 this investment is critical for learning, not only helping learners better retain new information but allowing them to process information empathetically to promote prosocial action. explore the science explore the science behind the phenomenon that drives the conflict of the story (e.g., sea level rise, coastal erosion, species extinction, pollution, weather). a phenomenon is more than simply a topic related to climate change: it is an observation that requires explanation of a problem that requires a solution. when framed in a storyline, students can use that context to develop a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. reflect on perspectives reflect on the phenomenon as it relates to the broader context of climate change, including, as appropriate, its local and global impacts. reflections should take place before, during, and after studying the narrative and should address both understanding and perception of the phenomenon (scientific, social, and others). the empathy continuum supports discussions related to the perspectives of characters and readers with the goal of engaging differing points of view and experiences. analyze contexts analyze climate-related contexts illuminated by the narrative: from setting descriptions that illustrate environmental impacts, through historical, social, or political backdrops that inform the story’s central conflict, and on to the personal motivations that drive character actions and dialogue related to it. targeted standards-based questions scaffold toward a culminating transdisciplinary performance task. examine data examine the phenomenon as it is presented in the story and consider the science behind claims, challenges, and potential solutions the author or narrator is exploring. real-world data stimuli are invaluable to support students’ understanding of the problem’s complexity, pervasiveness, and longterm impacts. evaluate solutions evaluate existing and potential solutions based on real-world contexts related to the phenomenon, gathering information from a variety of sources that helps extend appreciation both for what is happening in the narrative and in reality (present and future). investigate the effectiveness of solutions and make data-based predictions related to the story and any real-world parallels. collaborate to problem-solve collaborate to collect information and engage in problem-solving. compare narrative-based and real-world evidence to focus decisions, seek additional information, and develop solutions. synthesize findings across content areas and prepare recommendations for narrative-based and/or real-world audiences. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/coastal-erosion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/coastal-erosion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/extinction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/pollution/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/extreme-weather-events/ https://ib-innovate.com/2019/05/01/empathy-continuum/ https://ib-innovate.com/2019/05/01/empathy-continuum/ corliss, vicens & young  the science behind the stories 10 create and communicate create a product or presentation designed to communicate your findings with others (connected to the storyline and/or the school community). final products and presentations incorporate a transdisciplinary approach to learning, pulling from multiple subject and skill areas to respond to a real-world problem. share learning experience using final products and/or presentations with peers, school leaders, or community panels. sharing is designed to promote awareness and inspire action. demonstrate learning this task can be adapted for use as an instructional plan, as a formative or summative assessment based on scaffolded instruction, or as a performance-based project. assessments of learning can include self-reflection, peer reviews, and rubrics. interested in piloting a climate literacy task? in this last section we share an example of an opening task for the 9-step model of teaching climate literacy we introduced above. in this task, students are asked to analyze the science underlying the main conflict in the opening of exodus by julie bertagna. set in a dystopian future of 2099, the story opens on wing, an island where the protagonist mara lives with her family. the island is about to experience the same fate as most other land masses in the story’s world as global sea-level rise threatens to completely submerge it. the 6-page “the swallowing sea” chapter sets the conflict in motion as mara tries to persuade her family and other residents that they must leave their home in search of higher ground, if any still exists. “the swallowing sea” establishes the conflict between mara’s expectations to continue to live on the island of wing and the reality of global sea level rise, due to climate change, that will https://www.climatelit.org/literature/exodus/ https://books.google.com/books?id=l9st5bod3occ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 11 soon swallow the island. the chapter also comments on the patterns of human behavior that contribute to inaction. as the book unfolds, denial, fear, and misunderstanding are represented in the opposition mara faces, making it an effective lens through which to explore the complex contexts fueling today’s real-world conflicts in attitudes about climate change. the chapter, as an excerpt, could serve as an introduction to the science of coastal erosion or sea level rise or as part of a broader study on the impacts of a warming planet, specifically climate-related migration and the limitations of natural resources. the novel itself could be studied in full as part of a climate-focused literature unit too. it is highly engaging for the age group and offers rich opportunities for analyzing human behavior in response to climate change challenges. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/coastal-erosion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/coastal-erosion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-migration/ editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement braucht  seeing through water 12 seeing through water: the impact of our decisions sonja braucht, brandon valley public schools, brandon, sd, usa abstract seeing through water is a unit developed to bring awareness of climate change to eighthgrade middle school students in the english language arts classroom. the topic of water was selected because of the interdisciplinary connections and cross-curricular standards relevant for the middle school level. students are asked to justify how the actions of others impact the decisions they make. presented with accurate information, students make connections to their lives, become climate literate, and learn to take appropriate, thoughtful actions. keywords biodiversity, climate literacy, climate change, collective action, sustainability, youth climate activism, multimodal texts overview this unit came from a desire to engage students in understanding climate change in an accessible and meaningful way. water became the focus of this planning when it became clear that water quality was impacting students, families, and community members in the school district. this topic also meant understanding the context of the community surrounding students and how that impacts students’ perspectives coming into the conversation. in a district that is heavily influenced by the prominence of agriculture and political views that challenge the urgency of climate change, it was important to find ways to bring students into the conversation through personal connections and layering of texts. the intention of this unit is that students understand the ways water impacts everybody, starting with themselves. beginning with a variety of multimodal texts, i provide space for students to understand how water impacts all people and how our decisions impact water quality. after discussing the background texts, students engage with the novel memory of water by finnish author emmi itäranta. as students finish the course texts, they move into a participatory action research project where they consider the water quality in their own community and engage in ways to bring their new understanding to their classmates, families, and school. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/climate-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/climate-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/water-is-life/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/memory-of-water-2/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/par/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/par/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 13 narrative framing set in the postapocalyptic future scandinavia, memory of water is a dystopian story of a tea master who holds the knowledge of where water exists. as the protagonist noria learns more about this role, she decides how to do the right thing as it impacts her community. used with a collection of other multimodal texts, the novel provides a framing for students to consider the impact we all have on our water and how we can make choices to move toward safer water for all. at a glance title seeing through water: the impact of our decisions unit time 3-4 weeks grade level(s) 7-8th grade core text memory of water, by emmi itäranta supporting texts we are water protectors by carole lindstrom the fate of fausto by oliver jeffers short stories: “skywoman”; “lamentations” frozen 2: “when i am older (earth, wind, fire, water)” moana dream ln3: seven teachings of anishinaabe in resistance climate literacy terms biodiversity climate literacy climate change collective action indigenous environmental practices planetarianism sustainability youth climate activism objectives students will evaluate and justify how the actions of others impact the decisions we make (right or wrong). materials and resources unit guide https://www.climatelit.org/literature/memory-of-water-2/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-fate-of-fausto/ https://youtu.be/l5d67j3cawe https://www.climatelit.org/literature/youth-activism-marine-conservation-and-ecofeminism/ https://youtu.be/nauisgvrpc4 https://vimeo.com/538751145 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/indigenous-environmental-practices/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/indigenous-environmental-practices/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/planetarianism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/ https://www.climatelit.org/?s=youth+activism https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i5faiwc5e5-s6rr3p07lwhzxn9dnkegknlpkwabbudu/edit braucht  seeing through water 14 going forward several questions will occur as students move forward with this unit. the first one is how we can build on this unit going forward. although i do not have answers yet, i envision this unit growing to include several stem opportunities, connect to the art and music classes, get out into nature in our community, and function as a community outreach occasion from the youth perspective. references clements, r., muscker, j., williams, c., & hall, d. (2016). moana. walt disney studios motion pictures. honor the earth (2019). ln3: 7 teachings of the anishinaabe resistance. vimeo. https://vimeo.com/538751145. itäranta e. (2014). memory of water. harper voyager. jeffers, o. (2019). the fate of fausto. harpercollins publishers. lindstrom, c. and goade, m. (2020). we are water protectors. roaring book press. zombie studios. (2016). dream. [animated short]. youtube. https://youtu.be/nauisgvrpc4. editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement hunt finding a way through 24 finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other kirsten hunt, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract in this reflection i share insights from reading naomi klein’s how to change everything with undergraduate elementary education majors. i discuss how klein’s book offered pre-service teachers clear pathways for alleviating their own eco-anxiety and how it equipped them to help their future students navigate climate emotions. keywords climate change, eco-anxiety, nonfiction, hope, youth activism, green new deal, system change, how to change everything in fall 2022, i taught an undergraduate course on children’s literature that included a unit on building climate change awareness and the pivotal role of literature as a resource for this purpose. the course primarily serves elementary education majors, therefore discussions centered around pedagogical and curricular considerations for the classroom. despite the magnitude of information available about the climate emergency, it soon became clear that many of my students had little content knowledge about its geophysical and sociocultural impacts. this lack of content knowledge was coupled with a palpable anxiety about the future of our planet, referred to, variously, as solastalgia, climate grief, climate anxiety, or eco-anxiety (clayton, 2020). certainly, varying levels of anxiety emerge when one considers the link between geophysical climate change and mental health of students and educators. situated in a uniquely tenuous position of assuming responsibility for teaching students about what climate change is—and, importantly, what they can do about it— educators carry a large burden. many students of mine expressed this sentiment of simultaneously managing their own anxiety and also learning to hold the anxieties of their future students. “climate anxiety is something that worries me as a future educator,” one student wrote, “but it is not something to withhold from a young person, rather, it is something that should be done delicately” (undergraduate student, 2022). https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/climate-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecoanxiety/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nonfiction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/hope/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/green-new-deal/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/system-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/system-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-crisis/climate-emergency/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/solastalgia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-grief/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-anxiety/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecoanxiety/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 25 in response to this and other climate emotions, i chose to teach a nonfiction text that offers an in-road to building knowledge and initiating action. how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other (2021) by naomi klein exemplifies what i consider to be a key developmental process in understanding climate change and teaching climate literacy: knowledge, action, and hopeful futures. klein advocates for system change and provides a clear pathway through an otherwise overcomplicated amount of information. the book is an invaluable resource and i found it empowers the young reader with content knowledge, actionable tools, and—importantly—a sense of hope for the future. the hopeful thread weaved throughout each chapter is not encased in naivete. nor does klein leave the reader with shopworn recommendations such as the classic r’s of reduce, reuse, recycle. instead, she focuses on examples of activism that have been successful to counter climate change inaction on a sociopolitical level, along with constructing a base of knowledge for the reader. each chapter breaks down information into bite-sized chunks that provide space to open discussions. each includes photographs and breakout boxes that showcase activist-inspired vignettes. this formula not only creates a more digestible read for young/all readers; it creates a balance between information and story. and it is the story that threads a line of hope throughout what might otherwise be another work of nonfiction to further incite anxiety about the fate of our planet. take chapter 8, titled “the green new deal”. klein starts by showing how the united states has dealt with crises in the past: the new deal in the 1930s in response to the great depression and the marshall plan in 1948 to aid in post-war rebuilding of the world. this helps her lay the historical foundation for the ways that a green new deal is possible and achievable. klein’s writing is persuasive, speaking directly to the adolescent reader. “your generation is spreading the vision of a green new deal,” she says. “young people are telling us that politicians can no longer avoid it, and they are right” (klein, 2021, p. 251). my undergraduate students were equally inspired by klein’s insistence on what is possible. as one commented: “teachers can support student activism and educate [students] make the changes they want to the world. [how to change everything] was a great example of how text can give knowledge and a call to action for students to fight what they believe in” (undergraduate student, 2022). what evolved from the text-centered discussions has curricular considerations for classroom practice. the voices in the room echoed klein’s hopeful assertions that we can do better to support young people. and who better understands the radical nature of the youth than teachers? one good example of how klein’s book supports the bridging of information into pedagogical considerations for future classrooms came late in the unit. nearing the end of the book, students had participated in many discussions and activities to build a robust conceptual framework for grasping the complexities of climate change and the power of children’s literature for climate literacy pedagogy. there was a noticeable shift during the last week of the unit when students started to think through curricular options for teaching climate literacy in their future classrooms. there was also a growing excitement about how to incorporate activities and community-based activism for their future students. as one teacher-candidate wrote: “i have always been interested in climate change and finding new ways that we as humans can preserve the planet. this book was https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-emotions/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/system-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ hunt finding a way through 26 an amazing read for young adults and even younger ages that maybe do not understand climate change or ways that we can help” (undergraduate student, 2022). cognitive science supports my students’ experience about the power of stories: ojala (2012) characterizes “meaning-focused coping” as a strategy for children to hopefully and actively engage with climate change. clayton (2020) further supports meaning-focused coping as an adaptive response to the psychological impacts of eco-anxiety. she describes how the children in ojala’s study were able to “gain perspective on environmental problems by putting the problems into historical perspective, and/or [attempting] to find hope by trusting societal actors such as scientists to find solutions” (clayton, 2020, pp. 4-5). this, in turn, leads to high levels of engagement and efficacy, when students are able to draw upon their own beliefs and goals to mitigate the negative maladaptive response to climate change, namely anxiety (p. 5). having watched students engage with klein’s meaning-focused writing, i believe they experienced fewer moments of ecoanxiety and more moments of hope. in teaching climate literacy, we should be aware of our students’ eco-anxiety. we must develop the skills to teach and motivate them to not only thoughtfully respond to our world, but to be active solution-seekers. how to change everything helped my students understand their role as earthlings, humans, and future teachers who can inspire others to build a hopeful future. references clayton, s. (2020). climate anxiety: psychological responses to climate change. journal of anxiety disorders, 74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102263 klein, n. (2021). how to change everything: a young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. atheneum books for young readers. ojala, m. (2012). how do children cope with global climate change? coping strategies, engagement, and well-being. journal of environmental psychology, 32(3), 225233. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s0272494412000138 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102263 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102263 editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) editorial collective marek oziewicz, university of minnesota, (mco@umn.edu), senior editor. nick kleese, university of minnesota, (klees023@umn.edu), managing editor. curriculum/pedagogy team stephanie rollag yoon, university of minnesota, (sry@umn.edu), curriculum section lead editor. jana lo bello miller, university of minnesota, (lobello@umn.edu), editor. jeff henning-smith, university of minnesota, (henni143@umn.edu), editor. rebecca young, (ryoung1@binhamton.edu), editor. catherine cavanaugh, university of minnesota, (ccavanau@umn.edu), editor. literature/media team lorraine kerslake, universidad de alicante, spain, (kerslake@ua.es), literature section lead editor. tanja nathanael, san jose state university, (tanja.nathanael@sjsu.edu), editor. justyna deszcz-tryhubczak, university of wroclaw, poland, (justyna.deszcztryhubczak@uwr.edu.pl), editor. alexandra panos, university of south florida, (ampanos@usf.edu), editor. lara saguisag, new york university, (lara.saguisag@nyu.edu), editor. issn: doi: contact: about cle climate literacy in education (cle) is an openaccess, double-blind, peer reviewed journal sponsored by the center for climate literacy at the university of minnesota and published through university of minnesota libraries. cle publishes practical, teacher-oriented content on all aspects of climate literacy education at all grade levels and across all subject areas (primarily k-16, but including teacher education and professional development). we are a pocket journal focused on classroom practice which is why the articles we publish are short: 2000 words or less. our content is written in jargon-free prose accessible to the general audience. all submissions are peer-reviewed by two anonymous readers. authors can expect to hear results within two weeks after submission. we publish on a rolling basis. we welcome submissions in the following categories: curriculum, reflections, critical essays, and creative & multimedia. for detailed submission criteria pertaining to each category, please visit our journal website. we look forward to working with you! https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/about/submissions editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement oziewicz what is climate literacy? 34 what is climate literacy? marek oziewicz, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract this article offers a work-in-progress description of the concept of climate literacy as used in cle. the first part includes a working definition. this is followed by a brief historical outline and a two-fold approach to understanding climate literacy: as a narrow, disciplinary-specific competence versus a wider, interdisciplinary one. keywords climate literacy, climate science literacy, noaa, climate change education (cce), ecocentrism, care, click framework, ccesd framework, ecological design intelligence, sustainable development first, a working definition of climate literacy. i offer it with humility, aware of my limited subjective experience as a white, male earthling, and as a springboard to your own thinking. climate literacy is an understanding of the climate emergency—its facts, drivers, impacts, and urgency—that centers on developing values, attitudes, and behavioral change aligned with how we should live to safeguard the earth’s integrity in the present and for future generations. climate literacy requires harmonizing multiple ways of knowing—explicit/objective and tacit/subjective—into a lived, emotionally charged, and personally felt understanding of the planetary predicament in the anthropocene. it demands embracing our responsibility, both individual and collective, to stand up for everyone’s biospheric inheritance: for all of earth’s systems that sustain life and are currently reeling under multi-pronged assault from anthropogenic climate change. (for other definitions of climate literacy see noaa, 2007; miléř & sládek, 2009; milfont, 2012; hiser & lynch, 2021). there are many ways to unpack this definition and its guiding assumptions, so i want to add three additional points. first, i take inspiration from indigenous thinkers like robin kimmerer, tyson yunkaporta, kyle whyte, vandana shiva, winona la duke, wahinkpe topa, grace dillon, and others who champion the notion of knowledge as care. accordingly, the conceptualization of climate literacy offered here is care-centric. i believe that climate literacy includes a broad range of competencies which—for pedagogical purposes—may be described as falling into four core domains: earth care, people care, kinship care, and systems care (see “the click framework,” forthcoming in issue 2). https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-science-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/noaa/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/noaa/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/care/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/click/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ccesd-framework/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-design-intelligence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainable-development/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/individual-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s187704281100111x https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22489642/ https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/jces/vol13/iss3/7 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 35 second, developing climate literacy requires looking past the upbeat, progressivist selfimage projected by the global neoliberal civilization into its darkest and most oppressive design features: racism, colonialism, extractivism, ecocide, greed, materialist reductionism, short-termism, anthropocentrism, speciesism, and others. climate literacy is the knowledge of the implicated, involving and connecting the worst perpetrators and the most innocent victims. in all its forms, it is difficult, uncomfortable knowledge. it demands that we choose truth over convenience, that we acknowledge the ecocidal nature of the neoliberal global system in which we live (klein, 2014; 2019; 2021; mann, 2021). no matter who you are, how privileged or underprivileged, becoming climate literate is challenging on a personal level. teaching climate literacy is also challenging on the interpersonal and institutional levels, not least because today’s education is a subsystem of an unsustainable civilization and was designed to support the needs of the ecocidal market economy. it can be transformed from within, but it comes at a cost too. third, climate literacy is a narrative capacity. it involves creating ecocentric ways of thinking, being, and acting, all of which require developing the language and conceptual framing to articulate our goals, identify models, and build coalitions. it is well established that human cognitive architecture evolved for narrative understanding. given that the primary means by which we navigate reality is culturally-dominant narratives—sometimes referred to as “stories-we-live-by” (stibbe, 2015, p. 6) or “intersubjective imagined orders” (harari, 2015, p. 117)—the shape of our future will be determined by the stories we choose to tell and by our courage to imagine what it takes to transition to an ecological civilization (oziewicz, 2022). accordingly, a climate literate person is not merely able to grasp the urgency of the climate emergency. they are also able to articulate this understanding as stories that engage anticipatory imagination and mobilize action. this is why stories are the primary tool for building universal climate literacy. i now want to offer a brief history of climate literacy as a concept and of two alternative terms: ecological design intelligence and climate change education. the term “climate literacy” was originally coined at a workshop organized by noaa and aaas in 2007. the purpose was to establish a common set of curriculum guidelines for climate education—guidelines that became “7 essential principles” and were published in a brochure climate literacy: the essential principles of climate science (2007, revised 2009). given the organizational profiles of noaa and aaas, climate literacy was from the start framed as a synonym for “climate science literacy”: learning about the science behind climate research and the science behind how the earth system works. or, in noaa-aaas wording, “an understanding of your influence on climate and climate’s influence on you and society” (noaa). a large body of research continues to view climate literacy as a science competence. this line of thought is also reflected in the next generation science standards, or ngss (since 2013). of course, we need to learn about climate science. but is this the only role education can play? the answer is no. a deeper challenge here is the technocratic framing, with its informationdeficit model, that narrows the scope of climate literacy to a mere knowledge of scientific facts (taylor, 2013; siegner & stapert, 2020). this framing promotes detached ways of knowing that leave no space for learning about, let alone learning to critique, the dominant paradigm of carbonhttps://www.climatelit.org/topic/neoliberalism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/racism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/colonization/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/extractivism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecosystems/ecocide/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/greed/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/materialist-reductionism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/short-termism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/speciesism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-design-intelligence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-change-education/ https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate https://www.climate.gov/teaching/what-is-climate-science-literacy https://www.climate.gov/teaching/what-is-climate-science-literacy oziewicz what is climate literacy? 36 intense perpetual growth that is known to be the key driver of climate change. the ngss framework works, but it works for a narrow band of learning. it is not designed to consider the entanglements of climate change with our food systems, legal systems, consumption habits, market practices, dominant ideologies, and other non-science spaces of human activity that drive climate change far more than the lack of familiarity with climate science. the realization that learning about the climate emergency should go beyond science has been around at least since the 1990s. one good example is david w. orr’s earth in mind (1994). orr opens up by saying that the crisis we face is not one of science or technology but “a crisis within the minds,” originating with our “inability to think about ecological patterns, systems of causation, and the long-term effects of human actions.” to counter this “disorder in thought,” orr believes we need education in what he calls ecological design intelligence: “the capacity to understand the ecological context in which humans live, to recognize limits, and to get the scale of things right.” such education, he says, is the only way to “calibrate human purposes and natural constraints” to shape both the technologies we use and “our ideas and philosophies relative to the earth” (p. 2). orr’s education in ecological design intelligence is probably the earliest version of today’s holistic notion of climate literacy as a wider, multidisciplinary, socio-cultural competence. although the technocratic tilt continues—with 99.88% of all funding available for climate-related research between 1990 and 2018 going to the natural and technical sciences (overland & sovacool, 2020)—the vast majority of scholars today lean toward a position that “climate change is about more than science”; it “must be understood as a socioscientific topic cutting across academic disciplines and their political, civic, geographic, economic, social, cultural, psychological, and historical dimensions …, as well as across traditions in environmentalism, activism, economics, politics, religion, and art” (panos & damico, 2021, p. 3). put otherwise, climate change is not a stem issue. it’s a worldview issue, entangled with our values, perceptions, beliefs, and lifestyles. this integrative thinking gave rise to another term that emerged as an alternative to climate (science) literacy: climate change education (cce). cce was first proposed in the climate change education for sustainable development program launched by unesco in 2010. based on the premise that “addressing global climate change takes more than science alone” (p. 1), the ccesd framework consists of four core areas, in which climate science education is just one. unlike the ngss, which limit learning about climate change only to science and only to grades 6-12, ccesd posits that climate change education should be accessible to all ages. moreover, it should be culturally-relevant—“oriented according to the local context and prioritize passing traditional knowledge and practices to learners”(p. 5)—and should aim “to bring a holistic understanding of climate change, its underlying causes, driving forces and impacts, as well as options to mitigate and adapt to them” (p. 4). this broader thinking about climate literacy also informs a number of ground-breaking books that appeared in the 2010s, say, rebecca a. martusewicz, john lupinacci, and jeff edmundson’s ecojustice education (2011), bill bigelow and tim swinehart’s a people’s curriculum for the earth (2014), and richard beach, jeff share, and allen webb’s teaching climate change to adolescents (2017). one result of these and other publications in the u.s. is that in 2019 both the https://islandpress.org/books/earth-mind https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000190101 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000190101 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ccesd-framework/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ccesd-framework/ https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138018846/ https://rethinkingschools.org/books/a-people-s-curriculum-for-the-earth/ https://rethinkingschools.org/books/a-people-s-curriculum-for-the-earth/ https://www.routledge.com/teaching-climate-change-to-adolescents-reading-writing-and-making-a-difference/beach-share-webb/p/book/9781138245259 https://www.routledge.com/teaching-climate-change-to-adolescents-reading-writing-and-making-a-difference/beach-share-webb/p/book/9781138245259 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 37 national council for social studies (ncss) and the national council of teachers of english (ncte) passed resolutions calling for climate change to be included in social sciences and english language arts classrooms. i wish i knew about the developments in other countries too. where does it all leave us today? as of 2023, we live in a world where the need for climate literacy education—or climate change education—is urgent and widely recognized. the vast majority of parents, teachers, and students want schools to offer comprehensive climate literacy instruction, not just in science, but across all subject areas. the vast majority of schools do not meet this demand. this gap can be breached. as stated in 2021 unesco report, reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education: “research on the effectiveness of climate change education finds that much of it focuses exclusively on scientific teaching, without cultivating the full breadth of competencies necessary to engage students in effective action” (p. 34). our opportunity today is to design climate literacy curricula that engage all these competencies: intellectual, emotional, and creative. our challenge is to make climate literacy education available to all students in all schools everywhere. references harari, y. n. (2015). sapiens: a brief history of humankind. harpercollins. hiser, k. k. & lynch, m. k. (2021) worry and hope: what college students know, think, feel, and do about climate change, journal of community engagement and scholarship, 13(3), 96107, https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/jces/vol13/iss3/7 klein, n. (2014). this changes everything: capitalism vs. the climate. simon and schuster. klein, n. (2019). the (burning) case for a green new deal. simon and schuster. klein, n. (2021). how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. atheneum books. mann, m. e. (2021). the new climate war: the fight to take back our planet. public affairs. milfont, t. (2012). the interplay between knowledge, perceived efficacy, and concern about global warming and climate change: a one-year longitudinal study. risk analysis, 32(6), 10001020. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01800.x miléř, t. & sládek, p. (2011). the climate literacy challenge. procedia: social and behavioral sciences, 12, 150–156. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.02.021 noaa. (2009). climate literacy: the essential principles of climate sciences. https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate orr, d. w. (1994). earth in mind: on education, environment, and the human prospect. island press. oziewicz, m. (2022). it wasn’t us: teaching about ecocide and the systemic causes of climate change. in r. l. young (ed.), literature as a lens for climate change: using narratives to prepare the next generation (19-51). rowman & littlefield. panos, a. & damico, j. (2021). less than one percent is not enough: how leading literacy organizations engaged with climate change from 2008 to 2019. journal of language and literacy education, 17(1), 1-21. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707 https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/jces/vol13/iss3/7 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01800.x https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate https://rowman.com/isbn/9781498594110/literature-as-a-lens-for-climate-change-using-narratives-to-prepare-the-next-generation https://rowman.com/isbn/9781498594110/literature-as-a-lens-for-climate-change-using-narratives-to-prepare-the-next-generation oziewicz what is climate literacy? 38 siegner, a. & stapert, n. (2020). climate change education in the humanities classroom: a case study of the lowell school curriculum pilot, environmental education research, 26(4), 511531, https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2019.1607258 stibbe, a. (2015). ecolinguistics: language, ecology and the stories we live by. routledge. taylor, c. (2013). the discourses of climate change. in t. cadman (ed.), climate change and global policy regimes (pp. 17-31). palgrave macmillan. editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement beach & smith ú youth production of digital media 34 “it was beautiful here, and then the pollution came”: researching youth climate emotions in coastal ecuador neela nandyal, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract in this reflection i share findings from researching youth climate hope and future outlooks in a fishing community in coastal ecuador. i discuss how teens in this community experience both climate despair and climate hope and look to nearby nature to inform their thoughts on climate change. keywords climate emotions, climate hope, climate despair, solastalgia, climate literacy, el niño, latin america, nearby nature, pollution, ecuador, acknowledgements the fieldwork discussed in this paper was funded in part by the university of minnesota cehd graduate global grant and the graduate school thesis research travel grant. the author is grateful to mayi quimis pincay and carlos gutierrez for their expert assistance. introduction in summer 2022, i traveled to ecuador to conduct a pilot study on the attitudes, values, and practices shaping environmental education in the coastal province of manabí. although i had some prior experience of living in south america and had taken https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 35 numerous classes on the region’s history and geography, i had never been to ecuador before. it turned out to be a marvelous trip. i met many educators and professionals working to protect nature through local government, nonprofit organizations, and schools. through my interviews with community members, i learned that pollution and contamination of the ocean were among the top environmental concerns, and people worried about the effects on human health. i also found that many people had observed positive changes in the local environment in their lifetime – these were typically people in their 40s and 50s who could remember when the beaches were more polluted and littering went unchecked. for them, the recent adoption of environmental regulations in ecuador had begun to rein in pollution, which many of my participants pointed to as a sign of progress. all of this led me to wonder, how did the younger generation feel about the future of the environment in manabí? what did youth think about local sustainability efforts and climate change more broadly? in summer 2023, i returned to ecuador to explore these questions in more detail. my key takeaways from this period of field research are below. between hope and despair: climate emotion and future outlooks to better understand youth climate emotion and future outlooks on the environment in coastal ecuador, i conducted a mixed methods study that involved a 35-question survey of 193 secondary school students and semi-structured interviews with 17 of the student participants. what the study revealed was that students had the capacity to experience a multitude of climate emotions (including climate despair and climate hope) simultaneously. in the survey, for example, just over two thirds of participants reported that they were “worried” or “very worried” about climate change. yet in interviews, worry over the environment did not seem to affect the day-to-day life nor long term plans of participants, a common indicator in measuring eco-anxiety (hickman et al., 2021). rather, i perceived my participants’ worry over climate change as a sort of climate despair or solastalgia. students lamented how “through social media you learn a lot about different places and how we are polluting” and “you can see garbage everywhere” (student participants, 2023). while many students blamed their peers and fellow townspeople for local environmental pollution, others were more specific – linking contamination and loss of wildlife to the local fishmeal plant. as one student explained, “i can tell you that since beach & smith ú youth production of digital media 36 the factory started the pollution, nature has never been as beautiful as it was before, because before here…there were deer…there are no more because of the pollution and the smoke from the factory. that's why we must clean up the beach: because it was beautiful here, and then the pollution came” (student participant, 2023). additionally, the survey1 revealed the students to be fairly hopeful about their own role in mitigating the climate crisis. 74% of youth participants agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “i think that the actions of individuals like me have a role to play in mitigating the negative effects of climate change” and 67.4% of the students agreed or strongly agreed that “i am optimistic that the effects of climate change will be reversed, because there are several actions that individuals like me can take to improve the problem of climate change”. as one student reasoned “...if we stop polluting and we listen…and make less garbage, it can be better” (student participant, 2023). for these participants, hope over mitigating climate change and environmental degradation was hinged on both personal and community agency. nearby nature and the specter of el niño interviews with students also highlighted the ways that youth turn to nearby nature to notice changes in the natural world and connect these changes to ideas about climate change. most of the participants came from fishing or farming families and spent their free time on the beach. summer 2023 was an el niño year for ecuador, which meant that the pacific experienced unusually warm temperatures, with serious implications for marine life (including depleted fisheries), vulnerability to flooding, and decreased tourism from the highlands. while i had not anticipated including the topic of el niño in my interviews with students, it soon emerged as a common theme in many of my conversations with local youth. in interviews, students often discussed el niño in conjunction with their thoughts about climate change, environmental risk and natural disaster. as one student observed, “el niño is coming and now there are many dead birds around the beach…they have died because of the scarcity of fish” (student 1 the survey design and content drew heavily from recent studies on youth climate hope. the questions examples in this reflection are modeled on questionnaires by finnegan (2022), li and monroe (2018), and ojala (2012). https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/nearby-nature/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 37 participant, 2023). other students dwelled on anticipated floods and family hardship, one youth warned “we have to be prepared with supplies, food, medicines and everything necessary because they say it is going to be long, prices are going to rise …and we will not be able to work because of the heavy rains” (student participant, 2023). the interviews revealed how these students' thoughts and feelings about climate change are profoundly shaped by the local environmental conditions they experience. concluding thoughts while this study centers on the climate emotions of youth from a rural community in coastal ecuador, it has broad implications for environmental and climate literacy education as it speaks to the experiences of young people everywhere. . in making space for discussing climate emotion in classrooms, teachers can support students in developing climate literacy, especially climate hope and envisioning alternative, lowcarbon futures. moreover, teachers can draw on students’ own lived experiences and local environs in talking about climate change, emphasizing how climate literacy can be fostered through the love of nearby nature. finally, teachers should consider the role of environmental risk and local climate histories in their students’ perceptions of climate change. references finnegan, w. (2022). educating for hope and action competence: a study of secondary school students and teachers in england. environmental education research, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2022.2120963 hickman, c., marks, e., pihkala, p., clayton, s., lewandowski, r. e., mayall, e. e., wray, b., mellor, c., & van susteren, l. (2021). climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. the lancet planetary health, 5(12), e863–e873. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00278-3 li, c., & monroe, m. c. (2018). development and validation of the climate change hope scale for high school students. environment and behavior, 50(4), 454–479. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916517708325 ojala, m. (2012). hope and climate change: the importance of hope for environmental engagement among young people. environmental education research, 18(5), 625–642. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2011.637157 https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916517708325 https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2011.637157 kleese, goetsch, gibson, hickmott, and olave  arts for the planet 50 arts for the planet nick kleese, univeristy of minnesota-twin cities, mn, usa taylor goetsch, minnepolis college of art and design, mn, usa olivia gibson, minnepolis college of art and design, mn, usa breanna hickmott, minnepolis college of art and design, mn, usa juliana olave, minnepolis college of art and design, mn, usa artist statement in 2022, the center for climate literacy launched the first iteration of its arts for the planet visual media contest. young artists currently enrolled at the minneapolis college of art and design were invited to submit visual media that explored some tenant of climate literacy: values, attitudes, and behavioral change necessary to safeguard the earth’s integrity in the present and for future generations. taylor, the contest’s overall winner, illustrated e is for ecocentrism, which depicts in both text and image what it might mean to decenter our human selves in our greater “web of weaving.” honorable mentions included olivia, who reimagines classic film tropes for the anthropocene in zoom out; breanna, whose work they will fade is a call to consider how human activity threatens the minnesota state bird, the loon; and juliana, in rrr, reveals fast fashion’s impact on one of the planet’s most incredible biomes, the atacama desert. we invite educators in all contexts to consider how facilitating similar programs can inspire students to actualize their climate literacy through insightful, meaningful, and engaging art. keywords visual art, student activism, ecocentrism, anthropocene, loons, fast fashion https://www.climatelit.org/arts-for-the-planet-inspire-climate-literacy-visual-media-contest-2022/ https://www.climatelit.org/arts-for-the-planet-inspire-climate-literacy-visual-media-contest-2022/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/visual-art/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/loons/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/fast-fashion/ arts for the planet artist statement keywords climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 15 playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature anna jennerjohn, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract children bring natural curiosity to outdoor exploration that allows them to notice the small details of natural spaces around them. often, adults must relearn this skill. a nearby nature mindset can help. in this reflection i share a personal story of children teaching me about nearby nature. i name eleven picturebooks that can help adults and children alike to notice the nature that they encounter on a daily basis in their own neighborhoods. keywords nearby nature, nature play, nature, picturebooks, early childhood climate literacy acknowledgements this blog was originally posted on the free forest school website as playing in a patch of dirt. my kids keep trying to teach me about the concept of nearby nature: that nature sites can be found in unexpected places close to home. back in the days of pre-covid life, one especially long weekday comes to mind. our family members had been at our respective places of work/school/childcare all day and then gone directly to a pto meeting in the evening, appreciatively shoveling pizza onto plates before the kids went to play in the gym. attending the pto meeting meant we missed our usual after school outdoor time. as we left the school that evening, our kids were in various levels of meltdown. despite my desire to get everyone in the car and buckled up, the kids were compelled to explore a small dirt patch by the bike rack. almost immediately, they settled into a calm – active alert state. one child scratched at the dirt with a little rock while the other two swung upside-down on the bike rack. i stepped back to observe. nobody was fighting. bodies were moving. the patch of dirt was just https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/nearby-nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature-play/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/picturebooks/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/early-childhood-climate-literacy/ https://www.freeforestschool.org/ https://www.freeforestschool.org/blog/playing-in-a-patch-of-dirt https://www.freeforestschool.org/blog/playing-in-a-patch-of-dirt https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/nearby-nature/ jennerjohn playing in a patch of dirt 16 right for them to get some sensory stimulation, even among little pieces of litter and possibly a bit of broken glass. everyone was calm again as we hopped in the car to head home. did hanging on a bike rack and playing in a patch of dirt count as time in nature? well, it certainly wasn’t forest bathing on the north shore of lake superior, but i would argue yes. nature, and its positive effects for humans, exists along a continuum. in one research synthesis, the author found that everyday nature, including views of nature out of windows and being in urban green spaces, has a positive effect on human health (kuo, 2015). another study cites a local urban park as a powerful tool for students with adhd: after a twenty-minute park walk, the students’ concentration improved significantly, in a similar way that the dirt patch helped my kids calm down that evening (faber taylor & kuo, 2009). for those of us who live in more urban areas and are looking for nature near home, this realization has important implications. we don’t need to wait to get out to “big nature” to reap the benefits that nature offers. we can take in smaller bits of nature near our homes. learning to appreciate nearby nature, as suggested by emma marris in her ted talk “nature is everywhere,” helps us expand our definition of nature to encompass all its aspects. the goal is not to stop protecting wild places, but to start noticing the natural places in our own neighborhoods where children can fully engage, touch, and go off path. the unglamorous dirt patch was enough to give my kids a sense of freedom and calm. they intuitively know the value of nearby nature and easily seek it out. as adults, we sometimes need reminders and reframings to slow down and learn to appreciate what we otherwise take for granted. with that in mind, i offer a collection of great picturebooks to help us all maintain a “nearby nature” mindset. the #ownvoices books in this selection feature a child from a nondominant group and the author or illustrator who identifies as a member of that group. i hope these books will help you enjoy nearby nature with your kids. free forest school has been instrumental in helping me slow down and let my kids lead, whether we are in the woods or exploring a storm drain. i am working to tune in to what my kids notice and to be in the moment for each patch of dirt that they find. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/forest-bathing/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/everyday-nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/nearby-nature/ https://www.ted.com/talks/emma_marris_nature_is_everywhere_we_just_need_to_learn_to_see_it?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/emma_marris_nature_is_everywhere_we_just_need_to_learn_to_see_it?language=en https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ownvoices/ https://www.freeforestschool.org/ https://www.freeforestschool.org/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 17 here and now by julia denos, illustrated by e.b. goodale. this book helps young children and their caregivers to focus on mindfulness in the moment. notice what is happening, in the here and now, in the exact place where you are rooted. finding wild by megan wagner lloyd, illustrated by abigail halpin. two kids go on an urban hike in search of “wild.” what will they find? where will they find it? this book shows that urban places offer wild spots, too. puddle by hyewon yum. a child doesn’t want to go outside because it's soggy and gray. his mom entices him by drawing pictures of him and his dog splashing in puddles. this does the trick to get the boy outside in real life. an ode to neighborhood puddles told in #ownvoices. a different pond by bao phi, illustrated by thi bui. in this #ownvoices story, a child and his father go fishing at a neighborhood pond early in the mornings. during this time together, the parent shares stories of his life in vietnam before emigrating to the united states while the boy proudly contributes to putting a fish dinner on the family table. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/here-and-now/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/finding-wild/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/puddle/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/a-different-pond/ jennerjohn playing in a patch of dirt 18 on a magical do-nothing day by beatrice alemagna. a child wants to stay on her device battling martians but her parent sends her outside to play. she’s determined to be bored until the magic of her play takes over. tiny perfect things by m.h. clark. one joy of caring for young children is the fresh eyes they bring to simple acts like a neighborhood walk. in this story a child and their caregiver notice all the tiny perfect things on their daily jaunt down the sidewalk. my forest is green by darren lebeuf, illustrated by ashley barron. the child in this book lives in a city and visits the urban forest throughout the seasons, afterwards creating nature art back at his apartment. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/on-a-magical-do-nothing-day/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/tiny-perfect-things/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/my-forest-is-green/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 19 now by antoinette portis. a book about being in the present. this child notices each leaf, puddle, and cloud that she encounters because she appreciates the nearby nature in front of her, right now. por todo nuestro alrededor/all around us by xelena gonzález, illustrated by adriana m. garcia. in this #ownvoices story, grandpa teaches his grandchild about the circles all around us: in the rainbow (the other half is underground), around his big belly, in the seeds they plant in the garden, in the round moon. daniel finds a poem by micha archer. daniel notices the specifics of the world around him. this book is great to read aloud due to the repetitive text—see the author’s ideas for actions to match the story here. seeing into tomorrow by richard wright and nina crews. another #ownvoices story, it presents a collection of haiku poems about the spring hills and shade trees of the author’s childhood. nina crews’ collage illustrations bring us back to those places. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/now/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/por-todo-nuestro-alrededor-all-around-us/ https://bookshop.org/books/all-around-us/9781941026762 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/daniel-finds-a-poem/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzc80z2geqk&t=542s https://www.climatelit.org/literature/seeing-into-tomorrow/ jennerjohn playing in a patch of dirt 20 references alemagna, b. (2017). on a magical do-nothing day. harpercollins. archer, m. (2016). daniel finds a poem. nancy paulsen books. clark, m.h. (2018). tiny perfect things. compendium publishing and communications. denos, j. (2019). here and now (e.b. goodale, illus.). clarion. faber taylor, a. & kuo, f.e. (2009). children with attention deficits concentrate better after a walk in the park. journal of attention disorders, 12(5), 402-409. gonzález, x. (2019). por todo nuestro alrededor/all around us (a.m. garcia, illus.). cinco puntos press. kuo, m. (2015) how might contact with nature promote human health? promising mechanisms and a possible central pathway. frontiers in psychology, (6)1093. doi: 10.3389/ fpsyg.2015.01093 lebeauf, d. (2019). my forest is green (a. barron, illus.). kids can press. phi, b. (2017). a different pond (t. bui, illus.) capstone young readers. portis, a. (2017). now. roaring brook press. wagner loyd, m. (2016). finding wild (a. halpin, illus.). alfred a. knopf books for young readers. wright, r. (2018). seeing into tomorrow (n. crews, illus.). millbrook press. yum, h. (2016). puddle. farrar, straus, and giroux. editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 67 visual stories as educational tools: multimodal discourse analysis of children’s picturebooks on environmental awareness wenyan yang, university of massachusetts-amherst, amherst, ma, usa abstract this study explores the efficacy of children's picturebooks in communicating complex environmental issues to young audiences, focusing on we are water protectors and autumn peltier, water warrior. these books utilize the approach of multimodal discourse analysis, to explore how pictures engage and educate about water protection. through a detailed examination of interactions within these books and with readers, this article highlights how visual narratives can effectively evoke emotional responses and foster environmental awareness among young readers. the findings suggest that such visual narratives not only enhance understanding of sustainability challenges but also serve as powerful tools for social change, inspiring activism, and cultural engagement. keywords multimodal discourse analysis, water protection, picturebooks, education for sustainable development yangú visual stories as educational tools 68 the pressing sustainability challenges we face today, including climate change, air pollution, and water pollution, are caused by complex interactions between humans and the environment. these issues have captured the concern of global communities, highlighting the urgent need for shifts in public perceptions, values, attitudes, and behaviors (scoones et al., 2018). in response, unesco initiated the climate change education for sustainable development (ccesd) program, advocating for education for sustainable development (esd) across all educational levels, from preschool through high education, as articulated in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development (cebrián, junyent, & mulà, 2020). this means teachers play a critical role in meeting these challenges as they educate and guide students about necessary actions (ferguson, roofe, & cook, 2021). however, introducing such complex issues to young learners is a significant challenge in itself (goller, & rieckmann, 2022; glavič, 2020). for this latter challenge, an increasing number of children’s picturebooks have emerged, focusing on themes of sustainable development. these books utilize visual storytelling as an effective tool in esd, aiding teachers throughout the educational process (cebrián, junyent, & mulà, 2020). while educators continue to employ diverse learning strategies, including problem-based learning, project-oriented learning, experiential learning, simulation games, and case studies (cebrián, junyent, & mulà, 2020; boulianne et al., 2020; bascopé, perasso, & reiss, 2019), this study concentrates on picturebooks related to water protection. it aims to analyze how these books present complex sustainability concepts to young learners and explore how authors and illustrators effectively engage their audience. methods this study examines two children's picturebooks, we are water protectors and autumn peltier, water warrior, which were selected for their thematic focus on water protection. given the nature of picturebooks that narratively integrate visuals and text, i utilized multimodal discourse analysis (mda) as an investigative framework. mda is an approach that delves into communication across multiple expressive modes—not only language but also visual, auditory, and spatial components. this analytical method acknowledges that meaning is constructed and deciphered through semiotic resources climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 69 including text, images, layout, gestures, and spoken language (kress & van leeuwen, 2020). this study specifically explores the interaction between images and readers, investigating how the illustrator communicates through visual elements. analysis the focus of both we are water protectors and autumn peltier, water warrior is on water protection. according to the next generation science standards (ngss, 2013) the concept of water is integrated into curricula at all grade levels, tailored to the cognitive and developmental stages of students. for pre-k and kindergarten, the curriculum introduces water through sensory experiences and basic concepts such as simple water play, learning about different water sources (i.e. rivers, lakes, rain), and fundamental conservation practices like turning off taps. students in grades 1-3 delve deeper into understanding the water cycle and the vital role of water in sustaining life. picturebooks, which offer a multimodal experience combining text and images, are particularly effective in these lower-grade settings, facilitating accessible learning for younger students. interaction within the pictures characters, settings, and objects were depicted within the illustrations that serve as subjects of the visual narrative. within these picturebooks, the interaction between characters, subjects, and readers plays a critical role in conveying messages. for instance, physical closeness is a way to indicate relationships (kress, & van leeuwen, 2020; painter, martin, & unsworth, 2013). characters shown in physical contact often suggest strong bonds or intimate relationships (ibid). in figures 1 and 2, people, the community members, put their hands into the river, figure 1: we are water protectors (lindstrom, 2020) figure 2: autumn peltier, water warrior (lindstrom, 2021) yangú visual stories as educational tools 70 representing the close relationship between humans and water. in classrooms with young readers, teachers encourage students to observe details and make connections between what happens in the text and similar experiences they might have. this helps students connect with the visuals and begin forming their interpretations. teachers may ask guiding questions such as: what are the characters doing in this picture? have you done something like that before? what did you feel when you were doing that? look at the characters’ faces and bodies. how do you think they are feeling? how do you know? in figures 3 and 4, depictions of community members with their hands joined together suggest unity and a shared commitment to the cause. images of activists linking arms or physically supporting one another during confrontations with authorities showcase the physical and metaphorical support within the community. these pictures show groups in discussion or action, emphasizing collective effort rather than individual reactions. after reading these pages, teachers may guide students to reflect on their personal reactions and emotions related to the characters’ actions. the guiding questions might be: do you hold hands with your family members sometimes? what about with your friends? what do you feel when holding hands with others? can you think of a time when you felt like one of the characters? what happened? such questions help build empathy and help students relate to the themes of environmental protection on a personal level. figure 3: we are water protectors (lindstrom, 2020) figure 4: autumn peltier, water warrior (lindstrom, 2021) climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 71 interaction with readers the illustrators leverage visual elements to evoke emotional and cognitive responses, aiming to inspire reader engagement and action. for example, the cover of we are water protectors (figure 5) features a close-up of the protagonist whose direct gaze challenges the viewer, setting a serious tone and immediately drawing the reader into the narrative (kress, & van leeuwen, 2020; painter, martin, & unsworth, 2013). this use of direct gaze—a visual tool where characters look out at the reader, also appears in autumn peltier, water warrior, where the protagonist’s direct gaze on the final page accompanies the text “what will you do for me?” (figure 6) effectively making a visual “call to action”. teachers could direct students to pay special attention to characters’ facial expressions, including gaze explaining that illustrators communicate certain things to viewers this way. follow up with questions like: what do you think the character wants the viewer to do? how does the way the character is gazing at you, the viewer, make you feel? what do those feelings make you want to do? these visual strategies demonstrate how we are water protectors and autumn peltier, water warrior not only tell a story but also engage readers in a dialogue about environmental and cultural issues. both books use the power of visual design to create impactful and meaningful interactions, with we are water protectors highlighting a spiritual connection to the environment and autumn peltier, water warrior focusing on active and physical resistance. teachers can use these visual strategies to help students figure 6: autumn peltier, water warrior (lindstrom, 2021) figure 3: we are water protectors (lindstrom, 2020) yangú visual stories as educational tools 72 empathize more deeply with the characters and better comprehend the important messages in these books. these activities not only make the lessons on environmental protection more engaging, but they also empower students to consider their own potential for impact. discussion and implications the analysis of we are water protectors and autumn peltier, water warrior underscores the potent role of visual narratives in advocacy for environmental education. the illustrations within these picturebooks elicit strong emotional responses, significantly enhancing the impact of their environmental messages. these books demonstrate the educational value of utilizing multimodal resources, combining text, visuals, and narrative to discuss complex topics like activism, environmental policy, and social responsibility. such resources prove particularly effective in engaging younger audiences, making complex subjects accessible and relatable. educational institutions can leverage these strategies to deepen students' understanding of critical issues like environmental science, enhancing their engagement and comprehension, especially in early education. furthermore, the artistic approaches in these books highlight how art can be a formidable tool for social change. by integrating visual art with narrative, these books not only communicate messages but also inspire action, serving as examples for other campaigns and movements seeking to influence public opinion and behavior. ultimately, we are water protectors and autumn peltier, water warrior exemplify how children's literature can be strategically used to shape societal values and actions. these books engage readers not merely as observers but as participants emotionally connected to the narrative, illustrating the importance of visual elements in enriching the story and theme. for young readers, teachers could focus on the characters' actions and expressions. older readers can dive deeper into details, such as hue, lines, art forms, etc. this study reveals that thoughtfully crafted picturebooks are more than educational tools; they are catalysts for cultural engagement and change, with the potential to significantly influence future generations. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 73 references bascopé, m., perasso, p., & reiss, k. (2019). systematic review of education for sustainable development at an early stage: cornerstones and pedagogical approaches for teacher professional development. sustainability, 11(3), 719. boulianne, s., lalancette, m., & ilkiw, d. (2020). “school strike 4 climate”: social media and the international youth protest on climate change. media and communication, 8(2), 208–218. cebrián, g., junyent, m., & mulà, i. (2020). competencies in education for sustainable development: emerging teaching and research developments. sustainability, 12(2), 579. ferguson, t., roofe, c., & cook, l. d. (2021). teachers’ perspectives on sustainable development: the implications for education for sustainable development. environmental education research, 27(9), 1343-1359. glavič, p. (2020). identifying key issues of education for sustainable development. sustainability, 12(16), 6500. goller, a., & rieckmann, m. (2022). what do we know about teacher educators’ perceptions of education for sustainable development? a systematic literature review. journal of teacher education for sustainability, 24(1), 19-34. kress, g., & van leeuwen, t. (2020). reading images: the grammar of visual design. routledge. lindstrom, c. (2020). we are water protectors. roaring brook press. lindstrom, c. (2021). autumn peltier, water warrior. abc publishing. ngss lead states. (2013). next generation science standards: for states, by states. washington, dc: the national academies press. painter, c., martin, j. r., & unsworth, l. (2013). reading visual narratives: image analysis of children's picture books. equinox publishing ltd. united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco). (2020). education for sustainable development in the framework of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://unesco.org/2030esd united nations. (2022). the sustainable development goals report 2022. united nations. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2022/ https://unesco.org/2030esd https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2022/ werthwine & panos critical dialogue 32 critical dialogue: climate literacy in context kate werthwine, pasco county schools, florida, usa alexandra panos, university of south florida, st. petersburg, fl, usa abstract in this conversation kate werthwine, a high school english teacher in pasco county, florida, and alexandra panos, a former middle grades ela teacher who is currently assistant professor of literacy studies at the university of south florida and editor of climate literacy in education, talk about kate’s artwork published in this volume. kate and alex discuss how the current laws and policy practices in florida have impacted the stories that get shared in classrooms, including those that support learners in their own journeys to understand who they are and where they are from. keywords florida, zines, place-based education, book banning alex when i think about this piece, the first thing i wonder about is how that bookshelf came to be empty. kate so, last year, the bookshelf was full. it was a classroom library. i had all sorts of books that i had collected in both english and spanish. at the start of this year, with some of the changes in legislation and different decisions being made at the local level here in florida [and across the united states, see for example: friedman & tager, 2021; russel-brown, 2022; sachs et. al, 2022], the decision at my school and other schools around me—out of an abundance of caution—was to store the classroom library until we got more definitive guidance. so on the first day of school, i had an empty bookcase, which was very different from last year. alex where are your books? https://www.climatelit.org/us-state-settings/florida/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/zine/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/place-based-education/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/book-banning/ http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01f4752k89d https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4219891 https://pen.org/for-educational-gag-orders-the-vagueness-is-the-point/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 33 kate my books right now are stored in the reading department. i did get a couple of boxes of books pulled from the book room that the school already okayed. so i now have two bins with some books that students can read in their free time. but the other books that i had collected are still in the reading room which students do not have access to. alex i just have to say this censorship is so deeply heartbreaking, maddening. i'm so sorry this is happening to you and your students. i guess i'm very struck that you are explicitly, or at least to me it feels very explicit, in this piece saying this empty bookshelf is part of climate literacy. why do you see those things as so interconnected, or juxtaposed? kate i think there's two things that really stand out to me. one is that some of the books i'm waiting to find out if i can put out are stories that touch on ecojustice. but, right now i don’t know… can we even talk about those stories? can we read those stories in our classroom? the other thing is, for me, i know some of those books were stories that helped me as a kid connect with where i live and the environment around me. i see these books as a way for my students to also learn about where we live and connect to the environment around them. right now, they don't have access to these stories in their place of learning. i think that telling stories and learning the stories about the place where you are is important for not only understanding where you live, but who you are. i think of different books that i read growing up in florida that were meaningful to me, like strawberry girl (lenski, 1945/2011) or hoot (2002/2019). they helped me understand who was here before me and how this place that i live in came to be. we take these stories, these guides, that teach us about ourselves and the natural world we are a part of with us wherever we go. right now, it's hard to figure out what stories we are allowed to tell in schools. alex we get stories in so many ways. books are not the only ways we get stories; certainly they're an important one. i guess it also makes me think about the hidden consequences your empty bookshelf brings up. this legislation is not only about books. it's also about the web pages and news stories and other ways of thinking that the policies and laws in your district and others across the state of florida (and the us) are navigating and that you're navigating. there is a chilling effect on all of the stories that we get to tell about who and where we are, and where we live. when i think about responding to environmental crises, we need as many stories at our disposal as we can find: to be present, to be with our past, and to imagine new futures together. when laws like these deprive teachers and children of autonomy in the stories they get to tell and share with one another—limiting children’s https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-justice/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/strawberry-girl/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/hoot/ werthwine & panos critical dialogue 34 autonomy to forge new ways of being with one another—this allows climate crisis and climate injustice to perpetuate. the story of your experience is a story that deserves to be told, so thank you for sharing this beautiful piece. kate i think stories are survival guides. i really do. because that's how we learn from other people. and so right now, just having that sense of not even knowing what stories we can tell is disturbing. what’s going to be okay in the classroom to actually use? it’s hard trying to navigate all this stuff when we don't have specific guidance. as a teacher, i want to make sure that my students have access to the best things possible and access to the best education possible. right now, i am on uneven ground. what can i do? what can i give my students access to? what do we all need, right now? we need survival guides, we need stories. references friedman, j., & tager, j. (2021). educational gag orders: legislative restrictions on the freedom to read, learn, and teach. pen america. http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01f4752k89d hiaasen, c. (2002/2019). hoot. pan macmillan. lenski, l. (1945/2011). strawberry girl. open road media. russell-brown, k. (2022). 'the stop woke act': hb 7, race, and florida's 21st century anti-literacy campaign. university of florida levin college of law research paper, forthcoming. sachs, j, young, j. c., & friedman, j. (2022, april 24). for educational gag orders, the vagueness is the point. pen america. https://pen.org/for-educational-gag-orders-the-vagueness-isthe-point/ http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01f4752k89d https://pen.org/for-educational-gag-orders-the-vagueness-is-the-point/ https://pen.org/for-educational-gag-orders-the-vagueness-is-the-point/ editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement de sena ú social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis 52 the black snake: powerful imagery in we are water protectors sietse hagen, university of liverpool, liverpool, uk abstract we are water protectors presents a complicated example of the role horror can play in children’s literature. this article looks at terrifying, yet powerful imagery in this book, with its implications for both children’s literature as a form of activism and a critical discussion of the topics brought up by lindstrom and goade. i argue that horror functions as a mediator capable of bringing topics such as ecocriticism, activism, climate emotions, and colonialism to fruitful discussions in both elementary and university literature classes. keywords indigenous resistance, pipelines, climate emotions, water we are water protectors is an activist picturebook that employs disquieting imagery and discourse about environmental injustices. extractivism, biodiversity loss, pollution, and water degradation play central roles and are depicted as horrors of reality —in ways entirely appropriate for young readers. in fact, janet evans claims, “[m]any adults feel that challenging and controversial picturebooks are not suitable for children to read, however, it is they, as adults, who have problems coping with these challenging texts and not the children” (evans, 2015, p. 5). evans goes on to note that many childrens’ “everyday lives are often filled with far greater personal worries and challenges than those they may find in books” (p. 6), so representing these “worries https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 53 and challenges” is important. although it is complicated for adults to know what levels of fear children can manage, the authors of we are water protectors do not shy away from challenging and horrifying topics. environmental devastation plagues the modern world, and for the indigenous peoples represented in this book, protecting nature is central to their belief system. the environmental threats described in we are water protectors can become a focus of discussion around how to introduce young children to scary elements of reality. indigenous children regularly face systemic oppression and intergenerational traumas. to feel recognised or supported in their daily struggles, representing these issues is critical. as sandra beckett argues [a]ssumptions about children’s limited ability to deal with certain topics have often restricted their literary experiences and deprived them of fictional opportunities to explore dark, disturbing, and painful subjects that nonetheless touch them personally and constitute part of their life experience. this is particularly true in the case of the picturebook genre. (beckett, 2015, p. 66) even as children deal with upsets and struggles, they deserve a chance to see those issues represented in fiction where they can learn how to deal with them. the picturebook discussed here creates this type of positive representation, in which the horror of environmental destruction is counterbalanced with community resistance, solidarity and a deep sense of belonging. written by anishinaabe/métis author carole lindstrom, and illustrated by tlingit and haida artist michaela goade, , we are water protectors takes on this task by representing a dark threat to indigenous lifeways. the topic of is the protest against the dakota access pipeline being built on sacred land of the standing rock sioux tribe and the damage this causes the indigenous communities involved. the book functions as an introduction to environmental issues associated with the pipelines, and the climate emotions connected with them. for indigenous peoples, these emotions are mostly aligned with climate injustice, yet the book also proposes a hopeful tone in its call for activism. discussing this book in elementary classes can be highly informative for the young children who are its intended audience. the book offers a window into hagen ú black snake 54 indigenous life and the indigenous-led resistance to climate injustice. however, this book is also appropriate teaching material for university students, including the ways horror imagery can be employed in stories for the youngest audiences to bringing across the message around climate emotions. the questions and ideas proposed throughout this article can hopefully serve as inspirations for teachers for discussions centred around this book. the horror element is the pipeline itself, represented as a terrifying snake: black as oil and breathing out toxic fumes (figure 1). while only depicted on a few pages, the snake haunts the pages. it might not always be visibly present, but the trail of destruction it leaves behind is clearly illustrated. figure 6 (lindstrom, 2020, p.14) climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 55 at one point, for example, lindstrom describes an ojibwe prophecy about the earth that has two paths. one is the natural path that will lead the earth to be at peace and the people to live in unity, while the other is characterised by technological acceleration at the cost of environmental disaster. when it comes to the latter path, “[m]any native nations believe this path is symbolized by the oil pipelines, the ‘black snakes’ that crisscross our lands, bringing destruction and harm” (lindstrom, 2020, p. 35). another aspect of the snake’s horror is an oil leak. it is shown to corrupt the waters with poison, bones showing off an unnatural cause of death, almost even as if infected by radiation (figure 2). anne spice asserts the significance of “the interconnected networks of human and other-than-human beings that sustain indigenous life in mutual relation,” while also highlighting how that “network stands in stark contrast to the critical infrastructures of government and industry – infrastructures that are meant to destroy indigenous life to make way for capitalist expansion” (spice, 2022, p. 43). this image seems to signify the noxious nature of capitalism, a perpetuation of settler colonialism, that destroys nature to increase wealth. as spice underscores, this is true horror to the indigenous way of life. even this single image can figure 7 (lindstrom, 2020, pp. 9-10) hagen ú black snake 56 spark discussion around the role of horror in this book, as well as how horror might be subjective; is the spill more terrifying for an indigenous audience than a western one? learning to relativise, seeing how different cultures might have a different stance on environmental issues can be beneficial to their growth. the environmental destruction shown above has caused uproar among indigenous communities. the dakota access pipeline is one of the best-known examples related to this. lindstrom describes that in “april 2016, the standing rock sioux tribe stood up against the titans of industry to protect their region’s water and sacred burial grounds from one of these oil pipelines – the dakota access pipeline” (lindstrom, 2020, p. 35). the chairman of the standing rock sioux tribe, david archambault ii, called the pipeline “a black poisonous snake… made from nothing but greed” (archambault, as cited in macpherson, 2016). although the idea of the black snake existed in the mythology and traditions of various indigenous nations before archambault’s famous quote, we are water protectors popularised the term, especially in western media. more importantly, it connected the idea of the black snake that has lived in indigenous prophecy for centuries to the dakota access pipeline and all other pipelines crisscrossing native lands today. the black snake, called zuzeca sapa, “became the emblem of the movement’ that demonstrated against pipelines” (coleman, 2020, p. 105). it is this movement that signifies the importance of community in the fight against the black snake shown in this book. community is used in the book as a counterbalance to the horrors of the black snake, as well as an assertion of native resiliency and resistance: “take courage! i must keep the black snake away / from my village’s water. i must rally my people together” (lindstrom, 2020, p. 16). these two lines from we are water protectors best describe the powers of the protests against the dakota access pipeline and other pipelines: the powers of community. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 57 in one image, the black snake is represented as a monster invader (figure 3). the snake is monstrously large, almost blocking out the sun while menacingly looking down at the protagonist. still, the young girl faces the snake holding the hands of her community members. they stand up to the black snake together, as one. the reader is placed behind the girl, having her back, and facing the black snake together. this creates a sense of connectedness to the indigenous peoples standing up to fight against zuzeca sapa. it is a strong representation of the powers of togetherness. we might ask students how they feel about the view they gain as viewer in this image. do they feel connected? in an interview with pritchard, lindstrom says that her goal for this book is “a call to action” for children to “become water protectors and effect the well-being of the planet” (pritchard, 2020). by calling for people to come together to fight climate injustice, she connects the land to community. weaver writes that one thing most indigenous literature has in common “relates to this sense of community and commitment to it” and goes on to term this “communitism” (weaver, 1997, p. 43). communitism, weaver explains, “is formed from a combination of the words figure 8 (lindstrom, 2020, p. 20) hagen ú black snake 58 ‘community’ and ‘activism’ or ‘activist’” (weaver, 1997, p. 43). the effects of colonialism affect all indigenous peoples, and they share common values for community and environment. in this sense, we are water protectors is a good example of communitism: a rally for the collective to speak as one and protest that which threatens their way of life. analysing the use of horror elements in we are water protectors reveals the wider arguments lindstrom and goade make. the black snake that stands for the dakota access pipeline presents itself as something that needs to be defeated. it asks for a form of activism and a togetherness in conquering that which tarnishes the land. through this ecocritical call for communitism, the horrors of colonialism are brought up and confronted, alongside intergenerational trauma and settler colonialism. while the imagery of the black snake overwhelms these pages, it is those horrors of reality— pollution, extractionism, and pipelines—that hold the most power. besides informing child readers about their culture and community, this book brings about terrifying information while prioritising the agency and empowerment of the child. the use of terrifying imagery is intrinsic to this picturebook and is the mediator of how this information is conveyed to a child, in an age-appropriate manner. when dealing with this text in class, allowing the horror elements to take the front stage may help bring topics such as activism, collective memory, and colonialism to the fore. these themes are essential to the understanding of this text, but also reveal information about indigenous cultures and their fight against ecocrimes as a wider topic. discussion questions can be formed around these topics to use this book as an entrance into climate emotions as it will function for many indigenous children reading this when they are young. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 59 references beckett, s. l. (2015). from traditional tales, fairy stories, and cautionary tales to controversial visual texts: do we need to be fearful? in j. evans (ed.), challenging and controversial picturebooks (pp. 49–70). routledge. coleman, c.-l. (2020). how sioux-settler relations underscore the dakota access pipeline. in c.-l. coleman, environmental clashes on native american land (pp. 103–121). springer international publishing. evans, j. (2015). picturebooks as strange, challenging and controversial texts. in j. evans (ed.), challenging and controversial picturebooks (pp. 3–32). routledge. lindstrom, c. (2020). we are water protectors (m. goade, illus.). roaring book press. macpherson, j. (2016, august 15). dakota access pipeline owners sue north dakota protestors. the seattle times. https://www.seattletimes.com/nationworld/dakota-access-pipeline-owners-sue-north-dakota-protesters/. pritchard, c. k. (2020, april 21). interview with carole lindstrom – we are water protectors. caroline kusin pritchard. https://carolinekusinpritchard.com/interview-with-carole-lindstrom/. spice, a. (2022). fighting invasive infrastructures: indigenous relations against pipelines. in j dhillon (ed.), indigenous resurgence: decolonialization and movements for environmental justice (pp. 42-58). berghahn books. weaver, j. (1997). native american literatures and communitism. that the people might live: native american literature and native american community (pp. 345). oxford university press. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/dakota-access-pipeline-owners-sue-north-dakota-protesters/ https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/dakota-access-pipeline-owners-sue-north-dakota-protesters/ https://carolinekusinpritchard.com/interview-with-carole-lindstrom/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 7 picturebook dialogues about environmental and social (in)justice nina goga, western norway university of applied sciences (hvl) maria pujol-valls, universitat internacional de catalunya (uic) infographics by students from the university of padova (unipd): rebecca agostini, debora carolo, giulia nai, ilaria sardella, and giulia silvestrini abstract climate curriculums and reading practices are urgently needed both in school and higher education. the mobility project green dialogues is focused on enhancing the quality of teacher education by strengthening student teachers’ and staff’s ecocritical thinking and collaboration competency. as part of the project the students developed experience-based teaching plans for primary education on how to connect literature activities with reflections on and dialogues about environmental and social (in)justice. this article presents five of these teaching plan infographics and explains their educational context. keywords ecocritical dialogue, children’s literature, infographics, un agenda 2030, teacher education a student mobility project focusing on ecocritical thinking and collaboration the five infographics were created by student teachers involved in the mobility project green dialogues, a collaboration between western norway university of applied sciences (hvl, bergen, norway), the university of padova (unipd, padova, italy), and hartzell ú critical literacy and climate action 8 the universitat internacional de catalunya (uic, barcelona, spain). green dialogues is a four-year mobility project (2022–2025) aimed at enhancing the quality of teacher education by strengthening student teachers’ and staff’s ecocritical thinking and collaboration competency through dialogue and intercultural exchange. the students and staff involved in the project participate in five-year ma programmes in teacher education with an orientation in language and literature. to enhance the quality of education, the project builds on dialogic teaching (bakhtin, 1986; alexander, 2020). it seeks to develop and apply theoretical and ecodidactic perspectives on environmental children’s literature, primarily addressing children aged 6 to 12. ecocritical thinking and collaboration through dialogue climate literacy implies knowledge about the drivers of climate emergencies and about transformative responses needed “to stand up for everyone’s biospheric inheritance” (oziewicz, 2023, p. 34). taking human greed and environmental insensibility as one cause of the climate emergency, in the green dialogues project students selected picturebooks that address both greed and insensibility and welcomed young readers to collaborate and engage critically with the books to gain knowledge and understanding required to develop “ecocentric ways of thinking” (oziewicz, p. 35). the green dialogues project considers collaboration and the development of dialogic skills as key actions to establish viable and democratic long-term solutions to the climate crisis. following goga et al. (2023), ecocritical dialogues “combine theoretical concepts from ecocriticism and dialogic teaching” (p. 3) to encourage teaching practices that open participants to “critical, relational, and collaborative encounters and entanglements with multiple environments, materials, and matter” (p. 9). this conception of ecocritical dialogues is based, among other things, on previous experiences with ecocritical dialogues and picturebooks (goga & pujol-valls, 2020; campagnaro & goga, 2022). to enable educators to systematically consider the key principles of ecocritical dialogues and to develop their repertoire of techniques, goga et al. (2023, p. 8-9) propose a framework for setting up ecocritical dialogues. this framework, which guides the five teaching plans presented here, calls for attention to the location, participants, approach, and subject matter of the ecocritical dialogue. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 9 the educational context of the infographics the infographics by debora carolo, giulia nai, ilaria sardella, and giulia silvestrini were created within the educational context of a 15 ects (about 8 us credits) course on “sustainable literacy and environmental children’s literature.” the course combines advanced knowledge about literacy and children’s literature with current themes in sustainable development and lifelong learning needed to meet the goals of the un’s agenda 2030. the literary corpus consisted mainly of contemporary children’s literature with an emphasis on environmental connectedness, climate change, and social and environmental (in)justice. dialogic teaching and the didactic tools related to ecocritical dialogues were applied, tested, and further developed throughout the course. the course included an assignment in which students created an infographic based on their classroom experience with children aged 9–10. the infographic applies ecocritical and educational approaches to a selected corpus of picturebooks that thematize environmental connectedness and social and environmental (in)justice. the educational context of rebecca agostini’s infographic was a 16 ects course on “environmental children’s literature and teaching english as a foreign language.” the course included extensive reading, storytelling, and literary circles as tefl methodologies, complemented with ecocritical, literary theory, social science, and pedagogical components for education in democratic citizenship. one of the competencies developed in this course was how to combine storytelling, picturebooks, and dialogue—grounded in ecocritical and social approaches—when teaching english as a foreign language. one assignment consisted in designing a teaching proposal that involves storytelling with a picturebook. the selected book had to lend itself to developing pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading activities that foster dialoguing and critical thinking on sustainability and social (in)justice. the format of the infographics students were asked to create infographic posters or booklets to help primary school teachers design lesson plans related to children’s literature, environmental issues, and child-oriented learning activities that stimulate affective, critical, and collaborative ways of thinking. the infographics were designed as a step-by-step guide on how to carry out activities and to provide teachers with educational justifications for each step. in line with hartzell ú critical literacy and climate action 10 the green dialogues project parameters, these justifications link up with key ideas in dialogic teaching, environmental literacy, performative and aesthetical picturebook mediation. a few final notes: except for forêt des frères by yukiko noritake, all picturebooks are available in english. noritake's book is available in the original french, as well as in italian, spanish, and catalan translations. all five lesson plans are designed to be carried out within the frame of one to four lessons/class periods, approximately 45–60 minutes each. they are designed for groups of 15 to 30 primary school students, preferably with two teachers in the classroom. the five infographics the first two infographics (figures 1 and 2) address one of un’s most disputed sustainable development goals—sdg 8, decent work and economic growth—by displaying how economic growth and humanity’s greed for natural resources have caused today’s climate crisis. both infographics suggest ecocritical reading activities to enable primary school students’ transformative responses to the picturebook by imagining alternatives. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 11 title how to talk about the exploitation of nature with children unit time 2-3 hours grade level(s) students age 9-10 years core text the giving tree (1964) by shel silverstein supporting texts united nations sdg 8 and 15 climate literacy terms anthropocene, capitalocene, greed objectives at the end of the lesson students will have shared and discussed their thoughts on humanity’s greed and its consequences. they will have had the opportunity to express their own suggestions on how humans can respond or take action in more generous and sustainable ways. materials and resources figure 1, paper, coloured pencils (leporello) figure 1 (below). infographic by giulia nai on shel silverstein’s the giving tree https://sdgs.un.org/goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal15 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ bibliography: silverstein, s., (1964). the giving tree. london: harper&row. bruno, r.t., (2020). educare al pensiero ecologico: letture, scritture e passeggiate per un mondo sostenibile. milano: topipittori. campagnaro, m., & goga, n., (2021). green dialogues and digital collaboration on nonfiction children’s literature. journal of literary education, (4), 96-114. united nations, (2015). transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. the teacher reads aloud the story and shows the pictures to the children. the text is short and with pictures it is easy to understand. the repetitions in the book are engaging and they push the reader to turn the page and find out what happens next. how to talk about the exploitation of nature with children the giving tree (1964) is a children’s picturebook by shel silverstein. the story is about the relationship between a boy and a tree: the boy asks and pretends, and nature gives. children (9-10 years) can focus on environmental ethics, nature-human connections and actions-consequences. they have an important role in building a better future for our planet, and talking about this topic at school is a good beginning. the suggested activities take 2-3 hours. brainstorming on the cover1. the teacher asks the children what they see and what they think the book is about. they can write down their ideas on a post-it note and stick it near an image of the cover; at the end, the teacher reads all the notes. 2. book reading 3. discussion about the message of the story together the class discusses : "how did the boy treat the tree? how did the tree treat the boy? do you think that humans take good care of nature? why?" 4. brainstorming about emotions children can share emotions and feelings: “how does the boy feel? how does the tree feel? and how do you, as a reader, feel about this story?" 5. leporello: the giving tree vs the giving human everyone creates a leporello, a small double-sided book with two stories: one story is about the book they read with the title "the giving tree", and the students are encouraged to draw the main scenes on the pages. in the second story, children have the possibility to tell an alternative story with the title "the giving human". students can reflect on these guiding questions: "what can we do for nature? what can we give?" and they can draw some ideas on the other pages. at the end, children show their leporello and share what they have done. children have to think of some solutions in order to improve the world and prevent exploitation. it is necessary to think differently to find alternatives and solutions to problems. children can find out a lot of information about the story just by looking at the cover. they are active participants and not only passive listeners of the story. conversation about the characters and their actions is necessary in order to reflect on the message of this story. keep in mind that it is important to listen to what children think without judgment. it's important to try to identify with each character and imagine why this character did a certain thing instead of another. talking about feelings and emotions is challenging but necessary to develop empathy. we may have different opinions, but it is important to accept them, so this is why the dialogic part is so relevant. by giulia nai (università degli studi di padova) climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 13 title forêt des frères by yukiko noritake unit time 2-3 hours grade level(s) students age 9-10 years core text forêt des frères (2020) by yukiko noritake supporting texts united nations sdg 8 and 15 climate literacy terms anthropocene, coastal erosion, human expansionism, individual action, wilderness, capitalocene, greed objectives at the end of the lesson students will have shared and discussed their thoughts on sustainable ways of living. they will have had the opportunity to imagine human or other earthlings’ responses and perspectives on the various choices and changes of life represented in the picturebook. materials and resources figure 2, pen and paper figure 2 (below). infographic by giulia silvestrini on yukiko noritake’s forêt des frères. https://sdgs.un.org/goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal15 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ noritake, y. (2020). forêt des frères. arles: actes sud jeunesse. campagnaro, m. (2013). educare lo sguardo: riflessioni pedagogiche sugli albi illustrati. encyclopaideia: rivista di fenomenologia pedagogia formazione, 17(35), 89-108. ellis, g. & mourão, s. (2021). demystifying the read-aloud. teaching young learners, 22-25. by yukiko noritake forêt des frères the book presents the parallel stories of two brothers, who each inherit half of the same forest. they both decide to settle down there, but from the beginning, they take two different roads... literary activity by giulia silvestrini (università degli studi di padova) individual reflection each student should write which story they prefer and why. then, the teacher collects the replies, reads them to the class and starts to discuss them, respecting everyone’s opinions. teaching tips: the teacher should ensure that everyone works on their own, because the students can sometimes be too influenced by one another, risking that they always share the same ideas and forget to reflect on their own. dialogue the teacher asks questions or replies to answers strictly regarding the storyline, without going into the reflective part. teaching tips: the teacher can also let the students create questions and share them with the class. in this way, the students will be more interested and will improve their dialogical skills. reading following a discussion about the cover, the teacher reads and shows everyone the picturebook. teaching tips: the teacher should read using expressive techniques to keep the students' interest and attention high. each page has only a few words, so the book can be explored as a wordless picturebook. gallery walk the students, divided into small groups, should write answers to specific questions, focusing more on the details of the story, and should read what other groups have already said. teaching tips: the teacher should organise the gallery walk with the doublespreads and, at the end, discuss the replies with the class. this activity helps the students to improve their communication skills and their imaginative dimension. writing each small group has to write the story from the point of view of one character (be it one of the brothers, another human, or an animal or plant). teaching tips: the teacher can make this activity more challenging, making the students choose a character from the story that they don't like. in this way, they can improve their narrative skills, walking in the shoes of someone else. life on land the teacher asks each student to choose one picture from the story that, in their opinion, can represent the life on land goal. teaching tips: the teacher should let everyone go through the pages individually and reflect. this activity helps the students to connect the picture book with the 15th sdg. the literary activity is designed for 9-10 year old students and it is connected to the 15th sdg life on land. the entire activity takes two/three hours to complete. https://www.actes-sud.fr/recherche/catalogue/collection/1298/?keys= https://novaresearch.unl.pt/en/persons/sandie-mour%c3%a3o-2 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 15 the third infographic (figure 3) revolves around the sustainability of natural resources used by humans. it engages with sdg 6 (clean water and sanitation) and sdg 14 (life below water) through its focus on the discovery, availability, and sustainable use of water. the picturebook and the activities developed for classroom use help encourage children to read the story ecocritically and to develop deeper awareness about water as a resource at risk. title the meaning of water unit time 4-5 hours grade level(s) students age 7-8 years core text on a magical do-nothing day (2016) by beatrice alemagna supporting texts united nations sdg 6 and 14 climate literacy terms ecological civilisation, nearby nature, planetarianism, wilderness objectives at the end of the lesson students will have learnt, thought, written and painted about the meaning of water, both in class and outdoors. they will have considered the meaning of water and the use that humans should and should not make of it. materials and resources figure 3, paper, pens, watercolours, sticky notes figure 3 (below). infographic by debora carolo on beatrice alemagna’s on a magical do-nothing day. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6 https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal14 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-civilization/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/planetarianism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/planetarianism/ the meaning of water when the children come back from the outdoor exploration, the teacher asks them to do some watercolor painting, underlining why they are using water for it. the teacher asks them to paint what they have seen or experienced with water. 4. watercolor time alemagna, b. (2017). on a magical do-nothing day (un grand jour de rien). thames & hudson ltd, london (original work published 2016). capetti, a. (2018). a scuola con gli albi. insegnare con la bellezza delle parole e delle immagini. goga, n., & pujol-valls, m. (2020). ecocritical engagement with picturebook through literature conversations about beatrice alemagne’s on a magical do-nothing day. sustainability (switzerland), 12(18), 7653. bibliography 5. gallery walk the teacher hangs up the watercolor paintings of the children in their classroom and asks them to walk through, watch, and think. they should focus on what the meaning of water is to them and write a few keywords on a post-it. 2. reading of the book after a short introduction of some key-words relevant to the story, the teacher reads aloud the picturebook on a magical do-nothing day by beatrice alemagna. the teacher should stop and show the picturebook to the children every second page. 6. writing to water for water about water thinking about all the work done about water, the children should be encouraged to write: it can be a letter, a poem, or whatever they feel to be appropriate. the project this project includes all the following activities, based on the reading out loud of the picturebook on a magical do-nothing day by beatrice alemagna. sdgs: 6:clean water and sanitation, 14:life below water time: 4-5 hours age: 7-8 years old debora carolo università degli studi di padova 3. outdoor exploration time during a break or a walk outside, the children should be encouraged to look for things with water and keep them in mind for later. 1. intro to sdgs and water the teacher and the pupils should watch a video together about sdgs and then go through the goals, focusing on the ones linked to water. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 17 in climate literacy education it is important “to foster an appreciation of the interconnectedness of social and environmental justice, encouraging more contemplative behaviour toward each other, other species, and the environment” (young, 2018, p. 6, our italics). whereas the first three infographics are more related to the environmental component of the interconnectedness mentioned by young, the fourth and fifth infographics focus on the social side of the spectrum. addressing the sdg 10 (reduced inequalities), these infographics intend to develop children’s ecocritical thinking through reflection about the many people who need to migrate, the reasons for migrations, the risks migrants encounter, and their feelings. title a silent book about courage, loss and hope unit time 1 hour grade level(s) students age 8-9 years core text migrants (2020) by issa watanabe supporting texts united nations sdg 10 climate literacy terms collective action, social justice, migrants objectives at the end of the lesson students will have been able to reflect about the social and environmental inequalities experienced by migrants. through drawing, speaking, or writing, students learn about the potential of wordless picturebooks to expose and overcome linguistic inequalities. materials and resources figure 3, paper, pens, watercolours, sticky notes figure 4 (below). infographic by ilaria sardella on issa watanabe’s migrants. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal10 1 2 3 4 5 migrants by issa watanabe read reconstruction write build a book invent a silent book about courage, loss and hope this is a silent book so it's important to know how to read it. there are many ways, but i suggest stopping on every page and asking the children what they see and what they think about it. starting from the cover. after the reading, you can propose to the children that they reconstruct the story with copies of some of the characters from the book. in this way you can see what they have understood and what impressed them the most. you should subsequently ask the children to write down the story. in this way everyone can express their opinion and their meaning of the story. they can also look at the book or at their story and write it down. to go deeper into their learning you can ask the children to invent a personal new story about migration. they have to draw it without using words. if they need it, they can use the previous works to get inspiration. for the last step you can build a book with the stories of all the children in the class. you can choose the title together and write down all the authors' names. you can then read it together with all the children, each one explaining his or her work. teacher tips teacher tips teacher tips teacher tips teacher tips this book can be used to talk about the 10th goal of sdg (reduce inequalities). you can talk about inequalities during the reading, but also about this kind of book, which everyone can understand (silent book). in this case the teacher has to be a scaffolding for her students, in order to create an interactive and inclusive activity. in a silent book every child can see different things according to their interpretations. seeing their stories can be really interesting, but it's not an evaluation of the children. you have to consider this reading as an aesthetic work. let the children work on their interpretations and meaningmaking. in able to offer the children different possibilities, you should propose different options with different forms of expression (drawing, speaking, writing). in this way you can meet all the children's needs and offer them possibilities to express themselves. this is another way to give the children a chance to express themselves. in this way they can be involved and be active participants in their own learning. important: there's not a right way and a wrong way. during all these activities it is really important to have a meaningful dialogue with the children. in this way they can share and build their ideas together. for this activity it is fundamental that everyone has a chance to share their story with the whole class and be active participants in the lesson. bibliography: watanabe, i., migrants, 2020, wellington, gecko press arizpe, e., colomer, t., martinez-roldan, c., visual journeys through wordless narratives. an international inquiry with immigrant children and the arrival, 2014, london, bloomsbury schwarz, b. b., baker, m. j., dialogue, argumentation and education. history, theory and practice, 2017, new york, cambridge university press rosenblatt, l. m. (1982). the literary transaction: evocation and response. theory into practice 21(4), 268-277 children age 8-9. a one-hour lesson by ilaria sardella (università degli studi di padova) nick kleese climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 19 title literature conversation for a selected book unit time 1 hour grade level(s) students age 9-10 years core text migrants (2020) by issa watanabe supporting texts united nations sdg 10 climate literacy terms collective action, social justice, migrants objectives at the end of the lesson students will have increased their awareness of migration, environmental and social injustices. thanks to reading the book and discussing it with the classmates, they will be able to question the knowledge and opinion regarding migrants that they had before the session. materials and resources figure 5, paper, pens, watercolours, sticky notes figure 5 (below). infographic by rebecca agostini on issa watanabe’s migrants. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal10 organization of the project class: 4th primary school (9-10 years) time: 1 class (45 minutes) objectives: dialogue and discuss important and current issues with an eco-critical approach raise children's awareness of migration through children's literature literature conversation for a selected book rebecca agostini a focus on literaturewhenteaching english as a foreign language 2022/2023 choice of the picturebook • it tells the migration path of a group of animals, with difficulties and obstacles → the ending is open but suggests a positive outcome with a little bit of hope • a heterogeneous group of animals as protagonists keeps the story in balance between fantasy and reality → children can identify with the characters • a silent book has a lot of potential → its universality makes it very useful for including all pupils and breaking down language or other barriers • children's literature can help to educate about environmental and social sustainability → an effective tool to develop greater awareness of social issues such as migration . pre-reading activities (7 min) ▪ initial brainstoring based on questions (presented again at the end to see how children’s ideas have changed) • who do you think migrants are? • why do they flee from their own country? what leads them to emigrate? • how do you think they feel?what emotions and feelings do they experience? • do you think that migrants are people who want to travel and enjoy changing countries? or do you think that migrants are poor people who are running away from difficult situations and have to face terrible journeys? 1. first moment • silence while the teacher slowly flips through the pages of the book • musical background of the stormy sea is played, in order to allow children to have a 360-degree experience, combining the sense of listening with that of sight 2. second reading • children are able to speak by raising their hands, discussing, asking questions and making contributions, highlighting what they observe and asking for clarifications • the teacher guides the discussion with stimulating questions: • what do you notice here? • what has changed from this page to this page? • what is the plot of the story? • what happened in this scene? • what is the global message? during-reading activities (30 min) during-reading activities (30 min) a focus on the different symbols sea boundaries an enemy-friend, as the only escape route undertaken with hope, which however irremediably brings danger and death with it barriers, frontiers, walls and obstacles to overcome; geographical, physical and imaginary ones built by people who exclude colors death suitcase ibis the dress worn by death and the trees varies according to the situation: • when the animals are traveling, the plants are without leaves and flowers are colored in black and white → feeling of despondency • at the end, the plants return full of colorful leaves and flowers → a feeling of hope and trust towards a new life spiritual and physical, represented as in the book the duck, death and the tulip by wolf erlbruch past memories, place of origin link between life and death, connection between past and present • final brainstorming based on questions (to compare with the initial ones) • who do you think migrants are? • why do they flee from their own country? what leads them to emigrate? • how do you think they feel? what emotions and feelings do they experience? • do you think that migrants are people who want to travel and enjoy changing countries? or do you think that migrants are poor people who are running away from difficult situations and have to face terrible journeys? post-reading activities (7 min) → pre-reading activities methods that activate the knowledge background, that introduce the topic, that motivate the students for the subsequent activities and that direct attention to the main theme through stimulating questions. → during-reading activities methods such as silent reading and guided reading, two opposing techniques but useful for different purposes and for carefully studying the book. → post-reading activities methods such as discussion, dialogue and questioning to broaden children's knowledge and make them think about what they have just read. theoretical framework ▪ picture-book selected for storytelling “[it] needs to meet a range of criteria, such as its suitability and interest in terms of content, linguistic, conceptual and cultural accessibility and appropriacy, aesthetic appeal and its educational affordances for a particular group of children” (ellis, g., & mourão, s. (2021) demystifying the read-aloud: gail ellis and sandie mourão discuss the role of reading picturebooks in early english language learning. teaching young learners) ▪ structure of the activities subdivision of the work and organization of the times, project in 3 parts, albeit connected: pre-reading activities, duringreading activities and post-reading activities. (graves, f. m., & fitzgerald, j. chapter 5. scaffolding reading experiences for multilingual classrooms) hartzell ú critical literacy and climate action 26 continuing the dialogue we hope to have clarified the framework of the five infographics and aroused your curiosity either as a primary school teacher, a student teacher, or a teacher educator. to continue the process of self-examination and project improvement, we warmly welcome your comments and feedback. we can be reached at nina.goga@hvl.no. references alexander, r. (2020). a dialogic teaching companion. routledge. bakhtin, m. m. (1986). the problem of speech genres. in c. emerson & m. holquist (eds.), speech genres and other late essays (pp. 60–103). university of texas press. campagnaro, m. & goga, n. (2022). material green entanglements: research on student teachers’ aesthetic and ecocritical engagement with picturebooks of their own choice. international research in children’s literature 15(3), 309–323. doi: 10.3366/ircl.2022.0469. goga, n., guanio-uluru, l., hallås, b. o., høisæter, s., nyrnes, a. & rimmereide, h. e. (2023). ecocritical dialogues in teacher education. environmental education research. doi: 10.1080/13504622.2023.2213414. goga, n. & pujol-valls, m. (2020). ecocritical engagement with picturebook through literature conversations about beatrice alemagna’s on a magical do-nothing day. sustainability 12(18). doi: 10.3390/su12187653. oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1(1), 34-38. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5240/3334 young, r.l. (2018). confronting climate crisis through education. reading our way forward. lexington books. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5240/3334 hartzell  critical literacy and climate change 4 climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit by abby hartzell, secondary ela instructor, hopkins, mn, usa abstract this 11th grade language & literature climate mini-unit was created to develop 11th grade students’ climate and critical literacy skills through analysis and discussion of multigenre climate texts. the unit covers several state standards related to media literacy in reading and inquiry-based writing. after completing this unit, students will understand the widespread, inequitable impacts of climate change and are equipped to engage with climate-related media and literature through a critical lens. keywords critical media literacy, multigenre texts, multimodal texts, anthropocene, holocene, ecosystem, sustainability, biodiversity, mass extinction, greenwashing overview in what follows, i share my experience of collaboratively designing and teaching a three-week climate change unit to four sections of standard-level 11th grade english at a title 1 public high school in the suburbs of minneapolis in spring 2023. my co-teacher and i were excited to develop our students’ climate literacy after we took a graduate course at the university of minnesota titled “adolescent literature, youth activism, and climate literacy” for our master’s in education program. we decided to fill a three-week gap at the end of the trimester with a mini unit in which students would learn about the facts of climate change, critically analyze various climate related texts, and engage in discussions about activism and personal/collective responsibility. the unit centered around a question: “what is climate change and how can i engage critically with this issue?” each lesson built upon the previous lessons to help students engage with the question and eventually develop their own responses. while teaching the unit, i was delighted by the level of engagement we saw in students. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/critical-media-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/multigenre/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/multimodal/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/holocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecosystems/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/extinction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/greenwashing/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 5 even though the school year was coming to a close and the weather was warming up, most students expressed genuine curiosity about climate impacts and solutions. they asked nuanced questions ranging from the responsibility of the camera crew to help the dying walruses they were filming to the plausibility of converting the electrical grid to 100% renewable resources. during our all-class discussion, students drew connections between the racial justice unit we had completed previously and the climate justice social media posts they had just analyzed. overall, teaching this unit reminded me of two important truths about my own experience as a teacher. first, when i am personally passionate about a topic, students tend to reflect back the same level of energy. second, making space for students to ask challenging questions and dive beneath the surface of the texts we read can take a lesson in exciting new directions. i cannot wait to see how these students apply their climate literacy in the future, and i hope they never lose their curiosity and critical lenses. narrative framing in the first part of the unit, students analyzed a series of climate narratives representing a range of genres. they first watched david attenborough’s documentary a life on our planet for an accessible framing of the problems and solutions associated with climate change. students honed their critical literacy skills by analyzing the short story “hermie” by nathaniel rich; the picturebook we are water protectors by carole lindstrom and illustrated by michaela goade; climate justice tweets by vanessa nakate, urban air quality, mark ruffalo, and climate justice alliance; videos from the climate stories project; and a slam poetry video by solli raphael and greenpeace. the unit culminated with lessons dedicated to analyzing corporate sustainability statements from target, nike, and starbucks; the song “colors of the wind” from disney’s pocahontas; and a podcast with jane goodall and ayana elizabeth johnson. at a glance title 11th grade language & literature climate mini-unit critical literacy and climate change unit time 3 weeks block schedule: one 50 minute and two 70 minute classes per week grade level(s) 11th grade core text david attenborough’s documentary a life on our planet supporting texts “hermie” by nathaniel rich we are water protectors by carole lindstrom and michaela goade https://www.climatelit.org/literature/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet/ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j7fyzyfro7tts1g_u5ykvwepn7bkwutt/view https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ hartzell  critical literacy and climate change 6 climate justice tweets by vanessa nakate, urban air quality, mark ruffalo, and climate justice alliance videos from the climate stories project slam poetry video by solli raphael and greenpeace. climate literacy terms anthropocene, holocene, ecosystem, sustainability, biodiversity, mass extinction, greenwashing objectives each lesson builds upon the previous lesson to help students engage with the question: “what is climate change and how can i engage critically with this issue?” materials and resources unit calendar with links to resources and slides going forward i thoroughly enjoyed designing and teaching this unit. one of my personal highlights was the last day of school when i led students in a discussion about the difference between individual and collective action. i asked students to come to a consensus at their table groups about which is more powerful: changing your personal behavior to combat climate change from the ground up or changing laws to combat climate change from the top down. it was exciting to listen to students debating the merits of each. ultimately, most groups decided that collective action was far more powerful. after discussion, i led students in an activity i call “blue marble,” for which i gave each student a physical blue marble that represents the earth. i then explained the metaphor: the earth is a tiny blue marble in space. we must do what we can to protect it and make it a better place, so what can you do for our only home? students rolled their blue marbles in their palms as they considered this question. i started by sharing that my own blue marble action is teaching climate literacy. as each student then shared their own actions, i couldn’t help but feel disappointed. after such a rich conversation about individual versus collective action, i was hoping students would think beyond classic individual actions, but most students said they planned to “use a reusable straw” or “drive less just for fun.” this response left me feeling motivated to engage students in the debate about individual versus collective action sooner in the unit so it could help help them reflect on their own power to influence collective change. i have since started working at a different high school. recently, my former colleague told me that one of our students from last year, now a senior, dropped by her room to say hi. at the end of their conversation, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue marble. a full summer vacation later, he still remembered the activity and his own, albeit small, commitment to taking care of our planet. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xa7hgrxau2qax9xp8gvmziet8ldjemkxxdusj2xmxdw/edit#slide=id.g1300a61040a_0_62 https://www.climatestoriesproject.org/us-climatestories.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gda50vw-mdq https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/holocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecosystems/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/extinction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/greenwashing/ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u1ql7htdffasxkvtytveblhum4gcf85ytotkdrgl9aa/edit?pli=1 editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 27 9th grade language & literature unit: critical literacy and climate action abby hartzell, fridley community schools, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract this 9th grade, 8-lesson language & literature unit centers on critical literacy and climate action by exposing students to climate-related texts from diverse genres. the goal is to foster critical literacy skills and build students’ baseline understanding of the climate crisis and its solutions. the unit covers several common core standards related to media literacy, research, and inquiry-based writing. it culminates in a student-choice driven climate action research project through which students demonstrate their ability to apply climate literacy concepts to a specific climate solution. keywords international baccalaureate, critical literacy, collective action, click framework i designed and taught this climate change unit to three sections of international baccalaureate (ib) middle years programme (myp) 9th grade language and literature at a title 1 public high school in the suburbs of minneapolis. i completed much of my idea generation and lesson planning while i participated in a teacher fellow program through the center for climate literacy. my fellow cohort members supported each other's unit planning processes through collaborative discussions and workshops. the support i received from this interdisciplinary group of teachers was invaluable. for the backbone of this 9th grade unit, i used the framework that i developed for my 11th grade critical literacy and climate literacy unit in 2022: 1) start by determining what students already know and what they’re curious about; 2) teach key climate https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5438 hartzell ú critical literacy and climate action 28 concepts through vocabulary terms; 3) invite students to apply their knowledge through critical analysis of climate-related texts from a wide range of genres. however, i made a few key changes and additions too, based on my own reflections from the 11th grade unit and feedback from others. of these additions, i am most proud of the climate action project (cap) assignment which helped my students gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of climate action. since i started teaching climate literacy, i have noticed that students often fixate on individual actions, like buying an electric car, as the main solutions to climate change. despite leading conversations about the importance of collective action, i hadn’t found a way to instill a more nuanced understanding of this concept until i devised the cap. as part of cap, students researched a climate solution of their choice from an online database of climate solutions called “nexus” developed by project regeneration. each database entry lists the actions that must be taken by “individuals,” “groups,” and “governance.” students then produced a mini collage about their chosen solution with a catchy slogan that encouraged a certain type of action, whether individual or collective. the cap gallery walk on the last day of the unit was a joy to watch. students appreciated their peers’ collages and each student acted as the “classroom expert” about the solution they researched. narrative framing for climate literacy unit this 8-lesson unit began with a “four corners” activity where students shared their agree/disagree responses to a series of prompts about the unit’s key terms: climate change, biodiversity, anthropocentrism/ecocentrism, and environmental justice (see climate literacy term definitions in “curriculum at a glance” below). the following three lessons built on this activity, with one lesson dedicated to each term. each term, in turn, was paired with a few related multi-genre texts, including picturebooks, news articles, videos, etc. (linked in “curriculum at a glance” below). students were introduced to the four care domains of climate literacy from the click framework—species care, kinship care, systems care, and people care—and they completed a critical analysis chart by recording which domain(s) of care they noticed each text advocates. the unit culminated in a climate action project where students researched a climate solution of their choice from the “nexus” database and created a mini collage with a catchy slogan to promote the solution. https://regeneration.org/nexus https://regeneration.org/ https://regeneration.org/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5438 https://regeneration.org/nexus climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 29 title 9th grade language & literature unit: critical literacy and climate action unit time eight lessons schedule: daily 48 minute class periods grade level(s) grade 9 core text students used the website regeneration nexus to research climate solutions for this unit’s final assessment project. supporting texts various climate literacy terms ● short film ice merchants by joão gonzalez ● video what is climate change? produced by al jazeera ● picturebook the fate of fausto by oliver jeffers ● image “thanksgiving address” from braiding sweetgrass (ya) by robin wall kimmerer ● video what is biodiversity? by david attenborough ● news article food system biodiversity published by the guardian ● picturebook by over and under the pond by kate messner and illustrated by christopher silas neal ● picturebook we are water protectors by carole lindstrom and michaela goade ● climate justice tweets by vanessa nakate, urban air quality, mark ruffalo, and climate justice alliance objectives by the end of the unit, students will be able to define and discuss vocabulary terms. they will be able to answer the unit’s essential question: how can literature help us understand the diverse impacts of climate change? through engaging in research about climate solutions and completing a climate action project, students will gain specific knowledge about a climate solution of their choice and develop communication skills by drafting a slogan and creating a collage. materials and resources unit calendar with links to resources climate action project research and planning guide https://regeneration.org/nexus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhj74zjfaq8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcbxmj1nmtq https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-fate-of-fausto/ https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hhmjiz4o0zrfdopyy6nyuhprldp6n76lfe1s1i4qwiw/edit?usp=sharing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glwnuzrqe7u https://www.theguardian.com/food/ng-interactive/2022/apr/14/climate-crisis-food-systems-not-ready-biodiversity https://www.climatelit.org/literature/over-and-under-the-pond/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xa7hgrxau2qax9xp8gvmziet8ldjemkxxdusj2xmxdw/edit#slide=id.g1300a61040a_0_62 https://docs.google.com/document/d/119sfss8e8zzng9nocjkpxztkg5owscs0/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112055745967875115521&rtpof=true&sd=true https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eb6vmqtqoovbee4ui7hedzfwsrqaylxnclzoqfquqes/edit hartzell ú critical literacy and climate action 30 climate action project, unit culmination, and going forward for the final three days of the unit, students worked on their caps. the cap research and planning guide (linked in “curriculum at a glance” above) encouraged students to break down the action required by their chosen solution into categories: “individuals” “groups” and “governance.” this complicated many students’ preconceived understanding of climate action as a solely individual pursuit. additionally, these projects allowed students to demonstrate the critical analysis skills they developed throughout the unit by requiring students to apply the care domains from the click framework to their own collage. each student wrote an artist statement that referenced the specific domain(s) of care their cap promoted. on the second to last day of the unit students voted on which collages and slogans were most inspiring. they also filled out a feedback survey about the unit as a whole. i enjoyed reading their answers that afternoon, especially for the question, “what is one thing you wish all adults knew about climate change?” most called for adults to take action and to remember that younger generations are counting on them. a of my few favorite answers included unique insights: “profit doesn’t really matter if we are all gonna burn in 30 years !!;” “be more reasonable” and “buying a tesla doesn’t make you better than everybody else.” the final day of the unit was a celebration. i handed out eco-themed prizes to the contest winners and gave each student a blue marble to remind them to take care of our planet. students enjoyed the celebration, but it was also the last day of school. i kept them engaged by promising that they could go play outside for the last 20 minutes of class. when the time came, they eagerly packed away their papers and we headed outside to enjoy the sun. the weather was unseasonably warm, and a thin haze of canadian wildfire smoke made the sky white. i wondered if any students would apply their new climate literacy skills and identify the connection between our curriculum and the weather. if they did, they didn’t voice it. instead, they teased each other as they played foursquare, gleefully discussed summer plans, and made daisy chains in the grass. as with most of my climate change related thoughts, i felt a mix of despair and hope as i watched my students. i felt anxious looking at the sky, thinking of the climate climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 31 solutions students had just spent days researching, but knowing that time for implementation is running out. yet the human joy, creativity, and connection i witnessed that day was also a reminder of what fuels my work. humans will always seek connection with the outdoors, even in the face of the climate crisis. we must continue to educate our youth about climate change, both as a threat and a call to action. teaching climate literacy units is my small act of radical hope. kayda m., 9th grade aiyanna s., 9th grade hartzell ú critical literacy and climate action 32 nex n., 9th grade fernanda a., 9th grade climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 33 gabby b., 9th grade brianna e., 9th grade climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 67 democracy and kinship in nausicaä of the valley of the wind nick kleese, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, minnesota, usa abstract this article argues that nausicaä of the valley of the wind provides generative openings for young people to imagine egalitarian political relations with nonhuman animals. at the same time, the film also reproduces the all-too-common image of the young monarch who almost single-handedly saves their people from destruction: an autocratic and authoritarian impulse that runs contrary to what a truly ecological democracy might look like. nevertheless, i propose that educators might still use nausicaä to help young people think through the politics of climate-minded media. keywords interspecies democracy, ecological democracy, authoritarianism, kinship, anime it’s 2024—a presidential election year in the united states. the vote in november was, as more than one commentator has noted, a referendum on the democratic process itself (cf berman, 2024). while the nation faced another authoritarian threat to its foundational values, the entire globe faces another year of shattered climate records across all metrics (cf dancer, 2023). meanwhile, right-wing culture warriors continue to use schools as piñatas for their so-called moral crusade. for educators to teach either democratic values or the climate crisis is to become vulnerable to their cudgels. kleese ú democracy and kinship 68 in what follows, i want to suggest that discussing films that have not yet been politicized, such as nausicaä of the valley of the wind, grant educators a safe opening to explore deeper and more meaningful ideological facets of the ecological and democratic crises. i find nausicaä especially useful for this purpose for two reasons in particular: 1) its speculative world helps keep viewers from seeing it as superficially political (e.g. aligned with one of two dominant political parties in the united states), and 2) its depiction of an ecological democracy is incomplete: interspecies alliances on the one hand, an authoritarian government on the other. as educators analyze the film with their students, they can work together to arrive at a clearer understanding of what kind of world we all deserve: an ecological democracy, one in which humans maintain egalitarian relationships with both their human and non-human kin. nausicaä of the valley of the wind set in a post-apocalyptic future, hayao miyazaki’s nausicaä of the valley of the wind (1984) depicts a world after anthropogenic ecocide. from the ashes of a once lush earth came the sea of decay—a toxic jungle growing larger and larger, pushing remaining human societies into smaller and smaller pockets of land. humanity’s retreat allowed the ohm—a species of giant insects—to have increasing range across the biosphere. in the film, most humans live in fear of both the sea of decay and the ohm, but not nausicaä, the titular heroine and heir to the throne of the peaceful valley of the wind. nausicaä is more generous and patient than other humans. she works to build relationships with the ohm. she actively studies the jungle. she is an optimist. but one day her work is interrupted when the neo-industrial tolmekians invade the valley. the tolmekians plunder the valley’s resources to resurrect the organic weapons that first devastated the planet. still, nausicaä’s careful study of the ohm reveals their rhizomatic political system, allowing her to forge a cross-species alliance. together, humans and ohm buck their tolmekian overlords and achieve a sustainable, egalitarian peace brokered by their ecocentric monarch. i am not the first to note the political valences within the film and in its cultural reception. writing about nausicaä, donna haraway (2016) notes that speculative fiction like miyazaki’s offers viewers insights about how we should be living here, now, in our already “damaged world” and in so doing “keeps politics alive” (p. 150). to access climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 69 these insights, however, viewers must resist applying readily available platitudes about “saving the earth” (cf gossin, 2015). miyazaki himself expressed wariness of the film’s increasingly normative reception and cautioned against oversimplifying—and thus defanging—its ecopolitical message. doing so, he argued, blunted the film’s actual critiques, transforming them into a greenwashed “government-approved eco mark” (miyazaki, 1996, p. 391). for the film to be generative, then, educators must help students analyze the actual ecopolitical relationships it depicts. below, i share two possibilities for analysis. kinship relations nausicaä serves as an excellent model for interspecies kinship relations. it also takes care to show the challenges to doing so. the film intentionally presents the ohm as dangerous, uncharismatic, and unknowable. in fact, the first time an ohm is seen it is actually not an ohm at all. rather, we see its exoskeleton—a hulking, monstrous husk with too-many legs and eyes like an enormous, wingless cicada. it gives you the heebeegeebees. but just as the seemingly fragile shell is in reality remarkably strong, so too are the ohm more than they initially seem. as nausicaä learns about them, she comes to understand that they communicate by changing eye color, that their social dynamics are rhizomatic rather than hierarchical, and that their rage—“the rage of the earth itself”—is caused when the tolmekians abduct an infant ohm. empathetic, nausicaä sacrifices herself to save the little ohm. in return, the ohm band together (literally) to resurrect nausicaä—a gesture of gratitude that the young human queen sees them not only as sentient persons, but as political entities in their own right. eco-authoritarianism nausicaä’s political relations with the ohm are egalitarian—not so much for her own human subjects. this power is her birthright. nausicaä is the only surviving child of king jhil, the valley’s much beloved but ailing monarch. his illness, caused by the toxins in the air, has left nausicaä in an outsized leadership role. the villagers constantly pester her for guidance and information. in fact, nausicaä seems to be the only one in the valley capable of doing any complex thought or skilled labor. she’s the only one knowledgeable enough to repair the windmills, fly the valley’s only glider, and serve as kleese ú democracy and kinship 70 lead pilot on airships. and she’s the valley’s only botanist—the film reveals that she has created a lab hidden in the castle cellars, where she has successfully cultivated plants long assumed to be extinct. but she keeps this lab a secret from the villagers, as if they can’t be trusted to know this. granted, nausicaä is a caring, selfless leader, but her feudal authority is never questioned—nor is that of any other ruling figure. the tolmekians are also a monarchy, led by princess kushana—a perfect foil for nausicaä. whereas nausicaä is pacifist, kushana is militant. whereas nausicaä lives in relation with non-human nature, kushana attempts to dominate it. nausicaä has a nonhuman sidekick, kushana has artificial limbs. and so on. this contrast serves, by extension, to juxtapose the peaceful, pastoral valley—which, true to its name, is fueled by wind power—with the neo-industrial tolmekia, whose battle tanks are fueled by carbon but manned by armored, sword-bearing warriors. and yet, both monarchies are absolute. there are no constitutive assemblies in either, no checks and balances. it seems that in the world of nausicaä, humanity’s political response to ecological collapse was to adopt authoritarianism and to two different ends. tolmekians had a militant authoritarian in kushana. the valley had a caring, benevolent one. according to the logic of the film, if ecological collapse occurs, we should be prepared to choose between these two options—should we be so lucky as to have options at all. ecological democracy and education despite its faults, educators can—and should—use nausicaä to discuss ecological democracy in the classroom. while it may prove easy to articulate praise of the film’s kinship relations, as well as critique its authoritarianism, imagining alternatives to the latter may prove more challenging. if this is the case, educators can take comfort in the fact that no one really knows what an ecological democracy will look like. in fact, chantal mouffe is adamant that democracy “must be reformulated in view of the ecological exigency” (p. 62). that is, we should plan on figuring it out as we go, and we should anticipate—and celebrate—disagreement. after all, democracy depends on diversity. if full consensus is achieved, differences are obliterated; full consensus in a democracy does not mean the full achievement of democracy, but rather its failure. using films like nausicaä in the classroom allows educators to discuss democracy and ecology in ways that avoid labels that might draw the ire of outside climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 71 stakeholders (e.g. right-wing, authoritarian, critical thinking) but nonetheless inspire deep conversation about political systems. after watching and discussing nausicaä, educators could extend the learning in several ways: ● ask students to imagine themselves as one of the villagers of the valley. what would be their experience of the film’s crises? how is their experience different from that of the protagonist’s? what would give them hope, anxiety, or fear? students could respond from the perspective of these “minor” characters to explore how political agency (or lack thereof) relates to everyday experience. ● let students design the valley village in which they would want to live. what would a more equitable and collaborative society look like? how would shared governance work? how are decisions made? resources distributed? how would non-human animals be represented? assign students to different teams or committees to submit their own proposals, preferably based on research about already existing systems of governance. ● ask students to read the story of how indigenous leaders of several pacific islands granted whales legal personhood. ask students to identify the specific rights associated with personhood (e.g. right to movement, cultural expression, etc), then ask them to pick another species. if that species were granted personhood, what species-specific behaviors, cultures, etc. would be protected? over a century ago, john dewey claimed that “[t]he very idea of democracy, the meaning of democracy, must be continually explored afresh; it has to be constantly discovered and rediscovered, remade and reorganized” (1937, p. 182). herein lies an additional promise of discussing films like nausicaä in the classroom. not only do they afford young people the opportunity to practice critical climate literacy skills, but they also grant young people the opportunity to discuss, debate, attempt, revise, and practice enacting democratic values. indeed: what better place than the classroom— those rambunctious, fraught, joyful, besieged, electric spaces where human beings come together in community—to realize dewey’s (1916) insistence that: https://www.npr.org/2024/04/03/1242451885/whale-personhood-climate-change-polynesia-maori-new-zealand https://www.npr.org/2024/04/03/1242451885/whale-personhood-climate-change-polynesia-maori-new-zealand kleese ú democracy and kinship 72 …democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. the extension in space of the number of individuals who participate in an interest so that each has to refer [their] own action to that of others, and to consider the action of others to give point and direction to [their] own, is equivalent to the breaking down of those barriers of class, race, and national territory which kept [humankind] from perceiving the full impact of their activity (p. 101, emphasis mine). climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 73 references berman, r. (2024, may 31). how 2024 could transform american elections. the atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/05/2024-electionreform-final-four-voting/678550/ dancer, s. (19 nov 2023). earth passed a feared global warming milestone friday, at least briefly. washington post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climateenvironment/2023/11/19/climate-change-2c-temperature-heat-record/ dewey, j. (1916). democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education. macmillan. dewey, j. (1937). the challenge of democracy to education. in boydston, j. a. (ed.), john dewey, the later works: 1925–1953. southern illinois university press. gossin, p. (2015). animated nature: aesthetics, ethics, and empathy in miyazaki hayao’s ecophilosophy. mechademia 10, 209-234. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/664567. haraway, d. j. (2016). staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. duke university press. meijer, e. (2019). when animals speak: toward an interspecies democracy. new york university press. miyazaki, h. (1996). on completing nausicaä of the valley of the wind: the story continues [interview]. in cary, b. & schodt, f. l. (trans.) starting point: 1979– 1996. viz media. mouffe, c. (2021). towards a green democratic revolution: left populism and the power of affects. verso. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/05/2024-election-reform-final-four-voting/678550/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/05/2024-election-reform-final-four-voting/678550/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/19/climate-change-2c-temperature-heat-record/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/19/climate-change-2c-temperature-heat-record/ https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/664567 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 23 staying with the climate trouble: part two lee zimmerman, hofstra university, hempstead, new york, usa abstract in teaching about climate, when it comes to the troubling question of “what can we do?” i’ve argued that we try to help students stay with, rather than prematurely and inadequately, resolve that trouble and that we do this by inviting them into our own state of not knowing. how to stay with the pedagogical trouble of doing that, including the trouble of trying to contain the despair that an honest account of the climate crisis may provoke? this essay suggests that one approach to that question in the literature classroom is to teach texts in which characters themselves grapple with the question of “what can we do?” ultimately, the pedagogical challenge is to help shape these textual encounters into an awareness that, especially as it is shared, despair might be something other than a terminal condition—indeed, might be a necessary passage through to whatever comes next. keywords climate pedagogy, climate crisis, eco-anxiety, staying with the trouble the author would like to acknowledge duncan rayside. zimmerman ú climate trouble pt ii 24 how can we introduce the climate crisis into the classroom as a crisis without leaving students despondent? in part one of “staying with the climate trouble” (2023) i tried to elaborate on how i think about that pedagogical challenge in my college classroom, arguing, somewhat against the grain of much climate pedagogy, that our deepest obligation isn’t to reassure students by offering them hope—by directing them to “what they can do”—but, rather (borrowing donna haraway’s phrase), to help them “stay with the trouble.” in this, i was reacting against the way climate action is often introduced into the classroom in the same normalizing terms with which it takes shape in the public discourse more broadly, a discourse in which even the most purportedly “ambitious” climate policy, like biden’s inflation reduction act, remains farcically inadequate to the severity and urgency of the problem. advocating that students stay with the trouble isn’t asking them to abandon the question of “what can we do?” but, rather, to more fully feel and understand what’s at stake in any particular form of doing. “we can’t know in advance precisely what [that staying with the trouble] might mean,” i wrote, or whether it will lead to actions commensurate to the scale and urgency of the problem, “but we can invite students into our own state of not-knowing and thus into the process of finding out.” in this follow-up article, i’ll try to say something about what “inviting students into our not-knowing” might look like in the climate classroom. again, i’m focusing on college literature classes, taking as premises that, as marek oziewicz puts it “climate change is not a stem issue,” but, rather, “a worldview issue, entangled with our values, perceptions, beliefs, and lifestyles’” and that—because worldviews are established, maintained, normalized, and, perhaps, challenged and changed by stories a culture tells about itself and the world—one important way of studying the climate crisis is studying literature (oziewicz, 2023, p. 35). in one way, inviting students into our not knowing is part of what many teachers in the humanities already try to do. in teaching a piece of literature, the kind of questions on which we focus aren’t in the main those can be answered definitively and finally. a colleague of mine once said that teaching certain texts many times over was easy because “i know where the bodies are buried,” but even a buried body undergoes changes. we do establish frameworks for addressing the key questions, steering students toward certain kinds of terms and concerns, but what we’re after isn’t https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 https://www.dukeupress.edu/staying-with-the-trouble https://www.oilchange.org/publications/fossil-fuel-fail https://www.oilchange.org/publications/fossil-fuel-fail https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5240/3334 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 25 a final knowledge, a closing down of a question. rather, it’s a process of engaged exploration that cannot produce the last word. to invite students into our own not-knowing, then, is to treat the question of “what they can do” in something like the same manner we treat other questions in a literature class, however different the stakes of the inquiry might seem to be. one way to do this is to examine texts that themselves stage the process of characters confronting “what to do.” for me, one useful text in this regard has been jenny offill’s weather, where we see a range of responses to that question, both in the central character lizzie herself and in others, including her mentor, sylvia, a climate public intellectual. it is sylvia who feels compelled to provide in her work what she mockingly calls an “obligatory note of hope” (p. 64), but, tellingly, offill herself does the same thing, appending to her narrative a link to obligatorynoteofhope.com, a site offering both “tips for trying times” and “ways to get involved.” the novel thus ushers the reader beyond itself, as if to insist that the question “what to do” cannot remain sequestered within the text. and in doing this, the book asks us to consider to what extent a note of hope that presents itself as “obligatory”—that arises not from studying the facts of the case but, rather, from a need that precedes any facts—can reflect more than the desperation that prompts it. in this way, weather both points students toward some concrete things they might “do” and also asks them to stay with the trouble of scrutinizing to what extent the site’s various “tips” and “ways” seem consistent with a truly adequate response to the desperation of our moment. a short list of other works that stage characters grappling with “what to do?” might include, most prominently, kim stanley robinson’s the ministry of the future, though, in my view, while robinson does visit the trouble, finally, as what samuel miller mcdonald has called a “tale of the plucky bureaucrat who uses science, reason, and technical expertise to stumble on the perfect combination of policy incentives and new technology to save the day,” the book abandons rather than stays with that trouble (mcdonald, 2021, n.p; zimmerman, 2022). at almost 600 pages, the book is in most contexts too long to teach, unless one assigns only selections. though the same is true of stephen markey’s even longer the deluge, that book does stay with the trouble more thoroughly, rooted more deeply in characters critical of the very systems and institutions of power, and their leaders, that in ministry “save the day.” to what extent https://obligatorynoteofhope.com/ https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-do-authors-dream-of-electric-jeeps https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-of-climate-fiction-got/ zimmerman ú climate trouble pt ii 26 do other works that one might list here seem to represent the process of staying with the trouble? that’s a good question to bring to those works, which might include jessie greengrass’s the high house, nathaniel rich’s odds against tomorrow, ilija trojanow’s the lamentations of zeno, and the film how to blow up a pipeline (a narrative drama based on andreas malm’s non-fiction book of that name about why, not how, to blow up a pipeline). however much the question of “what students can do to help try to stop the climate house from burning down” resembles the kind of questions that humanities classes normally consider, there is nonetheless a big difference between the kind of generative not-knowing that structures those classes and the desperate not-knowing we’re confronted with when students understandably ask what they can do. i’ve implied that inviting the students into the former kind of not-knowing (considering the question of “what they can do” as a literary question) might help usher them into the more desperate, latter, but i’ve also invited them into that latter not-knowing more directly, by sharing with a class a draft of this essay, in the hope this might help students sense how crucial their own agency is in grappling with the question. one student remarked that in response to reading the essay, and discussing it in class, she began to feel angry and then “inspired” to do something (or, rather, to take the question “what can i do” more literally and personally). ultimately, if we invite students to stay with the climate trouble, we’re necessarily challenging ourselves to stay with the pedagogical trouble of doing so. for me, that teacherly trouble has partly involved an awareness that, in issuing such an invitation, to some degree i’m likely dealing with my own climate anxiety by passing it along to classes of college students who as a group (along with high schoolers) even before covid-19 was suffering what the national education association called an “epidemic of anxiety” (flannery, 2018, n.p). in doing this, to a degree, i'm probably kicking the climate-action can down the road—like the world climate “leaders” at cop meetings, braying on about removing carbon from the atmosphere at some future time. at the same time, though, insofar as inviting students to stay with the trouble takes the form of inviting them to join me in the space of not-knowing, it helps construct the classroom as a space in which we can stay with the trouble together, where staying with the trouble is a form of sharing the trouble. in this, it responds to https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxiety-among-todays-students#:~:text=in%202016%2c%20nearly%20two%2dthirds,the%20national%20college%20health%20assessment. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 27 the central pedagogical challenge shoshana felman identified as having both to let the crisis into the class as a crisis and to “contain” it, so students don’t get too “crazy” (felman and laub, 1992). importantly, however, this is not the same as providing for students the “fewer moments of eco-anxiety and more moments of hope” for which kirsten hunt calls (hunt, 2023, p. 25). even if confronting the dire extremity of our moment needn’t drive them too “crazy,” it is likely to open them to some degree of despair. but part of staying with the pedagogical challenge, i’d suggest, is helping them understand—and thus perhaps experience—despair as something other than a terminal condition. here, one might ask the class to consider something like what orestes means, in jean-paul sartre’s the flies, when he tells zeus that “human life begins on the far side of despair.” or one might invite them to wrangle with what contemporary novelist peter dimock means when he says that, in responding to the climate crisis despair is a much richer world than denial. denial is a dead world and goes nowhere. it has no future. despair . . .possesses the generative power of whatever comes next, which we are in no position to know but that we have the ability through language to create…. [his book explores possibilities for finding our way] not out of despair but through it . . . it’s not the notion that we always have to get past despair or we have to manage it or solve it. the deeper truth of language gives us a way to inhabit it. before we come to a solution we have to live it. we skip the living part of it, the living of despair. out of that [living it] will come whatever comes next (“interview”, 2021). examining such statements in class can become a way of declining to put the cart of hope before the horse of despair. and as with hope, so too with optimism. “you don’t fight fascism because you are going to win,” sartre wrote in the age of reason (1947), “you fight fascism because it is fascist.” taking a cue again from sartre, one can ask the class to think seriously about what it means to fight for a cause, even if victory seems unlikely—about what’s at stake in the fight against the ecocidal status quo, whether (against the odds) we manage to pre-empt the worst-case climate scenarios or we don’t. https://www.routledge.com/testimony-crises-of-witnessing-in-literature-psychoanalysis-and-history/felman-laub/p/book/9780415903929?srsltid=afmboornkhxkaifrecvoxla9uaheyhxwjbmkzjochlc2smqzpjdw6uvx https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5322/3331 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwjyylsfck zimmerman ú climate trouble pt ii 28 i’ve thus come to frame climate courses by presenting students with a passage from the poet carolyn forche’s “ourselves or nothing” (1982). attending closely to these lines is an act of literary criticism, of course. but in indicting a culture numb to both the legacy of historical atrocities and, by implication, to the atrocity-in-process constituted by anthropogenic global warming, the poem also challenges students to “go after that which is lost”: to open themselves to the trouble with which the poem as a whole may help them stay. and in this, the poem can work as a way of inviting students both into our own not-knowing and into the joint process of trying to find what’s next. in that spirit i’ll close with “ourselves or nothing”’s final lines: go after that which is lost and all the mass graves of the century’s dead will open into your early waking hours: belsen, dachau, saigon, phnom penh and the one meaning bridge of ravens, sao paulo, armagh, calcutta, salvador, although these are not the same. …. …everywhere and always go after that which is lost. there is a cyclone fence between ourselves and the slaughter and behind it we hover in a calm protected world like netted fish, exactly like netted fish. it is either the beginning or the end of the world, and the choice is ourselves or nothing. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 29 references felman, s., & laub, d. (1992). testimony: crises of witnessing in literature, psychoanalysis, and history. routledge. flannery, m. e. (28 march 2018). the epidemic of anxiety among today’s students. nea today. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxietyamong-todays-students forche, c. (1982). “ourselves or nothing.” the country between us. harper & row. hunt, k. (2023). finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. climate literacy in education, 1(1), 24–26. https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5322 interview with novelist peter dimock. (24 nov 2021). the scrum. youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwjyylsfck mcdonald, s. m. (24 jan 2021). the ministry for the future, or do authors dream of electric jeeps? current affairs. https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-doauthors-dream-of-electric-jeeps offill, j. (2020). weather. knopf oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1(1), 34– 38. https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5240 sartre, j.-p. (1947). the age of reason (e. sutton, trans.). alfred a. knopf. zimmerman, l. (2023). staying with the climate trouble: on (not) containing the crisis in the classroom. climate literacy in education, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 zimmerman, l. (11 nov 2022). what kind of thoughts has the king of climate fiction got? tikkun. https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-ofclimate-fiction-got/ https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxiety-among-todays-students https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxiety-among-todays-students https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5322 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwjyylsfck https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-do-authors-dream-of-electric-jeeps https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-do-authors-dream-of-electric-jeeps https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5240 https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-of-climate-fiction-got/ https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-of-climate-fiction-got/ climate literacy in education vol. 1, no. 2 first published version – page numbers to change with issue release 1 a stone’s throw and ten paces: or mr. warbler's succinct and useful field guide to flora and fauna of the northern forest emma ambrosi, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa artist statement a stone’s throw was created as a class project for an undergraduate first-year writing class and is partially based on my own experiences growing up close to a wooded trail in northern minnesota. my initial intention for the story was to write and illustrate a simple narrative about the mental health benefits of nature exposure, based on both my personal experiences and the findings of several previously published research articles. the basic goal of the story is to introduce the reader to the concept of interacting with nature as a restorative experience and to portray experiencing nature as an accessible activity that requires no prior knowledge or particular skill set. ideas for reflection: 1. nature can be present around you in many ways, from a state park to a garden to a simple potted plant. what types of nature do you notice around your neighborhood? what types of nature might your students notice? 2. in the narrative, nature journaling is portrayed as one form of interaction with nature. what other forms of interaction could you engage with and/or teach to your students? keywords nature immersion, embodiment, biodiversity, nearby nature, nature journaling https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature-immersion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/embodiment/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/nearby-nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature-journaling/ a stone's throw and ten paces or mr. warbler's succinct and useful field guide to flora and fauna of the northern forest written & illustrated by emma ambrosi a stone's throw and ten paces or mr. warbler's succinct and useful field guide to flora and fauna of the northern forest written & illustrated by emma ambrosi mr. henry warbler is currently sitting at his office desk. he has been trying for some time to formulate an ad campaign for a brand of toothpaste that comes packaged with cheap plastic figurines. so far, his ideas are nil. through his splitting headache, he attempts to discern which word would be better: "incredible" or "delightful." perhaps the weekend will give him the respite he needs to make a decision -but he is doubtful. the elysian prospects of the weekend never seem to live up to their potential. soon, his mind turns towards its daily ritual of retreading all of the minor faux pas and professional errors he has committed throughout the past decade. maybe he just isn't cut out for this. to avoid aggravating his headache, mr. warbler charts a roundabout path home, along the edge of downtown. during one stretch, he notices a patch of woods on the opposite side, with a trail leading through the trees. at home, in front of the fire, mr. warbler is overcome by a deluge of thoughts. he thinks about that little patch of woods, a stone's throw away from the sidewalk. he thinks about deadlines, and headaches, and suffocating waves of ennui. he thinks about the babbling stream by his parent's house, where he played when he was a child. he thinks about work. by sunday, mr. warbler has thought himself in enough circles to come to a decision: he will visit the trail. he dusts off a blank sketchbook (bought long ago for the sake of since-forgotten pastimes), puts on some suitable hiking attire, and strides with purpose back to the patch of woods. not ten paces after stepping onto the trail, he finds a suitable subject for his sketchbook. he diligently illustrates it, then labels it in as much detail as he can muster. farther down the path, he is suddenly startled by a strange bug fluttering towards him. it seems a bit too inquisitive for his liking. where the trail branches to meet a pond, the baleful stare of a turtle catches his eye. farther down the path, he hears a little bird singing, and spots it on a tree branch. after much diligent illustrating and note-taking, mr. warbler comes upon a grassy clearing full of flowers. he decides to lie down, with the clouds overhead... ... and simply exist for a while. mr. warbler returns home, feeling tired and unkempt, but also rather accomplished. after a brief shower, he eagerly turns his attention to the small stack of books now sitting on his counter -the spoils of a detour to the city library. each one is filled with detailed illustrations and notes, all about the local flora and fauna in the surrounding area. their covers proclaim them to be field guides. perhaps he'll walk this way more often. the following morning, mr. warbler goes back to work. the end author's note this story was inspired and influenced by my own experiences walking through the woods of northern minnesota. themes were also incorporated from the following articles: "a systematic review of evidence for the added benefits to health of exposure to natural environments," by bowler, d. e. et al., 2010. "the benefits of nature experience: improved affect and cognition," by bratman, g. n. et al., 2015. "the restorative benefits of nature: toward an integrative framework," by kaplan, s., 1995. "stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments," by ulrich, r. s. et al., 1991. "the effect of exposure to the natural environment on stress reduction: a meta-analysis," by yao, w. et al., 2021. a stone’s throw and ten paces: screech ú after the flood 60 after the flood: environmental activism, agency and action in sarah guillory’s nowhere better than here ben screech, university of gloucestershire, cheltenham, uk. abstract sarah guillory’s 2022 novel nowhere better than here explores how young people can take a proactive role in helping their community to mitigate the effects of ecological damage caused by climate change. the novel tells the story of jillian robichaux, whose louisiana home is threatened by coastal erosion. upon rescuing a box of old photographs of her town, jillian is forced to contend with the extent to which her town is now almost unrecognizable due to the constant intrusion of flood waters. jillian and her friends launch a project to plant marsh grass to counter the creeping erosion. in this way, guillory balances dystopian aspects with a more optimistic outlook, in exploring the role of child agents in engaging in tangible actions to offset the effects of climate change. keywords agency, story, eco-citizenship, empowerment, home, coastal erosion, floods, louisiana climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 61 acknowledgements i would like to thank nick kleese for inviting me to take part in a panel presentation on climate literacy, for which this paper was originally written. i would also like to thank sarah guillory for granting me an interview and for her encouragement of my interest in her work. sarah guillory’s middle-grade novel nowhere better than here (2022) is set in a town on a shrinking bayou—a small inland waterway in coastal louisiana. taking place in the aftermath of a flood that has devastated the small town of boutin, the book explores the practical abilities of young people in countering climate change-wrought destruction. the narrative is told from the perspective of jillian robichaux. part-climate activist and part self-appointed town archivist/oral historian, jillian becomes custodian of the town’s stories saved from “drowning” from the rising waters caused by climate change-driven coastal erosion. a subplot of the novel sees jillian embarking on a project to plant large swathes of marsh grass in an attempt to mitigate this erosion. “towns shouldn’t shrink like sweaters put through the dryer” (guillory, 2022, p. 64), jillian proclaims at the start of the book. the protection of her beloved hometown becomes her driving preoccupation in the text. this article explores the confluence between activism, agency and action in nowhere better than here, specifically through a discussion of how stories have the power to prompt young peoples’ environmental action. i hope to also show how children’s literature can have a crucial role in building young people’s climate literacy more generally, particularly in demonstrating how, as jillian puts it: “doing something is usually better than doing nothing” (p. 486). a key consideration in the novel is the extent to which “stories” are compatible with practicality, or “doing”. as the narrative progresses, readers move from a view of the protagonist with an interest in her “vanishing town” as something ethereal or “ghost-like” (p. 157), viewed in black and white photos: almost as a bygone artifact. however, this starts to change as the stories jillian collects from the older residents prompt a more tangible appreciation of the town and what she can do in the present and future to avoid more of her home being claimed by the encroaching tidal waters. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/6227/3678 screech ú after the flood 62 story itself becomes a kind of balm in the text: "stories have a way of healing broken places” (p. 142), jillian comments. however, such healing, she understands, also requires action: “in boutin you learned the value of things, learned to appreciate what you had and fix it when it broke” (p. 103). still, her role in such a process is not immediately clear. indeed, the novel considers questions of agency in relation to children’s potential contributions to enacting change. jillian initially questions her presumed lack of agency. i was a child and i’d had enough. mama and nonnie had always told me i could do anything, but that wasn’t really true. i was only one person—i didn’t make this mess (p. 304). as the novel progresses, jilian falls under the mentorship of dr. nelson: a scientist and coordinator of an environmental ngo tasked with tackling the state’s erosion issues. her sense of empowerment as a climate activist increases. admittedly, this implies an uneasy power balance wherein the child’s agency is essentially “granted” by an adult gatekeeper. readers can also reflect here on notions of dominion in the anthropocene more generally, something with which melinda benson’s seminal new materialism: an ontology for the anthropocene (2019) is concerned. most natural resource and environmental law is based on two critical ontological assumptions, common to enlightenment based thought. one involves the notion of agency—what it is and who has it. agency, defined here as the capacity to act, is generally speaking, a capacity presumed to belong only to human beings (p. 252). benson’s illustration of human dominion over the natural world mirrors adult dominion over children who try to exercise their agency in fighting for greater environmental action. although adults can encourage this process—as seen in guillory’s novel— youths frequently view adults as a hurdle to be overcome in order to bring about change. this criticism, for example, is central to greta thunberg’s famous “this is all wrong” speech (2019), where she proclaims: “we are in the beginning of a mass climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 63 extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth” (n.p). it follows that climate activists like greta thunberg and jillian in nowhere better than here view the anthropocene as necessarily a time for mobilization, which will ideally be supported by adults but need not depend on them. in learning to die in the anthropocene (2015), the climate philosopher roy scranton suggests that “[w]e’re going to need new ideas, we’re going to need new myths and new stories” (p. 20). as mentioned above, part of the way jilian enacts her agency in the novel is precisely through story. these consist of both the historical oral stories she collects in relation to the vanished parts of boutin, drowned over the decades due to rising flood water, and to a video montage to be screened at dr. nelson’s ngo. the montage consists of testimonies from residents describing what makes boutin their home and therefore worth saving. the material aspects of “home”—both in terms of the built environment and the role of memory in its conception—are important aspects of the text. crucially too, home and its “in-text” representation are inextricably linked with jilian’s identity. that wanting was for things not to change at all. i wanted the good parts of boutin to stay the same, to be perfectly preserved like some insect in amber, a portrait of a way of life that didn’t need to disappear. because, without all those things, i was afraid i had no idea who i was (p. 343). jillian’s use of the term “preserve” is key here. cultural critics hassan and xie argue that “cultural information embedded in cultural heritage should be preserved” (2019, p. 9). preserving this cultural information depends on human and structural resilience, the need for which, as jillian’s narrative also suggests, will comprise a crucial part of survival in the anthropocene. jillian also views her video project as a necessary form of cultural preservation: “the purpose of videoing these stories is to ensure pieces of boutin survive” (guillory, 2022, p. 546). meanwhile, the project to plant marsh grass is also ongoing. dr. nelson’s organization, called the discovery project, aims to tackle erosion through planting swathes of marsh grass to act as a breakwater. “this acre of grass we’re planting,” dr. nelson explains to her charges, “will grow to two acres by next year, then four the year after that. you are literally rebuilding louisiana right now” screech ú after the flood 64 (p. 465). on one of the planting expeditions, up to her knees in mud in the bayou, jilian comes to the important realization that, despite her own commitment to reversing the effects of climate change on her locale, ultimately “this would take all of us” (p. 467). the novel strongly makes the case then, for the importance of community action and the potential role of child activists in leading it. jillian initially recruits her friends. then, more and more townspeople participate in the actions she describes as “doing, helping, saving” (p. 473). strong activists have the ability to mobilize communities in taking action, jillian realizes, but how to reconcile this drive for public participation, with being a child? this challenge that jilian battles with throughout the novel is a dichotomy that kata dozsa explores in her recent volume on children as climate citizens (2023). through the global actions of the climate movement, the so-called generation z has demonstrated political sophistication, access to global knowledges, camaraderie and connection at a global cultural level. however, practice shows that children are rarely associated with traditional civil rights such as freedom of speech, association and assembly. moreover, participation in matters of public concern has not been to date an express right of children (p. 1). dozsa’s book, which considers various strategies for advocacy for children’s rights in climate-based “political fora,” mirrors aspects of jillian’s own fight to be heard in the novel. for example, jillian’s use of technology to create an online petition illustrates dozsa’s argument for the potential power of “digital spaces” (dozsa, 2023, p. 7). similarly, in the speech jillian gives to the adults at dr. nelson’s wetlands discovery centre on the importance of doing more to combat the creeping erosion jilian enacts young peoples’ right to public participation, which right is central to dozsa’s argument. on finishing her speech, jillian comments on her new feeling of empowerment from being able to extol the importance of this fight: “in this moment, i didn’t want to be anywhere else. it felt that someone had lit a fire inside my rib cage” (guillory, 2022, p. 542). another word for jillian’s empowerment is eco-citizenship and nowhere better than here casts jilian as representing a number of key eco-citizenship values, climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 65 behaviors and traits that young people who wish to act as effective actors in the fight against climate change must possess. extolling the virtues of such traits may be a good entryway into using the text pedagogically, as a stimulus for prompting young people to think more widely about their role(s) in this regard. they include being engaged in the world and a responsible citizen who understands the nature of the fight and what actions they can feasibly take. for example, jilian blends activism with more practical steps such as the grassroots initiatives. as well as leading her community to take a stand against state underfunding to deal with the fallout of the various environmental crises that have hit louisiana, from hurricane katrina to this most recent storm, jilian also understands the value of collaboration on a smaller scale, such as when she manages to recruit her (initially disinterested) friends to her cause. effective eco-citizens should be “empathetic and have a sense of morality by which they can become changers of their environment,” dozsa writes (p. 20). in the novel, this is interpreted as both empathy with dr. nelson and the other climate activists’ cause and from a broader perspective, in terms of jilian’s realization that “ecology deals with balance— we’re all connected” and that this “connection” is both “human and natural” (p. 200). in disciplinary literacy practice, authentic texts are prized because of their ability to address such traits. narratives can also help expound on key concepts’ terminology or disciplinary-specific language. for example, through the character of dr. nelson, young readers are introduced to concepts such as biodiversity, biosphere, restoration, coastal erosion and others. at its best, children’s literature can inspire activism, agency and action. it can, as children’s literature critic amy cutter-mckenzie puts it, “afford openings for dialogue both with and against dominant cultural texts, images, narratives and figurations of eco-cultural relations” (2014, p. 2). this is, in part, why i think nowhere better than here has profound pertinence. crucially, guillory imbues the text with a message of hope that is presented as inter-generational. boutin is “worth saving” not just because it is home, but also because of what it represents more generally about the fight in which we ultimately all have skin in the game. jillian demonstrates that young people have the ability to spearhead campaigns and to be role-models not just for other young people, but for adults too, in tackling climate change. screech ú after the flood 66 references benson, m. (2019). new materialism: an ontology for the anthropocene. 59 nat. res. j. 251. cutter-mackenzie, a. (2014). experiencing environment and place in children’s literature. routledge. dozsa, k (2023). children as climate citizens. routledge. guillory, s (2022). nowhere better than here. roaring brook. hassan, m & xie, h. (2019). climate change and conservation of coastal built heritage. springer. scranton, r. (2015). learning to die in the anthropocene. city lights. thunberg, g. (2019). “this as all wrong.” united nations publications. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 15 drawing our water stories melanie ariens, milwaukee water commons, milwaukee, wi, usa rhonda nordstrom, milwaukee water commons, milwaukee, wi, usa abstract as living beings, we are united by our universal dependence on water. we cannot live without it. whether it is an innate connection or a deep-seated fear, we all have a water story to share. drawing our water stories can generate empathy with one another and the non-human world. keywords art, active listening, sharing, interdependence, empathy, kinship introduction water unites us in our humanity and as living beings on this planet. we each have our own personal water stories. those stories may be of immigration, with water serving as a pathway to freedom and a new life. it may be a story of trauma of knowing how your ancestors were transported across seas. it may be a story loss due to flooding or drowning. it may be a story of scarcity and need, or a story of recreation, sustenance, joy, relief, calm, or celebration. there are so many ways that water intersects with our lives. drawing our water stories serves as an exercise in reflection and connection. it asks participants to reflect on at least one aspect of their personal water story and share it with someone else who is actively listening and recording. we find there is ariens & nordstromú drawing our water stories 16 something deeply intimate in sharing a story in this way that allows for a moment of deep empathy and care, for both the water and for another human. we also find it fascinating to observe people engaging in this activity—an activity that requires participants to be vulnerable in both sharing and in recording. there is no need to be an excellent artist, as participants can include words and draw symbols to convey the story. it is not expected to be a full illustration. simplicity and creativity are key. overview drawing our water stories is an active listening exercise that fosters deeper personal, interpersonal, and environmental connections to water through reflection and active listening. participants pair up and take turns sharing their water story while the other draws it. these drawings are not meant to be masterpieces but rather serve to promote active listening. afterward, pairs can report out to the larger group, with each person sharing their partner's story and how they chose to depict it. this exercise could also be done as a group exercise with a visual note-taker asking the group to share their water stories and drawing or painting them on a big banner. in short, drawing our water stories: • creates a collection of personal or community water stories • invites conversation • generates confidence in talking about water and their experiences title drawing our water stories unit time 30 minutes-50 minutes. (10-15) minutes for each drawing, followed by sharing out to the group) grade level(s) 6th grade to adult climate literacy terms water, dependence, resource, necessity, understanding climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 17 objectives deeper personal and environmental connections, confidence in sharing and communicating. materials and resources blank paper, colored markers, colored pencils examples: fostering kinship ariens & nordstromú drawing our water stories 18 acknowledgments milwaukee water commons is a cross-city network that fosters connection, collaboration and broad community leadership on behalf of our waters. we promote stewardship of, equitable access to, and shared decision-making for our common waters. we recognize that: • water is an essential element for all life on earth. • water belongs to no one and cannot be owned. • we recognize the gift of the great lakes; they have nurtured our ancestors and shaped us as a people and as a community. they continue to sustain us. https://www.milwaukeewatercommons.org/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 49 water in balance with mind and body: reflections of expanding a water unit to the community sonja r. braucht, university of south dakota, vermillion, sd, usa abstract this article offers reflections of a thematic unit centered on water, which was part of an earlier issue of climate literacy in education 1(1) this discussion emphasizes the significance of community involvement, the role of projectbased learning in enhancing student engagement, and the integration of socialemotional learning within the broader context of climate literacy. key words youth climate activism, ecosystem services, sustainability acknowledgments marek oziewicz and nick kleese for sharing enthusiastic passion for climate literacy water is life. our bodies are composed of mostly water, as is our planet, reflecting a deep connection between us and the world around us. the water within us is linked to the water all around us. water is fundamental to everything, maintaining balance on our planet. with this authentic connection, i became passionate about using water as a https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5252/3328 brauchtú water in balance 50 theme for my 8th-grade english language arts classroom. little did i know that this theme would introduce an organic and evolving dynamic to my curriculum. the thematic unit i presented to my students was closely tied to resources shared during the first climate literacy summer institute in 2022, at the university of minnesota. this unit is also referenced in the february 2023 issue of climate literacy in education (braucht, 2023). while this serves as a starting point, there is great potential to develop this work further. the "seeing through water" unit proved to be a solid introduction to concepts that engaged students and fostered critical thinking. my three key takeaways from this unit were the importance of community input, project-based student engagement, and social-emotional learning considering the environment. like many teachers, i continually seek ways to integrate the real world into my classroom. during a visit to the local great outdoor store, i learned about summer events, including a river cleanup, and connected with friends of the big sioux river, an organization based in sioux falls, south dakota. through friends' education outreach, my students participated in a river experiment focusing on runoff, learned about their impact on the watershed in their community, and applied the life science and chemistry they had previously learned as they analyzed water quality results. the students gained a general sense of the healthy ecosystem services in community ecosystems. this placebased learning resonated with my students far more than simply telling them to be mindful of water usage—they could see firsthand the impact they have on their community. student engagement was high as we integrated activities such as sewing, drawing, and expressing our voices through actions. i invited a community member, grandma karen, to share her quilting expertise with my students. they practiced constructing and sewing a quilt that was later donated to a local charity auction. students used fabric markers to draw pictures on fabric squares representing their theme of caring for the earth, resulting in collaborative beautiful earth care quilts. youth climate activism can take many forms, and my students proudly presented their earth care themes to family members and community groups through these quilts. after the project, many students requested to borrow their class quilts for graduation, reflecting their pride in the work they had done. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5252/3328 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 51 perhaps the most notable outcome of the water unit was the social-emotional learning that took place. students developed a sense of water as a sentient being and practiced framing perspectives as if they were the water itself. this approach made it easier for them to express and define feelings, leading to meaningful discussions about how to create positive action steps to protect the water. we also engaged in mindfulness journaling for sustainable consumption, often writing outside to connect with our environment (fritzsche et al., 2018) students embraced the freedom of being outdoors, which led to richer content and vocabulary in their writing. they also reported feeling calmer, which ultimately inspired us to create a school garden space to more formally learn outdoors. water can flow gently, or it can hit with immense power. we have the opportunity to continue integrating environmental themes across all areas of our students' curricula. by fostering cross-curricular partnerships and connections in literacy, we can harness this power to educate our students about sustainability, helping them develop a strong sense of voice and embrace opportunities to create a sustainable world. as we balance student experiences of mind and body, we can draw deeper connections to water. water is life. references braucht, s. (2023). seeing through water: the impact of our decisions, climate literacy in education, 1(1), pp. 12-14. stanszus, l., fischer, d., böhme, t., frank, p., fritzsche, j., geiger, s., harfensteller, j., grossman, p. & schrader, u. (2018). education for sustainable consumption through mindfulness training: development of a consumption-specific intervention. journal of teacher education for sustainability, 19(1), pp. 521. https://doi.org/10.1515/jtes-2017-0001 https://doi.org/10.1515/jtes-2017-0001 axelsson and lindgren ú ecocritical dialogues 64 sven nordqvist’s pettson and findus series and children’s education: ecocritical dialogues in preschool marcus axelsson, associate professor of scandinavian languages at the department of languages and teacher education, østfold, university college (norway) charlotte lindgren, associate professor of french didactics at the department of education, uppsala university (sweden) abstract this article explores how sven nordqvist’s books about pettson and findus may be used to initiate dialogues in preschool on the relationship between humans and nature. we argue that nordqvist’s books are especially fitting for ecocritical dialogues on three levels, on which they depart from today's ecocentric aspirations. these levels include (1) the main characters’ view of nature as a resource, (2) the untraditional representation of plants, and (3) the characters’ assumptions of control and superiority over nature, especially over (other) animals. another implication of the article is that pre-ecocriticism children’s books, and books that are not climate fiction can be useful in preschool discussions thematizing the relationship between humans and nature. keywords sven nordqvist, ecocritical dialogues, preschool, human–nature relationship introduction it is a truth universally acknowledged that literature can change people’s way of viewing the world (felski, 2018; langer, 2011; nussbaum, 2016; von mossner, 2017, pp. 6–7). in climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 65 recent years, a plethora of climate fiction (cli-fi) literature for children has sprung out of the woodwork. children can read about endangered nature (tucker & persico, 2019), oil disasters (lillegraven, 2020), and climate activism (camerini, 2020; winter, 2020). we argue that children’s books without an explicit eco-activist agenda and books written before questions of sustainability made their way into curricula and other documents regulating school systems can serve an important function by influencing children to reflect on questions of sustainability and, in the long run, to become eco-citizens. one example is sven nordqvist’s picturebook series about pettson and his cat findus. the countryside is a constant backdrop across the series, depicted as a pastoral idyll, rich in flora and fauna. in addition, the characters’ close connection to nature is central. these factors make nordqvist’s books especially fitting for prompting ecocritical dialogues with preschool children. we highlight three characteristics from the books that support this argument. our theoretical point of departure is garrard’s (2012, p. 5) definition of ecocriticism as an investigation of the relationship between humans and nature in literature. the concept of ecocritical dialogues, defined by goga et al. (2023) as dialogues whose goal is to make children reflect on humans’ contact with nature, is central to our study. according to goga et al. (2023, p. 20), a central question in ecocritical dialogues is whether nature is understood from an anthropocentric or an ecocentric perspective. nature as a resource the often-recurring depictions of pettson and findus’ use of nature as a resource are apt incentives to embark on ecocritical dialogues with children. in the series, several illustrations show how pettson and findus use nature as a resource to obtain food (growing vegetables, picking berries, fishing, keeping poultry, etc.). the images are rich in details and tell parallel stories to the textual one (nikolajeva, 2000, p. 226). tracing these stories can be detective work to activate the attentive reader. in a ruckus in the garden (2018), the reader may notice that findus is planting a meatball in the vegetable garden. it is interesting to hear the children’s ideas on whether the meatball will grow. these reflections may, in turn, lead to discussions on the differences between plants and axelsson and lindgren ú ecocritical dialogues 66 animals. here, the preschool teacher may ask, “where do vegetables come from?” “do we buy them at the store?” “where do pettson and findus get their vegetables from?” in addition to using nature as a resource for food, the protagonists use it as a source of recreation and happiness. in festus and mercury: wishing to go fishing (2016), pettson (here translated as “festus”) suffers from depression, and to address this ailment, he and findus (mercury) go fishing. the book features illustrations of pettson’s mental state before and after spending time in nature. his depression is accompanied by rain and gray colors and his recovery is represented by sunshine afterward. these illustrations offer another opportunity for preschool teachers to prompt children's reflection about connections between the character's emotions and nature. when we discussed nordqvist’s books with a preschool teacher, she mentioned that she was especially fond of the so-called mumbles—the magical creatures in the pettson books. she argued that these creatures are closely related to nature and hypothesized that they need it to survive. this, in turn, made her reason about the everyday activities in preschool, which often include excursions to the forest. she suggested that “maybe we are not supposed to bring sticks and leaves and other things from the forest back to kindergarten to keep them or create something of them. then we see nature as a resource and take things that the mumbles and the creatures living in the forest need.” she argued that, together with the children, we should look beyond those resource aspects and teach the children that nature has a value on its own. as we can see, the teacher questions the idea of nature as a resource for humans and puts this critical approach into practice when making field trips into nature with the children. the depiction of nature another opportunity for ecological dialogues arises from the fact that nordqvist’s depiction of nature is not always mimetically accurate. plants are often oversized or out of season. nordqvist experiments with perspective and size, and this stylistic device often makes the plants especially visible to the reader. the so-called plant blindness (wandersee & schussler, 1999), where readers tend to ignore plants and merely treat them as background elements—a view that is often associated with an anthropocentric view of nature—is clearly not an issue in the pettson and findus series. oversized dandelions and daffodils are also accompanied by the mixing of seasons. attentive climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 67 readers may notice that spring flowers and summer berries appear simultaneously. although nordqvist uses these mixings to enhance the magic of his fictional world, the illustrations may lead to discussions regarding what plants are and in what season they grow. findus, who is not an ordinary car, is related to nordqvist’s often non-mimetic representation of nature. anthropomorphizing animals is a common strategy in children's literature (birkeland, 2016, pp. 1–3), but what is unique about nordqvist’s books is findus’ liminal position on a human–animal axis. he wears clothes and always walks on two feet; he could hence be interpreted as a child rather than a cat (lindgren, 2015). at the same time, he is an animal, because he never speaks to anyone except pettson, signaling that he only exists as a human within pettson’s (and the readers’) head(s). findus’ double status as both an animal and a human relates to goga et al.’s (2023) argument about anthropocentric and ecocentric perspectives on nature and animals. one may, for example, discuss with the children if cats have clothes, if they can talk, and what are typical characteristics of a cat. impact on nature the third reason that makes the series fitting for ecocritical dialogues centers on the protagonists’ anthropocentric view of nature. in nordqvist’s works pettson, findus, and other characters often assume they have the right to control nature or other animals. in findus rules the roost (2017), for example, findus is inconvenienced by the rooster’s crowing and forbids him from uttering any sound. the rooster’s misery is vividly depicted in several illustrations, where the children can see how unhappy and frustrated he is. another way in which the main characters impact nature is when findus, in the same book, tries to make a hen fly by using a seesaw-like construction. this is not to help the hen but simply for his own entertainment. these and similar examples of anthropocentric perspectives are opportunities for the teacher to discuss with children questions about nature rights, especially the rights of domesticated animals and plants. another example is related to the threatening of a traditional, anthropocentric, lifestyle. it is rare that the series deals with the killing of animals, but in one episode in the fox chase (2015), pettson and findus’ neighbor, gustavsson, is experiencing problems with a fox who threatens his hens, and he ventures to kill it. pettson and findus axelsson and lindgren ú ecocritical dialogues 68 are also troubled by the fox, but their approach to the situation is different as they lure the fox away from the farm. their strategy is less anthropocentric than gustavsson’s, who sees it as his right to kill the fox. themes that are interesting to bring up for discussion regarding the reasoning above are whether animals have feelings and how humans treat animals. this could, in turn, lead to a discussion of how animals’ feelings are represented and rendered in the book. concluding discussion judith langer (2011) argues that literature has the potential to position child readers within an imaginary story world but also that children may step out of this world and reflect upon what role the story may have in the real world in their own lives. it is in the latter case where nordqvist’s books, in combination with ecocritical dialogues, are especially powerful. as we suggested earlier, books written without an ecocritical agenda can be just as important as cli-fi when questioning anthropocentric world views and the human–nature divide. we have shared examples of why nordqvist’s pettson and findus picturebooks are especially fitting for initiating ecocritical dialogues with preschool children. with their traditional view of nature as a resource for food and entertainment, the pettson and findus series are far from “perfect” from an ecocritical point of view. however, these “imperfections” are valuable points of departure for questioning and discussing how humans treat nature. the teacher may ask the children: “is one allowed to try to make a hen fly, like findus did?” “are we allowed to take what we want from the forest in the shape of sticks, fruits, berries, etc.?” for whom do animals and plant exist?” all this, however, cannot be accomplished without knowledgeable preschool teachers who are aware of the resources for ecocritical dialogues that are hidden in this kind of literature. references birkeland, t. (2016). forhandling om natur – kultur. en økokritisk lesning av jörg müller og jörg steiners bildebok kaninliv. barnelitterært forskningstidsskrift, 2, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3402/blft.v7.33705 camerini, v. (2019). la storia di greta. de agostini. felski, r. (2008). uses of literature. blackwell. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 69 garrard, g. (2012). ecocriticism. routledge. goga, n., guanio-uluru, l., kleveland, k., & rimmereide, h. e. (2023). introduksjon til økokritiske dialoger. in l. guanio-uluru, n. goga, k. kleveland, & h. e. rimmereide (eds.), økokritiske dialoger (pp. 9–25). universitetsforlaget. https://doi.org/10.18261/9788215067148-23-00 langer, j. a. (2011). envisioning literature: literary understanding and literature instruction. teachers college press. lillegraven, r. (2020). klodeklubben: dei svarte svanene. samlaget. lindgren, c. (2015). que reste-t-il du personnage de findus dans les voix de pettson et picpus?: étude d’une traduction du suédois au français. milli mála journal of language and culture, 7, 309–331. nikolajeva, m. (2000). bilderbokens pusselbitar. studentlitteratur. nordqvist, s. (2018). a ruckus in the garden. north south books. nordqvist, s. (1991). festus and mercury: wishing to go fishing. carolrhoda books. nordqvist, s. (2015). the fox chase. north south books. nordqvist, s. (2017). findus rules the roost. hawthorn press. nussbaum, m. (2016). litteraturens etikk. pax. tucker, z., & persico, z. (2019). greta and the giants. frances lincoln children’s books. von mossner, a. (2017). affective ecologies. the ohio state university press. wandersee, j. h., & schussler, e. e. (1999). preventing plant blindness. the american biology teacher, 61(2), 82–86. winter, j. (2019). our house is on fire: greta thunberg’s call to save the planet. beach lane books. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 21 fascists fear education why we need climate justice education now higher education education policy illinois i recently saw a young person wearing a t-shirt that read: “fascists fear education”. my peal of laughter dispelled my feelings of dread and helplessness—but the respite was brief. the shirt was a bit too accurate in describing the current assault on higher education. the united states has pulled back on her national and global commitments to addressing the climate crisis, simultaneously dismantling the department of education, rescinding grants and contracts to universities, and disrupting lifeand planet-saving research across institutions of higher education. and yet, democracy and education are mutually inclusive (dewey, 1916; williams, 2017). the mere fact that we are here, in this particular moment in time, when america’s grasp on democracy is tenuous, is itself a failure of public education. the “problem of sustainability” is “the problem of education” (orr, 1994, p. 7). within the united states, the climate crisis is discussed, often poorly, through science (stoknes, 2014) in terms of earth systems and processes that explain the greenhouse effect or loss of biodiversity. however, the roots of the crisis, namely colonialism and capitalism, are historical and social in nature and linked to the economic, political, and cultural realms of humanity across generations. these complexities have been communicated even less effectively than the science of climate change and are thus not well-understood by the american public. in turn, this has created the conditions that have allowed the pseudo-debate around the climate crisis and its anthropogenic origins to persist. this is a uniquely american problem. our fellow global citizens have accepted that the crisis is not only human-driven, but that some of us are more responsible than others. large, western, and industrialized countries have higher educationú illinoisú fascists fear education 22 historical and contemporary carbon footprints that eclipse those of the global majority. and while the impacts of climate change touch every corner of this globe through the increased frequency of storms and wildfires, prolonged drought, and rising tides, these impacts are not distributed evenly across geographies, nor is their severity and the ability to adapt and mitigate. the poorest and most vulnerable communities, within the united states and across the globe, experience the impacts of climate change most acutely and bear the least responsibility (bullard, 1983; islam & winkel, 2017). as america abdicates her global leadership position, as well as her responsibilities and duties to other countries, education must fill this vacuum. the pace with which the crisis is changing our world is faster than initially projected. our curriculum, from early childhood to higher education, must then evolve faster and be oriented toward a hopeful and just future. our children and communities have the right to learn to live on a planet under pressure which requires that education be an instrument of democracy and free from fear. those of us who teach must also bravely transform to meet this moment so that all citizens and species of earth may flourish on a warming world. works cited bullard, r. d. (1983). solid waste sites and the black houston community. sociological inquiry, 53(2–3), 273–288. dewey, j. (1916). democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education. macmillan. islam, n., & winkel, j. (2017). climate change and social inequality (department of economic and social affairs working paper no. 152). orr, d. w. (1994). earth in mind: on education, environment and the human prospect. island press. stoknes, p. e. (2014). rethinking climate communications and the “psychological climate paradox”. energy research & social science, 1, 161-170. williams, m. k. (2017). john dewey in the 21st century. journal of inquiry and action in education, 9 (1). climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 25 water protection: an inquiry unit with pre-service english language arts teachers kristine m. schutz, university of illinois-chicago, chicago, il, usa rebecca woodard, university of illinois-chicago, chicago, il, usa abstract this six-week water inquiry unit with pre-service teachers in an english language arts (ela) elementary education methods course explores the guiding question: why is it important to protect water, and how can water be protected? core whole-class texts include we are water protectors by carole lindstrom (2020) and thirst by varsha bajaj (2022). multiple assessment projects that support preservice teachers’ informational reading and writing are included. keywords inquiry, pre-service teachers, water, sustainability, climate change for the past five years, we’ve taught and iterated a water protection inquiry unit in our pre-service english language arts methods course. we’ve written about why we focus on the urgent topic of water justice and how we intentionally “layer” a variety of multimodal texts to support “worthwhile learning” (see muhammad, 2020, p. 145) in this unit (schutz & woodard, 2022), as well as about how the unit supports meaningful inquiry, knowledge-building through text-rich inquiry, and collaborative, multimodal informational writing (woodard & schutz, 2022). in our recent book, teaching climate schutz & woodardú water protection with pre-service teachers 26 change to children: literacy pedagogy that cultivates sustainable futures (woodard & schutz, 2024), we shared a revised version of the unit that would be appropriate for fourth graders. however, we have never had a chance to share about and reflect on our full unit design for pre-service teachers. we hope that this piece will support preservice literacy teacher educators who are interested in teaching about climate change and sustainability. in particular, we hope they will see how units like this can support novice teachers to read a variety of texts (including informational, stories, and poetry/art, as well as print and multimodal) in different instructional formats (including whole class read alouds and book clubs), write extensively (including notebook writing, informational writing, and multimodal writing), and understand through experience how a curriculum oriented to interdisciplinary inquiry and knowledge-building can support engaged and meaningful learning. narrative framing in our most recent iteration of the unit, in our first session, we read and learned about inquiry-driven instruction. then, we posed our guiding question (“why is it important to protect water, and how can water be protected?”) and read aloud we are water protectors by carole lindstrom (2020). in the second session, we learned about informational texts (e.g., analyzing informational text structures and children’s informational writing, identifying the topic vs. main idea of an informational text about a contemporary water issue, etc.). psts (pre-service teachers) submitted their preferred expert group topics. in the third session, psts met to collaborate on a project related to the class novel, thirst, which they had finished in advance of this session (see table below). then, they met with their water expert groups and began reading/listening to/watching their assigned texts together. they also analyzed informational writing in preparation for their upcoming informational writing assignment. in the fourth session, psts shared their projects related to the class novel, thirst. they signed up for the informational writing assignment, each responsible for a letter in a class abc water justice book. they met with their water expert groups to begin working on their presentations. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 27 in the fifth session, psts worked in their water expert groups to synthesize and document their learning in their presentation. in the sixth session, psts shared their water expert group presentations and their class abc water justice book. they reflected on their learning across the unit. across and prior to the first three sessions of this unit, we engaged in a class read aloud of thirst. we read this novel across five sessions, sometimes reading and discussing chapters aloud in class, and other times assigning reading for homework. graduate student evelyn pollins used “a discussion guide to thirst” (qarooni, 2022) to design the class novel read aloud activities. title water protection unit time 6 weeks grade level(s) pre-service elementary teachers core texts read by whole class • we are water protectors by carole lindstrom and michaela goade (illus.) (2020) • thirst by varsha bajaj (2022) supplementary texts for assigned expert groups group 1: water scarcity • documentary: “living without water” (kingsley & richards, 2016) • text 1: “california to tackle water scarcity by converting seawater” (newsela, 2014) • text 2: “dwindling freshwater resources” (newsela, 2019a) • text 3: "mexico city's long-running water issues are getting even worse" (green, 2024) 3-minute listen group 2: indigenous cultures and water protection • documentary: “awake: a dream from standing rock” (dewey, fox, & spione, 2017) • text 1: “'we are all of water': meet josephine mandamin, water walker” (pogue, 2014) • text 2: “native americans protest north dakota pipeline, cite effects on water” (newsela, 2016) schutz & woodardú water protection with pre-service teachers 28 • text 3: “ojibwe elder sharon day and the mother earth water walkers” (treichel, 2013) group 3: water pollution and inequality • documentary: “flint’s deadly water” (ellis, 2019) • text 1: “five years after flint water crisis, unresolved issues remain” (newsela, 2019b) • text 2: “how cholera spread so quickly through haiti in 2010” (newsela, 2019c) • text 3: “coal producer to pay hundreds of millions for pollution” (pbs news hour, 2014) 6-minute listen group 4: water and renewable energy • documentary: “thirst for power” (hames, 2019) • text 1: “types of renewable energy” (newsela, 2020) • text 2: “why hydropower is the forgotten giant of clean energy” (brigham, 2022) • text 3: ‘water batteries’ could store solar and wind power for when it’s needed (charles, 2022) 4-minute listen group 5: oceans and biodiversity • documentary: “troubled waters: a turtle’s tale” (fielding, 2019) • text 1: “just 13% of the ocean is untouched by humans” (taylor, 2018) • text 2: “un biodiversity report reveals world has far to go” (sternberg, 2020) • text 3: “how much plastic is in the ocean” (pbs digital studios, 2017) 5-minute listen climate literacy terms water scarcity, water quality, water contamination, droughts, desalinization, reciprocity, advocacy, decontamination, renewable energy, groundwater, wastewater objectives by the conclusion of the unit, psts will be able to respond to the unit's guiding question: why is it important to protect water, and how can water be protected? by engaging in a class novel study, explorations of informational texts, and group text-based inquiry, psts acquire knowledge about issues and solutions related to water protection and the ways in which social structures of power influence access to safe water. in addition, climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 29 psts will: (1) determine story themes by attending to textual details, including character traits, relationships, and interactions, summarizing the text, and synthesizing understandings, (2) use text structures and features of informational text to comprehend and composed texts that address the guiding question. materials and resources class novel project teachers had 3 options for a group project to demonstrate their engagement with our class novel, thirst (bajaj, 2022): ● option 1: illustrated blackout poem ● option 2: quadrama (i.e., representing four parts of the story three-dimensionally using pictures and words in each quadrant) (see figure 1) ● option 3: comic of a key scene water expert group presentation ● slide 1: hook ● slide 2: concept map ● slide 3: review of readings ● slide 4: sculpture ● slide 5: curated text set ● slide 6: ecological restorying ● slide 7 (optional): 3-panel comic class abc water justice book create a two-page spread that includes: ● the chosen letter and the word selected ● at least 2 printed or drawn images ● information teaching readers about the topic ● at least 2 different informational text structures (description, sequence, cause and effect, problem/solution) ● at least 4 informational text features (headings/subheading, photos/illustrations, captions, timelines, diagram, flowchart, table, bolding). ● citations schutz & woodardú water protection with pre-service teachers 30 going forward as our psts share their projects, presentations, and abc water justice book pages on our last day of class each semester, we are impressed by the meaning they have made not only about water protections during the unit, but also about the importance of providing learners with opportunity to be curious using text-rich inquiry learning. as they reflect individually and as a class, psts express how this kind of learning—learning about "something"—differs from what they typically see in their school placements, where emphases on literacy processes and practices dominate. they recognize that they've grown their understandings about water protection. they come to value and seek out perspectives on challenges that are often silenced. they are practiced in navigating texts that they'll need to support readers, writers, and makers in their elementary classrooms. the joy they exhibit as they recognize all they have learned, as well as the questions they identify as needing further investigation of to explore topics related to climate justice and sustainability with children, affirm our ongoing commitment to incorporate a focus on issues related to climate and environmental sustainability into our courses and propel us forward as we begin to plan for the subsequent year. figure 2: pst culminating projects: blackout poem, abc book page, quadrama climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 31 references brigham, k. (2022, jun 2). why hydropower is the forgotten giant of clean energy. cnbc. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/02/why-hydropower-is-the-worlds-mostoverlooked-renewable.html charles, d. (2022, oct 14). ‘water batteries’ could store solar and wind power for when it’s needed. npr. https://www.npr.org/2022/10/14/1126523766/water-batteriescould-store-solar-and-wind-power-for-when-its-needed dewey, m., fox, j., & spione, j. (directors). (2017). awake: a dream from standing rock [film]. international wow. ellis, a. (director). (2019, september 10). flint’s deadly water (season 2019, episode 16) [tv series episode]. in a. ellis & k. ruble, j. carah, s. childress, & f. koughan (executive producers), frontline. five o’clock films. fielding, r. f. (director). (2019). troubled waters: a turtle’s tale [film]. wlrn. green, e. (2024, march 8). mexico city’s long-running water problems are getting even worse. npr news. https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1234928040/mexico-citywater-problems hames, m. 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(2020). types of renewable energy. national geographic society. https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=types%20of%20renewable%20energy https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/02/why-hydropower-is-the-worlds-most-overlooked-renewable.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/02/why-hydropower-is-the-worlds-most-overlooked-renewable.html https://www.npr.org/2022/10/14/1126523766/water-batteries-could-store-solar-and-wind-power-for-when-its-needed https://www.npr.org/2022/10/14/1126523766/water-batteries-could-store-solar-and-wind-power-for-when-its-needed https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1234928040/mexico-city-water-problems https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1234928040/mexico-city-water-problems https://midsunschool.weebly.com/uploads/2/8/4/9/28493803/water_scarcity.pdf https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qm6k8l7l-jd3pqmaphtv_bzxnyt1zhgq/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qm6k8l7l-jd3pqmaphtv_bzxnyt1zhgq/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wlkvsoxsl703fiyfhsp8ywkyosayx2m1/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zzzxdlou6djxkfxh1qpdktxenop8gusi/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g9pi-x4b_zy8c7zsgwdpitkckdr8n6cn/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g9pi-x4b_zy8c7zsgwdpitkckdr8n6cn/view https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=types%20of%20renewable%20energy schutz & woodardú water protection with pre-service teachers 32 muhammad, g. 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(2022). climate justice now: layering texts about the urgent topic of water justice. illinois reading council journal, 50(2), 59-65. https://doi.org/10.33600/ircj.50.2.2022.59 sternberg, t. (2020). un biodiversity report reveals world has far to go. newsela. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1etpwlojwd0l3a2vhwdnvxszojiy_sdll/view taylor, a. p. (2018, july 26). just 13% of the ocean is untouched by humans. livescience. https://www.livescience.com/63171-disappearing-oceanwilderness.html treichel, d. (producer) (2013, feb 28). ojibwe elder sharon day and the mother earth water walkers. https://ampers.org/ojibwe-elder-sharon-day-and-the-motherearth-water-walkers/. woodard, r., & schutz, k. m. (2024). teaching climate change to children: literacy pedagogy that cultivates sustainable futures. teachers college press. woodard, r., & schutz, k. m. (2022). urgent writing pedagogies in teacher education: portraits of practice for an inquiry into water justice. in t. s. hodges (ed.), the handbook of research on writing instruction practices for equitable and effective teaching. children’s & adult literature bajaj, v. (2022). thirst. penguin random house https://www.pbs.org/video/how-much-plastic-is-in-the-ocean-jpfpsf/ https://www.pbs.org/video/coal-producer-to-pay-hundreds-of-millions-for-pollution-1401314555/ https://www.pbs.org/video/coal-producer-to-pay-hundreds-of-millions-for-pollution-1401314555/ https://www.motherearthwaterwalk.com/?p=2687 https://www.varshabajaj.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/thirst_teachers_guide.pdf https://www.varshabajaj.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/thirst_teachers_guide.pdf https://doi.org/10.33600/ircj.50.2.2022.59 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1etpwlojwd0l3a2vhwdnvxszojiy_sdll/view https://www.livescience.com/63171-disappearing-ocean-wilderness.html https://www.livescience.com/63171-disappearing-ocean-wilderness.html https://ampers.org/ojibwe-elder-sharon-day-and-the-mother-earth-water-walkers/ https://ampers.org/ojibwe-elder-sharon-day-and-the-mother-earth-water-walkers/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 45 introducing the 3t-approach using literary fiction to enhance climate change literacy roman bartosch, university of cologne, germany julia hoydis, university of graz, austria jens martin gurr, university of duisburg essen, germany abstract this essay summarizes key findings from an interdisciplinary project on the role of literary fiction in fostering climate literacy. it discusses prevalent conceptions of the cognitive and emotional impact of reading and suggests the beneficial potential of fiction through the lens of discourse awareness, critical empathy, and systems thinking. moving from theoretical insight to practical implementation, we describe discourse awareness, critical empathy, and systems thinking in our own “3t-approach to climate change literacy”: an approach in which teachers draw on a combination of texts, textures, and tasks when planning and conducting pedagogical interventions for climate literacy. keywords climate change literacy, environmental humanities, literature pedagogy, fallacies, 3tapproach bartosch, hoydis, & gurr ú 3t-approach 46 as researchers and educators in the literary humanities and in literature pedagogy, we welcome the understanding of climate literacy as primarily a “narrative capacity” that complements, enriches, and even supplants the still dominant notion that literacy in the context of ecological and climate emergencies is synonymous with climate science literacy (oziewicz, 2023, p. 35). despite the growing recognition that “[l]iterature, film, games, and art forms for young people are not additional but the most important avenues for raising climate awareness and mobilizing action” (oziewicz et al., 2023, p. 2), we, like many others concerned with literacy development and research in the environmental humanities, are eager to explore the unique ways of these avenues. in this essay, we summarize main findings of a recent research project. in the hope of inspiring teachers from primary to tertiary educational contexts, we share a proposal for a pedagogical model we call the “3t-approach to climate change literacy” (for details, see hoydis et al., 2023). more than facts and feelings while we welcome the ever-growing number of publications and educational resources insightfully crafting arguments for literary and cultural climate education (e.g., dolan, 2022; beach et al., 2017; siperstein et al., 2017), the ongoing debate might benefit from a more general case for the centrality of humanities perspectives on climate literacy. in particular, we encourage scholars and practitioners to use the humanities’ analytical and critical toolkit to re-assess to practice of climate education in light of its proposed objectives. specifically, to what end do we teach climate change narratives in literature classrooms? with this larger question in mind, we set out to investigate what popular climate change fiction does—how it is narrated; what it allows readers to see, understand, and feel; and which patterns and plots are especially popular—and what can be done with this knowledge in education. we felt that this research requires insights from literary studies as well as from literacy pedagogies. as such, we reviewed education research and curricular policy, as well as a corpus of the most popular cli-fi texts to date compiled and analyzed by schneider-mayerson (2018). the corpus allowed us to learn more about actual readers’ choices of literary texts and indicated what literary analyses can tell us about the potential of using these narratives for classroom practices. this https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/climate-change-literacy/d256fe812ad61e90b6b5286b8f472580 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 47 research was integral to our probing into what might be the most pressing question in climate literacy education: how does reading lead to action? after an in-depth review of psychological research on the ‘mind-behavior gap’ (e.g., kollmus et al., 2002), we found that a significant number of practice-oriented scholarship—publications that attempt to chart direct routes from reading fiction to making a difference in the world—seems to operate on a particular assumption. that reading literature can change attitudes and behavior is well documented. however, this does not mean that educators can and should aim (only) at such attitudinal and behavioral change when teaching fiction. in our survey of relevant studies and policy, we came across this unacknowledged yet empirically unsupported assumption so frequently we decided to describe them as “cognitive” and “sentimental” fallacies (see hoydis et al., 2023, 15-19). these fallacies imply that readers eventually change their ways because of the information they retrieve from a work of fiction, or that they do so because of the emotional appeal, or even manipulation, inherent in literary writing. facts and feelings, however, are not enough when it comes to lasting behavioral change. behavioral change might not be the primary objective of literary learning, after all. there are three areas in which literary fiction excels and thus exerts its greatest influence. these areas are well known to educators in language arts classrooms and an in-depth narratological analysis of schneider-mayerson’s (2018) corpus supports our hypothesis that popular cli-fi caters to them in unique ways. the areas are discourse awareness, critical empathy, and systems thinking (see figure 1). in combination, they can contribute to shifting readerly perception, which is the relevant factor for attitudinal and behavioral change. cli-fi supports the acquisition of knowledge about the linguistic framing of natural and scientific issues, the role of genre and style, questions of literary form and rhetorical appeal, and suchlike. it is equally true that literary fiction has emotional effects, but these effects should not be conceived of as an emotional primer for sympathy and for taking fictional characters as role models. rather, by allowing insights into the complexity of human minds and motives, fiction engages an understanding of human interiority that goes beyond the simplistic dualism of environmental heroes and villains—and are we not all more complicated than that dualism suggests? last, every bartosch, hoydis, & gurr ú 3t-approach 48 narrative we studied connects climate change and other environmental topics to numerous social and cultural issues—growing up, gender roles, power and powerlessness, and so forth—in a way that no scientific account or science literacy is able to do. cli-fi, in other words, provides crucial insights into the heavily cultured, emotionally charged, and intricately interconnected nature of social and environmental harms. we could describe this capacity of fiction as the rendition of “climate change plus x.” this “more factor” is at the heart of the unique significance of literary and cultural learning in climate education. it also underlines the importance of the already existing expertise of teachers in the language arts classrooms who know how to deal with the discursive framing of cultural issues, the emotional contagion of literary fiction, and the complexity of individuals and societies in their daily practice. to illustrate the link of this professional concern with concerns of climate literacy, consider one example from our corpus. saci lloyd’s hugely popular young adult novel the carbon diaries 2015 (lloyd, 2008) obviously engages with climate change; its key value, however, is the way it connects climate and education, in multimodal ways of varying rhetorical registers, with the pains of growing up, the rejections of first love, the embarrassment of having parents, and the glory of being in a rock band. climate science education has little to offer when it comes to factoring these concerns into climate change models and impacts—but who would disagree that these aspects are paramount for children and adolescents? the 3t-approach to climate change literacy what can be said about the carbon diaries also applies to all kinds of “[l]iterature, film, games, and art forms” (oziewicz et al., 2023, p. 2). this is the first, and foundational, insight into what we came to call the 3t-approach to climate change literacy (see figure 1). the first t stands for texts. because every text is different—and therefore affords different ways of understanding climate change in its socioecological complexity—it has different appeal for proficient and emerging readers. this means that teachers need to consider each text in light of its specific aesthetic, epistemic, emotional, and climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 49 multimodal affordances for individual learners. it is thus crucial that we stop thinking about the literary text for a classroom: every text is different and so is every reader. figure 1: the 3t-approach: fallacies and pedagogical pathways. the second t is textures. teachers’ knowledge of what an individual text offers allows to create more dynamic and exciting ensembles of texts (that we call “textures”) to cater to diverse groups of learners. this strategy allows teachers to make sure the immensely complex topic of climate change is represented in appropriate ways. if we combine song lyrics, films, and games with picture books, graphic novels and short stories, we are not only able to support individual learner needs better. we create a richer tapestry of literary and cultural forms of making sense of the climate emergency—and thus support children and young adults in finding their way through this maze of meanings. this begs the question: whether teachers are actually able to read and watch and listen so much, and on so different levels and with so many different avenues for learning. for us, the answer to this question is the collective group of learners, not the single child. so here comes our last t: for task design. it is up to teachers— and well within the purview of their professional expertise—to come up with a learning scenario bartosch, hoydis, & gurr ú 3t-approach 50 or task in which these different texts are on offer and brought together in meaningful communicative learning. it is, of course, no small matter to design such tasks. this is where resources for such planning and design in educational literature—handbooks, introductions and companions (e.g., ellis, 2003; willis et al., 2007), this journal or the climate lit database—are or crucial importance. the road ahead: aesthetic affordances and teacher education and training confident of the ability of educators to design rewarding tasks for rewarding pedagogical practice, we feel that the key challenge is not in the planning of tasks but in the steps preceding it: what can a specific literary text, film, or media artifact do? how and to what end do we combine them into richer textures for learning? there are clear implications for curriculum and policy development based on academic research that can fruitfully support teachers in their professional development, provide inspirations, and explore best practices. most important, we see a clear indication that curricula in tertiary education pay better attention to the link of literary studies and literature pedagogy: this enables preand in-service teachers to confidently and knowledgably consider each of our three ts with the necessary expertise. this will help them to ask, as we have been doing here, what we are teaching for when we employ fiction for climate literacy pedagogy. although behavioral change is important, discourse awareness, critical empathy, and systems thinking are the more immediate forms of learning with stories. this awareness allows for the integration of other, even seemingly contradictory, educational objectives, for instance, in the discussion of whether it is better to support hope (redmond, 2024; römhild and weik von mossner, 2024) or prepare students to “stay[…] with the trouble” (haraway, 2016; bartosch, 2021; zimmerman, 2023). “how do we decide?” might be another ill-posed question: if “[c]limate literacy requires harmonizing multiple ways of knowing […] into a lived, emotionally charged, and personally felt understanding of the planetary predicament […]” (oziewicz, 2023, p. 34), then the emotional, cognitive, medial, and communicative diversity of literary textures is key, and reading, feeling, writing, and talking with one another the indispensable educational moment. research and educational practice will benefit from exploring these ideas in more depth now and in future. https://www.climatelit.org/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 51 references beach, r., share, j., & webb, a. (2017). teaching climate change to adolescents: reading, writing, and making a difference. routledge. dolan, a. m. (2023). teaching climate change in primary schools: an interdisciplinary approach. routledge. ellis, r. (2003). task-based language learning and teaching. oxford university press. haraway, d. (2016). staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. duke university press. hoydis, j., bartosch, r., & gurr, j.m. (2023). climate change literacy. cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009342032. kollmus, a. &agyeman, j. (2002). mind the gap: why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? environmental education research 8(3), 239–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620220145401. lloyd, s. (2008). the carbon diaries 2015. hodder. oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education 1(1), 34–38. oziewicz, m., kleese, n., saguisag, l., lo bello miller, j., deszcz-tryhubczak, j., kerslake young, l. j., cavanaugh, c., nathanael, t., rollag yoon, s., panos, a., henning-smith, j., & young, r. (2023). introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism. climate literacy in education 1(1), 1–3. redmond, c. b. (2024). the hope framework: a literacy strategy for identifying hope in narratives as a response to young people’s eco-grief. climate literacy in education 2(1), 14–22. römhild, r., & weik von mossner, a. (2024). the case for hope in language education: exploring solarpunk for the english language classroom. world futures 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02604027.2024.2417042. schneider-mayerson, m (2018). the influence of climate fiction: an empirical survey of readers. environmental humanities 10(2), 473–500. siperstein, s., hall, s., & lemenager, s. (2017). teaching climate change in the humanities. routledge. willis, j, & willis, d. (2007). doing task-based teaching: a practical guide to task-based teaching for elt training courses and practical teachers. oxford university press. zimmerman, l. (2023). staying with the climate trouble: on (not) containing the crisis in the classroom. climate literacy in education 1(2), 58–63. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009342032 https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620220145401 https://doi.org/10.1080/02604027.2024.2417042 nandyal ú “it was beautiful here” 38 building a database and website for eco-fiction resources mary woodbury, curator at dragonfly.eco: exploring world eco-fiction abstract this essay offers an overview of dragonfly.eco—a collaborative project for exploring eco-fiction—and its evolution over the period of the last ten years. following a tour of the content—reviews, author interviews, music, games, films, and a database of more than 1,000 books—the article reflects on how children's fiction and climate literacy fits into dragonfly and provides a site road map for finding teacher's resources. keywords eco-fiction, climate change, climate literacy dragonfly.eco is a volunteer project that curates meaningful stories about the natural world and humanity’s connection with it. the site explores the breathtaking literary scope of eco-fiction: a diverse field of stories which includes environmental and nature themes in black and indigenous fiction, literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, solarpunk, and more. diversity and inclusion are central to eco-fiction, and the goal of this article is to introduce the site to climate literacy educators. while dragonfly is a resource for all readers, it also features reviews and other materials for k-12 teachers. https://dragonfly.eco/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 39 since i began the site more than ten years ago, it has been important to me to offer content freely, promote authors with no charge, and share news about narratives dealing with climate change, biodiversity, conservation, extinction, pollution, the state of our waters, diaspora, colonialism, and more. such narratives raise awareness of climate and ecological concerns while also offering inspiration and courage to face these challenges. dragonfly is evolving and has grown considerably since i first launched it in 2013. with a database of more than 1,000 books, more than 150 author interviews, and over 100 excerpts of works, the site has remained highly collaborative in nature. together, we are able to do more to protect our planet's ecosystems and share climate literacy lessons through stories. such education starts with young children, which is why dragonfly includes recourses helpful to parents and teachers alike. how to use dragonfly dragonfly offers plenty of content for people of all ages curious about eco-fiction and its cultural work. readers can search for books in two ways: the search for widget on the top-right menu or the book database. readers can also use pull-down menus in the top menu bar to find more information. because so much data has accumulated throughout the years, readers can find a tour guide in the about section, which acts as a road map to the major sections at the website: • book database: every book post added to the site is auto-added to the database via advanced fields, such as book title, author name, publication date, type of book, category, and genre. categories include audience types, such as all, ya, teen, and children's stories. the database has filterable headings, but readers can only sort by one heading at a time. click show entries at the top of the database and select all to view all entries at once. with over 1,000 book posts so far, the database is a work in progress. it isn't exhaustive, but aims to include as many pieces of eco-fiction that time allows. • book posts: most of the 1,000+ books auto-added to the database are generated from plug-ins to show a short description, book cover, and ordering information. occasionally, authors provide the information directly. for many years, dragonfly used goodreads to generate book information. currently we use a plugin by booknet.ca’s biblioshare, which pulls data from librarything, worldcat, and https://dragonfly.eco/title-author-publication-date-search/ https://dragonfly.eco/navigating-site/ https://dragonfly.eco/title-author-publication-date-search/ nandyal ú “it was beautiful here” 40 bookfinder. readers can search through the database to select a book title, author, publication date, type of book, audience, or genre to find what you are looking for. • book and film reviews: dragonfly publishes book reviews written by contributing authors. to read a few book and film reviews, click here. • author interviews and spotlights: dragonfly features many authors, all with free promotion. the dragonfly library is no longer accepting submissions but has over 100 book excerpts shared by authors. the world eco-fiction series: climate change and beyond features notable novels and anthologies from authors writing in various genres and styles on topics such as science, climate change, ecological studies, animals, water, and much more. featuring authors from around the world, this spotlight series is designed to be inclusive, allowing audiences to virtually visit different places, ideas, and learn about other cultures. many spotlights come from children’s book authors. the indie corner spotlights new authors who either selfpublish or publish with small literary presses. • links and resources: for readers wanting to branch out away from the site, this link provides a list of publishers, journals, projects, and bloggers with similar themes. • film and video: since early 2015, dragonfly has added a song of the week to a youtube environmental playlist, since 2014, we have maintained a list of films related to climate awareness and ecology. • games: a new list of eco-games joins dragonfly! • turning the tide: a list of resources for children, teen, and ya audiences. resources for teachers what is eco-fiction? our definition of eco-fiction builds on the criteria proposed by jim dwyer in where the wild books are: a field guide to ecofiction (2010). according to dwyer, ecofiction includes narratives in which: https://dragonfly.eco/category/features/reviews/ https://dragonfly.eco/dragonfly-library/ https://dragonfly.eco/world-ecofiction-series/ https://dragonfly.eco/world-ecofiction-series/ https://dragonfly.eco/category/features/indie-corner/ https://dragonfly.eco/links-and-resources/ https://dragonfly.eco/film-video/ https://dragonfly.eco/song-of-the-week/ https://dragonfly.eco/climate-change-ecological-films/ https://dragonfly.eco/games/ https://dragonfly.eco/youngest-generation/ https://bookshop.org/p/books/where-the-wild-books-are-a-field-guide-to-ecofiction-jim-dwyer/11487498?ean=9780874178111 https://bookshop.org/p/books/where-the-wild-books-are-a-field-guide-to-ecofiction-jim-dwyer/11487498?ean=9780874178111 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 41 • the nonhuman environment is present not merely as a framing device but as a presence that begins to suggest that human history is implicated in natural history. • the human history is not understood to be the only legitimate interest. • human accountability to the environment is part of the text’s ethical orientation. • some sense of the environment as a process rather than as a constant or a given is at least implicit in the text. (buell qtd. in dwyer, 2010, p. viii) today's eco-fiction is a sprawling category that spans over twenty distinct genres (see this short guide), each of which brings its own tools for using fiction to raise climate and ecological concerns. dragonfly.eco offers teachers a background into eco-fiction across a range of formats, from books and films, to songs, games, and other media. in all eco-fiction works, the ecological elements are deeply integral to the story, even if used as symbols or metaphor. some writers refer to these strategies of foregrounding nature in stories as the project of rewilding the novel, framing eco-fiction as, to use dwyer's term "wild books." turning the tide from the beginning, dragonfly.eco included stories for younger audiences. about midway into the life of the site, i began the turning the tide section. it was inspired by a conversation with author edan lepucki about her short story “there’s no place like home.” in the story, youth are represented as a stuck generation, because the environmental climate and catastrophe made it impossible for them to grow and live the full lifespan of a human life. they remain children until they die. in the story, youth are also called the youngest generation. lepucki's haunting idea has its equivalent in the real world too. youth activists like vanessa nakate, greta thunberg, xiuhtezcatl martinez, bana alabed, emma gonzales, david hogg, mari copeney, payla jangid, and hundreds of thousands more are today's "youngest generation" of leaders who mobilize others to stand up for social and climate justice. while dragonfly is not an exhaustive resource on children and teen fiction, it is a stepping-off point for teachers wanting to find more information. while a lot more work needs to be done, turning the tide links to: https://dragonfly.eco/distinguishing-genres-about-climate-and-ecological-changes/ https://dragonfly.eco/youngest-generation/ https://dragonfly.eco/youngest-generation/ nandyal ú “it was beautiful here” 42 • resources and links: the main section includes links to articles and resources about climate literacy and climate lit for kids. • children's bookshelf: a list of children's book posts at dragonfly. the website's focus is on adult fiction, but about 70 books are currently featured for children up through middle-grade. • ya/teen bookshelf: a list of teen and ya fiction at the site. 165 books currently fall into the ya/teen category. • book reviews for younger readers: thanks to kimberly christensen, who reviews most of the younger reader books, dragonfly currently houses about 30 reviews for fiction aimed toward younger audiences. • games: a growing list of eco-games, whether video or tabletop, with highlights for children-appropriate games, including age guidelines. • films: a list of movies, television shows, and documentaries relating to environment and nature. highlights indicate children's shows and age levels recommended by movie rating or common sense media. • spotlights (interviews and features): includes reviews of, or interviews with, the following authors, arranged chronologically, most recent to earliest: o arlene mark: the year without a summer o jewell parker rhodes, paradise on fire o todd mitchell, the last panther o cynthia zhang, after the dragons o sonia meyers, we have something to say! o jennifer harrington, the spirit bear o bijal vachharajani, a cloud called bhura o emma reynolds, amara and the bats o ryan mizzen, hedgey-a and the honey bees o clete barrett smith and dave matthews, if we were giants o sita bramachari, where the river runs gold o d.g. diver, juniper sawfeather collection o ned tillman, the big melt o james bradley, the buried ark o jennifer dance, white feather collection o edan lepucki, "there's no place like home" o marissa slaven, code blue https://dragonfly.eco/links-and-resources/ https://dragonfly.eco/category/books/childrens/ https://dragonfly.eco/category/books/ya-fiction/ https://dragonfly.eco/category/features/reviews/reviews-youth/ https://dragonfly.eco/games/ https://dragonfly.eco/climate-change-ecological-films/ https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ https://dragonfly.eco/category/spotlight/spotlights-youth/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 43 o john kixmiller and team, protectors of the wood series o jo marshall, leaf series o gary robson, who pooped in the park series o austin aslan, the islands at the end of the world o sarah holding, seabean trilogy looking ahead, i am inspired to add more climate literacy materials at dragonfly by increasing the content at turning the tide. the opportunity to partner with the center for climate literacy is a thrill as well because i am getting older and i understand my privilege in growing up in a world where scientific reality and literacy were a given. looking back, i realize that reading books, walking through forests to learn the names of trees by their leaf types, and always learning more about the world's environmental complexity made me the person i am today. today's children need climate literacy education more than any other generation before them. i am inspired that this work is accelerating everywhere, including at the university of minnesota's center for climate literacy, and i look forward to extending some of my time toward building children's climate literacy. references dwyer, j. (2010). where the wild books are: a field guide to ecofiction. university of nevada press. lepucki, e. (2018). there's no place like home. amazon original stories. woodbury, m. (2023). dragonfly.eco. https://dragonfly.eco. accessed 9 may 2023. https://dragonfly.eco/ screech ú interview with sarah guillory 40 “playing your part”: an interview with sarah guillory ben screech, university of gloucestershire, cheltenham, uk. abstract i was granted an interview with sarah guillory with the intention of publishing this in tandem with my article “after the flood.” the conversation develops many of the themes of the article, especially the author’s belief in the importance of resilience as a trait that will help young people in tackling the climate crisis. keywords agency, story, innovation, empowerment, home, nowhere better than here acknowledgements i would like to thank nick kleese for inviting me to take part in a panel presentation on climate literacy, for which this paper was originally written. i would also like to thank sarah guillory for granting me an interview and for her encouragement of my interest in her work. what prompted you to write nowhere better than here? sarah guillory: i always wanted to write a coastal erosion book. i live and teach in louisiana and so many people don't know how quickly parts of the state are, basically, disappearing. then in 2016, louisiana had a major flood and schools closed for a week. i thought, there's a story in this, about a child coming face-to-face with this disaster and trying to make sense of it all. http://sarahguillory.com/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/6226/3677 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 41 what made you want to write about the effects of environmental change on the lives of young people, specifically? sg: because unfortunately, they're the ones who are going to have to deal with it. it will be a constant presence in their lives, whereas it was more of a background noise when i was growing up. i remember learning about recycling and there being some concern about acid rain, but kids nowadays are dealing with climate anxiety that is so much more prevalent and, like most anxieties, it’s only exacerbated by social media. these kinds of existential issues are in their faces all the time, whereas when we were young, it was more of a fleeting sound bite on the news. i wanted to write about a character living in this uneasy limbo between something that she has no control over, whilst also giving her an outlet, e.g.: planting marsh grass, to enact some degree of agency. that sense of movement and playing your part can help kids from feeling completely helpless. it’s so important; not just with the climate, but political engagement as well. i was really interested in the portrayal of dr. nelson in the novel, the environmental scientist who jillian befriends. can you discuss your development of this character? sg: i had one very influential teacher who changed the trajectory of my life and was someone that i wanted to be like. i felt it was important for jillian to have exposure to this kind of role model, [someone] who could help to guide her thinking on what to do about her predicament. i also wanted it to be someone who got out of a small town but decided to come back. i wanted dr. nelson to be an adult who had gone off to university, had studied climate effects in brazil, who had been to important and interesting places, yet had ultimately returned to her home state and hadn’t given up on it. so, this character gave me a way to show jillian that you can still fight when all seems hopeless, but you also have to believe in your cause and have the interest and resilience to keep going. it was important to have a sense of hope in the novel, that dr. nelson characterizes. and it was ultimately important for jillian to realize that ‘hey, i can do this on a much larger scale as i get older— this fight doesn't have to end here’. screech ú interview with sarah guillory 42 dr. nelson runs the ‘discovery center’. this was such a positive and inspiring force for good in the book. how important do you feel community outreach is in inspiring and advocating for greater environmental engagement amongst young people? sg: i think they’re really important. it was also important to me to show a girl from nowhere getting involved in that kind of thing, because i was a girl from nowhere and most of the books that i read growing up were about people from somewhere (usually big cities or europe), but they were never from the south. i wanted kids like me from working class families to see themselves reflected in literature. to see that they can be part of a solution as well, but again, on a small scale, without making them feel like they necessarily have to do these big grand things to make a difference. the discovery center encourages people to share oral stories about the places getting destroyed, about planting grass and things that everyone can do. when i was a kid, we would go camping and fishing, but we would always pick up other people's trash because that's what you did. you were good stewards of the land and you took care of it. i never questioned that; it was all just part of my childhood. maybe nowadays the importance of treating nature in that way has been slightly forgotten, so i wanted to put that into the story as well. groups like the discovery center in the book can help to teach young people this appreciation and care for the natural world so, yes, they have real importance. one of the things that struck me about your book was the way you didn’t patronise your readers by implying the existence of easy answers. climate change is a “wicked problem,” and your writing reflects this in a way that is neither hopeless seeming nor lacking in cognizance of the overall gravity of the situation. how did you tread this fine line? sg: i think that you have to have hope. adults are doing a lot of things to mitigate the effects of climate change, which young people should recognise. again, the link to mental health is important and optimism about the future is an integral part of that. however, we have basically locked ourselves into a situation where the oil and gas industry down here [in louisiana] has dug all these channels and caused all of this erosion but has also brought in a lot of money and fed a lot of families in a really poor part of the united states. it’s a balance where people are able to eat because they climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 43 have jobs in these industries, yet they also do so much damage to the environment. i was doing research for another book about the cypress tree industry because cypress forests are just being devastated. i started crying when i read about one tree they cut down with internal markings that dated it to 1066—the year of the norman invasion of britain. i was just like, “are you kidding me!” climate change is so complicated because there are all these moving parts relating to science, ecology, industry, etc. and they’re never quite in sync with each other. children need to understand how complex an issue this is. fiction can be a great way of teaching this. resilience is a key issue in nowhere better than here and jillian gradually learns this trait through her partnership with dr. nelson. why do you think resilience is so important for young people, especially if they wish to play an active role in tackling climate change? sg: resilience is key because this issue is not going to be fixed overnight. it's something i worry about very much with my students. they are no longer comfortable with the “productive struggle”, and i don’t blame them. i tell my students over and over that you have to sit in that uncomfortable place and experience struggle—this is what learning is. yet, they live in a world of immediate gratification with iphones and social media etc. so they are hugely uncomfortable with the idea that the process of achieving things can be worthwhile in itself. instead, they want to race to the outcome. this attitude is deeply problematic when it comes to dealing with climate change, because it’s not like there’ll be a moment when we just say “it’s done—it’s solved”; it will be constant slogging away to make incremental change. the way i think about it and teach it is that writing, running (my other love), and climate change are the same as any big problem: showing up in small ways every single day. kids have to learn that but it’s hard because they see so many polished things online. everything is polished, everything looks like it works out and they don't see the process to it. so there are going be setbacks. there are going to be times when it feels like what you're doing is accomplishing absolutely nothing. yet you have to keep coming back and standing back up and doing it again and again. i always say that hard work beats talent pretty much every single time. i have seen that academically and i have seen that in other ways. people who show up and keep showing up are the ones who achieve great screech ú interview with sarah guillory 44 things. i think that with climate change this process of keeping on showing up is not just going to help kids change things, but ultimately also help them be happy. i want them to find that balance and joy between fighting for what you believe in and just living in that joy; just living in that joy of existing. all that is going to take resilience. why do you think fiction can be such an important tool for teachers to use to engage young people with the climate crisis in the classroom? sg: young people need to see themselves in literature, to fall in love with literature, and to know that they are not alone. i think that is so important, and it's especially true with climate literature. any time you're talking about tough things, fiction is a safe way to explore something because you can look at it as fiction when things get really scary. you can have these very real conversations where not everybody in the classroom has to know that you're going through something personally; it’s the character that is going through this and you can share in their feelings safely. also, throughout my whole life, fiction has fired me up about things that were important, like recycling and ocean pollution, and it’s the same now. plus, there are great cross-curricular things you can pull in: you've got literature and you've got english, but you've also got the sciences, history, oral histories, and the history of place. they’re all interconnected, and climate literacy books are able to show children this. you can explore so much more through fiction and also empathise with things so much more easily than is possible with nonfiction. have you had any notable responses from readers or teachers about the book? sg: a middle school in baton rouge has chosen my book for the whole middle school to read. they're also going on a field trip to see erosion and visit scientists, so that’s really exciting. it shows that the book is capable of encouraging that bridge between story and real life. the book was also chosen by the state of louisiana to represent it at the national book festival in washington dc. they had a poster of my book up and there was a little girl with her parents, and she pointed to the book, and she was like, “i read that book.” i told her i’d written it, and we talked about it. she said that it wasn’t an assigned book for class and that she had chosen it herself. we then talked about jillian, although her favourite character was the dog (everyone loves that dog!). climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 45 finally, what is the topic of your next book and when will it be released? sg: on the topic of dogs, my next book is about the relationship between a little girl and her bloodhound. however, similarly to nowhere better than here, the book is also about her figuring out what home is and how the nature of home changes over time. all my stories are very much about family and home because i’m a homebody and i keep gravitating back to those themes. however, i’m hoping to return to more of the environmental stuff in the book after this one. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 33 troubling the waters: using stories to complicate and deepen our connections to water candance doerr-stevens, university of wisconsin-milwaukee, milwaukee, wi, usa abstract this article provides an overview of “water as resource, relative and place”: an online collection of eco texts including picturebooks, chapter books, ya novels, and media texts that illustrate a wide range of relationships with water. the article includes a brief history on how the online resource was started and reflects on how we all wear multiple hats in how we relate to water. in better understanding our multifaceted relationship to water, we can better position ourselves in our teaching about, caring for, and flourishing with water. keywords climate literacy, eco-fiction, ecocentric, interdependence i was born in minnesota, united states, known to many as “the land of 10,000 lakes.” i grew up canoeing on, camping alongside, fishing from, and hiking around many lakes and rivers. in many ways, bodies of water were playful companions in my childhood, an escape from the busyness of school and, later on, work. when i moved to the neighboring state of wisconsin in 2013, i feared that i would have to give up my playful friendship with lakes and rivers. hoping to preserve this connection in my own children, i sought out stories in the form of picturebooks to read to them. titles such as up doerr-stevens ú troubling the waters 34 north at the cabin (chall, 1992) and owl moon (yolen, 1987) shaped the relationship i wanted to preserve and pass on to my children. as i’ve settled into my new home in milwaukee, wisconsin, my playmate connection to water has been troubled in several productive ways. lake michigan, the largest in surface area among the great lakes, is more than a playful friend to the city of milwaukee. lake michigan’s presence and impact on the city is humbling. more than a hard boundary of where human-dominated land ends and the vast mass of fresh water begins, the lake impacts several socio-political forces within the city and beyond. less playful than the water stories i grew up with, i read in the papers and heard on the news how people argued over who has access to the lake and its waters. health officials caution us about the lead or pfas in the water and business owners litigate over rights to dump sewage and build pipelines. instead of the lake being a respected neighbor we care for, visit and honor, the lake is too often described as an object to be controlled and commodified, barring access to some, and building pipelines to others. in her 2014 speech for the bioneers convention, robin wall kimmerer argues that hope for our environment begins with a shift in how we connect to our surroundings. she states that it is not the land or waters that are broken or in need of repair, but rather our relationship to them that is broken and needs healing. how we relate to each other matters. these relationships shape what cree scholar shawn wilson (2008) calls our relationality in the world, which is a shared sense of interconnectedness and accountability to other living beings both human and nonhuman. in thinking about how we relate to land and water, we begin to see them less as fixed objects and more as dynamic beings with needs for care and attention. perhaps one of the first steps toward building healthy relationships with our shared environments is by asking whether we see the land and waters as our neighbors or our possessions. one vehicle for shaping our relationships with each other and the living nonhumans surrounding us is by developing climate literacy through engagement through stories. climate literacy emphasizes the importance of story and its narrative capacity, “to create ecocentric ways of thinking, being, and acting.” (oziewicz, 2023, p. 35). through stories we begin to see ourselves in relationship with our surroundings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cumeqcrmy3c&t=81s https://www.climatelit.org/topic/interconnectedness/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 35 diving into the online water collection in an attempt to cultivate a more dynamic and diverse set of relationships to water for myself, my children, and the many teachers i work with, i have begun collecting and sharing titles of water narratives that present bodies of water in different ways. through my teaching at the university of wisconsin-milwaukee and my work with the uwm writing project, i work with hundreds of teachers who teach about water with their students. their input has helped to jumpstart this collection and will continue to build and expand it. the collection currently includes picturebooks, chapter books, graphic novels and media texts that illustrate a wide range of relationships with water. hoping to emphasize that our connections to water comprise so much more than water as an object to be bought and sold, i have organized the stories into three relational themes: water as natural resource, water as living relative, and water as place (figure 1). the full online list of 30+ titles can be accessed here and on table 1 located at the end of this article. each theme is explained in more detail below. figure 1: uwm library online guide https://guides.library.uwm.edu/c.php?g=1380243&p=10464349 https://guides.library.uwm.edu/c.php?g=1380243&p=10464349 doerr-stevens ú troubling the waters 36 water as natural resource worthy of care and protection the first category of water narratives depict water as a natural resource essential for the life of many living animals and ecosystems, one that needs protection and thoughtful stewardship. the titles in this theme often feature humans who are working alongside water and/or with other humans to protect and honor bodies of water. some familiar titles fitting into this theme include the classic, a river ran wild (cherry, 1992), as well as other familiar titles such as the water princess (verde, 2016), and a voice for the everglades (conrad, 2021). additional titles include a river’s gifts: the mighty elwha river reborn (newman, 2023; figure 2). water as living relative the second narrative category portray water as a living relative of humans. whether positioned as a distant or close relative, water is represented as a non-human person with rights of its own. recognizing water’s personhood rejects human dominion over it, insisting on a kinship relation. in some titles such as in my mighty journey (coy, 2019), autumn peltier, water warrior (lindstrom, 2023; figure 3), and hello from renn lake (hurwitz, 2020), water is given a voice to address the humans in the story or speak directly to the reader. in other cases, water is presented not as a speaking relative but a river's gifts: the mighty elwha river reborn by patricia newman; natasha donovan (illustrator) isbn: 1541598709 publication date: 2022-09-06 a finalist for the 2023 orbis pictus award for children’s nonfiction, this is a story of water and human interdependence within ecosystems. the book recounts the story of the elwha river, in washington state, and how it was dammed for over 100 years, disrupting salmon migrations and then restored to a flowing, vibrant ecosystem recently in 2011. humans are presented as both exploitative of the water and restorative, showing persistence toward restoring the ecosystem. figure 2: example text for water as natural resource worthy of care and protection https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59867337-a-river-s-gifts climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 37 a living entity demanding attention, respect, and a space to thrive within the ecosystem. autumn peltier, water warrior by carole lindstrom; bridget george (illustrator); autumn peltier (introduction by) isbn: 1250795273 publication date: 2023-09-19 this picturebook opens with the water speaking directly to the reader, “i am nibi. i have a spirit. i have feelings. i remember.” the water continues to tell the story of indigenous women and their cultural and historical roles in protecting and stewarding water for future generations. featuring water activists, grandma josephine and her great-niece, autumn peltier, young readers are called to care for and speak for water not only for themselves but for the health of animals and plants for the next seven generations to come. figure 3: example text for water as living relative water as place the third category of narratives include descriptions of water as a place, rooted in memory and cultural practices. these stories feature humans as the central characters who turn to water as a mirror to reflect an understanding of themselves and their identities. in these stories, water is often positioned as a character or setting in the narrative, a key force that shapes how the humans see themselves and their lives moving forward. for example, ganesha, the main character in ganesha goes green (thamizhmani, 2023), partners with friends to figure out a way to both honor the religious practices of her culture and protect the river that provides life-giving elements for her community (figure 4). ganesha also suggests what many other narratives do, which is that children are better able to envision new ways to accomplish traditional practices. in these narratives, youth leadership helps adults reimagine their own relationships to history and culture. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59440752-autumn-peltier-water-warrior doerr-stevens ú troubling the waters 38 ganesha goes green by lakshmi thamizhmani; debasmita dasgupta (illustrator) isbn: 1646869974 publication date: 2023-09-05 prema is concerned about how the ganesha statues for the hindu religious festival are thrown into the river after their use and polluting the community’s water source. prema suggests a change but receives pushback from local vendors who benefit from the sale of the statues. working together with friends and community members, prema devises a solution that benefits many stakeholders, even those who initially felt threatened by prema's initial concerns. figure 4: example text for water as natural resource in need of stewardship making your own waves i invite you to dive into your own exploration of water relations. while all water narratives listed here could fit into multiple categories, each story offers a unique doorway to reimagine relations with water. as students reconsider their own relationships with water, consider posing some of the questions below. ● what is water? who is water? ● how do we see water differently if we consider it a character, living being, or nonhuman person with its own needs? ● what needs does water have to maintain its wellbeing? to flourish? ● how do we care for water? how do we let water care for us or themself? ● if water had a voice in a given situation, what might it say or ask for? ● how would water describe its relationship with you now? as a child? water is not an independent life force on its own. it depends on the reciprocity of many living entities to maintain its vitality. to that end, this collection of narratives is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126852178-ganesha-goes-green?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ma59xvrkax&rank=1 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 39 not fixed. the uwm librarian tiffany thornton and i hope for the collection to become a dynamic list of texts and resources that grows as both a repository of narratives and also a curation of resources that pushes us to ask critical questions of our relationships with water and other non-human relatives. stay tuned for more collections of stories that ask us to be curious about our relationships to animals large and small, as well as our living plant and tree friends who reside above and below the ground. for now, i invite you to dive into the different ways you partner with water on a daily basis and how your own relationship with this flowing life-force shapes your world. in partnership with story, we can better position ourselves in our teaching about, caring for, and flourishing with water. references kimmer, r. w. (2017). “take what is given to you.” bioneers. accessed august 5 at: https://bioneers.org/robin-kimmerer-take-given-ztvz1709/ oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? journal of climate literacy in education, 1(1), pp. 34-37. wilson, s. (2008). research is carmony: indigenous research methods. fernwood. https://uwm.edu/libraries/people/thornton-tiffany/ https://bioneers.org/robin-kimmerer-take-given-ztvz1709/ doerr-stevens ú troubling the waters 40 table 1: text set of water narratives: water as resource, relative, and place title, year, and author, illustrator text type water as interconnected, natural resource a river's gifts (2022) patricia newman; natasha donovan (illus.) picturebook the great lakes: our freshwater treasure (2024) barb rosenstock, jamey christoph (illus.) picturebook the water princess (2016) susan verde; georgie badiel; peter h. reynolds (illus.) picturebook young water protectors (2018) aslan tudor & kelly tudor picturebook the noisy puddle (2024) linda booth sweeney; miki sato (illus.) picturebook a river ran wild (2002) by lynne cherry (illus.) picturebook luz makes a splash (2012) claudia dávila (illus.) graphic novel the leak (2021) kate reed petty; andrea bell (illus.) graphic novel the rime of the modern mariner (2012) nick hayes graphic novel thirst (2023) varsha baja chapter book “water flows together” (2020) american rivers project, documentary (11:13) video “mari copeny: water for flint” (2022) rebel girls podcast, (14:00) podcast water as living being and relative the water walker (2017) joanne robertson picturebook my mighty journey (2019) john coy; gaylord schanilec (illus.) picturebook water walkers (2015) carol ann trembath; david w. craig (illus.) picturebook the tree and the river (2023) by aaron becker (illus.) picturebook autumn peltier, water warrior (2023) carole lindstrom; bridget george (illus.); autumn peltier (introduction) picturebook we are water protectors (2020) carole lindstrom; michaela goade (illus.) picturebook nibi's water song (2021) sunshine tenasco; chief lady bird (illus.) picturebook hello from renn lake (2020) michele weber hurwitz chapter book healer of the water monster (2022) brian young chapter book “stand up: stand n rock #nodapl” (2016) taboo (music), jonny lee (editor), baxter stapelton (filming), (5:13) music video water as place and identity yaya and the sea (2024) karen good marable; tonya engel (illus.) picturebook a different pond (2017) bao phi; thi bui (illus) picturebook ganesha goes green (2023) lakshmi thamizhmani; debasmita dasgupta (illus.) picturebook the 1619 project: born on the water (2021) nikole hannah-jones; renée watson; nikkolas smith (illus.) picturebook river (2019) elisha cooper (illus.) picturebook the ocean calls (2020) tina cho picturebook the fishermen, the horse, and the sea (2021) barbara joosse; renée graef (illus.) picturebook “alice’s garden” (2017) american rivers project documentary on vimeo (9:13) video https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59867337-a-river-s-gifts https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59867337-a-river-s-gifts https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59867337-a-river-s-gifts https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/179546851-the-great-lakes https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25893953-the-water-princess https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25893953-the-water-princess https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25893953-the-water-princess https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41541639-young-water-protectors https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41541639-young-water-protectors https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41541639-young-water-protectors https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/180908113-the-noisy-puddle https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/180908113-the-noisy-puddle https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/180908113-the-noisy-puddle https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/320105.a_river_ran_wild https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/320105.a_river_ran_wild https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/320105.a_river_ran_wild https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14431298-luz-makes-a-splash https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14431298-luz-makes-a-splash https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14431298-luz-makes-a-splash https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51591606-the-leak https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51591606-the-leak https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51591606-the-leak https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10460297-the-rime-of-the-modern-mariner https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10460297-the-rime-of-the-modern-mariner https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10460297-the-rime-of-the-modern-mariner https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55586848-thirst https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55586848-thirst https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55586848-thirst https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqnewwtjbry https://vimeo.com/showcase/4336647 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqnewwtjbry https://www.rebelgirls.com/podcast/mari-copeny-water-for-flint https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34415917-the-water-walker https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34415917-the-water-walker https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51913917 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51913917 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51913917 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26894633-water-walkers https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26894633-water-walkers https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62595119-the-tree-and-the-river https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62595119-the-tree-and-the-river https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59440752-autumn-peltier-water-warrior https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59440752-autumn-peltier-water-warrior https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59440752-autumn-peltier-water-warrior https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44581496-we-are-water-protectors https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44581496-we-are-water-protectors https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53017043-nibi-s-water-song https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53017043-nibi-s-water-song https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42284346-hello-from-renn-lake?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=eukzdphvtc&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42284346-hello-from-renn-lake?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=eukzdphvtc&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42284346-hello-from-renn-lake?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=eukzdphvtc&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56638626-healer-of-the-water-monster https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56638626-healer-of-the-water-monster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onyk7guvhk8&t=1s https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49295299-yaya-and-the-sea https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49295299-yaya-and-the-sea https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49295299-yaya-and-the-sea https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34137106-a-different-pond https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34137106-a-different-pond https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126852178-ganesha-goes-green?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ma59xvrkax&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126852178-ganesha-goes-green?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ma59xvrkax&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57569796-the-1619-project https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57569796-the-1619-project https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57569796-the-1619-project https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57569796-the-1619-project https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43319690-river https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43319690-river https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48854699-the-ocean-calls https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48854699-the-ocean-calls https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57621484-the-fishermen-the-horse-and-the-sea https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57621484-the-fishermen-the-horse-and-the-sea https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57621484-the-fishermen-the-horse-and-the-sea https://vimeo.com/225115743 https://vimeo.com/showcase/4336647 oziewicz ú facts, fictions, doom, and gloom 38 facts, fictions, doom, and gloom three principles of climate literacy communication and pedagogies marek oziewicz, university of minnesota, minnesota, usa abstract this article confronts the notion that engaging with climate crisis facts fosters doom and gloom. it outlines three principles of climate literacy pedagogies, suggesting that facts are especially useful when contextualized and appropriately balanced with inspiration, curiosity, or anger that motivates action. keywords climate literacy pedagogy, six americas, climate facts, climate politics, doom & gloom, climate emotions, climate literacy in april 2024, i presented at a colleague’s undergraduate class at the university of minnesota, introducing students to climate literacy. i shared a few sobering facts about the climate emergency, and then we read the fate of fausto. i thought i was making a call to action, but one of the students raised objections. this is all doom and gloom, she said, you’re not telling us what to do. although i cast the fate of fausto as a parable and warning about the consequences of human expansionism, the student interpreted the story to mean that humanity is doomed. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-fate-of-fausto/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 39 while other students spoke up in support or against the objection, we did not have enough time for discussion. i left the class disconcerted about my response. is bringing up facts automatically doom and gloom? how else do we talk about the emergency as an emergency? a year later, i believe that educators need to be more intentional about framing our message and more strategic about preparing to engage with audiences that may not see things the way we do. this article outlines three principles related to practical applications of this notion. principle one the goal of climate literacy pedagogy is to help move audiences toward the “alarmed” position on the six americas scale proposed by the yale program on climate change communication (2024). the six positions refer to sets of beliefs, opinions, and attitudes that make a person less vs. more likely to support climate policies, demand change, and take action. the positions include the following: • the alarmed (28% of americans): people convinced that global heating is happening, that it is caused by human activities, especially the emission of greenhouse gasses, and that it poses an existential threat to humanity. the alarmed strongly support climate policies even if most “do not know what they or others can do to solve the problem” (yale, 2024, n.p.). • the concerned (29% of americans): people who share deep concerns of the alarmed yet who also believe that “climate impacts are still distant in time and space” (yale, 2024, n.p.) or that global heating can be contained even while the world continues to use fossil fuels. this speciously “common-sense position” (guenther, 2024, p. 3)—created by decades of fossil fuel propaganda—is extremely dangerous as it is shared by many of the alarmed, the concerned, and people representing other positions except the dismissive. • the cautious (15% of americans): people who are unsure and haven’t made up their minds yet: “is global warming happening? is it human-caused? is it serious?” (yale, 2024, n.p.). • the disengaged (6% of americans): people who are not interested in the topic at all. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/about/projects/global-warmings-six-americas/ oziewicz ú facts, fictions, doom, and gloom 40 • the doubtful (11% of americans): people who either dismiss the climate emergency completely or “they believe it is just a natural cycle. they do not think much about the issue or consider it a serious risk” (yale, 2024, n.p.). • the dismissive (11% americans): people who deny the reality of the climate crisis, seeing it as a hoax or ideological manipulation. the dismissive is a polite term for climate deniers. even though teachers don’t know where students stand on this scale—or may not be able to ask (six americas quiz)—this framework is helpful to bear in mind as most classrooms will likely include students representing a range of positions. principle two once teachers learn to pay attention to feelings and beliefs expressed in students’ questions, they are better positioned to right-dial messaging based on where the student may be in the six americas scale. in my experience, three tips are especially important here: tip one when faced with the dismissive, do not engage. one exception is when you believe that other students would benefit from hearing the conversation. in confronting denial, one good strategy for a teacher is to ask what professional organization or (inter)governmental bodies students or parents trust. this may mean inviting them to check the websites of leading organizations across domains: for economy, this could be world economic forum or world bank; for space exploration, it could be nasa or esa; for the military, it could be the pentagon, nato, u.s. army, navy or air force; for international bodies, it could be united nations, unesco, or world health organization; for science, it could be epa, noaa, or ipcc. one of the best sources for specific tips to confront climate misinformation is the skeptical science website. in general, however, trying to convince the dismissive is a waste of time. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/sassy/ chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https:/www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_global_risks_report_2023.pdf https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/climatechange/overview https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/ https://climate.esa.int/en/ https://www.defense.gov/spotlights/tackling-the-climate-crisis/ https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_227571.htm chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https:/www.sustainability.gov/pdfs/dod-2024-cap.pdf https://www.safie.hq.af.mil/programs/climate/ https://www.un.org/en/climatechange https://www.unesco.org/en/climate-change https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health https://www.epa.gov/climate-change https://www.noaa.gov/climate https://www.ipcc.ch/ https://skepticalscience.com/ https://skepticalscience.com/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 41 tip two when addressing questions from the alarmed or the cautious, the double goal is to boost their engagement and sense of agency and to help them better cope with negative climate emotions: especially fatalism, despondency, and other varieties of anti-democratic doomerism that are widely prevalent today. both the alarmed and the cautious already know about the climate emergency. they know that defeating the fossil-fuel interests will require a systems change approach in which the governments’ regulatory power and international cooperation are the main forces to catalyze transformation toward an ecological civilization. what they likely struggle with is helplessness (what can we do in the face of such massive forces?) and fear (what if it’s too late?). the best response to helplessness and fear is collective empowerment: building a broad civil society movement of people who stand up for the planet. such a movement is the only power to force states, nations, and elected officials to break from ecocidal bondage of fossil fuels. in these conversations, mobilization can be achieved through sharing specific examples of how students can fight for what they love (school projects, volunteering, civic engagement, communityoriented research projects, etc.) and through funneling outrage at the destruction of the planet by the few at the cost of the many. countering despondency with visions of action is crucial because anti-democratic doomerism plays into the manipulative narrative of the fossil fuel lobby. tip three when engaging with concerns raised by the disengaged or the doubtful, the goal is to plant a seed or spark interest. this can be done by rising a question about recent weather events that threated people and property or about cheaper, healthier or more efficient solutions that are becoming widely available. the point is to keep it light: making someone feel like they lost an argument will only disengage them even more. the goal with these audiences is to leave them intrigued rather than convince them. specific facts from our own experience are especially helpful. for example, i now drive a hybrid, and i appreciate https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/10/worlds-richest-use-up-their-fair-share-of-2025-carbon-budget-in-10-days https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/10/worlds-richest-use-up-their-fair-share-of-2025-carbon-budget-in-10-days https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/hurricane-milton-florida-insurance-00183532 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/hurricane-milton-florida-insurance-00183532 https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/solar-panel-prices-have-fallen-by-around-20-every-time-global-capacity-doubled oziewicz ú facts, fictions, doom, and gloom 42 the difference between its 37-mpg fuel efficiency versus the 14-mpg which was the case for my last vehicle. principle three facts are essential except when they’re not. while teachers need to know facts about the climate emergency, the challenge is to calibrate using these facts based on the audience, circumstances, and other contexts. operationalizing this principle is hard. it requires teachers to stay with two seemingly contradictory truths at the same time. on the one hand, facts are important. all climate misinformation is based on distorting or denying facts in order to replace them with doubt or convenient fictions. likewise, all calls to urgent climate action are based on the geophysical, scientific facts of rising emissions, rising median temperatures of the planet, collapsing biodiversity and ecosystems health, more frequent and intense extreme weather events, and other intra-systemic impacts of the climate emergency—impacts that have been measured and tracked for several decades by numerous organizations and with a variety of tools, including the planetary boundaries framework. most of these facts are scary and demonstrate an unmistakable trend. the other truth is that facts don’t speak for themselves. facts are not enough to mobilize action. action arises from inspiration and commitment, from personal engagement, from beliefs and dreams we have for ourselves and our loved ones. facts are helpful to envision solutions, but if they make one give up, they are not helpful at all. like powerful spices, facts should be part of the conversation only in the right proportion to other ingredients, especially the belief that change is possible. in the current stage of the fight for the planet’s future, this belief is a far more important goal than communicating the facts. facts are there for anyone who cares to look them up. but the belief that change is possible, a precondition for change, is where we have so far failed. more precisely, this is where the decades of fossil fuel misinformation have created a false “common-sense” narrative embraced by many people across the six americas spectrum. this false narrative—the subject of genevieve guenther’s 2024 book the language of climate politics: fossil fuel propaganda and how to fight it—is built around “six key terms that dominate the language of climate politics” (p. 2) and goes as follows: https://www.unep.org/interactives/emissions-gap-report/2023/#section_0 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/09/climate/2024-heat-record-climate-goal.html https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/2024-living-planet-report https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/2024-living-planet-report https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/extreme-weather/ https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html https://genevieveguenther.com/ https://genevieveguenther.com/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 43 yes, climate change is real but calling it an existential threat is just alarmist—and anyway phasing out coal, oil, and gas would cost us too much. human flourishing relies on the economic growth enabled by fossil fuels, so we need to keep using them and deal with climate change by fostering technological innovation and increasing our resilience. besides, america should not act unilaterally on the climate crisis while emissions are rising in india and china (guenther, 2024, pp. 2-3, italics for key terms in the original). as guenther sums it, this narrative fosters a scientifically incorrect belief that there are no alternatives to fossil fuels or that the climate crisis is will not be too bad. our job as climate literacy educators is to counter this falsehood with a narrative that envisions real solutions and a transition to an ecological civilization—a narrative that is unambiguous about the urgency to phaseout fossil fuels and unambiguous about the role everyone has to play in accelerating the transition. going forward we are all a bit afraid, but that’s fine. fear is a natural reaction to unnatural circumstances—to what the world is becoming with each year of the unaddressed climate emergency. the student who raised objections was probably the alarmed, overwhelmed by fear and urgently needing positive messaging. what i should have shared was an empowering message that we are in the middle of an epochal transition to an ecological civilization: a transition in which we are reimagining our energy, technology, financial, educational, and other systems and in which we each have a role to play. this is exciting yet scary too. the fear we feel thinking about what may happen if we fail to act is not alarmism: “it’s a sign that you’re willing to look at the danger headon and not look away. it’s a sign of courage” (guenther, 2024, p. 44). in this framing, facts, in and of themselves, are not “doom and gloom.” the “doom and gloom” is an attitude. as teachers, when we feel tempted to let it take over us, let’s ask ourselves whom it benefits. if the fate of fausto is read through a fear lens, it may be interpreted as predicting humanity’s end. but if it is read through an action lens, it oziewicz ú facts, fictions, doom, and gloom 44 communicates that humanity can change its course if we choose to fight for what we love. this is a time to fight, not a time to give up. as guenther puts it, “talking about the dangers of global heating and the people who are still committed to promoting fossil fuels is a very effective way to disrupt systems of denial and complacency, which depend on codes of silence to seem normal” (2024, p. 187). these conversations—in every classroom, family and community—are urgently needed. they build our climate literacy capabilities: “practical ways of being and doing we can achieve as climate literate earthlings” (oziewicz 2023, p. 45). this is how education will make a difference for the earth’s future. references guenther, g. (2024). the language of climate politics: fossil fuel propaganda and how to fight it. oxford university press. oziewicz, m. (2023). the click framework: a care-centric conceptual map for organizing climate literacy pedagogy. climate literacy in education, 1(2), 44-50. yale program on climate change communication. (2024). global warming’s six americas. yale program on climate change communication. accessed online: https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/six-americasaudience-segments/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5438 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5438 https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/six-americas-audience-segments/ https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/six-americas-audience-segments/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 79 “we are all in this together”: critiquing the issue of water equity through a lens of intersectional environmentalism sean p. connors, university of arkansas, fayetteville, ar, usa abstract as carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels warm the planet, altering the climate and causing severe drought in some regions and unprecedented flooding in others, and as state and local governments privatize once-public water systems in the name of fiscal austerity, the connection between water equity and social justice is increasingly evident. this article introduces a critical lens of intersectional environmentalism and identifies three questions that teachers and students can ask to examine how a society’s treatment of water is connected to its treatment of people. when students understand how the wellbeing of people, animals, natural resources, and the earth itself are interconnected, they are better prepared to explain how working for environmental justice necessitates their working for social justice as well. keywords water equity, intersectional environmentalism, social justice, environmental justice connors ú “all in this together” 80 in eliot schrefer’s (2012) young adult novel endangered, the protagonist, a biracial, congolese american teenage girl named sophie, summarizes her conservationist mother’s philosophy as follows: “the way we treat animals goes hand in hand with the way we treat people'' (p. 51). when i ask the predominantly white, middle-class college students that i work with to talk in groups and decide whether they agree or disagree with this assertion, some dismiss it, but many more are willing to accept it, presumably because they recognize animals as sentient beings that warrant respect. when i amend the assertion, however, and substitute the word “water” in place of “animals,” the opposite is the case: the vast majority of students struggle to connect caring for water, a resource that many of them don’t often think about due to its ready availability, with caring for people. as carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels continue to warm the planet and alter the climate, giving rise to severe drought in some regions and unprecedented flooding in others, and as state and local governments privatize oncepublic water systems in the name of fiscal austerity (hutton, 2024), the connection between water equity and social justice is becoming more evident. in this article, i argue that teachers can use a critical lens of intersectional environmentalism to support students’ examining how social justice and environmental justice are connected. in the section that follows, i define intersectional environmentalism and identify three questions that teachers and students can ask to investigate the connection between water equity and social justice. to demonstrate how a society’s treatment of water reflects its treatment of people, i next apply the questions to a water equity issue that people on the navajo nation confront. to conclude, i examine the implications for educators of inviting young people to apply a lens of intersectional environmentalism to investigate water equity issues and recommend two works of literature for young people they can use to do so. what is intersectional environmentalism? intersectional environmentalism builds on the work of ecofeminist scholars, who argue that the same hierarchical thinking that rationalizes human exploitation of nature is also behind different systems of oppression, including sexism, racism, and classism (warren, 2000). as connors and trites (2021) explain, hierarchical thinking relies on oppositional climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 81 binaries that privilege one group over another. in the case of sexism, racism, and classism, these binaries include male/female, white/black, and rich/poor. oppositional binaries also shape people’s understanding of their relationship with the natural world. in positioning people over and above animals, for example, the human/animal binary (which conveniently ignores that humans are a type of animal) offers an implicit rationale for anthropocentrism, and thus a justification for our slaughtering animals for food, using them as test subjects for research, and confining them in zoos for our entertainment. for ecofeminists, then, addressing systems of oppression necessitates exposing and critiquing the hierarchical thinking on which they depend. intersectional environmentalism also owes a debt of gratitude to kimberlé crenshaw’s (1991) work on intersectionality, which acknowledges that marginalized groups of people can experience multiple forms of discrimination in ways that amplify their oppression. this includes forms of oppression that are attributable to environmental racism (washington, 2019). recent scholarship demonstrates how indigenous peoples, black people, and other marginalized communities are more likely to experience the consequences of environmental degradation than are people in affluent white communities (taylor, 2014; washington, 2019). likewise, though industrial nations in the global north are largely responsible for producing the carbon emissions that have led to global warming, kings (2017) describes research which suggests that women and girls in the global south are more likely to “bear the brunt of the extra burdens created by climate change and environmental degradation” (p. 73). this includes a “higher risk of reproductive/fertility health issues caused by drinking from a contaminated water supply” (p. 73). with that in mind, in this article, i rely on thomas’s (2022) definition of intersectional environmentalism as “acknowledg[ing] how social justice and environmentalism are intrinsically linked and how both must be considered to achieve environmental justice” (thomas, 2022, p. 32, emphasis added). it is worth noting that in its rejection of hierarchical thinking, intersectional environmentalism bears a resemblance to indigenous epistemologies that value interdependence and co-existence over self-enclosed individualism and exploitation. justice (2018), for example, argues that “indigenous traditions are well stocked with warnings against human destructiveness and lessons for more respectful co-existence with our other-than-human relatives” (p. 39). he cautions, “when we don’t recognize connors ú “all in this together” 82 or respect our interdependencies, we don’t have the full context that’s necessary for healthy or effective action” (p. 5). similarly, tynan (2021) notes that “relationality with land is understood by many indigenous peoples as an ethic of responsibility, in contrast to an ethic of rights-based entitlement that is present in many western logics” (p. 604). in asking us to consider how our actions could impact other people, nonhuman animals, and plants and vegetation, intersectional environmental invites us to reject these same logics. to support students’ applying a lens of intersectional environmentalism to critique the topic of water equity, teachers can invite them to investigate the following: 1) what is the nature of the water equity issue under consideration? 2) who is affected by the water equity issue, and who is not? 3) how does addressing the water equity issue also necessitate addressing social inequities? in the next section, i apply these questions to a water equity topic that people on the navajo nation confront to demonstrate how applying a critical lens of intersectional environmentalism can support students’ teasing out connections between environmental justice and social justice. critiquing the topic of water equity early in my career teaching high school english, i worked with students at a charter school in a small community on the western navajo nation. according to the most recent census report, the median household income on the navajo nation, which occupies land in parts of northern arizona, northwestern new mexico, and southern utah, is $33,578, and approximately 35.5% of people live below the poverty line (navajo nation reservation, n.d.). the navajo nation is also plagued by infrastructural challenges, one of which involves people’s ability to access potable water. according to the navajo nation department of water resources (n.d.), approximately 30% of people living on the navajo nation lack access “to clean reliable drinking water” (para 5). likewise, gerlak, louder, and ingram (2022) argue that in some areas, people and livestock are “exposed to groundwater contamination” that is attributable to “industrial waste from uranium mining, raising issues of safety and quality of available well water; climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 83 this, in turn, necessitates [people’s] buying water from expensive and faraway sources” (p. 5). aside from retail and construction jobs in smaller communities, such as the one where i lived and worked, and subsistence farming and sheep and cattle grazing, mines and power plants have historically represented one of the largest employers of people on the navajo nation (rainey, 2017, para. 10). on the western part of the reservation, this included a power plant and two strip coal mines that were owned and operated by peabody energy (formerly peabody western coal company). one of these mines used train cars to deliver coal to other parts of the us, but up until 2005, the second relied on a slurry pipeline to transport coal to a plant in southern nevada, where it was burned to generate electricity for parts of southern arizona, california, and nevada (but not the navajo nation). to facilitate this process, peabody energy annually extracted approximately 1.3 billion gallons of pristine water, estimated to be between 10,000 and 35,000 years old, from a local aquifer (glennon, 2002, p. 157). in addition to lowering the water table, this process is thought to have led once reliable springs to run dry, further impacting people’s access to reliable water, and thus their ability to raise crops and livestock (glennon, 2002). global warming attributed to the burning of coal and other fossil fuels will likely compound this problem in the future. thus, in response to the first two questions—what is the nature of the water equity issue under consideration, and who is affected by it, and who is not?—the ability to access clean, reliable water constitutes a significant challenge for many people on the navajo nation. on the other hand, corporate executives, investors, customers, and other people who directly benefit from the electricity that peabody energy, which is headquartered in saint louis, missouri, produces each year are unaffected by these problems due to their geographical distance. a third question that one can ask of the water equity issue described above is this: how does addressing the water equity topic also necessitate addressing social inequities? while the threat of global warming makes transitioning to more sustainable energy sources crucial moving forward, it is also important to consider how these changes will impact people on the navajo nation. in addition to losing some of the few well-compensated jobs available to people, a shift away from fossil fuels will adversely connors ú “all in this together” 84 affect the tribal government, which has traditionally relied on revenues generated from land lease agreements and coal royalties to support a range of public services, “from police patrols, to food banks, to health care for the elderly” (rainey, 2017, para. 12). from this perspective, addressing the water equity issues the navajo nation faces will also necessitate rectifying the many economic and infrastructural challenges that the navajo people have historically confronted as a result of white supremacist policies, environmental racism, and systemic oppression. conclusion critiquing the water equity issues that adversely affect the welfare of people on the navajo nation, one subsistence farmer explained, “the health of our animals is directly tied to the health of the plants and the health of the plants is tied to the health of the air and water …. so we are all in this together” (jacobs, 2017, para. 51, emphasis added). this critique perfectly encapsulates an intersectional environmentalist perspective on the problem: policies and practices that are injurious to plants, animals, and the earth are also detrimental to people. when students acknowledge and accept their “togetherness,” they are better prepared to explain how rectifying environmental problems such as water inequity, climate change, and global warming also necessitates working for social justice and advocating for the rights of people. intersectional environmentalism stands in contrast to what i refer to as neoliberal environmentalism. unlike the former, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of people, animals, and the earth, neoliberal environmentalism depicts caring for the environment as a purely individual undertaking. from this perspective, an environmentally conscious person is one who practices recycling, properly disposes of waste, limits their consumption, and so on. while these behaviors are undoubtedly important, they are not sufficient to address the scope and complexities of the environmental problems that people around the world confront in the 21st century. in addition to water and air pollution, this includes rapid species extinction, an accumulation of plastics in our oceans, the presence of “forever chemicals” in groundwater, climate change, and global warming. these are systemic problems, and as such, they necessitate systemic solutions that account not only for the welfare of people, but also the well-being of plants, animals, and the earth. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 85 for teachers who are interested in investigating the relationship between water equity and social justice with students, children’s and young adult literature offers a valuable resource. two recent books in particular examine water equity issues like those that i have argued confront people on the navajo nation. for teachers who work with younger students, alice mcginty and shonto begay’s (2021) the water lady: how darlene arviso helps a thirsty navajo nation is a non-fiction picturebook that tells the true story of a navajo woman who assists her local community by using her water truck to deliver thousands of gallons of water to her neighbors. likewise, brian young’s healer of the water monster is a gorgeously written work of middle grade fiction that tells the story of eleven-year-old nathan todacheenie, who, struggling in the aftermath of his parents’ divorce, decides to spend the summer with his grandmother at her remote home on the eastern navajo nation. there, he unexpectedly befriends a young water monster, a holy being who is suffering from a mysterious illness that impedes his ability to bring rain to the region, resulting in a decades-long drought. when nathan deduces that the water monster’s illness is likely attributable to contamination from a nearby uranium mine, he embarks on a journey to find a cure for his newfound friend. in examining these books with students, teachers can also direct them to the navajo water project website, where they can learn more about the challenges that water equity poses for not only people on the navajo nation reservation, but elsewhere in the united states. preparing young people to become responsible stewards of the environment entails more than simply calling their attention to environmental problems that affect their local communities and encouraging them to take individual action. acknowledging our togetherness, as the aforementioned literary texts invite readers to do, and considering how policies and practices enacted in one part of the world impact people and the environment elsewhere, necessitates nothing less than a paradigm shift. connors ú “all in this together” 86 references connors, s. p., & trites, r. s. (2021). “i’d become a part of a system”: examining intersectional environmentalism in literature for young readers. journal of children’s literature, 47(1), 73-83. crenshaw, k. w. (1991). mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. stanford law review, 43(6), 1241-1299. gerlak, a. k., louder, e., & ingram, h. (2022). viewpoint: an intersectional approach to water equity in the us. water alternatives, 15(1): 1-12. glennon, r. (2002). water follies: groundwater pumping and the fate of america’s fresh waters. island press. hutton, zina. (2024, february 5). what’s behind the push toward privatizing water systems? governing. https://www.governing.com/infrastructure/whats-behindthe-push-toward-privatizing-water-systems justice, d. h. (2018). why indigenous literatures matter. wilfrid laurier university press. kings, a.e. (2017). intersectionality and the changing face of ecofeminism. ethics & the environment, 22(1), 63-87. mcginty, a., & begay, s. (2021). the water lady: how darlene arviso helps a thirsty navajo nation. schwartz & wade. navajo nation department of water resources. (n.d.). https://nndwr.navajo-nsn.gov/ navajo nation reservation. (n.d.). census reporter. https://censusreporter.org/profiles/25200us2430r-navajo-nation-reservation/ navajo water project. (n.d.). https://www.navajowaterproject.org/ rainey, j. (2017, december 8). lighting the west, dividing a tribe. nbc news. https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/navajo-coal/ schrefer, e. (2012). endangered. scholastic. taylor, d.e. (2014). toxic communities: environmental racism, industrial pollution, and residential mobility. new york university press. thomas, l. (2022). the intersectional environmentalist: how to dismantle systems of oppression to protect people + planet. voracious/little brown and company. tynan, l. (2021). what is relationality? indigenous knowledges, practices, and responsibilities with kin. cultural geographies, 28(4), 597-610. https://www.governing.com/infrastructure/whats-behind-the-push-toward-privatizing-water-systems https://www.governing.com/infrastructure/whats-behind-the-push-toward-privatizing-water-systems https://nndwr.navajo-nsn.gov/ https://censusreporter.org/profiles/25200us2430r-navajo-nation-reservation/ https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/navajo-coal/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 87 warren, k. j. (2000). ecofeminist philosophy: a western perspective on what it is and why it matters. rowman & littlefield. washington, h.a. (2019). a terrible thing to waste: environmental racism and its assault on the american mind. little, brown spark. young, b. (2021). healer of the water monster. heartdrum. rabbani ú shadows of progress 42 shadows of progress hydrofeminism and environmental injustice in aravind adiga’s the white tiger golam rabbani, metropolitan university, bangladesh abstract this essay explores environmental injustice in aravind adiga’s the white tiger (2008) through the lens of hydrofeminism, a framework developed by astrida neimanis that connects water politics to feminist ethics and ecological critique. while adiga’s novel is well-known for its criticism on class and corruption in modern india, it also highlights how ecological degradation intensifies genderbased inequalities under urbanization, caste oppression, and capitalist development. however, focusing on the rivers: ganga and yamuna, the polluted city and rural spaces, and the silent suffering of female characters like balram’s mother, kusum, and pinky madam, this paper argues how water becomes a medium for expressing structural inequality. additionally, by situating this analysis within a pedagogical framework, it offers strategies for teaching climate justice and gender sensitivity through literature. keywords hydrofeminism, environmental degradation, feminist ecology, water justice, climate literature climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 43 introduction in the age of rapid climate change, literature has become a vital medium for reflecting on and responding to ecological challenges. climate literature—also known as “cli-fi,” a term defined by adam trexler (2015) and further developed by lykke guanio-uluru (2019)—urges us to examine how environmental destruction is entangled with politics, economics, and social inequality. aravind adiga’s the white tiger (2008), though it is read as a critique of india’s class system, also contains powerful insights into the environmental costs of modernization. one early scene of the novel depicts balram, the male protagonist of the novel, observing that, “the river ganga… black and brackish with industrial sewage; the banks were lined with feces; the water was full of chemicals” (adiga, 2008, p. 15). this vivid image of sacred waters reduced to sludge embodies the ecological degradation shaping the novel’s ethical landscape. this paper explores how water—particularly the ganga and yamuna rivers—symbolizes structural inequality in the white tiger. by examining the contrast between polluted urban spaces and neglected rural areas, and by highlighting the silent suffering of female characters such as balram’s mother, kusum, and pinky madam, it argues that water functions as a powerful medium for exposing social and gender-based injustices. to interpret such environmental violence, this essay unfolds astrida neimanis’ (2017) concept of hydrofeminism, which views all beings as “bodies of water”, emphasizing the shared vulnerability and interdependence of human and non-human life through water systems. it criticizes patriarchal and capitalist structures that commodify nature while disproportionately burdening women, particularly in marginalized communities. hydrofeminism challenges us to recognize water not just as a natural resource but as a relational, political, and ethical force—shaping who gets to live, labor, and lead in an ecologically unequal world. as neimanis (2017) explains, “hydrofeminism reveals how bodies are always more than human, more than individual, and more than sovereign” (p. 61), inviting readers to see gendered and environmental oppression as intertwined. thus, in highlighting hydrofeminism, this essay exhibits how water and gender intersect with caste, corruption, and capitalism in the novel, helping educators and students approach climate literacy through stories grounded in local and global justice (chakrabarty, 2009). rabbani ú shadows of progress 44 water, class, and capitalism in this novel, water transcends its literal presence to become a vehicle for representing entrenched class divisions. balram’s village, located in the “darkness,” is a place where poor people suffer from chronic scarcity and contamination because they must rely on unsafe sources. he describes how villagers “fetch water from the pond every morning, even when it’s dry and full of green scum” (adiga, 2008, pp. 24-26). the portrayal of a filthy, unreliable, and potentially deadly pond underscores how this scarcity becomes a visible form of environmental degradation. balram also frequently contrasts rural deprivation with the luxury of urban centers. his amazement at his employer’s access to bottled water reinforces how fluid resources reflect class hierarchies: “they even brushed their teeth with mineral water” (p. 78). this highlights water as both a literal and symbolic boundary between classes—dirty rivers as markers of marginality, and bottled purity as a symbol of control. the division mirrors vandana shiva’s (2002) argument that the neoliberal model of privatization in india has transformed a basic necessity into a corporate product, thereby deepening ecological injustice (p. 42). in hydrofeminist terms, those who labor to sustain life—often rural women—are excluded from the very systems that govern access. kusum, for instance, is one of these unseen household managers who, despite bearing the burden of securing and managing daily supply, has no voice in village or household decisions. her labor is taken for granted, and she remains excluded from formal discussions or infrastructural planning that determines availability of safe sources. balram’s transformation from a poor villager to a wealthy entrepreneur is also an environmental journey—from polluted communal rivers to filtered dispensers in private offices. his migration is not just socioeconomic but ecological. neimanis (2017) reminds us that water flows through every body and institution, but not all bodies have equal access or control (p. 2). balram’s narrative shows the disparity as he rises, he becomes more detached from the polluted environments of his past. thus, adiga uses water to map india’s class structure, making visible the everyday violence of inequality. water, a basic necessity, becomes a litmus test of privilege—who drinks safely and who gets sick, who controls the taps and who bends to fill buckets. moreover, the novel suggests that even the wealthy cannot escape moral contamination. balram reflects, “there’s so much smog in the air that i couldn’t see the road... but i could see the buildings” (adiga, 2008, p. 123), highlighting the contradiction of shining skyscrapers emerging from toxic air. delhi and bangalore—the cities of india’s economic prosperity—are not spaces of opportunity but ecological catastrophes disguised by neoliberal aspirations. as rob nixon (2011) argues, such growth depends on “unseen casualties”—the dispossessed, the displaced, and the climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 45 diseased. adiga dismantles the myth of urban progress by exposing how elite comfort rests on environmental decay. according to this perspective, delhi and bangalore emerge not as centers of hope but as dystopias in disguise. adiga reveals that urbanization under neoliberal capitalism is less a cure for rural suffering and more a reorganization of exploitation— where environmental ruin is rebranded as economic success. rivers and riverbanks as risky gendered landscapes the yamuna river, like the ganga, is portrayed as a space of environmental devastation and lost sanctity. balram describes delhi’s rivers as “black... not water, but thick, black sewage” (adiga, 2008, p. 112), marking a stark transformation from spiritual purity to chemical ruin. this symbolic death signifies not only ecological neglect but also a spiritual and cultural disconnection—a severing of communal bonds once sustained by clean water. riverbanks, once spaces for purification, now evoke toxicity, disease, and danger. from a hydrofeminist perspective, these polluted spaces become risky gendered landscapes, as women—primarily responsible for securing household water and maintaining hygiene—must navigate hazardous environments daily. although centered on balram’s male perspective, the novel reveals that women, especially those in slums or migrant settlements, bear the burdens of sanitation and caregiving without safe resources. they undertake the arduous tasks of fetching water from distant pumps and boiling contaminated supplies, exposing them to physical danger, health risks, and social vulnerability. balram’s grandmother, kusum, is one such figure whose survival is entangled with ecological hardship. despite holding authority within the household, she performs unpaid environmental labor—rising early to collect water from unreliable sources that often cause illness: “every morning she went to fetch water before the sun was up… her hands red from the cold, her feet cracked” (adiga, 2008, pp. 25-28). this image of physical deterioration underscores how rural women disproportionately shoulder the effects of scarcity, aligning with vandana shiva’s (2002) view that women are frontline victims of privatization and pollution. yet these injustices stem not from natural disasters but from systemic inequality, corruption, and rural neglect. while pinky madam, balram’s employer’s wife, is not directly affected by environmental degradation, her psychological unraveling after a hit-and-run incident reveals the emotional toll of living within corrupt systems: “she ran over a child and didn’t say a word. just drove on” (adiga, 2008, p. 167). her silent withdrawal reflects a rupture in moral consciousness, echoing neelam srivastava’s (2010) claim that global capitalism fragments identity (p. 45). sara ahmed’s (2014) concept of the “willful rabbani ú shadows of progress 46 woman” helps interpret pinky’s retreat as a form of resistance to patriarchal norms (p. 59). though not a traditional environmental subject, her character illustrates how systemic violence—ecological, emotional, or social—also affects the privileged, reinforcing sharae deckard’s (2015) claim that elite detachment is an illusion (p. 211). characters like kusum, with her cracked hands and predawn labor, embodies these gendered risks (adiga, 2008, pp. 25-28). thus, even without direct narrative emphasis, the novel’s backdrop affirms that ecological degradation exacerbates gendered vulnerability in subtle but pervasive ways. in this novel, women—though fewer in number—illuminate the gendered dimensions of environmental injustice. their experiences reveal how ecological decline disproportionately affects women, especially in rural and marginalized areas of india. balram’s mother, though unnamed and briefly mentioned, serves as a powerful symbol of gendered suffering. her death is linked to contaminated water: “my mother’s body was laid out on the banks of the river… priests poured water over her head” (adiga, 2008, p. 30). the cruel irony of this ritual purification—performed with polluted river water—underscores the dissonance between spiritual tradition and ecological reality. her death exemplifies what neimanis (2017) calls a “leaky body”—one that absorbs systemic neglect and whose suffering remains largely invisible. in hydrofeminist terms, polluted water does not merely flow around the body; it infiltrates and transforms it, rendering women’s bodies literal sites of environmental violence. balram’s mother thus represents how systemic environmental neglect penetrates bodily boundaries, creating embodied forms of ecological injustice that often remain unnoticed. teaching the white tiger through hydrofeminism teaching the white tiger through a hydrofeminist framework provides a meaningful opportunity to connect literature with contemporary ecological and gender justice concerns. this approach encourages students to interrogate not only the novel’s social inequalities but also its environmental undercurrents, especially those tied to water scarcity, pollution, and the gendered burden of ecological neglect. by applying astrida neimanis’s concept of hydrofeminism in the classroom, educators can guide students to view water not as a neutral resource but as an ethical and political agent—shaping who has access, who labors, and who suffers. for instance, a class discussion can begin with the polluted imagery of the ganga and yamuna rivers and ask students: “who in the novel is responsible for fetching water? who controls it? who suffers the consequences of its contamination?” this line of inquiry brings forth the gendered, caste-based, and class-specific dimensions of water justice. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 47 to foster critical thinking and empathy, students might undertake creative exercises such as writing interior monologues from the perspective of kusum or balram’s mother, imagining their daily routines, frustrations, and resilience in a polluted and patriarchal environment. another activity could include comparative media analysis, where students examine real-life water crises in india (e.g., yamuna pollution, delhi water shortages) alongside the novel’s depictions. these interdisciplinary practices bring literature into dialogue with environmental studies, sociology, and gender theory. role-playing debates—such as one between government officials, environmental activists, and rural women—can help students simulate real-world power dynamics over water rights and understand the unequal burdens placed on marginalized communities. teachers may also ask students to identify metaphors of water in the text and relate them to hydrofeminist ideas like “leaky bodies” and “watery ethics,” promoting deeper literary analysis. ultimately, the white tiger becomes more than a critique of ambition and corruption—it evolves into a tool for developing what paulo freire (1970) terms critical consciousness. through hydrofeminist pedagogy, students not only interpret texts but also begin to see their connections to broader struggles for environmental and social equity. in this way, literature becomes an act of activism—enabling learners to imagine more inclusive, sustainable futures where clean water and human dignity are rights, not luxuries. conclusion although the white tiger is not typically categorized as climate fiction, it offers profound insights into the intersections of environmental degradation, urban decay, and systemic inequality. balram’s journey—from a village plagued by toxic rivers to a city where clean water is a luxury commodity—reveals that so-called “progress” often rests on the suffering of the poor and the invisible labor of women. his rise to success is built on the backs of those left voiceless. adiga’s vivid depiction of urban spaces, shrouded in smog and sewage, embodies what rob nixon (2011) describes as “slow violence”—the gradual, largely invisible harm inflicted by environmental neglect. by bringing these issues into the classroom, educators can help students move beyond literary analysis to develop a critical consciousness about real-world environmental and social justice challenges. ultimately, the white tiger invites readers to imagine a future where sustainability and justice are inseparable—a world where clean air, safe water, and human dignity are rights shared by all, not privileges reserved for a few. rabbani ú shadows of progress 48 references adiga, a. (2008). the white tiger. free press. ahmed, s. (2014). willful subjects. duke university press. chakrabarty, d. (2009). the climate of history: four theses. critical inquiry, 35(2), pp. 197–222. deckard, s. (2015). paradise discourse, imperialism, and globalization: exploiting eden. routledge. freire, p. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed. herder and herder. guanio-uluru, l. (2019). climate fiction in nordic landscapes. barnelitterært forskningstidsskrift, (1), pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2000-7493-201901-05. neimanis, a. (2017). bodies of water: posthuman feminist phenomenology. bloomsbury publishing. nixon, r. (2011). slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. harvard university press. shiva, v. (2002). water wars: privatization, pollution, and profit. south end press. srivastava, n. (2010). indian writing in english and the global literary marketplace. palgrave macmillan. trexler, a. (2015). anthropocene fictions: the novel in a time of climate change. university of virginia press. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2000-7493-2019-01-05 https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.2000-7493-2019-01-05 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 85 reflections on teaching provocatively cheryl hunter, university of north dakota, grand forks, north dakota, united states abstract moving beyond a facts and figures approach requires a pedagogy that specifically attends to the development of students’ values, attitudes and behavioral changes needed to address the climate crisis. this reflection identifies key themes from students and the instructor of a place-based environmental methods education course. keywords nature-based design principles, provocative pedagogy, ecological literacy, placebased education in preparing a new place-based environmental methods education course for preservice teachers, my focus was engaging in the local, natural world right at students’ fingertips. place-based approaches also advance the belief “school can be about getting smarter and making the community a better place and protecting nature,” (sobel, 2008 p. 8). after all, if we want teachers and students to be able to address the climate emergency, we need to move beyond a facts-and-figures approach to climate pedagogy attends to the development of teachers and students’ values, attitudes, and behaviors. i approached the curriculum through the lens of “provocative pedagogy,” grounded in the methods of interpretation (hunter, 2024). the methods evoke emotions, encourage the relationship between learner and nature, and validate hunter ú teaching provocatively 86 personal experience. as described in my other article in this issue of cle, activities are experiential, emotive, and prioritize building behaviors before introducing or building content knowledge. i chose a natural feature of campus, the coulee, a stream that winds through the heart of campus with bridge crossings, benches for sitting, wood duck houses, and diverse flora and fauna native to northern prairies, as well as trash, debris and unpleasant smells. taking up a charge to create “real projects connecting core curriculum to real places and real problem-solving in the community” (sobel, 2008 p. 3), the coulee offered a place to explore the concept of stewardship and a natural mechanism to embed concepts of ecological and climate literacy. using three of sobel’s (2008) design principles (adventure, maps and paths, and special places), i developed a series of guided walks and individual explorations of the coulee. students began by making a series of sketches of different sections, walking off the paved path to capture details not immediately evident, prompted by the following: • how does the water flow? • describe sounds and smells • find different plant, animal and human communities • describe in detail one specific element (tree, animal, leaf) • describe your emotions and what happened that prompted those collecting items (or images) was required from each section for the map-making process. next, students designed their own curriculum to “teach the coulee” to nonclassroom peers, based on what they learned and deemed important for their peers to learn. students presented their lessons and learning outcomes. they developed a student magazine that highlighted the coulee and focused upon stewardship. reflecting upon the course experience, there are several key takeaways from students as well as the instructor. these are explained below. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 87 day one i asked students in how many classes they went outside in some capacity. i was surprised to hear that no student had participated in a single class session outside. likewise, none had heard the term “the coulee” and only a few knew we had a stream running through campus. “oh, that’s the place that smells, right?” one student responded. while we started at a deficit for place-based knowledge of campus, we ended with not just knowledge about the coulee but also with students expressing a deep desire to engage more and advocate for attention to its care—precisely the goal of using the methods of provocative pedagogy. in the final collaborative project presentation, one student identified a common theme across all the students’ teaching lessons. she explained, “[a] common theme that was always brought up, either during or after these walks, was how much [our peers] never took in nature. a recurring point was they took the scenery for granted and never took the time to appreciate what was truly around them.” other students explained, “[w]e saw a family of ducks here and a turtle! i didn’t realize the coulee was home to actual (emphasis theirs) animals,” and “i've been on campus for two years now, and i’ve never realized this was here.” getting students outside was more difficult than imagined but worth the effort after walking and exploring the coulee together as a class, students mapping the coulee on their own, and creating a class mural, we dove into their assignment to teach the coulee. as we were reviewing the assignment components, students were enthusiastic about all aspects except one. “what if i can’t get enough peers to participate?” or “what if i can’t find anyone at all?” i gave lots of reassurance that if their peers were only a few they could adapt the lesson and provided ways to encourage peers to get outside (such as mental and physical wellbeing). all students included the adventure design element (sobel, 2008) when teaching their lessons to peers. they recognized the importance of kinesthetics to learning and the need for their peers to not know what was going to happen when they started. however, this required quite a bit of creativity from students. “i had to bribe my peers with ice cream, to get them outside and ‘take a walk’ with me to the hunter ú teaching provocatively 88 coulee,” described one student. another explained that she parked her car on the opposite side of the campus and told a group of her friends they were going on an adventure to help her get things from her car, which is how she managed to ger peers to participate in her teaching lesson. even though every student noted that their peers have been initially reluctant, they were pleasantly surprised at how much their peers enjoyed their time outside and the overall opportunity to experience the coulee. students reported that their peers responded in overwhelmingly positive ways. one peer said, "the coulee is a place where you can step away from the stress of college life and reconnect with nature.” another student shared, “[w]hile my peers thought the coulee was a stinky stream for a first impression, they learned that this coulee actually has an impact on our environment here!” special places don’t need to be big, but we all need them the initial class activities got students to experience and engage with the coulee, which provided them time in nature that they had never experienced before. students described in their final projects how their own activities “aimed to deepen students' appreciation for the coulee, encouraging them to see it as a vital, living space that enriches our university experience.” the coulee—a “natural place” running right through campus—became the metaphor for breaking down notions that somehow we are distinct from nature. the coulee, like all of elements of the natural world, runs directly through our daily lives. as future teachers, learning that right outside their doors are places filled with life that intersects with their own personal experiences and memories dissolves the false distinction between “human” and “natural world,” establishing interconnectivity and a springboard for stewardship. the purpose of using the special places design element for college students is no different than using it for children. “there is a universal tendency for children to create or find their own private places,” sobel wrote, “[and] these places serve as bonding with the natural world, allowing children to feel comfortable in that landscape, connected to it, and eventually committed to acting as stewards of it” (2008, p. 39). one student explained why she had each peer photograph places that held personal significance: climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 89 [my peers] described quiet bends in the water or places where the sunlight filtered through the leaves of a dogwood tree. these places reminded them of home. the exercise helped discover what drew them to these spots and deepened their connection to the land. through this creative tool, the coulee transformed from just a stream into a place where memories and emotions are drawn out with nature’s beauty, sparking a deeper sense of environmental stewardship for campus and the world around them. developing ecological literacy using nature-based design principles and the methods of provocative pedagogy, students accomplished the most important goal, behaviors that demonstrate stewardship for the green spaces that sustain us. references hunter, c. 2024. provocative pedagogy: what interpretive methods offer in traditional education spaces. national association of interpretation. legacy magazine 35(4). sobel, d. (2008). childhood and nature: design principles for educators. stenhouse publishers. malone leaf, delisle, & redmond ú reason for hope 90 a reason for hope situating arts education within eco-justice approaches to climate literacy betsy maloney leaf, university of minnesota-twin cities, mn, usa heather delisle, university of minnesota-twin cities, mn, usa colleen redmond, university of minnesota-twin cities, mn, usa abstract student mental health concerns in a post-covid world have drawn attention in the field of educational research. the following article theorizes an experience of implementing a professional development workshop in april 2024 to support high school educators as they guide young people toward climate literacy and connect it to student mental health. feedback from the workshop confirmed that many participants had not intentionally explored the curricular possibilities of addressing climate studies in their classrooms, many were ready to build tangible next steps to cultivating climate literacy in their classrooms. keywords climate literacy, arts education, student mental health climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 91 introduction in april 2024, minnesota public radio reported on the results of a study conducted by the university of minnesota suggesting many k12 principals in the state face challenges with adolescent mental health: 94% of school administrators report “student mental health challenges are a significant barrier to student learning” (shockman, 2024). student mental health concerns in a post-covid world have drawn attention internationally, especially as a challenging issue steeped in political implications, like reduced federal funding for school support systems (ibid). as former minnesota k12 teachers now working in teacher education, we found the study's results alarming. this prompted us to consider how our expertise in arts education and climate literacy could contribute to addressing student mental health challenges. in response, we designed a professional development (pd) workshop exploring the intersection of artistic practice, adolescent mental health, and our shared climate future. the following article theorizes our experience of implementing this pd workshop with high school educators in april 2024; our experiences confirm that when educators consider how to provide opportunities for young people to develop climate literacy while expressing their feelings about climate change, it has the potential to connect to broader conversations around youth mental health. below, we provide an overview of our project, highlight takeaways from the experience, and end the article by identifying next steps for this project. workshop design guided by research in education highlighting climate literacy and adolescent youth, we partnered with high school educators to explore the following question: what do k12 educators need to know about climate change in order to support their students as they develop climate literacy? additionally, what would happen if we introduced k12 teachers to stories of hope about a climate future, and gave them tools to develop curricular experiences that stoke a sense of possibility and optimism amongst youth about a climate future? we developed a 120-minute professional development workshop focusing on hope for the climate future. our goals included getting teachers to think about their own beliefs and feelings about the climate emergency, consider malone leaf, delisle, & redmond ú reason for hope 92 the impact of “doom and gloom” stories and how they might contribute to emotional stress for adolescent youth, support youth to think about the climate by integrating storytelling and artistic practice into the classroom, and add opportunities to develop climate literacy during the academic year 2024-2025. considering our climate future using the adage, “[t]here’s room for screaming… and there’s room for dreaming” (soloski, 2024), we grounded the workshop with an important reminder: in order for teachers to support youth in exploring their feelings about the climate crisis, educators must first understand how they feel about a climate future. as they considered what these ideas meant to their own experiences, we emphasized the multi-dimensionality of climate discourse by highlighting issues beyond “sustainability.” topics included: challenging human exceptionalism, addressing speculative futures as sustainable futures, questioning the permanence of individualism at the expense of collectivism, valuing the power of regeneration, imagining and experimenting with cohabitation and interdependence between species. we wanted teachers to understand that feelings about a climate future are valid, while also an important part of one’s personal and professional life. from gloom to glee: exploring students’ thoughts on a climate future a goal of the professional development workshop was to give language to feelings associated with the climate emergency, particularly those most impacting today’s adolescent youth, like climate grief and eco-optimism. providing learning opportunities to explore emotions as part of arts education experiences allows youth to ponder where they fit into climate conversations, especially since youth understand the world through their thoughts, dreams, and emotions: “having the ability to think long term and dream toward a future is fundamental to youth’s participation in broader community spaces” (lee, currie, saied, & & wright, 2020, p. 5). according to hickman et al. (2021), when asked for their opinions on the future, over half of more than ten thousand young people surveyed felt that humanity was doomed. this makes sense, given that “[g]lobally, young people increasingly experience eco-anxiety and mental illhealth in response to climate change.” equally important, “[s]ocietal inequality further climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 93 contributes to eco-anxiety in young people” (woodland, hassall, kennedy-borissow, 2023, p. 5) because young people often feel a lack of agency to address their “heightened awareness of these issues” (ibid). if “a person’s capacity to cope with feelings the [climate] crisis evokes can affect their ability to contribute to much-needed activism” (diffey, 2022, p. 499), then understanding places around the globe where ecosystems thrive despite significant stressors may be a productive way to approach climate conversation and contribute to a sense of hope about the future. storytelling, artistic practice, and the promise of hope one way to address climate feelings might be to “help students pose and pursue questions about topics and texts” (damico, baildon, & panos, 2020 p. 685) focusing on the climate through the arts. leveraging visual and performing arts means youth can experience re-storying their lives to generate new understandings of a planetary future. during the workshop, we asked teachers to consider what youth should know about the climate crisis and connect it to relevant questions about the materiality of artistic practice. some participants wondered how discipline-specific resource materials unintentionally contribute to climate instability. dance education scholar melanie kloetzel (2023) writes, “we must examine our relationship to both land and other beings and offer an honest accounting of how our daily choices and activities impact both the local and global” (p. 3). diving into the materiality of a subject matter offers a granular approach to climate literacy, one that is both needed and necessary. we challenged teachers to think broadly about situating artistic practice in climate conversations. for example, what nearby landmarks hold significant environmental implications, and how can these implications be rendered artistically? what can students learn by examining how local issues, such as transportation or access to health care, can promote climate justice while also disproportionately harming marginalized communities? how can artistic practice support critical thinking about climate justice and its impact on youth’s personal lives? discussion and implications investing in a climate future remains paramount in a world pummeled by fractious discourse and misinformation about climate change. current climate discourse malone leaf, delisle, & redmond ú reason for hope 94 highlights the urgency for youth to consider ethical and speculative futures as members of a global society facing climate change. and k12 teachers may just hold the answer for how to engage youth in developing their climate literacy. curricular initiatives that get kids thinking about climate change can be an effective strategy to build their overall climate literacy (kolenatý, kroufek, & ćinćera, 2022). yet, “[t]eachers often lack adequate teacher preparation in knowledge and practices for engaging their students to address the climate crisis” (beach, 2023, p. 507). thus, we developed an artsfocused professional development workshop for high school teachers (included in this issue of climate literacy in education). the goal was to bring awareness to climate literacy as a curricular pursuit in arts-specific contexts because “[t]he potential of art lies in its ability to generate awakenings to the new world” (foster and turkki, 2023, p. 93). our work introduced arts-specific approaches to climate literacy and strategies youth can take up when creating narratives that confront climate change as part of ecojustice. by taking an arts-focused approach to climate conversation, youth can disrupt dystopic views of climate futures and promote genuine optimism as a viable approach to a balanced ecological future. feedback from the workshop confirmed that while some participants understood how the climate emergency impacted their personal lives, many had not intentionally explored the curricular possibilities of addressing climate studies in their classrooms. by the end of the workshop, several educators could identify tangible next steps to cultivating climate literacy in their classrooms, starting in the fall of 2024. one theater teacher committed to developing a “page to stage” production of old enough to save the planet (2021) by loll kirby for local elementary school students to highlight how feelings function in climate advocacy. in collaboration with the article authors, this project premiered in may 2025. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/6460/3747 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/6460/3747 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 95 references beach, r., (2023). addressing the challenges of preparing researchers to teach about the climate crisis. the teacher educator, 58(4), 507-522, doi: 10.1080/08878730.2023.2175401 damico, j. s., baildon, m., & panos, a. (2020). climate justice literacy: stories-welive-by, ecolinguistics, and classroom practice. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 63(6), 683–691. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1051 diffey, j., wright, s., uchendu, j., masithi, s. olude, a., juma, d. anya, l., salami, t., mogathala, p. agarwal, h., roh, h., villanueva, k., cote, j., saini, a., mitchell, k., kleczka, j., lobner, n., ialamov, l., borbely, m., hostetler, t., wood, a., rodrigquez-uruchurtu, a., & lawrence, e. (2022). not about us without us: the feelings and hopes of climate-concerned young people around the world. international review of psychiatry, 34(5), 499-509. foster, r., & turkki, n. (2023). ecojustice approach to dance education, journal of dance education, 23(2), 91-101, doi: 10.1080/15290824.2021.1906430 hickman, c., marks, e., pihkala, p., clayton, s. lewandoski, e., mayall, e., wray, b., mellor, c., & van susteren, l. (2021). climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change. the lancet planetary health, 5(12), e863-e873. kirby, l. (2021). old enough to save the planet. harry n. abrams. kloetzel, m. (2023). dance education, decolonization, and the climate crisis: developing ethical pedagogies. journal of dance education, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2023.2175831 kolenatý, m., kroufek, r., & činčera, j. (2022). what triggers climate action: the impact of a climate change education program on students’ climate literacy and their willingness to act. sustainability, 14(16), 10365-. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141610365 lee, l, currie, v., saied, n., & wright, l. (2020). journey to hope, self-expression and community engagement: youth-led arts-based participatory action research. children and youth’s service review, 109, 1-10. malone leaf, delisle, & redmond ú reason for hope 96 shockman, e. (2024, april 18). student mental health needs, ‘unsustainable jobs’, overwhelm minnesota school principals. [radio broadcast]. minnesota public radio. soloski, a. (2024, april 24) climate doom is out. apocalyptic optimism is in. new york times. woodland, s., hassall, l., & kennedy-borissow, a. (2023). embodying resistance and survival: how drama and youth theatre can respond to eco-anxiety and support recovery in disaster affected communities. creativity and wellbeing hallmark research initiative. firinci ormanú significance of lived experiences 74 significance of lived experiences in developing eco-literacy pedagogical insights for climate education turkan firinci orman, independent researcher, tampere, finland abstract this article examines the eco-literacy of early youth, focusing on their consumption practices, everyday climate change activism, and performances of critical agency. by analyzing geosocial data from a recent study (firinci orman, 2024a), this piece underscores the significance of local contexts and relational understanding in climate education. it advocates for a pedagogical framework that emphasizes collective learning, creative expression, and place-based approaches to enhance climate literacy among young people. the findings support a participatory approach that empowers students to navigate the complexities of environmental challenges and cultivate ecoliterate citizenship. keywords ecoliteracy, climate education, early youth, place-based pedagogies, participatory learning climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 75 introduction as climate crises escalate, fostering universal climate literacy among youth is urgent. informed, active global citizens are vital, especially as young people take on key roles in environmental advocacy. consider a study participant who made deliberate lifestyle changes (see firinci orman, 2024a): reducing meat consumption despite limited vegan options and encouraging friends to follow suit. they also forwent products like deodorant, believing small changes could collectively drive significant environmental benefits. this example highlights how eco-literacy shapes personal choices, linking everyday actions to broader environmental concerns. eco-literacy, as a broader term in this essay, encompasses the knowledge and skills necessary to engage with environmental issues and foster agency in addressing them (rousell & cutter-mackenzie-knowles, 2020). it refers to understanding the underlying principles that govern ecosystems and responsibly applying this knowledge to build sustainable communities and societies (capra, 1997), while climate literacy specifically involves understanding the climate system, climate change science, and solutions to inform decision-making and action. together, they equip individuals with the awareness and expertise needed to contribute to global sustainability and tackle the climate crisis. in this essay, i reflect on my research practice in studying the eco-literacy of early youth (ages 13–17), focusing on their subjectivities, consumption, and climate activism (see firinci orman, 2024a, 2025). this work is part of a broader interdisciplinary, and multi-site research project on youth environmental citizenship, involving young people from bulgaria, turkey, finland, and the uk (see firinci orman, 2024b). my study on eco-literacy included an online mapping activity, in-depth interviews, and free-style writing, through which participants reflected explored their everyday activism performances as well as their environmental identity formation. framing these findings within critical eco-pedagogical frameworks such as place-based education, climate change education, and global citizenship education, i offer insights for educators fostering climate literacy through innovative, context-sensitive teaching— empowering students to engage with local environments, understand global interdependencies, and actively participate in sustainable practices. firinci ormanú significance of lived experiences 76 understanding eco-literacy in context understanding eco-literacy in context requires a nuanced exploration of how young people internalize and act on their awareness of environmental issues in their daily lives. this practice-oriented reflection builds on my recent study (firinci orman, 2024a, 2025), which highlights the role of lived experiences in shaping early youth’s ecoliteracy performances. these performances demonstrate the ability to connect consumerist culture with the larger climate crisis, translating awareness into actionable everyday behaviors. for instance, one participant from the study reevaluated their clothing choices after learning about the environmental and ethical implications of fast fashion. this individual began purchasing second-hand clothing online, despite recognizing the limited options available. their decision was deeply influenced by an emotional response to visual media such as instagram and youtube, depicting the destructive impacts of fast fashion, which provoked a shift in their ethical perspective. i further draw on previous research showing that while early youth are increasingly aware of the climate crisis, their eco-literacy is shaped by local contexts and experiences (firinci orman, 2023, 2025). the depth of their ecological understanding is strongly influenced by their surroundings (pitman & daniels, 2020). local environmental experiences—material, social, and political—play a crucial role in shaping eco-literacy (börner et al., 2021). pedagogical insights for teaching climate literacy developing tools for collective learning studying eco-literacy of young people, i used an online mapping exercise with padlet as part of the methods. in this exercise, i asked participants to mark places that are important to them across various scales (neighborhood, city, country, region, and global). using sticky notes, participants reflected on their climate and consumptionrelated experiences. this mapping, grounded in kallio’s (2021) topological approach, is useful for exploring young people’s subjectivity, spatial attachments, and the political dimensions of climate experiences (see firinci orman, 2025). the platform supported both synchronous and asynchronous participation, enhancing accessibility for diverse participants in remote or hybrid settings. it included climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 77 youth from turkey, bulgaria, and, more recently, finland. participants represented rural and urban backgrounds with varying cultural and socio-economic contexts, all shaped by their society's welfare system. i asked participants to also color-code their emotional responses: green for hope or positive change, red for concern or anxiety, and yellow for uncertainty or mixed feelings. this approach allowed students to visually track their emotional reactions, fostering a deeper understanding of the emotional impact of climate change. the exercise not only mapped locations but also created a semi-public space to express and discuss climate-related issues on multiple scales (see figure 1). figure 1: padlet map where participants from bulgaria pinned notes reflecting their lived experiences on different scales (world, europe, and bulgaria maps, respectively). i analyzed the mapping data through three dimensions of geo-socialization: intersubjective (intergenerational dynamics), spatial (topological—sociality embedded in all spatial relations), and political (politicization—what matters in people’s lived worlds) (kallio, 2018). participants reflected on places they had lived, currently reside, visited for family or friends, traveled to or moved to as internal or external migrants. they marked places learned about or discovered online, often tied to personal interests, as well as envisioned future destinations or potential homes. after the activity, participants were interviewed to discuss, compare, and evaluate these places from an environmental perspective, revealing their eco-literate worldviews. some identified countries as major polluters or associated them with unsustainable policies. others reflected on environmental injustices and colonial legacies. one participant, for example, marked a resort village with a dam, where they regularly collected garbage—an experience they described as meaningful and rewarding (firinci orman, 2025). further discussion revealed their involvement in a grassroots environmental movement, where they and their friends conducted clean-ups firinci ormanú significance of lived experiences 78 using boats, integrating water sports with environmental activism. this example illustrates how personal experiences, and social interactions shape young people's ecoliterate worldviews. similar mapping activities in climate literacy education can validate young people’s lived experiences, fostering deeper discussions on the climate crisis and decision-making. these activities incorporate learners’ cultural and social knowledge, reflecting diverse participation beyond formal or adult-led learning, including their everyday climate engagement. educators can encourage students to reflect on their choices and emotional responses to different places, exploring why certain locations evoke strong feelings and how they relate to broader environmental and social issues. since learning is inherently social, educators should create opportunities for students to share experiences and collaborate on climate initiatives. from this angle, creating a collective map on padlet (see figure 1) could enable young people to learn from others' experiences and foster a sense of collective agency on issues that matter to them. the role of local contexts the findings highlighted the importance of local contexts in shaping young people's understanding of climate issues. participants began their learning journeys based on their environments, connecting local challenges to global concerns (beckwith et al., 2022). for example, young people in grades 8 to 11 from diverse regions in turkey and bulgaria shared experiences of marine ecosystem degradation, wildfires, rising temperatures, drought, and urban issues such as pollution and waste management. discussing these local challenges within the broader climate crisis helps students recognize their relevance and urgency, linking their immediate environment to global concerns. this approach is key for effective climate literacy education, encouraging critical reflections on their role in addressing global challenges (häggström & schmidt, 2020). place-based pedagogies, bringing the local context into focus, significantly enhance climate literacy. they connect students to local ecological and social issues, fostering a deeper understanding of their environments (häggström & schmidt, 2020). dunkley (2018) emphasized the importance of space-time-aware learning experiences climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 79 in eco-pedagogy, highlighting how these encounters are key to developing an understanding the interrelation of nature and culture. this was evident through my data as many young participants reflected on school-led garbage collection projects where they practiced firsthand care to their local environments (firinci orman, 2024a; 2025). emphasizing relational understanding individuals with eco-literacy skills usually connect causes and effects, particularly between consumerist culture and the climate crisis. i explored how young people's daily actions reflect their critical awareness, demonstrating the intersection of local behaviors with global environmental issues. these insights are reflected in everyday decisions and practices that show a deeper understanding of climate challenges. for instance, one participant reflected on how seemingly small, local actions— like purchasing a pair of jeans—can have far-reaching consequences (see firinci orman, 2024a). they described how consumption choices contribute to larger issues, such as the exploitation of child labor in south asia or the environmental costs associated with the production and transportation of flowers. this example underscores the relational understanding of how local actions are interconnected with global environmental concerns. teaching climate literacy requires linking personal experiences to broader environmental contexts. for example, encouraging students to analyze their consumption habits fosters critical thinking and reflection (keto & foster, 2021). my findings show participants critically examining consumerism’s role in the climate crisis, underscoring the need for education that connects local, global, and planetary perspectives (firinci orman, 2024a, 2025; crouzé et al., 2024). educators can deepen such discussions by prompting students to relate everyday choices—food, fashion, or transport—to larger environmental challenges. firinci ormanú significance of lived experiences 80 empowerment through participation fostering responsive subjectivities in young people starts with their lived experiences and local contexts. (häggström & schmidt, 2020). recognizing their agency across formal, informal, and non-formal participation is crucial. this includes institutional activities (e.g., school projects), peer-led initiatives (e.g., campaigns), and self-initiated actions reflecting environmental identity (e.g., vegetarianism, reducing consumption, signing petitions). the latter, or interpretive agency, links consumption habits to broader environmental issues, embedding climate activism in daily life. one participant highlighted low environmental awareness in their community, stressing the need for public education, especially among local authorities, to address green space shortages and urban challenges (firinci orman, 2024a). they argued that traditional classroom education is ineffective, advocating for popular media and social platforms to engage young people in environmental messaging. social media plays a key role in youth climate activism, especially where formal participation opportunities are limited (firinci orman, 2024a). young people eagerly engage in everyday activism, influencing their communities in diverse ways (firinci orman, 2025). this highlights the need for educational frameworks that empower students beyond adult-directed initiatives, fostering self-organization and advocacy. educators should create spaces for students to voice concerns, collaborate with their community, and push for sustainability, reinforcing that climate education must be transformative, not just informative (rousell & cutter-mackenzie-knowles, 2020). teaching climate literacy through artistic expression fosters critical agency (misiaszek, 2022), with participatory projects like visual or digital climate narratives enabling students to share experiences and engage others through media, presentations, or art workshops (beach & smith, 2023). conclusions my research on youth environmental citizenship highlights systemic barriers to ecoliteracy in climate activism (firinci orman, 2024b), especially within traditional education (see firinci orman, 2024a, 2025). in some countries youth participation in environmental movements faces barriers, while activism takes diverse forms, from protests to ethical consumerism and everyday resistance (firinci orman, 2022, 2023, climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 81 2024a). educators must address these constraints by fostering resilience and critical thinking through collective learning, digital tools, and context-sensitive approaches. eco-literacy promotes systemic, sustainable solutions through place-based learning, participation, and critical reflection (dunkley, 2016). early youth eco-literacy integrates awareness, emotion, and agency, linking personal actions to broader climate issues. participatory approaches nurture both individual agency and collective sustainability commitments. as climate crises escalate, inclusive, dialogical practices are vital. centering youth voices helps shape sustainable solutions that bridge local and global challenges. equipping young people with critical, action-oriented skills empowers them to lead in building a resilient, sustainable future (crouzé et al., 2024). references beach, r., & smith, b. e. (2023). youth created media on the climate crisis. routledge. beckwith, l., smith, m.b., hensengerth, o., nguyen, h., greru, c. & warrington, s. et al. (2023) youth participation in environmental action in vietnam: learning citizenship in liminal spaces. the geographical journal, 189, 329–341. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12479 börner, s., kraftl, p., & giatti, l. l. (2021). blurring the ‘-ism’ in youth climate crisis activism: everyday agency and practices of marginalized youth in the brazilian urban periphery. children’s geographies, 19(3), 275–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2020.1818057 capra, f. (1997). the web of life: a new scientific understanding of living systems. anchor books. crouzé, r., godard, l., & meurs, p. (2024). learning democracy through activism: the global climate strike movement and belgian youth’s democratic experience in times of environmental emergency. social movement studies, 23(1), 56–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2023.2184792 dunkley, r. a. (2016). learning at eco-attractions: exploring the bifurcation of nature and culture through experiential environmental education. the journal of https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12479 https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2023.2184792 firinci ormanú significance of lived experiences 82 environmental education, 47(3), 213–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2016.1164113 dunkley, r. a. (2018). space-timescapes as ecopedagogy. the journal of environmental education, 49(2), 117–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2017.1417223 firinci orman, t. (2022). youth’s everyday environmental citizenship: an analytical framework for studying interpretive agency. childhood, 29(4), 495–511. https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682221107750 firinci orman, t. (2023). enacting everyday environmental citizenship: youthful interpretations of belonging and empowerment. youth and globalization, 5(2), 327–351. https://doi.org/10.1163/25895745-bja10032 firinci orman, t. (2024a). exploring youth eco-literacy through lived experiences. ‘when you purchase a pair of jeans, you bear the burden of child labor in south asia.’ the journal of environmental education, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2024.2345354 firinci orman, t. (2024b). exploring the lived experiences of youth in the context of climate change: a geo-social and performative approach to study environmental citizenship. in s. spišák (ed.), ecqi2024. participation, collaboration and cocreation: qualitative inquiry across and beyond divides. congress proceedings. (pp. 154–161). helsingin yliopisto. https://storage.googleapis.com/smooty1220.appspot.com/uploads/4112/1718106409_ecqi2024proceedings.pdf firinci orman, t. (2025), everyday activism performances and liminal political positionings of early youth in bulgaria: learning to be environmental subjects. youth. 2025; 5(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.3390/youth5010025 häggström, m., & schmidt, c. (2020). enhancing children’s literacy and ecological literacy through critical place-based pedagogy. environmental education research, 26(12), 1729–1745. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1812537 kallio, k. p. (2018). citizen-subject formation as geosocialization: a methodological approach on ‘learning to be citizens’. geografiska annaler: series b, human geography, 100(1), 81–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2017.1390776 kallio, k. p. (2021). topological mapping: studying children’s experiential worlds through spatial narratives. in l. moran, k. reilly, & b. brady (eds.), narrating https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2016.1164113 https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2017.1417223 https://doi.org/10.1177/09075682221107750 https://doi.org/10.1163/25895745-bja10032 https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2024.2345354 https://storage.googleapis.com/smooty-1220.appspot.com/uploads/4112/1718106409_ecqi2024proceedings.pdf https://storage.googleapis.com/smooty-1220.appspot.com/uploads/4112/1718106409_ecqi2024proceedings.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/youth5010025 https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1812537 https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2017.1390776 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 83 childhood with children and young people. studies in childhood and youth. palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55647-1 keto, s., & foster, r. (2021). ecosocialization – an ecological turn in the process of socialization. international studies in sociology of education, 30(1–2), 34–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2020.1854826 misiaszek, g. w. (2022). an ecopedagogical, ecolinguistical reading of the sustainable development goals (sdgs): what we have learned from paulo freire. educational philosophy and theory, 54(13), 2297–2311. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.2011208 pitman, s. d., & daniels, c. b. (2020). understanding how nature works: five pathways towards a more ecologically literate world – a perspective. austral ecology, 45(5), 510–519. https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12883 rousell, d., & cutter-mackenzie-knowles, a. (2020). a systematic review of climate change education: giving children and young people a ‘voice’ and a ‘hand’ in redressing climate change. children’s geographies, 18(2), 191–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2019.1614532 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55647-1 https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2020.1854826 https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.2011208 https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12883 https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2019.1614532 haqueú water is life 74 water is life: teaching climate in the classroom danielle haque, minnesota state university-mankato, mankato, mn, usa abstract what does it mean for a classroom of college students in minnesota to read these words? how can they contemplate the idea that water is life, considering both their dakota neighbors in standing rock and the people of gaza? this essay is a reflection on how i use water in my minnesota state university undergraduate humanities courses to teach about climate change as the defining crisis of our moment, and its emergence from environmental racism, colonialism, and inequality. keywords affective ecologies, decoloniality, environmental racism, empathy in “a letter from gaza to the natives of standing rock,” israa suliman (2016) writes like you, we don’t control our natural resources. just as you were not consulted about the dakota access pipeline that will traverse your land and contaminate your water supply if installed, we are not consulted by israel, which wants to mine the gas supply in our harbor for its own use and monopolizes the water supply in the west bank for the green lawns of its own residents—leaving palestinians parched and dry. in gaza, where i live, only 10 percent of our water climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 75 supply is drinkable due to the conditions in which we must live. we too know that “water is life” (n.p.). what does it mean for a classroom of college students in minnesota to read these words? how can they contemplate the idea that water is life, considering both their dakota neighbors in standing rock and the people of gaza? this essay is a reflection on how i use water in my minnesota state university undergraduate humanities courses to teach about climate change as the defining crisis of our moment, and its emergence from environmental racism, colonialism, and inequality. in these conversations, we discuss water in its tangible form—its molecules, its structure, and its cycle from groundwater to atmosphere. we also explore how it serves as a conduit to understanding broader climate change issues. water is a monopoly by nature—nothing else fulfills its essential role for life— and everyone must have the right to access it. like air, water has no substitute. we begin our class by reflecting on our relationships with water, exploring not only how we utilize it but our experiences with it throughout our upbringing. i'm from the coast of southern california, and i reminisce about standing by the water's edge, breathing in the salt air, swimming, and surfing. most of my students hail from minnesota, where their memories are shaped by lakes, cabins, and boats. the city of mankato sits at the confluence of two rivers, the blue earth and the minnesota. our lives are also filled with domesticated water: tap water, swimming pools, fishponds, and saturated lawns. water often serves as the backdrop to their midwestern summers—the gentle hum of sprinklers, the distant buzz of lawnmowers, and the joyful shrieks of children playing in swimming pools or on the lake. we talk about water as weather phenomena, such as monsoons, snowstorms, and droughts, where the landscapes and their inhabitants react to its sudden scarcity or abundance. we engage with water in the shape of fog, rain, ice, wetlands, urban rivers and creeks, city fountains, and reclaimed urban spaces. students quickly connect their experiences with pollution and climate change. i recollect southern california’s years-long droughts and the wildfires, near and far, that covered my childhood home in ash. they might recall the nearby dam nearly breaking from last year's heavy rains, and agricultural runoff creating algae blooms and dead zones in their hometown lakes and ponds. the minnesota center for environmental haqueú water is life 76 advocacy reports that 40% of minnesota waters are impaired, and hundreds of lakes and rivers are not drinkable, fishable, or swimmable. three-fourths of minnesotans depend on groundwater to drink, and 500,000 minnesotans drink polluted groundwater with nitrate pollution above safe levels. when we talk about two billion people not having access to clean water, we can include our neighbors and sometimes ourselves. what connects standing rock to gaza is lost water sovereignty tied to settler colonialism, which also links southern california to minnesota. our geographic distance is bridged through our shared connection to water. although the challenges faced in these locations differ, they all stem from inequity, imperialism, and capitalism. in the class, we read donna haraway’s (2016) work on "staying with the trouble" alongside the idea that as long as humans view themselves as separate from nature— or as superior to it in some arbitrary hierarchy—we will continue to damage the world around us until it becomes unlivable. therefore, we must learn to see ourselves as kin with nature, living and interacting as part of it. when we view water as kin, we consider not only how it flows through our cities but also how it circulates within our bodies. we read craig santos perez, an indigenous chamorro from the pacific island of guåhan (guam), a territory of the united states. in his poem, “chanting the water,” (2020) he commands us to “say: ‘water is ____!’” (p. 27). many of the poem’s lines reference our bodies, that amniotic fluid is 90 percent water, our bones 30 percent water, our eyes 95 percent water. we must protest that water is life, santos perez writes, “because they bring their bulldozers and drills and drones” and “dogs and paychecks and pepper spray and bullets” and “we bring our songs and schools and prayers” (pp. 2829). his poem links the water within our bodies with the water that connects our planet: because ocean-sky-rain-lake flows into the missouri river – because ocean-sky-rain-lake-river returns to the pacific and connects us to our cousins at standing rock – because our blood is 90 percent water – the reference to the water protectors of standing rock and the phrase "water is life" underscores the connection between the oil pipelines and groundwater of the prairies and us colonialism in the pacific, links facilitated by the ever-continuous cycle of water. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 77 in our discussion of environmental literature, we explore whether literature can do more than just make us contemplate the "wilderness" – however sublime the waters may be– or foster sentiment for others or evoke fear for our own survival. can it also inspire us to empathize with the planet itself in a meaningful way? i use alexa weik von mossner’s (2017) work on affective ecologies, where she combines insights from cognitive science to explore how environmental stories can strategically foster empathy. her focus on the moral aspects of our empathetic responses to these stories helps me understand how they can be more effective in the classroom. von mossner questions if experiencing environmental stories can create emotional connections that drive social change. i ask how we can frame or encourage these emotional connections and representative thinking in the classroom. how do we turn our imaginations to connect with the earth and the species we share it with, using the fiction we read as our vehicle? as we discuss these questions, the class juxtaposes poems from santos perez’s collection, habitat threshold (2020), with poems about standing rock by demian dineyazhi and karenne wood. we read these alongside poems about water occupation in palestine by rasha abdulhadi (2016) and dawud mulla (2016). with a different approach, reading these texts can lead students to merely feel sympathy for the people described, which sometimes results in viewing them as distant others enduring us-funded colonialism and conflicts, and their resultant environmental disasters. given this, we ask ourselves in class whether understanding context, reflecting on our own position and complicity, and desiring justice for others are sufficient. part of our discussions center on how these poems relate to our initial conversations, our own experiences of water. students explore what poems like santos perez’s “thirteen ways of looking at a glacier” have to do with their own experience of flooding: “do you not see how the glacier/ already floods the streets/ of the cities around you?” (p. 19). by connecting students' personal experiences with broader global struggles, like the melting of glaciers, and even the funding of war, these texts can inspire students to see themselves as part of a larger ecological system – as kin to people and planet and to advocate for both biospheric and human justice. i’m still trying to determine whether my students’ responses show that the literature i believe models planetary care and multispecies kinship inspires something haqueú water is life 78 beyond just human survival. i keep returning to the question of whether this type of climate literacy is sufficient. for instance, can art and literature help us remember, imagine, and even embody the vital role of water in sustaining life on this planet? can they help us appreciate its beauty, its part within our bodies, its habitat for other species, and the way it connects us beneath the soil, on the ground, and through the air? i ask students to reframe our reading to focus on how specific texts express the idea of mutual liberation, wherein people find freedom through caring for the planet. through this framework, students express something for the planet beyond selfinterested preservation and concern for future generations. instead, we attend carefully to the modes of familial care-taking and fellow feeling for land and water expressed by this literature. ultimately, this approach aims to cultivate a deeper sense of connection and responsibility, text by text, encouraging students to see themselves as active participants in a global movement for environmental justice and planetary care. references abdulhadi, r. (2016). is palestine. mizna, 17(2). haraway, d. j. (2016). staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. duke university press. mulla, d. (2016). water wars. mizna, 17(2). santos perez, c. (2020). habitat thresholds. omnidawn publishing. suliman, i. (2016, november 16). a letter from gaza to the natives of standing rock. we are not numbers. https://wearenotnumbers.org/home/story/gaza_stands_with_standing_rock weik von mossner, a. (2017). affective ecologies: empathy, emotion, and environmental narrative. ohio state university press. https://wearenotnumbers.org/home/story/gaza_stands_with_standing_rock hindhede ú ecopedagogical framework 60 creating an ecopedagogical teaching framework karen m. hindhede, central arizona college, coolidge, az, usa abstract this article demonstrates the author’s ecopedagogical teaching model through text and image. i explain how i created a teaching framework based on culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy but felt that the framework fell short in not including an earth-inclusive focus and ecojustice ethic. through revision and re-envisioning, i arrived at a place-based ecopedagogical model of a saguaro cactus where multiple arms and the base represent eco-inclusive facets of this framework. i encourage other educators to consider how they, too, might create ecopedagogical frameworks for their own teaching. keywords ecopedagogy, ecojustice, culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy, climate literacy acknowledgments i am grateful to marti sullan for creating the artwork that brings my pedagogical framework to life. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 61 undergraduate teacher education courses typically include discussions and assignments for pre-service teachers to develop their teaching philosophy. graduate education courses often include similar assignments and may even expand on the idea of students creating their own pedagogical framework, a multi-modal visual, to aid their vision as educators. in a graduate class several years ago, i created my own culturally responsive sustaining pedagogical framework by asking an artistic family member to draw and label a saguaro according to my educational practices. living in the sonoran desert in arizona, i decided the giant saguaro embodied my experiential, place-based educational philosophy. creating a visual representation of my eco-pedagogical philosophy cemented my praxis. engaging in such a reflective approach and then visualizing and committing my strategies through an image conveyed my ideas more intuitively and holistically than any written statement could. i had to hone the essentials of what i wanted to provide students; i had to think organically and in harmony with the environment. the framework now hangs in my office, and i regularly share the intentionality behind it with others who comment on my picture. additionally, looking at my saguaro reminds me and re-commits me to my daily goals. initial framework my saguaro framework has six arms emerging from the “ecojustice pedagogy & ethic” base. the base supports all curriculum, inclusive of and adapting to the needs of students and the more-than-human world. these arms include “welcoming & supportive environment”; “academically challenging”; “student centric, relevant & applied engagement”; “inclusive, anti-biased curriculum”; “eco engagement & curriculum”; and one unlabeled arm. while the original framework was initially focused on my children’s literature course, in time it morphed into my personal commitment to providing all students, no matter the discipline, a holistic and culturally responsive experience of climate literacy education. in an earlier draft, the framework heavily focused on the arm i labeled as “inclusive, anti-biased curriculum.” the teaching goals under this area include incorporating culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy, ideas of equity not equality, and universal design for learning (udl) principles to support all students (cast, 2024; gay, 2020; hooks, 2003; kendi, 2019; ladsonhindhede ú ecopedagogical framework 62 billings, 1995, 2017; paris & alim, 2014). over time, i began to question how i might include and foster a larger awareness of environmental issues, ecojustice education, and climate literacy through literature. when re-envisioning the framework, the intentional practices under this arm primarily stated the same, though other areas shifted and expanded. for example, one arm of the pedagogical framework that i originally conceived and is now the central arm stemming from the “ecojustice pedagogy & ethic” base is “welcoming & supportive environment”. this arm incorporates relational pedagogy, where relationships and meaningful connections between students and teachers and between students and students are central (bovill, 2020). students need to feel respected, valued, and engaged with the material, with the teacher, and with their peers to thrive. to foster more connections to each other and the natural world and to be more inclusive of my “ecojustice pedagogy & ethic” base, i start the term by asking students to share where they are from, a remembered outdoor, natural world experience, and what gift they can share with their peers. similarly, regardless of discipline, teachers can provide opportunities for students to co-create eco-focused course/class assignments. “academically challenging” is another arm of my saguaro pedagogical framework. this arm emphasizes rigor, accountability, and high expectations, along with authentic assessment and high-impact educational practices (bovill, 2020; freire, 1970). applicable practices include introducing students to eco-inclusive resources, websites, and ideas they have likely not been introduced to before and will likely challenge their worldviews. for example, i incorporate ecocritical vocabulary and critical questions examining human relationships to the earth along with the united nations sustainable development goals, the yale program on climate change, and climatelit.org. a more eco-inclusive framework in revisioning my framework to be more eco-inclusive, i renamed one of the arms— originally called “relevant & real-world engagement”—into “student centric, relevant & applied engagement.” this change reflects my emphasis on incorporating student needs and interests throughout the course and applicable assignments (bovill, https://sdgs.un.org/goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/ https://www.climatelit.org/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 63 2020; perin, 2011). i have adjusted exercises so students may gear their writing assignments to specific audiences, and i have framed reading assignments as a goal that i want students to work toward. for example, instead of asking my college preservice teachers to explain the value of reading a novel focused on climate literacy, the revised assignment now requires them to explain the value and need for such a novel to students in a particular grade level of their choice and then to write a similar explanation to a parent or an administrator. the revision of the assignment reflects the revision of my framework. “student centric, relevant & applied engagement” better represents work done in the classroom to help prepare students outside the classroom—which includes an awareness and understanding of environmental issues, environmental justice, and climate literacy and how to frame these topics to others. another eco-pedagogical shift occurred when i added an arm labeled “eco engagement & curriculum.” the goal here was to recognize the methods designed to be responsive and adaptive not just to humans but to the more-than-human world. this arm incorporates the humility for the unknown and includes an ecopedagogical examination of the curriculum and the larger world. applicable practices include having eco-inclusive reading options (and allowing students reading choices), asking students critical questions about who benefits from decisions and structures, challenging ecocidal practices, and helping students reimagine options that include humans and the natural world. i have included assignments that promote more emotional engagement and connection to nature with more emphasis on hope and changemaking. for example, in one course students have to spend time outside observing, reflecting, and then answering questions; in another course, students evaluate picturebooks using climate literacy criteria to determine books they would like to see in their classrooms. the other major, and most important, re-envisioning of my framework is that of the trunk itself, which i eventually labeled as “ecojustice pedagogy & ethic”. by naming the base of my saguaro framework, which provides stability for all my teaching, i recognize the intertwining aspects of social and environmental justice, a pedagogy that questions the status quo and investigates the use of social/cultural assumptions to address and redress social-ecological oppression (lupinacci et al., 2018; martusewicz et al., 2021). a saguaro’s inside pith and outside accordion pleats expand to hold hindhede ú ecopedagogical framework 64 water, swelling up to two and half times the cactus’ original size, thus sustaining and nourishing the cactus. again, i think of ecojustice pedagogy and an ecojustice ethic as being my base, nourishing all curriculum. figure 1 (below) is the re-envisioning of my pedagogical framework into an ecopedagogical one that may inspire others to infuse an eco-inclusive focus and ecojustice ethic in their classes and for their students. figure 2: hindhede saguaro pedagogical framework climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 65 final thoughts saguaros can grow new arms at any time. there is no limit, though conditions must be right. for example, extreme heat or drought limits these desert tree-like cacti in their growth and ability to thrive. to reflect on my continuing journey as an educator, i intentionally left one branch unlabeled. this communicates as understanding that as i continue to grow as an educator, my saguaro framework needs to be able to grow with me—and that it must adapt to new conditions. for young saguaros to survive, a nurse plant is needed to shelter the seedlings as they grow and develop. i do not always know what kind of supportive soil is available and what difficult conditions may impact students, fellow teachers, educational systems, and our planet. what i do know is that i continue to provide and advocate for as much support as possible for myself, other educators, and students in developing the right conditions to continue learning and growing and creating meaningful change for people and the more-than-human world. the saguaro ecopedagogical framework communicates the intentionality of our work as climate literacy teachers and the need to provide learning environments that are more adaptable, creative, compassionate, equitable, earth-inclusive, and ecologically just. hindhede ú ecopedagogical framework 66 references bovill, c. (2020). co-creating learning and teaching: towards relational pedagogy in higher education. critical publishing ltd. cast. (2024). about universal design for learning. https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl freire, p. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed. continuum publishing group. hooks, b. (2003). teaching community: a pedagogy of hope. routledge. new york. kendi, i. x. (2019). how to be an antiracist. (large print ed.) random house. kent state university libraries. (2021). ladson-billings, g. (1995). but that's just good teaching! the case for culturally relevant pedagogy. theory into practice, 34(3). 159-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849509543675 ladson-billings, g. (2017) the (r)evolution will not be standardized: teacher education, hip hop pedagogy and culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0. in d. paris and s. alim (eds.) culturally sustaining pedagogies: teaching and learning for justice in a changing world (pp. 141-156) teacher's college press. lupinacci, j., happel-parkins, a., & lupinacci, m. w. (2018). ecocritical contestations with neoliberalism: teaching to (un)learn “normalcy.” policy futures in education, 16(6), 652–668. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210318760465 martusewicz, r. a., edmundson, j. & lupinacci, j. (2021). ecojustice education: toward diverse, democratic, and sustainable communities (3rd ed.). routledge. paris, d., & alim, h. s. (2014). what are we seeking to sustain through culturally sustaining pedagogy? a loving critique forward. harvard educational review, 84(1), 85-100. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.84.1.982l873k2ht16m77 perin, d. (2011). facilitating student learning through contextualization [ccrc working paper no. 29]. community college research center https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/facilitating-learningcontextualization-working-paper.pdf https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849509543675 https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210318760465 https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.84.1.982l873k2ht16m77 https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/facilitating-learning-contextualization-working-paper.pdf https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/facilitating-learning-contextualization-working-paper.pdf climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 5 this is how we will survive and hold together a found poem: parable of the sower by octavia butler high school teacher english language arts california i can take a lot of pain without falling apart i get a lot of grief that doesn’t belong to me. the officials permitted their town to be taken over, bought out, privatized statelines and borders are closed leaders who don’t know what they’re doing they’re still anchored in the past waiting for the good old days to come back a little more hypocrisy to keep the peace. sea level keeps rising with the warming climate tornados smashing hell out of alabama, kentucky, tennessee three hundred people dead so far. a blizzard freezing the northern midwest. new york and new jersey, a measles epidemic. california, the rain stopped high school elaú californiaú this is how we will survive 6 dust dry reservoir. too big, too poor, too black, too hispanic to be of interest to anyone we’re a rope, breaking, a single strand at a time. there is no end to what a living world will demand of you. most of our households couldn’t afford another big bill most of the dead are street poor who have nowhere to go who don’t hear warnings until it’s too late for their feet to take them to safety that reality scares me to death. there’s so much to do before it can even begin all people did was take back things they had given change does scare most people but there’s nowhere to go. not if you don’t have money. we can’t live this way! a community’s first responsibility is to protect its children now use your imagination cool, pale light glows from it darkness brightening. hang on to your notes i want to hear some of your poetry we need you to help us survive here your teachers are all around you i’m not going to let you get hurt. we can get ready get ready to make a life in spite of the scarcity and the violence rebuilding, fortifying, doing whatever we can find the rest of what we need within ourselves, in one another. the essentials are to educate and benefit community win back their trust kindness eases change best to begin by teaching the weak can overcome the strong if the weak persist. imagine that. live! we are earthseed. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 7 in the bright, clear, early morning sunlight like looking through a vast, open window there’s a huge, half ruined garden where they don’t hide the stars where we buried our dead and we planted california native and naturalized plants. oak trees take root. the life that perceives itself changing will save you. we’ve got work to do building a future that makes sense. it will work for we are earthseed anyone can be. ruddú how could i not have known? 16 how could i not have known about the climate crisis? developing a cross-curricular climate change education program jennifer a. rudd, swansea university, swansea, wales, uk abstract in this article, i reflect on the impact of learning about the climate crisis and how doing so inspired me to develop a climate change education program. the article contains details on the new program, entitled you and co2, how it has been adapted to be suitable for a range of learners and how a new curriculum aided delivery of you and co2 across wales. i share changes made in both my personal and professional life and how learning about the climate crisis ultimately led to me changing my career. keywords digital fiction, imagination, carbon footprint, cross-curricular, digital literacy, climate education climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 17 background in 2018, for the first time, i was shown the projections for the planet for two degrees and four degrees of global warming. i couldn’t believe that nobody had told me this before. i was an academic researcher with both a master’s degree and a phd in chemistry, frequently working on next generation solar panels and hydrogen fuels. but all that time i thought i was working to make sure we had alternative power for when fossil fuels ran out. i didn’t know that actually we’d already burnt so much fossil fuel that we had warmed our planet by over one degree celsius and that the global population was already experiencing the dramatic effects of climate change. what could i do with this knowledge? i started by cutting my family’s carbon footprint. we gave up flying, adopted a vegetarian diet, installed environmentally friendly heating sources in our house and purchased solar panels. but it didn’t seem like enough. i started asking how it was that, despite my significant level of education, nobody had told me about the climate crisis. then i asked an even bigger question: ‘was it possible to teach climate change in a way that effected behavioural change?’ answering the question to answer this question, i teamed up with colleagues also in academia and wanting to respond to the climate crisis in some way. as experts in creative writing, psychology, pedagogy and chemistry, we came together to devise a way of teaching climate change and then measuring the resulting behavioural change. we developed a program called you and co2, which combines chemistry, math, digital literacy, computer coding, english literature and creative writing in three workshops (www.youandco2.org). we have analysed the program both qualitatively and quantitatively and, so far, are able to evaluate students’ attitudes towards climate action. developing an instrument to measure subsequent behavioural change is an ongoing piece of work. to develop the program, we drew inspiration from a number of different sources. the first was the new curriculum for wales, which was being piloted in a number of schools. rather than taking a siloed approach to subjects the new curriculum encouraged and promoted a transdisciplinary, cross-curricular, approach to http://www.youandco2.org/ https://hwb.gov.wales/curriculum-for-wales ruddú how could i not have known? 18 learning. this enabled us to design a program with several different subjects incorporated. the new curriculum, rolled out in 2022, mandated teaching sustainability, aiming for students to become “ethical, informed citizens of wales who understand the impact of their actions on wales and the wider world” (welsh government, 2025). this meant that we could develop a program that teachers would want to use, as they would need suitable resources to help deliver the new curriculum. we also took inspiration from our research backgrounds. as a chemist with significant experience doing scientific outreach, i adapted resources from previous outreach activities to make an engaging first workshop about carbon footprints. another member of the team was an expert in digital fiction and used that to develop the second and third workshops. the you and co2 climate change education program the program has been trialed with students aged twelve to fifteen and can be completed within a day, as an off-timetable activity. alternatively, it can be spread over two weeks during a specific set of lessons. all of the resources are available from www.youandco2.org/teachers-pack workshop 1: math and chemistry, 1 hour in the first workshop, students use chemistry and mathematics to think about their personal carbon footprint. how did they get to school? what did they eat for breakfast? using a reference document we developed, students calculate their individual carbon footprint and then combine those in groups of four to six students. then, they discuss how to hypothetically reduce that carbon footprint by a third. this causes students to negotiate with each other; maybe one can carpool instead of riding solo? maybe one can change the dairy milk on their breakfast to a soy alternative? students start to think about structural issues around their carbon footprints and how that affects their decisions as well—for instance, maybe there is no bus route near them, so they’re forced to come to school in a car. http://www.youandco2.org/teachers-pack climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 19 workshop 2: english literature and digital literacy, 1-2 hours in the second workshop, students read a custom-built digital fiction called ‘no world 4 tomorrow’ (www.youandco2.org/nw4t). this is a multi-ending story, and it responds to decisions that students make. students can personalise the story by inputting their main character and three supporting characters’ names and pronouns. as students work through the story they are faced with small choices, such as how to eat and how to get around, as well as bigger choices, such as what to do when their society is threatened. in this workshop students think about the climate crisis at a societal level and move on from thinking about individual decisions. workshop 3: creative writing and computer coding, 2 hours in the third workshop students write their own digital fiction. they learn some basic coding and use a platform called ‘twine’ (www.twinery.org) to develop their stories. as long as the story in some way relates to the climate crisis, and has decision points, they are free to write about whatever topic they like. students have written about hedgehogs, the impact of make-up, fast fashion and many other things. you can see examples on our website https://youandco2.org/play-student-games/. reflections on the you and co2 program the positive: the you and co2 program has now been downloaded in 14 countries in three continents over the last three years. classroom teachers and education academic experts have praised it “inspiring”, “brilliant”, “not something i could have come up with on my own”. the program has inspired curriculum development in schools in south wales, particularly supporting incorporation of more climate change content in arts and humanities curricula. the negative: students from lower socio-economic backgrounds found the first workshop hard because they didn’t have the financial provision to make autonomous decisions about what they ate or how they travelled. they didn’t want this to be exposed to their classmates and, therefore, disengaged. to solve this, we created characters that students could use to complete the workshop one activity, without having to rely on their personal situation. this helped students feel less exposed. feedback from another school was that the vocabulary in the no world 4 tomorrow http://www.youandco2.org/nw4t http://www.twinery.org/ https://youandco2.org/play-student-games/ ruddú how could i not have known? 20 digital fiction was too complex. we provided an audio to pronounce the words and gave alternative wording when the tricky word was clicked on. we also created a rubric for the students, for workshops two and three, so that they would know what was expected of them in terms of scientific content, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and the number of decision points etc. personal reflections on engaging with climate change education in 2018 i didn’t know that my life was about to be changed. knowing the truth about the climate crisis i couldn’t continue as a chemist. working on you and co2, with my interdisciplinary colleagues, showed me that the skills i had gained in research and in the labs were transferrable to other areas. i slowly made the switch from the “hard” sciences to social sciences. changing disciplines has not been easy, thrust into a world of pedagogy literature and having to google every second word i read! however, it has been rewarding to experience attitudes and behaviours changing as a result of my work. i have also had the privilege of supporting other climate change curriculum development both in schools (e.g. elementary school resources for teaching about fast fashion www.tinyurl.com/clothescycle) and with third sector organisations. i even contributed to policy advice for the welsh government (https://netzero2035.wales/ourreports/what-could-education-skills-and-work-look-like-across-wales-by-2035/) i still fear for our collective future, but i try to focus on my sphere of influence. i find that by orienting my work at climate crisis solutions i am able to keep my climate anxiety under control and really make a difference in my country. http://www.tinyurl.com/clothescycle https://netzero2035.wales/our-reports/what-could-education-skills-and-work-look-like-across-wales-by-2035/ https://netzero2035.wales/our-reports/what-could-education-skills-and-work-look-like-across-wales-by-2035/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 21 at a glance title you and co2 unit time 5-7 hours + 1 homework activity grade level(s) 7-9 core text no world 4 tomorrow, available www.youandco2.org/nw4t supporting texts none climate literacy terms carbon footprint, societal action objectives • understand where carbon dioxide comes from • consider individual and societal actions that can be taken to tackle climate change • create digital narratives with multiple storylines to explore climate action for themselves materials and resources all available at www.youandco2.org/teachers-pack references welsh government (2025) curriculum for wales. available at https://hwb.gov.wales/curriculum-for-wales http://www.youandco2.org/nw4t http://www.youandco2.org/teachers-pack https://hwb.gov.wales/curriculum-for-wales de sena ú social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis 46 social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis in álvaro colomer's ahora llega el silencio (2019) antonella de sena, università degli studi di napoli “l'orientale”, naples, italy abstract the novel ahora llega el silencio (2019) by álvaro colomer is a recent example of spanish ecofiction, exploring themes of environmental and social justice in a postapocalyptic setting. this article shows the novel’s potential to address human rights, gender equality, social justice, climate and environmental issues. through a story of survival and unity in the face of chaos, colomer's work delivers a timely message about the need for cooperation, respect, and environmental stewardship for a better future. keywords ecofiction, ahora llega el silencio, ecocritical perspective, environmental responsibility. spanish-language ecofiction the 1970s was a decade marked by the rise of environmental awareness and activism, largely due to growing concerns about pollution, deforestation, and other environmental issues. this heightened awareness of the importance of protecting the environment led to the popularization of the concept of ecology, which focuses on the interrelationships between living organisms and their surroundings. it was during this time that ecology became a prominent theme in children's literature. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 47 ever since rousseau positioned children as having a natural inclination towards nature, various authors have noted a longstanding sensitivity to nature in children's literature (curry, 2013; harrison, 2019; young, 2018). before the 1970s, representations of nature in literature were often idealised and did not emphasize the interconnectedness of flora, fauna, and ecosystems. however, with the rise of environmental studies, children's literature began to embrace a range of ecological themes (wu, mallan, & mcgillis, 2013). in the spanish literary scene, authors such as gloria fuertes and elvira lindo have been instrumental in promoting a deeper appreciation of nature in children's literature. fuertes's poetry, such as el libro de las flores y de los árboles (2003), celebrates the beauty of the natural world, while lindo's novels explore themes of environmental conservation and sustainability. one recent trend in both spanish and global environmental literatures is apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fiction, which draws attention to issues such as overconsumption, the exploitation of natural resources, and the influence of multinational corporations. some works in this strand include anxo fariña’s a chave de atlántida (2011), vicent belda’s história de sam. deus ex machina (2014), rosa huertas’ corazón de metal (2015), and álvaro colomer’s ahora llega el silencio (2019). despite their postapocalyptic settings, many of these books bring together themes of climate change, human rights and social justice. in doing so, these texts invite readers to consider and enact climate literacy pedagogy. these texts are also part of an environmental justice literature that collectively “explore[s] the interconnectedness of human rights, social justice and ecological issues” (platt, 2004, p.183). these three concepts are central to modern ecofiction and colomer’s novel, as will be outlined in my analysis below. an ecocritical reading of ahora llega el silencio ahora llega el silencio [now comes the silence] by spanish writer and journalist álvaro colomer won the 2019 premio jaén de narrativa juvenil. the story is set in the city of barcelona, where all adults over the age of twenty-two are dying for no apparent reason. this event is attributed to a virus that affects the population over the age of twenty-two, but there are no answers or cures. the narrative begins six months since the onset of the virus. children, adolescents, and teenagers survive on the streets of barcelona, trying to cope with diverse tribes fighting for power and control. divided into seventeen chapters de sena ú social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis 48 and three parts, the story is told by an omniscient narrator who enters the minds of the characters, revealing their thoughts and feelings. the protagonists include astrea, a resilient sixteen-year-old girl who has refined her survival abilities to defend herself against king death, a malicious individual who derives pleasure from inflicting suffering on others. alongside astrea are nestor, seventeen, and leon, eighteen, who accompany her on a mission to protect a child, called lobo, under her guardianship. lobo, born before the “silence” phenomenon, symbolises “the bridge between the old world and the new” (colomer, 2019, p. 59). astrea’s story particularly foregrounds the notion of human rights. her narrative invites exploring the links between feminist and environmental issues. it also highlights the importance of issues such as gender oppression and women's contribution to the struggle against “dominant narratives of domination” (gaard, 2008, p. 323). astrea's commitment to upholding human rights is best exemplified by her unwavering dedication to protecting the defenceless child in her care. as protector and caretaker in the face of adversity, astrea embodies nurturing, resilient spirit, and deep sense of responsibility for others. as the narrator states, “she had to be a mother without being a woman first, and now she is forced to take care without anyone thinking of her” (p. 86). initially, only astrea is resolute in taking care of the child, whereas her fellow travellers nestor and leon are apprehensive about their own survival after king's death, worrying about potential threats that might arise from caring for the baby. however, as time passes, the trio forms a strong bond and evolves into a makeshift family, providing the child with affection and nurture akin to having “two fathers and a mother” (p. 154). by portraying astrea as a strong and capable leader who takes control of the situation, the narrative challenges gender stereotypes and promotes a more inclusive and equal view of relationships and caring roles traditionally assigned to women. in doing so, the narrative can empower young readers to challenge traditional gender norms and value the perspectives and contributions of women in a climate-changing society. the novel’s engagement with social justice comes from its representation of various communities, each with their own set of rules, which are then compared against one another. one such group is “the savages” made up of young individuals attempting to establish a society based on power over the vulnerable. referred to as “the new adults,” they abide by the law of the strongest, the sole principle enabling their survival: climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 49 “there was no one stronger than them, no one more experienced than them, no one more selfish than them” (p. 17). in contrast to the savages is the children's tribe, which is based on a society where leadership is shared among several individuals rather than centralised in one leader. each day, a different child assumes authority by wearing a white shirt, thus taking responsibility for collective decision making. the next day, that responsibility is passed on to another member, fostering a sense of collective leadership. the children in this community chant the mantra “all equal, all free” (p. 122), emphasising their belief in the equality and freedom of all members. the third group represented are the amazons, warriors who have created an all-female community where men are not allowed, united by a single goal: “to put an end to the oppression of men” (p. 102). this group is constantly growing, welcoming all oppressed women in the city of barcelona to join together and become stronger in pursuit of their goal. in depicting the three different societies, colomer seeks to convey the importance of solidarity, equality, and the rejection of systems based on domination and oppression. the contrast between the brutal rule of the savages and the collaborative leadership of the children's tribe highlights the detrimental effects of power dynamics based on strength and selfishness. the amazons, on the other hand, represent a strong and unified community fighting against gender oppression and advocating for women's rights and empowerment. while social justice and human rights themes lie at the heart of the novel, the narrative’s larger context is of a planetary apocalypse unleashed by nature itself. the narrator describes this as nature’s self-defence, as well as its retribution for human arrogance: the planet, seeing itself on the verge of collapse, had unleashed a global pandemic capable of eradicating, in one fell swoop, those human beings who had caused the greenhouse effect, who had polluted rivers, seas and oceans, who had manufactured nuclear weapons with which they could eradicate all life. […] in a final act of generosity, nature had decided that the virus would only affect adults, the ones truly responsible for the destruction of the ecosystem and had allowed those who could not be blamed to survive: children (p. 13). de sena ú social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis 50 as the novel progresses, and as the characters grapple with the consequences of their actions on the environment, nature’s retribution emerges as a theme. the planetary apocalypse serves as a warning of the dire consequences of environmental degradation and highlights the importance of taking responsibility for our actions. the surviving children, who are victims of the destruction caused by adults, play an important role in the narrative, symbolising hope for a better future and serving as a stark contrast to the irresponsible behaviour of the older generation. a pedagogical perspective ahora llega el silencio by álvaro colomer can be useful to discuss climate literacy in young adult literature, as it deals with issues related to ecology, nature, and the ecosystemic consequences of human actions. through the post-apocalyptic story set in barcelona, the novel invites readers to reflect on the harmful consequences of pollution and environmental destruction caused by adults, who are portrayed as responsible for the climate crisis. furthermore, the role of children and young survivors of the tragedy as bearers of hope for a sustainable future highlights the importance of protecting and respecting the environment for future generations. in the classroom, the novel can be used to stimulate discussion on issues such as human rights, social justice, gender equality and solidarity. by comparing the different social groups represented in the story, students can explore concepts such as power, shared leadership, the fight against oppression and the defence of women's rights. as students reflect on the social and political implications of each distinct social structure, they can bolster critical thinking skills and increase their awareness real-world injustices and inequalities. furthermore, the narrative’s eco-feminism and the portrayal of nature as a vengeful force against human arrogance can stimulate debate about the need for cultural and behavioural change towards the planet. students can be encouraged to reflect on their daily actions and the consequences these may have on the ecosystem, thus encouraging greater awareness and commitment to environmental protection, sustainability, human rights and social justice. in doing so, they can be encouraged to enter critical debate and promote equality, solidarity and respect for nature. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 51 references belda, v. (2014). história de sam. deus ex machina. edicions bromera. colomer, á. (2018). ahora llega el silencio. montena. colomer, t. (2010). introducción a la literatura infantil y juvenil actual. sintesis. curry, a. (2013). environmental crisis in young adult fiction: a poetics of earth. palgrave and macmillan. fariña, anxo. (2011). a chave de atlántida. edicións xerais. fuertes, gloria. (2003). el libro de las flores y de los árboles. biblioteca virtual miguel de cervantes. gaard, g. (2008). children’s environmental literature: from ecocriticism to ecopedagogy. neohelicon 36, 321–334. gasol, a. (1996). abans de l'ecologia, amb els clàssics. faristol, (26), 4-12. harrison, j. (2019). posthumanist readings in dystopian young adult fiction: negotiating the nature/culture divide. lexington books. huertas, rosa. corazón de metal (2015). editorial sm. platt, k. (2004). environmental justice children’s literature: depicting, defending, and celebrating trees and birds, colors and people. in s. i. dobrin & k. kidd (eds.), wild things: children’s culture and ecocriticism (pp. 183–184). wayne state university press. rousseau, j-j. (1763). émile: or treatise on education. la haye. wu, y., mallan, k. and mcgillis r. (2013). (re)imagining the world: children’s literature’s response to changing times. springer. young, r. (2018). confronting climate crises through education: reading our way forward. lexington books, rowman & littlefield. climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 1 introduction to the special issue: water as conflict and water as commons stephanie rollag yoon, minnesota state university, mankato, mn, usa alexandra panos, university of south florida, st. petersburg, fl, usa candance doerr-stevens, university of wisconsin, milwaukee, wi, usa “speak for the water. sing for the water. dance for the water.” thus speaks the water in carole lindstrom’s most recent picture book, autumn peltier, water warrior. (lindstrom, 2023). in this picturebook, water warriors autumn peltier and grandmother josephine speak, sing, and dance for water. in turn, the water gives life to all who care for it. this presentation of water as both life-giving and needing care calls upon us to consider our relationships and stories related to water. how do we speak, sing, and dance for water in our classrooms and our teaching? in this issue, we invited educators to share their teaching and learning experiences with water. we received an enthusiastic response from educators, researchers, artists, and learners. as a result, this special issue explores investigations of water learning in the classroom and beyond as they relate to climate issues facing our local neighborhoods and larger global contexts. investigations of water learning include water for thirst, growth, and play. some also draw attention to concerns related to water access, safety, possession, drought, and flooding. we are excited to share lessons and reflections that grapple with conflict that arises around access to and care for water. at the same time, stories explore reconceptualizations of water that move beyond a product to be bought, sold, and protected, to water as commons, a living entity requiring reciprocal relations. https://carolelindstrom.com/books/autumn-peltier-water-warrior/ https://carolelindstrom.com/books/autumn-peltier-water-warrior/ yoon, panos, & doerr-stevens ú introduction 2 we have organized this special issue through the authors’ various foci on curricular examples, resources, reflections, research, critical essays, and creative works. the variety, depth, originality, and exploration of water as commons, as life, as story, as performance alongside water as death-bringer, as healer, and as friend complicated our own relationships to water. we hope also that these pieces offer stories and ways forward for all that explore the pages of this issue. our colleagues’ descriptions of their curricular activities with students of all ages offer concrete ideas for use in classrooms of all kinds. tiffany hagey shares with us a text set from her unit on local and global water issues and describes how she invited students to publish their learning through pocket zines. katherine werthwine similarly focuses on visual composing with her 9th and 10th grade intensive reading students as they explore local water concerns and create visual argumentation for communitybased solutions. water as symbolism is explored in jay bullock’s reflective description of his high school students writing and reading their way through what water means to them personally and the many forms it can take in life and literature. arts-based approaches to water stories are further highlighted and explored in an easily translatable lesson by melanie ariens and rhonda nordstrom who position drawing our own water stories as building empathy with human and more-than-human kin alike. kristine m. schutz and rebecca woodard use beloved recent children’s books to support their preservice teacher education students in explorations of water protection and how such texts can support informational reading and writing in the elementary classroom. across the pages of the special issue authors describe many resources and reflect on their own work as educators and scholars interested in water. candance doerr-stevens, for example, shares an online collection of picture books, chapter books, young adult novels, and media all focused on water as resource, relative, and place. julianna lopez kershen digs deeply into one award-winning middle grades novel, ninth ward, to explore standards-based opportunities for engaging young people in investigations of the complicated ways water was experienced and portrayed during hurricane katrina. sonja r. braucht revisits a unit of study she shared in a previous issue of the journal, reflecting on the significance of community in projectbased learning and its social-emotional resonance in climate literacy education. our colleagues also shared examples of research-in-action to deepen our orientations to the roles water might play in our work as educators and scholars of climate literacy. global water dances are described as a rich space to conduct large university-public school partnerships focusing on transdisciplinary ways to raise awareness about water issues, promote sustainability, and inspire action to project water resources, all guided by children’s messages about their rights to clean water. rebecca rogers and inda schaenen offer an approach to discourse analysis centered climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 3 on water justice by examining curricular artifacts from their literacy clinic, arguing that changing our discourses, linguistic systems, and narratives is necessary to shift our relationships to water and all forms of life. wenyan yang uses multimodal discourse analysis to explore how pictures in two recent and award-winning children’s books highlight how visual narratives might evoke emotional response and environmental awareness for young readers. critical examinations of water and water narratives by authors who contributed to this special issue dug deeply into both healing and confrontation necessary to explore water with students. danielle haque invites readers to consider with her how she uses water with her college-age students to examine climate change as the defining crisis of the present moment and its entanglement with environmental racism, colonialism, and inequality. sean p. connors shares the critical lens of intersectional environmentalism and introduces key questions to explore for students and teachers to examine interconnectedness and social justice. milena renee rodriguez examines two films that prioritize indigenous ways of knowing around intergenerational healing through embodied water practices and rituals as starting points for integrating antioppressive and ecojustice-oriented discussions within multigenerational and culturally safe educational environments. we also share a digital version of christina randazzo’s children’s book, my friend, the lake in this special issue. the book builds from randazzo’s previous research and personal narratives about lake erie that address the lake’s importance, impact, and an awareness of the problems that face lake erie, and earth, today. across the stories, we invite readers to engage in their own learning and connections, as we collectively consider: how do we relate to water on a personal level? how do we connect to water as a family or larger culture? how does water shape us, our daily lives, and the traditions that define our families and cultures? how do we consume water? when and how do we study water? to whom does water belong? how do we protect and give back to water? thank you to our many authors for sharing your voices, songs, and dances for water. thank you also to the readers and educators of these pages for your curious minds and active commitments to exploring what it means to care for water in our classrooms and beyond. yoon, panos, & doerr-stevens ú introduction 4 guest editor biographies candance doerr-stevens (phd) is a former middle and high school english language arts teacher and currently works as an associate professor of literacy education at the university of wisconsin, milwaukee. she teaches courses on the teaching of reading and writing, as well as digital and multimodal composition. she is most energized by her work with teachers, especially in her current role as director of the uwm writing project. her research focuses on the literacy practices and creative responses we enact for problem-solving and hope in the face of challenging social issues. she can be reached at doerrste@uwm.edu. alexandra panos (phd) is a former middle grades ela teacher and currently serves as an assistant professor of literacy studies and affiliate faculty in measurement and research in the college of education at the university of south florida. she centers her scholarship on the embodied reality that, to quote octavia butler, "there is no end to what a living world demands of you." for her, this means prioritizing place-based, community-engaged, and postcritical activities that center the ecological and geographic dimensions of education for equity and justice. stephanie rollag yoon (phd) is an assistant professor of english at minnesota state university, mankato, where she teaches preservice and practicing english language arts teachers. her teaching aligns with her research interests around digital literacies, critical writing pedagogy, and climate literacy. drawing on her experiences as a middle and high school english teacher, dr. rollag yoon sees students and teachers as brilliant readers and multimodal composers. across her teaching, professional development, and mentorship, her practices are grounded in feminist pedagogies that center stories of hope. mailto:doerrste@uwm.edu climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 23 the story of more tenth grade english language arts florida my students this year asked me if i have personally witnessed climate change, and i was very honest with them: yes, i have. as a native floridian, i personally have seen how real estate development has encroached upon the everglades. i have seen sea-level rise first-hand in miami beach, with king tides flooding streets. i have also seen the increase of destructive hurricanes, including hurricane andrew, which i lived through when i was thirteen years old. for the past five years, i have incorporated the book the story of more by hope jahren with my english language arts students. i start by telling my students that although reading science-based texts can be boring or the technicality of the information can be difficult to understand, hope jahren is able to share the history of climate change in such a way that anyone reading the book can understand. she uses history and facts to paint a story of how we, as human beings, have arrived at this point, detailing small changes we each can make to make a difference when it comes to the climate crisis. as a final project, i have had my students create presentation boards or short videos based on the different sections of jahren’s book: life, food, energy, and earth. i believe that to truly learn about a topic you should be able to talk about it with others and so i wanted to provide my students with ways to springboard into those kinds of conversations. the result was me giving them a two-part project. part one: create a button. part two: create a public service announcement (psa). for the button, students could use an image, quote, fact, or a mix from the book for the creation of their button. this allowed the students to be creative, while at the same time allowing them to share their knowledge with students around the school if they were asked about the button. the second part of the project was for the students to create a one-minute psa based on 10 elaú floridaú the story of more 24 facts they had learned from the book and share how people can make a difference when it comes to climate change. most students created audio clips, like this spoken word track. a few created short videos. i was so pleased with the variety of ideas and creativity used in making their buttons and psas. this project gives me hope for the future of our planet and the consciousness of our youth that our planet is finite, and we can live with less and share more. the young people of our country do care about planet earth and recognize that science is here to help us make better decisions to preserve what we have for our future. example of student-made button https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ylt7iu9gmyclxgywk9uwojxw4hp5ufrr/view?usp=sharing climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 5 zines and water: how zines can help students understand water issues tiffany hagey, alexander hamilton high school, milwaukee, wi, usa abstract this water stimulus packet was developed to model college board’s advanced placement seminar performance task two stimulus packet. the intention to offer students opportunities to practice skills and strategies needed to work through a text set and successfully then conduct further water-issue research. in particular, this text set aimed to give junior students a varied base of knowledge about water issues, both locally and globally, while identifying thematic connections and using it to launch their own research. this specific lesson centered around ap seminar students individually reading a book chapter and organizing their key takeaways and summarized text in the form of a pocket zine. keywords multimodal text, zine, advance placement, youth activism i designed and taught this water stimulus packet to one section of an advanced placement (ap) seminar class with a mix of both sophomore and junior students in the spring semester of 2023 at an urban high school in milwaukee, wisconsin. i was inspired to design this unit around the theme of water after a graduate course allowed hageyú zines and water 6 me to experience various climate literacies and undergraduate students’ enthusiasm about zines. that experience encouraged my own teaching practices—particularly to use water as the central theme of a text set. ap seminar students would use this text set to practice some reading strategies, including close reading annotations, connecting text to class, pulling main ideas and key details, and generating possible questions that arise while reading the water text set. to help students generate reading notes, they were encouraged to note a “golden line” per page: a line, a number, a fact, or an expert opinion that drew them in. they were then tasked to display that “golden line” either in a direct quote, a paraphrase, or an image on their zine. this approach followed the ap seminar quest framework, in which students work on questioning and exploration, as well as understanding and analyzing arguments. these very skills are necessary for ap seminar students’ success with future performance tasks. this specific lesson focuses on the text a world without fish by mark kurlansky. the book focuses on key perspectives on fish and water. this was immediately relevant for my students, most of whom live in a city nestled right next to lake michigan, and many of these water issues hit close to home with toxic runoff, lead contamination, and other water pollution. the ap seminar class did not have ample time to read the whole text, so it was divided into chapter reads. two students were required to thoroughly read one chapter and display their findings in an eight-page zine. zine-making also served as a note-taking strategy that offered a new and creative way for students to display their learning after reading. students had to make critical decisions on what information was key and worthy, as they only had eight small pages to convey their reading notes. students then were put into small groups, with one student representing each chapter and sharing their pocket zines. this small group collaboration allowed students to discuss key findings and share knowledge gained about water issues. narrative framing a world without fish is a unique nonfiction text written by author and former fisherman mark kurlansky. this text examines at the critical issue from multiple perspectives, leads the reader through possible solutions, and, ultimately, suggests the climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 7 best solution moving forward. this text layout is very similar to how ap seminar students will have to explore a topic in the future, so fish was an excellent mentor text. the text is specifically made for young readers as it is full of amazing illustrations by frank stockton, a small graphic novel, and visually appealing statistics. the eleven chapters in a world without fish can be read as standalone text, which make reading complex issues more manageable in chapter chunks, or assigned via individual chapters. at a glance title zines and water unit time 3-4 weeks schedule: 8 class periods, 90-minute class grade level(s) 10th and 11th ap seminar class core text of lesson students read a chapter of a world without fish, by mark kurlansky, to complete this activity. supporting texts within unit water stimulus packet also includes the following texts: • a long walk to water by linda sue park • we are water protectors by carole lindstrom • down to earth with zac efron, season 1, episode 2 “france” • mari copeny, “water for flint”, rebel girl podcast (11:21) • websites: lead in milwaukee drinking water and epa’s environmental justice screening and mapping climate literacy terms (from climate lit glossary) individual action interconnectedness youth activism objectives for lesson students will create a zine to document and reflect on key points, main ideas and golden lines from a specific chapter, enhancing their comprehension and engagement with the non-fiction text through creative expression. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=562b60c474f743388edb102cbd47ac23 https://ejscreen.epa.gov/mapper/ https://www.climatelit.org/glossary/ hageyú zines and water 8 students will present their chapter zines in small groups, practicing collaborative learning and critical discussion as they share zine insights, provide feedback, and deepen their understanding of the water text through peer interaction. materials and resources teacher theme tracker going forward the students voiced they felt more confident and less pressure in reading one chapter, rather than the whole text. with that confidence, each excelled at displaying their text understanding and note-taking skills via a zine. zines were a new concept for many students—a fresh multimodal writing task that was not seen as a writing obstacle. while in small groups, students were able to share their zines and collectively compile their learning from a world without fish. this particular text lent itself very well to this task and i will be looking for more texts for my english nine classes to explore zine notetaking as well. the water stimulus packet allowed students to engage with the multitude of issues around water. some students commented that they took access to drinking water for granted. others were able to layer learning with the work they were doing in their environmental science class. i believe i will continue to use water as a central theme for a text set and will continually add new multimodal texts to the stimulus packet. work cited kurlansky, m. (2011). world without fish. workman publishing. figure 1: martin r., 11th grade https://docs.google.com/document/d/1osjjpmhfcuffkvtce1pdooqdlide515pgezwbepmbzs/edit climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 9 figure 3: malachi w., 11th grade figure 4: riley h., 10th grade figure 5: ava t., 11th grade figure 6: jackson m., 11th grade figure 1: martin r., 11th grade figure 7: farida q., 11th grade hindhede ú implementing ecojustice praxis 6 implementing ecojustice praxis in children’s literature courses karen hindhede, central arizona college, coolidge, az, usa abstract faculty must do more to include ecojustice pedagogy, including climate change education, in higher education. this article describes how i infused ecojustice pedagogy into my undergraduate children's literature course. i share my experiences on developing an ecojustice praxis over a three-semester period. using the three prongs of sustainability (ecology, economics, and equity), i provide suggestions for incorporating texts, vocabulary, and heuristics, specific activities and assignments. keywords ecojustice praxis, children’s literature, ecojustice pedagogy research demonstrates that faculty should implement environmental justice topics, including climate change education, in higher education courses (álvarez-garcía et al., 2015; coleman & gould, 2019; international commission on the futures of education, 2021). my research supports these findings. i spent three semesters collecting data about implementing ecojustice topics in undergraduate children's literature courses. ecojustice pedagogy—a practical application of ecojustice education—recognizes the brutality and injustice that historically minoritized peoples and the natural world https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379381 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379381 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecojustice_pedagogy/ https://www.itejournal.org/wp-content/pdfs-issues/summer-2018/05martusewicz.pdf climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 7 experience, as perpetuated through language and social/cultural assumptions, while enabling learners to rectify social-ecological oppression (lupinacci et al., 2018; martusewicz et al., 2021). ecojustice pedagogy is the intersection of social and ecological justice. my research demonstrated that students, primarily pre-service teacher candidates, consistently viewed eco literature, environmental topics, and ecojustice pedagogy (teaching methods and content) as essential and craved such a curriculum. faculty also desired more professional development in these areas. they cited the lack of knowledge as the most significant reason for not including more ecojustice pedagogy in their children's literature courses. as part of my study, i infused ecojustice pedagogy into my undergraduate children’s literature course. i used the three critical es of sustainability (ecology, economics, and equity) as a framework for incorporating ecojustice pedagogy (edwards, 2015). good teaching is continual praxis; hopefully, these ideas invite educators to engage in their own cycle of theory, practice, and critical reflection to create their own repertoires of ecojustice pedagogy. ecology pillar one, ecology, requires five moves. the first is incorporating sustainability, environmental, and climate texts in course materials. fleischman’s (1997) seedfolks, gantz’s (2022) two degrees, henderson’s (2018) wilderness wars, klein’s (2021) how to change everything, little badger’s (2021) a snake falls to earth, and magnason’s (1999) the story of the blue planet are a few suggestions. see climatelit.org for additional suggestions. my emphasis focused on stories that reimagine relationships with humans and the planet rather than dystopian stories focused on exploitation, fear, and hopelessness (damico et al., 2020; oziewicz, 2023). move two is sharing eco justice vocabulary. children's literature textbooks typically have a chapter defining literary, social and cultural diversity terms. i have begun including ecological and justice vocabulary at the beginning of the semester, along with these other definitions. some of the terms i highlight include climate literacy, ecoliteracy, ecocide, ecojustice, and ecofiction. students are also referred to climate lit, which houses a growing glossary of climate literature terms. doi:10.1177/1478210318760465 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/wilderness-wars/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-story-of-the-blue-planet/ https://www.climatelit.org/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1051 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/issue/view/303 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/literature/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/literature/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecojustice/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/ecosystems/ecocide/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecojustice/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/literature/ecofiction/ https://www.climatelit.org/ hindhede ú implementing ecojustice praxis 8 move three consists of including an ecocritical lens throughout the course and discussing ways students can infuse ecocritism in their own classrooms. multiple sources offer questions to introduce and develop students’ ecoliteracy (gaard, 2008; russell, 2019; bradfield, 2020). some questions that could be asked include: what role does the environment play in literature? does nature have its own agency? what language and literary devices (vocabulary, metaphors, anthropomorphism) are used to describe the environment and animals? how might this language shape readers' understanding of people and the natural world? what is the relationship between humans and nature in the text? are humans unaware, dismissive, exploiting, “saving,” or engaged in reciprocity with the environment? gaard (2008) emphasizes the need to “analyze ecojustice problems” holistically and the importance of building connections to nature (p. 20). her work is foundational for faculty beginning to incorporate ecojustice aspects into their courses. finally, move four is exposing students to a variety of ecojustice resources. my research indicated that students' knowledge of environmental and ecojustice topics increased significantly from exposure. what children's literature educators emphasize in their classes helps future educators decide what is valuable. thus, i emphasize exposure, providing a wealth of climate change, environmental justice topics, and ecojustice pedagogy relating to children's literature. some materials are appropriate for discussion, others for assignments, and others for reference. for example, i used an assignment where students responded to an article using critical reflection after being asked: what aspect stood out to you or was especially important when reading this article? many climate literacy in education (cle) articles are appropriate and effective. i also used two essays: oziewicz’s (2022) advocacy piece describing children’s stories as a tool for social transition and bradfield’s (2020) short piece about using an ecocritical lens when teaching children’s literature. bradfield relies heavily on gaard’s (2008, 2009) ideas of ecopedagogy but i found the style and length of bradfield's article more accessible than gaard’s original for an undergraduate children’s literature course. additionally, short pedagogical articles and stories for undergraduate children’s literature classes can be found in fantasy and myth in the anthropocene (oziewicz et al., 2022), while longer pedagogical articles are in pedagogy in the anthropocene: re-wilding education for a new earth (paulsen, 2022). https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecocriticism/ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.172131407109704 https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2022/01/14/climate-change-childrens-stories https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.172131407109704 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7 https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fantasy-and-myth-in-the-anthropocene-9781350203341/ https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fantasy-and-myth-in-the-anthropocene-9781350203341/ https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-90980-2 climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 9 economics the other pillar of ecojustice pedagogy is economics: asking students to consider who benefits economically from the particular forms of human relationships to the earth we notice in the stories we read. questions such as how humans quantify the value of nature, who gains from destruction, who pays for environmental cleanup, and what kind of relationships people have with nature are good starting places. picturebooks like the lorax (dr. seuss, 1971) or the giving tree (silverstein, 1964) allow students to analyze messages about interdependence and responsibility. students regularly share that they had never considered climate literacy messages picturebooks portray. gaard (2009) has a helpful discussion about the lorax and other environmental-focused picturebooks, while artist topher payne provides an alternative ending for the giving tree. by including a close reading of a picturebook examining people's relationship with the earth early in the semester, students may better understand that even popular or well-known books can include problematic messages about humans and the natural world. such readings, with subsequent discussions, prepare students to be critical readers. gonzález’s (2017) all around us and lindstrom's (2020) we are water protectors are more earth-centric and ecojustice-focused picturebooks, which i use later in the course as a counterbalance to dr. seuss’ and silverstein’s classics. equity the third pillar of ecojustice education is equity. exploring it requires two moves: showcasing the kinship, ecocentric or ecological worldview as an alternative to the dominant anthropocentric worldview. the latter places "man" on the top of a pyramid of beings with "woman" and larger animals cascading downward until the base layer of smaller plants, animals, and insects, traditionally deemed less important in western culture. the former worldview emphasizes the interdependences of all creatures. figure 1 illustrates the two worldviews. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-lorax-film/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7 https://www.topherpayne.com/giving-tree https://www.climatelit.org/literature/por-todo-nuestro-alrededor-all-around-us/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/kinship-care/kinship-worldview/ hindhede ú implementing ecojustice praxis 10 figure 1 worldviews source: from “ego vs. eco” figure credited on the internet to the creative commons. this image is from eco-vison sustainable learning center non-profit organization in delvavan, wisconsin who developed this image along with the organization generation alpha (martusewicz et al., 2021). the other move is, logically, a critical discussion of the logic of domination. students learn to recognize that the subordination of certain groups over others, including humans over the natural world, is perpetuated by cultural assumptions and metaphors and that it causes and sanctions injustices for people and the planet (martusewicz et al., 2021). there are many ways to discuss how socio-linguistic metaphors sustain and increase social and ecological oppression. one way is to avoid stereotypes about gender, including describing nature as female. discussion and reflection about why nature is often aligned as female is useful. questions might include: does the author provide gendered attributes of nature? are these positive or negative associations? why might one align nature with woman/female? what are the benefits and problems with assigning gender to nature? who profits from such assignments? who does not? how do these assignments relate to an ecological worldview? climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 11 final ideas for engaging in praxis introducing new vocabulary, showcasing images of earth-centric worldviews, reading articles, non-fiction texts, and novels exposes students to ecojustice pedagogy; however, students need to engage in praxis themselves. the following two assignments lend themselves to such engagement. have students evaluate representations of environmental inclusion and justice in picturebook portrayals. one assignment has students evaluate three picture books from those loosely grouped into two categories: diversity/social justice and environmental/ecological justice. after reading the three books, students choose one and write an analysis of the book's content and images. the assignment requires students to examine the interaction between text and images and respond to questions relating to previously introduced terms, such as protagonists and bibliotherapy. another assignment centers on developing ecojustice criteria that can be applied to children’s literature. children’s literature courses usually include a learning outcome related to developing criteria for evaluating children's literature, such as diversity, quality, or genre markers, such as for graphic novels. in my children's literature course, students list three to five criteria they would use to evaluate literature based on an ecojustice ethic. sometimes, i compile the suggestions into one list or have the students comment on each other's suggestions. i also ask students to consider the three components of sustainability, reflecting how ecology, economics, and equity manifest throughout texts and the course. higher education faculty must incorporate environmental topics and ecojustice pedagogy into their courses. similarly, colleges and universities need to provide professional development to help faculty infuse such pedagogy throughout their curriculum. implementing ecojustice praxis in undergraduate children's literature courses is a significant start. hopefully, the above ideas can be used as inflection points for children's literature faculty so that they can identify, create, and increase an ecojustice ethic and implement ecojustice praxis in their courses. hindhede ú implementing ecojustice praxis 12 references álvarez-garcía, o., sureda-negre, j., & comas-forgas, r. (2015). environmental education in pre-service teacher training: a literature review of existing evidence. journal of teacher education for sustainability, 17(1), 72–85. bradfield, k. (2020). reading with an ecocritical lens: deeper and more critical thinking with children’s literature. practical literacy: the early and primary years, 25(2), 15-16. https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.172131407109704 damico, j. s., baildon, m., & panos, a. (2020). climate justice literacy: stories-we-liveby, ecolinguistics, and classroom practice. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 63(6), 683-691, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1051 dr. seuss. (1971). the lorax. random house for young readers. edwards, a. r. (2015). the heart of sustainability: restoring ecological balance from the inside out. new society publishers. fleischman, p. (1997). seedfolks. harper teen. gaard, g. (2008). toward an ecopedagogy of children’s environmental literature. green theory & praxis: the journal of ecopedagogy, 4(2), 15. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/gretagaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_env ironmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-anecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf gaard, g. (2009). children's environmental literature: from ecocriticism to ecopedagogy. neohelicon, 36(2), 321-334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-0090003-7 grantz, a. (2022). two degrees. scholastic press. gonzález, x. (2017). all around us. cinco puntos press. henderson, b. (2018). wilderness wars. pokey hat. international commission on the futures of education. (2021). reimagining our futures together: a new social contract of education. unesco. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379381 klein, n. (2022). how to change everything. atheneum books for young readers. little badger, d. (2021). a snake falls to earth. levine querido. lindstrom, c. (2020). we are water protectors. roaring brook press. https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.172131407109704 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1051 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379381 climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 13 lupinacci, j., happel-parkins, a., & lupinacci, m.w. (2018). ecocritical contestations with neoliberalism: teaching to (un)learn “normalcy.” policy futures in education, 16(6), 652–668. doi:10.1177/1478210318760465 magnason, a.s. (1999). the story of the blue planet. seven stories press. martusewicz, r. a., edmundson, j. & lupinacci, j. (2021). ecojustice education: toward diverse, democratic, and sustainable communities (3rd ed.). routledge. oziewicz, m. (2022, january 14). why children’s stories are a powerful tool to fight climate change. yes! https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2022/01/14/climatechange-childrens-stories oziewicz, m., attebery, b., dêdinová, t. (2022). fantasy and myth in the anthropocene: imagining futures and dreaming hope in the literature and media. (m. oziewicz, b. attebery, t. dêdinová, eds.). bloomsbury academic. oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1(1), 1-3. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/issue/view/303 russel, d. (2019). literature for children: a short introduction. pearson. paulsen, m., jagodzinski, j., hawke, s. (2022). pedagogy in the anthropocene: rewilding education for a new earth. palgrave macmillan. silverstein, s. (1964). the giving tree. harpercollins. doi:10.1177/1478210318760465 https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2022/01/14/climate-change-childrens-stories https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2022/01/14/climate-change-childrens-stories https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/issue/view/303 rogers & schaenen ú looking upstream 60 looking upstream: discourse analysis and water justice in literacy education rebecca rogers, university of missouri-st. louis, st. louis, mo, usa inda schaenen, university of missouri-st. louis, st. louis, mo, usa abstract “looking upstream” refers to going beyond the negative effects of the current problems which disproportionately impacts historically marginalized families— water contamination, flooding, and scarcity—to see causation: why is the problem happening in the first place? in this article, we “look upstream” at our language and literacy practices and attempt to see how these are entangled with representations of our place in the water cycle. we examine a few curricular artifacts from our literacy clinic—dually focused on responsive literacy instruction and water justice—to illustrate our entanglements with linguistic systems, discourses, and narratives. part of the way forward, we argue, is changing the ways we speak, write, and read in relation to our shared environment, including water and all forms of life. keywords water justice, teacher education, positive discourse analysis, literacy clinics climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 61 acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge funding from the e. des lee tutorial education endowment at the university of missouri-st. louis for funding related to research and teaching in our literacy clinics. the effects of global climate change in missouri include dangerous heat and extreme precipitation. situated in the largest river drainage basin in the united states, we are experiencing increasingly extreme flooding in the spring, warmer winters, more drought in the summer, and more violent storms (hensen & masters, 2022). as literacy educators serving in metropolitan st. louis, we also see inequitable access to high quality literacy instruction. in 2023, fewer than half of all missouri 4th graders scored proficient or advanced in english language arts. among 7th graders, just 37% scored proficient or advanced. we are in a place and a time to bring our strivings toward water justice and literacy justice into an integrated field of practice. folding the granular work of explicit and responsive literacy instruction into water justice practice is not easy, but it can be done. for example, a teacher in our literacy clinic describes how the poetic rhythm of jorge tetl argueta’s agua, aguita: water, little water brings students into the text to explore issues of water justice: “[my] students …looked at [the book] again and used the author's poetry style to write their own poems about water issues that resonated with their own lives while focusing on specific writing objectives such as writing in full complete sentences.” to understand the complexities of water justice here in st. louis, we must highlight the context of everyday life. ongoing inequities across black and white school districts, including disparities in school funding, map onto multiple waterrelated hardships: contamination at superfund sites, health disparities consequent to extreme heat and lack of hydration, and outdated infrastructure (interdisciplinary law clinic, 2019; nrdc, 2024). the ferguson commission’s report “still separate, still unequal” (2020) proposes that we look upstream from our intertwined problems, a metaphor that encourages us to seek and see causation: why is this happening, what adjustments would help us change the course? in this article, we shift our gaze upstream to see how our clinic practices are enmeshed with representations of our rogers & schaenen ú looking upstream 62 place in the water cycle. part of our collective way forward, we argue, includes changing the ways we speak, write, read and teach about our shared environment. critical ecoliteracies in a literacy clinic setting our literacy clinics are free, supervised learning environments nested within a land grant university. here, teachers teach evidence-based literacy 1:1 or in small groups. we have recently redesigned a clinic to focus on literacy instruction in the context of the environment and, in particular, water justice. after administering literacy assessments, teachers develop text sets, beginning with student curiosity: what meaning does water have in our lives? with respect to textual heterogeneity, teachers are coached to attend to syntactic complexity, genre, voice, morphology, grammatical construction, semantics, perspective, and authorship. teachers notice and name intratextual layers of meaning making and intertextual connections with respect to subject matter. when read together as a set, these collections offer opportunities to look for the root causes of water-related inequities and also to appreciate joyful, responsible, relationships with water. drawing on backwards design principles, teachers prepare culturally responsive and explicit lessons in phonics, fluency, comprehension, and writing. by the light of their own textual understandings and inquiry, teachers can guide students in strategic decoding and comprehension. with the understanding that critical language awareness helps nourish climate literacies, teachers explore the scholarship of advanced literacy instruction, climate literacy, and children’s literature. together, we read richard beach, barbara comber, rebecca woodard, grace lee boggs, autumn peltier, carole lindstrom, janice harrington, and jorge tetl argueta, to name just a few of our inspirations. the clinic culminates in a presentation. ecolinguistics is the study of the ways language use can exploit or protect a sound and sustainable existence (chawla, 1991; halliday, 1990). stibbe (2014) writes, “ecolinguistics… is about critiquing forms of language that contribute to ecological destruction, and aiding in the search for new forms of language that inspire people to protect the natural world” (p. 1). halliday (1990) illuminates the assumptions built into language, noting that “[l]anguage makes it hard for us to take seriously the notion of inanimate nature as an active participant in events” (p. 29). with these ideas in mind, we position humans as a species inhabiting a living planet where all living and nonliving climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 63 beings are interdependent and all life is dependent on water, which neither increases nor decreases in total amount, but rather flows and is transformed from place to place and from state to state (gas, liquid, solid) in an ongoing cycle. the total water content of our planet dates from four billion years ago. 96.5% of the water on this planet is in the oceans. the rest is stored in polar ice caps, glaciers, snow, groundwater, lakes, rivers, streams, soil, atmospheric water vapor, plants, and all of us animals. the water we rely upon in st. louis comes from the missouri river, the longest river in the united states. near the confluence of the missouri and mississippi rivers, the city of st. louis water division operates two water treatment plants. in 2023, these two facilities filtered and processed an average of 124 million gallons of missouri river water per day (st. louis city water division 2023). our very existence here depends on a colossal and ongoing system of re-routing, collecting, and filtering water that was always and already passing by our city in the form of a giant river making its way across the continent from montana to the gulf of mexico. an example of text analysis from the textual ecosystem of our clinic historically, critical discourse studies have focused on negative critique of texts in an effort to expose injustices. this is important in literacy teacher education but not enough; we also need to examine and affirm texts that arc toward justice. in recent years, scholars practicing positive discourse analysis have taken up multimodal content in search of the discursive construction of positive social change: expressions of liberation, solution-making, and organizing (e.g. rogers, 2018; calle-díaz, l. & rogers, 2023; bartlett, 2012; macgilchrist, 2007). to clarify the distinction between deconstructive and reconstructive approaches, we will turn to an example from a text we use in our clinic from the 2014 national geographic kids book titled water: water warning we drink water. we use it to cook, clean, and carry waste out of our homes. farmers use it to grow crops, and companies use it to make products. since the 1950’s the amount of water people use has tripled. but the supply hasn’t. in some places, water is being used faster than it can be replaced. rogers & schaenen ú looking upstream 64 scientists worry that soon there won’t be enough water for us and the creatures who share our world. what can you do to help? use water wisely (p. 41). a deconstructive analysis of this text might emphasize how it describes consumerism’s drive for an extractive relationship with water—e.g. “the amount we’ve used has tripled since the 1950s.” the text leaves unsaid what has tripled the demand, whether it is population growth or that people are using more water. obscuring the reality of population growth makes it seem like the onus of responsibility for using too much lies with the individual. logically, that means the solution does too: the reader must use water wisely. in addition, the grammar of the text (the passive construction “water is being used”) hides social actors, including anyone who profits from access to a disproportionate amount of water. there is a factual inaccuracy in the assertion that water can be replaced; water cannot be replaced. as a concept, water in this text is acted upon; it is not characterized by its own activity (e.g. flowing, gurgling, streaming). erased is our embodied relationship with the water cycle, that each of our bodies is, on average, 60% water. a positive discourse analysis (pda) picks up where critical discourse analysis leaves off, searching for alternative discourses and possibilities. a pda of this text might emphasize how the language calls attention to shared use of water by repeating the collective pronoun “we.” warnings are for everyone. the text surfaces emotionality (e.g. scientists worry), inviting the reader to worry, too. the text implicitly stretches the reader to think beyond their individual desires (e.g. consumption) and consider relationships with “creatures who share our world.” finally, the text invites the active participation of the reader, “what can you do to help?” practicing both cda and pda can help us see dynamic tensions connecting two bodies of practice that are often thought of separately: responsive literacy instruction and environmental inquiry (figure 1 provides guiding questions for text analysis). for example, science teachers may teach a “water cycle unit” without addressing how to decode multisyllabic words such as contamination. they may not be prepared to teach the morphology of words, nor to conceptualize the water cycle in an equity frame. in a climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 65 similarly siloed process, literacy teachers may plan learning outcomes associated with reading fluency and comprehension using a text that addresses water justice (e.g. we are water protectors), without pausing to inquire, follow students’ questions, and teach social scientific concepts. figure 1: critical questions educators can ask texts about water justice • what are the dominant and resistant messages, ideas, narratives, and perspectives related to our relationship to water, water hardship and stewardship in this text? is conflict or collaboration emphasized? • how are the nonhuman beings and features of earth represented in this text? are they positioned as resources to be “used,” i.e. passive objects of human doings (rather than subjects actively living and being)? • are the verb tenses in the active or passive voice? is human agency with respect to acting in/upon water and the environment masked or explicit? • does the text implicitly or explicitly put the onus of water stewardship on individuals or on power structures, interlocking systems, and legacies of colonial exploitation? • does the text posit or present factual understandings that are grounded in the scientific method of inquiry (for example: we’ve had a finite quantity of water on earth for nearly 4 billion years). conclusion discourse analysis can help us look upstream of present-day urgencies to embed literacy pedagogy in understandings about water justice. what gives us hope is creating opportunities for all teachers to initiate their own climate literacy journeys upstream. in doing so, teachers see, feel, and hear the ways in which literacies are central to cultivating responsive pedagogies. so, too, is continually striving to center students’ deep, extended engagement with connected text even as they are learning and practicing phonics patterns, fluency, word recognition strategies and comprehension. in our literacy teacher education, we can model deconstructive and reconstructive reading of texts; bringing a water justice lens where none exists and appreciating attempts to center our relationship to water where it does exist in the texts we read, write, and design. rogers & schaenen ú looking upstream 66 references bartlett, t. (2012). hybrid voices and collaborative change: contextualizing positive discourse analysis. routledge. calle-díaz, l. & rogers, r. (2023). reconstructive discourse analysis and online literacy teacher education. pensares em revista, 27, 61-89. doi:10.12957/pr.2023.73959 chawla, s. (1991). linguistic and philosophical roots of our environmental crisis. environmental ethics, 13(3), 253-262. ferguson commission. (2015). forward through ferguson: a path toward racial equality. available at: http://forwardthroughferguson.org. halliday, m. (1990). new ways of meaning: the challenge to applied linguistics. journal of applied linguistics, 6, 7-36. interdisciplinary environmental clinic (2019). environmental racism in st. louis. washington university. report accessed at: https://law.washu.edu/academics/clinical-education-program/interdisciplinaryenvironmental-clinic/ hensen, b. & masters, j. (2022). record rain in st. louis is what climate change looks like. climate connections, accessed: july 23, 2024. macgilchrist, f. (2007). positive discourse analysis: contesting dominant discourses by reframing the issue. critical approaches to discourse across the disciplines, 1(1), 74–94. national resource defense council (2024). finding lead water pipes: new nrdc map shows the hot spots in every state. https://www.nrdc.org/resources/lead-pipesare-widespread-and-used-every-state rogers, r. (2018). reclaiming powerful literacy practices: new horizons for critical discourse analysis. routledge. stibbe, a. (2014). an ecolinguistic approach to critical discourse studies. critical discourse studies, 11(1), 117-128. http://forwardthroughferguson.org/ https://law.washu.edu/academics/clinical-education-program/interdisciplinary-environmental-clinic/ https://law.washu.edu/academics/clinical-education-program/interdisciplinary-environmental-clinic/ https://www.nrdc.org/resources/lead-pipes-are-widespread-and-used-every-state https://www.nrdc.org/resources/lead-pipes-are-widespread-and-used-every-state high school elaú maineú finding possibilities 8 finding possibilities in oral histories of local environmental change high school english language arts maine i had not expected climate change to come up. but it did. last october, my environmental literature class met three community old-timers at the end of an earthen pier jutting from one of the many peninsulas along maine’s midcoast. this was our second stop on a field trip focused on the history of the lands and waters in our school district. the goal was to gather grist for poems exploring local intersections of human and natural history, poems inspired by our state poet laureate’s hardscrabble collection midden, about nearby malaga island. on the pier, my 11th and 12th grade students huddled against the cold as a member of the historical society spoke to us about how different groups of indigenous people used the surrounding land over eras spanning millennia. what he said next surprised me. he pointed to the head of the cove six miles north and described how, when he grew up there sixty years ago, the waters by the shore teemed with shellfish, and lobster buoys filled the cove. he described 150-year-old photographs showing people driving horse-drawn sleighs across the frozen salt waters. now, though? he told us that now, there are only periwinkles and a scattering of wild mussels and oysters near these shores. anyone who can afford it drops their lobster pots far down the cove in cooler, deeper water. and the last time these waters froze solid was well before our lifetimes. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 9 this man never used phrases like “climate change” or “global warming”, but his testimony may have been the semester’s most powerful climate lesson. it was for me, at least. it left me to reconsider how, in a rural area like ours, i might teach the climate crisis and climate justice: not through statistical histories but through oral histories. in fact, that is how so many of our area’s farmers and duck hunters, lobstermen and wabanaki basketmakers pass on their wealth of intergenerational knowledge. their stories hold decades of climate observations, and because they are stories, where better to share and use them than in the english language arts classroom, among the community’s next generations? now, as i look ahead to next school year, i aspire for my students to begin our environmental action unit not by reading climate fiction, researching youth activists, or studying local climate data but instead by listening to the stories of community old-timers. i hope that these stories make the climate crisis more personal and reveal the disproportionate impacts that climate change has within our own community, allowing us to envision climate justice locally before situating it within a global movement. as exciting as this sounds, it also sounds daunting to me as one teacher only a few steps into my journey as a climate educator. this is why we need institutions like the center for climate literacy, organizations like the maine environmental education association, and homespun networks of climate educators: they inspire and sustain us, help expand our individual capacities, and make meaningful climate justice education seem possible. werthwineú city of pure water 10 city of pure water: a place-based argumentative writing unit katharine werthwine, pasco county schools, fl, usa abstract this 9th and 10th grade multimodal writing unit takes a place-based approach to argumentative writing. over ten lessons, students explore a local environmental issue through teacher-curated text sets before working with a partner to create a visual essay arguing for a community-based solution. the unit was originally designed and implemented in an intensive reading/english language arts combination classroom and aims to support and scaffold diverse learners. the unit is aligned to both 9th-10th grade common core and florida best standards on argumentation and organization. the goal of the unit is to foster students’ abilities to write and develop specific claims in their arguments. keywords intensive reading, multimodal writing, argument, water crisis, place-based learning climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 11 i originally developed and implemented this unit for my 9th and 10th grade intensive reading/english language arts combination courses. my students in these courses include english language learners (ells) and students with a diverse set of disabilities, including specific learning disabilities and language impairments. aware of how often these students are discussed only in the context of achievement gaps and learning loss, i wanted to create a writing unit that focused on the strengths of my students, rather than their perceived weaknesses, and to create an opportunity for my students to speak for themselves. to start, i reflected on how i could bring my students’ lived experiences into the classroom. i am privileged to live and teach along the gulf coast of florida around the hillsborough river watershed, a confluence of ancient water sources that has supported human communities for at least 12,000 years (cooper, 2011). water, here, is both a constant and a contradiction. our community faces regular flooding during the rainy season. at the same time, rapid construction has created a water crisis. the communities in the hillsborough river watershed are running out of usable water, while being inundated by flooding and violent storm surges. my students live in this tension. they are frustrated by the rapid construction in our rural area but also depend on it for income. they know our water is needed for our agricultural economy but also that the water is polluted by fertilizer runoff. they love a day at the beach but also know the dangers of the hurricanes that come off the gulf. therefore, taking a placebased approach in designing this unit—that is, a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the local community and its environment in students’ learning—challenged my students to consider how we navigate that tension (martusewicz et al., 2021). my goal in using a place-based approach was to facilitate conversations students were already having about the issues impacting their lives. i considered what questions and concerns they brought to my classroom and compiled a list of local environmental issues for students to choose from, including hurricanes, our local harmful algal bloom (hab) known as red tide, and drought-induced sinkholes. taking a place-based approach also lessened the amount of tier 3 vocabulary my ells and students with disabilities would need to learn. these were words they were experiencing and living. werthwineú city of pure water 12 narrative framing for this unit, i decided that students would work collaboratively in pairs in order to encourage my ell students to practice speaking and listening. in addition, i wanted students to learn from each other and share their lived experiences. i asked students to work together to identify and argue for a community-based solution to an environmental issue with a local impact. so often the discussion on hurricane preparation ends with a checklist of materials for the individual to collect. instead, i wanted students to think about what solutions could be enacted on the community level to better prepare all of us for hurricanes. likewise, i wanted students to think about what changes could be made to mitigate red tide’s impacts on our community, rather than issue another warning for individuals to avoid the beach during a bloom. a couple years prior, a colleague had shared the outlining method called “the tree of reasoning,” one i had used before with students to some success (pavich 2016). i thought i could take the visual outline and repurpose it into a visual essay, encouraging my students’ visual and spatial creativity. in taking a multimodal approach to argumentative writing, i asked my students to thoughtfully combine words with a visual structure, illustrating the coherence of their argument. first, we practiced breaking apart an argument in a common anchor text using the tree structure. we identified the argument’s trunk (or thesis statement), then its branches (or reasoning), and the leaves (or the evidence). for this exercise, i used an article from the local newspaper on how our county’s largest city—where some of my students reside—is addressing the usable water shortage by issuing a building moratorium. this allowed us the opportunity to practice not only argumentation, but also how to have a productive dialogue around a difficult topic. next, i provided students with a choice of text sets, each representative of an environmental issue with local impacts. each text set included multimodal texts with audio and visual supports to be more accessible for my diverse learners. likewise, the multimodal elements of their final product helped scaffold students’ writing to best demonstrate their knowledge of argumentation and the issue being discussed. my students focused on writing their three claims with clear logical and researchbacked evidence with the visual structures they designed acting as logographic cues, replacing the need for additional language like transitional words and phrases. using https://www.jillpavich.com/blog/growing-razing-an-argument https://www.jillpavich.com/blog/growing-razing-an-argument https://www.tampabay.com/news/pasco/2023/05/27/poe-waronker-spina-bottled/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 13 the tree of reasoning as inspiration, they illustrated the coherency of their arguments. the shape of a hurricane wove claims and evidence together as students argued for things like mangrove restorations and changes to residential construction codes as a means of preparing for hurricanes. diagrams of the tampa bay estuary emphasized the relationship between red tide and the need to prevent fertilizer run-off. sinkholes highlighted the urgent need for drought reduction measures. all in all, the visual and spatial aspects of their multimodal writing supported the linguistic aspects, helping grow my students’ confidence as writers. at a glance title city of pure water: a place-based argumentative writing unit unit time 10, 55-minute instructional blocks grade level(s) grades 9-10 core text tampa times article: “zephyrhills to halt new development as water availability evaporates“ supporting texts students will then choose one curated text set focused on their selected topic. climate literacy terms harmful algal blooms (habs); red tide; hurricanes; storm surge, watershed, drought, erosion, sinkholes objectives ● students will work together collaboratively to identify and argue for community-based solutions to an environmental issue with local impacts. ● students will be able to construct a logical and coherent argument using a visual structure. materials and resources ● unit scope & sequence and example text sets ● poster paper ● color pencils, crayons, and/or markers ● digital or paper access to text sets for students https://www.tampabay.com/news/pasco/2023/05/27/poe-waronker-spina-bottled/ https://www.tampabay.com/news/pasco/2023/05/27/poe-waronker-spina-bottled/ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vplu5xqhggjurobqf9g1z61b2qi1bjjf9uy2trannn4/edit?usp=sharing werthwineú city of pure water 14 going forward the second year i taught this unit, my grade level team adapted it and expanded on it to work across the 10th grade, including honors and on-level classes. the visual essay was reframed as a public service announcement and the proper application of rhetorical appeals was emphasized. students were expected to not only construct a coherent text using both writing and logographic cues, but also to consider pathos in designing their visuals, logos in writing out their reasonings, and ethos in referencing their sources. in addition, students were encouraged to use rhetorical devices, like antithesis, to write a tagline for their campaign. my grade level team also expanded the list of topics to include other local environmental issues. this unit could also be expanded to include time for students to research their selected issue on their own. both years i taught this unit, students selected their topic based on the issue they felt posed the most significant threat to their own quality of life. students with asthma worked on solutions to red tide. likewise, students frightened by past hurricanes made plans to weaken future storms. as a result, their visual essays became powerful testimonies of the potential in our community to navigate the tension between our impact and our dependence on our environment. the creativity and resiliency my students demonstrated in their writing gives me hope that they will continue to use their voices to advocate for themselves and our home. references cooper, s. (2011) review of hillsborough river guidebook, by kevin mccarthy. bay soundings. www.baysoundings.com/weaving-the-past-with-the-present-a-tripdown-the-hillsborough-river/. accessed 29 aug. 2024. pavich, j. (18 aug 2016). growing & razing an argument: the “tree of reasoning” strategy explained. jillpavich.com. www.jillpavich.com/blog/growing-razing-anargument. accessed 31 july 2024. martusewicz, r. a., edmundson, j., & lupinacci, j. (2021). ecojustice education: toward diverse, democratic, and sustainable communities. routledge. http://www.baysoundings.com/weaving-the-past-with-the-present-a-trip-down-the-hillsborough-river/ http://www.baysoundings.com/weaving-the-past-with-the-present-a-trip-down-the-hillsborough-river/ http://www.jillpavich.com/blog/growing-razing-an-argument http://www.jillpavich.com/blog/growing-razing-an-argument woodard et al. ú water warriors 52 “we are water warriors”: children perform chicago global water dances rebecca woodard*, stephanie batres spezza*, maria varelas*, amanda r. diaz**, bridget dougherty***, maria rosario***, gustavo soto***, alex benito rodriguez*, nathan phillips*, rachelle tsachor*, rebecca kotler*, and ronan rock* *university of illinois chicago **california state university fullerton ***chicago public schools, chicago, il, usa abstract elementary-aged children with a team of science, theater, and literacy educators performed the chicago global water dances in 2023. global water dances (gwd) is an international initiative to raise awareness about water issues, promote sustainability, and inspire action to protect water resources through dance performed by a local body of water. through the chicago global water dances, children articulated several messages about the necessity of, and right to, clean water and highlighted the collective responsibility to protect this precious resource. keywords water dance, science, theatre, dramatization, youth climate advocacy climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 53 the call for this special issue began with the following lines from carole lindstrom’s (2023) most recent picturebook, autumn peltier, water warrior: “speak for the water. sing for the water. dance for the water.” this is exactly what elementary-aged children with a team of science, theater, and literacy educators and researchers did as part of the chicago global water dances. global water dances (gwd) is an international initiative to raise awareness about water issues, promote sustainability, and inspire action to protect water resources through dance performed by a local body of water. the initiative coordinates a biennial multinational, community-oriented event that takes place at different water-related sites around the world, to raise awareness about water issues and to celebrate water through movement… [they] connect and support a global community of choreographers and dancers to inspire action and international collaboration for water issues through the universal language of dance (global water dances, 2024). global water dances was a generative opportunity for our team’s long-term collaboration, project stage (science theater for advancing generative engagement), a university-school partnership in urban, public elementary schools. the project aims to build on and advance children’s imagination, creativity, meaning making, agency, and ingenuity by supporting children to compose and share embodied performances of various sizes and scales. these performances dramatize and enact science ideas, processes, phenomena, and intersections of ideas in the natural and social worlds. for example, in some of our publications, we have shown how fifth graders in project stage classrooms act out water pollution (kotler et al., 2024); how first graders work in small groups to act out the parts of an ant (woodard, kotler et al., 2023); and how whole classes of sixth graders have created and performed plays about climate change (varelas et al., 2021) and pollution (varelas et al., 2024). a teaching artist, co-author rodriguez, worked with three project stage classes (two 5th grade and one 3rd grade), taught by co-authors dougherty, rosario, and soto, to prepare for and perform their very own chicago global water dance while studying climate change and water issues facing the earth as a global community, and woodard et al. ú water warriors 54 specifically the chicago community. classes performed near a body of local water for their classmates, families, and community members (see figure 1). figure 1: global water dance global water dances are performed near water to emphasize the connection between the performance and water sustainability. the third-grade bilingual class and fifth grade classes performed their dances in local parks with small bodies of water to highlight the impact of local water issues, such as pollution, and the importance of clean water. there are four sections in a global water dance: (a) an opening ritual that is specific to each site in the world, (b) a local dance that is created and performed around a local water issue, (c) the global dance that includes performing the same choreographed dance globally (see global water dances, 2021), and (d) a participatory dance that engages the audience in a single sequence of movements (figure 2). you can watch a 10-minute video overviewing the entire chicago global water dances on climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 55 youtube (global water dances, 2023). below, we elaborate on parts of this production before sharing ideas on how such activities can be a part of the curriculum. section 1: opening ritual section 2: local dance section 3: global dance section 4: participatory dance the fifth graders’ opening ritual featured both a narration and a dance. four students took turns narrating the impacts of plastic waste on the local water supply and the contamination from lead pipes, emphasizing the importance of not giving up despite the severity of these issues. their classmates performed a dance that depicted people walking through, drinking, and getting affected by polluted water, then creatively removing the pollution by imagining filters playfully trapping and pulling it away. the bilingual spanishenglish third-grade class wrote a poem called “ode to water / odal al agua” about the pollution in lake michigan. the poem’s themes inspired the students to create movements that represented the concepts and emotions conveyed in the poem. in this image, they position their hands in the shape of a heart while reciting the lines “when we help to clean the earth, we are truly yours. / si le ayudamos estar limpia, somos suyos por seguro.” “we were doing the ocean, in and out, and the first time, we were in dehydration, that we didn’t have no water. [see top image.] and then, one dot of rain came, and then we started dancing and doing all our moves. [see bottom image.]” in the top image the student walks slowly, bending forward, and struggling to complete his steps as his body does not have the water it needs. in the bottom image, joy, happiness, smiles, and effortless arm movements symbolize the power of water and the energy it provides the body. at the end of their gwds, the students guided the audience in a movement sequence that connected both the performers and the audience. this interactive dance invited the audience to move beyond their role as observers and become active participants in the performance. the top image shows fifth graders performing the participatory dance, and the bottom image shows the audience completing the same moves. figure 2: images from chicago global water dances woodard et al. ú water warriors 56 the whole production, including the vignettes summarized here, show how these young children were literally stepping up to “[s]peak for the water. sing for the water. dance for the water.” their dances exhibited their beautiful sense making of science ideas (e.g., polluting the water, working hard to clean it up by removing the deposited toxins, being exhausted when dehydrated, being joyful when water is available–even a “dot of rain”). the chicago global water dance choreographies and performances gave children opportunities to engage with science that matters for their community, advocate for collective action, and show audiences of families, school staff, and park goers their science knowledge outside of the classroom. in this way, it gave children a space to express their scientific understandings and how environmental issues are relevant in local and global contexts beyond traditional science assessments. the children’s performances communicated essential ideas related to the significance of water problems faced globally and locally. in the fifth graders’ combined opening ritual and local dance, several powerful ideas were communicated: idea 1 we are water warriors…not a lot of people are aware of what is happening to our water supply and how they are so polluted. there are also people who are aware but aren’t doing anything and are just leaving other people to fix it…our water supply is being harmed and people just give up seeing how big the problem is and don't want to help fix it. idea 2 we used things [in our costumes] that we consume and throw away a lot. for example, plastic, cardboard and candy wrappers, and other recyclable materials. we used these materials to show how polluted our oceans are and to take a stand against creating so much waste. there are not just problems with our oceans, but also problems with our water supply in chicago. idea 3 there are also problems with our drinking water. a lot of homes still have lead pipes, and people drink water from those pipes. lead is especially dangerous for children, climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 57 and it's a devastating harm to last a lifetime. the center for disease control and prevention and other scientists agree that any amount of lead in the blood during childhood is harmful. children are particularly vulnerable during the first six years of life, because their brains are in critical stages of development. idea 4 people need to step up and work with their communities to save our water supply. even though the problems are too big, people need to learn not to give up when a problem becomes too difficult. if we don’t start making changes and protect our planet, our future generations will be the ones who suffer. the children articulated several messages about the necessity of, and right to, clean water and highlighted the collective responsibility to protect this precious resource. they addressed both the global issue of ocean pollution and the garbage accumulation in oceans, and the local issue of lead in water due to old lead water pipes in chicago buildings including schools. they called out the harm that pollution produces, and they raised the alarm especially for children younger than them. they expressed their agency, claiming that they “are water warriors,” creating a call to action. they acted in intentional ways by crafting sustainable costumes. they acknowledged the responsibility of current generations for the well-being of future generations. as teachers look to create experiences like this in their classrooms, the chicago global water dances point to some useful possibilities: ● move water studies beyond the classroom. connect to local water issues and sites. ● couple traditional water studies (e.g., observing water in class and studying water’s properties), with explorations of water quality in the school’s community and local histories with water including structural injustices often associated with particular communities (kotler et al., 2024). woodard et al. ú water warriors 58 ● act, dance, and move for water. these can range from very smallto large-scale enactments. our team has published a number of publications with examples of what this can look like. ● read and write for water. write arguments. write poems. make videos (woodard, diaz et al., 2023). share writings with families, friends, and others. ● explore global water dances and consider how you can get involved. beyond the vibrant and joyful global water dances we witnessed chicago children perform, we are heartened, too, by their knowledge-building, identity-building, and developing agency. the world needs more scientists, more dancers, more poets, and more water warriors. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 2 (special issue) 59 references chicago global water dances. (2023, november 9). chicago, usa – chicago global water dances 2023. [video] youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psfbadr2yy8 global water dances. (2021, may 23). global water dances – 2023. [video] youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8e1hctpa7w global water dances. (2024). global water dances. https://globalwaterdances.org/ kotler, r. t., rosario, m., varelas, m., phillips, n. c., tsachor, r., & woodard, r. (2024). latinx students embodying justice-centered science: agency through imagining via the performing arts. science education, 108, 851-889. varelas, m., kotler, r., natividad, h., phillips, n., rachelle tsachor, woodard, r., gutierrez, m., melchor, m., & rosario, m. (2022). “science theater makes you good at science”: affordances of embodied performances in urban elementary science classrooms. journal of research in science teaching, 59, 493-528. varelas, m., diaz, a. r., kotler, r., woodard, r., rock, r., sabitt, z., phillips, n., tsachor, r., gutierrez, m., natividad, h., threewitt, d., & ellison, j. (2024). embodied, dramatizing performances in science class: multimodal spaces and places of knowledge and identity construction. research in science & technological education, 42(1), 157-179. doi: 10.1080/02635143.2024.2306307 woodard, r., diaz, a. r., phillips, n. c., varelas, m., kotler, r. t., tsachor, r., rock, r. m., & melchor, m. a. (2023). “i. am. a. star.”: exploring moments of muchness in children’s digital compositional play and embodied science learning. english teaching: practice and critique, 22(2), 163-176. https://doi.org/10.1108/etpc08-2022-0101 woodard, r., kotler, r., varelas, m., tsachor, r., phillips, n., & guiterrez, m. (2023). moving along with reading, writing, drawing, and talking: dramatizing as a place for children’s playful disciplinary learning. literacy today, 40(4), 28-30. children’s literature lindstrom, c. (2023). autumn peltier, water https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psfbadr2yy8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8e1hctpa7w https://globalwaterdances.org/ https://doi.org/10.1108/etpc-08-2022-0101 https://doi.org/10.1108/etpc-08-2022-0101 malone leaf, delisle, & redmondú climate literacy through artistic practice 22 developing climate literacy through artistic practice betsy maloney leaf, university of minnesota-twin cities, mn, usa heather delisle, university of minnesota-twin cities, mn, usa colleen redmond, university of minnesota-twin cities, mn, usa abstract this article describes a 120-minute professional development workshop on climate literacy for a cohort of urban arts school teachers. our goal included engaging teachers in reflective conversation and providing language to describe climate emotions— particularly those affecting today’s adolescents, such as climate grief and ecooptimism. we identified tangible ways to make climate literacy part of their classrooms, including connecting climate conversations to existing course content as well as framing learning experiences within climate discourses. keywords arts education, ecojustice, climate emotions, professional development, climate literacy, hope climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 23 overview heeding the call to respond to “visible results of ecological crises all over the world” (foster & turkki, 2023, p 91), we developed and implemented a 120-minute professional development workshop for 25 high school educators working at an urban arts school in minnesota. our goal included engaging teachers in reflective conversation (and ultimately curriculum development) about climate-specific narratives that center hope and cultivate optimism through artistic expression. knowing that youth hold deep feelings about the climate crisis, even if they don’t openly express them in school, we also encouraged participants to develop climate literacy curricula that allow students to explore a spectrum of feelings often associated with the crisis (kelsey, 2020). narrative framing foster & nella (2023) write: “the human-caused climate change, mass extinction of species, and broadly polluted areas have slowly started to convince a growing number of scholars from diverse fields and the general public that a collective ecological transformation is needed” (p. 91). in our experience as arts teacher trainers, conversation about the climate crisis often connotes doom and gloom; thus, thinking about the climate crisis from a place of hope while acknowledging that climate conversations draw upon deep feelings seemed an innovative approach in our field of arts education. we set about creating a professional development experience addressing key aspects of an ecological future with the goal of exploring what educators should know in order to support their students to develop climate literacy through artistic practice. providing language to describe climate emotions—particularly those affecting today’s adolescents, such as climate grief and eco-optimism—felt essential. equally important was creating learning opportunities for youth to explore these feelings in school. key aspects of this process can be found in the table below. malone leaf, delisle, & redmondú climate literacy through artistic practice 24 professional development at a glance title exploring ecojustice through arts education unit time 120 minutes grade level(s) secondary k-12 teachers core text “climate justice literacy: stories-we-live-by, ecolinguistics, and classroom practices” supporting texts • a climate change promise by apple • dead reckoning climate literacy terms eco-optimism, climate grief, “stories-we-live-by” objectives • understand how the climate crisis elicits feelings that impact adolescent youth (and all of us!) • recognize the need to shift conversation on climate crisis from only doom and gloom to stories of hope and possibility • identify and evaluate multimodal “stories-we-liveby” that focus on the environment to use in classrooms • support youth to create new “stories-to-live-by” through artistic practice to acknowledge their thoughts and feelings about the future of the planet—to “re-story” the future as possible and hopeful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anogcy6nlgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anogcy6nlgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anogcy6nlgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anogcy6nlgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anogcy6nlgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anogcy6nlgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n41d7bjshy&t=17s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n41d7bjshy&t=17s climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 25 knowing that our meeting time would be brief, we sketched a plan for the workshop to introduce climate literacy and guide teachers to reflect on the possibilities that could occur in their own classrooms in the subsequent academic year. we asked teacher participants to: 1. consider their own thoughts and feelings about a climate future, including finding language to describe how they experience the climate crisis 2. explore the intersection between climate “doom and gloom” stories and students’ mental health 3. reflect on the importance of storytelling and artistic practice to effect change around social justice topics, including eco-justice (foster & turkki, 2023) 4. brainstorm ways to integrate “stories we live by” (damico, baildon, and panos, 2020) and artistic practice into curriculum so students could consider the impact of discipline-specific practices on a climate future 5. commit to developing climate literacy in the classrooms at least once during ay 2024-2025 to accomplish these objectives, we asked teacher participants to talk with a person near them using the following questions as prompts to guide conversation: how do you feel about the climate crisis—do you trend more pessimistic or more optimistic when you consider the future of our planet? how might your views be different from your students’ perspectives? how might generational differences explain this, if at all? using their discussion response as a basis for large group conversation, we introduced concepts related to ecological grief (comtesse, ertl, hengst, rosner, smid, 2021), ecooptimism (oziewicz, 2022), and eco-justice, or work that addresses environmental issues to understand how “social and ecological issues have the same root in modernity” (foster & turkki, 2023 p. 91). to underscore this information, we shared two resources with attending teachers from contemporary media illustrating the connection between feelings and the climate crisis with the aim of considering how narratives shape public discourse about our climate future. first, we highlighted an article from the new york times (soloski, 2024), that describes how a “doom and gloom” approach to the climate crisis has not worked malone leaf, delisle, & redmondú climate literacy through artistic practice 26 effectively to engage global citizens in climate crisis conversations. this is significant because most adults have grown accustomed to hearing alarm bells ring—a fatalistic or dystopian attitude applied writ large to climate conversation—in a questionable attempt to build motivation and momentum around our planet’s future. when seen through an ecological lens, these stories frame the climate crisis as destructive. why does this matter? it reinforces climate despair, which research shows does not mobilize action toward a solution for our future and may be contributing to unease among adolescent youth (comtesse et al. 2021). we shared apple’s climate change commitment as the second exemplar, which is a short video outlining the company’s pledge to address the climate crisis. by the end of this video, some teacher participants were visibly moved by the film’s message (including a handful who were in tears) over apple’s message: our climate future is high stakes. using a large group discussion format, we then deconstructed the explicit and implicit messages woven into apple’s climate commitment and connected these factors to notions of both “doom and gloom” as well as “hope” for a climate future. as workshop participants reflected on ways to incorporate climate conversations into their classrooms, we offered “stories to live by” (damico, baildon, & panos, 2020) as a possible avenue to explore with students. sometimes described as “mental models” (p. 684), stories we live by are large structures holding social, cultural and other norms shared across communities. we shared examples of contemporary artists whose work addresses the daily impact of environmental issues, such as “dead reckoning”, a dance work created by kt nelson and performed by san franciscobased dance company, odc (2014). using these examples as a starting point, participants worked in small cross-disciplinary groups to brainstorm ideas for bringing this work into their own classrooms. by the end of the workshop, teachers identified tangible ways to make climate literacy part of their classrooms. these included the following approaches to fostering critical thinking about the climate crisis: 1. connect to existing course content (e.g., expanding a class focusing on social justice art to include climate justice as a subject of inquiry), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anogcy6nlgs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n41d7bjshy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n41d7bjshy climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 27 2. frame course content within climate discourses (e.g. exploring climate justice, policy, and its impact on language in a world language classroom), and 3. design an inquiry-based learning experience to examine course materials (e.g. investigating the climate-impact of printmaking materials while proposing alternate, more climate friendly resources) going forward our professional development workshop began by acknowledging that for most educators, supporting climate conversations in the classroom may not have felt like a pressing need. while some had considered the personal impacts of the climate crisis— perhaps even experiencing feelings of panic or anxiety—few had incorporated climaterelated topics into their teaching. moreover, none had approached these topics in a way that fostered a sense of hope or optimism about the future. generating workshop experiences to enhance how teachers amplify students’ climate literacy—especially connecting students’ feelings with visions for the future through artistic practice— underscores the need to consider the place of hope in climate conversations. engaging youth to “re/creat[e] multimodal texts in the pursuit of social justice in their local and global communities (janks 2010, as cited in mayes & center, 2023 p. 525) means shepherding youth through possible solutions for a climate future that hinges upon optimism, possibility, and delight. in the future, we will continue to develop and deliver this professional development content to area schools, perhaps even as part of an extended summer workshop. participating teachers could gather for multiple days to not only learn more about developing students’ climate literacy but work in community with other k-12 teachers to develop tangible curricular materials as part of a community of practice. importantly, our approach avoids “the types of scare tactics sometimes used in climate outreach” because “teaching young people about climate change can empower them and help alleviate concerns about climate change” (baker, loxton, and sherren, 2013, p. 136). amplifying a sense of climate hope and its connection to adolescent mental health through artistic expression can positively prepare our students for the future. malone leaf, delisle, & redmondú climate literacy through artistic practice 28 references baker, j., loxton, j., & sherren, k. (2013). using art elicitation to deliver and evaluate a grade 4 climate change instructional module. applied environmental education and communication, 12(2), 130–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/1533015x.2013.824248 comtesse, h., ertl, v., hengst, s., rosner, r., & smid, g. (2021). ecological grief as a response to environmental change: a mental health risk or functional response? international journal of environmental research and public health, 18, 734: doi: 10.3390/ijerph18020734. damico, j. s., baildon, m., & panos, a. (2020). climate justice literacy: stories-welive-by, ecolinguistics, and classroom practice. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 63(6), 683–691. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1051 kelsey, e. (2020). hope matters: why changing the way we think is critical to solving the environmental crisis. greystone books. foster, r., & turkki, n. (2023). ecojustice approach to dance education, journal of dance education, 23(2), 91-101, doi: 10.1080/15290824.2021.1906430 mayes, e. & center, e. (2023). learning with student climate strikers’ humour: towards critical affective climate justice literacies, environmental education research, 29(4), 520-538, doi: 10.1080/13504622.2022.2067322 nelson, k.t. (2014). dead reckoning. [youtube]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n41d7bjshy oziewicz, m. (2022). planetarianism now: on anticipatory imagination, young people’s literature, and hope for the planet. in paulsen et al. (eds.), pedagogy in the anthropocene. springer. 241-256. soloski, a. (2024, april 24) climate doom is out. apocalyptic optimism is in. new york times. accessed online: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/arts/television/climate-changeapocalypse-optimism.html https://doi.org/10.1080/1533015x.2013.824248 https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/2/734 https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1051 https://doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2021.1906430 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504622.2022.2067322 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n41d7bjshy https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/arts/television/climate-change-apocalypse-optimism.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/arts/television/climate-change-apocalypse-optimism.html climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 1 introduction: the long game climate education after doge marek oziewicz, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa nick kleese, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract in this introduction, we reflect on the state of climate education six months into the second trump presidency. while the damage done and stakes ahead are undeniable, we envision possibilities for climate action and climate literacy education going forward. we reflect on what teachers can do to accelerate integration of climate literacy across all subject areas and how a changing understanding of climate literacy as a holistic socioscientific and cultural competence is gaining ground across the world. ours is a long game, and we are in it through all the bumps in the transition. keywords u.s. presidential election, climate erasure, climate literacy education, climate devastation, energy transition, persistence welcome to the first issue of cle published since january 2025. within a mere six months, we find ourselves in a radically new legal and ideological landscape, in which the us federal government made a 180 degree turn on anything relating to climate, environment, and education. the contours of this change are familiar, yet shocking, to most of our american readers, but a brief snapshot is helpful to remind everyone of just how profound this backlash against climate science and policies has been—and it’s not over yet. oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 2 no, it’s not over yet. since the new administration took office, a series of executive orders removed the us from the paris agreement, halted the inflation reduction act’s support for energy transition and replaced it with the unleashing american energy executive order, oriented at strangling renewable energy initiatives in favor of advancing fossil fuel production and expansion. this is no longer climate denial but climate erasure. federal agencies were ordered to scrub any references to climate change from their websites. the us department of agriculture, for example, was ordered to remove information that helps farmers respond and adapt to the changing climate—a costly and destructive move that was successfully challenged by earthjustice on may 14. the national ocean and atmospheric administration’s 2024 guide to climate literacy was scrubbed from government sites (for a copy of the guide, see this website). the administration is now planning to dissolve noaa’s office of oceanic and atmospheric research, which supports dozens of research institutes and programs “from earth systems modeling to ocean health to advanced weather radar” (2025, n.p.). nasa, nws, us forest service, fema and dozens of other federal agencies were gutted, defunded, or restructured to serve purposes completely different from their original mission. no example is more poignant than rebranding of the environmental protection agency, which just abandoned the twin tenets of protecting the environment and public health that had guided epa since its founding in 1970. lee zeldin, the new administrator, redefined epa’s mission as centered on “lower[ing] the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business” (friedman and tabuchi, 2025, np). thousands of scientists, research personnel, conservation workers, national park service personnel, and other staff essential for studying and protecting the earth system have been laid off or placed on indefinite leaves. thousands of research and education projects have been terminated. one among them was the teaching climate justice with young people’s literatures and media summer institute for k-12 teachers to be offered by the center for climate literacy this summer. funded by the national endowment for the humanities, the institute was to provide twenty-four teachers with an opportunity to develop a literature-based, theoryinformed, actionable understanding of climate justice for the ela classroom. see the forthcoming special issue on why climate justice matters. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy/ https://grist.org/language/trump-administration-climate-data-disappear-national-climate-assessment/ https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/31/usda-climate-change-websites-00201826 https://earthjustice.org/brief/2025/were-suing-to-stop-the-trump-admins-climate-censorship-that-threatens-farmers-and-our-food-supply?ms=readmorelink&utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&sourceid=1047829&emci=0c865f1c-0f31-f011-8b3d-6045bded8cca&emdi=0f865f1c-0f31-f011-8b3d-6045bded8cca&ceid=1915860 https://earthjustice.org/brief/2025/were-suing-to-stop-the-trump-admins-climate-censorship-that-threatens-farmers-and-our-food-supply?ms=readmorelink&utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&sourceid=1047829&emci=0c865f1c-0f31-f011-8b3d-6045bded8cca&emdi=0f865f1c-0f31-f011-8b3d-6045bded8cca&ceid=1915860 https://lunacreates.com/project/climate-literacy-guide/ https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/07/03/white-house-details-proposed-noaa-research-science-cuts-00435082 https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/07/03/white-house-details-proposed-noaa-research-science-cuts-00435082 https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/render?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20250313&instance_id=149905&isviewinbrowser=true&nl=climate-forward&productcode=clim&regi_id=73464099&segment_id=193367&sendid=193367&uri=nyt://newsletter/b7a0addd-1808-56cb-86f1-6f57cf2b9fd3&user_id=896aa87d0eb7a618ff76c8dbbbbcdf0b https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/render?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20250313&instance_id=149905&isviewinbrowser=true&nl=climate-forward&productcode=clim&regi_id=73464099&segment_id=193367&sendid=193367&uri=nyt://newsletter/b7a0addd-1808-56cb-86f1-6f57cf2b9fd3&user_id=896aa87d0eb7a618ff76c8dbbbbcdf0b https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/climate/noaa-fellows-unpaid-leave.html climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 3 this unprecedented and intentional dismantling of american institutions and peoples’ collective capacity to adapt to the climate crisis and mitigate its effects is happening against the backdrop of two larger trends. one is the inexorable acceleration of climate-driven disasters, from blistering summer heatwaves and droughts to tornadoes, wildfires, and flash floods, including the recent tragedy in texas. 2025 is already shaping to be among the warmest years in the 131-year record. june—the most recent month for which data is available—was earth’s third-warmest june in global weather data, right after junes in 2024 and 2023. both 2023 and 2024 were, consecutively, the warmest years on record. this is not a fluke. without a concerted global effort and a national climate action plan, climate devastation will continue to get more brutal, more fatal, and more widespread. the price—in lives, livelihoods, health, and assets—will be mostly borne by ordinary people, most of whom are already reeling from inflation, price hikes, and declining real purchasing power of household incomes. thanks to federal agencies such as noaa’s national centers for environmental information (ncei), we know that the financial cost of climate-related disasters has been rising steeply, reaching $182.7 billion in 2024. it will likely continue to rise in the foreseeable future, although the stats may no longer be available. the january 10 report by ncei was possibly the last one we’ll see in a while, since the ncei’s billion dollar disasters reports have now been discontinued. as jonathan mingle aptly put it in an article “an epa without science,” the current administration is waging “a war on the future” (n.p.). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00139157.2025.2434494 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/05/stories-from-six-countries-europe-extreme-heat? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/02/droughts-worldwide-pushing-tens-millions-starvation-report https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/09/texas-floods-camp-mystic-loss? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/09/texas-floods-camp-mystic-loss? https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/national-climate-202506#:~:text=the%20average%20temperature%20for%20the%20conus%20during%20the%20first%20half,of%20the%20131%2dyear%20record. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/07/june-2025-was-the-planets-3rd-warmest-on-record/ https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/07/june-2025-was-the-planets-3rd-warmest-on-record/ https://www.noaa.gov/news/2024-was-worlds-warmest-year-on-record https://www.salon.com/2024/06/23/we-need-a-national-climate-action-plan-and-an-exit-strategy-from-fossil-fuels_partner/?ref=upstract.com https://www.salon.com/2024/06/23/we-need-a-national-climate-action-plan-and-an-exit-strategy-from-fossil-fuels_partner/?ref=upstract.com https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2024-active-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2024-active-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/05/16/an-epa-without-science/ oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 4 figure 1: screenshot of ncei notification that they will discontinue financial reports the other larger unstoppable trend is the widespread availability, increased efficiency, and growing affordability of renewable energy. over the past decade, the cost of solar and wind has gone down by 75 and 60 percent respectively. batteries and energy storage have gotten better and cheaper, too. in the fall of 2024, bill mckibben wrote that “we are on the cusp of a true explosion that could change the world. we are starting to put out the fires that humans have always relied on and replace them with the power of the sun” (mckibben, 2024, n.p.). clean energy and transportation growth continues unabated, not just in europe, china, africa and elsewhere, but also in the us, where investments increased by over 16 percent from 2023 to 2024. in april 2025, reuters reported that, for the first time ever, fossil fuels generated less than half of us electricity and minnesota leads the way in experimenting on cutting red tape for climate projects. both trends set the current administration on a collision course with earth’s biophysical reality and with the shifting economic and technological landscape. at some point in not-so-distant future, we will be both forced and incentivized to redesign human civilization for interspecies kinship, climate justice, and lives aligned with planetary limits. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-plummeting-cost-of-renewable-energy/ https://energytransition.org/2025/04/is-the-eu-still-transitioning-to-renewable-energy/ https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/06/clean-energy-china-emissions-peak/ https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/render?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20250131&instance_id=146327&isviewinbrowser=true&nl=climate-forward&productcode=clim&regi_id=73464099&segment_id=189812&sendid=189812&uri=nyt://newsletter/fdb602f4-8177-5f69-b53f-ec4e3e5af4ed&user_id=896aa87d0eb7a618ff76c8dbbbbcdf0b https://www.cleaninvestmentmonitor.org/reports https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/fossil-fuels-generate-less-than-half-us-electricity-first-month-ever-says-energy-2025-04-04/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/fossil-fuels-generate-less-than-half-us-electricity-first-month-ever-says-energy-2025-04-04/ https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/render?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20250228&instance_id=148746&isviewinbrowser=true&nl=climate-forward&productcode=clim&regi_id=73464099&segment_id=192212&sendid=192212&uri=nyt://newsletter/82a75717-bf50-508c-a7ff-3baa3c65fadc&user_id=896aa87d0eb7a618ff76c8dbbbbcdf0b https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/render?campaign_id=54&emc=edit_clim_20250228&instance_id=148746&isviewinbrowser=true&nl=climate-forward&productcode=clim&regi_id=73464099&segment_id=192212&sendid=192212&uri=nyt://newsletter/82a75717-bf50-508c-a7ff-3baa3c65fadc&user_id=896aa87d0eb7a618ff76c8dbbbbcdf0b climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 5 no, this moment is not over yet. to play the long game means to keep this goal—an ecological world—in mind. in march, the new york times launched a new series “50 states, 50 fixes” aimed to highlight local efforts across all fifty states, in which everyday people are doing quiet, vital work to confront climate change and biodiversity loss. in april, the global journalism collaboration covering climate now, the guardian, agence france-presse, and dozens of other newsrooms across the world launched the 89% project to help the public realize that a vast majority of world population supports decisive climate action. this shift is also visible in scholarship, with an increasing number of publications and studies centered on climate literacy and available in open access, such as the recent collection children’s literatures, cultures, and pedagogies in the anthropocene, edited by terri doughty, justyna deszcztryhubczak, and janet grafton. at cle, we are part of this majority, too, advocating for integrated climate literacy instruction across all pre-k12 subject areas and grades. starting with this issue, we have updated the journal’s style guide in accordance with the guardian’s guidelines: using “the climate crisis” or “the climate emergency” instead of “climate change” and “global heating” instead of mildly-sounding “global warming.” we remain committed to defending everyone’s right to a habitable planet and we believe teachers have a crucial role to play in this effort. no, it is not yet over, and the contributions to this issue transform that sentiment into a rallying cry: they that would abandon our earth have not finished; neither are we who fight for it. this tone is set clearly in the issue’s first article from luke gliddon, “dispatches from the future”, in which he reports on his work to incorporate future thinking into his secondary science classroom via engagement with black panther and other speculative tales. jennifer rudd, writing from her perspective as a scientist, shares how stories helped advance carbon literacy education in wales. betsy maloney leaf, heather delisle, and colleen redmond offer examples of the professional development they conducted with secondary arts educators, imbuing their learning with a sense of active hope. cheryl hunter and leila campbell’s piece on the affordances of teaching with and in local ecological systems reminds us that we have ample inspiration just on the other side of our classroom walls. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/climate/50-states-fixes.html https://ablink.editorial.theguardian.com/ss/c/u001.yw_jklmemfuifc_xg18irytntzq7fiemgszccsnehedx8gtpwnsdigkk819si2wqzkogo_ss5aaxlhm8zdadsw2f_prt5trwvb-ankvzulgrnbxlb1430yt9rvmmgsbju4m0ane3dhmry0-wyvvooe0nmy1ihiqkn9kmiyc_btpehwjyxei5r9-g0_epfe2y4aarpago6f68yivn_p5giqiudtj9-zkfav-a2hl9o9rjal1cbqxj2gl7htpxwtha06l3zqaqupkrneiejz74ea/4fz/e7lcothzrvosqzqnuktmua/h100/h001.aiqyhbrziryv2a1nle3jaet4irse-jftea_criht9ow https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781350510005 https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781350510005 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/16/guardian-language-changes-climate-environment https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/16/guardian-language-changes-climate-environment oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 6 the critical essays also advance an argument for outlasting this fraught moment. marek’s article identifies a few key flashpoints of this persistence, namely by articulating the differing perspectives, emotions, and assets that individuals bring to climate literacy education. roman bartosch, julia hoydis, and jens martin gurr recognize the unique assets that individuals bring in their expertise at connecting climate concepts within and across texts. daniel feldman, dong yeol park, and hunseok oh enact this expertise by drawing connections between two young adult books that thematize climate refugees. karen hindhede offers a critical overview of the inspiration for her own ecopedagogical framework, while jessica fundalinski is likewise critical in her exploration of the ideological machinations involved in using pronouns to refer to more-than-human beings. finally, turkan firinci orman reports on findings from a study assessing the relationship between place-consciousness, climate education, and youth eco-literacy. this issue is rounded out by two reflection pieces that each correspond to another article in this issue. hunter refers us back to “special places in school,” noting that cultivating a sense of place and its ecology in education enables greater awareness, knowledge, and care for our earth. malone leaf, delisle, and redmond round out this issue, describing in more detail their hopes for the professional development articulated in “developing climate literacy through artistic practice”: namely, to support teacher and student mental health. thus, we might conceptualize the work of climate literacy education as both a means to an ecological future and, perhaps, that future itself. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 7 references cusick, d. (3 july 2025). white house details proposed noaa research, science cuts. politicopro. accessed online: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/07/03/white-housedetails-proposed-noaa-research-science-cuts-00435082 friedman, l. and tabuchi, h. (13 march 2025). the e.p.a. shifts its mission. climate forward newsletter. the new york times. mingle, j. (16 may 2025). an epa without science. the new york review. accessed online: https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/05/16/an-epa-without-science/ mckibben, b. (5 sept 2024). the sun also riseth. the crucial years. accessed online: https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/here-comes-the-sun https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/07/03/white-house-details-proposed-noaa-research-science-cuts-00435082 https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/07/03/white-house-details-proposed-noaa-research-science-cuts-00435082 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/05/16/an-epa-without-science/ https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/here-comes-the-sun climate literacy in education vol. 2, no. 1 first published version – page numbers to change with issue release 1 introduction: the road taken marek oziewicz, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa nick kleese, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract in this introduction, we envision possibilities for climate action and climate literacy education under the trump administration. we reflect on what teachers can do on to accelerate integration of climate literacy across all subject areas and how a changing understanding of climate literacy as a holistic socioscientific and cultural competence is gaining ground across the world. keywords u.s. presidential election, climate action, climate literacy education welcome to the third issue of climate literacy in education! this introduction was delayed until the results of the u.s. presidential election were announced. we already know which road was not taken. as fintan o’toole noted, “the democrats played down two very big things: the climate crisis and the income inequality that is sure to rise as new technologies further enrich existing elites. the result was an offering that was broad but shallow, based as it was on a decision not to address issues that are shaping the lives of americans now and will continue to shape them in the coming decades.” the road chosen by the popular vote is almost certainly going to be harder on the people and the planet. that said, an important caveat must be made. in today’s reality of extreme polarization it is easy to assume that that americans who care about climate belong in one political camp whereas those who deny the emergency belong in the other. in fact, however, over 72 percent of americans believe that climate change is real, over 70 percent believe it will harm future generations, and over 58 percent believe it is already harming people in the us today. these beliefs increasingly transcend political and generational https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/11/07/letting-it-all-hang-out-november-5-election-fintan-otoole/ https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/ https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/ https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/ https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/ oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 2 divides. they are growing to be a shared space from which we can act together—even if we disagree on this or other political issue. put otherwise, if we are serious about addressing the emergency, it may be smarter to focus on discovering how we are in it together—like the millions affected by hurricane helene—instead of righteous anger that insists on an ever-sharper “us vs them” divide. the future is yet unwritten. we all have a role to play in how it unfolds. in the larger context, of course, the world is still on track toward climate collapse. no country or political party has really stepped up to the challenge yet. according to the international institute for sustainable development, the g-20 countries are still subsidizing fossil fuel at triple the rate they’re doing for renewables. wildlife loss continues to accelerate, from 69% in 2022 to 73% in 2023. this comes as no surprise given that “the world has never yet met a single target set in the history of un biodiversity agreements” (greenfield & dunne). although wealth-related drivers of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss are increasingly clear, the neoliberal paradigm of fossil-fuel based growth seems unstoppable. aside from ecospheric and social costs, more severe events like hurricanes milton and helene bring very real loss in financial terms too: a double-digit billion-dollar loss from milton and anywhere between $225 and $250 billion from helene. how long and how often can people bear that kind of cost? as jonathan mingle writes, “even under president biden, who has said he thinks climate change is an existential crisis and who has done more than any president before him to confront it, americans have been woefully unprepared for the climate upheavals that are coming—and for those that have already arrived.” we are all in for a bumpy ride. although the climate crisis will continue to accelerate on the path set by our actions over the past thirty years, there are always opportunities to also accelerate mitigation, adaptation, and transformation necessary to finally shift humanity’s trajectory toward just, regenerative futures. here are some of the tools we have and what they mean for hope and possibility on climate action. 1. we have successful models from around the world of legislation and actions that mitigate the climate emergency, accelerate adaptation, and constrain operational space for ecocidal industries. for example, european environment agency report trends and projections in europe 2024 (oct 31, 2024) notes that 2023 saw the “largest year-on-year reduction [of emissions] in several decades” (5). “in 2023, eu total net ghg emissions decreased to 37% below 1990 levels” (5) and “the share of renewable energy had grown … to an estimated 24% of the eu′s gross final energy consumption by 2023” (6). 2. we may be closer to turning a corner on tolerating denial and lies on confronting climate change. as rebecca solnit (2024) recently wrote, the mainstream media https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/renewable-energy-support-g20 https://theconversation.com/wildlife-loss-is-taking-ecosystems-nearer-to-collapse-new-report-240526 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/15/about-80-percent-countries-fail-submit-plans-preserve-nature-ahead-cop16-aoe https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s0006320723001489 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/hurricane-milton-florida-insurance-00183532 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/hurricane-milton-florida-insurance-00183532 https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/helene-is-2nd-deadliest-u-s-hurricane-in-50-years-could-cost-250-billion/1698452 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/10/30/planet-2025-trump-climate/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nyr-103124-fusco-blair-yeazell-bellaigue-gunasekara-mingle&utm_content=nyr-103124-fusco-blair-yeazell-bellaigue-gunasekara-mingle+cid_3eb42f9ad2ea3ea021d1cadefe7d6015&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=planet%202025 https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2023/09/19/climate-policies-with-real-world-results https://time.com/6261729/seine-clean-up-paris-olympics-2024/ https://climate-xchange.org/2024/08/policy-explainer-drilling-down-on-state-efforts-to-ban-fracking/ https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/publications/trends-and-projections-in-europe-2024 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clinton-harris-election climate literacy in education vol. 2, no. 1 first published version – page numbers to change with issue release 3 have failed america by “treating the true and the false, the normal and the outrageous, as equally valid” (n.p), and this normalization of atrocity has been especially disabling for climate action. yet, it is becoming harder for ecocidal agents to dismiss climate change as a scam and we may be getting closer, collectively, to embracing “climate truth” and confronting the climate emergency as an emergency. between hurricanes beryl (june) and helene (september), massive floods in europe and asia, accelerating extreme weather and 2024 being, again, the hottest year on record, calls for a national climate action plan and concerted world action are getting louder and more likely to be taken seriously. 3. we have a growing consensus that education is essential for the wholesale civilizational transformation the planet needs: as leading climate scientists michael e. mann puts it in the “foreword” to empowering youth to confront the climate crisis in english language arts, edited by allen webb, richard beach and jeff share (2024), “the climate crisis is far more than a problem of science, economics, policy, or politics. fundamentally, it’s a problem of ethics—particularly, the intergenerational ethical quandary of leaving behind a degraded planet for future generations.” to tackle it, “we must engage the heart, as well as the head … [and] nobody is better positioned to help young people do that than teachers…” (p. ix). 4. we also have a major shift—a decade in the making—in understanding that climate literacy is far more than just about climate science: an approach that the center for climate literacy has championed since its inception. the recently updated 2024 noaa guide to climate literacy has now expanded a definition of climate literacy to “incorporate other types of knowledge about the climate system, in addition to physical climate science” so that “the term now includes local and indigenous knowledges, social and cultural contexts, the social sciences, climate solutions, and climate justice concepts” (n.p). likewise, unesco’s 2024 education and climate change report stresses that education “is key to climate change mitigation and adaption efforts,” and not just through “improving knowledge [and] raising awareness” but specifically through “changing attitudes, beliefs and behaviours” (p. 1). at the heart of this shift is a recognition that climate literacy is a narrative capacity. that we need to, to quote mann again, “find compelling narratives that are engaging and motivating, narratives that convey both urgency and agency” (2024, p. x). as educators and humanists, we find it heartening to see a leading climate scientist state: “if we are to prevail in this epic battle for our future, our children must be equipped with the right tools. and none is more important than effective storytelling, for this is how we spur others to action and achieve social change. while i would argue that this skill must be incorporated by teachers into all disciplines, including science, its true home is the language arts” (2024, p. x). https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2022/02/our-climate-discourse-is-gradually-normalizing-an-atrocity https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/01/trump-visits-georgia-denies-climate-crisis-after-hurricane-helene https://newsociety.com/book/facing-the-climate-emergency-second-edition/?srsltid=afmboor6yyqvvsvdosud1qiwjuggak2drl89bkajqrz5-r6vbxr6xgtm https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/09/hurricane-beryl-ocean-temperatures https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/02/hurricane-helene-clean-water-supply https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-and-high-exposure-increased-costs-and-disruption-to-lives-and-livelihoods-from-flooding-associated-with-exceptionally-heavy-rainfall-in-central-europe/ https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/16/asia/flooding-afghanistan-intl-latam/index.html https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/global-temperature-likely-exceed-15degc-above-pre-industrial-level-temporarily-next-5-years https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/2024-will-be-worlds-hottest-record-eu-scientists-say-2024-11-07/ https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/2024-will-be-worlds-hottest-record-eu-scientists-say-2024-11-07/ https://www.salon.com/2024/06/23/we-need-a-national-climate-action-plan--and-an-exit-strategy-from-fossil-fuels_partner/ https://wmo.int/media/news/moment-of-truth-climate-action-says-un-secretary-general#:~:text=%e2%80%9cwe%20are%20playing%20russian%20roulette,the%20watch%20of%20leaders%20today.%e2%80%9d https://wmo.int/media/news/moment-of-truth-climate-action-says-un-secretary-general#:~:text=%e2%80%9cwe%20are%20playing%20russian%20roulette,the%20watch%20of%20leaders%20today.%e2%80%9d https://www.tcpress.com/empowering-youth-to-confront-the-climate-crisis-in-english-language-arts-9780807769867 https://www.tcpress.com/empowering-youth-to-confront-the-climate-crisis-in-english-language-arts-9780807769867 https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000389801 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000389801 oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 4 back in 2020, a study of “social tipping interventions (stis)” required to stabilize the earth’s climate by 2050 through transformations in technologies, behaviors, social norms, and structural reorganization within the planetary socioeconomic system—its six “functional domains” that the authors called “social tipping elements (stes)”—calculated that achieving ste4, “changing norms and value systems,” will require 30 to 40 years, and achieving ste5, “transforming education system,” will take 10 to 20 years (otto at al., p. 2359). interestingly, the authors concluded that achieving these two stes will take much longer than transformations of our energy, financial, infrastructure and information systems. at the center for climate literacy, we agree that transforming values, norms and education systems is more complex than technological change. but we are also confident that we are able to do it sooner, within a ten-to-twelve-year range. if climate literacy is implemented across all grade levels, all subject areas, and in all schools everywhere, it will create an unstoppable social tipping point cascade within a few years. this is how we create the green, just and regenerative world we all want to see. the articles in this issue contribute to this mission by offering educators specific materials to promote climate hope and justice. the two curriculum articles featured in this issue engage these values directly. karen hindhede’s “implementing ecojustice praxis in children’s literature courses” puts forth a framework for reading children’s literature using the three “es” of sustainability: ecology, economics, and equity. colleen redmond’s article, “the hope framework: a literacy strategy for identifying hope in narratives as a response to young people’s eco-grief”, also grants educators a specific framework for analyzing narratives for what she terms “hope markers”. in doing so, students are prompted to consider hope as an active, reflexive endeavor. hope and justice also feature proximately in the reflection articles. lee zimmerman’s “staying with the climate trouble: part two” extends his discussion from part one to consider how inviting students into teacher “not-knowing” can actually help students cultivate a sense of their own agency. in “climate change denialism: critical analysis of arguments in confrontation with climate science”, ricardo ramos, maria josé rodrigues, and isilda rodrigues offer specific responses to common climate change denier arguments. the fight against climate disinformation, they argue, is a necessary component of a just transition. finally, ben screech contributes an interview with author sarah guillory, whose intention in writing fiction for young people is to simultaneously stress the magnitude of the climate emergency while also advocating for the necessity of hope. although they focus on four distinct narratives, the four critical essays in this issue are united in their observation that fiction is a powerful medium for depicting justice amid crises. antonella de sena’s “social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis in álvaro colomer’s ahora llega el silencio (2019)” finds that colomer’s novel is clear in its https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1900577117?gad_source=1&gclid=cj0kcqjwmom3bhc8arisaosbapx0peaw9nknwodccqla5lmozjsxcsjj2dnssvrtcdgtydbylagwz0uaaht8ealw_wcb https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 climate literacy in education vol. 2, no. 1 first published version – page numbers to change with issue release 5 vision for cooperation and equity even in the face of environmental disaster. sietse hagen’s “the black snake: powerful imagery in we are water protectors” is equally adamant that lindstrom and goade’s award-winning picturebook—despite its frightening images—is especially helpful in cultivating discussions of native youth activism and nativeled coalitions for climate justice. in “after the flood: environmental activism, agency and action in sarah guillory’s nowhere better than here”, ben screech follows his interview with an analysis that demonstrates guillory’s narrative is a model for young people taking action—even if they do so largely alone. a similar modelling is featured in nick kleese’s “democracy and kinship in nausicaä of the valley of the wind” which reads miyazaki’s seminal anime as presenting openings for young people to imagine democracy extending beyond the limitations of our own species to spark movements for interspecies justice. finally, james damico writes about his musical collaborations with young people in “confronting climate denial with an intergenerational conversation/song”. damico shares his insights about the process, as well as his reflections that collective creation—as well as getting climate conversations out of the classroom and into the street—deserves its own soundtrack. references education and climate change: learning to act for people and planet. (2024). unesco global education monitoring report team. unesco. https://doi.org/10.54676/gvxa4765 otto, i. m., donges, j. f., cremades, r., bhowmik, a., hewitt, r. j., lucht, w., rockström, j., allerberger, f., mccaffrey, m., doe, s. s. p., lenferna, a., morán, n., van vuuren, d. p., & schellnhuber, h. j. (2020). social tipping dynamics for stabilizing earth’s climate by 2050. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 117(5), 2354– 2365. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900577117 solnit, r. (6 sept 2024). the mainstream press is failing america – and people are understandably upset. the guardian. accessed online: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clintonharris-election mann, m.e. (2024). “foreword.” in webb, a., beach, r. & share, j. (eds). (2024). empowering youth to confront the climate crisis in english language arts. teachers college press. (ix-x). https://doi.org/10.54676/gvxa4765 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clinton-harris-election https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clinton-harris-election climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 19 cultivating critique, hope, and action the cordel as a multimodal invitation to environmental education topics lauren fletcher, california state university-stanislaus, stanislaus, california, united states erica holyoke, university of colorado-denver, denver, colorado, united states abstract the cordel is a multimodal, interactive instructional strategy that invites students to engage with environmental education topics by exploring a variety of curated artifacts displayed along a string. rooted in a traditional brazilian practice, the cordel has been adapted for use in classrooms to activate students' background knowledge and foster critical thinking. it offers multiple entry points to ecological justice and collectively builds background knowledge. the cordel invites a critical and intersectional view of environmentalism and justice, fostering stances of reciprocity, shared knowledge building, and action. keywords environmental education, multimodality, community reflection, critical literacy, environmental action fletcher & holyokeú cultivating critique, hope, & action 20 introduction the cordel is a multimodal instructional strategy that invites students into a topic, such as environmental justice or water rights. this approach activates and builds students' individual and collective background knowledge by presenting a variety of related artifacts along a string or cordel. the roots of this practice trace back to northeastern brazil, where vendors would hang chapters or passages from books in marketplaces to attract potential buyers. these vendors often drew crowds by performing these snippets. the cordel allowed artists to directly work with the community, bypassing traditional gatekeepers like publishers and reviewers. over time, this simple yet effective method of displaying narratives and artifacts has been adapted for use in the classroom (landay & wootton, 2012; slater, 1982). in the classroom, the cordel serves as a powerful tool to frame a unit. before beginning a topic, educators curate a collection of materials related to the subject such as photographs, maps, timelines, infographics, book excerpts, artwork, and even qr codes linking to songs.these artifacts are hung along a string, allowing students to explore them at their own pace and in any order. as whitmore and colleagues (2020) noted, this creates a museum-like experience that encourages curiosity and personal engagement. students then reflect on the artifacts, sharing their insights, personal connections, or questions, either in small groups or as a class. an extension to the cordel can be once students have explored a topic over a number of days or weeks; the cordel can be rehung, this time showcasing students’ own work (i.e. artifacts, ideas, and reflections) alongside the original materials. this second iteration positions students' contributions within the broader field of study, fostering a sense of ownership and accomplishment. the cordel can be shared with the class or even extended to the broader school community, such as other grades, administrators, or local community members, creating an opportunity to celebrate and share students’ learning. as educators and researchers working outside of brazil, we approach the cordel with deep respect for its cultural and historical roots in northeastern brazil, where it has long served as a grassroots medium for sharing stories, poetry, and political commentary. we recognize that cordel literatura is not simply a teaching tool, but a rich social and cultural practice with deep ties to community identity, resistance, and oral tradition (slater, 1982). while we are not part of the communities that created or sustained this tradition, we engage with the cordel as a model of community-centered storytelling and multimodal expression. in adapting it for classroom use, we do so with care, aiming to honor its participatory spirit and to invite students into similarly reflective, justice-oriented engagements with text, image, and voice. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 21 figure 1. an image of the cordel set up in erica’s literacy methods course. instructional sequence over the past four years, lauren and erica have used the cordel to introduce preservice teachers to the concept of being a good ancestor, encouraging them to explore literacy learning through the lens of environmental justice and land stewardship. in addition to using this practice with preservice teachers, lauren has also applied it with elementary students on a variety of topics related to environmental education. the image below (figure 2) provides an overview of how lauren has used the cordel in her course to introduce the topic of being a good ancestor. fletcher & holyokeú cultivating critique, hope, & action 22 figure 2. an illustrated diagram of lauren’s instructional sequence in her reading methods course. creating a cordel when creating the cordel, there is no formula or one way of selecting artifacts. as we have curated materials over the years, we have always considered which pieces will invite critique, hope, and action. we aim for a balanced selection, ensuring that students leave feeling hopeful while also recognizing opportunities for real change. the process of creating a cordel is both creative and investigative. figure 3 provides tips and a qr code that links to a handout to help you curate your cordel. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 23 figure 3. tips for how to create the cordel in a time marked by digital misinformation, algorithm-driven content, and the erasure of climate truths from public discourse, the tactile, community-oriented nature of the cordel offers learners an analogue form of storytelling grounded in relationality, care, and critical engagement. returning to print-based, participatory texts like the cordel invites students to slow down, reflect, and co-construct meaning in ways that resist the speed and disposability of much digital content. at a glance title cordel as a multimodal launch for environmental action unit time 30 45 minutes grade level(s) ece to adult core text be a good ancestor, by gabriella & leona prince supporting texts other multimodal texts that support the goals of the unit (linked to climate literacy) climate literacy terms will be based on the subject of the cordel objectives • build and activate prior knowledge through an arts-based shared experience around environmental stewardship. fletcher & holyokeú cultivating critique, hope, & action 24 • offer a breadth of knowledge and entry points and foster rich discussions and future collective action. materials and resources • a clothesline cord (15–25 feet); • clothespins (about two per artifact) • selected artifacts printed on lightweight paper for easy hanging (~20-50) adaptations for different spaces the cordel is a highly engaging experience that supports students in learning expansively about a topic in an interactive way. the above steps were delineated in planning and implementing a cordel. we also provide a frame for considering how to make a cordel work in various learning contexts and learning spaces, such as online and hybrid learning, as well as adaptations for young learners (figure 4). digital adpatations the cordel is a highly interactive experience. however, depending on learning spaces, it can also be adapted for online and hybrid classrooms to ensure high engagement and participation while accommodating the learning environment. we have done this in higher education with hybrid and asynchronous learning formats. the figure below provides initial guidance on how to make this work in a digital space. one key to highlight in any adaptations is how learners are encouraged to engage with one another in the learning and how they are invited to connect with and talk with and to the content in the cordel. the emphasis on multimodality can be elevated in the digital learning space. the interactions can and should also be multimodal and include audio responses, annotations, digital stickies, and the utilization of various digital tools and platforms. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 25 figure 4. tips for using a cordel in a digital or hybrid learning environment fletcher & holyokeú cultivating critique, hope, & action 26 adaptations for young learners young learners may not yet access conventional print and require adaptations for the cordel content and interactive responses. before you begin, consider the purpose and focus of your cordel. what responses do you hope to elicit? plan with these in mind. in planning for young children, you can begin by reflecting on their strengths and drawing on genres/modes that suit their strengths. for example, if young children are highly engaged in songs and rhymes, have audio experiences playing while they engage in the cordel print materials. or, if students are drawn to art, seek out representations of art across modalities that can be shown in images to communicate various perspectives and voices. it is also strongly encouraged to use text formats familiar to young people, such as picturebooks and environmental print. it is also highly recommended that young learners have interactive elements of the cordel. for example, use sensory resources, lift the flap content, and other strategies that help children engage holistically and across their senses with the content. the engagement should also be more scaffolded and be broken into multiple passes. for responses, have students pick their favorite piece and why, use stickers to ‘annotate’ the various pieces, and follow up by creating their class cordel with multimodal materials, oral stories, and drama. references landay, e., & wootton, k. (2012). a reason to read: linking literacy and the arts. harvard education press. prince, l., & prince, g. (2022). be a good ancestor (illus. carla joseph). orca book publishers. slater, c. (1982). stories on a string: the brazilian literatura de cordel. university of california press. whitmore, k. f., chisholm, j. s., & fletcher, l. (2020). fostering, activating, and curating: approaching books about social injustices with the arts. language arts, 98(1), 718. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 13 sacred relatives learning about interconnectedness within the local watershed julie robinson, grand forks, north dakota, usa kathy smart, university of north dakota, grand forks, north dakota, usa danny luecke, turtle mountain college, belcourt, north dakota, usa abstract this article describes an online module developed and offered as part of a professional development program for elementary teachers in grades 3 5 from rural and tribal schools in north dakota. this module, sacred relatives, one of the north dakota native american essential understandings, focuses on the interconnectedness of all living and nonliving elements in our natural world. in the module, teachers engage as learners in place-based, outdoor activities and learn how to integrate the understanding of sacred relatives into their own classroom instruction and grade-level curriculum, with a focus on the local red river watershed. keywords watersheds, place-based education, indigenous science, professional development, online learning robinson, smart, & lueckeú sacred relatives 14 overview stem education is often presented as disconnected from community, culture, or place, excluding many students from seeing its relevance (aises literature review, 2020; luecke, 2025; cajete, 2020). the next generation science standards (ngss) highlight place-based science as culturally relevant by connecting learning meaningfully to students’ experiences and awareness of local phenomena (ngss lead states, 2013). yet teachers rarely receive professional development (pd) in culturally relevant, placebased stem (bowman et al., 2024). to address this gap, we developed a two-year pd model, project current (culturally relevant river education for nature-based teaching) engaging elementary teachers from rural and tribal schools in north dakota (nd) in integrated, place-based, and culturally relevant stem focused on the red river watershed. we situated pd activities within the north dakota native american essential understandings (ndnaeu, nd dpi, 2015), a framework developed collaboratively by nd tribal elders for integrating indigenous pedagogies for all learners. infusing storytelling throughout, we began with teachers sharing water stories and listening to a read-aloud of we are water protectors by carole lindstrom, enrolled member of the turtle mountain band of ojibwe. our pd was offered to teachers in school districts around the red river watershed, where the red river flows northward through nd and minnesota, into manitoba, canada, emptying into lake winnipeg. this pd included two in-person summer workshops and seven asynchronous online modules for teachers to complete during the academic year, one for each ndnaeu. modules were released monthly (october through april), to be completed on teachers’ own time. while these teachers were all located within the same watershed region, in future iterations of the pd, the online format would allow teachers in different watersheds to compare the geography, ecology, and historical/cultural contexts of their regions, deepening their understandings. this article describes our first module, focusing on the ndnaeu of sacred relatives, which describes how we relate to everything: the interconnectedness indigenous people practice with all living and nonliving elements within the world and their stewardship of the land and its human and other-than-human inhabitants. we focused on watersheds because of the interconnected relationships and relevant illustration of sacred relatives they promote. watersheds are intertwined with social and ecological community histories, providing many ways to connect people and place. by investigating watersheds, teachers and students can experience hands-on learning that is culturally and ecologically restorative, aligning with sacred relatives. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 15 narrative framing we developed each online module to follow a consistent flow that teachers could complete independently in about four hours. modules included three stages: learning about a specific ndnaeu, connecting it to oneself, and integrating it into classroom instruction. components included reflection activities, dakota and ojibwe language, outdoor engagement, videos of elder interviews, collaborative discussion boards, art activities, and lesson resources for teachers to apply their learning to their classrooms. this sequence allowed teachers to experience the content as learners, reflect on their relationship with place and watersheds, consider how each ndnaeu could guide lesson design and pedagogy, and embed module components into instruction. introduction to sacred relatives sacred relatives, our introductory module, began with a video on the lakota virtue of wowahwala (gentleness and peace) in which lakota elders describe the cultural and relational meaning of this virtue. we used the video to help teachers center themselves, reflect on their connection to their surroundings, and be present in the moment. next, teachers explored sacred relatives through a reading from the guiding framework (below) and by watching an interview with gladys hawk, dakota elder from standing rock nation, entitled “reciprocity with the land”, allowing teachers to learn about this ndnaeu from an elder’s voice. to accompany the elder interviews, teachers were provided an elder wisdom journal, which included links to various videos, discussion prompts, and guiding questions to deepen teachers’ reflection of the elders’ stories. connecting to sacred relatives after exploring sacred relatives, teachers engaged in nature-based activities to connect directly to the concept. these activities included sit spots and observation labs (see module below), where teachers selected an outdoor location to revisit regularly. over time, they observed environmental changes, cultivated curiosity, and deepened their connection with the natural world and its kin. teachers received readings, instructions, and reflective prompts to guide their observation lab. they also received resources about dakota and ojibwe uses of native plants and a plant identification app, enabling them to identify these plants in their local environments. through this process, teachers explored their own interconnectedness with the natural world, aligning with sacred relatives. https://teachingsofourelders.org/reciprocity-with-the-land-with-gladys-hawk/ robinson, smart, & lueckeú sacred relatives 16 integrating sacred relatives into the classroom finally, teachers applied their learning about sacred relatives to classroom practice and curriculum. using lesson resources developed for the teaching of our elders project and aligned with sacred relatives and science concepts, teachers explored ways to incorporate students’ connection to place meaningfully into classroom instruction. by reviewing sample lesson materials and standards and enhancing their own culturally relevant curriculum and instruction, teachers applied prior module learning into practice. to culminate, teachers listened to the anishinaabe nibi water song, allowing them to recenter, reflect on their learning, and honor water as a sacred relative. while completing the seven modules asynchronously, teachers periodically gathered over zoom to share their experiences as learners engaging with the ndnaeus and as educators discussing impacts of the ndnaeus on their teaching and student outcomes. consistently, teachers reported the joy and engagement they noted in their students when they aligned practice to indigenous pedagogies, such as storytelling, as they had experienced while reading we are water protectors and sharing their water stories. teachers also described a growing relationship with place, more mindfulness toward their environment, and an increased sense of reciprocity with the natural world. at a glance title the north dakota native american essential understanding: sacred relatives unit time approx. 4 hours grade level(s) 3-5 core text we are water protectors by carole lindstrom climate literacy terms watershed, place-based education, interconnectedness objectives to explore how the essential understanding of sacred relatives can shape learning around watersheds, ecology, and our relationship with our place. to explain how observation labs and sit spots can help students engage with place and grade-level science https://teachingsofourelders.org/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 17 concepts. to identify grade-level standards and learning experiences that are aligned with sacred relatives. materials and resources project current scared relatives module north dakota native american essential understandings: teachings of our elders going forward our sacred relatives module and full pd provided teachers with connection to their watershed, sense of place, and ways to integrate ndnaeus into teaching and curriculum. the transformative impact on teachers’ identities, instruction, and on students suggests that this place-based, indigenized approach benefits the entire learning community. we plan to share these materials broadly and are working with local tribal elders, teachers, and community members to refine all modules for open access. we highlight the importance of working collaboratively and reciprocally with tribal partners to co-develop materials and then return them to the community. we also suggest impactful practices for stem pd, including explicit place-based, cultural connections to ground educator’s learning. such opportunities should provide teachers with outdoor experiences, collaborative learning with community members, an introduction to local indigenous understandings and learning standards, and the chance to enhance curriculum and embed such pedagogical shifts. providing scaffolded, practical opportunities for educators to experience place-based education, develop their relationship with their environment, and unpack key curriculum design qualities, is a transformative approach that can inform methods for preand in-service teacher learning, ultimately offering authentic and engaging learning for students. https://rise.articulate.com/share/_8ga5uvukz4zqvahey6lh3hfn6pedeti#/ robinson, smart, & lueckeú sacred relatives 18 references aises. (2020). stem education for native american students: literature review. american indian science and education society. https://aises.org/wpcontent/uploads/aises-literature-review.pdf luecke, d. (2025). a culturally relevant, imbued, and sustaining pedagogy framework for culturally connected math curriculum. frontiers in education, 9. doi:10.3389/feduc.2024.1502449 bowman, f., klemetsrud, b., & robinson, j. (2024). (2024). impact of professional development in culturally relevant engineering design for elementary and middle school teachers. proceedings from the american society of engineering education annual conference, portland, or. cajete, g. (2020). indigenous science, climate change, and indigenous community building: a framework of foundational perspectives for indigenous community resilience and revitalization. sustainability, 12(22), pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229569 ngss lead states. 2013. next generation science standards: for states, by states. the national academies press. north dakota department of public instruction. (2015, may). north dakota native american essential understandings. https://www.nd.gov/dpi/educationprograms/indian-education/north-dakota-native-american-essentialunderstandings https://aises.org/wp-content/uploads/aises-literature-review.pdf https://aises.org/wp-content/uploads/aises-literature-review.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1502449 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229569 https://www.nd.gov/dpi/education-programs/indian-education/north-dakota-native-american-essential-understandings https://www.nd.gov/dpi/education-programs/indian-education/north-dakota-native-american-essential-understandings https://www.nd.gov/dpi/education-programs/indian-education/north-dakota-native-american-essential-understandings climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 23 staying with the climate trouble: part two lee zimmerman, hofstra university, hempstead, new york, usa abstract in teaching about climate, when it comes to the troubling question of “what can we do?” i’ve argued that we try to help students stay with, rather than prematurely and inadequately, resolve that trouble and that we do this by inviting them into our own state of not knowing. how to stay with the pedagogical trouble of doing that, including the trouble of trying to contain the despair that an honest account of the climate crisis may provoke? this essay suggests that one approach to that question in the literature classroom is to teach texts in which characters themselves grapple with the question of “what can we do?” ultimately, the pedagogical challenge is to help shape these textual encounters into an awareness that, especially as it is shared, despair might be something other than a terminal condition—indeed, might be a necessary passage through to whatever comes next. keywords climate pedagogy, climate crisis, eco-anxiety, staying with the trouble the author would like to acknowledge duncan rayside. zimmerman ú climate trouble pt ii 24 how can we introduce the climate crisis into the classroom as a crisis without leaving students despondent? in part one of “staying with the climate trouble” (2023) i tried to elaborate on how i think about that pedagogical challenge in my college classroom, arguing, somewhat against the grain of much climate pedagogy, that our deepest obligation isn’t to reassure students by offering them hope—by directing them to “what they can do”—but, rather (borrowing donna haraway’s phrase), to help them “stay with the trouble.” in this, i was reacting against the way climate action is often introduced into the classroom in the same normalizing terms with which it takes shape in the public discourse more broadly, a discourse in which even the most purportedly “ambitious” climate policy, like biden’s inflation reduction act, remains farcically inadequate to the severity and urgency of the problem. advocating that students stay with the trouble isn’t asking them to abandon the question of “what can we do?” but, rather, to more fully feel and understand what’s at stake in any particular form of doing. “we can’t know in advance precisely what [that staying with the trouble] might mean,” i wrote, or whether it will lead to actions commensurate to the scale and urgency of the problem, “but we can invite students into our own state of not-knowing and thus into the process of finding out.” in this follow-up article, i’ll try to say something about what “inviting students into our not-knowing” might look like in the climate classroom. again, i’m focusing on college literature classes, taking as premises that, as marek oziewicz puts it “climate change is not a stem issue,” but, rather, “a worldview issue, entangled with our values, perceptions, beliefs, and lifestyles’” and that—because worldviews are established, maintained, normalized, and, perhaps, challenged and changed by stories a culture tells about itself and the world—one important way of studying the climate crisis is studying literature (oziewicz, 2023, p. 35). in one way, inviting students into our not knowing is part of what many teachers in the humanities already try to do. in teaching a piece of literature, the kind of questions on which we focus aren’t in the main those can be answered definitively and finally. a colleague of mine once said that teaching certain texts many times over was easy because “i know where the bodies are buried,” but even a buried body undergoes changes. we do establish frameworks for addressing the key questions, steering students toward certain kinds of terms and concerns, but what we’re after isn’t https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 https://www.dukeupress.edu/staying-with-the-trouble https://www.oilchange.org/publications/fossil-fuel-fail https://www.oilchange.org/publications/fossil-fuel-fail https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5240/3334 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 25 a final knowledge, a closing down of a question. rather, it’s a process of engaged exploration that cannot produce the last word. to invite students into our own not-knowing, then, is to treat the question of “what they can do” in something like the same manner we treat other questions in a literature class, however different the stakes of the inquiry might seem to be. one way to do this is to examine texts that themselves stage the process of characters confronting “what to do.” for me, one useful text in this regard has been jenny offill’s weather, where we see a range of responses to that question, both in the central character lizzie herself and in others, including her mentor, sylvia, a climate public intellectual. it is sylvia who feels compelled to provide in her work what she mockingly calls an “obligatory note of hope” (p. 64), but, tellingly, offill herself does the same thing, appending to her narrative a link to obligatorynoteofhope.com, a site offering both “tips for trying times” and “ways to get involved.” the novel thus ushers the reader beyond itself, as if to insist that the question “what to do” cannot remain sequestered within the text. and in doing this, the book asks us to consider to what extent a note of hope that presents itself as “obligatory”—that arises not from studying the facts of the case but, rather, from a need that precedes any facts—can reflect more than the desperation that prompts it. in this way, weather both points students toward some concrete things they might “do” and also asks them to stay with the trouble of scrutinizing to what extent the site’s various “tips” and “ways” seem consistent with a truly adequate response to the desperation of our moment. a short list of other works that stage characters grappling with “what to do?” might include, most prominently, kim stanley robinson’s the ministry of the future, though, in my view, while robinson does visit the trouble, finally, as what samuel miller mcdonald has called a “tale of the plucky bureaucrat who uses science, reason, and technical expertise to stumble on the perfect combination of policy incentives and new technology to save the day,” the book abandons rather than stays with that trouble (mcdonald, 2021, n.p; zimmerman, 2022). at almost 600 pages, the book is in most contexts too long to teach, unless one assigns only selections. though the same is true of stephen markey’s even longer the deluge, that book does stay with the trouble more thoroughly, rooted more deeply in characters critical of the very systems and institutions of power, and their leaders, that in ministry “save the day.” to what extent https://obligatorynoteofhope.com/ https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-do-authors-dream-of-electric-jeeps https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-of-climate-fiction-got/ zimmerman ú climate trouble pt ii 26 do other works that one might list here seem to represent the process of staying with the trouble? that’s a good question to bring to those works, which might include jessie greengrass’s the high house, nathaniel rich’s odds against tomorrow, ilija trojanow’s the lamentations of zeno, and the film how to blow up a pipeline (a narrative drama based on andreas malm’s non-fiction book of that name about why, not how, to blow up a pipeline). however much the question of “what students can do to help try to stop the climate house from burning down” resembles the kind of questions that humanities classes normally consider, there is nonetheless a big difference between the kind of generative not-knowing that structures those classes and the desperate not-knowing we’re confronted with when students understandably ask what they can do. i’ve implied that inviting the students into the former kind of not-knowing (considering the question of “what they can do” as a literary question) might help usher them into the more desperate, latter, but i’ve also invited them into that latter not-knowing more directly, by sharing with a class a draft of this essay, in the hope this might help students sense how crucial their own agency is in grappling with the question. one student remarked that in response to reading the essay, and discussing it in class, she began to feel angry and then “inspired” to do something (or, rather, to take the question “what can i do” more literally and personally). ultimately, if we invite students to stay with the climate trouble, we’re necessarily challenging ourselves to stay with the pedagogical trouble of doing so. for me, that teacherly trouble has partly involved an awareness that, in issuing such an invitation, to some degree i’m likely dealing with my own climate anxiety by passing it along to classes of college students who as a group (along with high schoolers) even before covid-19 was suffering what the national education association called an “epidemic of anxiety” (flannery, 2018, n.p). in doing this, to a degree, i'm probably kicking the climate-action can down the road—like the world climate “leaders” at cop meetings, braying on about removing carbon from the atmosphere at some future time. at the same time, though, insofar as inviting students to stay with the trouble takes the form of inviting them to join me in the space of not-knowing, it helps construct the classroom as a space in which we can stay with the trouble together, where staying with the trouble is a form of sharing the trouble. in this, it responds to https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxiety-among-todays-students#:~:text=in%202016%2c%20nearly%20two%2dthirds,the%20national%20college%20health%20assessment. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 27 the central pedagogical challenge shoshana felman identified as having both to let the crisis into the class as a crisis and to “contain” it, so students don’t get too “crazy” (felman and laub, 1992). importantly, however, this is not the same as providing for students the “fewer moments of eco-anxiety and more moments of hope” for which kirsten hunt calls (hunt, 2023, p. 25). even if confronting the dire extremity of our moment needn’t drive them too “crazy,” it is likely to open them to some degree of despair. but part of staying with the pedagogical challenge, i’d suggest, is helping them understand—and thus perhaps experience—despair as something other than a terminal condition. here, one might ask the class to consider something like what orestes means, in jean-paul sartre’s the flies, when he tells zeus that “human life begins on the far side of despair.” or one might invite them to wrangle with what contemporary novelist peter dimock means when he says that, in responding to the climate crisis despair is a much richer world than denial. denial is a dead world and goes nowhere. it has no future. despair . . .possesses the generative power of whatever comes next, which we are in no position to know but that we have the ability through language to create…. [his book explores possibilities for finding our way] not out of despair but through it . . . it’s not the notion that we always have to get past despair or we have to manage it or solve it. the deeper truth of language gives us a way to inhabit it. before we come to a solution we have to live it. we skip the living part of it, the living of despair. out of that [living it] will come whatever comes next (“interview”, 2021). examining such statements in class can become a way of declining to put the cart of hope before the horse of despair. and as with hope, so too with optimism. “you don’t fight fascism because you are going to win,” sartre wrote in the age of reason (1947), “you fight fascism because it is fascist.” taking a cue again from sartre, one can ask the class to think seriously about what it means to fight for a cause, even if victory seems unlikely—about what’s at stake in the fight against the ecocidal status quo, whether (against the odds) we manage to pre-empt the worst-case climate scenarios or we don’t. https://www.routledge.com/testimony-crises-of-witnessing-in-literature-psychoanalysis-and-history/felman-laub/p/book/9780415903929?srsltid=afmboornkhxkaifrecvoxla9uaheyhxwjbmkzjochlc2smqzpjdw6uvx https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5322/3331 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwjyylsfck zimmerman ú climate trouble pt ii 28 i’ve thus come to frame climate courses by presenting students with a passage from the poet carolyn forche’s “ourselves or nothing” (1982). attending closely to these lines is an act of literary criticism, of course. but in indicting a culture numb to both the legacy of historical atrocities and, by implication, to the atrocity-in-process constituted by anthropogenic global warming, the poem also challenges students to “go after that which is lost”: to open themselves to the trouble with which the poem as a whole may help them stay. and in this, the poem can work as a way of inviting students both into our own not-knowing and into the joint process of trying to find what’s next. in that spirit i’ll close with “ourselves or nothing”’s final lines: go after that which is lost and all the mass graves of the century’s dead will open into your early waking hours: belsen, dachau, saigon, phnom penh and the one meaning bridge of ravens, sao paulo, armagh, calcutta, salvador, although these are not the same. …. …everywhere and always go after that which is lost. there is a cyclone fence between ourselves and the slaughter and behind it we hover in a calm protected world like netted fish, exactly like netted fish. it is either the beginning or the end of the world, and the choice is ourselves or nothing. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 29 references felman, s., & laub, d. (1992). testimony: crises of witnessing in literature, psychoanalysis, and history. routledge. flannery, m. e. (28 march 2018). the epidemic of anxiety among today’s students. nea today. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxietyamong-todays-students forche, c. (1982). “ourselves or nothing.” the country between us. harper & row. hunt, k. (2023). finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. climate literacy in education, 1(1), 24–26. https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5322 interview with novelist peter dimock. (24 nov 2021). the scrum. youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwjyylsfck mcdonald, s. m. (24 jan 2021). the ministry for the future, or do authors dream of electric jeeps? current affairs. https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-doauthors-dream-of-electric-jeeps offill, j. (2020). weather. knopf oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1(1), 34– 38. https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5240 sartre, j.-p. (1947). the age of reason (e. sutton, trans.). alfred a. knopf. zimmerman, l. (2023). staying with the climate trouble: on (not) containing the crisis in the classroom. climate literacy in education, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 zimmerman, l. (11 nov 2022). what kind of thoughts has the king of climate fiction got? tikkun. https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-ofclimate-fiction-got/ https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxiety-among-todays-students https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxiety-among-todays-students https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5322 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwjyylsfck https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-do-authors-dream-of-electric-jeeps https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-do-authors-dream-of-electric-jeeps https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5240 https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-of-climate-fiction-got/ https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-of-climate-fiction-got/ eighth grade elaú minnesotaú climate justice in mn 10 climate justice in minnesota eighth grade language arts minnesota we, at my school, are blessed to live on the land of the bdewakantunwan dakota homelands. it is our job to honor the history of our land. (l-r) student art in front of the high school tipi, tipi sponsored by our native american parent committee and native american student association, outdoor classroom on bdewakantunwan dakota homelands. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 11 i understand climate justice as such: the climate crisis affects people differently depending on where they live, their resources, and their ability to recover from disasters. poor communities often struggle more to rebuild after climate-related disasters compared to wealthier areas. ensuring fair treatment and equitable distribution of the burdens and benefits related to the climate crisis is essential to making its effects more equal for everyone. in the city where i teach, transportation is easier, allowing for lower emissions, while in minneapolis, navigating the city can be more challenging. to make a positive impact, we can focus on reducing pollution, using less oil, cutting back on coal power, and shifting toward greener solutions. taking steps to lessen reliance on fossil fuels and adopt sustainable practices can help fix the world and create a more resilient future. our high school offers various ways for students to engage in climate justice and climate literacy. while specific programs aren't explicitly listed online, the school emphasizes student voice, innovation, and meaningful educational experiences. students can choose clubs that focus on climate issues such as the sustainability club. the native american student association, also known as nasa, is a student-led organization dedicated to raising the voices of native american students every day in our public schools. every year, nasa holds several events to celebrate and to educate. students in nasa coordinate celebrations on indigenous people’s day at all of our city’s schools. nasa students have also had opportunities to visit the prairie farms on the nation and learn to cook healthy and native foods. visits to the prairie island buffalo project are available to students. he mni can, also known as barn bluff, is an important cultural and spiritual site for the dakota people. for centuries, it has served as a place for gathering, ceremonies, and worship. recognizing the need to preserve this history, the prairie island indian community collaborated with the city on a multi-year restoration project, which was completed in 2021. this effort ensured the bluff remains accessible for the dakota people and continues to be a place of cultural significance for future generations. beyond restoration, the project also aimed to educate the broader community about the site’s historical importance, reinforcing the connection between red wing’s natural landscapes and indigenous heritage. as a teacher in this place, i believe it’s essential for our students to understand the deep history of this land—especially the dakota people. at the same time, climate justice is a necessity due to the treatment of indigenous people in our city. we have faced climate-related challenges, and our community is actively working toward solutions. from our city’s climate action work plan—which aims to drastically cut emissions by 2040—to the ways we come together after dakota restoration project at he mni can eighth grade elaú minnesotaú climate justice in mn 12 environmental hardships, i want my students to see that climate action is possible and necessary. in our classroom, we explore local partnerships, sustainability efforts, and the intersection between social and environmental justice to prepare students to be engaged citizens. i am excited to collaborate with others to enhance my facilitation of climate studies for my students. by incorporating children's literature, biographies, interviews, and personal narratives from the people of our city, i aim to make climate education more engaging and locally relevant. through storytelling, students can connect deeply with environmental issues, understand diverse perspectives, and recognize the impact of climate change on our community. this approach fosters critical thinking, empathy, and active participation in climate justice initiatives. mural dedication climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 31 attention humans! planet earth milky way galaxy climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 19 planet protectors middle school media specialist florida the following is the transcript of a student-created podcast about the greenhouse effect. transcript hey everyone, welcome to planet protectors. i'm student. and i'm student, and today we're tackling a super important topic that affects everyone, the greenhouse effect. yep, it might sound like gardening, but it's actually a big part of climate change. so, let's dive right in while keeping it super middle school friendly. okay, so do you even know what the greenhouse effect really is? kind of… could you explain it really quickly? the greenhouse effect is when certain gasses in earth's atmosphere trap heat from the sun. these glasses include carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor. oh, so it's almost like an invisible blanket that keeps earth warm enough to live on… but here's the problem: humans are adding too many of these gasses, especially from things like burning fossil fuels, which is making the blanket way too thick. that's heating up the planet and causing climate change. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ec8bqoy5qfbkkixe33e885mgny_e13em/view?usp=sharing middle school media specialistú floridaú planet protectors 20 so, i went on vacation with a friend recently. she was talking about how climate scientists are studying how rising temperatures can affect ice melting, sea levels, wildfires, droughts and extreme storms. wow. yes, she's totally right, and the greenhouse effect is the main reason behind all of that. it's also why leaders around the world are making climate agreements and trying to reduce emissions. i've been doing a lot of research and found that scientists also track greenhouse gasses using satellites and machines. i assume they're finding ways to reduce carbon using new technology like carbon capture and renewable energy. isn't the greenhouse effect bad, though? it's not bad. it's necessary for life. the problem is [that] people are making it too strong. you know, i assumed that it just wasn't real. weather changes daily. climate is long term. even scientists agree that climate change is happening, and it's caused by people just like us. do you really think one person can make a difference? of course i do. small actions equal big impact when lots of people do them. okay, here's the good news, there's a lot we can do, even as kids, like turn off electronics and lights when you're not using them walk, bike or carpool when you can reduce, reuse and recycle and plant trees or help with the school garden, and also talking about it just like we are right now. so, to recap what we covered today: the greenhouse effect keeps earth warm but too much of it is causing climate change. scientists are working on solutions, and we can help, too. whether it's riding your bike, recycling or planting a tree, you're making a difference. that's it for now. thanks for joining us on planet protectors. keep asking questions, keep learning and keep protecting our planet. bye! feldman, oh, & parkú orphans of the earth 52 orphans of the earth climate refugees in young adult science fiction daniel feldman, bar-ilan university, israel, and the center for educational research, seoul national university, south korea hunseok oh, seoul national university, south korea dong yeol park, seoul national university, south korea abstract the climate crisis is emerging as a major driver of migration. climate refugees — those displaced by climate disasters or gradual ecological degradation — are likely to play a significant role in global migration patterns as climate impacts intensify. this evolving crisis presents challenges for educators and remains underexplored in critical scholarship, yet it is already influencing literary narratives. in contemporary young adult (ya) fiction, climate refugees take on the archetypal role of the orphan, a destabilizing figure that disrupts social structures. this essay examines war girls (2019) by tochi onyebuchi and the marrow thieves (2017) by cherie dimaline to highlight how these novels depict climate refugees as both vulnerable and transformative figures. keywords climate crisis, environmental destruction, migration, orphans, climate refugee https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-destruction/environmental-disaster/climate-crisis/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-destruction/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 53 climate change has always played a crucial role in shaping patterns of human migration. early human migrations out of africa, beginning around 100,000 years ago, were closely linked to climatic shifts driven by earth’s orbital changes (timmermann et al., 2022). these shifts created “green corridors” of vegetation between africa and the arabian peninsula, enabling homo sapiens to move slowly into eurasia and beyond in waves roughly every 20,000 years (ibid.). ice age climate fluctuations, including warming and cooling periods, also influenced population expansions, contractions, and movements in prehistoric europe and northern asia (saltré, 2024). in the past millennium, climatic stress, particularly drought, likely prompted migrations in the twelfth and thirteen centuries among the anasazi people from their settlements in chaco canyon and mesa verde (benson, 2007). despite the longstanding relationship between human mobility and climate, the effect of climate change on displacement and migration in the twenty-first century is of an entirely different order (cattaneo, 2019). ominous potential for systemic instability in global migration is emerging due to the rapid rate of the climate crisis. this change is occurring over decades, not centuries. likewise, its scale is unprecedented. estimates vary widely, but many scholars agree that global impacts of rapidly changing climate will play an increasingly dominant role in shaping migration patterns in the coming decades (nawyn, 2024). the term “climate refugees” refers to people driven from their homes by the violent disasters fueled by climate change or through persistent “slow violence” of environmental degradation such as desertification, toxic pollution, or flooding from rising seas. the complex relationship between migration and the climate crisis, two topics of intense political sensitivity, can make it pedagogically difficult for teachers to address the ways in which climate and environmental factors are rapidly becoming drivers of involuntary migrations (daoust, 2024). while scholarship is still developing, the emerging phenomenon of climate refugees is already influencing literary narratives, particularly in science fiction cli-fi for young audiences. in some works of contemporary young adult (ya) fiction, climate refugees inherit the archetypal cultural role of the juvenile orphan as a destabilizing figure who disrupts fixed identities and social structures. this essay examines two such texts by showing how young climate refugees are depicted in tochi onyebuchi’s war girls (2019) and cherie dimaline’s the marrow feldman, oh, & parkú orphans of the earth 54 thieves (2017). both novels reimagine the role of orphaned protagonists in a world in which adolescent experience is defined by ecocide, climate-induced displacement, and migration. these novels are valuable resources for educators looking to teach students about the influence of the climate crisis on migration. three aspects distinguish these texts. first, they focus on indigenous populations doubly displaced by ethnic persecution and environmental collapse, whose histories of displacement from ancestral lands are projected in these novels onto climate-altered futures. second, they portray orphan characters whose loss of family and home has a destabilizing effect on social structures, galvanizing the potential for broader transformations. third, the novels demonstrate how traditional literary archetypes, and narrative tropes can be recycled to imagine the speculative landscape of a world devastated by the climate catastrophe. the explicit connections in war girls and the marrow thieves between indigenous peoples, orphan narratives, and the predicament of climate refugees makes these works especially useful for helping students understand the complex relationships between the climate crisis, migration, and histories of ethnic persecution. although these novels depict young people displaced by climate events, the term “climate refugee” remains politically and legally contested (tubi and israeli, 2024). unlike refugees fleeing war or political persecution, people displaced by weather-related disasters or incremental environmental degradation do not satisfy legal criteria for asylum or protection. while international law has yet to recognize climate refugees, the movement of such people is already reshaping patterns of mobility, particularly in countries most vulnerable to climate impacts. most climate-induced migration takes place domestically, the scenario portrayed in both novels (ferris, 2024). even as scholars and policymakers struggle to determine how to address the needs of such populations, youth literature has already begun to imagine this scenario. in particular, ya cli-fi novels demonstrate how education augmented by climate literacy can open up creative possibilities for engaging the complex topic of climate-induced global migration in ways that contemporary academic discourse struggles to articulate. the following analysis can help teachers grasp how the climate crisis informs debates about migration and displacement while broadening pedagogical approaches to these related yet politically disputed fields. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 55 in particular, we propose a conceptual model for understanding the figure of the climate refugee as a modern reframing of the traditional orphan archetype in contemporary context. in english fiction—where the influence of charles dickens has been significant—the orphan figure has served as a symbol of disruption and reinvention (peters, 2000; sanders, 2011). stripped of familial ties and social belonging, orphans in narratives from oliver twist to harry potter challenge existing power structures while navigating their own uncertain futures. in the context of climate fiction, the orphan figure takes on new yet familiar dimensions, representing not only the loss of family but also the loss of homeland. while classic literary orphans are separated from family and social belonging, ya cli-fi reimagines the orphan as a climate refugee, severed from ancestral geography and ecological heritage as they are plunged into precarious survival and perilous search for home. this transformation of “functional orphans” (nikolajeva, 2002, p. 172) is particularly vivid in onyebuchi’s war girls and dimaline’s the marrow thieves, in which young orphan protagonists navigate a world shaped by both ecocide and displacement (see curtis, 2015, p. 356). case study 1: war girls war girls is an africanfuturist novel by an american author of nigerian heritage. set in nigeria in the late twenty-second century, it imagines a future that seems to repeat the past. in the novel’s post-apocalyptic world ravaged by nuclear radiation and global warming, a brutal war of attrition rages between groups that resemble the belligerent parties from the historical 1967-1970 nigerian civil war. also known as the biafran war, it was waged by the newly independent nigerian government against the igboseparatist republic of biafra, a short-lived entity whose failed bid to secede challenged the yoruba, hausa, and fulani majorities that dominated the early government of nigeria. the novel depicts a future caught between technological sophistication and environmental devastation. more affluent populations, such as the states of europe and america, have abandoned earth in order to reestablish their societies in massive space colonies orbiting the blasted planet. those too poor to flee the planet are displaced from their homes. among those who remain on earth are armies of the displaced, who engage in fierce battle for terrestrial control of the scant parts of the world still fit for human habitation. further reflecting history projected onto the imagined future, battle feldman, oh, & parkú orphans of the earth 56 lines are drawn according to ethnic differences. in nigeria, the igbo once again suffer at the hands of their rivals, but they all contend with the toxic consequences of a ruined natural world. the protagonists of war girls are two orphaned igbo sisters, onyii and ify. they serve as girl warriors—part cyborg, part adolescent superhero—and upset the balance of power in the military stalemate. displaced from their ancestral home, they fight for a safe haven free from the aggression of the nigerian majority or the fallout of environmental collapse. they confront a bleak scenario in which wanton natural destruction dovetails with violent racial persecution as two sides of the same coin of alienation, estrangement, and displacement: for so long, they have visited violence upon us. it never starts with machetes. it starts with shutting the igbo out of government. then it becomes giving all the good jobs to the hausa and the fulani and the yoruba. then we are accused of crimes we do not commit. called animals. they say we infest this country. then we become the reason the sahara grows larger and more and more of nigeria turns to desert. we are blamed for the drought. we are blamed for the radiation. then we are thrown in jail. then we are murdered. (onyebuchi, 2019, p. 19) where does environmental destruction end and racial persecution begin? the answer lies in a chain of violence that begins with exclusion and progresses to political and economic disenfranchisement, scapegoating and, ultimately, violent persecution. forced migration and loss of land are overdetermined: a steady assault on the environment results in an assault on the persecuted minority, reinforcing how loss of identity goes hand in hand with loss of home. the novel extends the human dynamic of displacement and persecution to the climate crisis, as the igbo are not only dispossessed of political and social agency but also falsely blamed for environmental degradation. accusations that they are responsible for drought, radiation, and desertification highlight how the climate crisis becomes weaponized for ethnic oppression. this intersection of ecocide and genocide climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 57 reflects how climate refugees are not merely displaced by environmental catastrophe but are also stripped of their cultural identity and collective history. case study 2: the marrow thieves the marrow thieves, another cli-fi dystopia, adopts a similar line of reasoning in representing frenchie, an orphan climate refugee on the run from genocidal enemies in the ecocidal future. written by a canadian indigenous author of the métis people, the novel is set at a time when climate disaster altered the geographies of civilization by engendering the collapse of coastal cities into the sea. in the wake of war, social upheaval, and constant rains, disease and toxic ruin ravage humanity such that people lose the ability to dream. without the capacity to dream, the surviving remnant of humanity has no future. if humans are to have a future, they must be able to imagine it in dreams, a capacity retained only by indigenous peoples like frenchie. for this they are hunted and abducted as a means of harvesting a serum out of their blood and the marrow of their bones, hardly idle metaphors in the history of north american indigenous people, in light of a history of discrimination based on allegations of native blood quotient. evoking the fate of the majority of climate migrants displaced within domestic borders, frenchie and his fellow first nations survivors flee into the wilds of the canadian hinterland to avoid capture by government agents seeking indigenous bone marrow. their band of orphans cling together in a dystopian reversion to their nomadic heritage. they take to the road, learning to survive in search of their uncontaminated ancestral lands beyond the sway of the government marrow thieves and toxic ruin. their migration is doubly resonant as it is motivated by a desire to survive but also to maintain their cultural heritage in a world hostile to their existence. frenchie relates the erosion of the environment to the erasure of his ethnic ancestry: i came from a long line of hunters, trappers, and voyageurs. but now, with most of the rivers cut into pieces and lakes left as grey sludge puckers on the landscape, my own history seemed like a myth along the lines of dragons. (dimaline, 2017, p. 41) feldman, oh, & parkú orphans of the earth 58 this destruction of the natural world imperils indigenous identity. loyal to their past, these orphans of the land retain a unique ability to dream of a future. conclusion both war girls and the marrow thieves depict young climate refugees as orphans whose displacement accompanies ethnic persecution. the texts share a crucial connection in imagining how environmental destruction can cause displacement, leading to cultural erasure. the orphan figure embodies personal and collective loss — of family, homeland, and identity. this reimagining of the traditional literary orphan for the climate crisis era allows ya cli-fi to engage with complex themes of environmental justice and cultural survival while contributing to broader discourses about climaterelated migration. other texts, especially nicky singer’s the survival game (2018), similarly imagine a near-future world ravaged by climate disasters and mass migration, although singer does not foreground indigenous histories. our analysis suggests that ya cli-fi can reinvigorate orphan narratives for an age of climate crisis. protagonists who are both literal orphans and climate refugees anchor bleak portrayals of the human impact of environmental collapse. by illustrating how climate-induced displacement can affect identity, these works provide opportunities for educators to help students envision the human dimensions of the climate crisis. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 59 references benson, l., petersen, k., and j. stein (2007). anasazi (pre-columbian native-american) migrations during the middle-12th and late-13th centuries – were they drought induced? climatic change, 83, pp. 187–213. cattaneo, c., beine, m., fröhlich, c.j., et al. (2019). human migration in the era of climate change. working paper, 19-13, european institute on economics and the environment. available at: https://media.rff.org/documents/wp_19-13.pdf curtis, j.m. (2015). in absentia parentis: confronting the uncanny orphan in roald dahl’s james and the giant peach. children’s literature association quarterly, 40(4), pp. 355-370. daoust, g., and selby, j. (2024). climate change and migration: a review and new framework for analysis. wires climate change, 15(4), e886. dimaline, c. (2017). the marrow thieves. dancing cat books. ferris, e. (2024). climate change and community relocation. rice university’s baker institute for public policy working paper. https://doi.org/10.25613/vddf-gd21 nawyn, s., he, l., linlang, j. c., et al. (2024). mapping the future of migration and climate change science. international migration review, 58(4), pp. 1913-1936. nikolajeva, m. (2002). the rhetoric of character in children’s literature. scarecrow press. onyebuchi, t. (2019). war girls. razorbill. peters, l. (2000). orphan texts: victorian orphans, culture and empire. manchester university press. saltré, f, chadœuf, j. higham, j. et al. (2024). environmental conditions associated with initial northern expansion of anatomically modern humans. nature communications 15, 4364. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48762-8 sanders, j. s. (2011). disciplining girls: understanding the origins of the classic orphan girl story. johns hopkins university press. timmermann, a., yun, k-s., raia, p., et al. (2022). climate effects on archaic human habitats and species successions. nature, 604, pp. 495-50. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04600-9 tubi, a., and israeli, y. (2024). is climate migration successful adaptation or maladaptation? a holistic assessment of outcomes in kenya. climate risk management, 44, 100614. https://media.rff.org/documents/wp_19-13.pdf https://doi.org/10.25613/vddf-gd21 http://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48762-8 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04600-9 deszcz-tryhubczak ú lessons about animal-human relations 70 lessons about animal-human relations shaun tan’s tales from the inner city in education about the climate crisis and animal welfare justyna deszcz-tryhubczak, university of wrocław, wrocław, poland abstract this article introduces the course work with undergraduate students at the university of wrocław, poland, that involved discussing theoretical frameworks from human-animal studies and posthumanist thought while creatively engaging with shaun tan’s collection tales from the inner city. i propose that tan’s stories can be used in education to address the deeply interconnected issues of the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and animal welfare. recognizing that climate change and biodiversity loss are deeply linked, i draw on research to argue that tackling these crises requires integrated strategies and a transformation of societal values toward care and accountability. fostering awareness of animal welfare is seen as a crucial step in this shift. i then introduce the students’ contributions, which all show how tan’s depictions of a range of human-animal relationships encourage reflection on both hopeful and uncomfortable aspects of these bonds. keywords animal welfare, biodiversity loss, climate crisis, human-animal studies, shaun tan climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 71 climate crisis and biodiversity biodiversity loss and climate crisis are often seen as separate phenomena and addressed as distinct issues (shin et al. 2022). and yet, they are both drivers and consequences of one another, closely linked to human activities and resulting in negative impacts on the planetary well-being. just as climate crisis is partly an effect of the loss of biomass and biodiversity, rising temperatures result in further losses of biomass and biodiversity. on one hand, climate crisis is increasingly affecting animal species, causing them to seek more hospitable habitats for example due to extreme events, such as heat waves, severe droughts, and floods, thereby endangering chances for their survival. on the other hand, biodiversity loss reduces carbon stocks and sink capacity in natural and managed ecosystems, increasing emissions. following a joint meeting of members of the international panels on climate change and biodiversity and ecosystem services, pörtner et al. explain that interdependencies of biodiversity loss and climate change “include temperature-induced changes in photosynthetic capacity and carbon storage, modified reflectivity of the land surface, altered formation of clouds and atmospheric dust, and shifted biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and carbon, which in turn influence the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere” (2023, p. 1). as they further propose, we need integrated and coordinated strategies that address both crises together: “strengthening the biosphere on land, in freshwater, and in the ocean will support climate change mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity, human well-being, and livelihoods” (ibid). they also conclude that such interventions require a transformation in both personal and collective values, which will enable moving away from individualism and materialism towards accountability, care, and justice (ibid). an important step in this transformation of values is fostering interest in animal welfare, as animals are “being swept along” with humans in the changing world in “farms, zoos and game parks as companion animals” or “through the effects of human activity on the environment and the wild” (butterworth, 2018, p. 1). some humandriven changes are so significant that they profoundly impact entire animal populations, often in ways that cannot be undone. deborah bird rose (2004) describes this demise of regenerative potential as double death, a process that amplifies death to such an extent that not only individuals but also entire groups, species, and ways of life are being eradicated. double death thus involves the death of future continuities, which will affect the lives of the current young generations. bearing this prospect in mind, should we not agree, as andy butterworth proposes in animal welfare in a changing world (2018), that animals deszcz-tryhubczak ú lessons about animal-human relations 72 (i) probably have complex experiential worlds, and mental needs and natures; (ii) can probably experience pain [...] as evidenced through their response to aversive conditions); (iii) are probably aware of their own surroundings; (iv) probably have an emotional dimension; (v) are probably aware of what is happening to them; (vi) probably have the ability to learn from experience; (vii) are probably aware of bodily sensations – hunger, heat, cold; (viii) are probably aware of their relationships with other animals; (ix) have the ability to choose between different objects and situations; and (x) probably have the capacity to ‘suffer’? (p. 1). butterworth further explains that his repeated use of the word “probably” is deliberate, as “the accumulation of ‘probables’” is needed in a world where practical action is delayed “until there is ultimate proof,” and in the context of animal welfare, “this has been the cause of much diversion, delay and distress – the animals continue to be used (and abused) while more proof for example of whether ‘these animals really feel pain?’ or ‘these animals really need so much space’ is “collated, analysed and debated” (p. 1). as he suggests, “a welfare positive position could be the default position, rather than the position towards which man and animals move after divisive confrontation” (p. 1). it seems that to be able to make this perspectival flip, we would do well to follow the postulates of posthumanist scholars such as donna haraway (2016), anna tsing et al. (2024), or vinciane despret (2021), who all argue for developing an attitude of attentiveness, curiosity, care and readiness for complex and often uneasy relations and entanglements with real and imaginary animals around us. this attitude in turn may perhaps inspire fully embodied participation in and responsibility for a more-than-human community, enabling ecological restoration. thinking with shaun tan’s tales from the inner city these questions and concerns guided me in the academic year 2023/2024, during my meetings with a group of undergraduate students in two of the global english cultures and languages specialization courses at the institute of english studies, at the university of wrocław, poland: selected research approaches in literary studies and project classes: literary studies. in the first course, we discussed, among other things, issues concerning literary research in the anthropocene, including human-animal studies. during the second course, we attempted to apply these theoretical approaches to a collaborative project on tales from the inner city by australian writer and illustrator shaun tan. this collection of 25 stories in words and images that explore relationships between humans and animals in urban environments and beyond can be climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 73 seen as encouraging various speculative engagements with animal welfare. it has usually been praised for its hopefulness about a posthuman future effected through redefined human-more-than-human relationalities. chengcheng you (2023) for example proposes that tan’s depictions of “human-animal assemblages” move away from “positioning animals and humans as adversaries” towards “cultivating our ‘animal nature’—which includes traits such as sensitivity, instinct, and interdependence with the more-than-human world” (p. 7). kirsten hunt (2023) emphasizes how the book’s invitation to speculate on human-animal companionships awakens hopeful imagination about “what we could be if we let go of anthropocentrism and embraced otherness in all its forms” (p. 92). lorraine kerslake’s (2022) discussion of the collection concludes on an optimistic tone: “[d]espite tan’s haunting lament [...], warning about the failures of human beings and our perverse attitude toward the environment, there is also room for optimism and wonder” (p. 46). hence, as she argues, the collection may encourage the reader “to go beyond the text and remind us that we stand fully embedded within the natural world” (ibid). to me, the extraordinary phenomenon of tan’s book is its emotional diversity that boldly encompasses a range of responses and attitudes we may have to our relations with animals. importantly, these responses may exist at the same time even if they seem irreconcilable. they do not exclude each other but coexist side by side, if not commingle, in our affective repertoires. while some of the tales indeed project hope for more just human-animal connectivities, some stories emphasize instead humans’ inability and reluctance to mend their ways. humans are sometimes presented as persevering in brutalities against animals and nature, as is the case in “the lungfish”, “the shark”, “the bears”, “the orca”, “the rhino”, “the sheep” or “the pigeons.” a poem about the extinction of the last rhino on the earth that happens as if by accident or an account of the shark culling that turns into a symbolic extermination of future generations of sharks are not easy reads and will for sure disturb, if not horrify, readers regardless of their age. but perhaps we need to experience this discomfort as a motivation to reflect and act. embracing these difficult responses instead of overcoming and suppressing them through pursuing only more positive emotions may turn out to be an effective form of educating our desire for a transformation of humananimal relations as a complex and non-innocent process fraught with tensions and conflicting interests. the mechanism of how such an exposure may lead to a change in perspective is reflected in the apprehension that the narrator in “the shark” begins to feel as the culling progresses. this is a hopeful omen of awakening and of the potential for developing a deeper ethical awareness, one that acknowledges the shared deszcz-tryhubczak ú lessons about animal-human relations 74 vulnerabilities of all species and the need to reimagine human-animal relations as grounded in mutual respect and coexistence. with my students, our joint responses to selected tales focused both on close reading that resulted in literary interpretations and on more elusive and ineffable affective responses that, we thought, would sometimes be best rendered through art as “central to thinking with and feeling through the anthropocene” (davis and turpin, 2015, p. 3), as it offers “a range of discursive, visual, and sensual strategies that are not confined by the regimes of scientific objectivity, political moralism, or psychological depression” (p. 4). in our readings of tan’s animals, we also relied on matthew stewart and kate cole’s conceptual map of the social construction of “other” animals (2014, p. 21), which generates a framework for understanding how humans categorize and relate to non-human animals according to the cultural, ethical, and functional dimensions of these interactions. some animals can thus be tools or commodities for human use, while some are “dead ‘meat’” or pets and companions, often anthropomorphized and integrated into human families. the map is divided into four general areas: “friends”, “nature”, “things” and “killing zone.” usually, one animal can be seen in terms of several constructs, depending on whether and how it is objectified. these constructs also elicit various responses, from sensibility at one end, as is the case with pets and cultural representations of animals to non-sensibility, as is the case with vermin. tan’s tales from the inner city invite readers to examine how humans create the constructs defining animals and how these constructs shape human-animal relationships, often neglecting the status of animals as beings with intrinsic value. using stewart and cole’s conceptual map alongside tales from the inner city provides rich opportunities for helping us all to critically analyze how human-animal relations are socially constructed and culturally encoded, which in turn may result in further explorations of the complexities of human-animal relationships both in culture and in real life, including care for animal welfare. the three student-authored articles that follow below suggest some ways in which these explorations could be implemented in school settings with the help of tan’s stories and their potential to make young readers rethink their relationships with animals for a more connected present and future. while they include possible interpretations of selected stories, their primary goal is proposing discussions and other activities that can be implemented across a broad age range to foster ethical, philosophical, and practical discussions about human-animal relationships. in the first one, responding to the story about the moonfish, jan dudek asks what happens if we accept that fishes feel pain and experience negative emotional responses to inhospitable conditions. martyna obodyńska then shares her affective response to the climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 75 story about the horses and proposes creative activities that may challenge students to explore both past and current forms of animal exploitation alongside their love for individual animals in their lives. finally, magdalena puciłowska and urszula żoczek offer ideas for creative classroom engagements with “crocodiles” and “butterflies” as ways for nurturing curiosity and wonder in students. we realize that we can only begin to touch upon the vast and complex topics surrounding animal welfare. today, we are witnessing unprecedented changes in the world of animals—changes that are deeply intertwined with the unfolding climate crisis. the accelerating degradation of ecosystems affects not only animal habitats and survival but also reshapes our ethical responsibilities toward other species. developing climate literacy—an understanding of how human actions impact planetary systems—is essential to making informed, compassionate decisions in the face of environmental uncertainty. the choices we make under these pressures will have profound implications for the future of animals and humanity alike. we hope that these articles can support teachers and students in exploring these interconnected issues, sparking curiosity, encouraging critical thinking, and perhaps even challenging long-held assumptions. finally, i would like to sincerely thank jan, martyna, magdalena, and urszula for generously sharing their insights throughout our course and for putting in the effort to transform our discussions into thoughtful articles—their dedication has truly been inspiring. i would also like to acknowledge the contributions of two colleagues, aliona yarova malmö university) and agata alicja zelachowska (university of salamanca), who visited our classes and kindly shared their insights with us. last but not least, i would also like to thank the university of wrocław for supporting the students’ work through the funding allocated to extracurricular activities. references butterworth, a. (2018). introduction. in a. butterworth (ed). animal welfare in a changing world (pp. 1-3). cabi. davis, h. and turpin, e. (2015). art & death: lives between the fifth assessment & the sixth extinction. in davis, h. and turpin, e. (eds). art in the anthropocene: encounters among aesthetics, politics, environments and epistemologies (pp. 329). open humanities press. cole, m. & stewart, k. (2014). our children and other animals: the cultural construction of human-animal relations in childhood. ashgate. despret, v. (2021). living as a bird. polity press. haraway, d. j. (2016). staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. duke university press. deszcz-tryhubczak ú lessons about animal-human relations 76 hunt, k. (2023). posthuman fiction: the speculative landscape of shaun tan’s tales from the inner city & nnedi okorafor’s laguardia. revista hélice, 8(2), 77-94. kerslake, l. (2022). aesthetic entanglements in the age of the anthropocene: a posthuman reading of shaun tan’s tales from the inner city. bookbird, 60(4), pp. 38-47. pörtner, h., scholes, r. j., arneth, a., barnes, d. k. a., burrows, m. t., diamond, s. e., duarte, c. m., kiessling, w., leadley, p., managi, s., mcelwee, p., midgley, g., ngo, h. t., obura, d., pascual, u., sankaran, m., shin, y. j., & val, a. l. (2023). overcoming the coupled climate and biodiversity crises and their societal impacts. science (american association for the advancement of science), 380(6642). rose, d. b. (2004). reports from a wild country: ethics for decolonisation. university of new south wales press. shin, y.-j., midgley, g. f., archer, e. r. m., arneth, a., barnes, d. k. a., chan, l., hashimoto, s., hoegh-guldberg, o., insarov, g., leadley, p., levin, l., ngo, h. t., pandit, r., pires, a. p. f., pörtner, h.-o., rogers, a. d., scholes, r. j., settele, j., & smith, p. (2022). actions to halt biodiversity loss generally benefit the climate. global change biology, 28(9), pp. 2846–2874. tan, s. (2018). tales from the inner city. london: walker studio. tsing, l. a., deger, j. saxena, a. k., and feifei, z. (2024). guide to the patchy anthropocene: the new nature. stanford university press. you, c. (2023). outlandish creatures and genre crossover in young adult liminal fantasy: a deleuzian perspective. humanities & social sciences communication, 10(1), pp. 1-9. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 17 black lives matter in the climate conversation seventh and eighth grade science north carolina during the 2015-2016 school year, as attacks on black people and other communities of color increased in the news, my 7th and 8th graders wrestled with the response of the newly emergent black lives matter movement. though not completely, their responses were very much along racial lines, with many of my students of color fervently and openly supporting black lives matter, while more of my white 7th grade students arguing for all lives to be centered when the topic came up in our daily student news, project work, or seminars. near the end of our unit on climate in third quarter, i decided to utilize naomi klein’s article “why #blacklivesmatter should transform the climate debate” with my students. as we dug into the article in a socratic seminar, i posed the question: “whose lives in the room were affected directly daily by climate change? did anyone in the room have to think about climate change all the time?” once they were over the shock that even their science teacher didn’t think about the topic all the time, we were able to have an honest conversation that none of us in this particular classroom did. as we dug further, many students began trying to figure out who did and began referencing the zinn education project’s indigenous peoples climate summit role play and klein’s film this changes everything. it was here that students began to identify how the crisis more heavily impacted people of color throughout the world, even though it was the decisions of largely wealthy and white corporations that needed to shift to bring about this change. one student shared: “remember the climate summit. those people are affected by climate today, everyday. they are native americans, pacific islanders, and africans. they aren’t most of us. and they aren’t the ones causing the climate to change with big factories or cars or energy.” and the next https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-does-blacklivesmatter-have-do-climate-change/ https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/dont-take-our-voices-away/ middle school media specialistú floridaú planet protectors 18 student echoed this: “the same thing with most of the people in the video. it’s not rich people who are affected. it’s not the people who are destroying the climate.” additionally, students agreed that the actions that would help those most affected are the best decisions for all of us too: “well, if people had listened to the demands of the people at the indigenous climate summit, then the indigenous people who aren’t able to farm or fish anymore or live on their islands, we’d help them a lot and stop climate change. which would really help all of us too.” slowly, student after student began making connections of how the principle of “black lives matter” is similar, that centering those oppressed does not diminish others’ lives, it instead focuses and strengthens the conversation towards a shared liberation. in their reflections, a real shift was clear: “do white people have to think about being white most of the time? it’s kinda like how most of us don’t have to think about being affected by climate change all the time” and “black lives matter and if we work to stop racism everything would be better. freedom for everyone is always better. why wouldn’t stopping climate change be better as well? for the people in the video and for black people and for everyone.” it was through this concrete science lesson that these 48 twelve to fourteen year old students were not only able to grow deeper in their climate science knowledge, but maybe more importantly grew in their understanding of racial justice and equity, finally able to grasp this abstract concept and shift their understanding; a shift my teaching partner and i felt throughout the community the remainder of that year. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 13 bees matter kindergarten second grade science, language arts, and art california you know those rare moments in teaching that stick—really stick—with you? in 2016, i was walking my kindergartners to lunch when i noticed a bee crawling on the ground. this was nothing unusual, as i teach in california’s rural central valley. our beautiful school is surrounded by almond and cherry orchards and grape vineyards. but as we walked, i noticed dozens of bees on the sidewalk crawling or spinning. i wasn’t then a bee expert or lover at the time, but as a human, i felt they were suffering and wanted to help them. and i wasn’t alone. the kindergartners wanted to help them, too. together, we started to research bees. bees around the world are dying, but there isn’t a consensus on the reason why. experts blame parasites, chemicals, poor nutrition or pathogens. some blame droughts. regardless, we have a crisis. i wanted to do something, and the something that i can do is educate… and plant flowers. turns out, kids also enjoy helping pollinators. primary teachers often focus lessons on their local community, so (in my opinion) climate justice is best taught through local issues. most of my students’ parents are migrant farm workers, so my students are familiar with farming. and with a beehive in a tree on the playground, they know to not upset the bees. what they didn’t know is the importance of our fuzzy friends to us. student collecting pollen k-2 science, ela, and artú californiaú bees matter 14 through art, science experiments, dramatic play and writing, i teach about pollination in my classroom. my hope is by understanding the importance of pollinators, they are enthusiastic about promoting pollination through growing their own flowers at home. and they do—i’ve been sent many photos of students’ sunflowers (i provide seeds in my treasure box) in their own yards. i get it. it’s some sunflower seeds in some little hands in a tiny town in central california. but, just like those seeds, big, beautiful ideas started small. student art depicting super bee https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vacepwtwo4kq7r_28boxxqjztsrrx_c9/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qxwvlhgrxvrz3opre_34upwrb5eb0pcq/view?usp=sharing deneger & jackson ú antidote to ecophobia 56 an antidote to ecophobia opportunities for awe through books for young readers rebekah m. degener, minnesota state university, mankato, minnesota, usa sarah e. jackson, millersville university, millersville, pennsylvania, usa abstract children’s ecophobia—a sense of overwhelm and fear regarding environmental issues and climate change—is on the rise. to counter this trend, fostering a sense of awe grounded in indigenous perspectives on the environment is essential not only for children’s emotional health, but for the longevity of humans and the earth. this article provides practical strategies for early childhood and elementary teachers to help children experience awe about nature as they read picturebooks. we examine two texts grounded in indigenous perspectives and we describe hands-on strategies teachers can use to enable students to gain tangible experiences in reciprocal relationship with nature. keywords environmental education, picturebooks, awe, nature education climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 57 introduction as children increasingly encounter information about climate change, they paradoxically spend less time connected to the natural world. ecophobia among young people is on the rise: a growing awareness of the climate emergency can lead to “fearful, cynical, and pessimistic” feelings toward the earth (strife, 2011, p. 37). an antidote to ecophobia, crucial for the planet’s health and longevity (pearsall, 2007), is awe. this “feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world”—is one emerging tenet of environmental education (keltner, 2023, p. 7). ng et al. (2023) found that learning about nature can promote awe and a sense of connection. too often, however, students read about ecosystems, weather patterns, or animal adaptations without having ever felt the chill of early morning air in a forest or having ever heard the call of a bird echo through the trees. keltner (2023) argues that our experiences of awe don’t have to be limited to infrequent breathtaking events such as seeing an astonishing mountaintop vista. they can be experienced in our everyday lives. we argue that educators can foster awe about the environment in their daily practices, even when opportunities for immersive field trips are limited. importantly, all experiences with nature, even seemingly negative ones, can foster awe as long as people can reflect on them (hicks & stewart, 2020). therefore, educators should focus on creating reflective opportunities rather than curating only positive experiences with nature. indigenous perspectives on the natural world foreground awe as foundational to humanity’s ecological belonging (celidwen, 2024). specifically, as celidwen & keltner (2023) note, “within indigenous conceptualizations of kin relationality, experiences of [...] awe are extended to all living forms within interdependent relations” (p. 7); indigenous perspectives on awe come from an understanding of oneself as being in a relationship with larger collectives of other living beings. we offer recommendations for elementary educators to use picturebooks in tandem with outdoor learning experiences to foster students’ awe and counter ecophobia. we analyze two recently published picturebooks that rely on indigenous environmental perspectives and offer entry points for educators to orient children to the environment with a sense of awe: zonia’s rain forest by juana martinez-neal (2021) and little land by diana sudyka (2023). zonia’s rain forest is set in the peruvian amazon, and the main character is asháninka. while not written by an indigenous creator, sudyka details how little land was informed by robin wall kimmerer’s indigenous ecological perspectives. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/zonias-rain-forest/ deneger & jackson ú antidote to ecophobia 58 strategies for promoting awe embody awe when learning about unfamiliar environments, children need to gain concrete understandings of nature through play. inspiring students to change their daily choices to preserve a distant environment can be challenging; through play, children make abstract places real to them. in response to the evocative words and images in zonia’s rain forest, teachers can create immersive amazonian rainforest classroom environments. when students play by acting as animals or plants, they get a chance to experience awe-filled connections with a distant environment before we ask them to save it (sobel, 1996). find awe in the dirt oftentimes, educators inadvertently suggest that nature should be left alone by humans to preserve it. additionally, children might get the message that parts of nature can be harmful (poisonous bugs, poisonous plants, etc.) and so should be avoided. young children learn through tactile experiences, so providing opportunities for them to touch and play with tangible natural elements in safe and respectful ways, such as getting their hands dirty while planting seeds, can help them understand humanity’s reciprocal relationship with nature. rather than viewing humans as earth’s saviors, these activities promote the perspective that our participation with nature is fundamental to the earth’s longevity, a relationship of reciprocity (kimmerer, 2013). with all children, and especially with children who have limited access to nature, this hands-on approach can combat one of the primary characteristics of ecophobia. it helps students appreciate that nature gives them much, and they are also part of nature. many environmental picturebooks present opportunities for students to consider how they might be in a reciprocal and restorative relationship through tactile experiences. in little land, after the environmental destruction which literally turns the fictional world upside down, a few child characters dig in the dirt, restoring the land by planting a tree. the next page zooms out to show how this sparks a community-wide effort where people’s tangible interactions with their environment contribute to nature’s regeneration. even more impactful are books where people are immersed in a playful relationship with nature. images in zonia’s rain forest, such as when many butterflies land on her, demonstrate how children can physically interact with nature respectfully rather than simply avoiding it out of fear, either of harming it or of being climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 59 harmed. texts such as zonia’s rain forest can promote a reciprocal, hands-on relationship between children and their environment. find awe in relationship while one-off environmental field trips can provide students meaningful place-based learning opportunities, more sustained experiences can help students develop deeper and longer-term relationships with nature. in little land, readers see the same piece of land over a long period of time, demonstrating what it looks like to get to know a particular place over time. teaching children to find sit spots allows them to return to the exact same place to witness the same environmental setting across many different times and seasons (hu, 2022). when people spend extended time in a particular place or element, they develop the deep, reciprocal relationship kimmerer (2013) promotes. similarly, sudkya dedicates the book to “the blue gentians of the linne prairie,” specific flowers that she loves. included next to this note is the image of the blue flower that grows in alpine areas worldwide and is found commonly in the author’s location. in her dedication, sudyka elevates this specific relationship to such a degree that the flowers take a spot in the book typically reserved for humans. bringing students’ attention to this note can lead us to ask children: “what natural element do you know and love? how can you show that love?” children might rely on little land as a mentor text to write a love letter/story to/about the element of nature they love. we might model and encourage students to consider ways that their actions in and out of the classroom are motivated by awe for specific aspects of the natural environment in their local area. even in areas without extensive access to nature, teachers can promote prolonged relationship between children and nature by having a classroom pet or watching a natural process unfold like tadpoles turning into frogs. awe can help us love our immediate environment, but it can also break us out of the familiar. it can bridge the gap between our immediate environment and faraway places that are at risk in some way. webcams are one way to connect students and distant elements of nature, returning to the same animals throughout the year to observe, listen, and learn from them (fokides & arvaniti, 2020). teachers using webcams can attest to the excited, collective awe experienced when, for example, a clutch of eagle eggs that the class has been following finally hatch and the slick, curled eaglets emerge from their shells. teachers can search for webcams relating to natural aspects depicted in the books they read, enabling their students to experience awe about faraway places through continuous observation. strategies that promote ongoing connections with particular deneger & jackson ú antidote to ecophobia 60 animals, plants, or natural spaces can help students experience ever-deepening awe as the relationship develops. model awe before, during, and after reading books with children, teachers can model a sense of awe at the environment they are exploring. preparing to read with children, teachers can give themselves space and time to let real awe grow, dwelling on specific words and images that inspire awe and then highlight these before, during, and after sharing the book with students. in zonia’s rain forest, teachers can model both positive and negative emotions as they read. for instance, zonia spends the first part of the book interacting with a dazzling array of plants and animals, which educators might respond to with exuberant exclamations of, “oh, wow!” however, zonia then reaches a part of the forest that has been clear-cut. after the abundance and joy featured earlier, this stark image of destruction is shocking. an educator reading this book with children might pause when they get to those pages, perhaps slumping a bit in their seat and letting out a quiet, “oh, wow.” letting children see genuine physical indicators of awe, whether in response to positive or negative events, invites them into this crucial emotion as they read. teachers can consider how to demonstrate awe outside the classroom and rely on these behaviors as they read. just as they might pause while outdoors to marvel with students at the brilliance of an owl’s nest, during reading, educators can gasp in real wonder when they turn the page and something marvelous is revealed. using a range of vocal dynamics helps convey a range of wonder, modeling everything from loud, wholehearted amazement to reverent, whispered astonishment. teachers might include occasional pauses, showing that it is okay to sit in silent contemplation of the world in the book. in short, slowing down to prioritize reading that builds children’s inner worlds helps deepen young people’s connections to the physical worlds around them. strategies such as the ones offered here can foster students’ relationships to the environment as they read about nearby and faraway places. grounding our reading of environmental children’s literature in indigenous perspectives about nature can help us recognize that the planetary health is dependent on us being in a respectful and reciprocal relationship with the earth’s web of life. using hands-on activities alongside picturebooks can develop students’ awe-filled sense of ecological belonging, positioning them not as a saviors of the environment but as kin and inherently embedded in nature. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 61 references celidwen, y. (2024). flourishing kin: indigenous wisdom for collective well-being. sounds true. celidwen, y., & keltner, d. (2023). kin relationality and ecological belonging: a cultural psychology of indigenous transcendence. frontiers in psychology, 14, 994508. fokides, e., & arvaniti, p. a. (2020). evaluating the effectiveness of 360 videos when teaching primary school subjects related to environmental education. journal of pedagogical research, 4(3), 203–222. https://doi.org/10.33902/jpr.2020063461 keltner, d. (2023). awe: the new science of everyday wonder and how it can transform your life. penguin press. hicks, j. r., and stewart, w. p. (2020). learning from wildlife-inspired awe. the journal of environmental education, 51(1), 44–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2019.1594148 hu, h. (2022). rethinking nature journaling in the kindergarten program: action research in learning and teaching. journal of outdoor and environmental education, 25(2), 159–179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42322-022-00095-0 kimmerer, r. w. (2013). braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. milkweed editions. martinez-neal, j. (2021). zonia’s rain forest. candlewick press. ng, s. t., leung, a. k. y., & chan, s. h. m. (2023). through the lens of a naturalist: how learning about nature promotes nature connectedness via awe. journal of environmental psychology, 92, 102069. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102069 sobel, d. (1996). beyond ecophobia: reclaiming the heart in nature education. orion society. strife, s., & downey, l. (2011). childhood development and access to nature: a new direction for environmental inequality research. organization & environment, 22(1), 99–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026609333340 sudyka, d. (2023). little land. little, brown books for young readers. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 77 play-ifying shaun tan’s tales from the inner city facilitating elementary-aged children’s understanding of and emotional interaction with tan’s stories magdalena puczyńska, university of wrocław, wrocław, poland urszula żoczek, university of wrocław, wrocław, poland abstract this article explores the use of play-based learning to foster children’s emotional engagement with shaun tan’s tales from the inner city to promote empathy toward animals and reflection on environmental issues. building on research highlighting the cognitive and emotional benefits of interactive, multisensory activities for children, we propose two creative classroom activities connected to tan’s stories “crocodiles” and “butterflies.” both activities are designed to strengthen emotional intelligence, empathy, and discussion skills, while also providing sensory engagement particularly beneficial for neurodivergent learners. we argue that integrating literary discussions with arts and crafts provides a rich, inclusive learning environment that supports emotional and intellectual development. keywords multisensory arts and crafts, ecological community, animal welfare, empathy puczyńska & żoczek ú play-ifying tales from the inner city 78 play-based learning is a technique held in high regard by many experts in the field of education for its capability to create strong and lasting connections in the developing brains of children. when the activity is well-thought-out and fitted to the individual needs of the classroom and the topic being discussed, it can influence the way children interact with and perceive the subject at hand and encourage them to delve deeper into it. according to havziu-ismaili (2023), when children learn through play, different spheres of their lives, such as home, school and the world at large are brought together instead of standing in isolation from one another. for children, play is a natural way of learning and understanding the world, as well as developing creativity by engaging with different materials and objects. these objects shape the meaning, form and technique of the activity, and this is why it is so important to construct each activity with the materials that will best serve the intended learning goals. the author poses that for a game to serve its function, it “must fulfill a multitude of pedagogical requirements, must respond to the educational purpose with content and form, must be accessible to children, must stimulate children’s interest, influence the development of creativity, personality, etc.” (pp. 311-312). we propose a way of cultivating children’s empathy and emotional intelligence by encouraging them to empathize with the experiences of animals and consider perspectives different from human-centered ones. by making choices and facing the consequences within an interactive narrative, children are encouraged to develop a deeper understanding of the impact of their actions. through providing a series of interactive illustrations to the stories from shaun tan’s tales from the inner city, our method aims to enable children to experience the stories through multisensory engagement. using interactive illustration to involve children in storytelling creates immersive experiences that transcend traditional narrative boundaries and may foster young readers’ active engagement, promote comprehension and creativity, and enhance empathy toward animal suffering. “crocodiles” the narrative paints an image of crocodiles living in an urban setting: a floor in an office building. the animals live between the floors, with the office workers being blissfully unaware of their existence. their floor has been adapted into a jungle-like environment in which the crocodiles seem to be fairly content. the story highlights the intrusion of urban areas into natural habitats and its consequent impact on wildlife. the presence of crocodiles in a city setting serves as a stark reminder of how urban expansion can displace animals from their natural environments, forcing them to adapt to human-dominated landscapes. the narrative climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 79 touches on the consequences of environmental degradation. the theme of crocodiles in the city could be seen as a metaphor for the broader issues of habitat destruction and pollution, which highlights the urgency of conservation efforts to protect natural habitats and ensure the survival of various species. because tan’s story “critically contests anthropocentrism and human exceptionalism” (kern, 2021, p. 461), we propose an activity focused on creating the environment for the crocodiles as a way to prompt children to consider their responsibilities towards the environment and identify how human actions affect the natural world. creating personalized crocodile cutouts aims to make children more emotionally invested in the activity and to encourage them to form a deeper connection with nature, which in turn might be helpful in bridging a divide between familiar urban life and the strangeness of the wildlife. crocodiles: environment building exercise supplies • strip magnets • a4/letter size paper for printing and a color printer (or print at a printing shop) • scissors • (optional) laminating machine and pouches (will make the assets survive more sessions) • (optional) blank crocodile cutouts (wooden ones can be bought online, or you can make your own out of posterboard) preparation before class • print out the printables attached. • (optional) laminate the materials. • cut them out. • (optional) cut up and glue the magnets on the back of the assets. • lay the background on the whiteboard/desk. arrange the items around the background. if the group is larger than five to ten students, you might opt for the cardboard version instead of the magnetic one, make multiple copies of the pictures, and separate the students into smaller groups so that they have equal access to the items. puczyńska & żoczek ú play-ifying tales from the inner city 80 in class 1. distribute copies of the text to the class and read the story aloud to the students (or ask them to take turns reading aloud if their reading level allows for it). 2. (optional) distribute the crocodile cutouts and encourage the students to decorate them however they want to. this will create an emotional connection between the student and their crocodile and facilitate compassion. while the children are painting, talk about crocodiles. what do the students know about them? 3. encourage the students to put their crocodiles in the middle of the background. ask them what environment the crocodiles would want to live in. is this room (point to the background) a good environment for a crocodile? 4. after a brief exchange of ideas, ask the students to work together and pick the best items for the environment. it is good if the students have debates over which items would be the best while doing this activity, as this encourages broader thinking and listening to feedback. 5. after the students are done, discuss their work. questions you might want to ask are as follows: a. do you think your crocodiles are happy in the environment you created? why/why not? b. is there something that's not in your inventory (of items) that you think would also fit in this environment? c. how should we live/or change the way we live so that animals live better lives? d. optionally, if you find that some students in your class have trouble paying attention to stories being read aloud, you might want to read the story aloud to them while they are playing with the assets instead of before the activity. the sensory input from the assets might help them listen more attentively. “butterflies” in this vignette-like narrative, a moment in time is captured when the day-to-day busy urban life is interrupted by a swarm of butterflies that seem to come out of nowhere and vanish into nothingness just as quickly as they showed up. the swarm fills the city with color just for a moment, sparking a sense of wonder in the passers-by. “butterflies” explores themes of creativity and childlike wonder through its depiction of a collective reaction to a natural phenomenon. the descent of climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 81 uncountable numbers of butterflies, described as “beyond even the concept of counting” (tan, 2018, p. 17), transcends ordinary life and invokes a sense of infinite possibilities, reflecting the essence of creativity. the inexplicable nature and universal impact of this event—drawing everyone away from their routines—highlight a shared spontaneous joy reminiscent of a child’s reaction to magic. this contrasts starkly with the adult world's need for rationality and quantification, allowing for a pure, uncalculating appreciation of the moment. kari-anne jørgensen writes that “wonder and the development of environmental consciousness are mutually connected. the sense of ‘wonder’ as a driving force in children’s curiosity and emotional involvement requires an openness to the environment” (2015, p. 17). children’s inherent curiosity, amplified by wonder at the animal world, directly fuels reflection on animal welfare. observing animals’ behaviors and characteristics sparks questions about their needs and experiences. this inquisitive state fosters empathy, prompting children to consider animal perspectives. consequently, this natural curiosity nurtured by wonder lays a crucial foundation for developing pro-animal welfare attitudes and ethical considerations. introducing this story to children aged seven to nine might encourage them not to let go of their child-like wonder and enable them to think about other things in the world that they think are wondrous, thus resulting in a bigger awareness of the preciousness of the natural environment. the activity we propose below meant to encourage children to explore their creativity and wonder through arts and crafts. children’s inherent curiosity, amplified by wonder at the animal world, directly fuels reflection on animal welfare. observing animal behaviors and characteristics sparks questions about their needs and experiences. this inquisitive state fosters empathy, prompting children to consider animal perspectives. consequently, this natural curiosity, nurtured by wonder, lays a crucial foundation for developing pro-animal welfare attitudes and ethical considerations. creating a personalized snow globe lets the child express their current fascinations with the world. the act of encapsulating the child’s wonder in a jar may prove to have a lasting impact on their confidence and fearlessness in freely expressing themselves, since the encouragement of creative expression makes the child feel seen and understood. the proposed discussion following the activity aims to enable children to share their interests and thoughts with their peers. it is important to moderate this discussion and act if any child tries to put their peer’s ideas down. by witnessing mutual curiosity and respect, children are taught that even though they might not understand why someone might be interested in something, this does not mean that they can ridicule puczyńska & żoczek ú play-ifying tales from the inner city 82 it. this is, apart from exploring the concept of wonder, primarily an exercise in empathy and discussion skills as well as mutual respect. butterflies snow globes supplies • one jar of any size per student (you may ask the students to bring their own) • butterfly-shaped glitter or sequins (biodegradable) • kids’ non-toxic glass paints and brushes • water • glycerin • waterproof glue in class 1. distribute the paints and show the children how to paint a cityscape along the rim of the jar. encourage them to be creative and paint whatever kind of landscape they want. 2. help the children pour the butterfly glitter into their jars. 3. fill up the jars with water and glycerin (3 tbsp of glycerin per 1 cup of water) 4. seal the jars with glue. do not let the children play with the snow globes until the glue is completely set. 5. while the children are playing with their snow globes, discuss their work. the questions you might want to ask are as follows: a. what are some things in the natural world that you think are magical/wonderful/inspiring? b. what can we do to invite more wonder into our lives? ending thoughts while we propose activities for only two of shaun tan’s stories, we believe that it is possible and beneficial to construct age-appropriate activities to go along with any of the tales (or any story of any author, for that matter). we encourage educators working especially with children under the age of twelve to engage their students in frequent manual activities in conjunction with insightful discussion and mindfulness exercises, as they have been proven to be highly conducive to healthy development of motor skills and emotions. the discussion of literary works combined with arts and crafts projects may suit many classrooms, but we especially hope that neurodivergent children may climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 83 benefit immensely from the sensory input of the activities. tan’s works encourage compassion for and the mindfulness of the world around us. they can teach both children and adults that humankind is only a small part of this planet, and other nonhuman beings should also be considered in our daily lives. references havziu-ismaili, b. et al. (2023). learning through games and its impact on the development of student’s knowledge during the pandemic period. international journal of cognitive research in science, engineering and education (ijcrsee), 11(2), pp. 311-319. jørgensen, k. a. (2015). bringing the jellyfish home: environmental consciousness and ‘sense of wonder’ in young children’s encounters with natural landscapes and places. environmental education research, 22(8), pp. 1139–1157. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2015.1068277 kern, d. (2021). “...the only thing left to eat is the truth”: image, text and artivist critique in shaun tan’s “tales from the inner city.” connessioni, 2(1), pp. 443464. tan, s. (2018). tales from the inner city. walker studio. obodyńska ú friends or tools? 84 friends or tools? the duality of horses in shaun tan’s tales from the inner city martyna obodyńska, university of wrocław, wrocław, poland abstract this article explores the complex relationship between humans and horses in shaun tan’s short story about horses included in tales from the inner city, focusing on the blurred line between viewing animals as tools or as companions. the article highlights how tan evokes empathy by presenting the horses’ historical suffering through a non-verbal, emotional connection. the concept of "wit(h)nessing," introduced by bracha ettinger, is used to frame the child's role—not as a passive observer, but as someone who shares and acknowledges the horses’ suffering. to deepen this engagement, the article presents my poetic response to the story and discusses their personal experiences with horses, illustrating how direct interaction with animal suffering can inspire artistic expression and emotional growth. real-life examples emphasize the importance of acknowledging animal pain as the first step toward compassion and change. finally, the article argues for the pedagogical value of integrating creative practices into education to nurture empathy towards animals, which may enable humans to move beyond instrumental views of animals and embrace relationships based on empathy, respect, and mutual presence. keywords horses, art, animal suffering, wit(h)nessing climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 85 that animals were present in humans’ lives since the very beginning of the humankind is a fact. however, the question is what exactly they are to humans? sometimes it is hard to draw the clear line between barnyard animals as tools needed for work and them being pets, friends or family. furthermore, we should ask whether it is really necessary to draw this line. shaun tan addresses this problem in his collection of stories tales from the inner city. one of the untitled stories in the volume is about horses told from the perspective of a two-year-old child. it may provide some kind of answer to the above questions. the little child in the story sees and understands souls of all the horses who have died in the city and are now running wild, seeking “some green and grassy ancestral plain” (tan, 2018, n.p.). the horses tell her their whole history using language of understanding without words, only the language of feelings and a mystical connection. the horses recall how they have been exploited by humans for ages and how people treated them as tools and materials without appreciation for animals’ devotion and loyalty. the child hears this story directly from horses through a kind of telepathic connection. this motif may lead us to the idea of wit(h)nessing. the term is a neologism coined by bracha ettinger and according to nike romano it means “being with and bearing witness to the trauma of the other” (2020, p. 75). people are not able to feel exactly the same things that animals feel but can live through the same events seeing them from their own perspective and experience similar emotions. the girl is a wit(h)ness who both sees the suffering of the horses and also experiences it in her own way. tan’s story does not provide the full answer how it influences the girl’s future life, apart from a quote from the last paragraph: “later you’ll come to love horses with a depth you can’t explain and many horses will love you back” (ibid) the rest is left to readers’ imaginations. according to suvilehto and latomaa, creative writing “has been largely studied and considered among other elements as a vehicle for self-knowledge and is commonly used for education and well-being among different age groups” (2018, p. 225). suvilehto and latomaa describe in detail the very process of creative writing, especially in relation to horses. they highlight the therapeutic aspect of poetry and other forms of art and suggest that horses may function as a mirror to people’s wellbeing because of their high sensitivity to emotions. the role of understanding opposed to instrumentalizing is emphasized. following that, i have created a poetic response to this tale, which explores this topic and presents a possible scenario of the child’s future attitude to horses. obodyńska ú friends or tools? 86 i could tell from your first trot the breeder was very proud of you your saddle was ready from the start you were destined to accept it too early bending your bones permanently i have seen every stumble every fall every bullet you have taken for us it was never for you nothing ever was for you i have heard your bones snapping it was even on the news “the famous race-horse euthanized” everyone thought it was sad i wonder what you have thought when you died watched by thousands i was there when they were waging your fate you were supposed to become someone’s meal because you were no longer needed your presence was redundant was it really? in the proposed scenario, the child—now older and with more experience—tries to understand horses’ burden and is present in their lives regardless of how those lives look like. the important thing to mention is that the lyrical “i” does not speak on the horses’ behalf and does not guess their thoughts but rather wonders what they think and feel at particular moments, including the moment of tragic death. fig. 3: the author and united melody figs. 1 and 2: the author and kredka climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 87 personal experience may be helpful in understanding the pain of others. most of the events described in the forementioned poem are events i have witnessed myself. i have encountered many horses forced to accept the saddle at the age of two, whereas the proper age for starting the training under the saddle is at least three years old. many horses need even more time to mature enough not to bend their bones under the weight of a human. i have also seen a racehorse being euthanized on a racetrack after breaking several bones in his hind leg. this horse named reki died after an accident during a race on 4 september 2022 being only ten years old. however, one of the most prominent events in my life was helping to rescue an ill horse. kredka was diagnosed with stomach ulcers and anemia with a possibility of skin cancer as well. her previous owner did not want to pay for her treatment and considered selling her to a butcher. her current owner and i decided to purchase kredka and give her the treatment she needed. now, after three months of taking necessary medicaments and food supplements, she is as energetic as she has never been before. in honor of all those horses who had suffered from humans, the author held a photoshoot starring kredka, united melody (a two-year-old pony), and myself. the photographs focus on suffering the of horses and yet they also give some hope. none of those pictures present the horse alone; in all of them there is a human who may be concerned with the horse’s wellbeing. the human who is a wit(h)ness of their pain. the person may not understand or feel those feelings, but they are there with the animal to see and acknowledge the horse’s suffering. both shaun tan and the poem emphasize that it is the acknowledgement that is the first step to real understanding, and therefore, help. this essay has already established the role of people in horses’ lives. still, this relationship is not one-sided. horses, as well as any other animals, can substantially influence a person’s worldview; they may teach patience, sensitivity and sensibility. it might be beneficial for people to construct art based on this connection, similarly to the poem, the photographs or tan’s stories. this brings us back to suvilehto and latomaa’s creative writing. such a practice may be transferred to the classroom reality and used for pedagogical purposes. in fact, any form of art and creativity may be used in this way. teachers may encourage their students to express emotions towards various animals in fig. 4: the author and kredka obodyńska ú friends or tools? 88 a creative way, thereby strengthening the connection between humans and animals and raising children’s sensitivity towards nature. what are horses to humans? should the line be drawn between friends and tools? every person is different and the same applies to animals, but there are possibilities of developing the emotional connection between people and horses. some people are just like the child from tan’s story. with certain amount of sensibility and the ability to listen, not only hear, but people can also wit(h)ness what animals experience and feel deep connection (often mutual). the only condition that has to be fulfilled is for people to be sensitive to the suffering of the other and be attentive to it across species. it is important not to be a passive witness, but to wit(h)ness and experience certain events together with the animals. references ettinger, b. (2006). the matrixial borderspace. university of minnesota press. romano, n. (2020). aesthetic wit(h)nessing and the political ethics of care: generating solidarity and trust in pedagogical encounters. in posthuman and political care ethics for reconfiguring higher education pedagogies, pp. 65-78. suvilehto, p. & latomaa, t. (2018). writing with horses: poetry with therapeutic art activities supporting self-expression in a case study. journal of poetry therapy, 31(4), pp. 224-243. tan, s. (2018). tales from the inner city. walker books. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 27 the wild idea of riding a bike jonathan m. klassen, soochow university, taipei, taiwan abstract while the depiction of automobiles remains ubiquitous in popular media, one of the few places bicycles are celebrated is within the pages of many children’s picturebooks. these stories demonstrate ways in which bicycles can help facilitate an approach to living that is good for both people and the environment. the picturebooks introduced in this article demonstrate many convivial features of bicycles including their benefits for community building, personal empowerment, and defying social norms. they are also shown as easy to operate, versatile, and practically beneficial in various cultural contexts. by celebrating cycling’s conviviality, these picturebooks encourage young readers to embrace an orientation toward life that values human connection, creativity, and sustainability over industrial efficiency. keywords conviviality, bicycles, picturebooks, autonomy, lifestyle acknowledgements i am grateful for the generous support of the gloria and henry nyi foundation that helped fund the presentation of this research at the 2023 congress of the international research society for children’s literature (ircl): ecologies of childhood at the university of california, santa barbara, august 12-17, 2023. klassenú riding a bike 28 introduction david shannon’s duck on a bike (2002) begins when duck gets a wild idea: “‘i bet i could ride a bike!’ he thought.” this inspiration may be even better than duck imagines. according to the world health organization, cycling combats several global problems, including physical inactivity, air pollution, and global temperature increase (2022). in contrast, automobiles, despite being identified as the leading net contributor to global climate change (unger et al., 2010), remain ubiquitous in popular media, while cycling is rarely shown as viable transport. zack furness laments, “one of the major obstacles preventing a more rigorous analysis of the future of transportation is the virtual invisibility of non-motorized technologies as a real alternative among even the most critical thinkers who write on the politics of oil, environmentalism, and/or climate change (2010, p. 205). one site where bicycles are not just visible but actively celebrated is within the pages of many children’s picturebooks. these stories demonstrate ways in which bicycles help facilitate an approach to living that is good for both people and the planet. conviviality the idea of bicycles as convivial tools as theorized by ivan illich in tools for conviviality (1973) and energy and equity (1974) reveals many benefits of cycling for individuals and society. rather than valuing a technology according to its apparent convenience, illich believed tools should be judged according to how well they support living well or conviviality, a way of life that emphasizes human connection, creativity, equality, and self-determination. illich distinguishes convivial tools from industrial tools which he believes dehumanize society. industrial tools (like cars) dictate how they are to be used, hamper creativity, increase inequality, and are unsustainable. convivial tools (like bicycles) do exactly the opposite. tools foster conviviality to the extent to which they can be easily used, by anybody, as often or as seldom as desired, for the accomplishment of a purpose chosen by the user. the use of such tools by one person does not restrain another from using them equally. they do not require previous certification of the user. their existence does not impose any obligation to use them. they allow the user to express his [or her] meaning in action (illich, 1973, p. 34). for illich, bicycles are a kind of tool that helps individuals and communities thrive by extending the power of individuals instead of replacing it with other, potentially harmful, energy sources. the selected picturebooks demonstrate several ways in which bicycle conviviality is portrayed for young readers. these stories adhere to three trends that climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 29 parallel three approaches to representing childhood in picturebooks described by nina christiansen (2017): 1) prescriptive, showing bicycling as the kind of activity children are encouraged to do 2) generally retrospective, depicting cycling in protected environments with other forms of technology and transport nearly or completely absent, and 3) often parodic, humorous, or absurd in ways that temporarily empower the protagonists (pp. 365-66). this final mode of representation also relates to the tendency for cycling to be portrayed as transgressive and defiant. bicycling joy duck on a bike exposes common attitudes toward cycling while celebrating it as unsanctioned, convivial transgression. at first, cow thinks duck looks silly riding a bike. sheep views the activity as dangerous. dog sees it as a neat trick, while cat finds it to be a waste of time. horse’s competitive spirit is pricked by the bike’s speed. chicken is afraid of being run over. goat wants to consume the bike. pig considers duck a showoff, and mouse envies duck’s ability. however, when the farm animals encounter several unattended bikes, they seize the opportunity and are won over: “now all the animals had bikes! they rode around and around the barnyard. ‘this is fun!’ they all said. ‘good idea, duck!’” (n.p.). they discover that duck’s wild idea is a good idea. the diverse and previously alienated animals unite around their new shared experience. each animal rides a bike appropriate to their size, shape, and ability. they go nowhere, but experience their familiar barnyard creatively, allowing for individual differences and excluding no one. in the final scene after the bikes have been returned to their places, duck smirks with satisfaction knowing the illicit escapade has been undetected. the animals’ ridiculous and bold behavior champions conviviality through absurd humor, a practice illich encouraged. “poets and clowns have always risen up against the oppression of creative thought by dogma,” illich wrote. “they expose literal-mindedness with metaphor. they demonstrate the follies of seriousness in a framework of humor. their intimate wonder dissolves certainties, banishes fears, and undoes paralysis” (1993, p. 83). the joy the barnyard animals find in their self-propelled movement exposes the folly of their former fears. in the sequel, however, duck on a tractor (shannon, 2016), duck drives a much less sustainable tractor. the animals must adapt to the machine, klassenú riding a bike 30 rather than the machine (which runs out of gas) working for them. the absurd humor remains, but the animals are more constrained and feel less joy. bicycling also gives astrid lindgren’s lotta, in lotta’s bike (1980) the opportunity to transgress and enjoy cycling with others. in this case, lotta’s defiance combined with her naivety leads to both humour and success. after not receiving a bicycle for her fifth birthday, she follows duck’s example to surreptitiously borrow another’s bike. unlike duck, she is not able to control the bike, which is too large, and she crashes, gets hurt, and feels humiliated. later in the day, however, after her father breaks his own rule by giving her a bicycle one year earlier than planned, she gets the hang of this appropriately sized bicycle quickly and cycles happily on the street in front of her house with her siblings. her defiant attitude has been rewarded, and it continues. upon seeing her brother, jonas, ride with no hands, she tries to do the same, falls, and hurts her elbow. although she loudly blames jonas for doing what is forbidden, she simultaneously aspires to do the same. lotta’s transgression is discovered and rewarded. she is comforted instead of corrected, given her own bike, and demonstrates that she is more capable than expected. bicycle versatility h. a. rey’s curious george rides a bike (1952) demonstrates bicycling conviviality by showing a wide variety of bicycle uses. the man with the yellow hat gives george a new bicycle and naively tells him to stay close to home. of course, george disobeys, and he subsequently uses the bike to do tricks, work, explore, meditate, crash, problem-solve, make new friends, become a hero, and star in the big animal show. without adult approval and against orders, george has used the bicycle to expand his horizons, develop his autonomy, and increase his social network. but his cycling agency, like duck’s, is short-lived. george’s final, climactic act on the bicycle is a performance staged for others’ amusement under adult supervision, reducing the bicycle to a mere trick machine and obscuring its more practical purposes. sadder still, after the show, george surrenders his independence and joins the man with the yellow hat in a fossil-fuel powered car. he moves from autonomous energy producer to dependent energy consumer, complicit with the waste the car generates. the story follows the familiar pattern of ending with a return to home and apparent security. as a child, george is defined by his ignorance and therefore in need of adult protection (nodelman, 2008, p. 35). but whereas george under his own power travels by bicycle, the supposedly wiser and protective adult relies on a car to cover the same distance thereby contributing to future (climate) insecurity. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 31 bicycle competency neither george, duck, nor the barnyard animals have any trouble learning to ride, and even lotta catches on quickly. an aspect of bicycles’ conviviality is that they can be ridden by nearly anyone. furthermore, as lotta shows, simply learning to ride can be an act of liberating defiance. journalist jody rosen describes it like this: “the first ride enacts the flight from the clutches of adult caretakers, when the kid pedals away from the grown-up who has been steadying the bike with a grip on the underside of the saddle” (2022, p. 252). developing cycling skills is one of the most common topics in bicycling picturebooks and can reflect growth with other competencies, often in defiance of societal norm or expectations. in born to ride: a story about bicycle face (theule, 2019), set at the end of the 19th century, louisa belinda bellflower’s struggle to ride a bike parallels her mother’s toils on behalf of female suffrage. she also contends with opposition to female cycling. contrary to her family doctor’s assertion that cycling will cause her physical harm, she finds the experience, once mastered, both joyful and liberating. the bicycle in joseph’s big ride (farish, 2016) facilitates joseph’s transition from a kenyan refugee camp to an american city. he had been wanting to bike since he was in the camp, so his learning to ride in america, with the help of a new friend and much effort, connects his past with his future as he learns to fit in. the fact that convivial mobility is key to this immigrant's ability to establish a new home is significant, especially given the major role industrial transport and technology play in mass migration, displacement, and alienation (kivisto, 2011, p. 146). practical use not only are bicycles accessible to children through their ease of operation and simplicity, but they can also offer practical value to whoever rides one. a person on a bike “can go three or four times faster than the pedestrian but uses five times less energy in the process” (illich, 1974, p. 44). despite the value of bicycles for transport, this is seldom on display in north american bicycling picturebooks. an exception is dav pilkey’s paperboy (1996) in which the protagonist delivers newspapers in the early morning. the bicycle facilitates the paperboy’s autonomy, allowing him to work on his own, in the safety of car-less streets and at a speed with which his dog can keep him company. his connection to the landscape, the weather, and the moment are visceral and personal. picturebooks that feature bicycles as tools for work or transport are often set in other countries. the red bicycle: the extraordinary story of one ordinary bicycle klassenú riding a bike 32 (isabella, 2020), follows a donated bicycle sent to burkina faso. for a time, a teenage girl uses it to transport sorghum, and later another owner adds a trailer and operates it as an ambulance. in a cloud of dust (fullerton, 2015), set in tanzania, shows children appreciatively borrowing bicycles from a “bicycle library” to travel long distances to school. in both stories the increased but moderately paced mobility helps foster social interaction while dramatically increasing efficiency. supplementary pages expound on the benefits bicycles offer in these settings due to such convivial features as their versatility, affordability, and durability. conclusion: a convivial orientation to life in these stories, the bicycle has been a positive force for creative self-expression and agency. they demonstrate ways in which bicycles benefit their young riders while continuing to quietly protest against authoritarian control. these stories can encourage readers to consider not just bicycles, but other ways in which living according to principles of conviviality can lead to personal agency and satisfaction in everyday life. if riding a bicycle supports lifestyles that privilege human connection, creativity, equality, and self-determination over speed, convenience, and presumed efficiency, then maybe duck’s wild idea really is worth considering; not just riding a bike, but the orientation toward living that riding a bike embodies. references christiansen, n. (2017). picturebooks and representations of childhood. in b. kümmerling-meibauer (ed.) the routledge companion to picturebooks (pp. 360-370). routledge. farish, t. (2016). joseph’s big ride (k. daley, illus.). annick press. fullerton, a. (2015). in a cloud of dust (b. deines, illus.). pajama press. furness, z. (2010). one less car: bicycling and the politics of automobility. temple university press. illich, i. (1973). tools for conviviality. calder and boyars. illich, i. (1974). energy and equity. calder and boyars. isabella, j. (2020). the red bicycle (s. shin, illus.). kids can press. kivosto, p. (2011). key ideas in sociology. (3rd ed.). sage. lindgren, a (1980). lotta’s bike. (i. wiklund, illus.). (original work published 1971). magnet books. nodelman, p. (2008). the hidden adult: defining children’s literature. the john hopkins university press. pilkey, d. (1996). the paperboy (d. pilkey, illus.). orchard books. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 33 ray, h. a. (1952). curious george rides a bike (h. a. rey, illus.). houghton mifflin. rosen, j. (2022). two wheels good. crown. shannon, d. (2002). duck on a bike (d. shannon, illus.). blue sky press. shannon, d. (2016). duck on a tractor (d. shannon, illus.). blue sky press. theule, l. (2019). born to ride: a story about bicycle face (k. garrity-riley, illus.). abrams books for young readers. unger, n., bond, t. c., wang, j. s., koch, d. m., menon, s., shindell, d. t. & bauer, s. (2010). attribution of climate forcing to economic sectors. proc. natl. acad. sci., 107, 3382-3387, doi:10.1073/pnas.0906548107. https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/archive/20100218a/ world health organization. (2022). walking and cycling: latest evidence to support policy-making and practice. (license: cc by-nc-sa 3.0 igo.) copenhagen: who regional office for europe. https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/9789289057882 https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/9789289057882 hasheminezhad-li ú post-apocalyptic narratives 34 post-apocalyptic narratives for climate change education chang hasheminezhad-li, university of padova, padova, italy abstract this article examines the challenges of incorporating post-apocalyptic narratives into climate change education (cce). drawing on current critiques, i identify the three major concerns: the potential to induce learner disempowerment and fatalism, the risk of narrative simplification that weakens critical impact, and the cultural specificity of predominantly western works. using simon stålenhag’s graphic novel the electric state (2018) as a case study, this article demonstrates how carefully selected post-apocalyptic texts can address these challenges. keywords post-apocalyptic narratives, climate change education, hope education, agency, retro-futurism introduction post-apocalyptic narratives have become valuable tools for ecological education. by describing worlds, survival, and adaptation following social, environmental or technological collapse, they can help learners grapple with the complexities of climate crisis and their own role in responding to it (peters & besley, 2023; d’orto & tasquier, 2025). in climate change education (cce), such narratives have been used in diverse formats and media, from picturebooks that foster tactile and collaborative engagement (campagnaro & goga, 2022), to drama-based approaches (gallagher & balt, 2024) and participatory scenarios or sensory experiments (doyle, 2020), all aiming to combine emotional resonance with critical thinking. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 35 however, post-apocalyptic narratives also face critiques. two concerns are especially relevant for teachers: first, that these stories advance fatalism and a loss of learners’ sense of agency; second, that they sacrifice emotional complexity to a simplistic emotional framing of despair or hope. addressing these critiques, this article examines simon stålenhag’s the electric state to show how this work 1) presents agency as a daily, concrete practice, 2) resists the emotional binary between hopelessness and optimism, and 3) offers strategies to make cultural specificity a productive subject of classroom discussion. post-apocalyptic narratives in cce critiques of using post-apocalyptic narratives in cce focus on two main concerns: first, that they foster climate fatalism; second, that they simplify actual challenges and solutions. the first concern is that urgent emotional tones and catastrophic imagery can amplify despair and diminish learners’ perceived ability to take meaningful environmental action. as hulme observes, “the counterintuitive outcome of such language is that it frequently leads to disempowerment, apathy and skepticism among its audience” (2009, p. 348). without supportive spaces to process these emotions (houghton et al., 2024), learners risk developing climate fatalism (flannery, 2024), adopting a mindset that “whatever we do, we’re doomed.” the second concern is that, within current cce trends emphasizing hope, resilience, and optimism (mochizuki & bryan, 2024), apocalyptic narratives may be reshaped into overly positive stories, often with unrealistic endings or a focus on exceptional individuals, which obscures the complexity of the climate crisis. a further concern focuses on cultural universality. for many communities, collapse is an ongoing reality rather than a speculative future (swyngedouw, 2013). texts rooted in western contexts may carry assumptions that limit their applicability as global tools for climate education. in short, the challenge is to balance emotional intensity with supportive processing and to retain narrative complexity without reducing stories to simplified emotional binaries or unrealistic optimism. hasheminezhad-li ú post-apocalyptic narratives 36 the electric state: agency in daily action and emotional complexity stålenhag’s graphic novel the electric state offers a good case study to help students understand agency through daily action and engage with complex ecological emotions. set in the american west in 1997, after the collapse of technological civilization, the story follows a teenager, michelle, and her robot companion, skip, as they travel along an abandoned highway in search of her missing brother. their journey uncovers a picture of societal disintegration caused by an out-of-control neural network system. the novel’s visual style blends retro-futurism with post-apocalyptic imagery, juxtaposing 1990s american landscapes with advanced technological structures, and interweaving first-person memory fragments from michelle. past memories, present journeys, and future ruins coexist, producing a sense of temporal dislocation. the electric state also presents a complex web of interactions among humans, technology, and nature: humans, robots, techno-human hybrids, and natural elements meet, conflict, and cooperate. in today’s world, where environmental experiences are often mediated by technology, such depictions offer opportunities to reflect on technology’s role in shaping ecological perception and action (park, 2022). the electric state combines strong visual appeal with conceptual depth, making it a valuable resource for educators seeking to connect literary engagement with climate action practice. its narrative world provides concrete situations for discussing agency in daily action and for guiding students to experience ecological emotions beyond simple despair or uncritical optimism. to understand how the electric state situates these forms of agency within a broader symbolic framework, it is also necessary to consider the significance of its title. throughout the book, visual motifs of electricity—power lines stretching across empty skies, glowing circuits, and dimly flickering machines—form a connective structure between human and technological worlds. electricity operates both as a literal energy source and as a metaphor for interdependence, memory, and control. in the context of post-fossil-fuel ecologies, it represents a paradoxical condition: a technological force that sustains life while revealing the environmental costs of that sustenance. rather than depicting electricity as external to ecology, stålenhag visualizes it as part of the same energetic continuum that binds organic and artificial systems. recognizing this symbolic dimension allows educators to frame discussions of energy dependence and ecological responsibility as intertwined and mutually constitutive processes. this pedagogical potential becomes clearer when we examine two core elements of this novel: agency as a daily, concrete practice and understanding that resists emotional simplification. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 37 reconstructing agency the electric state creates space for reader agency on three levels: everyday practices, continuous forward movement, and relational action. everyday details, central to characters’ agency, are abundant. while stålenhag’s images depict the silence and emptiness of post-apocalyptic wastelands, the actual plot concentrates on michelle’s daily activities. scenes such as stopping to rest under a pale sky (pp. 20-21), packing her belongings on the roadside (pp. 52-55), bathing and restocking at a dimly-lit gas station (pp. 22-25) draw attention to the rhythms of ordinary life in extraordinary conditions. these small, mundane actions maintain order and humanity in a highly uncertain environment. at one point michelle and skip pause beneath an overpass beside the colossal remains of a collapsed robot. against the desert horizon glowing beyond, the narrator reflects: “i managed to get a lot of things done in mojave. i washed my clothes, bought food, put gas in the car and washed it, and even managed to find some comic books and kid kosmo action figures for skip” (p. 23). in this juxtaposition of domestic routine and monumental ruin, the act of washing, buying, and refueling becomes a form of quiet endurance. these gestures perform continuity and care in a world that has otherwise disintegrated, exemplifying how the electric state translates agency into the persistence of ordinary maintenance. these everyday behaviors provide an agency mode that learners can understand. i define agency here as the ability to maintain autonomy and purpose through ordinary, everyday actions in the face of uncertainty. this aligns closely with the concept of “incremental climate action” (wise et al., 2014), which emphasizes that climate responses exist in daily decisions rather than being limited to major policies or technological breakthroughs. in the classroom, such scenes could be used to invite students to discuss how small, sustained efforts contribute to environmental resilience. the story likewise emphasizes a forward-moving dynamism. stålenhag constructs an anti-climactic narrative that avoids dramatic turning points or heroic victories common in traditional disaster stories, replacing them with the protagonist’s persistent forward movement. the journey is an open-ended road trip, where sequences of driving dominate the visual field: roads stretch endlessly toward the horizon, perspectives shift between the view from inside the vehicle and a trailing thirdperson vantage, and the blurred treatment of distance creates a tangible sense of the unknown future. this dynamic of motion unfolds across several sequences where the car appears repeatedly in transition between deserted towns and monumental ruins (pp. 25–70). hasheminezhad-li ú post-apocalyptic narratives 38 the reader alternates between seeing the road ahead from inside the car and viewing the vehicle as a small, solitary point within vast landscapes. in one such scene, the narration begins with the restrained line, “we had left the town behind and traveled out into the desert” (p. 30). the combination of this minimal statement and the panoramic stillness turns movement itself into a meditative act. the alternation of interior and exterior viewpoints also shifts the reader’s position, sometimes aligning it with michelle’s vision and sometimes withdrawing it into reflective distance. in this rhythm, the electric state reframes progress as the endurance of orientation toward an uncertain future. in fact, through this dynamic of continuous forward movement, the electric state suggests that action itself, regardless of immediate results, has meaning. these scenes can be used to prompt students to reflect on how perseverance, even without guaranteed outcomes, can counter climate fatalism and reinforce the value of sustained engagement. the third way in which the novel supports the reader’s agency is through presenting a relational action mode. the robot skip is not merely a tool; it plays multiple roles: guarding michelle’s safety while she sleeps (p. 21), standing sentinel in dangerous moments (p. 118), and sharing the burden of luggage and supplies (pp. 2223). their bond is conveyed almost entirely without dialogue, through parallel postures, coordinated movements, and the shared occupation of space. images often depict the two side by side in the frame, as if visually affirming their interdependence. this quiet partnership transcends human-nonhuman boundaries, presenting a model of cooperation with “the other,” whether technological, biological, or environmental. across the book’s recurring paired compositions, michelle and skip are consistently positioned on the same horizontal plane. whether walking, resting, or entering new spaces, they move parallel to each other rather than hierarchically. the visual rhythm alternates between wide shots that place them together against expansive landscapes and closer views where their gestures subtly mirror one another. even in moments of tension, such as the scene with the deer inside the abandoned house (p. 119), this spatial symmetry remains intact. this recurring balance invites a reflection on how equality, care, and interdependence are expressed through posture and framing, linking visual structure to ethical relation. the visual relationship between michelle and skip also illustrates how relational agency is enacted through coordination and mutual attention. their companionship models cooperation across human and nonhuman boundaries, emphasizing that agency emerges from interdependence rather than individual assertion. within climate change education, this perspective supports collaborative classroom practices that foreground collective responsibility and shared maintenance as central to ecological climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 39 understanding, embedding ecological action in networks that include humans, nonhumans, technology, and environment. through these three dimensions—everyday practices, continuous forward movement, and relational action—the electric state demonstrates that postapocalyptic narratives can be instructional and empowering. by presenting multidimensional, concrete forms of action, such stories can provide educators with a framework for helping students imagine their own roles in climate response. resisting simplification stålenhag’s novel is likewise a good example of how post-apocalyptic works can avoid simplistic emotional arcs. the novel’s image-text structure, in particular, its carefully varied visual-textual rhythm, are primary means by which the book maintains narrative criticality and depth. page layouts shift between symmetrical image-text pairings, fullspread images with embedded prose, and stretches of image-only sequences. this produces a rhythm that mirrors the non-linear narrative. within that rhythm, when content alternates between tender, nostalgic memories, unsettling portrayals of technological addiction, and moments of fear toward the unknown, readers are required to navigate multiple emotional registers. one striking example is the sharp contrast between pages 12-13 and 14-15: the bright yet desolate dust storm scene gives way to a low-saturation nighttime flashback, producing a rupture in tone and time. this abrupt shift forces readers to reconcile conflicting emotions, beyond a simple trajectory toward either despair or hope. similarly, the silent, image-only sequence on pages 95-100 stretches time, creating space for readers to fill in narrative and emotional gaps. these sequences can be used to invite students to articulate their emotional responses and strengthen their capacity to engage with complex climate emotions. by combining these visual-textual strategies with its multi-dimensional portrayal of agency, the electric state offers educators a resource that resists simplification while supporting nuanced, emotionally engaged learning about climate crisis. conclusion the reading of the electric state proposed in this shows that post-apocalyptic narratives can be useful in climate change education. by combining a layered visual and textual structure with multidimensional portrayals of agency, post-apocalyptic storytelling can help learners see agency as a concrete, ongoing practice, engage with climate emotions in nuanced ways, and critically interrogate the cultural positioning of climate narratives. future work could explore alternative texts or adaptations that hasheminezhad-li ú post-apocalyptic narratives 40 reflect a wider range of climate experiences worldwide and further refine strategies for integrating post-apocalyptic storytelling into climate change education. references campagnaro, m., & goga, n. (2022). material green entanglements: research on student teachers’ aesthetic and ecocritical engagement with picturebooks of their own choice. international research in children’s literature, 15(3), 308-322. https://doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2022.0469 d’orto, e., & tasquier, g. (2025). narrativity and climate change education: design of an operative approach. sustainability, 17(4), 1587. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17041587 doyle, j. (2020). creative communication approaches to youth climate engagement: using speculative fiction and participatory play to facilitate young people’s multidimensional engagement with climate change. international journal of communication, 14, 24. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/14003/3093 flannery, f. (2024). why we must stop saying “climate apocalypse”: symbols, religious social memory, and effective climate action. zygon: journal of religion and science, 59(1). https://doi.org/10.16995/zygon.11610 gallagher, k., & balt, c. (2024). global climate education and its discontents: using drama to forge a new way. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032615714 houghton, s., garvey, j., conor, l., wilmsen, b., dehm, j., gamble, r., habib, b., holmes, k., millner, j., & strickland, k. m. (2024). towards an interdisciplinary agenda for teaching in the climate crisis: reflections from the humanities and social sciences. environmental education research, 30(11), 2007–2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2023.2273791 hulme, m. (2009). why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity. cambridge university press. mochizuki, y., & bryan, a. (2024). victims or vanguards? the discursive construction of the anthropocene generation and climate change education’s hopeful, resilient, post-political subject. in j. wyn, h. cahill, & h. cuervo (eds.), handbook of children and youth studies (pp. 1129–1144). springer nature singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8606-4_130 park, e. j. (2022). for technological literacy education: comparing the asymmetrical view of heidegger and symmetrical view of latour on technology. studies in philosophy and education, 41(5), 551–565. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-02209841-9 https://doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2022.0469 https://doi.org/10.3390/su17041587 https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/14003/3093 https://doi.org/10.16995/zygon.11610 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032615714 https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2023.2273791 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8606-4_130 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-022-09841-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-022-09841-9 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 41 peters, m. a., & besley, t. (eds.). (2023). educational philosophy and post-apocalyptical survival (vol. xiv). routledge. stålenhag, s. (2018). the electric state. skybound books. swyngedouw, e. (2013). apocalypse now! fear and doomsday pleasures. capitalism nature socialism, 24(1), 9–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2012.759252 wise, r. m., fazey, i., stafford smith, m., park, s. e., eakin, h. c., archer van garderen, e. r. m., & campbell, b. (2014). reconceptualising adaptation to climate change as part of pathways of change and response. global environmental change, 28, 325–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.002 https://doi.org/10.1080/10455752.2012.759252 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.002 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 49 interdisciplinary learning goals for 21st-century climate education eric nolan, california state university east bay, hayward, california, usa samantha johnson, california state university east bay, hayward, california, usa kathryn hayes, california state university east bay, hayward, california, usa emily harris, bscs, colorado springs, colorado, usa karina garbesi, california state university east bay, hayward, california, usa abstract amid intensifying climate disruptions, states across the u.s. are beginning to require k–12 schools to include climate education. yet, teachers face challenges in designing meaningful and interdisciplinary learning experiences. this article introduces a set of climate justice learning goals developed through collaboration among teachers, administrators, students, and researchers as part of the climate solutionaries community (csc) project. we ground our goals in the head-heart-hands (hhh) framework by emphasizing: 1) scientific and social knowledge (head); 2) socio-emotional competencies, hope, and agency (heart); and 3) applied skills for action and community solutions (hands). by integrating these attributes, secondary educators are able to develop student understanding of climate phenomena and justice issues, while cultivating resilience and empowerment. keywords climate education; secondary student learning; head-heart-hands framework; community projects; climate justice nolan et. alú interdisciplinary learning goals 50 acknowledgements the teachers in the climate solutionaries community were instrumental in the development and implementation of these climate justice learning goals. the goals would not exist without their passion, commitment, and expertise regarding their students and addressing the climate emergency. a very special thank you to the nsf, spencer foundation, william t. grant foundation, alfred p. sloan foundation, and kapor foundation (supporting the rapid response bridge funding program) for granting us the opportunity to conduct this work. introduction young people today face a lifetime of environmental and social disruption due to the global climate crisis. educating them on the full scope of this issue can be challenging. states like california, connecticut, oregon, and illinois have recently required climate education in public k-12 curriculum. however, knowing how to implement this curriculum poses challenges for teachers as they seek guidance on designing meaningful, cross-disciplinary content for their classrooms. one of these challenges is conceptualizing learning goals that go beyond students practicing rote memorization of scientific language and concepts toward a connection to personal, local, and global aspects of climate phenomena. relatedly, climate educators have called for pedagogies that emphasize community building, peer motivation, and genuine hope for the future (hargis, mckenzie, & levertchiasson, 2021). it is increasingly recognized that the climate crisis encompasses many dimensions of understanding beyond scientific interpretation alone. addressing this emergency should also include interdisciplinary approaches that integrate content, skills, deep understanding, and empathy help to increase students’ awareness of scientific and justice perspectives as they address impending climate emergencies with fortitude and genuine hope to find solutions (jagers et al., 2019; ojala 2012). therefore, we pose this critical question: what climate learning goals can guide secondary teachers in providing middle and high school students with meaningful classroom experiences? climate solutionaries community project (csc) (a pseudonym), teachers, students, site administrators, and university researchers co-created a set of climate justice learning goals. these goals became the foundations for crafting, implementing, and evaluating a climate curriculum that was integrated into and across the curriculum at a high school and one of its feeder middle schools (e.g., harris et al., 2025). the https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/sc/cc/index.asp https://www.cga.ct.gov/asp/cgabillstatus/cgabillstatus.asp?which_year=2022&selbilltyp%20e=bill&bill_num=5506 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 51 purpose of this article is to showcase the goals themselves, the principles that directed their creation, and guidance for applying them in classroom settings. an interdisciplinary product: climate justice learning goals the learning goals were developed utilizing a co-design method that included an extensive brainstorming, design, and revision process (penuel, 2019; roschelle, penuel, and shechtman, 2006). the diverse, multi-subject and multi-grade level team that engaged in this process is part of the reason the resulting goals are applicable to a range of classes: science, math, english, social studies, pe, and electives. in order to provide an underlying structure for the learning goals, we used the head-heart-hands (hhh) framework from sipos, battisti, and grimm (2008). the hhh framework points to the need for students' understanding of natural and social sciences associated with the climate crisis (head), support and growth of socio-emotional capacity, empowerment, and agency (heart), and development of skills necessary for action and communitybased solutions (hands; see figure 1 below). figure 1 hhh model integrating various learning experiences to increase student understanding of ecological, social, and economic justice with regard to the climate change emergency. using the hhh framework, the learning goals in the figure below were developed as the team engaged in iterative discussions regarding priorities, wording, and implementation challenges. while there can always be overlap within and between goals, in figure 2 below, we showcase the learning goals by their headheart-hands affiliation, and through implementation of these learning goals, we found the heart piece served as a driver for participation. nolan et. alú interdisciplinary learning goals 52 figure 2: climate education learning goals reflecting the heart-head-hands framework. for the full table of learning goals and initial research results from our project, please see hayes et al. (2024). head to address climate justice and mitigate the climate crisis, students need knowledge and understanding. we drew on hawken’s (2021) framework from regeneration: ending the climate crisis in one generation to design content-oriented learning goals that illustrate the interconnectedness of causes, effects, and solutions in both the physical and social realms. in the physical realm, students need to understand the primary causes and effects of the crisis and its disruption to global habitats. for example, students might learn how greenhouse gas emissions drive up average surface temperature, which in turn increases extreme weather events such as drought and fires, precipitation and flooding. in the social/political realm, students would demonstrate how political and social factors can drive or constrain emissions through policies, laws, https://regeneration.org/the-book https://regeneration.org/the-book climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 53 and consumer action. addressing not only the physical and the social, but also the interactions between them emphasizes to students and educators the multidimensional nature of the climate emergency and provides teachers with a roadmap for developing student learning. heart the learning goals in the heart category are designed to create spaces where students express how they feel about the climate crisis. because of the imperative to work together to fix large-scale societal problems like climate emergencies, these goals emphasize the development of relationships and other social-emotional competencies. the heart learning goals also center students maintaining hope and a sense of agency in the face of the climate crisis. to meet these learning goals, students might practice concrete skills such as building relationships and taking alternative perspectives, as well as more abstract skills such as empathy. they may also need practice processing complex feelings like despair. for example, heart approaches might involve discussions about the impacts of extreme heat on different professions and demographics (ex., farm workers or the elderly), and projects where students might work with different community members to construct solutions in a respectful and sustainable manner. each of the heart goals is written from an assets-based perspective, encouraging students to recognize their strengths and resilience when addressing climate crises and climate justice. hands students will need skills to enact changes in the real world through planning, engineering, and evaluating various social and physical solutions to the climate emergency. these skills include critical analysis of climate information and solutions, as well as engaging in collaborative, hands-on work to create socially just mitigations for climate disasters. these learning goals are an applied way to develop an understanding of climate crises (head) and taking solutions-based actions (hands). for example, csc students built we share solar suitcases, planted trees for arbor day, and wrote letters to their state governor on policy change to address the impacts of extreme heat on farm workers. by combining these skills and competencies, we see a pathway for students to bolster their identities as climate problem-solvers and recognize their own agency and positive impact in behaviorally confronting the issue. nolan et. alú interdisciplinary learning goals 54 interdisciplinary heart head hands example here we offer an example of how csc teachers designed interdisciplinary, solutionsfocused climate learning (harris et al., 2025). the unit focused on sea-level rise as an overarching phenomenon and involved teachers from english language arts (ela), science, social studies, physical education (pe), art, and technology to help students grapple with a set of essential questions aligned with the head, heart, hands model. for example, in ela lessons, students learned about a coastal community dealing with sea-level rise, developing empathy as they acknowledge vulnerable and displaced populations directly affected by climate change (heart). in science lessons, students engaged in evidence-based reasoning and discourse on topics like melting ice and thermal expansion (head). this included students given large translucent tubs they were asked to fill with ice, balls of clay formed to mimic land mass, and toy animals to show what happens when the ice melts and water levels rise, potentially drowning out their animals. in social studies lessons, students were asked to identify local sea-level rise risks and examine how their local government is responding to this challenge (head and hands). art and pe followed up by showing students how to use painting and riding bikes to school as forms of activism (heart and hands). what makes all of this interdisciplinary is not just the exploration of ideas within separate subjects, but the anchoring of the unit in a particular phenomenon that shows connections across disciplines and relevance to students’ lives. conclusion what we have observed from our co-design team is an extraordinary motivation to collaborate and educate future generations about the reality of the climate emergency, paired with a sense of urgency to ensure solutions provide students with hope for a brighter future. our efforts have led to increased student understanding, empathy, and actionable skills. additionally, the learning goals supported a local movement where teachers, working alongside their students and peers, created climate community events such as citizen-science focused school field trips and museum exhibits showcasing student’s perspectives on the climate crisis through art. since csc teachers embraced and taught toward the same set of learning goals, students were consistently exposed to common concepts and frameworks throughout their educational journey. these learning goals can serve as a guide for schools and teachers seeking to offer students transformational, interdisciplinary, and justiceoriented learning experiences centered on the climate emergency and its impacts. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 55 references hargis, k., mckenzie, m., & levert-chiasson, i. (2021). a whole institution approach to climate change education: preparing school systems to be climate proactive. in r. iyengar & c. t. kwauk (eds.), curriculum and learning for climate action toward an sdg 4.7 roadmap for systems change (pp. 43–66). https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004471818_000 harris, e., lai, p., garbesi, k., hiester, p., & lai, e. (2025). turning tides: design of an interdisciplinary climate change unit for healing, engagement, and agency. science scope, 48(4), 16–23. hawken, p. (2021). regeneration: ending the climate crisis in one generation. penguin. hayes, k., nolan, e., harris, e., gibson, a., bueno, a., korb, m., riaz, a., sandoval, l., & garbesi, k. (2024). learning goals for a just climate future: research report. cal state east bay scholarworks. https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/parent/xs55mm66n/file_sets/vx021q0 3b penuel, w. r. (2019). co-design as infrastructuring with attention to power: building collective capacity for equitable teaching and learning through design-based implementation research. collaborative curriculum design for sustainable innovation and teacher learning, 387-401. roschelle, j., penuel, w. r., & shechtman, n. (2006). co-design of innovations with teachers: definition and dynamics. icls ‘06: proceedings of the 7th international conference on learning sciences (pp. 606–612). sipos, y., battisti, b., & grimm, k. (2008). achieving transformative sustainability learning: engaging head, hands and heart. international journal of sustainability in higher education, 9(1), 68-86. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004471818_000 https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/parent/xs55mm66n/file_sets/vx021q03b https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/parent/xs55mm66n/file_sets/vx021q03b climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 15 climate justice is more than a political football lead librarian texas climate justice education is essential because it offers students the tools to truly see the interwoven threads of social and environmental challenges woven by the climate crisis. it's a shift from simply learning scientific facts about a changing climate to understanding its uneven impact, particularly on those communities already facing hardships. this approach encourages a deeper contemplation of historical currents, political landscapes and cultural norms. it’s about nurturing informed, empathetic hearts and minds ready to engage actively in their communities. when the lens of climate justice is missing from education, we risk blindness, ignorance of the disproportionate burdens carried by some, and failure to address the very roots of environmental injustice. too often, the discourse around climate education becomes muddled, reduced to a question of belief rather than understanding. in some places, like my home state of texas, the very term "justice" can be tossed about, losing its true meaning in the pursuit of political maneuvering. students might grasp the science of climate change, yet fail to see why certain populations are more vulnerable or see how systemic inequities shape the environmental realities we face. our young people need to be equipped to advocate, for themselves and for others, to carry these insights into whatever paths they choose as adults. they need the critical thinking skills to truly grapple with the climate crisis. being from texas, a place i deeply appreciate for its natural wealth, i also feel a growing concern with our changing demographics. sometimes, the prevailing political winds here seem to dismiss anything touching on "climate" or "justice" as simply part of a political agenda. as educators, we need to find ways to empower our students without getting caught in that crossfire. i envision an educational approach that weaves together different disciplines: science with social issues, librarianú texasú more than a political football 16 economics, and ethics. this interconnectedness would foster a true inclusiveness, ensuring that climate education is accessible to every student. beyond just lessons, we need to help them plan for action, inspiring students to become solution creators. they need to learn to examine the disparities in who is exposed to pollution, who has access to green spaces, and who is most vulnerable to extreme weather. in many communities, the reality is stark: lower-income areas often face more challenges along with fewer resources for adapting and recovering. within our classrooms, these injustices might even be reflected in our students' own lives— the child with asthma from poor air quality, the lack of safe places to play outdoors. this underscores the urgent need for education that tackles both the causes and the consequences of environmental inequity. we must help them understand that this is the world they will inherit. by placing climate justice at the heart of education, we do more than just prepare students for a changing world; we empower them to become the architects of a more just and sustainable future. shouldn’t our schools aim to equip students not only to adapt but also to actively shape a better tomorrow? isn’t that, at its core, the aspiration of every educator and every school? climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 89 “moonfish” from tales from the inner city and the problem of pain in fish jan dudek, university of wrocław, wrocław, poland abstract “moonfish” by shaun tan is a story about children who, living in a modern, polluted city, practice skyward angling from the rooftops of the skyscrapers and end up catching an immensely rare fish. this article’s purpose is to suggest a pedagogical application of tan’s story for a lesson promoting fish welfare along with a reading of the story that could be used for such a lesson. as a framework, the article also introduces the debate concerning pain in fish. education on the subject becomes all the more important in recent times, as this discussion remains quite heated and many anglers raise objections to the very notion that fish feel pain. a lesson utilizing the story is to challenge these views and encourage an empathetic approach to fish. keywords fish pain, climate education, children’s literature, ecocriticism overview: the debate concerning pain in fish teaching children about fish pain is undoubtedly a difficult task, not least because the scholarly debate remains heated and generates a great deal of controversy. while more and more scholars affirm the capability of pain in fish, strong objections are regularly raised to the view. for an entry point to the discussion, a book do fish feel pain? by victoria braithwaite can be suggested. braithwaite refers to a study codudek ú fish pain 90 conducted with mike gentle and lynne sneddon titled “do fishes have nociceptors”, which included injecting small amounts of bee venom or vinegar into trout (braithwaite, 2010, p. 46-65). the results showed the breathing rate of the fish increasing and their appetite lessening (braithwaite, 2010, p. 62-64). furthermore, a subsequent study found that trout treated with vinegar or venom paid less attention to their surroundings and were less avoidant of unknown things, unless treated with a pain-relieving drug (braithwaite, 2010, p. 65-68). these findings point strongly towards fish being capable of pain, and some researchers are of the opinion that it would be increasingly difficult to argue against fish pain (sneddon et al., 2018, qtd. in franks et al., 2018, p. 1). others are skeptical and raise objections to the quality of the evidence. paul j. b. hart writes that words such as “pain,” “suffering,” or “consciousness” are used to describe human mental states and thus are not applicable to animals, as we do not understand their cognitive processes (2023, p. 1273-74). additionally, he demands more precision in our understanding of what consciousness is before we can determine pain in animals (p. 1274-75). “the moonfish” tan’s story focuses on an adventure of five siblings who catch a rare, beautiful fish. they practice “urban fishing” (tan, 2019, p. 91) on the rooftops of skyscrapers as the only fish in the city can be found in the sky. this pastime has cultural significance. it is suggested that many people engage in angling in the sky and that they tend to exchange their experiences, which leads to the circulation of rumours and creation of urban legends, like those surrounding the moonfish. this legendary status among “sky angler[s]” (but also among the rich and the elite) is especially important in the case of the moonfish, as its rarity leads to it becoming very desirable (tan, 2018, p. 92) and makes the prospect of selling it all the more tempting. since the family sells the fish, their actions can be effectively seen as poaching for gain. the children themselves might not have material gain on their minds and seem more concerned with the achievement of catching the fish itself. yet they are not completely free of the materialistic approach, which shows when the narrator compares the smell of the fish to the smell of money (tan, 2018, p. 95). their parents, on the other hand, fully embrace the financial opportunity. both adults and children only acknowledge their wrongdoings after the attempt at selling the fish, only a halfsuccessful one as they find out that moonfish’s parts rot away when close to earth’s surface, and the amount of money they are worth is less than satisfactory. only then do they realize that they had killed and destroyed innocent creature. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 91 one must note that the process of catching the fish must have been extremely painful to it. it was angled, wounded and made to struggle for its life while slowly suffocating in the atmosphere closer to the earth’s surface. it is undeniably a moral failure on the part of the family. pim, one of the siblings, is the first to realize their wrongs and makes at least partial redemption possible by releasing the fish’s eggs and helping to protect the species as a whole. refusing to bait the hooks hereafter is another step in the right direction, which, however, does not make up for the harm done to the individual fish. the story can be seen as advocating for combining the protection of the species and care for individual fish welfare. the story closes with an illustration portraying a child standing on a rooftop at night, holding a giant, mirror-like fish that reflects the light of the city. it is contrasted with a dark human figure with a knife at their belt, perhaps suggesting the violence and cruelty that human beings are capable of. the fish can be seen as reflecting the moral state of humanity in that moment, both its beauty and corruption. the city, however, might also reflect the fish in a mutual relation, which may evoke a more hopeful message of a possible coexistence of the human and non-human worlds. the illustration and the story both portray the point at which two worlds (urban and natural) meet and alter each other. humans are shown as capable both of causing great harm if they act irresponsibly and inconsiderately and of care for and appreciation of morethan-human beings if they approach them with empathy, attentiveness, and a willingness to recognize their intrinsic value. possible teaching application the story and its reading incorporating the perspective of fish pain could be used to conduct a lesson promoting fish welfare. since it would inevitably deal with graphic and disturbing content, it would be most suitable for children over twelve years old. it might be beneficial to start with a warm-up activity and ask students for their opinions on fishing or angling. this should be followed by presenting the students with various voices present in the debate around fish pain. afterwards, a fragment of the story dealing with the catching of the fish (paragraphs 1-10 could be suggested) would be read. finally, after a short discussion of the text checking its understanding and gathering the students’ ideas, they would be invited to write a short story (around 250 words) presenting the events through the perspective of the fish. such an approach would enable them to empathize with the creature to a greater degree and realize the importance of fish welfare. developing care for animal welfare appears especially important in the light of evidence that children are being socialized into attributing different value to different dudek ú fish pain 92 animals. matthew cole and kate stewart have observed a tendency to divide animals into four categories: friends (subjectified and treated with higher sensibility), nature (subjectified but approached with lesser sensibility), things (objectified but looked at with high sensibility) and killing zone (objectified with a lack of sensibility) (2018, p. 4). it can be argued that fish often fall under the category of ‘things,’ and a task like the one proposed herein could help children apply greater subjectification to fish, along with a less anthropocentric approach in their future interactions with animals at large. references braithwaite, v. (2010). do fish feel pain? oxford university press. cole, m., & stewart, k. (2018). socializing superiority: the cultural denaturalization of children’s relations with animals. in a. cutter-mackenzie, k. malone, & e. barratt hacking (eds.), research handbook on childhoodnature: assemblages of childhood and nature research (pp. 1–25). springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_66-1. franks, b., sebo, j., horowitz, a. (2018). fish are smart and feel pain: what about joy? animal sentience, 21(16), pp. 1-5. https://doi.org/10.51291/2377-7478.1368. hart, paul j. b. (2023). exploring the limits to our understanding of whether fish feel pain. journal of fish biology, 102(6), pp. 1272-1280. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.15386 tan, s. (2018). tales from the inner city. walker books ltd. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_66-1 https://doi.org/10.51291/2377-7478.1368 https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.15386 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 93 watersheds as place integrating biocultural awareness and experiential place-based professional development sydney raboin, university of north dakota, grand forks, nd, usa joshua hunter, university of north dakota, grand forks, nd, usa abstract project current (culturally relevant river education for nature-based teaching) established a professional development program that offers experiences and resources to assist educators with integrating interdisciplinary steam curriculum and indigenized instruction with place-based, culturally relevant, local watershed education. by highlighting the significance of artsbased and hands-on immersive experiences within science learning and exploring the reciprocal relationship we have with nature, this project aims to increase teachers’ knowledge of and self-efficacy with connecting to biocultural place and embedding place-based and indigenous knowledge into steam. keywords steam education, arts-based education, place-based education, watersheds, indigenized learning, biocultural relationships, north dakota native american essential understandings (ndnaeu) raboin & hunter ú watersheds as place 94 framing project current professional development, as our colleagues have described elsewhere in this issue, focuses on building teachers’ biocultural knowledge and strengthening their self-efficacy with implementing culturally relevant, place-based pedagogical approaches within science education. connecting culturally relevant pedagogy with curricula focused on identity, presence, and intentionality makes science education engaging, empowering, and personally relevant (walker, 2019). in this approach, both teacher and student develop greater awareness of their own identity, identities of others, and the connections between them. so, too, for the nonhuman world. place-and nature-based learning encourages us to consider how biocultural diversity—that is, the relationship between biological and human communities—influences connections among humans and their environment (cocks, 2010). nature-based learning boosts academic learning, personal development, and environmental stewardship, while fostering an emotional connection to place (kuo, barnes, & jordan, 2019). our work with teachers in project current supports these assertions. project current’s three-year study included seven online learning modules facilitated through the university of north dakota’s (und) blackboard learning site. each module centered on one of the seven north dakota native american essential understandings (ndnaeu) and contained instructional tools to indigenize the next generation science standards (ngss). the modules incorporated a diversity of learning resources with content that accommodated different learning styles and encouraged self-reflection and interaction among participants. to support teachers’ learning experience, we offered four online synchronous debrief sessions over zoom to allow opportunity to ask questions face-to-face. we held in-person interactions at und. we also offered two summer workshops, one each summer, each consisting of two fullday agendas focused on place-based integrated steam and the international water institute’s river of dreams program, which reinforced the learning modules. the workshops allowed teachers to experience hands-on learning in activities that they could use in their own classrooms. this created a collaborative learning environment for teachers across different grade levels and vastly different school demographics. building on the content provided in the modules and at the workshops, teachers created lesson plans by personalizing the material to relate it to their grade level, geographic location, and different educational concepts linked to local biocultural history. these lessons were later implemented in their own classrooms and observed by a project member. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/6882 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/6882 https://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/default/files/alldci.pdf https://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/default/files/alldci.pdf climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 95 arts-based experiences within science learning we all see the world from a unique perspective. our own meaning of things is influenced by our cultural backgrounds, personal attributes, and past experiences. acknowledging this is fundamental to pluralistic and arts-based forms of science learning that honor diverse forms of awareness. as one participant stated, “artwork is one way for us to communicate how we feel and what we want to say.” others discussed how they perceived their own emplaced story, why they felt drawn to using certain materials, and how their identity influenced their experience and became embedded into the materials from nature. this same idea pertains to all learning experiences. through workshops, we found that teachers tied their identities and lived experiences to place and materials found in the watershed. this deepened their awareness of biocultural relationships and prompted them to learn and share with others. science education is often perceived as objective, without cultural or subjective context, but our experience accentuates the opposite. through the expression of personal and cultural funds of knowledge, teachers in our program developed a stronger sense of self-efficacy in teaching across steam fields, employing an expressive, relational framework. participants used found natural objects in the creation of unique pieces of art. as one person shared, “the artwork that we made … is one way for us to really communicate what we feel, communicate what we want to say, because when you look at a picture, when you look at the whole picture alone, it’s not just the outside, there is something inside the art… a story that you want to tell.” making the connection between nature-based art and their own stories extended to their notions of working with students. such projects, another participant explained “let your students find ways to tell stories and get to know them more... for me, my artwork was a connection to my hometown.” when exposed to lesson content revolving around the topic of the beaver, some participants pointed out how they had never seen a beaver before in real life. this prompted discussion about how lessons can include more concrete, locally situated content, or learning experiences that require more abstract thinking if there is limited possibility of exposure to a certain topic in one’s immediate environment. both scenarios can involve engaging material that will aid in a deeper understanding of the content, such as in the classroom setting at one of our summer workshops, teachers worked together to create miniature beaver dams using materials from nature. learning from these different lenses stimulated awareness of oneself, other beings, and the natural world. it also increased appreciation for the similarities and differences that were discovered in those cultural exchanges. raboin & hunter ú watersheds as place 96 the lack of ecological awareness was a unique challenge for workshop facilitators. we had a strong cohort of international teachers working in rural schools who had no experience with wildlife, though they had tremendous knowledge of their own biocultural history. this forced us to reckon with what funds of knowledge teachers bring to their lessons and how we might foster a greater level of engagement by providing deeper accounts of local biocultural history. the importance of hands-on immersive experiences hands-on, immersive experiences in the outdoors allows for intimate exposure that deepens understanding of the biocultural context in which it is being taught. what is learned from a book is just an approximation of the natural world. there is significant importance in being emplaced outside of the classroom; direct relationships stimulate our emotions and observational skills and therefore strengthen our ability to learn and remember. as stated by a participant after time spent outdoors, “it makes the connection more relevant.” learning by doing helps us connect new and previous knowledge more easily. after walking around campus, gathering nature items for an art project, participants discussed how connecting things to emotions makes them more memorable. besides offering new hands-on ways to step out of their comfort zone, the workshop helped participants recognize the diversity of beings and environments around them. the workshops also offered time for in-person learning and collaboration. a full day’s-worth of experiences provoked conversations, exchange of ideas and feedback. meeting in person each summer supported networking and offered teachers time to create and critique lessons in a supportive hands-on setting. the elementary teachers were able to learn from and alongside each other as they worked to adjust indigenized steam lesson content to meet different ages’ needs. the workshops consisted of a blend of indoor and outdoor activities both on und’s campus and elsewhere in the community. on campus, time was spent at und’s museum of art integrating art practices into steam and walking around campus to observe nature that goes unnoticed in our day-to-day lives. at the education building time was allocated to place-based instruction, brainstorming, and planning, as well as activities such as small group stations showcasing ways to integrate indigenous learnings into steam. exploring nature elsewhere in the community included adventures such as a wondering walk at a park on the red river, followed by activity packets with watershed maps to color, as well as the option to paddle on the river. the seven online modules, each aligning to one of the ndnaeus, consisted of video interviews of indigenous elders and other educational content about indigenous climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 97 history, values, and beliefs. they included activities such as discussion boards, readings, journal prompts, guided observations in nature, and additional resources. the variety of educational material and delivery emphasized that hands-on, immersive experiences can be facilitated through both online and in-person settings as well as in a variety of forms. our reciprocal relationship with nature one project goal is to promote a greater awareness of indigenized forms of learning within steam education. a central value is the significance of the reciprocal relationships between humans and nature. participants explored this through workshops and online modules, translating their learnings into lesson material to use in their classrooms. they learned strategies for incorporating nature-based learning activities both inside the classroom and while physically out in nature. through direct experiences, developing awareness of biocultural systems, and growing their own sense of place, participants learned self-discovery while connecting to others and the environment. we see this as an extension of david sobel’s famous notion that “what’s important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it and feel comfortable in it, before being asked to heal its wounds” (1996;9). this sentiment was exhibited at a park along the red river, when participants pointed out how this workshop has taught them to be more mindful of the connection, purpose, and value of things around them and the importance of showing respect for things that may be particularly meaningful to another individual or community. while taking on a “one with nature” mindset, participants reflected on their gratitude for our relations with the natural world; how nature gives us things and how we have a role to protect and care for nature in return. throughout the workshop, we found that immersive and place-based experiences helped foster the connections between teachers and nature. the materials we used included online sources that centered on indigenous perspectives such as teachings of our elders and nanabush and the giant beaver, along with the books we are water protectors by carole lindstrom and michaela goade and monika vaicenavičienė’s what is a river? interactive and cooperative role-playing games that built awareness and nurture reciprocity between people and nature were likewise impactful. games such as owl and mouse and be a beaver encouraged participants to become another creature, while considering their adaptations to place and how their natural histories intertwine with other creatures and human society. lastly, other suggestions pertaining to indigenous studies include the books the water walker by https://teachingsofourelders.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ct2d8jclg0 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ raboin & hunter ú watersheds as place 98 joanne robertson and julie flett’s we all play, both of which emphasize the role of nature-based learning. conclusion the workshop encouraged growth of culturally relevant learning by supporting teachers’ self-efficacy with implementing those learnings into steam instruction. nature-based teaching presents teachers and students with meaningful, immersive learning experiences that challenge them intellectually, enhance their awareness of the natural world, and encourage their personal development. through artsand placebased approaches, the workshops emphasized recognizing and appreciating biocultural relationships and the value in their diversity and interconnectedness. the lessons and activities involved helped advance care for the relationships that will sprout curiosity to continue to learn, grow, and make a positive impact on others and the environment. references cocks, m. (2010). what is biocultural diversity? a theoretical review. in d. g. bates & j. tucker (eds.), human ecology (pp. 67–77). springer us. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5701-6_5 kuo, m., barnes, m., & jordan, c. (2019). do experiences with nature promote learning? converging evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship. frontiers in psychology, 10, 305. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00305 sobel, d. (1996). beyond ecophobia: reclaiming the heart in nature education. orion society. walker, a. (2019). culturally relevant pedagogy, identity, presence, and intentionality: a brief review of literature. journal of research initiatives, 4(3), pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00305 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 67 rethinking english language teaching for the more-than-human world jessica fundalinski, syracuse university, syracuse, ny, usa abstract this essay examines a grammar lesson conducted within an english language teaching (elt) classroom, in which a student teacher urged the class to refer to a pet bird using the pronoun "it" rather than "she." this seemingly minor event reveals deeper implications about how language shapes our relationships with the more-than-human world, reinforcing settler-colonial ideologies. reducing non-human beings to "it" perpetuates human exceptionalism and enables environmental exploitation. this essay advocates for reimagining elt through decolonial and critical pedagogies, like translanguaging and ecolinguistics-informed awareness, to recognize the agency of the more-than-human world. it suggests that altering our linguistic practices in the classroom language can transform our values and relationships with nature, fostering ecocentrism and sustainable ecological consciousness. keywords english language teaching, settler-colonialism, ecolinguistics, translanguaging, ecocentrism fundalinskiú rethinking english language teaching 68 rethinking english language teaching for the more-than-human world “remember when zohal told us about her pet bird?” olivia excitedly asked her small english language teaching (elt) class. a picture of a blue bird appeared on the smartboard. a few students nodded their heads. i looked over at zohal, who looked down and cracked a slight smile. olivia continued. “here is our next question for review: zohal has a pet bird. ____ is blue. what is the correct pronoun for zohal’s bird?” four answer choices appeared after the question: she, he, they, and it. the students in the class, including zohal, emphatically shouted “she!” in unison, apparently knowing the bird was female. after the students had quieted down, olivia gently told them their answer was incorrect. “no, the bird is an it. it is blue.” the next review question appeared. i looked over at zohal, who seemed confused. i looked at olivia, an undergraduate student teacher, and i imagined my own pet, just as much a family member as my human kinfolk, being reduced to an it: i need to buy food for it. it needs water. it felt so impersonal to think about my pet this way. unsurprisingly, this observation and lesson on grammar has since lingered with me. what does it mean to teach english about the more-than-human world in a way that reduces anything other than humans to an it? what values do we impose through language when we describe zohal’s pet bird as an object, in the same category as a pencil or a piece of trash? this seemingly simple grammar lesson was not just about language; it demonstrated how deeper anthropocentric entanglements embedded within language shape how we discuss and engage with the more-than-human world. further, it reveals what we might need to rethink english in english language teaching (elt). in the following sections, i explore how elt is entangled in colonial ideologies that shape anthropocentric ways of using language, and end by offering ecocentric possibilities for reimagining the teaching of english to account for our relationships with the natural world. english and its colonial entanglements i first read braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer (2013) during the covid-19 pandemic. this beautiful text, which combines lenses from traditional science and indigenous ways of knowing, offers ways to rethink humanity’s relationship to the more-than-human world. perhaps it was due to spending more time outdoors during climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 69 that period, or because both kimmerer and i reside on ancestral homelands of the onondaga nation—references that become evident in the text—but i felt a deep connection with this read. as an elt professional, i found her chapter on the animacy grammar to be profoundly impactful. specifically, i began to consider what language we use to describe the more-than-human world–the rocks, the pines, the water, the land, and, yes, zohal’s bird. this engaged reading, which first helped me consider the iting of non-human life forms, stayed with me as i sat in the back of olivia’s classroom and imagined something different. it has also been an important text in my doctoral studies, helping me to link critical decolonial theories to teacher preparation, specifically for the field of elt. elt, through a colonial apparatus of erasure, continues to reify and shape anthropocentric ways of using language, at the expense of the more-than-human world. arvin et al. (2013) assert that anyone living in the united states has a relationship with settler-colonialism, or the “persistent social and political formation in which newcomers/colonizers/settlers come to a place, claim it as their own, and do whatever it takes to disappear the indigenous peoples that are there” (p. 12). the disappearing is partly rooted in formal education and the language policies that have reinforced the hegemony of english, a form of linguistic imperialism that “has always been a tool of colonization, meant to obliterate history and the visibility of the people who were displaced along with their languages” (kimmerer, 2017). in addition to indigenous communities in the united states, linguistic erasure has often affected anyone perceived as “other” within educational systems. language policies and teaching programs in the united states uphold english monolingualism and monoculturalism while constructing linguistically diverse students as “other,” “inferior,” and “deficient” (motha, 2006). ultimately, these policies erase and replace the languages of minority and immigrant students with the norms and perspectives of white english speakers (ibid). in replacing home languages with english-speaking norms, elt may also replace ecocentric ways of thinking about the world with dominant anthropocentric western values, perspectives, and epistemological orientations. as wa thiong’o (1986) writes, “language is… inseparable from ourselves as a community of human beings with a specific form and character, a specific history, a specific relationship to the world” (p. fundalinskiú rethinking english language teaching 70 15). in other words, language is deeply connected to culture and community, shaping and reflecting relationships to the world. kimmerer (2017) illustrates how the grammar of all living beings, in her ancestral language, potawatomi, is extended subject status and personhood—reflecting the deep kinship ties and reverence to land. as kimmerer describes, potawatomi challenges human exceptionalism and anthropocentrism embedded in western ideologies and conveyed through english. indeed, the legacy of colonialism through language indirectly reinforces the anthropocentric notion that humans are separate from and superior to nature (meighan, 2023). kimmerer (2017) writes, “because we speak and live with [english] every day, our minds have also been colonized by this notion that the nonhuman living world and the world of inanimate objects have equal status” (n.p.). thus, in teaching language, elt may reinscribe dominant cultural values and perspectives embedded within english—including our values and perspectives towards the land and the more-than-human world. rather than operating from the belief that language is neutral, practitioners in elt should consider how language is “a lens through which people view themselves and their relations with other people and the more-than-human world” (mccarty et al., 2021, p. 345). more simply teaching english, the values embedded in english manifest as tangible actions. words matter: they both shape how we perceive and act upon the more-than-human world. although not specific to pronouns, an excellent example is described by meighan (2021), who highlights and challenges readers to consider the ideas behind uncountable nouns in the english language, like oil and water. in the colonial mind, these “limitless” nouns become limitless for exploitation and extraction. this insight into how we use language provides us reasons to “search for new stories to live by and decolonize our thought processes” (meighan, 2021, p. 4). if we move from speaking of water as tasteless and odorless to life-giving and sustaining, we begin to unravel and unlearn anthropocentric and colonial extractivist worldviews. indeed, what would it mean to teach about zohal’s bird not just as an it but as part of the world deserving respect? if, instead, we use the pronoun “she,” what might we be willing to learn from her as a subject? thus, in rethinking how we teach language about the more-than-human world, we begin to resist the ecologically destructive values embedded within western knowledge systems while simultaneously opening windows climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 71 to decolonize (mccarty et al., 2021). as kimmerer (2017) asks us to consider: “can we unlearn the language of objectification and throw off colonized thought?” (n.p.). ways forward in rethinking elt for the more-than-human world, i have found both decolonial and critical frameworks helpful for imagining what our pedagogy and practice could look like in the classroom—a practice of unlearning colonial thinking. these frameworks seek to decenter and disrupt dominant values and perspectives, making room for alternative ways of knowing and thinking and ultimately transforming dominant ways of engaging with and thinking about the natural world. hsu (2017) suggests translanguaging as a space for acceptance of language beyond monolingual terms. translanguaging presents a holistic view of language use, where “users of a language select and deploy particular features from a unitary linguistic repertoire to make meaning and to negotiate particular communicative contexts” (vogel & garcía, 2017, p. 1). in other words, students utilize all available language resources—whether in a named language like english or spanish, or through multimodal means—to make meaning of their learning. translanguaging postures students as agentic as they produce and use language that supports their meaning making and may push back against hierarchical language arrangements (de los ríos & seltzer, 2017; vogel & garcía, 2017). by offering students the chance to use their entire linguistic repertoire, translanguaging “foster[s] a new way of listening in the classroom” (hsu, 2017, p. 122). as teachers support students in writing, journaling, or discussing with peers using their full linguistic repertoire, translanguaging legitimizes students’ language, values, and perspectives, including how they perceive the more-than-human world. as we saw in the narrative, zohal and the other students insisted on using “she” for the bird, a small affront to the objectification of this bird as an it. allowing students to trans language their world in their own terms opens up new perspectives and values about how to engage with the more-than-human world. other possibilities in elt to resist “colonialingual processes” include teaching from earth-centered perspectives, decolonizing our mental models in english (i.e., metaphors describing water), and collectively shifting instruction to embrace more sustaining and holistic worldviews (meighan, 2023). this approach aligns with micalayfundalinskiú rethinking english language teaching 72 hurtado and poole (2022), who offer an ecolinguistics-informed critical language awareness approach (eco-cla) in english language classrooms. specifically, the authors describe the goals of eco-cla in “identifying and promoting language use which contributes to ecological sustainability, justice, and wellbeing” (p. 374). eco-cla also aims to help learners identify language that, like the it-ing of animals, may perpetuate environmental harm. using these earth-centered, critical approaches, zohal’s bird would not be the object of a lesson in pronouns within an elt classroom. rather, zohal’s bird might be the subject. an elt teacher might design lessons that center the importance of birds in our local ecosystems—helping students develop the language skills to read, discuss, and write about how they support community ecology, including their roles in pollination or managing insect populations. students might spend one afternoon mindfully watching birds outside of the school, making observations and considering how and where birds assert agency in the local environment. the unit might end with a critical discussion and debate around using pronouns such as “it” to describe the bird and highlight ecocentric alternatives that may be more suitable. finally, i want to end considerations for teaching for the more-than-human world by connecting back to where this all began with kimmerer’s (2013, 2017) grammar of animacy. the grammar of animacy describes the ways in which we use language to describe the more-than-human world, including the particular pronouns, like “it” for nouns like birds. kimmerer (2017) suggests that we use a “new language to help us honor and be open to the beings who will teach us… and that invite us into an inclusive worldview of personhood for all beings” (n.p). for this, she draws on potawatomi to offer emergent pronouns that describe singular beings, ki, and plural beings, kin. in this lesson on pronouns, olivia might teach standardized forms—like she, he, they, and it—while also teaching a grammar of animacy embedded in respect and empathy for the more-than-human world. perhaps, we might see “ki” as an additional choice for zohal to describe her blue bird. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 73 references arvin, m., tuck, e., & morrill, a. (2013). decolonizing feminism: challenging connections between settler colonialism and heteropatriarchy. feminist formations, 25(1), 8-34. https://doi.org/10.1353/ff.2013.0006 de los ríos, c. v., & seltzer, k. (2017). translanguaging, coloniality, and english classrooms: an exploration of two bicoastal urban classrooms. research in the teaching of english, 52(1), 55-76. https://doi.org/10.58680/rte201729200 hsu, f. (2017). resisting the coloniality of english: a research review of strategies. the catesol journal, 29(1). https://doi.org/10.5070/b5.36012 kimmerer, r. (2013). braiding sweetgrass. milkweed. kimmerer, r. (2017, june 17). speaking of nature: finding language that affirms our kinship with the natural world. orion magazine. https://orionmagazine.org/article/speaking-ofnature/ mccarty, t. l., noguera, j., lee, t. s., & nicholas, s. e. (2021). "a viable path for education”: indigenous-language immersion and sustainable self-determination. journal of language, identity & education, 20(5), 340-354. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2021.1957681 meighan, p. j. (2021). decolonizing english: a proposal for implementing alternative ways of knowing and being in education. diaspora, indigenous, and minority education, 15(2), 77-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2020.1783228 meighan, p. j. (2023). colonialingualism: colonial legacies, imperial mindsets, and inequitable practices in english language education. diaspora, indigenous, and minority education, 17(2), 146-155. https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2022.2082406 micalay-hurtado, m. a., & poole, r. (2022). eco-critical language awareness for english language teaching (elt): promoting justice, wellbeing, and sustainability in the classroom. journal of world languages, 8(2), 371-390. https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl2022-0023 motha, s. (2006). decolonizing esol: negotiating linguistic power in u.s. public school classrooms. critical inquiry in language studies, 3(2-3), 75-100. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2006.9650841 vogel, s., & garcía, o. (2017). translanguaging. oxford research encyclopedia of education. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.181 wa thiong’o, n. (1986). decolonising the mind: the politics of language in african literature. heinemann. https://doi.org/10.1353/ff.2013.0006 https://doi.org/10.58680/rte201729200 https://doi.org/10.5070/b5.36012 https://orionmagazine.org/article/speaking-of-nature/ https://orionmagazine.org/article/speaking-of-nature/ https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2021.1957681 https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2020.1783228 https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2022.2082406 https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2022-0023 https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2022-0023 https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2006.9650841 https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.181 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 1 introduction why we need climate justice education marek oziewicz, university of minnesota, minnesota, usa nick kleese, university of minnesota, minnesota, usa in the accelerating chaos of summer 2025, it is tempting to surrender to the inevitability of the futures we dread. it is easy to extrapolate a future that emerges from alliances between billionaires and autocrats; a future of technofeudalist overlords enserfing humanity in cyber fiefdoms; or a future in which “market forces” bleed the earth dry of anything that can be commodified. with the uncanny second coming of the president that had (twice) withdrawn the u.s. from the paris agreement, it is easy to quote yeats’ lines about things falling apart: “the best lack all conviction, while the worst / are full of passionate intensity.” in short, it is easy to forget that the future is yet undetermined. this remembering is only the first step. it forces us to confront the real question: what will you do to craft a future you want to see for yourself and your loved ones? do you have to courage to name that dream and keep it alive? it will take tremendous courage indeed. one of the best novels yet to imagine a transition to an ecological civilization is nick fuller googins’ the great transition (2023). at one point, a teenage wildfire survivor is asked by an older friend: “the world’s ending but it’s not over yet. what’re you planning to do with the freedom you still got?” when larch shrugs in response, dr. alex offers the following suggestion: time to start figuring it out… because you got a future. a good one. i can see that. anyone can see that. but you got to work for it. that’s why you need to help out. not for me. not for those other[s]… down there. for you. i’m telling you, my dude. helping—it’s the only thing that helps. be part of something. join a team. it’s the most human thing we can do. it’s in our dna. it’s how we shed our skins. might not be the only way, but it’s a good way (p. 77). oziewicz & kleeseú introduction 2 this is the choice we have today. this is the choice declared by 89% of the world’s population who care about climate and want to see decisive action taken by governments on securing livable futures. the 89% project is a partnership between the guardian, agence france-presse and dozens of other news organizations across the world. we, too, can choose to be part of something. since january 2025, the new administration has taken aggressive steps to dismantle all climate action and policies, defund climate research, and hobble federal agencies including nasa, epa and others. the national ocean and atmospheric administration’s 2024 guide to climate literacy was scrubbed from government sites—its metadata remains, but attempting to access it results in a “page not found” message and redirects to the clean network. thousands of scientists, research personnel, conservation workers, national park service personnel and other staff essential for studying and protecting the earth system have been laid off or placed on indefinite leaves. coupled with the government’s invective to cease all activities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, is the attack on the department of education. this includes projects carried out under the auspices of the national science foundation and the national endowment for the humanities. on april 4, the center for climate literacy received a note of termination for the nehfunded teaching climate justice with young people’s literatures and media summer institute for k-12 teachers. the three-week institute was planned for june and july 2025. the goal was to provide twenty-four teachers with an opportunity to develop a literature-based, theory-informed, actionable understanding of climate justice for the ela classroom. participants would design lesson plans, activities, and learn how to use young people's narratives and media as portals into exploring climate justice issues. the focus on climate justice—defined as considerations of climate change vulnerability relative to responsibility—was central for two reasons. first, climate justice is the most efficient strategy to reckon with the violence against the planet and its peoples that have shaped ideologies, practices, and institutions responsible for ushering in the climate emergency. second, climate justice is a key framework for envisioning transformational change for planetary and human health. since 2022, when the un general assembly declared that access to a clean environment is a universal human right (united nations, 2022), the achievement of climate justice has been acknowledged as one of the biggest structural challenges for solving the climate crisis. this is why a consideration of climate justice was included in the 2022 ipcc sixth assessment report. this is why, for the first time ever, an entire chapter on climate justice was featured in the 2023 fifth national climate assessment (usgcrp, 2023). the importance of climate justice will only grow in the years ahead. we were not surprised when we received over 150 applications from all over the country. when the department of government efficiency (doge) shuttered the offices of national endowment for the humanities, we were told that “the termination of your grant represents an urgent priority for the administration”—or, rather, that climate literacy education no https://www.theguardian.com/environment/series/the-89-percent-project https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/22/89-percent-project-climate-change https://content-drupal.climate.gov/teaching/climate climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 3 longer aligns with the “needs and priorities” of the federal agencies. there will be no federal support for education that empowers teachers, students, and communities to adapt and thrive in a climate-changing world. instead, as we learn each day, there will be more support for protecting fossil fuel interests. on april 8, under the auspices of “unleashing american energy,” the president signed an executive order that will limit states’ ability to “...sue energy companies for supposed ‘climate change’ harm under nuisance or other tort regimes” (white house, 2025). the united states secretary of energy, chris wright, the former ceo of liberty energy—north america's second largest fracking company—expresses the administrations deeper feelings toward the climate movement, calling it “sinister” (lustgarden, 2025). lee zeldin, the current administrator of the environmental protection agency, has orchestrated a near complete rollback of climate regulations. “today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen,” zeldin said when announcing the initiative. “we are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for american families, unleash american energy, bring auto jobs back to the u.s. and more” (epa, 2025, emphasis ours). both zeldin and wright’s denial of the climate crisis’s severity is in direct contradiction to previous positions, including during their confirmation hearings. we launched this special issue because we believe that conversations about climate justice are essential. the accelerating climate crisis cannot be cancelled by an administrative decision. we believe that climate justice education is critical to support young people’s right to livable futures. we are committed to this fight because at stake, really, is everyone’s future. we are also committed because, as teachers, it is our duty to empower young people to develop the values and capabilities they need to design the just, green, regenerative, and sustainable world we all want to see. we are committed to do so together. this is what climate justice is all about. climate literacy in education was launched in 2022 with a mission to promote resources, materials, ideas, and questions for the teaching of climate literacy as a transdisciplinary capacity. as we have endeavored to do in our five issues so far, this approach broadens the meaning of climate literacy beyond a strictly scientific knowledge to a socioscientific and cultural competence. crucially, it operates through considerations of climate justice. this issue collects the voices of teachers and educators, applicants to the cancelled institute, in response to the question: “why do we need climate justice education”? it is also the first completely anonymous issue of cle, which the editorial collective opted to do to ensure the teacher contributors remain safe. while deidentified, the voices ring out. they offer us actually taught curriculum, student perspectives, poetic reflections, and demands. we hope these voices will help clarify the need for education that provides students with the contexts and skills necessary to understand climate justice as 1) an essential framework for addressing the socioeconomic, ideological, and other drivers of the climate emergency, and 2) a strategic solution, whose application to considerations of climate change impacts, burdens, and futures is necessary to ensure a just transition to an ecological civilization. oziewicz & kleeseú introduction 4 references epa. (12 march 2025). epa launches biggest deregulatory action in u.s. history. environmental protection agency. accessed online: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-launchesbiggest-deregulatory-action-us-history googins, n. f. (2023). the great transition. simon & schuster. lustgarden, a. (24 march 2025). the doublespeak of energy secretary chris wright. propublica. accessed online: https://www.propublica.org/article/energy-secretary-chris-wright-climatechange-double-speak-oil-gas-trump office of management and budget, executive office of the president of the united states. (27 jan 2025). temporary pause of agency grant, loan, and other financial assistance programs. accessed online: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/m-25-13temporary-pause-to-review-agency-grant-loan-and-other-financial-assistanceprograms.pdf united nations. (18 july 2022). un general assembly declares access to clean and healthy environment a universal human right. un news. accessed online: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123482 usgcrp. (2023). fifth national climate assessment. crimmins, a.r., c.w. avery, d.r. easterling, k.e. kunkel, b.c. stewart, and t.k. maycock (eds). u.s. global change research program. https://doi.org/10.7930/nca5.2023 white house. (8 april 2025). protecting american energy from state overeach. white house. [executive order]. accessed online: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidentialactions/2025/04/protecting-american-energy-from-state-overreach/ https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-launches-biggest-deregulatory-action-us-history https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-launches-biggest-deregulatory-action-us-history https://www.propublica.org/article/energy-secretary-chris-wright-climate-change-double-speak-oil-gas-trump https://www.propublica.org/article/energy-secretary-chris-wright-climate-change-double-speak-oil-gas-trump https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/m-25-13-temporary-pause-to-review-agency-grant-loan-and-other-financial-assistance-programs.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/m-25-13-temporary-pause-to-review-agency-grant-loan-and-other-financial-assistance-programs.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/m-25-13-temporary-pause-to-review-agency-grant-loan-and-other-financial-assistance-programs.pdf https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1123482 https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/protecting-american-energy-from-state-overreach/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/protecting-american-energy-from-state-overreach/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 25 the pope and i third grade math and science florida i am not catholic. yet when cardinal robert prevost became pope leo xiii, i was exhilarated, inspired, and hopeful. here was a man who the wall street journal described as “from the u.s., but of the global south” and who has been described by many as “a citizen of the world.” to achieve climate justice, i believe people need to think of themselves as citizens of the world (or global citizens) and not only as citizens of a town, state or country. climate justice requires this mindset because our climate knows no boundaries. it relates to taking responsibility for and taking action to ensure the well-being and survival of humans or other living organisms, regardless of where they are located on earth in this era of climate crisis. it is grounded in the idea that one’s location, characteristics, or station in life should not cause one to disproportionately bear the costs and adverse impacts of climate change or of efforts to reverse or mitigate its effects. to lay the foundation for climate justice, i work hard to help my third-grade learners understand that we are members of many different and significant local, regional, and global communities that may include family, our classroom, our city, state and country, our fellow beings around the world, and, importantly, our natural world. we learn how important it is to be able to contribute to and function in all of them. this includes learning to respect others’ existence, perspectives and experiences, to communicate constructively with others, to actively support each other, and to value and sustain our natural world. in practice, building this foundation involves a wide range of activities ranging from a virtual exchange with peers in mexico to food tastings to meeting with our city’s mayor. with these activities my goal is to set the stage for my students to take action as they develop a sense of responsibility and deep feelings of empathy toward others—ones that extend beyond their immediate surroundings and ones that encompass all beings—just as pope leo xiii has done. 3 math and scienceú floridaú the pope and i 26 without them, we will not be able to meet our moral obligation to save what pope leo’s predecessor called “our common home.” in his 2015 papal encyclical laudato si: on care of our common home, pope francis emphasized that its message was addressed to all people and wrote: authentic human development has a moral character. it presumes respect for the human person, but it must also be concerned for the world around us and take into account the nature of each being and of its mutual connection in an ordered system... the climate is a common good meant for all, and belonging to all… if present trends continue this century may well witness… an unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for all of us… climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. it represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day. its worst impact will probably be felt in developing countries. many of the poor live in areas particularly affected by phenomena related to warming. pope francis’ words from a decade ago capture why i am committed to teaching about climate justice. pope leo xiii inspires me to redouble my efforts. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 27 hope is in our hands higher education humanities minnesota i grew up with my grandma, and she has always been a sewer. she makes quilts, primarily. i grew up hearing the whir of her sewing machine going on downstairs and sitting with her when she was hand stitching the binding. she is a big inspiration for why i love textile and fiber art. i am a crocheter. my grandma tried to teach me multiple times. at the beginning of my college career, it stuck. i’ve been crocheting for six years. t. knitting with mohair wool, on a quilt their grandma made for them. higher education humanitiesú minnesotaú hope is in our hands 28 more recently, i was gifted one of her old sewing machines, and so i've been starting to sew. i've been making clothes for myself, mostly. so much of fiber and textile methods are interconnected. my skills crocheting garments transferred into being able to sew clothes with fabric. the very act of making something by hand, particularly garments in a world full of fast fashion, is inherently related to the environment, consumption, and climate change. there is so much fast fashion in the world, and especially in the united states, that we're divorced from the construction of our garments. most people don't know what it takes to make just a shirt. and often the shirt has been made from synthetic materials, which contributes a ton of carbon emissions. i think about my art as slow fashion, to go against consumerism, because it takes a long time to make one garment, especially if you're knitting or crocheting every stitch by hand. each year, the fashion industry creates fourteen times as many garments as there are people in the world. that is mind-boggling to me. there's such a surplus of clothes in the world, and it's not stopping; from 1960 to 2019, textile waste has increased over eight times. it is just not an unsustainable industry, but yet it is one of the fastest growing consumer industries in the world and one of the top three consumer industries for producing carbon emissions. two sewn dresses checkered vest made with alpaca yarn climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 2 (special issue) 29 t.’s capstone project for an art and identity course in college, courses on environmental biology, social class, and pedagogy opened my eyes to environmental racism and environmental justice— especially how certain groups are bearing the brunt of the climate monstrosities, including poor communities and communities with primarily black and brown folks. for a group project, we read toxic communities by dorceta e. taylor, which highlighted examples throughout the country. communities don’t have any say in a factory being built, or they get money incentives to have this factory in their community. years later, they notice various health effects, like higher rates of asthma and cancer. i work at an indie bookstore in my city, and it is very community-minded—not only regarding the people who work there, but for the greater community, too. this is a place for joy, love, books, and people who love books. in this age of book banning, we are wanting people to read whatever they want and feel supported and loved in those choices. the free little libraries are also giving me hope. i am so grateful to live in a city where literacy is valued. the little libraries are communitycentered, and a lot of times they're done with so much care. fiber art t. created for bookstore catalogue higher education humanitiesú minnesotaú hope is in our hands 30 daily squares i just read the service berry by robin wall kimmerer. she wrote about gift and circular economies, where things go round and round, and it's not transactional, money changing hands and ownership but spreading the wealth in the community. for instance, my friend’s birthday is coming up soon, and every year she does a clothing swap. that is a beautiful example of how we do have resources that we can share. and making art with my friends, you know? yeah, so this is what’s giving me a lot of hope. emery ú from science to stories 6 from science to stories analyzing and creating picturebooks in an english learner classroom jess emery, two rivers high school, mendota heights, minnesota, usa abstract english learners (els) arrive to the high school classroom with greatly varying experiences of learning about the climate crisis. if they have learned about the climate crisis in school, they have likely learned mostly about it via science. in an attempt to move towards a curriculum that includes ideas about the values, behaviors, and actions related to the climate emergency, i created a unit in my advanced el reading and writing course that uses picturebooks to learn about the climate emergency and engage in a real-world writing task. keywords picturebooks, multimodal writing, school partnerships, english learners, authentic writing tasks acknowledgments i was supported in this work with funding from the zipes and dines fellowship and mentorship from the university of minnesota center for climate literacy. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 7 context the students in my secondary english learner (el) classroom have had a mixed experience learning about the climate crisis. before i start our fourth-quarter unit on informative writing and the climate crisis, i always survey them. what do they know about this thing called “the climate crisis”? what does that mean to them? have they learned about it before? if so, where and how? their responses were all over the place. some were able to rattle off a series of facts about the science of the crisis or mention the ways humans have contributed to the problem. many others, however, reply along the lines of: “i’ve heard of it, but i don’t really know what it means.” given the range of my students’ responses, the task of designing a unit that tackles this issue—while also targeting academic reading and writing—seemed like a pretty intimidating job! my students are english learners. although our program includes co-taught content classes, the class i teach independently is our advanced reading and writing course for students who are orally proficient in english, close to exiting out of the el program, and need a final boost in academic writing before they are mainstreamed in language arts. it is in this class that i committed, several years ago, to including a unit on climate. given my learning targets, i have a lot of freedom in what we read and write about with no prescribed “curriculum” to follow. like many of us, i’d been feeling increasingly distraught about the vastness of the climate crisis. yet i noticed that my students didn’t have a very strong working knowledge of it. after a little digging, i realized that my students, as els, may have missed specific teaching about climate within their content courses. creating a unit to help them understand the issue felt like one way i could possibly affect some change, however small. that first year, i did my best to cobble together a unit from the amazing—but overwhelming—number of online resources on climate science. there were plenty of teachers’ and schools’ ideas to draw from; i ended up focusing on climate science. it felt tricky to balance underscoring the gravity of the climate crisis and making sure i wasn’t losing students’ attention to a science-y rabbit hole (or the sheer magnitude of the issue). eventually, i shifted the unit to be transdisciplinary, which has made a positive difference in how the students respond to the ideas. rather than focusing only on the science of the climate crisis, recent scholarship has advocated for a more transdisciplinary approach via an "understanding of the climate emergency that centers on developing values, attitudes, and behavioral change aligned with living well with one another in a climate changing world” (oziewicz, p. 34, 2023). we’re going to need to more than knowledge of the science to emery ú from science to stories 8 get people to change their way of doing things. oziewicz’s and others’ work suggests that stories are especially helpful to engage young people in thinking about a future for our world. in asking myself how i could make my teaching reflect this change, i identified several changes for my revamped unit: • dial back the science-based content • include stories as an integral part of the unit • make a real-world writing task (rather than the essay i’d had them write previously) i decided to spend some time addressing climate science—especially since i had students who didn’t have much prior knowledge of it. however, i included picturebooks as an integral part of the unit, since these often address the social and emotional aspects of climate-related issues. by focusing on stories, we are able to bring human attitudes, traditions, and beliefs into the picture. i also created a writing task that reflects the readings: we created picturebooks about an aspect of the climate crisis that my students then read in-person to a group of younger students. part 1: building background to open the unit, we spent two weeks on the basics of the climate crisis. since the focus of my class is literacy, we did this primarily through reading and writing about what we read. this year, i chose the graphic anthology drawn to change the world: 16 youth climate activists, 16 artists as a primary text. it includes a brief but robust overview of the climate crisis before highlighting the stories of sixteen youth activists. sticking to this text as an introduction to climate science—rather than a mishmash of academic overviews as i’d done in the past—allowed me to limit the number of rabbit-holes we’d be tempted to go down. we read the introduction using our active reading protocol and supplemented the textual information by watching some of the explainer videos available online. we focused on specific topics, such as the carbon cycle and the greenhouse effect. in general, i kept the scientific information brief; i reiterated that students could do their own deep dive if they are particularly interested in a certain topic. i made one other notable shift too: i included picturebooks as part of the “building background” stage. i wanted students to be exposed to as many of these books as possible from the get-go, since they’d be creating their own books. i also wanted to emphasize the role of stories in learning and thinking about the climate crisis. some days, we read these books as a warm-up followed by a short writing reflection; other days they were the center of the lesson. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 9 part 2: analyzing picturebooks in the next phase, we looked closely at the picturebooks we’d read. students knew that they’d be creating their own picturebooks, so we had that in mind as we analyzed the structure, theme, literary devices, and visual elements used in these books. in choosing texts, i considered cultural representation, which climate-related topics were covered, genre, and illustration style. together, we practiced analysis using the fate of fausto by oliver jeffers. students then chose two to three titles to examine with a partner, using the form. after this activity (which took two to three class periods, depending on the group), students had been exposed to at least six texts. this had a double benefit: 1) getting them to think about issues related to the climate crisis, 2) sparking their interest in the way authors choose to present these issues in the picturebook medium. emery ú from science to stories 10 part 3: conducting research and the book-writing process to begin our book-writing process, students worked independently to brainstorm topics that interested them. they each chose a sub-topic and practiced summarizing the video or short text about that sub-topic (see slide 16). for this class, i provided their sub-topic text, as i wanted students to focus on summarizing and reflecting rather than searching for available titles. this way, i was able to model the type of summarizing and reflecting i wanted them to accomplish (see slides 17-23 in the deck). students then followed the same methods on their own. after this, they worked with a partner to ideate ways of turning those topics into a picturebook script. every day during this part of the unit, we read at least one picturebook together as a warm-up, so we had many different examples to reference. we also learned from a class visit by our fabulous librarian, who presented on the writing process particular to picturebooks. as students worked on their own, i began class periods with mini-lessons and warm-ups designed to address some of the writing challenges and objectives i wanted to address (see “additional resources” at the end of the slides deck, slides 68-93). this part of the unit will sound familiar to any teacher of writing: the challenge is to keep those who are dragging their feet moving along while providing enough feedback for those who are flying. the two-week period was both challenging and hopeful. students wrote drafts, found ways to illustrate, scrapped ideas that weren’t working, revised with peers, sat with me to work through drafts, sometimes got frustrated, sometimes felt success, and generally experienced what all writers do: the messy process of writing. to let students experience this process, teachers need to devote enough time for it to unfold. students found particular motivation in knowing that their writing would be turned into an actual book that other people would read. i made it clear that no work will be “published” unless it’s gone through lots of revision, is thoughtful and high-quality, and is finished in time. my students understood this and found it to be fair. part 5: reading books to younger students after publishing the books (a task that fell to me during prep time and after school, and involved using the school color printer, book-binding machine, and materials i’d purchased with grant funds), we were ready to put ourselves out into the real world. we practiced by reading the books aloud in class to one other. we then took a bus to our elementary school for a visit i’d arranged with my el colleague. it was a success. there was a wow-factor with the super-cool teenagers and snacks i’d brought, but the act of reading youth-written books engaged both high school and elementary students. we https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jyr4epqcesdvjvbtw9dpuxivugaqe4vve1c2zfdk1pw/edit?slide=id.g34ebb25a191_0_123&slide=id.g34ebb25a191_0_123 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jyr4epqcesdvjvbtw9dpuxivugaqe4vve1c2zfdk1pw/edit?slide=id.g34ebb25a191_0_123&slide=id.g34ebb25a191_0_123 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jyr4epqcesdvjvbtw9dpuxivugaqe4vve1c2zfdk1pw/edit?slide=id.g34ebb25a191_0_123&slide=id.g34ebb25a191_0_123 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 11 split into pairs, and the attention of the elementary students was rapt. as far as my often-apathetic students: i’d never seen this level of engagement. they took it seriously, and it made me commit to including more real-world writing tasks in my curriculum. even the students who didn’t have their own published books were engaged; we brought several picturebooks we’d read in class for them to read instead. i watched them go through three to four books each, rotating texts because the first graders didn’t want the reading date to be over. at a glance title climate literacy: analyzing and creating picturebooks unit time 4 5 weeks grade level(s) 9 12 core text drawn to change the world: 16 youth climate activists, 16 artists by emma reynolds (ed). supporting texts • black beach: a community, and oil spill, and the origin of earth day by shauna and john stitch • eco girl by ken wilson-max • farmer will allen and the growing table by jaqueline briggs martin • greta and the giants by zoe tucker https://www.climatelit.org/literature/drawn-to-change-the-world/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/drawn-to-change-the-world/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-beach-a-community-an-oil-spill-and-the-origin-of-earth-day/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-beach-a-community-an-oil-spill-and-the-origin-of-earth-day/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/eco-girl/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/farmer-will-allen-and-the-growing-table/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/greta-and-the-giants-inspired-by-greta-thunbergs-stand-the-save-the-world/ emery ú from science to stories 12 • our house is on fire by jeanette winter • if bees disappeared by lily williams • the fate of fausto by oliver jeffers • we are water protectors by carole lindstrom • zonia’s rainforest by juana martinez-neal climate literacy terms varied depending on student topic objectives students will build on their understanding of the climate crisis through reading and analyzing various illustrated texts, experiencing the ideas through a framework that includes human attitudes, practices, and motivations around the issue. students will engage in creating their own text and sharing it with a real-world audience. materials and resources • slides deck of entire unit • fate of fausto slides (w/ analyzing practice) • children’s book assignment planning guide (for students) • children’s book analysis form reflection while i found this unit successful, i am already planning several changes for next year: adding more picturebooks, more robust summarizing activities, a requirement for a “summarize the issue” page in the finished books, and more time spent on writing and editing. i was happy with the shifts i made in teaching about the background of the climate crisis. students’ questions and reflections were thoughtful and more nuanced than in previous years. most important, however, students shared that the reading experience was meaningful to them— words i think most teachers are desperate to hear, especially now. references oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1(1), 34-38. https://www.amazon.com/our-house-fire-thunbergs-planet/dp/1534467785/ref%3dsr_1_2?crid=3512jxwb0a6sl&dib=eyj2ijoimsj9.yewdkcrgof7-53hmfx5a6ljqe6eiyarxhchta3xve-mjrunz3dhwzjretkngm16iuf7kv9tf-mzof0qnzrd5euv1bjysxd4sk8bgxz3ya109ieoizxvm0qkbysgvxqks-ha7_0caiyruyhl-sfptc9idhwroscl7ufq6cjhwkg18dcowmcitiqiw0a-v9zdmeizpbzhcq1fq7lyfc42s0egp69cgittuddlxejmfgy0.2uenkchjyr-eiundptmrv8ipzp3pc69nj3eivybsdns&dib_tag=se&keywords=our%2bhouse%2bis%2bon%2bfire&qid=1752249185&sprefix=our%2bhouse%2bis%2bon%2bfir%2caps%2c187&sr=8-2 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/if-bees-disappeared/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-fate-of-fausto/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/zonias-rain-forest/ https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jyr4epqcesdvjvbtw9dpuxivugaqe4vve1c2zfdk1pw/edit?slide=id.g34ebb25a191_0_123&slide=id.g34ebb25a191_0_123 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12uvocve_7nb9jb3zivbgrmwobaewiz0a3zuek1ekecy/edit?slide=id.g37042fc7754_0_0&slide=id.g37042fc7754_0_0 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-gsswf_0kdr_hlulo5usuyucytvgzqry43--5i6xz0q/edit?tab=t.0 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-gsswf_0kdr_hlulo5usuyucytvgzqry43--5i6xz0q/edit?tab=t.0 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_ardt-eyf-96eejkvul8lyj-u8akl7nrubcjzip_bug/edit?tab=t.0 climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 29 special places in school using provocative pedagogy to teach place-based environmental education cheryl hunter, university of north dakota, grand forks, north dakota, usa leila campbell, university of north dakota, grand forks, north dakota, usa abstract place-based education is more than a classroom structure; it is providing outdoor experiences connecting students with their natural landscape and nurturing a deep bond with their immediate outdoor environment. melding environmental education design principles and provocative pedagogical methods, this curricular unit prepares university students to teach environmental education across multiple educational domains. this unit begins by providing an evocative and sensory experience of placebased learning before students are introduced to specific design principles and environmental education methods, thus providing a lived experience by which to first ground students’ understandings. keywords provocative pedagogy, place-based education, environmental stewardship, ecological literacy, climate literacy hunter and campbellï special places in school 30 it’s very difficult for students to understand climate change if they never go outdoors. and even more difficult to change it, if they don’t love the places right outside their doors. overview using design principes of environmental education (sobel, 2008) and methods of provocative pedagogy (hunter, 2024), this three-credit semester-based college course focused on providing direct, outdoor sensory experiences that evoked personal memories and then connecting that shared and lived experience to place-based teaching methods. while the course is education-focused, students across majors enroll as it fills a general studies core-curriculum component. seven students met weekly for three hours in both outdoor settings as well as in the classroom. leila campbell was an undergraduate student in the course and cheryl hunter was the course instructor. the primary objective was for students to consistently leave the classroom setting, explore their local landscape in a variety of ways, and develop the methods to create similar experiences for others within their own local natural communities. the course centered on a specific geographic feature of the campus’ natural community, the english coulee. the coulee is a small stream that runs through the heart of campus yet is less known amongst the students and rarely used as a natural space to spend times outdoors on campus. students explored how this place could be a natural and beautiful setting to connect with nature and one another. it subsequently led students to question what needs to be done to foster that human-nature connection. both sobel and hunter identify sensory, lived experiences and memory as fundamental to place-based education. whenever possible, class sessions were conducted outside, providing students with uninterrupted engagement with nature by which to then engage with class materials. students created field notes that captured their personal observations and reflections, which led to a student-developed call to action. throughout this process students built a deep and personal bond with their local landscape before stepping into the role of educators themselves. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 31 narrative framing provocative pedagogy is a method i developed in which content (what we want students to know conceptually) in centered within “a space to be in that evokes emotion and individual experience, interactions that further build the relational experiences with the place and fosters care about that place and things,” (hunter, 2024, p. 11). the goal of provocative pedagogy is to provoke action, which relies on integrating six key features across the learning unit: 1. sensory experiences directly outdoors; 2. evocation of personal memories relating to this direct outdoor experience; 3. validation of previous lived experiences; 4. relationship-building, 5. rooted in a local natural place; and 6. resulting in a call to action. you will notice that this method decenters specific content, which provides for its transferability, application, and integration across almost any content-driven curriculum. likewise, place-based education should also de-center the classroom, not by replicating place in the classroom, but rather taking the classroom out into the place. the structure of this course followed a progression of direct experience with the history and topography of the coulee. as a class, students first walked and explored the area. they were given no specific design or purpose beyond being free to pose questions, taking notes and collecting any items they determined were meaningful to them. free exploration is essential for a sensory experience; experiences should not be “created” or even “facilitated” by the instructor. when the instructor is de-centered, students can direct their attention to what resonates with them personally, thus evoking meaningful memories rather than contrived responses to what they think an instructor is looking for. guided walks with the instructor and an environmental interpreter were then used to encourage deeper sensory interactions with the coulee and provide opportunity for prolonged, focused observations. students then created a collaborative three-dimensional map of the coulee, during which they were prompted for memories based on the items collected, connecting the object to their previous sensory experiences and class memories. while map-making, students were also asked about any previous lived experiences that related to walking the coulee. direct outdoor experiences, collaborative map making, and memory conversations became the groundwork by which students could then move into developing their own “teach the coulee” lesson plan. hunter and campbellï special places in school 32 class sessions on lesson planning involved students thinking reflectively upon their place-based experiences and memories and then determining what they wanted their peers to gain from the experience. this was essential. students considered lesson objectives based on their first-hand experience and engagement with the place before we entered into the course texts. after the place-based experiences and reflections, students read and discussed sobel’s principles of place-based education, as outlined in childhood and nature: design principles for educators. they considered how those could be incorporated with ideas from williams and browns’ learning gardens and sustainability education: bringing life to schools and schools to life. each student selected three or more principles, all agreeing to incorporate "special places" as a core teaching element. direct and prolonged experiences with the coulee became the foundation for engaging with the course texts, not the other way around. since each pre-service teachers tailored their lesson plan using their own reflection on what students should learn, their own direct outdoor experience with the coulee, and own personal memories, their lesson plans were unique and very different from the standardized lesson plan adopted by the college. without the requirement to use any specific field of content, students chose to overlap a wide variety of disciplinary fields when creating learning objectives for teaching the coulee: resource management, environmental sustainability, fine arts, climate studies, biology, space science, etc. they also used a variety of environmental, sustainability and climate concepts within their lesson plans. a key aspect for students’ lesson plans was the design principle of special places. this principle involves an individual creating a personal connection with an outdoor space, often leading to a profound and meaningful bond with the environment while also promoting personal reflection (sobel, 2008). as students reflected on their own explorations of the coulee, where they had time to personally connect and discover their own special place around the coulee, their direct personal experiences and connections with the coulee guided their lesson design. students explained their own enthusiasm for and growing knowledge about this natural place on campus. they also highlighted how this newly found enthusiasm was shared with their peers during lesson implementation. students affirmed that the excitement was only climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 33 possible after they first came to see the coulee as a special place for themselves on campus. when students presented their teaching the coulee lesson plans, they described how this process fostered a personal connection to local nature, evoking both nostalgia and self-reflection on lifetime natural experiences. although each student had creative liberties, developed their own learning objectives, and literally took a multitude of different routes teaching the coulee, they all reported back one common take-away from lesson implementation: the need for environmental stewardship and the widespread lack of awareness of how human activity disrupts natural spaces and ecosystems. when students analyzed their peers' reflections from teaching the coulee lessons, they found that nearly all participants felt deeply grateful for the outdoor space on campus. student appreciation for the coulee also showed through their concerns about litter, invasive species, and the contaminated water that expelled unnatural odor. what students described upon reflection was how developing and implementing their lesson plan evoked a sense of stewardship towards the land and its natural occupants, for themselves and their peer participants. students turned a late-semester class discussion toward the importance of environmental and climate education, emphasizing the impact of human activity on their own local natural spaces and newly found sense-of-place. as a result, students decided upon an action-oriented class product, the creation of the coulee magazine. this magazine consists of a collection of stories, based on students’ initial direct experiences with the coulee and then underscored by implementing their lesson plan teaching the coulee. the deep experience of a place, followed by the designing and practicing of place-based education methods resulted in profound and convincing arguments on why and how to integrate place-based education for sustainability. coulee magazine was not a course assignment when the class was initially designed. this was the student’s response to directly experiencing place, designing a place-based lesson, and shifting classroom teaching methods toward provocation. the coulee magazine became a clear call to action grounded in students’ understanding of ecological literacy—a call to promote a heightened awareness of their surroundings, reinforcing their understanding of the necessity for interconnectedness with nature. students learned outdoors, in the place, directly experiencing the natural environment. hunter and campbellï special places in school 34 and what they discovered was a change in themselves toward a place they had never deeply experienced yet was right outside their door. at a glance title special places in school unit time integrated across one 15-week semester grade level(s) college level environmental education methods course core text sobel, d. (2008). childhood and nature: design principles for educators. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/ba87964550 williams, d., & brown, j. (2013). learning gardens and sustainability education. routledge ebooks. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203156810 supporting texts resources from center for climate literacy https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/what-we-do/resources climate literacy terms place-based education, environmental stewardship, ecological literacy, climate literacy, objectives • develop a personal connection to nature through local landscapes • understand and apply principles of place based education in both objectives and design of lesson planning • implement a lesson plan teaching peers about a natural space on campus based on what students have learned about that place • experience the teaching methods of provocative pedagogy, understand how it compares to traditional methods and apply to lesson planning materials and resources provocative pedagogy overview (see figure 1) http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/ba87964550 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203156810 https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/what-we-do/resources climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 1 (summer 2025) 35 figure 1: provocative pedagogy handout going forward by directly engaging with a natural landscape on campus and honing a deeper connection to local nature first, students built upon personal experience to design and implement environmental education methods. importantly, students’ experiences ended in creating a call for advocacy. the students’ creation of the coulee magazine showed that students on campus may feel disconnected from nature, specifically from their local natural community. in describing their engagement with the english coulee, students were able establish a deeper relationship to nature that was right outside their door, as well use that connection to prepare others with the tools to form similar associations. the final product revealed how students became ecologically literate and why their subsequent hunter and campbellï special places in school 36 interest in stewardship, the goal of ecological literacy, matters to them. students explained the how as based in the direct and immediate experiencing of their ecosystem, which did not arise in the classroom setting. they explained the why as based in emotional connection to a specific place and subsequent interest in their influence on the ecological world and its influence on them. we hope that by continuing to use design principles that require direct placebased experiences and pedagogical principles that evoke action we begin to address what charles saylan identified as one of the great failures of environmental education its inability to provoke action by directly connecting to the daily lives of students (nijhuis, 2011). connection to local landscapes has been lost to the walls of a classroom but with a simple shift to place-based learning and provocative pedagogy methods, education and its students could benefit greatly. references hunter, c. (2024) provocative pedagogy: what interpretive methods offer in traditional education spaces. national association of interpretation, legacy magazine, 35(4). nijhuis, m. (2011). green failure: what’s wrong with environmental education. yale environment, 360. sobel, d. (2008). childhood and nature: design principles for educators. stenhouse publishers. williams, d., & brown, j. (2013). learning gardens and sustainability education: bringing life to schools and schools to life. routledge ebooks. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203156810 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203156810 kleeseú adultism 62 adultism, intergenerational solidarity, and the tantrum that saved the world nick kleese, university of minnesota-twin cities, minnesota, usa abstract climate literacy education endeavors to prepare young people to live well in a climate changing world. presumably this is also the aim of literature for young people about the climate crisis, especially of books including depictions of youth activists. what interests drive these narratives? how adult perceptions of young people shape our relationship with both the texts and the young people with whom we work? drawing examples from actual youth activists and the tantrum that saved the world, i suggest that checking our own potential adultism will help educators work more effectively with young people. keywords adultism, intergenerational solidarity, youth climate movement, coalition-building acknowledgements my gratitude to justyna deszcz-tryhubczak for her insightful feedback on an early version of this manuscript. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 63 framing climate literacy education endeavors to prepare young people to live well in a climate changing world. this also appears to be the aim of many stories, particularly literature in what one might call the “changemaker” sub-genre: portraits of young climate activists, real and fictional, promising young readers that they, too, are “old enough to save the planet” (kirby, 2020). collectively, these narratives reinforce a dictum: in young people we trust. there’s power in these narratives. their abundance, however, has transformed the idea of the young activist into a trope. something tricky is at work here—what drives adult interest in the trope? what do we imagine when we invoke young people? how does this imagination shape our work, as adults, in climate literacy education? the answer has something to do with the ways in which adultist biases frame our sense of the world. by interrogating our adult perspective, we might be better positioned to work with young people (cf. gubar, 2016) towards an ecological future. the first step, i propose, is to grapple with adultism. adultism adultism—also called aetonormativity—is the bias that values adult ways of knowing and being in the world over those of young people. scholars writing in english trace the origin of the concept to youth work (flasher, 1978), which spread to political science (lau, 2012; moosa-mitha, 2005; olsson, 2008), education (bertrand, brooks, and domínguez, 2023), and other social sciences (biswas and wall, 2023). my sense is that the study of adultism is more established beyond the united states, not merely because ours is only one of two nations to not ratify the united nations’ convention rights of the child (blanchfield, 2015). as such, i offer this overview with humility. adultism exists in part because humans are socialized into particular social practices and values deemed "adult” or “mature”. these practices and values are myriad (cf. wall, 2025), so here i propose five that i find particularly relevant: 1) respecting procedures, which demands patience 2) overvaluing logic, which demands “regulating” emotions 3) separating public and private life, which demands dissonance 4) accepting “the way things are”, which demands forfeiting agency, and 5) championing “realism” over “idealism”, which demands sacrificing creativity and imagination. kleeseú adultism 64 note that these practices and values are also aligned with several other dominant ways of being in the world: white, male, able-bodied, middle-class, etc. when these dominant values are equated with “maturity,” the notion of “youth” can be weaponized to “depriv[e] others of political agency on the basis of their emotional or civilizational immaturity” (devji, 2021, p. 222; bernstein, 2011). adultism as a structural bias like other biases, adultism is structural in that our shared social institutions are structured to discriminate against young people. the most obvious example is the political system (wall, 2023). while nearly all political decisions impact young people, no person below a specific threshold age has an official say in those decisions. in the united states, young people cannot vote until they are eighteen. why eighteen? it is not as if, at midnight on their eighteenth birthday, teens are magically endowed with the capacities to vote (olsson, 2008). moreover, any other criteria used to determine eligibility—such as ill-defined notions of capacity, knowledge, or reason—cannot be applied to young people, as a bloc, without also disenfranchising a significant portion of the adult population (ibid). the institution of education is adultist too. scholars occasionally address this by calling to involve young people more directly in curriculum-making processes (steinberg & down, 2020). that’s said, american classroom teachers are required to teach particular content via learning or content area standards. their jobs depend on it. while educators can involve students in some decisions, these inevitably fall short of the structural realignment that adult allies would like to see. still, we can resist adultism in other ways. we can learn to identify the bias, and we can do so in tandem with young people. reading critically and intentionally is one avenue for doing so. the tantrum that saved the world (2022) is a particularly generative text for such an analysis. the narrative depicts sophia, whose life is upended with the arrival of interspecies climate refugees. her initial consternation eventually turns into activism, but adultist bureaucrats stymie her advocacy. eventually, sophia embraces her anger and builds a movement, ultimately visiting the white house. while the narrative lends itself to considering structural adultism, it is even more generative for considering interpersonal aspects of the bias. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 65 adultism as interpersonal bias: four manifestations denying youth the capacity for action the most flagrant form of adultism is the refusal to see young people as capable of contributing to society. this tends to be a conservative position, evident in the rightwing backlash against youth climate protests (zraick, 2021), but this isn’t limited to the right. as california democratic senator diane feinstein infamously told youth climate activists: “i know what i’m doing,” she scolded. “you come in here, and you say, ‘it has to be my way or the highway.’ i don’t respond to that” (democracy now!, 2019, n.p.). still, adultist denial isn’t always so militant. greta thunberg faced a more paternal version of this when she met with politicians during her 2019 trip to the united states. “i urge [the politicians] to listen to the science and act now before it’s too late,” she wrote in the diary she kept at the time. “they say that they think it’s so amazing that i’m so active and committed, and that when i grow up i too can become a politician and make a real difference in the world” (2020, n.p)—an example of adult proceduralism par excellence. this dynamic is a key plot element in tantrum. determined to help her recently arrived friends, sophia drafts a petition and marches to city hall. there, a middle-aged man in a suit cautions her to be patient: “take a number and wait, if you please” (opening 10). later, when she returns with more aggressive messaging, the same man tells her that she’s too “sentimental” and “too young to grasp all the issues at hand” (opening 14). this second denial proves to be the catalyst for sophia’s anger, which ultimately leads to successful action (osgood & de rijke, 2022). protecting “innocence” the second common adultism is the desire to protect the “innocence” of youth. while well-intentioned, this stance sequesters young people, preventing them from practicing the holistic responses required to effectively navigate the world (garcíagonzález, 2025). moreover, “innocence” is often used as a political trojan horse for nefarious ends. amid the increasing frequency and mortality of school shootings, for example, the gun owners of america have argued that because “our children need protection—the real solution is to arm teachers” (2023, n.p). educators know this debate better than most. political calls to “protect children” via book bans and curriculum debates have never been more intense. in tantrum, notions of childhood innocence are less immediately evident than outright rejection of youth capacity. still, readers might conceptualize sophia’s change of heart, early in the narrative, as a result of her exposure to climate crisis impacts. in an kleeseú adultism 66 attempt to maintain her sheltered life, sophia self-sequesters in her own room (opening 7), before realizing the need to act. this arc would seem to critique notions of innocence, but the narrative’s dynamic is more complicated than that. despite sophia’s rejection of innocence, the book does not show the floods or heatwaves that brought the refugees to sophia’s door. the “challenging” aspects are left to the imagination. in this omission, the narrative insists on innocence by opting not to depict the actual impacts, despite the ubiquity of these depictions in the news and on social media—all of which are readily available to children themselves. tokenizing youth voice educators are also privy to calls to “hear children’s voices” (cf. popoola, sivers, and mcdonagh, 2026). of course, young people should have opportunities to express themselves; the trouble is that (2020) decry “the privileging of voice as the definitive form of political agency” has sidelined other possibilities for agency (steinberg and down, 2020, p. 4). nor is “voice” socioculturally neutral. not all young people are equally practiced at expressing themselves verbally, let alone practiced at the particular modalities of expression that adults value (e.g. calm, logical, “polite”). these discriminatory values become all the more pronounced when they are considered intersectionally. herein is the most complicated element of tantrum’s narrative. the narrative’s faith in youth voice is of a particular kind of youth voice: in this case, shaped by middleclass notions of propriety. even sophia’s anger, which boils over in the climactic full page spread, is rendered in beautiful colors (opening 16). on one hand, the narrative makes clear that communication is a central component of coalition building. at the same time, the narrative suggests that knowing the facts of the crisis is, alone, enough. we know better by now. abdicating adult responsibility the fourth form of adultism is the sneakiest. it is also the most relevant for this journal’s audience. in rejecting adultist biases, we risk overcorrection and investing young people with all our hope for the future. in doing so, adult allies ignore three key considerations: 1) their own adult responsibility to contribute to change, 2) the diversity of positions within youth as a political bloc, including power differentials, and 3) that they, too, have capacities that compliment young peoples’ (deszcz-tryhubczak and jaques, 2021). adult educators have years of training in pedagogy, deep knowledge of developmentally aligned curriculum, and years of experience navigating education’s administrative bureaucracy. climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 67 although tantrum grants young people the capacities to make change, it does not afford opportunities to consider how young people might work with adults to leverage their sociopolitical power as a form of intergenerational solidarity. the adults depicted in the story are passive (sophia’s adult students), refugees (whose depicted passivity problematic in and of itself), or bureaucrats who hinder action. responding well to the crisis requires all of us, and so i wonder: how would sophia’s movement change if, say, a supportive teacher was included in the plot? intergenerational collectivism tantrum offers readers a chance to see how one might adopt a child-oriented, or childist position (biswas and wall, 2023) to counter adultist biases—and for the sake of the planet. yet tantrum’s emphasis remains on an individual. at best, and despite glimpses at depicting collectivism, tantrum falls short of imagining the processes of coalition-building required to make substantive change; at worst, it balkanizes the movement into charismatic leaders who are in the know, and followers who are to be led. if the ecological future we want is to be egalitarian and just—including intraand intergenerationally—then we will need to learn to see protagonists, real or fictional, no matter their age, as agents within a larger collective of agents, learning from 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(2021). intergenerational solidarity in children’s literature and film. university press of mississippi. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085920959135 https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12738 https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/r40484 https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/1/teen_climate_activist_to_sen_dianne kleeseú adultism 68 devji, f. (2021). the childhood of politics. public culture, 33(2 (94)), 221–237. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-8917192 flasher, j. (1978). adultism. adolescence, 13(51), 517–523. garcía-gonzález, m. (2025). the borders of empathy in children’s fiction. routledge. gun owners of america. (2023, march 30). our children need protection—the real solution is to arm teachers. gun owners of america. accessed online: https://www.gunowners.org/our-children-need-protection-the-real-solution-is-toarm-teachers/ gubar, m. (2016). the hermeneutics of recuperation: what a kinship-model approach to children’s agency could do for children’s literature and childhood studies. jeunesse, young people, texts, cultures, 8(1), 291–310. https://doi.org/10.3138/jeunesse.8.1.291 herbert, m. and mann, m. (2022). the tantrum that saved the world. north atlantic books. kirby, l. (2020). old enough to save the planet. a. lirius (illus.). harry n. abrams. lau, j. c. (2012). two arguments for child enfranchisement. political studies, 60(4), 860–876. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2011.00940.x moosa-mitha, m. (2005). a difference-centred alternative to theorization of children’s citizenship rights. citizenship studies, 9(4), 369–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621020500211354 olsson, s. (2008). children’s suffrage: a critique of the importance of voters’ knowledge for the well-being of democracy. the international journal of children’s rights, 16(1), 55–76. https://doi.org/10.1163/092755608x267120 osgood, j., & de rijke, v. (2022). ‘that’s enough!’ (but it wasn’t): the generative possibilities of attuning to what else a tantrum can do. global studies of childhood, 12(3), 235-248. https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106221117167 popoola, m., sivers, s., and mcdonagh, l. (2026). reimagining education: hearing children's voices to design schools where all belong. routledge. steinberg, s., & down, b. (2020). critical pedagogy, democratic praxis, and adultism. in steinberg, s.r. & down, b. [eds.]: the sage handbook of critical pedagogies. sage publications ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526486455 thunberg, g. (2020, july 10). six months on a planet in crisis: greta thunberg’s travel diary from the u.s. to davos. time. https://time.com/5863684/greta-thunbergdiary-climate-crisis/ wall, j. (2023). adultism and voting age discrimination. harvard human rights journal, 36(2), 327-340. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-8917192 https://www.gunowners.org/our-children-need-protection-the-real-solution-is-to-arm-teachers/ https://www.gunowners.org/our-children-need-protection-the-real-solution-is-to-arm-teachers/ https://doi.org/10.1163/092755608x267120 https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106221117167 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526486455 https://time.com/5863684/greta-thunberg-diary-climate-crisis/ https://time.com/5863684/greta-thunberg-diary-climate-crisis/ climate literacy in education, volume 3, issue 3 (winter 2025) 69 wall, j. (2025). theorizing adultism: from adult domination to normative disempowerment. childhood, 32(4), 465-48. https://doiorg.ezp2.lib.umn.edu/10.1177/09075682251367184 zraick, k. (2021, nov 1). greta thunberg, after pointed u.n. speech, faces attacks from the right. new york times. accessed online: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/climate/greta-thunberg-un.html https://doi-org.ezp2.lib.umn.edu/10.1177/09075682251367184 https://doi-org.ezp2.lib.umn.edu/10.1177/09075682251367184 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/climate/greta-thunberg-un.html climate a pocket journal for teachers volume 1 | issue 2 winter 2023 inliteracy education climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) editorial collective marek oziewicz, university of minnesota, (mco@umn.edu), senior editor. nick kleese, university of minnesota, (klees023@umn.edu), managing editor. curriculum/pedagogy team stephanie rollag yoon, minnesota state university, mankato (stephanie.rollag@mnsu.edu), curriculum section lead editor. jana lo bello miller, university of minnesota, (lobello@umn.edu), editor. jeff henning-smith, university of minnesota, (henni143@umn.edu), editor. rebecca young, (ryoung1@binhamton.edu), editor. catherine cavanaugh, university of minnesota, (ccavanau@umn.edu), editor. literature/media team justyna deszcz-tryhubczak, university of wroclaw, poland, (justyna.deszcztryhubczak@uwr.edu.pl), literature section lead editor. lorraine kerslake, universidad de alicante, spain, (kerslake@ua.es), editor. tanja nathanael, san jose state university, (tanja.nathanael@sjsu.edu), editor. alexandra panos, university of south florida, (ampanos@usf.edu), editor. lara saguisag, new york university, (lara.saguisag@nyu.edu), editor. issn: 2836-4546 contact: nick kleese, managing editor, klees023@umn.edu about cle climate literacy in education (cle) is an open-access, double-blind, peer reviewed journal sponsored by the center for climate literacy at the university of minnesota and published through university of minnesota libraries. cle publishes practical, teacher-oriented content on all aspects of climate literacy education at all grade levels and across all subject areas (primarily k-16, but including teacher education and professional development). we are a pocket journal focused on classroom practice which is why the articles we publish are short: 2000 words or less. our content is written in jargon-free prose accessible to the general audience. all submissions are peerreviewed by two anonymous readers. authors can expect to hear results within two weeks after submission. we publish on a rolling basis. we welcome submissions in the following categories: curriculum, reflections, critical essays, and creative & multimedia. for detailed submission criteria pertaining to each category, please visit our journal website. we look forward to working with you! https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/about/submissions https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/about/submissions 2 acknowledgements we are grateful for the generous support of the late dr. pete palmer, whose contribution allowed us to ferry our first issue from concept to publication. his generosity continues to support our work. we are also grateful for the support of the university of minnesota libraries. a special note of thanks goes to emma molls and laureen boutang. they were—and continue to be—central in guiding us through this process. emma ambrosi provided the cover illustration. izzy sheen created and generously donated rights to the logo to climate literacy in education. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 3 volume 1, issue 2, winter 2023 table of contents author title page editorial marek oziewicz nick kleese introduction 1 curriculum nina goga maria pujol-valls rebecca agostini debora carolo giulia nai ilaria sardella giulia silvestrini picturebook dialogues about environmental and social (in)justice 7 abby hartzell 9th grade language & literature unit: critical literacy and climate action 27 reflection neela nandyal “it was beautiful here, and then the pollution came”: researching youth climate emotion in coastal ecuador 34 mary woodbury building a database and website for eco-fiction resources 38 critical essay marek oziewicz the click framework: a care-centric conceptual map for organizing climate literacy pedagogy 44 richard beach blaine smith youth production of digital media to address the climate crisis 51 lee zimmerman staying with the climate trouble: on (not) containing the crisis in the classroom 58 marcus axelsson charlotte lindgren sven nordqvist’s pettson and findus series and children’s education: ecocritical dialogues in preschool 64 julia coltman humanity’s reliance on the more-than-human in shaun tan’s tales from the inner city 70 creative and multimodal emma ambrosi a stone’s throw and ten paces: or mr. warbler's succinct and useful field guide to flora and fauna of the northern forest 75 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 1 introduction: climate literacy work after cop28 marek oziewicz, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa nick kleese, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract in this introduction, we review the key developments of 2023 when it comes to climate, including cop28. we reflect on what they mean for cle and consider their implications for the urgent challenge of building a climate literate, ecological civilization. keywords climate change, cop28, climate literacy education, ecological civilization welcome to the second issue of climate literacy in education! we write these words a week after the end of cop28 in dubai and at the close of 2023, which was not just the hottest year on record, but saw the hottest week ever (in 120,000 years) and the hottest day ever too: the hottest "in at least a hundred and twenty-five thousand years" (mckibben, 2023, n.p.). these numbers are not anomalies. they are indicators of a building momentum that comes from derailing of the planetary system caused by human-driven climate change, especially the burning of fossil fuels. these numbers also come at the tail end of the la niña cold period, which had kept global temperatures lower for the last 18 months, and at the start of a strong el niño event, which is expected to bring even more record-breaking temperatures through at least mid 2024 and will https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-11-30/united-nations-calls-2023-hottest-year-ever-at-dubai-cop28-climate-talks?leadsource=uverify%20wall https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/16/red-alert-the-worlds-hottest-week-ever-and-more-is-to-forecast-to-come https://abcnews.go.com/us/4th-july-breaks-record-highest-temperature-measured/story?id=100702850 https://abcnews.go.com/us/4th-july-breaks-record-highest-temperature-measured/story?id=100702850 https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-un-announces-the-hottest-year?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=tny_daily_121223&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tny_daily_digest&bxid=5fcd10cf43e41d3cd369d63f&cndid=63074334&hasha=896aa87d0eb7a618ff76c8dbbbbcdf0b&hashb=91deeb9f2efd6093c10f9b0ce700bc2513e6be0a&hashc=d78d7cc3461aee85c15d029a87dc08f29fe901dc5de4eab56f9d0d6df79da248&esrc=auto_subs&mbid=crmnyr012019 https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/march-2023-enso-update-no-more-la-nina https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/november-2023-el-nino-update-transport-options oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 2 accelerate the arrival of "unsurvivable heat extremes" in many parts of the world this very decade (vanos et al., 2023, p. 9). the record numbers in temperatures also correlate with rapidly growing costs of climate disasters—2023 being another record-breaking year for billion-dollar disasters in the us—and, equally worryingly, with a rapidly growing number of armed conflicts, international tensions, and rising authoritarianisms all over the world. as if climate, temperatures, and resource scarcity had anything to do with authoritarianisms or wars. there is another war that is being fought globally and is, increasingly, globally called out. it is a war against life on earth, present and future, fought by big oil and their allies. in this war the stakes are power and corporate profit, even if just for a while longer, versus habitability of the planet for human and nonhuman beings—today and for generations ahead. "war against life" is not too strong a word either: its casualties have been 69% of wildlife populations (as compared to 1970 population levels), 49% of wild grassland and 20% of forests (since 1900), six out of nine planetary boundaries that define a safe operating space for humanity (since ever), over 2 million people dead as a direct result of extreme weather events (since the 1970s), with an additional 8+ million dying each year from co2 emissions and air pollution—and about $4.3 trillion in economic damage worldwide (associated press, 2023). if this doesn't count as war, how else would you call it? and if it does—in scope, scale, and impacts—consider who has been winning in this war over the past four decades? and why? it is not wrong to be impatient with the current system. or with its key strategy of "addressing" climate change through negotiations at conference of the parties (cop) summits. cop28 in dubai was unprecedented in revealing the shameless determination of big oil to question, disrupt, deflect, slow-walk, and flat-out refuse any meaningful change. not only was this year's summit led by the ceo of the uae’s adnoc—one of the major oil companies in the world (which used cop28 to strike new oil deals)—and by an oil executive who distinguished himself by being the first-ever cop president to declare that there is ‘no science’ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels. it also included in negotiations at least 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists, "almost four times as many [as] the number registered for cop27 in sharm el-sheikh—which itself was a record year" (lakhani, 2023, n.p.). with so many high-level professionals pushing the fossil fuel interests, cop28 was largely—and more than ever before—a fossil fuel trade fair. in https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-43121-5 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-sets-record-for-billion-dollar-natural-disasters-climate-catastrophes-in-2023/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-sets-record-for-billion-dollar-natural-disasters-climate-catastrophes-in-2023/ https://www.iiss.org/en/publications/armed-conflict-survey/2023/editors-introduction/ https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-us/ https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-third-forests https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-third-forests https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2023-09-13-all-planetary-boundaries-mapped-out-for-the-first-time-six-of-nine-crossed.html https://www.nrdc.org/stories/fossil-fuel-air-pollution-kills-one-five-people https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/2-million-killed-4-3-trillion-in-damages-from-extreme-weather-over-past-half-century-un-agency-says https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67508331 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/03/back-into-caves-cop28-president-dismisses-phase-out-of-fossil-fuels https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/record-number-of-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-get-access-to-cop28-climate-talks climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 3 particular, the final resolution—article 28, subsection d—replaced the call to phase out fossil fuels (see 2023 global stocktake synthesis report, p. 21) with a vapid call to transition away from fossil fuels, and specifically "in energy systems" rather than across all emission sectors and industries. yet what seems to be another victory for big oil (the final agreement) only accelerates their demise on other levels, especially though what happens in the sidelines. at least since cop21 in paris (2015), cops have increasingly become spaces where thousands of people, groups and organizations—including those from the global south, bipoc, indigenous communities—come together to propose equitable and ecocentric ways to move forward. on these levels cops increasingly succeed to unify global resistance against ecocide: this year indigenous women leaders took center stage, detailed proposals for equitable phaseout of fossil fuel extraction were released, and a number of important declarations were announced (see the full list here and the un list). our favorites include cop28 declaration on sustainable agriculture, the freshwater challenge initiative, and the long-awaited, albeit ridiculously underfunded loss and damage fund. all these are important steps. yet much more needs to be done, especially by the general public. one consensus is this: we need pathways that are alternative or parallel to the cop process, pathways that accelerate the pace of change and public pressure for it. rupert read calls these initiatives "coalitions of the willing": collaborative efforts by groups and individuals who see opportunities for action in the present and are committed to do "what actually needs to be done, if we are to have a future" (2023, n.p.). another climate action leader george monbiot (2023) is calling for adoption of a different voting system that cannot be manipulated by big oil and a more localized system of creating regional treaties that can bypass the gridlocks of the un general assembly approval system. finally, the doyen of climate science james hansen— acknowledging the continuing collusion of governments and financial interests to ignore the climate's delayed response—urges "anticipatory action" (hansen et al., 2023, p. 2), especially with young people, in preparation for a period when "climate will become less tolerable to humanity, with greater climate extremes, before it is feasible to reverse the trends" and restore the climate to its holocene levels (26). https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma2023_l17_adv.pdf https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1144742 https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/cop-26-biggest-achievements-cop-summits-past/ https://amazonwatch.org/news/2023/1214-indigenous-women-leaders-took-center-stage-at-cop28 https://www.ecoequity.org/2023/12/the-challenge-after-dubai-a-just-orderly-and-equitable-fossil-fuel-phaseout/#more-5643 https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/cop28-report-tracker-key-climate-reports-launched-at-the-2023-u.n-climate-summit https://climateaction.unfccc.int/events/cop28?_gl=1*1ptno07*_ga*njmxmjixotywlje2otqynzg1njy.*_ga_7zzwt14n79*mtcwmzewmdmzns4xni4xlje3mdmxmdi2nziumc4wlja. https://www.cop28.com/en/food-and-agriculture https://wwf.panda.org/?10374466/big-boost-to-climate-action-as-37-countries-join-the-freshwater-challenge https://wwf.panda.org/?10374466/big-boost-to-climate-action-as-37-countries-join-the-freshwater-challenge https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/06/700m-pledged-to-loss-and-damage-fund-cop28-covers-less-than-02-percent-needed https://www.nrdc.org/bio/joe-thwaites/cop-28-climate-fund-pledge-tracker https://www.nrdc.org/bio/joe-thwaites/cop-28-climate-fund-pledge-tracker https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-12-13/end-cop-arent-we-all-fed-up-with-this-annual-vapid-self-congratulatory-farce/?utm_source=pocket_saves https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/cop28-rigged-fail-save-planet-climate-summit-fossil-fuel https://academic.oup.com/oocc/article/3/1/kgad008/7335889 oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 4 at cle, we believe in anticipatory action of universal climate literacy education. ours is a coalition of the willing that can transform every classroom but requires the initial investment of research, design, curriculum development and training. this is not an easy work. about a year ago the center for climate literacy was tapped by an organization in uae that asked us for advice on preparing a climate curriculum for showcasing at cop28. although they were eager for the final product, they had never considered details such as how many teachers would get trained, based on what materials, how many schools would participate, at what grade levels or for how long... every new question we asked made it more clear that a climate curriculum can never merely be a product for display. it needs to be a lived reality embedded in classroom teaching, requiring broad cooperation, a support system, and a vision of change. since none of those things are "showcasable," the request was dropped. we do not know what educational initiatives were eventually presented in dubai. we do know, however, that even big oil recognizes the power of stories to shape young minds. if you attended cop28, you had a chance to receive a free copy of i need to know: an introduction to the oil industry & opec, a children's informational book produced by the pr and information department of the organization of the petroleum exporting countries. dedicated to children and young people all around the world, the book is a shameless piece of fossil fuel propaganda on how oil is necessary for the human civilization to survive and how opec has played a key role in advancing humanity's march toward prosperity and stability. and if this message strikes you as contrary to the very idea of cops or climate action, it also suggests that a transformation toward an ecological civilization will first need to be achieved in the realm of stories: in words that recognize the truth of our predicament and help imagine the way forward. contributions in this issue of climate literacy in education put forward tangible, practical, and necessary interventions in education. articles in this issue’s curriculum section offer critical frameworks for engaging students with multimodal texts. nina goga and maria pujol-valls, along with students rebecca agostini, debora carolo, giulia nai, ilaria sardella, giulia silvestrini, discuss insights from the green dialogues project. they show how educating pre-service teachers to use picturebooks that “address both greed and insensibility and welcome young readers to collaborate and engage critically” (p. 7) can raise ecocritical consciousness in both pre-service educators and the students they https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/publications/2333.htm https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/publications/2333.htm climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 5 teach. abby hartzell shares complimentary insights from a secondary perspective, arguing that oziewicz’s click framework offered her ninth class a generative opportunity to reflect their relationship with the non-human world. the reflection section includes two perspectives on and experiences in engaging with climate literacy. neela nandyal describes preliminary findings from her doctoral research in coastal ecuador, noting that ecuadorian youth are simultaneously acutely aware of climate destruction and hopeful about their own capacity to make positive change. mary woodbury, curator at dragonfly.eco, shares her experiences curating one of the world’s largest databases on eco-fiction resources. woodbury’s practical insights prove useful to anyone collaborating on digital platforms. a robust set of critical essays offer readers several insights to think with. marek oziewicz outlines the click framework: a care-centric map for guiding students through climate literacy learning. unpacking the notions of climate literacy “knowledges” and “capacities,” oziewicz argues that the click framework allows students to both articulate relationships of care and understand their profound interconnectedness. richard beach and blaine smith discuss the range of skills that young people are already leveraging in their creation of digital media. they offer a wide summary of examples of youth-created digital media that educators could use in their classrooms. lee zimmerman responds to kirsten hunt’s article on discussing naomi klein’s how to change everything with pre-service educators. zimmerman suggests that blanket insistence on hope risks blunting the need for urgency and action and suggests we “stay with the (climate) trouble.” marcus axelsson and charlotte lindgren’s reading of sven nordqvist’s pettson and findus series argues for leveraging “pre-ecocriticism” books to engage the youngest readers in ecocritical dialogues. julia coltman argues that many of the stories in shuan tan’s tales from the inner city demonstrate human arrogance and put forward more ecocentric alternatives. finally, emma ambrosi introduces us to mr. warbler: a pen-pushing clerk who, feeling work-weary, decides to go on a walk. ambrosi’s gorey-inspired text and her illustrations (which also feature as this issue’s cover) are a call for us all to, like mr. warbler, venture further afield than just a stone’s throw. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5322 oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 6 references associated press. (22 may 2023). 2 million killed, $4.3 trillion in damages from extreme weather over past half-century, un agency says. pbs newshour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/2-million-killed-4-3-trillion-in-damagesfrom-extreme-weather-over-past-half-century-un-agency-says hansen, j. e., sato, m., simons, l., nazarenko, l. s., sangha, i., kharecha, p., zachos, j. c., von schuckmann, k., loeb, n. g., osman, m. b., jin, q., tselioudis, g., jeong, e., lacis, a., ruedy, r., russell, g., cao, j., & li, j. (2023). global warming in the pipeline. oxford open climate change, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfclm/kgad008 lakhani, n. (5 dec 2023). record number of fossil fuel lobbyists get access to cop28 climate talks. the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/record-number-offossil-fuel-lobbyists-get-access-to-cop28-climate-talks mckibben, b. (12 dec 2023). the u.n. announces the hottest year ever. the new yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-un-announcesthe-hottest-year monbiot, g. (9 dec 2023). cop28 is a farce rigged to fail, but there are other ways we can try to save the planet. the guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/cop28-rigged-failsave-planet-climate-summit-fossil-fuel rupert, r. (13 dec 2023). end cop: aren’t we all fed up with this annual vapid selfcongratulatory farce? resilience. https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-1213/end-cop-arent-we-all-fed-up-with-this-annual-vapid-self-congratulatoryfarce/?utm_source=pocket_saves technical dialogue of the first global stocktake. synthesis report by the co-facilitators on the technical dialogue. (8. sep 2023). un climate change secretariat. https://unfccc.int/documents/631600 vanos, j., guzman-echavarria, g., baldwin, j.w. et al. (2023). a physiological approach for assessing human survivability and liveability to heat in a changing climate. nat commun 14, 7653. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43121-5 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/2-million-killed-4-3-trillion-in-damages-from-extreme-weather-over-past-half-century-un-agency-says https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/2-million-killed-4-3-trillion-in-damages-from-extreme-weather-over-past-half-century-un-agency-says https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfclm/kgad008 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/record-number-of-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-get-access-to-cop28-climate-talks https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/record-number-of-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-get-access-to-cop28-climate-talks https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-un-announces-the-hottest-year https://www.newyorker.com/culture/2023-in-review/the-un-announces-the-hottest-year https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/cop28-rigged-fail-save-planet-climate-summit-fossil-fuel https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/09/cop28-rigged-fail-save-planet-climate-summit-fossil-fuel https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-12-13/end-cop-arent-we-all-fed-up-with-this-annual-vapid-self-congratulatory-farce/?utm_source=pocket_saves https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-12-13/end-cop-arent-we-all-fed-up-with-this-annual-vapid-self-congratulatory-farce/?utm_source=pocket_saves https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-12-13/end-cop-arent-we-all-fed-up-with-this-annual-vapid-self-congratulatory-farce/?utm_source=pocket_saves https://unfccc.int/documents/631600 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43121-5 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 7 picturebook dialogues about environmental and social (in)justice nina goga, western norway university of applied sciences (hvl) maria pujol-valls, universitat internacional de catalunya (uic) infographics by students from the university of padova (unipd): rebecca agostini, debora carolo, giulia nai, ilaria sardella, and giulia silvestrini abstract climate curriculums and reading practices are urgently needed both in school and higher education. the mobility project green dialogues is focused on enhancing the quality of teacher education by strengthening student teachers’ and staff’s ecocritical thinking and collaboration competency. as part of the project the students developed experience-based teaching plans for primary education on how to connect literature activities with reflections on and dialogues about environmental and social (in)justice. this article presents five of these teaching plan infographics and explains their educational context. keywords ecocritical dialogue, children’s literature, infographics, un agenda 2030, teacher education a student mobility project focusing on ecocritical thinking and collaboration the five infographics were created by student teachers involved in the mobility project green dialogues, a collaboration between western norway university of applied sciences (hvl, bergen, norway), the university of padova (unipd, padova, italy), and goga et al. ú picturebook dialogues 8 the universitat internacional de catalunya (uic, barcelona, spain). green dialogues is a four-year mobility project (2022–2025) aimed at enhancing the quality of teacher education by strengthening student teachers’ and staff’s ecocritical thinking and collaboration competency through dialogue and intercultural exchange. the students and staff involved in the project participate in five-year ma programmes in teacher education with an orientation in language and literature. to enhance the quality of education, the project builds on dialogic teaching (bakhtin, 1986; alexander, 2020). it seeks to develop and apply theoretical and ecodidactic perspectives on environmental children’s literature, primarily addressing children aged 6 to 12. ecocritical thinking and collaboration through dialogue climate literacy implies knowledge about the drivers of climate emergencies and about transformative responses needed “to stand up for everyone’s biospheric inheritance” (oziewicz, 2023, p. 34). taking human greed and environmental insensibility as one cause of the climate emergency, in the green dialogues project students selected picturebooks that address both greed and insensibility and welcomed young readers to collaborate and engage critically with the books to gain knowledge and understanding required to develop “ecocentric ways of thinking” (oziewicz, p. 35). the green dialogues project considers collaboration and the development of dialogic skills as key actions to establish viable and democratic long-term solutions to the climate crisis. following goga et al. (2023), ecocritical dialogues “combine theoretical concepts from ecocriticism and dialogic teaching” (p. 3) to encourage teaching practices that open participants to “critical, relational, and collaborative encounters and entanglements with multiple environments, materials, and matter” (p. 9). this conception of ecocritical dialogues is based, among other things, on previous experiences with ecocritical dialogues and picturebooks (goga & pujol-valls, 2020; campagnaro & goga, 2022). to enable educators to systematically consider the key principles of ecocritical dialogues and to develop their repertoire of techniques, goga et al. (2023, p. 8-9) propose a framework for setting up ecocritical dialogues. this framework, which guides the five teaching plans presented here, calls for attention to the location, participants, approach, and subject matter of the ecocritical dialogue. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 9 the educational context of the infographics the infographics by debora carolo, giulia nai, ilaria sardella, and giulia silvestrini were created within the educational context of a 15 ects (about 8 us credits) course on “sustainable literacy and environmental children’s literature.” the course combines advanced knowledge about literacy and children’s literature with current themes in sustainable development and lifelong learning needed to meet the goals of the un’s agenda 2030. the literary corpus consisted mainly of contemporary children’s literature with an emphasis on environmental connectedness, climate change, and social and environmental (in)justice. dialogic teaching and the didactic tools related to ecocritical dialogues were applied, tested, and further developed throughout the course. the course included an assignment in which students created an infographic based on their classroom experience with children aged 9–10. the infographic applies ecocritical and educational approaches to a selected corpus of picturebooks that thematize environmental connectedness and social and environmental (in)justice. the educational context of rebecca agostini’s infographic was a 16 ects course on “environmental children’s literature and teaching english as a foreign language.” the course included extensive reading, storytelling, and literary circles as tefl methodologies, complemented with ecocritical, literary theory, social science, and pedagogical components for education in democratic citizenship. one of the competencies developed in this course was how to combine storytelling, picturebooks, and dialogue—grounded in ecocritical and social approaches—when teaching english as a foreign language. one assignment consisted in designing a teaching proposal that involves storytelling with a picturebook. the selected book had to lend itself to developing pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading activities that foster dialoguing and critical thinking on sustainability and social (in)justice. the format of the infographics students were asked to create infographic posters or booklets to help primary school teachers design lesson plans related to children’s literature, environmental issues, and child-oriented learning activities that stimulate affective, critical, and collaborative ways of thinking. the infographics were designed as a step-by-step guide on how to carry out activities and to provide teachers with educational justifications for each step. in line with goga et al. ú picturebook dialogues 10 the green dialogues project parameters, these justifications link up with key ideas in dialogic teaching, environmental literacy, performative and aesthetical picturebook mediation. a few final notes: except for forêt des frères by yukiko noritake, all picturebooks are available in english. noritake's book is available in the original french, as well as in italian, spanish, and catalan translations. all five lesson plans are designed to be carried out within the frame of one to four lessons/class periods, approximately 45–60 minutes each. they are designed for groups of 15 to 30 primary school students, preferably with two teachers in the classroom. the five infographics the first two infographics (figures 1 and 2) address one of un’s most disputed sustainable development goals—sdg 8, decent work and economic growth—by displaying how economic growth and humanity’s greed for natural resources have caused today’s climate crisis. both infographics suggest ecocritical reading activities to enable primary school students’ transformative responses to the picturebook by imagining alternatives. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 11 title how to talk about the exploitation of nature with children unit time 2-3 hours grade level(s) students age 9-10 years core text the giving tree (1964) by shel silverstein supporting texts united nations sdg 8 and 15 climate literacy terms anthropocene, capitalocene, greed objectives at the end of the lesson students will have shared and discussed their thoughts on humanity’s greed and its consequences. they will have had the opportunity to express their own suggestions on how humans can respond or take action in more generous and sustainable ways. materials and resources figure 1, paper, coloured pencils (leporello) figure 1 (below). infographic by giulia nai on shel silverstein’s the giving tree https://sdgs.un.org/goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal15 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ bibliography: silverstein, s., (1964). the giving tree. london: harper&row. bruno, r.t., (2020). educare al pensiero ecologico: letture, scritture e passeggiate per un mondo sostenibile. milano: topipittori. campagnaro, m., & goga, n., (2021). green dialogues and digital collaboration on nonfiction children’s literature. journal of literary education, (4), 96-114. united nations, (2015). transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. the teacher reads aloud the story and shows the pictures to the children. the text is short and with pictures it is easy to understand. the repetitions in the book are engaging and they push the reader to turn the page and find out what happens next. how to talk about the exploitation of nature with children the giving tree (1964) is a children’s picturebook by shel silverstein. the story is about the relationship between a boy and a tree: the boy asks and pretends, and nature gives. children (9-10 years) can focus on environmental ethics, nature-human connections and actions-consequences. they have an important role in building a better future for our planet, and talking about this topic at school is a good beginning. the suggested activities take 2-3 hours. brainstorming on the cover1. the teacher asks the children what they see and what they think the book is about. they can write down their ideas on a post-it note and stick it near an image of the cover; at the end, the teacher reads all the notes. 2. book reading 3. discussion about the message of the story together the class discusses : "how did the boy treat the tree? how did the tree treat the boy? do you think that humans take good care of nature? why?" 4. brainstorming about emotions children can share emotions and feelings: “how does the boy feel? how does the tree feel? and how do you, as a reader, feel about this story?" 5. leporello: the giving tree vs the giving human everyone creates a leporello, a small double-sided book with two stories: one story is about the book they read with the title "the giving tree", and the students are encouraged to draw the main scenes on the pages. in the second story, children have the possibility to tell an alternative story with the title "the giving human". students can reflect on these guiding questions: "what can we do for nature? what can we give?" and they can draw some ideas on the other pages. at the end, children show their leporello and share what they have done. children have to think of some solutions in order to improve the world and prevent exploitation. it is necessary to think differently to find alternatives and solutions to problems. children can find out a lot of information about the story just by looking at the cover. they are active participants and not only passive listeners of the story. conversation about the characters and their actions is necessary in order to reflect on the message of this story. keep in mind that it is important to listen to what children think without judgment. it's important to try to identify with each character and imagine why this character did a certain thing instead of another. talking about feelings and emotions is challenging but necessary to develop empathy. we may have different opinions, but it is important to accept them, so this is why the dialogic part is so relevant. by giulia nai (università degli studi di padova) climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 13 title forêt des frères by yukiko noritake unit time 2-3 hours grade level(s) students age 9-10 years core text forêt des frères (2020) by yukiko noritake supporting texts united nations sdg 8 and 15 climate literacy terms anthropocene, coastal erosion, human expansionism, individual action, wilderness, capitalocene, greed objectives at the end of the lesson students will have shared and discussed their thoughts on sustainable ways of living. they will have had the opportunity to imagine human or other earthlings’ responses and perspectives on the various choices and changes of life represented in the picturebook. materials and resources figure 2, pen and paper figure 2 (below). infographic by giulia silvestrini on yukiko noritake’s forêt des frères. https://sdgs.un.org/goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal15 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ noritake, y. (2020). forêt des frères. arles: actes sud jeunesse. campagnaro, m. (2013). educare lo sguardo: riflessioni pedagogiche sugli albi illustrati. encyclopaideia: rivista di fenomenologia pedagogia formazione, 17(35), 89-108. ellis, g. & mourão, s. (2021). demystifying the read-aloud. teaching young learners, 22-25. by yukiko noritake forêt des frères the book presents the parallel stories of two brothers, who each inherit half of the same forest. they both decide to settle down there, but from the beginning, they take two different roads... literary activity by giulia silvestrini (università degli studi di padova) individual reflection each student should write which story they prefer and why. then, the teacher collects the replies, reads them to the class and starts to discuss them, respecting everyone’s opinions. teaching tips: the teacher should ensure that everyone works on their own, because the students can sometimes be too influenced by one another, risking that they always share the same ideas and forget to reflect on their own. dialogue the teacher asks questions or replies to answers strictly regarding the storyline, without going into the reflective part. teaching tips: the teacher can also let the students create questions and share them with the class. in this way, the students will be more interested and will improve their dialogical skills. reading following a discussion about the cover, the teacher reads and shows everyone the picturebook. teaching tips: the teacher should read using expressive techniques to keep the students' interest and attention high. each page has only a few words, so the book can be explored as a wordless picturebook. gallery walk the students, divided into small groups, should write answers to specific questions, focusing more on the details of the story, and should read what other groups have already said. teaching tips: the teacher should organise the gallery walk with the doublespreads and, at the end, discuss the replies with the class. this activity helps the students to improve their communication skills and their imaginative dimension. writing each small group has to write the story from the point of view of one character (be it one of the brothers, another human, or an animal or plant). teaching tips: the teacher can make this activity more challenging, making the students choose a character from the story that they don't like. in this way, they can improve their narrative skills, walking in the shoes of someone else. life on land the teacher asks each student to choose one picture from the story that, in their opinion, can represent the life on land goal. teaching tips: the teacher should let everyone go through the pages individually and reflect. this activity helps the students to connect the picture book with the 15th sdg. the literary activity is designed for 9-10 year old students and it is connected to the 15th sdg life on land. the entire activity takes two/three hours to complete. https://www.actes-sud.fr/recherche/catalogue/collection/1298/?keys= https://novaresearch.unl.pt/en/persons/sandie-mour%c3%a3o-2 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 15 the third infographic (figure 3) revolves around the sustainability of natural resources used by humans. it engages with sdg 6 (clean water and sanitation) and sdg 14 (life below water) through its focus on the discovery, availability, and sustainable use of water. the picturebook and the activities developed for classroom use help encourage children to read the story ecocritically and to develop deeper awareness about water as a resource at risk. title the meaning of water unit time 4-5 hours grade level(s) students age 7-8 years core text on a magical do-nothing day (2016) by beatrice alemagna supporting texts united nations sdg 6 and 14 climate literacy terms ecological civilisation, nearby nature, planetarianism, wilderness objectives at the end of the lesson students will have learnt, thought, written and painted about the meaning of water, both in class and outdoors. they will have considered the meaning of water and the use that humans should and should not make of it. materials and resources figure 3, paper, pens, watercolours, sticky notes figure 3 (below). infographic by debora carolo on beatrice alemagna’s on a magical do-nothing day. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6 https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal14 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-civilization/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/planetarianism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/planetarianism/ the meaning of water when the children come back from the outdoor exploration, the teacher asks them to do some watercolor painting, underlining why they are using water for it. the teacher asks them to paint what they have seen or experienced with water. 4. watercolor time alemagna, b. (2017). on a magical do-nothing day (un grand jour de rien). thames & hudson ltd, london (original work published 2016). capetti, a. (2018). a scuola con gli albi. insegnare con la bellezza delle parole e delle immagini. goga, n., & pujol-valls, m. (2020). ecocritical engagement with picturebook through literature conversations about beatrice alemagne’s on a magical do-nothing day. sustainability (switzerland), 12(18), 7653. bibliography 5. gallery walk the teacher hangs up the watercolor paintings of the children in their classroom and asks them to walk through, watch, and think. they should focus on what the meaning of water is to them and write a few keywords on a post-it. 2. reading of the book after a short introduction of some key-words relevant to the story, the teacher reads aloud the picturebook on a magical do-nothing day by beatrice alemagna. the teacher should stop and show the picturebook to the children every second page. 6. writing to water for water about water thinking about all the work done about water, the children should be encouraged to write: it can be a letter, a poem, or whatever they feel to be appropriate. the project this project includes all the following activities, based on the reading out loud of the picturebook on a magical do-nothing day by beatrice alemagna. sdgs: 6:clean water and sanitation, 14:life below water time: 4-5 hours age: 7-8 years old debora carolo università degli studi di padova 3. outdoor exploration time during a break or a walk outside, the children should be encouraged to look for things with water and keep them in mind for later. 1. intro to sdgs and water the teacher and the pupils should watch a video together about sdgs and then go through the goals, focusing on the ones linked to water. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 17 in climate literacy education it is important “to foster an appreciation of the interconnectedness of social and environmental justice, encouraging more contemplative behaviour toward each other, other species, and the environment” (young, 2018, p. 6, our italics). whereas the first three infographics are more related to the environmental component of the interconnectedness mentioned by young, the fourth and fifth infographics focus on the social side of the spectrum. addressing the sdg 10 (reduced inequalities), these infographics intend to develop children’s ecocritical thinking through reflection about the many people who need to migrate, the reasons for migrations, the risks migrants encounter, and their feelings. title a silent book about courage, loss and hope unit time 1 hour grade level(s) students age 8-9 years core text migrants (2020) by issa watanabe supporting texts united nations sdg 10 climate literacy terms collective action, social justice, migrants objectives at the end of the lesson students will have been able to reflect about the social and environmental inequalities experienced by migrants. through drawing, speaking, or writing, students learn about the potential of wordless picturebooks to expose and overcome linguistic inequalities. materials and resources figure 3, paper, pens, watercolours, sticky notes figure 4 (below). infographic by ilaria sardella on issa watanabe’s migrants. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal10 1 2 3 4 5 migrants by issa watanabe read reconstruction write build a book invent a silent book about courage, loss and hope this is a silent book so it's important to know how to read it. there are many ways, but i suggest stopping on every page and asking the children what they see and what they think about it. starting from the cover. after the reading, you can propose to the children that they reconstruct the story with copies of some of the characters from the book. in this way you can see what they have understood and what impressed them the most. you should subsequently ask the children to write down the story. in this way everyone can express their opinion and their meaning of the story. they can also look at the book or at their story and write it down. to go deeper into their learning you can ask the children to invent a personal new story about migration. they have to draw it without using words. if they need it, they can use the previous works to get inspiration. for the last step you can build a book with the stories of all the children in the class. you can choose the title together and write down all the authors' names. you can then read it together with all the children, each one explaining his or her work. teacher tips teacher tips teacher tips teacher tips teacher tips this book can be used to talk about the 10th goal of sdg (reduce inequalities). you can talk about inequalities during the reading, but also about this kind of book, which everyone can understand (silent book). in this case the teacher has to be a scaffolding for her students, in order to create an interactive and inclusive activity. in a silent book every child can see different things according to their interpretations. seeing their stories can be really interesting, but it's not an evaluation of the children. you have to consider this reading as an aesthetic work. let the children work on their interpretations and meaningmaking. in able to offer the children different possibilities, you should propose different options with different forms of expression (drawing, speaking, writing). in this way you can meet all the children's needs and offer them possibilities to express themselves. this is another way to give the children a chance to express themselves. in this way they can be involved and be active participants in their own learning. important: there's not a right way and a wrong way. during all these activities it is really important to have a meaningful dialogue with the children. in this way they can share and build their ideas together. for this activity it is fundamental that everyone has a chance to share their story with the whole class and be active participants in the lesson. bibliography: watanabe, i., migrants, 2020, wellington, gecko press arizpe, e., colomer, t., martinez-roldan, c., visual journeys through wordless narratives. an international inquiry with immigrant children and the arrival, 2014, london, bloomsbury schwarz, b. b., baker, m. j., dialogue, argumentation and education. history, theory and practice, 2017, new york, cambridge university press rosenblatt, l. m. (1982). the literary transaction: evocation and response. theory into practice 21(4), 268-277 children age 8-9. a one-hour lesson by ilaria sardella (università degli studi di padova) nick kleese climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 19 title literature conversation for a selected book unit time 1 hour grade level(s) students age 9-10 years core text migrants (2020) by issa watanabe supporting texts united nations sdg 10 climate literacy terms collective action, social justice, migrants objectives at the end of the lesson students will have increased their awareness of migration, environmental and social injustices. thanks to reading the book and discussing it with the classmates, they will be able to question the knowledge and opinion regarding migrants that they had before the session. materials and resources figure 5, paper, pens, watercolours, sticky notes figure 5 (below). infographic by rebecca agostini on issa watanabe’s migrants. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal10 organization of the project class: 4th primary school (9-10 years) time: 1 class (45 minutes) objectives: dialogue and discuss important and current issues with an eco-critical approach raise children's awareness of migration through children's literature literature conversation for a selected book rebecca agostini a focus on literaturewhenteaching english as a foreign language 2022/2023 choice of the picturebook • it tells the migration path of a group of animals, with difficulties and obstacles → the ending is open but suggests a positive outcome with a little bit of hope • a heterogeneous group of animals as protagonists keeps the story in balance between fantasy and reality → children can identify with the characters • a silent book has a lot of potential → its universality makes it very useful for including all pupils and breaking down language or other barriers • children's literature can help to educate about environmental and social sustainability → an effective tool to develop greater awareness of social issues such as migration . pre-reading activities (7 min) ▪ initial brainstoring based on questions (presented again at the end to see how children’s ideas have changed) • who do you think migrants are? • why do they flee from their own country? what leads them to emigrate? • how do you think they feel?what emotions and feelings do they experience? • do you think that migrants are people who want to travel and enjoy changing countries? or do you think that migrants are poor people who are running away from difficult situations and have to face terrible journeys? 1. first moment • silence while the teacher slowly flips through the pages of the book • musical background of the stormy sea is played, in order to allow children to have a 360-degree experience, combining the sense of listening with that of sight 2. second reading • children are able to speak by raising their hands, discussing, asking questions and making contributions, highlighting what they observe and asking for clarifications • the teacher guides the discussion with stimulating questions: • what do you notice here? • what has changed from this page to this page? • what is the plot of the story? • what happened in this scene? • what is the global message? during-reading activities (30 min) during-reading activities (30 min) a focus on the different symbols sea boundaries an enemy-friend, as the only escape route undertaken with hope, which however irremediably brings danger and death with it barriers, frontiers, walls and obstacles to overcome; geographical, physical and imaginary ones built by people who exclude colors death suitcase ibis the dress worn by death and the trees varies according to the situation: • when the animals are traveling, the plants are without leaves and flowers are colored in black and white → feeling of despondency • at the end, the plants return full of colorful leaves and flowers → a feeling of hope and trust towards a new life spiritual and physical, represented as in the book the duck, death and the tulip by wolf erlbruch past memories, place of origin link between life and death, connection between past and present • final brainstorming based on questions (to compare with the initial ones) • who do you think migrants are? • why do they flee from their own country? what leads them to emigrate? • how do you think they feel? what emotions and feelings do they experience? • do you think that migrants are people who want to travel and enjoy changing countries? or do you think that migrants are poor people who are running away from difficult situations and have to face terrible journeys? post-reading activities (7 min) → pre-reading activities methods that activate the knowledge background, that introduce the topic, that motivate the students for the subsequent activities and that direct attention to the main theme through stimulating questions. → during-reading activities methods such as silent reading and guided reading, two opposing techniques but useful for different purposes and for carefully studying the book. → post-reading activities methods such as discussion, dialogue and questioning to broaden children's knowledge and make them think about what they have just read. theoretical framework ▪ picture-book selected for storytelling “[it] needs to meet a range of criteria, such as its suitability and interest in terms of content, linguistic, conceptual and cultural accessibility and appropriacy, aesthetic appeal and its educational affordances for a particular group of children” (ellis, g., & mourão, s. (2021) demystifying the read-aloud: gail ellis and sandie mourão discuss the role of reading picturebooks in early english language learning. teaching young learners) ▪ structure of the activities subdivision of the work and organization of the times, project in 3 parts, albeit connected: pre-reading activities, duringreading activities and post-reading activities. (graves, f. m., & fitzgerald, j. chapter 5. scaffolding reading experiences for multilingual classrooms) goga et al. ú picturebook dialogues 26 continuing the dialogue we hope to have clarified the framework of the five infographics and aroused your curiosity either as a primary school teacher, a student teacher, or a teacher educator. to continue the process of self-examination and project improvement, we warmly welcome your comments and feedback. we can be reached at nina.goga@hvl.no. references alexander, r. (2020). a dialogic teaching companion. routledge. bakhtin, m. m. (1986). the problem of speech genres. in c. emerson & m. holquist (eds.), speech genres and other late essays (pp. 60–103). university of texas press. campagnaro, m. & goga, n. (2022). material green entanglements: research on student teachers’ aesthetic and ecocritical engagement with picturebooks of their own choice. international research in children’s literature 15(3), 309–323. doi: 10.3366/ircl.2022.0469. goga, n., guanio-uluru, l., hallås, b. o., høisæter, s., nyrnes, a. & rimmereide, h. e. (2023). ecocritical dialogues in teacher education. environmental education research. doi: 10.1080/13504622.2023.2213414. goga, n. & pujol-valls, m. (2020). ecocritical engagement with picturebook through literature conversations about beatrice alemagna’s on a magical do-nothing day. sustainability 12(18). doi: 10.3390/su12187653. oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1(1), 34-38. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5240/3334 young, r.l. (2018). confronting climate crisis through education. reading our way forward. lexington books. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5240/3334 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 27 9th grade language & literature unit: critical literacy and climate action abby hartzell, fridley community schools, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract this 9th grade, 8-lesson language & literature unit centers on critical literacy and climate action by exposing students to climate-related texts from diverse genres. the goal is to foster critical literacy skills and build students’ baseline understanding of the climate crisis and its solutions. the unit covers several common core standards related to media literacy, research, and inquiry-based writing. it culminates in a student-choice driven climate action research project through which students demonstrate their ability to apply climate literacy concepts to a specific climate solution. keywords international baccalaureate, critical literacy, collective action, click framework i designed and taught this climate change unit to three sections of international baccalaureate (ib) middle years programme (myp) 9th grade language and literature at a title 1 public high school in the suburbs of minneapolis. i completed much of my idea generation and lesson planning while i participated in a teacher fellow program through the center for climate literacy. my fellow cohort members supported each other's unit planning processes through collaborative discussions and workshops. the support i received from this interdisciplinary group of teachers was invaluable. for the backbone of this 9th grade unit, i used the framework that i developed for my 11th grade critical literacy and climate literacy unit in 2022: 1) start by determining what students already know and what they’re curious about; 2) teach key https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5438 hartzell ú critical literacy and climate action 28 climate concepts through vocabulary terms; 3) invite students to apply their knowledge through critical analysis of climate-related texts from a wide range of genres. however, i made a few key changes and additions too, based on my own reflections from the 11th grade unit and feedback from others. of these additions, i am most proud of the climate action project (cap) assignment which helped my students gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of climate action. since i started teaching climate literacy, i have noticed that students often fixate on individual actions, like buying an electric car, as the main solutions to climate change. despite leading conversations about the importance of collective action, i hadn’t found a way to instill a more nuanced understanding of this concept until i devised the cap. as part of cap, students researched a climate solution of their choice from an online database of climate solutions called “nexus” developed by project regeneration. each database entry lists the actions that must be taken by “individuals,” “groups,” and “governance.” students then produced a mini collage about their chosen solution with a catchy slogan that encouraged a certain type of action, whether individual or collective. the cap gallery walk on the last day of the unit was a joy to watch. students appreciated their peers’ collages and each student acted as the “classroom expert” about the solution they researched. narrative framing for climate literacy unit this 8-lesson unit began with a “four corners” activity where students shared their agree/disagree responses to a series of prompts about the unit’s key terms: climate change, biodiversity, anthropocentrism/ecocentrism, and environmental justice (see climate literacy term definitions in “curriculum at a glance” below). the following three lessons built on this activity, with one lesson dedicated to each term. each term, in turn, was paired with a few related multi-genre texts, including picturebooks, news articles, videos, etc. (linked in “curriculum at a glance” below). students were introduced to the four care domains of climate literacy from the click framework—species care, kinship care, systems care, and people care—and they completed a critical analysis chart by recording which domain(s) of care they noticed each text advocates. the unit culminated in a climate action project where students researched a climate solution of their choice from the “nexus” database and created a mini collage with a catchy slogan to promote the solution. https://regeneration.org/nexus https://regeneration.org/ https://regeneration.org/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5438 https://regeneration.org/nexus climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 29 title 9th grade language & literature unit: critical literacy and climate action unit time eight lessons schedule: daily 48 minute class periods grade level(s) grade 9 core text students used the website regeneration nexus to research climate solutions for this unit’s final assessment project. supporting texts various climate literacy terms ● short film ice merchants by joão gonzalez ● video what is climate change? produced by al jazeera ● picturebook the fate of fausto by oliver jeffers ● image “thanksgiving address” from braiding sweetgrass (ya) by robin wall kimmerer ● video what is biodiversity? by david attenborough ● news article food system biodiversity published by the guardian ● picturebook by over and under the pond by kate messner and illustrated by christopher silas neal ● picturebook we are water protectors by carole lindstrom and michaela goade ● climate justice tweets by vanessa nakate, urban air quality, mark ruffalo, and climate justice alliance objectives by the end of the unit, students will be able to define and discuss vocabulary terms. they will be able to answer the unit’s essential question: how can literature help us understand the diverse impacts of climate change? through engaging in research about climate solutions and completing a climate action project, students will gain specific knowledge about a climate solution of their choice and develop communication skills by drafting a slogan and creating a collage. materials and resources unit calendar with links to resources climate action project research and planning guide https://regeneration.org/nexus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhj74zjfaq8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcbxmj1nmtq https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-fate-of-fausto/ https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hhmjiz4o0zrfdopyy6nyuhprldp6n76lfe1s1i4qwiw/edit?usp=sharing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glwnuzrqe7u https://www.theguardian.com/food/ng-interactive/2022/apr/14/climate-crisis-food-systems-not-ready-biodiversity https://www.climatelit.org/literature/over-and-under-the-pond/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xa7hgrxau2qax9xp8gvmziet8ldjemkxxdusj2xmxdw/edit#slide=id.g1300a61040a_0_62 https://docs.google.com/document/d/119sfss8e8zzng9nocjkpxztkg5owscs0/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112055745967875115521&rtpof=true&sd=true https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eb6vmqtqoovbee4ui7hedzfwsrqaylxnclzoqfquqes/edit hartzell ú critical literacy and climate action 30 climate action project, unit culmination, and going forward for the final three days of the unit, students worked on their caps. the cap research and planning guide (linked in “curriculum at a glance” above) encouraged students to break down the action required by their chosen solution into categories: “individuals” “groups” and “governance.” this complicated many students’ preconceived understanding of climate action as a solely individual pursuit. additionally, these projects allowed students to demonstrate the critical analysis skills they developed throughout the unit by requiring students to apply the care domains from the click framework to their own collage. each student wrote an artist statement that referenced the specific domain(s) of care their cap promoted. on the second to last day of the unit students voted on which collages and slogans were most inspiring. they also filled out a feedback survey about the unit as a whole. i enjoyed reading their answers that afternoon, especially for the question, “what is one thing you wish all adults knew about climate change?” most called for adults to take action and to remember that younger generations are counting on them. a of my few favorite answers included unique insights: “profit doesn’t really matter if we are all gonna burn in 30 years !!;” “be more reasonable” and “buying a tesla doesn’t make you better than everybody else.” the final day of the unit was a celebration. i handed out eco-themed prizes to the contest winners and gave each student a blue marble to remind them to take care of our planet. students enjoyed the celebration, but it was also the last day of school. i kept them engaged by promising that they could go play outside for the last 20 minutes of class. when the time came, they eagerly packed away their papers and we headed outside to enjoy the sun. the weather was unseasonably warm, and a thin haze of canadian wildfire smoke made the sky white. i wondered if any students would apply their new climate literacy skills and identify the connection between our curriculum and the weather. if they did, they didn’t voice it. instead, they teased each other as they played foursquare, gleefully discussed summer plans, and made daisy chains in the grass. as with most of my climate change related thoughts, i felt a mix of despair and hope as i watched my students. i felt anxious looking at the sky, thinking of the climate climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 31 solutions students had just spent days researching, but knowing that time for implementation is running out. yet the human joy, creativity, and connection i witnessed that day was also a reminder of what fuels my work. humans will always seek connection with the outdoors, even in the face of the climate crisis. we must continue to educate our youth about climate change, both as a threat and a call to action. teaching climate literacy units is my small act of radical hope. kayda m., 9th grade aiyanna s., 9th grade hartzell ú critical literacy and climate action 32 nex n., 9th grade fernanda a., 9th grade climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 33 gabby b., 9th grade brianna e., 9th grade nandyal ú youth climate emotions 34 “it was beautiful here, and then the pollution came”: researching youth climate emotions in coastal ecuador neela nandyal, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract in this reflection i share findings from researching youth climate hope and future outlooks in a fishing community in coastal ecuador. i discuss how teens in this community experience both climate despair and climate hope and look to nearby nature to inform their thoughts on climate change. keywords climate emotions, climate hope, climate despair, solastalgia, climate literacy, el niño, latin america, nearby nature, pollution, ecuador, acknowledgements the fieldwork discussed in this paper was funded in part by the university of minnesota cehd graduate global grant and the graduate school thesis research travel grant. the author is grateful to mayi quimis pincay and carlos gutierrez for their expert assistance. introduction in summer 2022, i traveled to ecuador to conduct a pilot study on the attitudes, values, and practices shaping environmental education in the coastal province of manabí. although i had some prior experience of living in south america and had taken https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 35 numerous classes on the region’s history and geography, i had never been to ecuador before. it turned out to be a marvelous trip. i met many educators and professionals working to protect nature through local government, nonprofit organizations, and schools. through my interviews with community members, i learned that pollution and contamination of the ocean were among the top environmental concerns, and people worried about the effects on human health. i also found that many people had observed positive changes in the local environment in their lifetime – these were typically people in their 40s and 50s who could remember when the beaches were more polluted and littering went unchecked. for them, the recent adoption of environmental regulations in ecuador had begun to rein in pollution, which many of my participants pointed to as a sign of progress. all of this led me to wonder, how did the younger generation feel about the future of the environment in manabí? what did youth think about local sustainability efforts and climate change more broadly? in summer 2023, i returned to ecuador to explore these questions in more detail. my key takeaways from this period of field research are below. between hope and despair: climate emotion and future outlooks to better understand youth climate emotion and future outlooks on the environment in coastal ecuador, i conducted a mixed methods study that involved a 35-question survey of 193 secondary school students and semi-structured interviews with 17 of the student participants. what the study revealed was that students had the capacity to experience a multitude of climate emotions (including climate despair and climate hope) simultaneously. in the survey, for example, just over two thirds of participants reported that they were “worried” or “very worried” about climate change. yet in interviews, worry over the environment did not seem to affect the day-to-day life nor long term plans of participants, a common indicator in measuring eco-anxiety (hickman et al., 2021). rather, i perceived my participants’ worry over climate change as a sort of climate despair or solastalgia. students lamented how “through social media you learn a lot about different places and how we are polluting” and “you can see garbage everywhere” (student participants, 2023). while many students blamed their peers and fellow townspeople for local environmental pollution, others were more specific – linking contamination and loss of wildlife to the local fishmeal plant. as one student explained, “i can tell you that since nandyal ú youth climate emotions 36 the factory started the pollution, nature has never been as beautiful as it was before, because before here…there were deer…there are no more because of the pollution and the smoke from the factory. that's why we must clean up the beach: because it was beautiful here, and then the pollution came” (student participant, 2023). additionally, the survey1 revealed the students to be fairly hopeful about their own role in mitigating the climate crisis. 74% of youth participants agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “i think that the actions of individuals like me have a role to play in mitigating the negative effects of climate change” and 67.4% of the students agreed or strongly agreed that “i am optimistic that the effects of climate change will be reversed, because there are several actions that individuals like me can take to improve the problem of climate change”. as one student reasoned “...if we stop polluting and we listen…and make less garbage, it can be better” (student participant, 2023). for these participants, hope over mitigating climate change and environmental degradation was hinged on both personal and community agency. nearby nature and the specter of el niño interviews with students also highlighted the ways that youth turn to nearby nature to notice changes in the natural world and connect these changes to ideas about climate change. most of the participants came from fishing or farming families and spent their free time on the beach. summer 2023 was an el niño year for ecuador, which meant that the pacific experienced unusually warm temperatures, with serious implications for marine life (including depleted fisheries), vulnerability to flooding, and decreased tourism from the highlands. while i had not anticipated including the topic of el niño in my interviews with students, it soon emerged as a common theme in many of my conversations with local youth. in interviews, students often discussed el niño in conjunction with their thoughts about climate change, environmental risk and natural disaster. as one student observed, “el niño is coming and now there are many dead birds around the beach…they have died because of the scarcity of fish” (student 1 the survey design and content drew heavily from recent studies on youth climate hope. the questions examples in this reflection are modeled on questionnaires by finnegan (2022), li and monroe (2018), and ojala (2012). https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/nearby-nature/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 37 participant, 2023). other students dwelled on anticipated floods and family hardship, one youth warned “we have to be prepared with supplies, food, medicines and everything necessary because they say it is going to be long, prices are going to rise …and we will not be able to work because of the heavy rains” (student participant, 2023). the interviews revealed how these students' thoughts and feelings about climate change are profoundly shaped by the local environmental conditions they experience. concluding thoughts while this study centers on the climate emotions of youth from a rural community in coastal ecuador, it has broad implications for environmental and climate literacy education as it speaks to the experiences of young people everywhere. . in making space for discussing climate emotion in classrooms, teachers can support students in developing climate literacy, especially climate hope and envisioning alternative, lowcarbon futures. moreover, teachers can draw on students’ own lived experiences and local environs in talking about climate change, emphasizing how climate literacy can be fostered through the love of nearby nature. finally, teachers should consider the role of environmental risk and local climate histories in their students’ perceptions of climate change. references finnegan, w. (2022). educating for hope and action competence: a study of secondary school students and teachers in england. environmental education research, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2022.2120963 hickman, c., marks, e., pihkala, p., clayton, s., lewandowski, r. e., mayall, e. e., wray, b., mellor, c., & van susteren, l. (2021). climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. the lancet planetary health, 5(12), e863–e873. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00278-3 li, c., & monroe, m. c. (2018). development and validation of the climate change hope scale for high school students. environment and behavior, 50(4), 454–479. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916517708325 ojala, m. (2012). hope and climate change: the importance of hope for environmental engagement among young people. environmental education research, 18(5), 625–642. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2011.637157 https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916517708325 https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2011.637157 woodbury ú eco-fiction resources 38 building a database and website for eco-fiction resources mary woodbury, curator at dragonfly.eco: exploring world eco-fiction abstract this essay offers an overview of dragonfly.eco—a collaborative project for exploring eco-fiction—and its evolution over the period of the last ten years. following a tour of the content—reviews, author interviews, music, games, films, and a database of more than 1,000 books—the article reflects on how children's fiction and climate literacy fits into dragonfly and provides a site road map for finding teacher's resources. keywords eco-fiction, climate change, climate literacy dragonfly.eco is a volunteer project that curates meaningful stories about the natural world and humanity’s connection with it. the site explores the breathtaking literary scope of eco-fiction: a diverse field of stories which includes environmental and nature themes in black and indigenous fiction, literary fiction, science fiction, fantasy, solarpunk, and more. diversity and inclusion are central to eco-fiction, and the goal of this article is to introduce the site to climate literacy educators. while dragonfly is a resource for all readers, it also features reviews and other materials for k-12 teachers. https://dragonfly.eco/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 39 since i began the site more than ten years ago, it has been important to me to offer content freely, promote authors with no charge, and share news about narratives dealing with climate change, biodiversity, conservation, extinction, pollution, the state of our waters, diaspora, colonialism, and more. such narratives raise awareness of climate and ecological concerns while also offering inspiration and courage to face these challenges. dragonfly is evolving and has grown considerably since i first launched it in 2013. with a database of more than 1,000 books, more than 150 author interviews, and over 100 excerpts of works, the site has remained highly collaborative in nature. together, we are able to do more to protect our planet's ecosystems and share climate literacy lessons through stories. such education starts with young children, which is why dragonfly includes recourses helpful to parents and teachers alike. how to use dragonfly dragonfly offers plenty of content for people of all ages curious about eco-fiction and its cultural work. readers can search for books in two ways: the search for widget on the top-right menu or the book database. readers can also use pull-down menus in the top menu bar to find more information. because so much data has accumulated throughout the years, readers can find a tour guide in the about section, which acts as a road map to the major sections at the website: • book database: every book post added to the site is auto-added to the database via advanced fields, such as book title, author name, publication date, type of book, category, and genre. categories include audience types, such as all, ya, teen, and children's stories. the database has filterable headings, but readers can only sort by one heading at a time. click show entries at the top of the database and select all to view all entries at once. with over 1,000 book posts so far, the database is a work in progress. it isn't exhaustive, but aims to include as many pieces of eco-fiction that time allows. • book posts: most of the 1,000+ books auto-added to the database are generated from plug-ins to show a short description, book cover, and ordering information. occasionally, authors provide the information directly. for many years, dragonfly used goodreads to generate book information. currently we use a plugin by booknet.ca’s biblioshare, which pulls data from librarything, worldcat, and https://dragonfly.eco/title-author-publication-date-search/ https://dragonfly.eco/navigating-site/ https://dragonfly.eco/title-author-publication-date-search/ woodbury ú eco-fiction resources 40 bookfinder. readers can search through the database to select a book title, author, publication date, type of book, audience, or genre to find what you are looking for. • book and film reviews: dragonfly publishes book reviews written by contributing authors. to read a few book and film reviews, click here. • author interviews and spotlights: dragonfly features many authors, all with free promotion. the dragonfly library is no longer accepting submissions but has over 100 book excerpts shared by authors. the world eco-fiction series: climate change and beyond features notable novels and anthologies from authors writing in various genres and styles on topics such as science, climate change, ecological studies, animals, water, and much more. featuring authors from around the world, this spotlight series is designed to be inclusive, allowing audiences to virtually visit different places, ideas, and learn about other cultures. many spotlights come from children’s book authors. the indie corner spotlights new authors who either selfpublish or publish with small literary presses. • links and resources: for readers wanting to branch out away from the site, this link provides a list of publishers, journals, projects, and bloggers with similar themes. • film and video: since early 2015, dragonfly has added a song of the week to a youtube environmental playlist, since 2014, we have maintained a list of films related to climate awareness and ecology. • games: a new list of eco-games joins dragonfly! • turning the tide: a list of resources for children, teen, and ya audiences. resources for teachers what is eco-fiction? our definition of eco-fiction builds on the criteria proposed by jim dwyer in where the wild books are: a field guide to ecofiction (2010). according to dwyer, ecofiction includes narratives in which: https://dragonfly.eco/category/features/reviews/ https://dragonfly.eco/dragonfly-library/ https://dragonfly.eco/world-ecofiction-series/ https://dragonfly.eco/world-ecofiction-series/ https://dragonfly.eco/category/features/indie-corner/ https://dragonfly.eco/links-and-resources/ https://dragonfly.eco/film-video/ https://dragonfly.eco/song-of-the-week/ https://dragonfly.eco/climate-change-ecological-films/ https://dragonfly.eco/games/ https://dragonfly.eco/youngest-generation/ https://bookshop.org/p/books/where-the-wild-books-are-a-field-guide-to-ecofiction-jim-dwyer/11487498?ean=9780874178111 https://bookshop.org/p/books/where-the-wild-books-are-a-field-guide-to-ecofiction-jim-dwyer/11487498?ean=9780874178111 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 41 • the nonhuman environment is present not merely as a framing device but as a presence that begins to suggest that human history is implicated in natural history. • the human history is not understood to be the only legitimate interest. • human accountability to the environment is part of the text’s ethical orientation. • some sense of the environment as a process rather than as a constant or a given is at least implicit in the text. (buell qtd. in dwyer, 2010, p. viii) today's eco-fiction is a sprawling category that spans over twenty distinct genres (see this short guide), each of which brings its own tools for using fiction to raise climate and ecological concerns. dragonfly.eco offers teachers a background into eco-fiction across a range of formats, from books and films, to songs, games, and other media. in all eco-fiction works, the ecological elements are deeply integral to the story, even if used as symbols or metaphor. some writers refer to these strategies of foregrounding nature in stories as the project of rewilding the novel, framing eco-fiction as, to use dwyer's term "wild books." turning the tide from the beginning, dragonfly.eco included stories for younger audiences. about midway into the life of the site, i began the turning the tide section. it was inspired by a conversation with author edan lepucki about her short story “there’s no place like home.” in the story, youth are represented as a stuck generation, because the environmental climate and catastrophe made it impossible for them to grow and live the full lifespan of a human life. they remain children until they die. in the story, youth are also called the youngest generation. lepucki's haunting idea has its equivalent in the real world too. youth activists like vanessa nakate, greta thunberg, xiuhtezcatl martinez, bana alabed, emma gonzales, david hogg, mari copeney, payla jangid, and hundreds of thousands more are today's "youngest generation" of leaders who mobilize others to stand up for social and climate justice. while dragonfly is not an exhaustive resource on children and teen fiction, it is a stepping-off point for teachers wanting to find more information. while a lot more work needs to be done, turning the tide links to: https://dragonfly.eco/distinguishing-genres-about-climate-and-ecological-changes/ https://dragonfly.eco/youngest-generation/ https://dragonfly.eco/youngest-generation/ woodbury ú eco-fiction resources 42 • resources and links: the main section includes links to articles and resources about climate literacy and climate lit for kids. • children's bookshelf: a list of children's book posts at dragonfly. the website's focus is on adult fiction, but about 70 books are currently featured for children up through middle-grade. • ya/teen bookshelf: a list of teen and ya fiction at the site. 165 books currently fall into the ya/teen category. • book reviews for younger readers: thanks to kimberly christensen, who reviews most of the younger reader books, dragonfly currently houses about 30 reviews for fiction aimed toward younger audiences. • games: a growing list of eco-games, whether video or tabletop, with highlights for children-appropriate games, including age guidelines. • films: a list of movies, television shows, and documentaries relating to environment and nature. highlights indicate children's shows and age levels recommended by movie rating or common sense media. • spotlights (interviews and features): includes reviews of, or interviews with, the following authors, arranged chronologically, most recent to earliest: o arlene mark: the year without a summer o jewell parker rhodes, paradise on fire o todd mitchell, the last panther o cynthia zhang, after the dragons o sonia meyers, we have something to say! o jennifer harrington, the spirit bear o bijal vachharajani, a cloud called bhura o emma reynolds, amara and the bats o ryan mizzen, hedgey-a and the honey bees o clete barrett smith and dave matthews, if we were giants o sita bramachari, where the river runs gold o d.g. diver, juniper sawfeather collection o ned tillman, the big melt o james bradley, the buried ark o jennifer dance, white feather collection o edan lepucki, "there's no place like home" o marissa slaven, code blue https://dragonfly.eco/links-and-resources/ https://dragonfly.eco/category/books/childrens/ https://dragonfly.eco/category/books/ya-fiction/ https://dragonfly.eco/category/features/reviews/reviews-youth/ https://dragonfly.eco/games/ https://dragonfly.eco/climate-change-ecological-films/ https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ https://dragonfly.eco/category/spotlight/spotlights-youth/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 43 o john kixmiller and team, protectors of the wood series o jo marshall, leaf series o gary robson, who pooped in the park series o austin aslan, the islands at the end of the world o sarah holding, seabean trilogy looking ahead, i am inspired to add more climate literacy materials at dragonfly by increasing the content at turning the tide. the opportunity to partner with the center for climate literacy is a thrill as well because i am getting older and i understand my privilege in growing up in a world where scientific reality and literacy were a given. looking back, i realize that reading books, walking through forests to learn the names of trees by their leaf types, and always learning more about the world's environmental complexity made me the person i am today. today's children need climate literacy education more than any other generation before them. i am inspired that this work is accelerating everywhere, including at the university of minnesota's center for climate literacy, and i look forward to extending some of my time toward building children's climate literacy. references dwyer, j. (2010). where the wild books are: a field guide to ecofiction. university of nevada press. lepucki, e. (2018). there's no place like home. amazon original stories. woodbury, m. (2023). dragonfly.eco. https://dragonfly.eco. accessed 9 may 2023. https://dragonfly.eco/ oziewicz ú click framework 44 the click framework: a care-centric conceptual map for organizing climate literacy pedagogy marek oziewicz, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract this article outlines the climate literacy capabilities and knowledges (or click) framework for climate literacy pedagogy. the framework includes four domains— earth care, kinship care, people care, and systems care—and is modeled on the care-centric thinking central to the indigenous worldview and to other earth stewardship efforts emerging today. the purpose of this article is to introduce click as a conceptual tool to guide classroom practice. keywords climate literacy pedagogy, click, climate literacy capabilities, climate literacy knowledges, indigenous worldview, indigenous knowledge(s) there are many ways to teach climate literacy. given the urgency of the climate emergency—and the urgency to design climate literacy education pedagogies that speak to age-specific audiences, place-specific challenges, and discipline-specific forms of knowing—the best strategy is to be creative. that said, designing conceptual frameworks for climate literacy education (yes, we need many and diverse frameworks!) can help articulate foundational principles, goals, and questions to guide practice and inspire pedagogical innovation. the framework described in this article—climate literacy capabilities and knowledges (or click)—was originally drafted for the 2022 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 45 “schools for the planet” summer institute. i have since expanded it, based on my research and classroom practice. click is a practical tool, whose uses i intend to unpack in future essays. here, the goal is to outline the framework as a theoretical model intended to help us think about ways to scaffold climate literacy capabilities and knowledges across k-12 education. the click framework builds on three core notions: climate literacy (described in this article), capabilities, and knowledges. “capabilities” is a notion introduced by nobel laureate economist amartya sen— later modified by moral philosopher martha nussbaum to include “the capabilities of nonhuman animals as well as human beings” (nussbaum, 2011, p. 18)—to refer to actual (in contrast to theoretical) things we can do or become, if we so choose (the capability approach). for example, my ability to read is a capability i can use to read the climate book; reading this book becomes a realized capability, or “functioning,” that informs my other functionings, say as a teacher. sen refers to capabilities as “substantive freedoms” to achieve what we value, stressing that thinking in terms of capabilities “makes us accountable for what we do” (sen, 2009, p. 19). applying capabilities to climate literacy allows us to distinguish—on individual and community levels—between ways of doing or living that we can actually achieve and those we cannot (yet). say, eliminating or reducing meat from my diet is a functioning i can achieve. stopping industrial carbon emissions is not, at least not in the current system. the notion of “climate literacy capabilities” will thus refer to functionings—practical ways of being and doing—we can achieve to live as climate literate earthlings. the plural term “knowledges” is a notion derived from indigenous theory and scholarship, which rejects the post-enlightenment monolithic idea of “knowledge” in favor of braided, evolving, placeand experience-based knowledges—the plural acknowledging “both the shared commonalities and the diversity of many indigenous ways of knowing” (kovach 2021, p. 19). collectively referred to as indigenous knowledge—also “indigenous perspectives and thought processes,” “indigenous pattern thinking,” and “indigenous knowledge systems” (yunkaporta, 2020, p. 17)— these ways of knowing combine values, technologies, and culture. accordingly, “climate literacy knowledges” (in the plural) is proposed to refer to a vast body of practical and philosophical knowing—often fragmentary and/or intuitive—that transcends https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240/3334 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/capability-approach/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/capability-approach/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709837/the-climate-book-by-greta-thunberg/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709837/the-climate-book-by-greta-thunberg/ oziewicz ú click framework 46 conventional disciplinary boundaries, is grounded in “resident relationships” with our environments (topa & narvaez, 2019, p. 3), and helps us learn how to live at the time of the climate emergency. so what are these capabilities and knowledges? given that climate literacy is about “developing values, attitudes, and behavioral change aligned with how we should live to safeguard the earth’s integrity in the present and for future generations” (oziewicz, 2023, p. 34), i have followed a line of thought about knowledge as care that has been a trickle in mainstream (western) scholarship and is best articulated by proponents of indigenous knowledge and indigenous worldview (topa & narvaez, 2019). this line of thought affirms that human beings are nature: not apart from, but part of a complex living system that sustains us all. its precepts find expression in statements like robin wall kimmerer’s “know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them” (kimmerer, 2022, p. 89). they can also be heard in arguments like james lovelock’s insistence that “we need to love and respect the earth with the same intensity that we give to our families and our tribe” (lovelock, 2000, p. viii). unpacking the kimmerer and lovelock statements, i propose that values and attitudes that inform our relations with “the ones who take care of us” can be thought of as falling into four domains: relations with the planet, especially its geophysical processes that enable all life; relations with nonhuman beings or persons, especially plants and animals, with whom we share the earth; relations with human people, including strangers, ancestors, and future generations; and relations with human-created systems in which we participate, such as education, economy, etc. the click framework emerges when we map values and attitudes onto a conceptual diagram of these four core domains of care. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240/3334 https://kindredmedia.org/glossary/indigenous-worldview/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 47 important caveat: although the four vectors of care are explored here as separate domains, they are not separate at all. i am inspired by indigenous thinkers to believe that withholding, refusing, or limiting care in any one domain degrades our capacity to care in other domains too. i thus chose to represent these values within the native american medicine wheel which symbolizes balance, interconnection, and interdependence of these values. the click framework thus includes four equally important core domains in which climate literacy values and practice are realized. figure 1. the click framework, domains & rings structure. https://www.kbichealth.org/ojibwe-medicine oziewicz ú click framework 48 earth care: how do we care for the planet, its ecosystems, bioregions, water, air, soil, and geochemical processes—tightly integrated on organic and inorganic levels—whose complex interactions enable life to exist? how do we actively defend, restore, and steward the planet’s wellbeing and the health of planetary-scale elements that support the web of life? this domain requires we actively confront questions about threats to a living earth, say, pollution or global warming, but also that we actively seek to experience the wonder of a living earth and develop a love-care relationship with the land, waters, sky, ecosystems, and the planet. the notion of nature rights; the fight for clean air, water, and soil; all initiatives to curb, eliminate, or clean industrial pollution; recycling; rewilding; conservation; organic farming; leave no trace ethic; the notions of ecological and energy footprints; and a number of other concepts and initiatives are all part of the earth care domain. kinship care: how do we care for nonhuman persons/beings: animals, plants, insects, and all other life forms? what values and forms of relating do we cultivate, and how, versus what types of relationships with the nonhuman should be discouraged or avoided, and how? this domain includes all aspects of human-animal and human-plant relationships, including what we eat, respect for habitats, how we engage with the outdoors, attention to and things we can do for local species. the kinship care domain invites conversations about animal and plant rights; wildlife corridors, sanctuaries, and refuges; protection of endangered species; expanding habitats and supporting nonhuman life even in human-dominated spaces; conservation initiatives such as halfearth, homegrown national park, we are the ark movements; and other initiatives to curb human expansionism in general. people care: how do we care for other humans, those we know and those we don’t, near and far, living today and those yet to be born? how to address historic injustices of settler colonialism, slavery, violence, and exploitation that continue to expose bipoc, poor, and global south communities today to higher risks of climate change-related threats, from floods, droughts, and rising sea levels to food insecurity, energy shortages, pollution, and resource depletion? climate migrations; climate, environmental, social, and racial justice; indigenous land rights; poverty, exclusion, and wealth inequality; access to education and healthcare; human rights and freedoms, democracy vs authoritarianism; opportunities for building communities and supporting communities where relations are local, grounded, and based on recognition of collective responsibility to each other are some of the key issues in the people care domain. https://www.half-earthproject.org/ https://www.half-earthproject.org/ https://homegrownnationalpark.org/ https://wearetheark.org/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 49 systems care: how do we (re)organize our communities, countries, and the global civilization to practice the ethics of care across the board? how do we redesign human-created systems like politics, education, media, finance, economy, healthcare, transportation, housing, food, and others to at least stop eroding the planet’s capacity to sustain life? better yet, how do we reimagine these systems so that they become accelerators for creating a sustainable, clean, just, inclusive, and biodiversity-rich planet that supports thriving human and nonhuman lives? energy transition; circular economy; green technologies; universal basic income; farm-to-table and other local productionconsumption networks; energy and food sovereignty; zero waste economy; system change not climate change; the green new deal; initiatives like a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty, project drawdown, and other systemic solutions—all these belong in the systems care domain. the goal of using the click framework in classroom activities is to help students 1) learn to think about the workings of the world in terms of these four domains, 2) develop an understanding of their role as agents of care and change in a complex living system, and 3) identify, name, and build students’ climate literacy capabilities and knowledges for each of the four domains. using stories—fiction and nonfiction alike—is a practice in which students are prompted to explore questions and issues in the story as they relate to each domain. the story serves as a springboard for considering these issues not just in that single narrative but in other stories and in real life too. the exploration, which the students can scale up or down depending on the project’s scope, becomes an inquiry into each domain which also demonstrates how the four domains are inherently interrelated. in the opening of the last section of the climate book—entitled “the most effective way out of this mess is to educate ourselves”—greta thunberg introduces the swedish word folkbildning, which stands for “broad, free, voluntary public education” (325). she notes that fridays for future was not originally intended as a protest movement but as a folkbildning project: to educate everyone about the climate emergency. the irony, greta says, is that she had to skip school to find climate education. the time is now to bring the folkbildning of climate literacy education front and center in all schools everywhere. the click framework is one conceptual model that can help make it happen. it can serve as a cornerstone for considering climate literacy capabilities and knowledges. it can act as a springboard for a broad range of pedagogical strategies, inquiries, and action. most of all, it can inspire teachers and students everywhere to discuss what we can do, and how, to restore ecosystems and build an ecological civilization. https://fossilfueltreaty.org/ https://fossilfueltreaty.org/ https://drawdown.org/ oziewicz ú click framework 50 references kimmerer, r.w. (2022). all earth entities are sentient. in topa w. & narvaez, d. restoring the kinship worldview: indigenous voices introduce 28 precepts for rebalancing life on planet earth (89-95). north atlantic books. kovach, m. (2021). indigenous methodologies: characteristics, conversations, and contexts. u of toronto press. lovelock, j. (2000). gaia: a new look on life on earth. oxford up. nussbaum, m. (2011). creating capabilities: the human development approach. harvard up. oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1.1, 34-38. sen, a. (2009). the idea of justice. harvard up. thunberg, g. (2023). the climate book. penguin. topa, w. & narvaez, d. (2022). restoring the kinship worldview: indigenous voices introduce 28 precepts for rebalancing life on planet earth. north atlantic books. yunkaporta, t. (2020). sand talk: how indigenous thinking can save the world. harperone. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 51 youth production of digital media to address the climate crisis richard beach, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa (emeritus) blaine smith, vanderbilt university, nashville, tn, usa abstract this article describes the value of having youth produce digital media—videos, social media, digital images/art, digital stories, and online writing to address the climate crisis. while students are engaged with and producing media on their own, teachers and project coordinators can support students by drawing on examples noted in this article to provide students with technical support and examples for producing different types of digital media. keywords digital media, ecomedia, social media, climate activism, youth climate activism youth are highly concerned about the need to address the climate crisis. in one survey, 59% of youth worldwide note that they are extremely or very worried, and 84% are moderately worried about climate change impacts (hickman et al., 2021). given these concerns, 45% experience anxiety related to how climate change is impacting their lives. youth uses of digital media to communicate about the climate crisis to share their concerns about climate change impacts, youth are turning to digital media: their default platform to communicate with others. 13-to 18-year-olds engage in about https://www.climatelit.org/topic/digital-media/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecomedia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/social-media/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ http://climatelit.org/topic/ecoanxiety beach and smith ú youth production of digital media 52 an average of eight-and-a-half hours of screen media daily, with youtube, snapchat, and tiktok being the most popular platforms (common sense media, 2022). 56% of american youth are frequently referencing climate change topics online and 45% are posting messages about climate change through use of media (tyson, 2021). for example, greta thunberg's instagram post about the school strike for climate in 2018 lead to worldwide youth participation on the fridays for future strikes platform fridaysforfuture.org (hawley, 2022). other youth employ youtube, tiktok, instagram, and twitter to communicate the need for collective action (sorce & dumitrica, 2021). youth employ a range of types of digital media—videos, blogs, podcasts, digital art/music, or online writing—to portray climate change impacts and connect with local/global audiences (beach & smith, in press). to successfully mobilize climate action, young people need to know how to effectively employ different media tools and how to effectively communicate the need for change. they need to be able to employ these tools to assume activist roles and inspire their audiences to activism too. "for the vanguards of the present dreaming up new ways to fight global warming…this is an essential point: that the shape and extent of the change they seek depend as much on the tools they use as it does on their own will and hunger" (beckerman, 2022, p. 2). this suggests the need for engaging youth in projects or classroom instruction that provide technology support and training but also supports students to assume activist roles as change agents when they experience positive uptake from their audiences. this article summarizes youth use of media to address climate change in our forthcoming book, youth media creation on the climate crisis: hear our voices (beach & smith, in press). the book includes chapters on youth producing videos, digital images/art, social media, digital stories, and online writing media production. here, we describe examples of the authors’ own media projects from selected chapters, as well as related research on producing these different types of media. you can access chapter summaries and related links, activities, and readings on the use of media for communicating about climate change on the book’s website. in the introductory chapter, marek oziewicz and scott spicer posit the importance of engaging youth in media production related to addressing climate change. given that media is central to how youth communicate and interact with others in their lives outside https://fridaysforfuture.org/ http://youthclimatecrisismedia.pbworks.com/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 53 of schools, they argue that teachers or project coordinators need to draw on and transfer these experiences for engaging school and project contexts. this can be done by providing technical training as described in spicer’s (2022) book, as well as by creating venues for students to share their media productions—say, a video critiquing the “fast fashion” clothing industry—with the general public. one example of such a venue is the university of minnesota’s student produced sustainability project gallery. oziewicz and spicer also note the importance of producing media based on cultural perspectives related to moral and ethical concerns about the future of the planet. portraying and critiquing how the “stories-we-live-by” have shaped our actions—for example, narratives of domination and conquest of nature—can lead to imagining alternative, novel narratives for a sustainable human interaction with the environment. video youth produce videos to visually portray climate change impacts, record examples of people engaged in protests, enacting adaptation, or mitigation solutions to climate change. in his chapter, steve goodman describes how in the education video center project, youth produce documentary videos about environmental justice issues that adversely impact low-income neighborhoods. for example, shame on you! that can be reused! confronts the adverse health effects of pollution from trucks on people living in south bronx neighborhoods (goodman, 2020). in another project, the climate change initiative at the university of massachusetts, lowell, youth generate psa videos with a more global framing, focusing on the need for understanding climate change as a global phenomenon, as evident in the your voice video. youth may also frame their videos to portray local versus global climate change impacts. as part of the lens on climate change (locc) project at the university of colorado, youth-produced videos spotlight local climate change impact (littrell, 2022), including the effects of droughts in students’ colorado communities. an analysis of youth participation in the locc project found that their participation in the project enhanced students' re-seeing (through their visual portrayals of climate change impacts), as well as their re-enactment (by shaping their thinking around how they could help their communities) that translates into direct action or continued communication with family file:///users/mco/downloads/t.ly/ihrmq file:///users/mco/downloads/t.ly/ihrmq http://z.umn.edu/sustainabilityinvestigationsolutionsvideo https://www.evc.org/ https://www.evc.org/ http://vimeo.com/369988483 http://vimeo.com/369988483 https://www.uml.edu/research/climate-change https://vimeo.com/70140870 http://t.ly/t9w6 beach and smith ú youth production of digital media 54 or community members about climate change and other environmental challenges after the program (littrell et al., 2022, p. 18). digital images/art/music a number of chapters in the book describe youth’s production of digital images/art related to climate change. in their chapter, michelle jordan, catherine lockmiller, and steven zuiker describe a project in which high school students participate in a summer solar engineering project related to enhancing the understanding of and the need to use media to promote the use of solar energy. students then created multimodal slide presentations to portray what they learned about use of media for promoting solar energy. youth participated in the “polar army” artwork project madder, 2017) and the art for adaptation project, using art in ways that change their perceptions of climate change (bentz, 2020). in their chapter, “addressing climate change and sustainable energy futures through creative music engagement,” evan tobias, kyle bartlett, michelle jordan, and steven zuiker, describe how students produced music related to the use of solar energy. social media youth frequently employ social media to post about climate change (tyson, 2021). they use hashtags such as #climatecrisis #climatechange or #fridaysforfuture to interact with others and organize protests such as the school strike 4 climate (boulianne et al., 2020). as claire napawan, brett snyder, and beth ferguson note in their chapter, youth use social media to communicate with followers in ways that build community and enhance their sense of being climate activists. in her chapter, natallia goshylyk provides examples of how youth insert emojis and images in their posts to enhance audience engagment. in their chapter, david rousell, amy cutter-mackenzie-knowles, and thilinika wijesinghe, describes the creation of the climate action adventure! app as a game-like, social media space for students to share their responses to images and artwork about climate change. https://goo.gl/4dgv23 https://goo.gl/4dgv23 http://polararmy.org/ http://artforadaptation.com/ http://ccme.app/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 55 digital storytelling youth also create digital stories to portray perspectives on climate change. in their chapter, shiyan jiang, blaine smith, and ji shen describe how middle school students adopt the roles of writer, producer, director, cameraperson, or/and editor to create digital stories on sustainability issues, particularly in the miami area (smith et al., 2019). in her chapter, linda buturian describes how her students create digital stories about climate change impacts. by responding to novels, graphic stories, and poems in her course creating identities, learning in and through the arts, students create digital stories—many of which are included in her book (buturian, 2022)—to portray, for example, the adverse effects of flooding or waste deposits on the mississippi river. writing for planning media productions and for communicating on media outlets it is also important to recognize the value of using writing for planning media productions and communicating on media outlets. in his chapter, antonio lopez describes the importance of creating scripts and storyboards to plan for the production of videos or podcasts. youth are also producing writing to share on media outlets such as the youth voices climate change page. in their contribution, liane xu, julian arenas, and ardra charath, youth editors on the youth think climate (ytc) magazine, sponsored by the action for climate emergency, describe how they solicit and publish essays, narratives, poetry, art, and music by and for young people. emily polk's chapter, in turn, describes having students in her stanford university composition courses investigate local climate justice issues to then write about them by creating podcasts, blog posts, or submissions to magazine/news outlets. teacher support for media production in conclusion, while students are actively engaged in using media to communicate about climate change outside the classroom, teachers and project coordinators can certainly provide support for engaging students in media productions as part of the schoolwork. in doing so, they need to consider the digital divide related to variations in students’ access to digital tools as well as differences in their previous experience in employ these http://tinyurl.com/wqmgz9j http://t.ly/xra7 http://cehd.umn.edu/the-changing-story http://goo.gl/z72mgp http://goo.gl/3cdgjd http://goo.gl/q4yscg http://goo.gl/q4yscg http://t.ly/p1lw https://acespace.org/ beach and smith ú youth production of digital media 56 tools. within school contexts, teachers may want to draw on assistance from school technology support staff. within university contexts, teachers may consider interacting with faculty associated with units, centers, or departments focused on climate change or environmental studies. teachers can support students’ media production by: • having students acquire scientific information about climate change to produce valid information about climate change • having students clarify their purposes for producing media • providing instruction on production techniques, for example, how to employ visual images or graphics (bryne, 2022) • giving students options for use of different media types (bernier, 2020). • creating organizations or clubs within school to support collaborative media production. • providing relevant feedback to enhance student development in media productions • having student share media productions through youth-oriented projects such as action for the climate emergency, young people’s trust for the environment, the uk youth climate coalition, climate change education, youth4climate, young voices for the planet, our climate our futures, connect4climate, and the climate reality project • having students employ digital visualization tools for acquiring data or images about climate change impacts in certain regions or communities using tools, such as climate interactive, community viz, national climate assessment, visualizing change toolkit, or visualizing change. references beach, r. & smith, b. (in press). youth media creation on the climate crisis: hear our voices. routledge. beckerman, c. (2022, february 13). radical ideas need quiet spaces. the new york times review, p. 2. bentz, j. (2020). learning about climate change in, with and through art. climatic change, 162, 1595–1612 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02804-4 bernier, a. (2020). wanting to share: how integration of digital media literacy supports student participatory culture in 21st century sustainability education. journal of sustainability education, 24. buturian, l. (2022). the changing story: digital stories that participate in transforming teaching & learning. pressbooks. http://cehd.umn.edu/the-changing-story http://t.ly/nktw http://acespace.org/ http://ypte.org.uk/ http://www.ukyclimatechange.com/ http://www.ukyclimatechange.com/ http://earth.stanford.edu/climate-change-ed http://youth4climate.info/ http://youngvoicesfortheplanet.com/ http://youngvoicesfortheplanet.com/ http://ourclimate.us/ http://www.connect4-climate.org/ http://www.climaterealityproject/ http://climateinteractive.org/ http://placeways.com/communityviz http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/ http://goo.gl/j2zgpo http://goo.gl/j2zgpo http://vischange.org/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02804-4 http://cehd.umn.edu/the-changing-story climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 57 bryne, r. (2022, september 22). my updated big list of tools for a variety of classroom video projects. [web log post]. retrieved from http://t.ly/nktw common sense media. (2022). the common sense census: media use by tweens and teens, 2021. author. retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-censusmedia-use-by-tweens-and-teens-2021 goodman, s. (2020, april). teaching for environmental justice at the educational video center. journal of sustainability education. http://t.ly/jtt littrell, m. k., gold, a. u., koskey, k. l k., may, t. a., leckey, e., & okochi, c. (2022). transformative experience in an informal science learning program about climate change. journal of research on science teaching, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21750 pew research center. (2021) retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-outfor-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ share, j. & beach, r. (2022). critical media literacy analysis and production for systems thinking about climate change. journal of media literacy. http://t.ly/sk86 smith, b. e. (2019). mediational modalities: adolescents collaboratively interpreting literature through digital multimodal composing. research in the teaching of english, 53(3), 197–222. sorce, g. & dumitrica, d. 2021. #fighteverycrisis: pandemic shifts in fridays for future’s protest communication frames. environmental communication. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/17524032.2021.1948435. spicer, s. (2022a). student-created media designing research, learning, and skill-building experiences (pp. 5–7). ala editions. tyson, a., kennedy, b., & funk, c. (2021, may 21). gen z, millennials stand out for climate change activism, social media engagement with issues. pew research center. retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-zmillennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagementwith-issue/ http://t.ly/nktw https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens-2021 https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens-2021 http://t.ly/jtthttps://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21750 https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ zimmerman ú staying with the climate trouble 58 staying with the climate trouble: on (not) containing the crisis in the classroom lee zimmerman, hofstra university, hempstead, ny, usa abstract trying to introduce the climate crisis into the classroom as a crisis presents us with a pedagogical challenge: how to contain the crisis without foreclosing it? focusing on naomi klein’s how to change everything, i suggest that attempts to contain eco-anxiety mainly by stressing “what students can do” risk foreclosing the crisis by obscuring its real urgency. rather than offering what jenny offill ironically calls an “obligatory note of hope,” we might consider that our deepest obligation isn’t to alleviating eco-anxiety but to helping students listen to and be guided by it: to help students, as donna haraway puts it, “stay with the trouble.” keywords climate pedagogy, climate change, climate crisis, eco-anxiety, how to change everything, “staying with the trouble,” hope in recent years, i’ve framed most of my literature classes in relation to the climate crisis. the premises of such an approach are that “climate change is not a stem issue,” but, rather, “a worldview issue, entangled with our values, perceptions, beliefs, and lifestyles” (oziewicz, 2023, p. 36), and that—because worldviews are established, maintained, normalized, and, perhaps, challenged and changed by stories a culture tells about itself and the world—one important way of studying the climate crisis is studying literature. the first challenge, though, is to establish the crisis as a crisis, to draw on the basic science to justify a melodramatic but apt picture of our deranged present moment: http://climatelit.org/topic/ecoanxiety https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5240/3334 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 59 our planetary house is burning down; the time left to save part of it is running out; but we keep adding more fuel to fire. in a culture where the dominant discourses of climate change domesticate its urgent and existential threat by casting it as a (pretty low priority) political “issue,” it’s hard to make that issue present in the classroom as a truly existential crisis. indeed, even the term crisis can be seen to keep the most disruptive meanings of climate change at a distance, lumped together with other crises, like the “debt crisis.” insofar as the continued burning of fossil fuel in the global north has already been responsible for the death of millions of people, mainly in the global south, and guarantees the death of hundreds of millions, or probably billions, of people in the future, it might be better to replace crisis with terms such as “climate homicide” or “atrocity in process.” for that reason, teaching literature in the context of the climate crisis presents pedagogical challenges akin to those involved in attempts to confront historical atrocities like the holocaust. shoshana felman’s “education and crisis, or the vicissitudes of teaching” (1992) offers a revealing account of some of those challenges. when she taught videotaped testimonies of holocaust survivors, her students felt “at a loss, disoriented, and uprooted” (p. 48). reflecting on that dynamic, felman comes see that her job as a teacher necessarily involves “creating in the class the highest state of crisis that it could withstand,” but doing so without “driving the students crazy” (p. 53). the central pedagogical question thus becomes “on the one hand, how to access, how not to foreclose the crisis, and, on the other hand, how to contain it?” (p. 54). that’s a compelling way to describe the challenge of teaching about climate change. but there’s also a significant difference between containing the secondary trauma of an historical event and containing the traumatic response to becoming aware one is living in the middle of an atrocity in process. for felman, “it is the teacher's task to recontextualize the crisis and to put it back into perspective, to relate the present to the past and to the future and to thus reintegrate the crisis in a transformed frame of meaning” (p. 54) so that the students’ then “contained” knowledge can be “put to use” (p. 53). but the crisis of the climate is precisely that the future cannot function as a stabilizing point of reference. it is that future that is itself at stake, dependent on how knowledge of that crisis can sufficiently be “put to use.” https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/climate-change-heatwaves-deaths-temperature-b1880153.html https://ecohustler.com/culture/could-climate-change-really-kill-six-billion-people-by-2100 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4335779 https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/02/our-climate-discourse-is-gradually-normalizing-an-atrocity zimmerman ú staying with the climate trouble 60 how can it be put to use? discussions of how to bring the climate crisis into the classroom often propose “containing” the crisis by answering that question and thereby offering the students some hope. kirsten hunt (2023), for example, responds to her students’ “palpable anxiety about the future of the planet” by stressing that essential to teaching the class “what climate change is” is teaching “what they can do about it” (p. 24). but knowing that students need to hear what they can do isn’t the same thing as knowing what to tell them. for this, hunt turns to naomi klein’s how to change everything (2021). where she sees that work as providing “actionable tools” and thus offering “a sense of hope for the future,” however, i want to suggest that klein’s book offers less a clear basis for hope than a demonstration of how efforts to “contain” the crisis often function as ways of foreclosing it. the book begins with what are meant to be inspiring stories of young people taking action, sketching the story of greta thunberg, the student strikes she inspired worldwide, and a lawsuit that “sixteen kids from twelve countries” have filed against five countries. these are, indeed, “examples of activism that have been successful to counter climate change inaction on a sociopolitical level” (hunt, p. 25, my italics). however, the difficult truth is that they haven’t (yet?) countered climate change itself—a state of affairs that klein quietly acknowledges by noting that “greta’s speeches brought no dramatic action from world leaders” (p. 23). elaborating on how she sees klein’s forestalling “anxiety about the fate of our planet” by offering stories to inspire hope, hunt turns to klein’s evocation of “the green new deal,” presented as “achievable” in light of the precedents of the new deal and the marshall plan—cases where the u.s. has successfully “dealt with crises in the past.” as with stories of student activism, though, klein's models of the new deal and the marshall plan can offer substantial hope only if you don’t look at them too closely. as one historian of the period has observed, “the new deal made america safe for capitalism,” while “the marshall plan would do the same for europe” (kunz, 1997, p. 164). yet, as klein herself as argued extensively in this changes everything—with its pointed subtitle capitalism vs. the climate (2021)—the climate crisis is fundamentally a problem of capitalism itself. while “what the climate needs to avoid collapse is a contraction in humanity’s use of resources,” klein writes, “what our economic model demands to avoid collapse is unfettered expansion” (p. 21). as precedents for https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5322 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 61 responding to a climate crisis rooted in our economic model, then, evoking programs like the new deal and the marshall plan seems more desperate than it does inspirational. specifically, in klein’s chapter, the “sweeping change” the historical precedents are meant to inspire in the present is the passage of the version of a green new deal (gnd) introduced to the u.s congress in 2019. once more, however, it’s hard to see how that bill actually responds to the urgency of the present crisis. where the legislation effecting the original new deal and the marshall plan mandated specific programs and massive spending—passing those bills was taking action—the 2019 gnd bill asked the house merely to declare its “sense” that “it is the duty of the federal government to create a green new deal” and its “sense” of what the gnd’s goals should be. this gnd sets out goals, that is, but itself takes no action. it expresses a sense of things but mandates nothing. as our planetary house burns down, students are asked to find hope in the prospect that, if their activism is successful, those in power, rather than taking adequate action, would express a sense that they should make a plan to take such action—kicking the climate action can down the road yet again. recognizing that the new deal in fact exacerbated racial inequality, the gnd does stress social and economic justice. but when it comes to the most immediate cause of the crisis, the hoped-for plan calls for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions not fast and fully enough to probably prevent the most apocalyptic scenarios but only “as much as technologically feasible” (my emphasis)—as if the problem was essentially one of as insufficiently developed technology, rather than what klein pithily calls an economy “at war with many forms of life on earth” (2014, p. 21). ultimately, as we bring the more than inconvenient truth of the climate crisis into the classroom, much of what students are told “they can do about it” seems to shy away from another inconvenient truth: despite many local victories, the fight against climate change hasn’t slowed, much less begun to reverse, the steady rise in greenhouse gas emissions. it has often been pointed out that making profound changes takes time—that though the arc of the moral universe is long it bends toward justice. but if the arc of the moral universe is long, in a house on fire time is short. any real hope we might stir in our students must be premised on confronting this urgency. in other words, responding to the students’ “palpable anxiety” by teaching “what they can do” carries its own danger: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/10/when-the-good-is-the-enemy-of-the-sufficient-bidens-climate-plan https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/10/when-the-good-is-the-enemy-of-the-sufficient-bidens-climate-plan https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions zimmerman ú staying with the climate trouble 62 the danger that, in purporting to already know what they can do, one will err on the side of foreclosing the crisis, of minimizing its actual urgency. in lieu of focusing on what students can do, i’ve found it helpful to address what needs to be done—cutting greenhouse emissions fast and fully enough, as defined by the ipcc. i especially stress the following: a) though time is short, it is (as i write this in late 2023) probably not yet too late to do that;2 b) the impediment to doing that is not technical but, rather, political; c) unlike the geophysical laws of nature, political realities are always subject to further negotiation. at least until the house burns down. while i think some students have been stirred by this approach, i don’t suppose it can provide what hunt finds in klein’s book: a way of offering students “fewer moments of eco-anxiety and more moments of hope” (p. 26). perhaps, though, the point isn’t to alleviate anxiety but, rather, to listen to it, to live through it, and to be guided by it. perhaps, as teachers, we might focus less on offering what jenny offill calls an “obligatory note of hope” (p. 67) than on the value, even the necessity, of what donna haraway describes as “staying with the trouble.” if the point is to help students confront the reality of the climate crisis as an existential threat, that is, perhaps our deepest obligation is not to hope but to attending to the trouble itself. we can’t know in advance precisely what that might mean, or whether it will help the process of what hunt calls “finding a way through.” but we can invite students into our own state of not-knowing and thus into the process of finding out (which i hope to describe in a follow up article). and we can hope that in that joint process students might yet help find a way both to stay with the trouble and to arrive at their own sense of “what they can do” to help put the fire out while we still can. 2 in a 2018 report, the ipcc finds that limiting warming to 1.5°c would require greenhouse emissions to be about halved by 2030 (relative to 2018 levels) and brought to “net zero” by about 2050. https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 63 references felman, s. (1992). “education and crisis, or the vicissitudes of teaching.” in shoshana felman and dori laub, testimony: crisis of witnessing in literature, psychoanalysis, and history (pp. 1-56). routledge. green new deal (h.res.332 recognizing the duty of the federal government to create a green new deal) (2019). https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/houseresolution/332/text haraway, d. (2016). staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. duke up. hunt, k. (2023). “finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other.” climate literacy in education, 1(1), 24-26. klein, n. (2021). how to change everything: a young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. atheneum books for young readers. klein, n. (2014). this changes everything: capitalism vs. the climate. simon & schuster. kunz, d. (1997). “the marshall plan reconsidered: a complex of motives.” foreign affairs, 76(3), 162-70. offill, jenny. (2020), weather. knopf. oziewicz, m. (2023). “what is climate literacy?” climate literacy in education, 1(1), 3438. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/332/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/332/text axelsson and lindgren ú ecocritical dialogues 64 sven nordqvist’s pettson and findus series and children’s education: ecocritical dialogues in preschool marcus axelsson, associate professor of scandinavian languages at the department of languages and teacher education, østfold, university college (norway) charlotte lindgren, associate professor of french didactics at the department of education, uppsala university (sweden) abstract this article explores how sven nordqvist’s books about pettson and findus may be used to initiate dialogues in preschool on the relationship between humans and nature. we argue that nordqvist’s books are especially fitting for ecocritical dialogues on three levels, on which they depart from today's ecocentric aspirations. these levels include (1) the main characters’ view of nature as a resource, (2) the untraditional representation of plants, and (3) the characters’ assumptions of control and superiority over nature, especially over (other) animals. another implication of the article is that pre-ecocriticism children’s books, and books that are not climate fiction can be useful in preschool discussions thematizing the relationship between humans and nature. keywords sven nordqvist, ecocritical dialogues, preschool, human–nature relationship introduction it is a truth universally acknowledged that literature can change people’s way of viewing the world (felski, 2018; langer, 2011; nussbaum, 2016; von mossner, 2017, pp. 6–7). in climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 65 recent years, a plethora of climate fiction (cli-fi) literature for children has sprung out of the woodwork. children can read about endangered nature (tucker & persico, 2019), oil disasters (lillegraven, 2020), and climate activism (camerini, 2020; winter, 2020). we argue that children’s books without an explicit eco-activist agenda and books written before questions of sustainability made their way into curricula and other documents regulating school systems can serve an important function by influencing children to reflect on questions of sustainability and, in the long run, to become eco-citizens. one example is sven nordqvist’s picturebook series about pettson and his cat findus. the countryside is a constant backdrop across the series, depicted as a pastoral idyll, rich in flora and fauna. in addition, the characters’ close connection to nature is central. these factors make nordqvist’s books especially fitting for prompting ecocritical dialogues with preschool children. we highlight three characteristics from the books that support this argument. our theoretical point of departure is garrard’s (2012, p. 5) definition of ecocriticism as an investigation of the relationship between humans and nature in literature. the concept of ecocritical dialogues, defined by goga et al. (2023) as dialogues whose goal is to make children reflect on humans’ contact with nature, is central to our study. according to goga et al. (2023, p. 20), a central question in ecocritical dialogues is whether nature is understood from an anthropocentric or an ecocentric perspective. nature as a resource the often-recurring depictions of pettson and findus’ use of nature as a resource are apt incentives to embark on ecocritical dialogues with children. in the series, several illustrations show how pettson and findus use nature as a resource to obtain food (growing vegetables, picking berries, fishing, keeping poultry, etc.). the images are rich in details and tell parallel stories to the textual one (nikolajeva, 2000, p. 226). tracing these stories can be detective work to activate the attentive reader. in a ruckus in the garden (2018), the reader may notice that findus is planting a meatball in the vegetable garden. it is interesting to hear the children’s ideas on whether the meatball will grow. these reflections may, in turn, lead to discussions on the differences between plants and axelsson and lindgren ú ecocritical dialogues 66 animals. here, the preschool teacher may ask, “where do vegetables come from?” “do we buy them at the store?” “where do pettson and findus get their vegetables from?” in addition to using nature as a resource for food, the protagonists use it as a source of recreation and happiness. in festus and mercury: wishing to go fishing (2016), pettson (here translated as “festus”) suffers from depression, and to address this ailment, he and findus (mercury) go fishing. the book features illustrations of pettson’s mental state before and after spending time in nature. his depression is accompanied by rain and gray colors and his recovery is represented by sunshine afterward. these illustrations offer another opportunity for preschool teachers to prompt children's reflection about connections between the character's emotions and nature. when we discussed nordqvist’s books with a preschool teacher, she mentioned that she was especially fond of the so-called mumbles—the magical creatures in the pettson books. she argued that these creatures are closely related to nature and hypothesized that they need it to survive. this, in turn, made her reason about the everyday activities in preschool, which often include excursions to the forest. she suggested that “maybe we are not supposed to bring sticks and leaves and other things from the forest back to kindergarten to keep them or create something of them. then we see nature as a resource and take things that the mumbles and the creatures living in the forest need.” she argued that, together with the children, we should look beyond those resource aspects and teach the children that nature has a value on its own. as we can see, the teacher questions the idea of nature as a resource for humans and puts this critical approach into practice when making field trips into nature with the children. the depiction of nature another opportunity for ecological dialogues arises from the fact that nordqvist’s depiction of nature is not always mimetically accurate. plants are often oversized or out of season. nordqvist experiments with perspective and size, and this stylistic device often makes the plants especially visible to the reader. the so-called plant blindness (wandersee & schussler, 1999), where readers tend to ignore plants and merely treat them as background elements—a view that is often associated with an anthropocentric view of nature—is clearly not an issue in the pettson and findus series. oversized dandelions and daffodils are also accompanied by the mixing of seasons. attentive climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 67 readers may notice that spring flowers and summer berries appear simultaneously. although nordqvist uses these mixings to enhance the magic of his fictional world, the illustrations may lead to discussions regarding what plants are and in what season they grow. findus, who is not an ordinary car, is related to nordqvist’s often non-mimetic representation of nature. anthropomorphizing animals is a common strategy in children's literature (birkeland, 2016, pp. 1–3), but what is unique about nordqvist’s books is findus’ liminal position on a human–animal axis. he wears clothes and always walks on two feet; he could hence be interpreted as a child rather than a cat (lindgren, 2015). at the same time, he is an animal, because he never speaks to anyone except pettson, signaling that he only exists as a human within pettson’s (and the readers’) head(s). findus’ double status as both an animal and a human relates to goga et al.’s (2023) argument about anthropocentric and ecocentric perspectives on nature and animals. one may, for example, discuss with the children if cats have clothes, if they can talk, and what are typical characteristics of a cat. impact on nature the third reason that makes the series fitting for ecocritical dialogues centers on the protagonists’ anthropocentric view of nature. in nordqvist’s works pettson, findus, and other characters often assume they have the right to control nature or other animals. in findus rules the roost (2017), for example, findus is inconvenienced by the rooster’s crowing and forbids him from uttering any sound. the rooster’s misery is vividly depicted in several illustrations, where the children can see how unhappy and frustrated he is. another way in which the main characters impact nature is when findus, in the same book, tries to make a hen fly by using a seesaw-like construction. this is not to help the hen but simply for his own entertainment. these and similar examples of anthropocentric perspectives are opportunities for the teacher to discuss with children questions about nature rights, especially the rights of domesticated animals and plants. another example is related to the threatening of a traditional, anthropocentric, lifestyle. it is rare that the series deals with the killing of animals, but in one episode in the fox chase (2015), pettson and findus’ neighbor, gustavsson, is experiencing problems with a fox who threatens his hens, and he ventures to kill it. pettson and findus axelsson and lindgren ú ecocritical dialogues 68 are also troubled by the fox, but their approach to the situation is different as they lure the fox away from the farm. their strategy is less anthropocentric than gustavsson’s, who sees it as his right to kill the fox. themes that are interesting to bring up for discussion regarding the reasoning above are whether animals have feelings and how humans treat animals. this could, in turn, lead to a discussion of how animals’ feelings are represented and rendered in the book. concluding discussion judith langer (2011) argues that literature has the potential to position child readers within an imaginary story world but also that children may step out of this world and reflect upon what role the story may have in the real world in their own lives. it is in the latter case where nordqvist’s books, in combination with ecocritical dialogues, are especially powerful. as we suggested earlier, books written without an ecocritical agenda can be just as important as cli-fi when questioning anthropocentric world views and the human–nature divide. we have shared examples of why nordqvist’s pettson and findus picturebooks are especially fitting for initiating ecocritical dialogues with preschool children. with their traditional view of nature as a resource for food and entertainment, the pettson and findus series are far from “perfect” from an ecocritical point of view. however, these “imperfections” are valuable points of departure for questioning and discussing how humans treat nature. the teacher may ask the children: “is one allowed to try to make a hen fly, like findus did?” “are we allowed to take what we want from the forest in the shape of sticks, fruits, berries, etc.?” for whom do animals and plant exist?” all this, however, cannot be accomplished without knowledgeable preschool teachers who are aware of the resources for ecocritical dialogues that are hidden in this kind of literature. references birkeland, t. (2016). forhandling om natur – kultur. en økokritisk lesning av jörg müller og jörg steiners bildebok kaninliv. barnelitterært forskningstidsskrift, 2, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3402/blft.v7.33705 camerini, v. (2019). la storia di greta. de agostini. felski, r. (2008). uses of literature. blackwell. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 69 garrard, g. (2012). ecocriticism. routledge. goga, n., guanio-uluru, l., kleveland, k., & rimmereide, h. e. (2023). introduksjon til økokritiske dialoger. in l. guanio-uluru, n. goga, k. kleveland, & h. e. rimmereide (eds.), økokritiske dialoger (pp. 9–25). universitetsforlaget. https://doi.org/10.18261/9788215067148-23-00 langer, j. a. (2011). envisioning literature: literary understanding and literature instruction. teachers college press. lillegraven, r. (2020). klodeklubben: dei svarte svanene. samlaget. lindgren, c. (2015). que reste-t-il du personnage de findus dans les voix de pettson et picpus?: étude d’une traduction du suédois au français. milli mála journal of language and culture, 7, 309–331. nikolajeva, m. (2000). bilderbokens pusselbitar. studentlitteratur. nordqvist, s. (2018). a ruckus in the garden. north south books. nordqvist, s. (1991). festus and mercury: wishing to go fishing. carolrhoda books. nordqvist, s. (2015). the fox chase. north south books. nordqvist, s. (2017). findus rules the roost. hawthorn press. nussbaum, m. (2016). litteraturens etikk. pax. tucker, z., & persico, z. (2019). greta and the giants. frances lincoln children’s books. von mossner, a. (2017). affective ecologies. the ohio state university press. wandersee, j. h., & schussler, e. e. (1999). preventing plant blindness. the american biology teacher, 61(2), 82–86. winter, j. (2019). our house is on fire: greta thunberg’s call to save the planet. beach lane books. coltman ú humanity’s reliance 70 humanity’s reliance on the morethan-human in shaun tan’s tales from the inner city julia coltman, vancouver island university, vancouver, bc, canada abstract various aspects of human life—including art, media, and culture—are becoming increasingly informed by the climate and environmental crises. shaun tan’s tales from the inner city illustrate and respond to this emergency, rising questions about the consequences of humanity's disconnect from the nonhuman world. tan’s message is wistful but not hopeless: although reestablishing balance with nature will not be easy, it is the only goal that matters. keywords climate literacy, anthropocentrism, empathy, ecocentrism, nonhuman persons acknowledgements: i would like to thank dr. terri doughty of vancouver island university for her continued encouragement and support in the development of my interest and publication of my work in this journal. understanding the complex relationship between the health of our climate and the wellbeing of living creatures is important more than ever before. this understanding, an https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy https://www.climatelit.org/topic/terminology/anthropocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-emotions/empathy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/terminology/ecocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/non-human-personhood/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 71 individual’s ability to critically consider both the impact that the climate crisis has on human wellness and the consequences that the demands of human life have on our environment, is a key component of “climate literacy,” especially in the domains of earth care and kinship care. it involves more than the necessary understanding that we, humans, should be doing better for our planet: it also implies a realization that when we actively choose against doing better to preserve our earth, the consequences are fatal. our culture is becoming increasingly informed by climate literacy concerns, and the rising climate and environmental sensitivity lies at the heart of much storytelling today. shaun tan’s tales from the inner city, a collection of elaborately illustrated, ecocentric short stories and poems offer a fresh perspective on why fostering healthy mutual connections between ourselves, other living beings, and our environment is of vital importance for today’s society. it stands as a compelling illustration of the power literature holds for climate literacy education to create a more climate literate culture. many works in the environmental and climate literature genres are often melancholic; in part, tan’s collection is no exception. however, tales from the inner city also includes stories that share a lot of hope. not only do they communicate how much we long to move away from environmentally abusive lifestyles, but they actively encourage our ability to do so. tan’s illustrations convey the way this longing is spurred by the haunting, ever-present if somewhat suppressed awareness of what once was. accompanying these illustrations are short narratives which suggest that the echoes of the past are still accessible to us, especially if we set aside our anthropocentric conceit and open our ears to them. tan’s collection communicates that, with enough effort, we may achieve a better state of balance with nature. his tales each do so, uniquely, often by finding refreshing ways of expressing an equality or partnership between humanity and the world’s nonhuman beings. each of the tales speaks to different aspects (and species) of this longing—as do, for example, the stories called “sheep,” “pig,” and “fox.” however, when taken as a collection, they present a powerful, unified ecocentric voice that challenges us to reconsider and redefine our relations with animals and the natural world. many of the stories in tales from the inner city suggest that humanity’s arrogance and capriciousness is one of our greatest downfalls. the idea that human intelligence and consciousness are superior to those of all other species—animal or plant—keeps us https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240/3334 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5438/3407 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5438/3407 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/tales-from-the-inner-city/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/tales-from-the-inner-city/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/solastalgia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocentrism http://climatelit.org/topic/ecocentrism https://www.climatelit.org/literature/tales-from-the-inner-city/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocentrism coltman ú humanity’s reliance 72 from understanding how much we gain from taking a step back from ourselves and respecting nonhuman lives as equal to our own—even instead as more-than-human. the tale “sheep,” for example, takes place in a classroom: the teacher is attempting to convince the students of the importance of respecting the sacrifices animals and other living beings make (often by our demands) to help us live well. the teacher’s lessons do not fall on completely deaf ears: the students understand and take to heart the way that the sheep’s life and sacrifices are “something much bigger than any lesson” (tan, 2018, p. 135). however, they still struggle to let go of the comforting idea of human supremacy. their awe and respect for the sheep is thrown off by the “rank breeze that roll[s] in from the…livestock ship” (p. 135), reminding them of their belief in the greater sophistication and refinement of human intelligence and sentience. the students bustle out of the classroom before their guilt can counteract their ego and self-importance. while doing so, however, they have to “tr[y] hard to think of something else” (p. 135), which suggests that they will not be able to unsee the respect for nonhuman lives they were just allowed to glimpse. stepping away from human arrogance and self-importance takes a conscious effort: an effort we are each capable of enacting, with enough determination. many of tan’s tales speak to concerns surrounding human/nonhuman interaction. peppered throughout the book are passages and single-line phrases, which make us realize just how far humanity has become removed from understanding what our morethan-human counterparts need from us. in fact, tan suggests, we have become so far removed that we are hardly even aware that there is an alternative to human selfishness and self-importance. in the story “pig,” the narrator wonders: “[t]he pig doesn’t cry or make much noise. but maybe pigs suffer in a way we can’t know. who can say for sure what another animal is feeling?” (p. 86). the story concludes with the narrator— presumably a child disobeying their parents’ rules—setting the pig free. in doing so, the child is actively choosing to counter human superiority, the supposed “natural” order of things. the tale further suggests that treating all living beings with the same respect we would offer to our fellow humans is maybe not such a strange obligation after all. in several other tales, tan depicts the importance of fostering humanity’s awareness of other creatures’ dignity. “fox” expresses the way that we, humans, often think of ourselves as being above the nonhuman, even though our very existence relies on the existence of the world’s other creatures. we are, as if, haunted by the biological climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 73 truth we so much wish to suppress. with this idea in mind, the illustration accompanying the story depicts the pale, near-ghostly image of a person lying in their bed, while hovering above them is the figure of a bright, red-orange fox, in stark contrast against the dark neutrals of the background (pp.192-193). the fox, as the tale’s narrator, explains that all of our decisions and actions in our world are always already informed by our suppressed memories of humanity being embedded in the same web of life as the nonhuman and more-than-human beings: don’t you know that i am as old as the blood in your veins?... i know your every thought and feeling, more than you do yourself, every craving, every fear and dream and vice and embarrassing secret, i know them all. so please, pay me no mind as i ransack the bottom drawers of your subconscious. there’s nothing here that i haven’t already seen a thousand times before (p. 191). in this passage, tan asserts that human lives are irreversibly intertwined with those of nonhumans, whether we recognize it or not. if we deny or reject the interconnectedness between nature, animals, and ourselves, we condemn ourselves to being instead haunted by that mutual need and reliance. as the fox questions: “where could we live if not in the bottomless den of each other’s shadow?” (p. 191). the missing pieces to our self-awareness are provided by the bonds we form between ourselves and other living creatures, including between our wellbeing and the wellbeing of our environment. we would not be where we are, nor even who we are today, without the foundation that those relationships provide us with. the nonhuman gives shape and form to our homes and identities. taken together, these three tales illustrate that we have drifted away from a sense of being entangled with the nonhuman beings—a self-induced separation that is significant and undeniably harmful, yet not irreversible. the bonds between ourselves and the rest of the planet’s lifeforms—those sentient or not—still hold great potential, if only we act on the call to reject our arrogant comforts and to redefine those relationships. it is vital today that we foster a culture informed by climate literacy, and one of the most powerful ways we can do this is through literature and other forms of popular media. shaun tan’s tales from the inner city offers an invitation to a larger community of species https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy https://www.climatelit.org/literature/tales-from-the-inner-city/ coltman ú humanity’s reliance 74 kinship. it exposes our despair and anxiety caused by separation, yet it affirms unrelenting hope that the human-nonhuman connection persists. the conclusion we may draw from the collection is that change is always possible as long as we commit to it. references oziewicz, m. (2023a). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1 (1), pp. 34-38. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240/3334 oziewicz, m. (2023b). the click framework: a care-centric conceptual map for organizing climate literacy pedagogy. climate literature in education, 1(2), pp. 44-50. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5438 tan, s. (2018). tales from the inner city. tundra: penguin random house. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240/3334 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5438 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 2 (winter 2023) 75 a stone’s throw and ten paces: or mr. warbler's succinct and useful field guide to flora and fauna of the northern forest emma ambrosi, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa artist statement a stone’s throw was created as a class project for an undergraduate first-year writing class and is partially based on my own experiences growing up close to a wooded trail in northern minnesota. my intention for the story was to write and illustrate a simple narrative about the mental health benefits of nature exposure and based on both my personal experiences and the findings of several previously published research articles. the goal of the story is to introduce the reader to the concept of interacting with nature as a restorative experience and to portray experiencing nature as an accessible activity that requires no prior knowledge or particular skill set. ideas for reflection: 1. nature can be present around you in many ways, from a state park to a garden to a simple potted plant. what types of nature do you notice around your neighborhood? what types of nature might your students notice? 2. in the narrative, nature journaling is portrayed as one form of interaction with nature. what other forms of interaction could you engage with and/or teach to your students? keywords nature immersion, embodiment, biodiversity, nearby nature, nature journaling https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature-immersion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/embodiment/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/nearby-nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature-journaling/ a stone's throw and ten paces or mr. warbler's succinct and useful field guide to flora and fauna of the northern forest written & illustrated by emma ambrosi a stone's throw and ten paces or mr. warbler's succinct and useful field guide to flora and fauna of the northern forest written & illustrated by emma ambrosi mr. henry warbler is currently sitting at his office desk. he has been trying for some time to formulate an ad campaign for a brand of toothpaste that comes packaged with cheap plastic figurines. so far, his ideas are nil. through his splitting headache, he attempts to discern which word would be better: "incredible" or "delightful." perhaps the weekend will give him the respite he needs to make a decision -but he is doubtful. the elysian prospects of the weekend never seem to live up to their potential. soon, his mind turns towards its daily ritual of retreading all of the minor faux pas and professional errors he has committed throughout the past decade. maybe he just isn't cut out for this. to avoid aggravating his headache, mr. warbler charts a roundabout path home, along the edge of downtown. during one stretch, he notices a patch of woods on the opposite side, with a trail leading through the trees. at home, in front of the fire, mr. warbler is overcome by a deluge of thoughts. he thinks about that little patch of woods, a stone's throw away from the sidewalk. he thinks about deadlines, and headaches, and suffocating waves of ennui. he thinks about the babbling stream by his parent's house, where he played when he was a child. he thinks about work. by sunday, mr. warbler has thought himself in enough circles to come to a decision: he will visit the trail. he dusts off a blank sketchbook (bought long ago for the sake of since-forgotten pastimes), puts on some suitable hiking attire, and strides with purpose back to the patch of woods. not ten paces after stepping onto the trail, he finds a suitable subject for his sketchbook. he diligently illustrates it, then labels it in as much detail as he can muster. farther down the path, he is suddenly startled by a strange bug fluttering towards him. it seems a bit too inquisitive for his liking. where the trail branches to meet a pond, the baleful stare of a turtle catches his eye. farther down the path, he hears a little bird singing, and spots it on a tree branch. mr. warbler returns home, feeling tired and unkempt, but also rather accomplished. after a brief shower, he eagerly turns his attention to the small stack of books now sitting on his counter -the spoils of a detour to the city library. each one is filled with detailed illustrations and notes, all about the local flora and fauna in the surrounding area. their covers proclaim them to be field guides. perhaps he'll walk this way more often. the following morning, mr. warbler goes back to work. the end author's note this story was inspired and influenced by my own experiences walking through the woods of northern minnesota. themes were also incorporated from the following articles: "a systematic review of evidence for the added benefits to health of exposure to natural environments," by bowler, d. e. et al., 2010. "the benefits of nature experience: improved affect and cognition," by bratman, g. n. et al., 2015. "the restorative benefits of nature: toward an integrative framework," by kaplan, s., 1995. "stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments," by ulrich, r. s. et al., 1991. "the effect of exposure to the natural environment on stress reduction: a meta-analysis," by yao, w. et al., 2021. climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 1 editorial collective marek oziewicz, university of minnesota, (mco@umn.edu), senior editor. nick kleese, university of minnesota, (klees023@umn.edu), managing editor. curriculum/pedagogy team stephanie rollag yoon, minnesota state university, mankato (stephanie.rollag@mnsu.edu), curriculum section lead editor. jana lo bello miller, university of minnesota, (lobello@umn.edu), editor. jeff henning-smith, university of minnesota, (henni143@umn.edu), editor. rebecca young, (ryoung1@binhamton.edu), editor. catherine cavanaugh, university of minnesota, (ccavanau@umn.edu), editor. literature/media team justyna deszcz-tryhubczak, university of wroclaw, poland, (justyna.deszcztryhubczak@uwr.edu.pl), literature section lead editor. lorraine kerslake, universidad de alicante, spain, (kerslake@ua.es), editor. tanja nathanael, san jose state university, (tanja.nathanael@sjsu.edu), editor. alexandra panos, university of south florida, (ampanos@usf.edu), editor. issn: 2836-4546 contact: nick kleese, managing editor, klees023@umn.edu about cle climate literacy in education (cle) is an open-access, double-blind, peer reviewed journal sponsored by the center for climate literacy at the university of minnesota and published through university of minnesota libraries. cle publishes practical, teacher-oriented content on all aspects of climate literacy education at all grade levels and across all subject areas (primarily k-16, but including teacher education and professional development). we are a pocket journal focused on classroom practice which is why the articles we publish are short: 2000 words or less. our content is written in jargon-free prose accessible to the general audience. all submissions are peerreviewed by two anonymous readers. authors can expect to hear results within two weeks after submission. we publish on a rolling basis. we welcome submissions in the following categories: curriculum, reflections, critical essays, and creative & multimedia. for detailed submission criteria pertaining to each category, please visit our journal website. we look forward to working with you! mailto:klees023@umn.edu https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/about/submissions https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/about/submissions 2 acknowledgements we are grateful for the generous support of the late dr. pete palmer, whose contribution allowed us to ferry our first issue from concept to publication. his generosity continues to support our work. we are also grateful for the support of the university of minnesota libraries. a special note of thanks goes to emma molls and laureen boutang. they were—and continue to be—central in guiding us through this process. lindsay oh provided the cover illustration. see more of her work at @cloudcrushed. izzy sheen created and generously donated rights to the logo to climate literacy in education. climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 3 volume 2, issue 1, fall 2024 table of contents author title page editorial marek oziewicz nick kleese introduction 1 curriculum karen hindhede implementing ecojustice praxis in children's literature courses 6 colleen redmond the hope framework: a literacy strategy for identifying hope in narratives as a response to young people’s eco-grief 14 reflection lee zimmerman staying with the climate trouble: part two 23 ricardo ramos maria josé rodrigues isilda rodrigues climate change denialism: critical analysis of arguments in confrontation with climate science 30 ben screech “playing your part”: an interview with sarah guillory 40 critical essay antonella de sena social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis in álvaro colomer's ahora llega el silencio (2019) 46 sietse hagen the black snake powerful imagery in we are water protectors 52 4 ben screech after the flood: environmental activism, agency and action in sarah guillory’s nowhere better than here 60 nick kleese democracy and kinship in nausicaä of the valley of the wind 67 creative and multimodal james damico confronting climate denial with an intergenerational conversation/song 74 climate literacy in education vol. 2, no. 1 first published version – page numbers to change with issue release 1 introduction: the road taken marek oziewicz, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa nick kleese, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract in this introduction, we envision possibilities for climate action and climate literacy education under the trump administration. we reflect on what teachers can do on to accelerate integration of climate literacy across all subject areas and how a changing understanding of climate literacy as a holistic socioscientific and cultural competence is gaining ground across the world. keywords u.s. presidential election, climate action, climate literacy education welcome to the third issue of climate literacy in education! this introduction was delayed until the results of the u.s. presidential election were announced. we already know which road was not taken. as fintan o’toole noted, “the democrats played down two very big things: the climate crisis and the income inequality that is sure to rise as new technologies further enrich existing elites. the result was an offering that was broad but shallow, based as it was on a decision not to address issues that are shaping the lives of americans now and will continue to shape them in the coming decades.” the road chosen by the popular vote is almost certainly going to be harder on the people and the planet. that said, an important caveat must be made. in today’s reality of extreme polarization it is easy to assume that that americans who care about climate belong in one political camp whereas those who deny the emergency belong in the other. in fact, however, over 72 percent of americans believe that climate change is real, over 70 percent believe it will harm future generations, and over 58 percent believe it is already harming people in the us today. these beliefs increasingly transcend political and generational https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/11/07/letting-it-all-hang-out-november-5-election-fintan-otoole/ https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/ https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/ https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/ https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/ oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 2 divides. they are growing to be a shared space from which we can act together—even if we disagree on this or other political issue. put otherwise, if we are serious about addressing the emergency, it may be smarter to focus on discovering how we are in it together—like the millions affected by hurricane helene—instead of righteous anger that insists on an ever-sharper “us vs them” divide. the future is yet unwritten. we all have a role to play in how it unfolds. in the larger context, of course, the world is still on track toward climate collapse. no country or political party has really stepped up to the challenge yet. according to the international institute for sustainable development, the g-20 countries are still subsidizing fossil fuel at triple the rate they’re doing for renewables. wildlife loss continues to accelerate, from 69% in 2022 to 73% in 2023. this comes as no surprise given that “the world has never yet met a single target set in the history of un biodiversity agreements” (greenfield & dunne). although wealth-related drivers of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss are increasingly clear, the neoliberal paradigm of fossil-fuel based growth seems unstoppable. aside from ecospheric and social costs, more severe events like hurricanes milton and helene bring very real loss in financial terms too: a double-digit billion-dollar loss from milton and anywhere between $225 and $250 billion from helene. how long and how often can people bear that kind of cost? as jonathan mingle writes, “even under president biden, who has said he thinks climate change is an existential crisis and who has done more than any president before him to confront it, americans have been woefully unprepared for the climate upheavals that are coming—and for those that have already arrived.” we are all in for a bumpy ride. although the climate crisis will continue to accelerate on the path set by our actions over the past thirty years, there are always opportunities to also accelerate mitigation, adaptation, and transformation necessary to finally shift humanity’s trajectory toward just, regenerative futures. here are some of the tools we have and what they mean for hope and possibility on climate action. 1. we have successful models from around the world of legislation and actions that mitigate the climate emergency, accelerate adaptation, and constrain operational space for ecocidal industries. for example, european environment agency report trends and projections in europe 2024 (oct 31, 2024) notes that 2023 saw the “largest year-on-year reduction [of emissions] in several decades” (5). “in 2023, eu total net ghg emissions decreased to 37% below 1990 levels” (5) and “the share of renewable energy had grown … to an estimated 24% of the eu′s gross final energy consumption by 2023” (6). 2. we may be closer to turning a corner on tolerating denial and lies on confronting climate change. as rebecca solnit (2024) recently wrote, the mainstream media https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/renewable-energy-support-g20 https://theconversation.com/wildlife-loss-is-taking-ecosystems-nearer-to-collapse-new-report-240526 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/15/about-80-percent-countries-fail-submit-plans-preserve-nature-ahead-cop16-aoe https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s0006320723001489 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/hurricane-milton-florida-insurance-00183532 https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/hurricane-milton-florida-insurance-00183532 https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/helene-is-2nd-deadliest-u-s-hurricane-in-50-years-could-cost-250-billion/1698452 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/10/30/planet-2025-trump-climate/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nyr-103124-fusco-blair-yeazell-bellaigue-gunasekara-mingle&utm_content=nyr-103124-fusco-blair-yeazell-bellaigue-gunasekara-mingle+cid_3eb42f9ad2ea3ea021d1cadefe7d6015&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=planet%202025 https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2023/09/19/climate-policies-with-real-world-results https://time.com/6261729/seine-clean-up-paris-olympics-2024/ https://climate-xchange.org/2024/08/policy-explainer-drilling-down-on-state-efforts-to-ban-fracking/ https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/publications/trends-and-projections-in-europe-2024 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clinton-harris-election climate literacy in education vol. 2, no. 1 first published version – page numbers to change with issue release 3 have failed america by “treating the true and the false, the normal and the outrageous, as equally valid” (n.p), and this normalization of atrocity has been especially disabling for climate action. yet, it is becoming harder for ecocidal agents to dismiss climate change as a scam and we may be getting closer, collectively, to embracing “climate truth” and confronting the climate emergency as an emergency. between hurricanes beryl (june) and helene (september), massive floods in europe and asia, accelerating extreme weather and 2024 being, again, the hottest year on record, calls for a national climate action plan and concerted world action are getting louder and more likely to be taken seriously. 3. we have a growing consensus that education is essential for the wholesale civilizational transformation the planet needs: as leading climate scientists michael e. mann puts it in the “foreword” to empowering youth to confront the climate crisis in english language arts, edited by allen webb, richard beach and jeff share (2024), “the climate crisis is far more than a problem of science, economics, policy, or politics. fundamentally, it’s a problem of ethics—particularly, the intergenerational ethical quandary of leaving behind a degraded planet for future generations.” to tackle it, “we must engage the heart, as well as the head … [and] nobody is better positioned to help young people do that than teachers…” (p. ix). 4. we also have a major shift—a decade in the making—in understanding that climate literacy is far more than just about climate science: an approach that the center for climate literacy has championed since its inception. the recently updated 2024 noaa guide to climate literacy has now expanded a definition of climate literacy to “incorporate other types of knowledge about the climate system, in addition to physical climate science” so that “the term now includes local and indigenous knowledges, social and cultural contexts, the social sciences, climate solutions, and climate justice concepts” (n.p). likewise, unesco’s 2024 education and climate change report stresses that education “is key to climate change mitigation and adaption efforts,” and not just through “improving knowledge [and] raising awareness” but specifically through “changing attitudes, beliefs and behaviours” (p. 1). at the heart of this shift is a recognition that climate literacy is a narrative capacity. that we need to, to quote mann again, “find compelling narratives that are engaging and motivating, narratives that convey both urgency and agency” (2024, p. x). as educators and humanists, we find it heartening to see a leading climate scientist state: “if we are to prevail in this epic battle for our future, our children must be equipped with the right tools. and none is more important than effective storytelling, for this is how we spur others to action and achieve social change. while i would argue that this skill must be incorporated by teachers into all disciplines, including science, its true home is the language arts” (2024, p. x). https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2022/02/our-climate-discourse-is-gradually-normalizing-an-atrocity https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/01/trump-visits-georgia-denies-climate-crisis-after-hurricane-helene https://newsociety.com/book/facing-the-climate-emergency-second-edition/?srsltid=afmboor6yyqvvsvdosud1qiwjuggak2drl89bkajqrz5-r6vbxr6xgtm https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/09/hurricane-beryl-ocean-temperatures https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/02/hurricane-helene-clean-water-supply https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-and-high-exposure-increased-costs-and-disruption-to-lives-and-livelihoods-from-flooding-associated-with-exceptionally-heavy-rainfall-in-central-europe/ https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/16/asia/flooding-afghanistan-intl-latam/index.html https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/global-temperature-likely-exceed-15degc-above-pre-industrial-level-temporarily-next-5-years https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/2024-will-be-worlds-hottest-record-eu-scientists-say-2024-11-07/ https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/2024-will-be-worlds-hottest-record-eu-scientists-say-2024-11-07/ https://www.salon.com/2024/06/23/we-need-a-national-climate-action-plan--and-an-exit-strategy-from-fossil-fuels_partner/ https://wmo.int/media/news/moment-of-truth-climate-action-says-un-secretary-general#:~:text=%e2%80%9cwe%20are%20playing%20russian%20roulette,the%20watch%20of%20leaders%20today.%e2%80%9d https://wmo.int/media/news/moment-of-truth-climate-action-says-un-secretary-general#:~:text=%e2%80%9cwe%20are%20playing%20russian%20roulette,the%20watch%20of%20leaders%20today.%e2%80%9d https://www.tcpress.com/empowering-youth-to-confront-the-climate-crisis-in-english-language-arts-9780807769867 https://www.tcpress.com/empowering-youth-to-confront-the-climate-crisis-in-english-language-arts-9780807769867 https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000389801 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000389801 oziewicz and kleese ú introduction 4 back in 2020, a study of “social tipping interventions (stis)” required to stabilize the earth’s climate by 2050 through transformations in technologies, behaviors, social norms, and structural reorganization within the planetary socioeconomic system—its six “functional domains” that the authors called “social tipping elements (stes)”—calculated that achieving ste4, “changing norms and value systems,” will require 30 to 40 years, and achieving ste5, “transforming education system,” will take 10 to 20 years (otto at al., p. 2359). interestingly, the authors concluded that achieving these two stes will take much longer than transformations of our energy, financial, infrastructure and information systems. at the center for climate literacy, we agree that transforming values, norms and education systems is more complex than technological change. but we are also confident that we are able to do it sooner, within a ten-to-twelve-year range. if climate literacy is implemented across all grade levels, all subject areas, and in all schools everywhere, it will create an unstoppable social tipping point cascade within a few years. this is how we create the green, just and regenerative world we all want to see. the articles in this issue contribute to this mission by offering educators specific materials to promote climate hope and justice. the two curriculum articles featured in this issue engage these values directly. karen hindhede’s “implementing ecojustice praxis in children’s literature courses” puts forth a framework for reading children’s literature using the three “es” of sustainability: ecology, economics, and equity. colleen redmond’s article, “the hope framework: a literacy strategy for identifying hope in narratives as a response to young people’s eco-grief”, also grants educators a specific framework for analyzing narratives for what she terms “hope markers”. in doing so, students are prompted to consider hope as an active, reflexive endeavor. hope and justice also feature proximately in the reflection articles. lee zimmerman’s “staying with the climate trouble: part two” extends his discussion from part one to consider how inviting students into teacher “not-knowing” can actually help students cultivate a sense of their own agency. in “climate change denialism: critical analysis of arguments in confrontation with climate science”, ricardo ramos, maria josé rodrigues, and isilda rodrigues offer specific responses to common climate change denier arguments. the fight against climate disinformation, they argue, is a necessary component of a just transition. finally, ben screech contributes an interview with author sarah guillory, whose intention in writing fiction for young people is to simultaneously stress the magnitude of the climate emergency while also advocating for the necessity of hope. although they focus on four distinct narratives, the four critical essays in this issue are united in their observation that fiction is a powerful medium for depicting justice amid crises. antonella de sena’s “social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis in álvaro colomer’s ahora llega el silencio (2019)” finds that colomer’s novel is clear in its https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1900577117?gad_source=1&gclid=cj0kcqjwmom3bhc8arisaosbapx0peaw9nknwodccqla5lmozjsxcsjj2dnssvrtcdgtydbylagwz0uaaht8ealw_wcb https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 climate literacy in education vol. 2, no. 1 first published version – page numbers to change with issue release 5 vision for cooperation and equity even in the face of environmental disaster. sietse hagen’s “the black snake: powerful imagery in we are water protectors” is equally adamant that lindstrom and goade’s award-winning picturebook—despite its frightening images—is especially helpful in cultivating discussions of native youth activism and nativeled coalitions for climate justice. in “after the flood: environmental activism, agency and action in sarah guillory’s nowhere better than here”, ben screech follows his interview with an analysis that demonstrates guillory’s narrative is a model for young people taking action—even if they do so largely alone. a similar modelling is featured in nick kleese’s “democracy and kinship in nausicaä of the valley of the wind” which reads miyazaki’s seminal anime as presenting openings for young people to imagine democracy extending beyond the limitations of our own species to spark movements for interspecies justice. finally, james damico writes about his musical collaborations with young people in “confronting climate denial with an intergenerational conversation/song”. damico shares his insights about the process, as well as his reflections that collective creation—as well as getting climate conversations out of the classroom and into the street—deserves its own soundtrack. references education and climate change: learning to act for people and planet. (2024). unesco global education monitoring report team. unesco. https://doi.org/10.54676/gvxa4765 otto, i. m., donges, j. f., cremades, r., bhowmik, a., hewitt, r. j., lucht, w., rockström, j., allerberger, f., mccaffrey, m., doe, s. s. p., lenferna, a., morán, n., van vuuren, d. p., & schellnhuber, h. j. (2020). social tipping dynamics for stabilizing earth’s climate by 2050. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 117(5), 2354– 2365. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900577117 solnit, r. (6 sept 2024). the mainstream press is failing america – and people are understandably upset. the guardian. accessed online: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clintonharris-election mann, m.e. (2024). “foreword.” in webb, a., beach, r. & share, j. (eds). (2024). empowering youth to confront the climate crisis in english language arts. teachers college press. (ix-x). https://doi.org/10.54676/gvxa4765 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clinton-harris-election https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clinton-harris-election hindhede ú implementing ecojustice praxis 6 implementing ecojustice praxis in children’s literature courses karen hindhede, central arizona college, coolidge, az, usa abstract faculty must do more to include ecojustice pedagogy, including climate change education, in higher education. this article describes how i infused ecojustice pedagogy into my undergraduate children's literature course. i share my experiences on developing an ecojustice praxis over a three-semester period. using the three prongs of sustainability (ecology, economics, and equity), i provide suggestions for incorporating texts, vocabulary, and heuristics, specific activities and assignments. keywords ecojustice praxis, children’s literature, ecojustice pedagogy research demonstrates that faculty should implement environmental justice topics, including climate change education, in higher education courses (álvarez-garcía et al., 2015; coleman & gould, 2019; international commission on the futures of education, 2021). my research supports these findings. i spent three semesters collecting data about implementing ecojustice topics in undergraduate children's literature courses. ecojustice pedagogy—a practical application of ecojustice education—recognizes the brutality and injustice that historically minoritized peoples and the natural world https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379381 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379381 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecojustice_pedagogy/ https://www.itejournal.org/wp-content/pdfs-issues/summer-2018/05martusewicz.pdf climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 7 experience, as perpetuated through language and social/cultural assumptions, while enabling learners to rectify social-ecological oppression (lupinacci et al., 2018; martusewicz et al., 2021). ecojustice pedagogy is the intersection of social and ecological justice. my research demonstrated that students, primarily pre-service teacher candidates, consistently viewed eco literature, environmental topics, and ecojustice pedagogy (teaching methods and content) as essential and craved such a curriculum. faculty also desired more professional development in these areas. they cited the lack of knowledge as the most significant reason for not including more ecojustice pedagogy in their children's literature courses. as part of my study, i infused ecojustice pedagogy into my undergraduate children’s literature course. i used the three critical es of sustainability (ecology, economics, and equity) as a framework for incorporating ecojustice pedagogy (edwards, 2015). good teaching is continual praxis; hopefully, these ideas invite educators to engage in their own cycle of theory, practice, and critical reflection to create their own repertoires of ecojustice pedagogy. ecology pillar one, ecology, requires five moves. the first is incorporating sustainability, environmental, and climate texts in course materials. fleischman’s (1997) seedfolks, gantz’s (2022) two degrees, henderson’s (2018) wilderness wars, klein’s (2021) how to change everything, little badger’s (2021) a snake falls to earth, and magnason’s (1999) the story of the blue planet are a few suggestions. see climatelit.org for additional suggestions. my emphasis focused on stories that reimagine relationships with humans and the planet rather than dystopian stories focused on exploitation, fear, and hopelessness (damico et al., 2020; oziewicz, 2023). move two is sharing eco justice vocabulary. children's literature textbooks typically have a chapter defining literary, social and cultural diversity terms. i have begun including ecological and justice vocabulary at the beginning of the semester, along with these other definitions. some of the terms i highlight include climate literacy, ecoliteracy, ecocide, ecojustice, and ecofiction. students are also referred to climate lit, which houses a growing glossary of climate literature terms. doi:10.1177/1478210318760465 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/wilderness-wars/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-story-of-the-blue-planet/ https://www.climatelit.org/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1051 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/issue/view/303 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/literature/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/literature/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecojustice/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/ecosystems/ecocide/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecojustice/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/literature/ecofiction/ https://www.climatelit.org/ hindhede ú implementing ecojustice praxis 8 move three consists of including an ecocritical lens throughout the course and discussing ways students can infuse ecocritism in their own classrooms. multiple sources offer questions to introduce and develop students’ ecoliteracy (gaard, 2008; russell, 2019; bradfield, 2020). some questions that could be asked include: what role does the environment play in literature? does nature have its own agency? what language and literary devices (vocabulary, metaphors, anthropomorphism) are used to describe the environment and animals? how might this language shape readers' understanding of people and the natural world? what is the relationship between humans and nature in the text? are humans unaware, dismissive, exploiting, “saving,” or engaged in reciprocity with the environment? gaard (2008) emphasizes the need to “analyze ecojustice problems” holistically and the importance of building connections to nature (p. 20). her work is foundational for faculty beginning to incorporate ecojustice aspects into their courses. finally, move four is exposing students to a variety of ecojustice resources. my research indicated that students' knowledge of environmental and ecojustice topics increased significantly from exposure. what children's literature educators emphasize in their classes helps future educators decide what is valuable. thus, i emphasize exposure, providing a wealth of climate change, environmental justice topics, and ecojustice pedagogy relating to children's literature. some materials are appropriate for discussion, others for assignments, and others for reference. for example, i used an assignment where students responded to an article using critical reflection after being asked: what aspect stood out to you or was especially important when reading this article? many climate literacy in education (cle) articles are appropriate and effective. i also used two essays: oziewicz’s (2022) advocacy piece describing children’s stories as a tool for social transition and bradfield’s (2020) short piece about using an ecocritical lens when teaching children’s literature. bradfield relies heavily on gaard’s (2008, 2009) ideas of ecopedagogy but i found the style and length of bradfield's article more accessible than gaard’s original for an undergraduate children’s literature course. additionally, short pedagogical articles and stories for undergraduate children’s literature classes can be found in fantasy and myth in the anthropocene (oziewicz et al., 2022), while longer pedagogical articles are in pedagogy in the anthropocene: re-wilding education for a new earth (paulsen, 2022). https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecocriticism/ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.172131407109704 https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2022/01/14/climate-change-childrens-stories https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.172131407109704 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7 https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fantasy-and-myth-in-the-anthropocene-9781350203341/ https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fantasy-and-myth-in-the-anthropocene-9781350203341/ https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-90980-2 climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 9 economics the other pillar of ecojustice pedagogy is economics: asking students to consider who benefits economically from the particular forms of human relationships to the earth we notice in the stories we read. questions such as how humans quantify the value of nature, who gains from destruction, who pays for environmental cleanup, and what kind of relationships people have with nature are good starting places. picturebooks like the lorax (dr. seuss, 1971) or the giving tree (silverstein, 1964) allow students to analyze messages about interdependence and responsibility. students regularly share that they had never considered climate literacy messages picturebooks portray. gaard (2009) has a helpful discussion about the lorax and other environmental-focused picturebooks, while artist topher payne provides an alternative ending for the giving tree. by including a close reading of a picturebook examining people's relationship with the earth early in the semester, students may better understand that even popular or well-known books can include problematic messages about humans and the natural world. such readings, with subsequent discussions, prepare students to be critical readers. gonzález’s (2017) all around us and lindstrom's (2020) we are water protectors are more earth-centric and ecojustice-focused picturebooks, which i use later in the course as a counterbalance to dr. seuss’ and silverstein’s classics. equity the third pillar of ecojustice education is equity. exploring it requires two moves: showcasing the kinship, ecocentric or ecological worldview as an alternative to the dominant anthropocentric worldview. the latter places "man" on the top of a pyramid of beings with "woman" and larger animals cascading downward until the base layer of smaller plants, animals, and insects, traditionally deemed less important in western culture. the former worldview emphasizes the interdependences of all creatures. figure 1 illustrates the two worldviews. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-lorax-film/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7 https://www.topherpayne.com/giving-tree https://www.climatelit.org/literature/por-todo-nuestro-alrededor-all-around-us/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/kinship-care/kinship-worldview/ hindhede ú implementing ecojustice praxis 10 figure 1 worldviews source: from “ego vs. eco” figure credited on the internet to the creative commons. this image is from eco-vison sustainable learning center non-profit organization in delvavan, wisconsin who developed this image along with the organization generation alpha (martusewicz et al., 2021). the other move is, logically, a critical discussion of the logic of domination. students learn to recognize that the subordination of certain groups over others, including humans over the natural world, is perpetuated by cultural assumptions and metaphors and that it causes and sanctions injustices for people and the planet (martusewicz et al., 2021). there are many ways to discuss how socio-linguistic metaphors sustain and increase social and ecological oppression. one way is to avoid stereotypes about gender, including describing nature as female. discussion and reflection about why nature is often aligned as female is useful. questions might include: does the author provide gendered attributes of nature? are these positive or negative associations? why might one align nature with woman/female? what are the benefits and problems with assigning gender to nature? who profits from such assignments? who does not? how do these assignments relate to an ecological worldview? climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 11 final ideas for engaging in praxis introducing new vocabulary, showcasing images of earth-centric worldviews, reading articles, non-fiction texts, and novels exposes students to ecojustice pedagogy; however, students need to engage in praxis themselves. the following two assignments lend themselves to such engagement. have students evaluate representations of environmental inclusion and justice in picturebook portrayals. one assignment has students evaluate three picture books from those loosely grouped into two categories: diversity/social justice and environmental/ecological justice. after reading the three books, students choose one and write an analysis of the book's content and images. the assignment requires students to examine the interaction between text and images and respond to questions relating to previously introduced terms, such as protagonists and bibliotherapy. another assignment centers on developing ecojustice criteria that can be applied to children’s literature. children’s literature courses usually include a learning outcome related to developing criteria for evaluating children's literature, such as diversity, quality, or genre markers, such as for graphic novels. in my children's literature course, students list three to five criteria they would use to evaluate literature based on an ecojustice ethic. sometimes, i compile the suggestions into one list or have the students comment on each other's suggestions. i also ask students to consider the three components of sustainability, reflecting how ecology, economics, and equity manifest throughout texts and the course. higher education faculty must incorporate environmental topics and ecojustice pedagogy into their courses. similarly, colleges and universities need to provide professional development to help faculty infuse such pedagogy throughout their curriculum. implementing ecojustice praxis in undergraduate children's literature courses is a significant start. hopefully, the above ideas can be used as inflection points for children's literature faculty so that they can identify, create, and increase an ecojustice ethic and implement ecojustice praxis in their courses. hindhede ú implementing ecojustice praxis 12 references álvarez-garcía, o., sureda-negre, j., & comas-forgas, r. (2015). environmental education in pre-service teacher training: a literature review of existing evidence. journal of teacher education for sustainability, 17(1), 72–85. bradfield, k. (2020). reading with an ecocritical lens: deeper and more critical thinking with children’s literature. practical literacy: the early and primary years, 25(2), 15-16. https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.172131407109704 damico, j. s., baildon, m., & panos, a. (2020). climate justice literacy: stories-we-liveby, ecolinguistics, and classroom practice. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 63(6), 683-691, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1051 dr. seuss. (1971). the lorax. random house for young readers. edwards, a. r. (2015). the heart of sustainability: restoring ecological balance from the inside out. new society publishers. fleischman, p. (1997). seedfolks. harper teen. gaard, g. (2008). toward an ecopedagogy of children’s environmental literature. green theory & praxis: the journal of ecopedagogy, 4(2), 15. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/gretagaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_env ironmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-anecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf gaard, g. (2009). children's environmental literature: from ecocriticism to ecopedagogy. neohelicon, 36(2), 321-334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-0090003-7 grantz, a. (2022). two degrees. scholastic press. gonzález, x. (2017). all around us. cinco puntos press. henderson, b. (2018). wilderness wars. pokey hat. international commission on the futures of education. (2021). reimagining our futures together: a new social contract of education. unesco. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379381 klein, n. (2022). how to change everything. atheneum books for young readers. little badger, d. (2021). a snake falls to earth. levine querido. lindstrom, c. (2020). we are water protectors. roaring brook press. https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.172131407109704 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1051 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/greta-gaard/publication/265048062_toward_an_ecopedagogy_of_children%27s_environmental_literature/links/559c2d1c08ae898ed651c31b/toward-an-ecopedagogy-of-childrens-environmental-literature.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379381 climate literacy in education, volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 13 lupinacci, j., happel-parkins, a., & lupinacci, m.w. (2018). ecocritical contestations with neoliberalism: teaching to (un)learn “normalcy.” policy futures in education, 16(6), 652–668. doi:10.1177/1478210318760465 magnason, a.s. (1999). the story of the blue planet. seven stories press. martusewicz, r. a., edmundson, j. & lupinacci, j. (2021). ecojustice education: toward diverse, democratic, and sustainable communities (3rd ed.). routledge. oziewicz, m. (2022, january 14). why children’s stories are a powerful tool to fight climate change. yes! https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2022/01/14/climatechange-childrens-stories oziewicz, m., attebery, b., dêdinová, t. (2022). fantasy and myth in the anthropocene: imagining futures and dreaming hope in the literature and media. (m. oziewicz, b. attebery, t. dêdinová, eds.). bloomsbury academic. oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1(1), 1-3. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/issue/view/303 russel, d. (2019). literature for children: a short introduction. pearson. paulsen, m., jagodzinski, j., hawke, s. (2022). pedagogy in the anthropocene: rewilding education for a new earth. palgrave macmillan. silverstein, s. (1964). the giving tree. harpercollins. doi:10.1177/1478210318760465 https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2022/01/14/climate-change-childrens-stories https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2022/01/14/climate-change-childrens-stories https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/issue/view/303 redmond ú hope framework 14 the hope framework: a literacy strategy for identifying hope in narratives as a response to young people’s eco-grief colleen b. redmond, university of minnesota-twin cities, united states abstract this article outlines the healing opportunities for processing eco-grief (or hope) framework. modeled on hope theory research, the framework includes four textual markers for hope: 1) motivation for change, 2) belief that change is possible, 3) plans for a path forward, and 4) agency to take action. this article introduces the hope framework as a pedagogical strategy to assist educators in climate literacy practices that spark dialogue and healing through centering hope as a lived practice. keywords eco-grief, hope, hope framework, climate literacy, climate emotions, collective action https://www.climatelit.org/?s=climate+grief https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy https://www.climatelit.org/search-results/?wpv_view_count=1223&wpv_post_search=&wpv-audience=0&wpv-publication-years=0&wpv-topic%5b%5d=climate-emotions https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 15 an introduction to the hope framework not far into madeleine l’engle’s a wrinkle in time (1962), charles wallace, calvin, and meg realize the magnitude of the challenges they face. to offer strength for what’s to come, mrs. who says: “nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything” (p. 61). young people today, too, need hope as they face a magnitude of challenges related to the climate crisis. such hope must include action-based strategies that embrace “a committed and active struggle” (duncan-andrade, 2009, p. 185). this article offers an overview of the hope framework as a tool for educators to integrate hope-centered strategies into their climate literacy practices. modeled on hope theory established by charles r. snyder (2002) and expanded on by joanna macy and chris johnstone (2022), the framework proposed below includes four textual markers: 1) motivation for change, 2) belief that change is possible, 3) plans for a path forward, and 4) agency to take action. the hope framework is designed to help students explore the intersections of hope, eco-grief, and climate literacy through the study of hope as a tangible action-based construct that can be identified in stories and used to spark healing dialogue with youth, especially as a response to eco-grief. the concept of hope-sparking dialogue is grounded in paulo freire’s notion of dialogical action, where “subjects meet in cooperation in order to transform the world” (2018, p. 167). literature offers opportunities for just such dialogical transformation through the discussion of hope and grief represented in a story. this leads to conversations involving the readers’ own experiences and reframes their understanding of what hope is and how it works. hope, eco-grief, and youth this framework emerged in response to the ever-growing evidence of the global mental health impacts on youth due to the climate emergency. as elin kelsey (2020) notes, “the environmental crisis is also a crisis of hope” (p. 4). a 2021 survey of over 10,000 youth ages 16-25 found that when asked about climate change, 75% of youth found the future frightening and 59% were extremely worried. more than half reported sadness, anxiety, anger, powerlessness, helplessness, and guilt. 45% admitted that these feelings negatively impact their lives on a daily basis (hickman et al., 2021). whether or not students are talking about it at school, they are almost certainly https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/growplus/files/2020/02/hope-synder-paper.pdf https://www.activehope.info/ redmond ú hope framework 16 experiencing a range of climate emotions. with this in mind, i began thinking about how hope might be better defined and used as a response to negative climate emotions. as a graduate student in literacy education, i also wondered how stories might be used for this task. the field of climate emotions includes a wide variety of feelings organized in climate emotions wheel (pihkala, 2022; climate barometer 2022). one such term, specifically addressed in the hope framework, is eco-grief: “the grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change” (cunsolo and ellis, p. 275). eco-grief is a phenomenon with global causes. a 2019 report by the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ipbes) estimates that about one million species on earth are facing extinction, a rate which is tens to hundreds of times higher than average and is expected to increase without direct conservation efforts. humans have now notably altered 75% of the planet’s land surface, impacted the loss of over 85% of wetland area, and set in motion ever increasing damage for 66% of earth’s oceans (ibid). a 2017 american psychological association report shows that these losses have not gone unnoticed. the study found instances of emotional dysregulation in children as young as three years old due to both experienced and anticipated climate impacts (clayton et al., 2017). being aware of this deeply personal sense of loss many youths are facing is crucial for engaging with the hope framework. by acknowledging students’ and our own ecogrief, we are better able to understand the need for hope and the opportunities literature holds for healing. rethinking hope as action it is important to understand what is meant by the concept of hope. merriam-webster (2018) defines hope as, “desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment”—a line of thinking focused on expectations illustrated in francis bacon’s notion of hope as “a good breakfast, but a bad supper” (bartlett, 1968, p. 20). by contrast, greta thunberg (2022) describes hope as “taking action” (p. 421). it is this action-oriented mindset, based on the work of c.r. snyder, joanna macy and chris johnstone, that informs the hope framework. according to snyder, hope consists of https://climatebarometer.org/research-details-wide-array-of-climate-emotions/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 17 “the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways” (p. 249). hope is likewise action-oriented for macy and johnstone. in active hope, they assert that hope involves three steps: 1) facing a realistic view of the problem that acknowledges emotions, 2) identifying a vision for what needs to change, and 3) creating a concrete plan to move in a new direction (pp. 4-5). central to the promise of the hope framework is a large body of evidence showing consistently positive impacts for people with higher levels of actionbased hope in quality-of-life indicators such as healthy eating, exercise, resilience to stress, and overall mental health, including lower rates of anxiety and depression (gallagher & lopez, 2017). as kelsey notes, “hope improves our capacity to engage with the real and overwhelming issues we face” (p. 11). snyder likewise asserts specific potential for hope in education: “the results to date indicate that hope, taught in the classroom context of a school setting, can be raised” (p. 262). oziewicz’s proposal about planetarianism and the potential of planetarianist stories to help students develop “hope-oriented anticipatory imagination” is another example of advocacy for story-based hope work in the classroom (2022, p. 242). in other words, hope not only heals but also can be taught. exploring the use of the hope framework in climate literature the textual markers on which the hope framework is based include motivation for change, belief that change is possible, plans for a path forward, and agency to take action (see figure 1). by recognizing these elements in narratives, whether published texts or in the students’ own stories, a framework for guiding the discourse toward hope is created. this hope framework allows hope, an often nebulous concept, to become visible through the characters’ actions. the story then becomes a springboard for conversations around climate literacy while also spurring on figure 1 redmond ú hope framework 18 readers’ reflections on their own motivations, beliefs, plans, and agency. to illustrate the hope framework in action, i examine shaunna and john stith’s picturebook black beach: a community, an oil spill, and the origin of earth day (2023). black beach tells the story of sam, a girl living in santa barbara, ca, during the union oil spill in january 1969 and of the events leading up to the first earth day. the story revolves around the consequences of people's actions on the environment and how the characters move forward with hope toward solutions. the four hope markers of motivation, belief, plans, and agency guide readers to identify elements of hope in the narrative and to recognize opportunities for processing their own eco-grief. in black beach, after sam learns of the spill, she runs anxiously down to see her beloved beach. “with each step, she could feel the weight of her worry.” later, she stands on the beach with her parents looking out into the oil-filled water. “it was even worse than she feared” (fig 2). although this is certainly a terrible event, it serves as figure 2 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-beach-a-community-an-oil-spill-and-the-origin-of-earth-day/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-beach-a-community-an-oil-spill-and-the-origin-of-earth-day/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-beach-a-community-an-oil-spill-and-the-origin-of-earth-day/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/black-beach-a-community-an-oil-spill-and-the-origin-of-earth-day/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 19 motivation for sam to take steps toward action. in the context of the hope framework, as unlikely as it seems, this step is part of hope. although motivation does not always need to be tragic, it often is. grief, however, can paralyze motivation which brings up an important point of discussion within the hope framework. after the oil spill in black beach, sam sits by herself on the beach looking out at the polluted water. “sam felt helpless. all she could do was sit back and watch” (fig 3). this is the lowest point of the story. it is important to note that, at first, sam faces her ecogrief alone. as the book continues, it is only by working together with others that sam can move forward. this power of collective action is a key element of hope and an essential part of engaging students through the hope framework. the importance of collective action is illustrated in black beach when sam joins her friends in filling bottles with oily sand to send to politicians, believing this would make a difference. “if the people in power saw what had happened, then maybe they would work to prevent it from ever happening again” (fig 4). this belief has an impact. senator gaylord nelson visits santa barbara which sets in motion plans for the first earth day. examples of the hope markers— motivation, belief, and plans—appear multiple times in black beach and build upon each other. figure 3 figure 4 redmond ú hope framework 20 this is true as well for the fourth element of hope: the agency to take action. sam finds agency as she carries out the plans for earth day: “the more sam learned, the more powerful she felt.” she puts up signs on the beach to protect it and bring awareness of environmental issues. “there was still more work to do, and sam and her friends were just getting started” (fig 5). each event described above serves as an excellent entry point for dialogue with students. each helps them recognize hope and eco-grief both in the story and as part of their own emotions in relation to the climate crisis. bringing hope and eco-grief into classroom conversations educators know well the power of stories to inspire students and build inroads for learning. stories, too, serve as launching pads for topics that can often be hard to know how to begin, including climate change and the myriad emotions that come with it. fear, anxiety, and helplessness are just some of the feelings youth face each day and with the ever-accelerating climate emergency the impact of eco-grief is of particular concern. it is now, more than ever, that young people need to find hope in their future, and this is where the power of stories comes in. hope is much more than wishful thinking. it is an emotion driving action and healing. it can reveal itself as such in stories if we know what to look for. the four hope markers presented here help not only find hope in literature but also frame discussions around motivation, belief, plans, and agency that allow students to share their worries and fears for the planet. besides black beach, many other picturebooks engage with a collective response to eco-grief. among them are juana martinez-neal’s zonia’s rainforest (2021) and meeg pincas’ ocean soup (2021), both of which also work well for bringing hope markers into the classroom. the hope framework can also be used for exploring stories for older readers, such as alan gratz’s two degrees (2022), amy allgeyer’s dig too deep (2016), and katherine applegate’s willodeen (2021). the figure 5 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/zonias-rain-forest/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/zonias-rain-forest/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/dig-too-deep/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 21 hope markers are adaptable to a wide range of literature, and there is likely a story already waiting to try out on your bookshelf. ultimately, the power of stories comes not just from the author’s words but from the ideas they inspire. using the hope markers empowers students to voice and honor their eco-grief while also realizing that hope can exist both in published stories and in their own. in the end, it is this realization that will help us all move closer to hope and healing. references clayton, s., manning, c. m., krygsman, k., & speiser, m. (2017). mental health and our changing climate: impacts, implications, and guidance. american psychological association and ecoamerica. cunsolo, a., & ellis, n. r. (2018). ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. nature climate change, 8(4), 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2 duncan-andrade, j. (2009). note to educators: hope required when growing roses in concrete. harvard educational review, 79(2), 181–194. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.2.nu3436017730384w freire, p. ([1968] 2018). pedagogy of the oppressed. bloomsbury academic. gallagher, m. w., & lopez, s. j. (2018). the oxford handbook of hope. oxford university press. hickman, c., marks, e., pihkala, p., clayton, s., lewandowski, r. e., mayall, e. e., wray, b., mellor, c., & van susteren, l. (2021). climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. the lancet planetary health, 5(12). https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00278-3 ipbes. (2019). summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services. zenodo (cern european organization for nuclear research). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3553579 kelsey, e. (2020). hope matters: why changing the way we think is critical to solving the environmental crisis. greystone books. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2 https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.2.nu3436017730384w https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(21)00278-3 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3553579 redmond ú hope framework 22 macy, j., & johnstone, c. (2020). active hope: how to face the mess we're in without going crazy. new world library. merriam-webster. (2018). hope. merriam-webster.com. https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/hope oziewicz, m. (2022). planetarianism now: on anticipatory imagination, young people’s literature and hope for the planet. in paulsen, m., jagodzinski, j. and hawke, s.m. (eds.). pedagogy in the anthropocene: re-wilding education for a new earth. palgrave, 241-56. pihkala, p. (2022). toward a taxonomy of climate emotions. frontiers in climate, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.738154 snyder, c. r. (2002). hope theory: rainbows in the mind. psychological inquiry, 13(4), 249–275. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1304_01 stith, s., & stith, j. (2023). black beach: a community, an oil spill, and the origin of earth day. simon and schuster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hope https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hope https://link.springer.com/book/9783030909796 https://link.springer.com/book/9783030909796 https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.738154 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1304_01 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 23 staying with the climate trouble: part two lee zimmerman, hofstra university, hempstead, new york, usa abstract in teaching about climate, when it comes to the troubling question of “what can we do?” i’ve argued that we try to help students stay with, rather than prematurely and inadequately, resolve that trouble and that we do this by inviting them into our own state of not knowing. how to stay with the pedagogical trouble of doing that, including the trouble of trying to contain the despair that an honest account of the climate crisis may provoke? this essay suggests that one approach to that question in the literature classroom is to teach texts in which characters themselves grapple with the question of “what can we do?” ultimately, the pedagogical challenge is to help shape these textual encounters into an awareness that, especially as it is shared, despair might be something other than a terminal condition—indeed, might be a necessary passage through to whatever comes next. keywords climate pedagogy, climate crisis, eco-anxiety, staying with the trouble the author would like to acknowledge duncan rayside. zimmerman ú climate trouble pt ii 24 how can we introduce the climate crisis into the classroom as a crisis without leaving students despondent? in part one of “staying with the climate trouble” (2023) i tried to elaborate on how i think about that pedagogical challenge in my college classroom, arguing, somewhat against the grain of much climate pedagogy, that our deepest obligation isn’t to reassure students by offering them hope—by directing them to “what they can do”—but, rather (borrowing donna haraway’s phrase), to help them “stay with the trouble.” in this, i was reacting against the way climate action is often introduced into the classroom in the same normalizing terms with which it takes shape in the public discourse more broadly, a discourse in which even the most purportedly “ambitious” climate policy, like biden’s inflation reduction act, remains farcically inadequate to the severity and urgency of the problem. advocating that students stay with the trouble isn’t asking them to abandon the question of “what can we do?” but, rather, to more fully feel and understand what’s at stake in any particular form of doing. “we can’t know in advance precisely what [that staying with the trouble] might mean,” i wrote, or whether it will lead to actions commensurate to the scale and urgency of the problem, “but we can invite students into our own state of not-knowing and thus into the process of finding out.” in this follow-up article, i’ll try to say something about what “inviting students into our not-knowing” might look like in the climate classroom. again, i’m focusing on college literature classes, taking as premises that, as marek oziewicz puts it “climate change is not a stem issue,” but, rather, “a worldview issue, entangled with our values, perceptions, beliefs, and lifestyles’” and that—because worldviews are established, maintained, normalized, and, perhaps, challenged and changed by stories a culture tells about itself and the world—one important way of studying the climate crisis is studying literature (oziewicz, 2023, p. 35). in one way, inviting students into our not knowing is part of what many teachers in the humanities already try to do. in teaching a piece of literature, the kind of questions on which we focus aren’t in the main those can be answered definitively and finally. a colleague of mine once said that teaching certain texts many times over was easy because “i know where the bodies are buried,” but even a buried body undergoes changes. we do establish frameworks for addressing the key questions, steering students toward certain kinds of terms and concerns, but what we’re after isn’t https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 https://www.dukeupress.edu/staying-with-the-trouble https://www.oilchange.org/publications/fossil-fuel-fail https://www.oilchange.org/publications/fossil-fuel-fail https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5240/3334 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 25 a final knowledge, a closing down of a question. rather, it’s a process of engaged exploration that cannot produce the last word. to invite students into our own not-knowing, then, is to treat the question of “what they can do” in something like the same manner we treat other questions in a literature class, however different the stakes of the inquiry might seem to be. one way to do this is to examine texts that themselves stage the process of characters confronting “what to do.” for me, one useful text in this regard has been jenny offill’s weather, where we see a range of responses to that question, both in the central character lizzie herself and in others, including her mentor, sylvia, a climate public intellectual. it is sylvia who feels compelled to provide in her work what she mockingly calls an “obligatory note of hope” (p. 64), but, tellingly, offill herself does the same thing, appending to her narrative a link to obligatorynoteofhope.com, a site offering both “tips for trying times” and “ways to get involved.” the novel thus ushers the reader beyond itself, as if to insist that the question “what to do” cannot remain sequestered within the text. and in doing this, the book asks us to consider to what extent a note of hope that presents itself as “obligatory”—that arises not from studying the facts of the case but, rather, from a need that precedes any facts—can reflect more than the desperation that prompts it. in this way, weather both points students toward some concrete things they might “do” and also asks them to stay with the trouble of scrutinizing to what extent the site’s various “tips” and “ways” seem consistent with a truly adequate response to the desperation of our moment. a short list of other works that stage characters grappling with “what to do?” might include, most prominently, kim stanley robinson’s the ministry of the future, though, in my view, while robinson does visit the trouble, finally, as what samuel miller mcdonald has called a “tale of the plucky bureaucrat who uses science, reason, and technical expertise to stumble on the perfect combination of policy incentives and new technology to save the day,” the book abandons rather than stays with that trouble (mcdonald, 2021, n.p; zimmerman, 2022). at almost 600 pages, the book is in most contexts too long to teach, unless one assigns only selections. though the same is true of stephen markey’s even longer the deluge, that book does stay with the trouble more thoroughly, rooted more deeply in characters critical of the very systems and institutions of power, and their leaders, that in ministry “save the day.” to what extent https://obligatorynoteofhope.com/ https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-do-authors-dream-of-electric-jeeps https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-of-climate-fiction-got/ zimmerman ú climate trouble pt ii 26 do other works that one might list here seem to represent the process of staying with the trouble? that’s a good question to bring to those works, which might include jessie greengrass’s the high house, nathaniel rich’s odds against tomorrow, ilija trojanow’s the lamentations of zeno, and the film how to blow up a pipeline (a narrative drama based on andreas malm’s non-fiction book of that name about why, not how, to blow up a pipeline). however much the question of “what students can do to help try to stop the climate house from burning down” resembles the kind of questions that humanities classes normally consider, there is nonetheless a big difference between the kind of generative not-knowing that structures those classes and the desperate not-knowing we’re confronted with when students understandably ask what they can do. i’ve implied that inviting the students into the former kind of not-knowing (considering the question of “what they can do” as a literary question) might help usher them into the more desperate, latter, but i’ve also invited them into that latter not-knowing more directly, by sharing with a class a draft of this essay, in the hope this might help students sense how crucial their own agency is in grappling with the question. one student remarked that in response to reading the essay, and discussing it in class, she began to feel angry and then “inspired” to do something (or, rather, to take the question “what can i do” more literally and personally). ultimately, if we invite students to stay with the climate trouble, we’re necessarily challenging ourselves to stay with the pedagogical trouble of doing so. for me, that teacherly trouble has partly involved an awareness that, in issuing such an invitation, to some degree i’m likely dealing with my own climate anxiety by passing it along to classes of college students who as a group (along with high schoolers) even before covid-19 was suffering what the national education association called an “epidemic of anxiety” (flannery, 2018, n.p). in doing this, to a degree, i'm probably kicking the climate-action can down the road—like the world climate “leaders” at cop meetings, braying on about removing carbon from the atmosphere at some future time. at the same time, though, insofar as inviting students to stay with the trouble takes the form of inviting them to join me in the space of not-knowing, it helps construct the classroom as a space in which we can stay with the trouble together, where staying with the trouble is a form of sharing the trouble. in this, it responds to https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxiety-among-todays-students#:~:text=in%202016%2c%20nearly%20two%2dthirds,the%20national%20college%20health%20assessment. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 27 the central pedagogical challenge shoshana felman identified as having both to let the crisis into the class as a crisis and to “contain” it, so students don’t get too “crazy” (felman and laub, 1992). importantly, however, this is not the same as providing for students the “fewer moments of eco-anxiety and more moments of hope” for which kirsten hunt calls (hunt, 2023, p. 25). even if confronting the dire extremity of our moment needn’t drive them too “crazy,” it is likely to open them to some degree of despair. but part of staying with the pedagogical challenge, i’d suggest, is helping them understand—and thus perhaps experience—despair as something other than a terminal condition. here, one might ask the class to consider something like what orestes means, in jean-paul sartre’s the flies, when he tells zeus that “human life begins on the far side of despair.” or one might invite them to wrangle with what contemporary novelist peter dimock means when he says that, in responding to the climate crisis despair is a much richer world than denial. denial is a dead world and goes nowhere. it has no future. despair . . .possesses the generative power of whatever comes next, which we are in no position to know but that we have the ability through language to create…. [his book explores possibilities for finding our way] not out of despair but through it . . . it’s not the notion that we always have to get past despair or we have to manage it or solve it. the deeper truth of language gives us a way to inhabit it. before we come to a solution we have to live it. we skip the living part of it, the living of despair. out of that [living it] will come whatever comes next (“interview”, 2021). examining such statements in class can become a way of declining to put the cart of hope before the horse of despair. and as with hope, so too with optimism. “you don’t fight fascism because you are going to win,” sartre wrote in the age of reason (1947), “you fight fascism because it is fascist.” taking a cue again from sartre, one can ask the class to think seriously about what it means to fight for a cause, even if victory seems unlikely—about what’s at stake in the fight against the ecocidal status quo, whether (against the odds) we manage to pre-empt the worst-case climate scenarios or we don’t. https://www.routledge.com/testimony-crises-of-witnessing-in-literature-psychoanalysis-and-history/felman-laub/p/book/9780415903929?srsltid=afmboornkhxkaifrecvoxla9uaheyhxwjbmkzjochlc2smqzpjdw6uvx https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/5322/3331 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwjyylsfck zimmerman ú climate trouble pt ii 28 i’ve thus come to frame climate courses by presenting students with a passage from the poet carolyn forche’s “ourselves or nothing” (1982). attending closely to these lines is an act of literary criticism, of course. but in indicting a culture numb to both the legacy of historical atrocities and, by implication, to the atrocity-in-process constituted by anthropogenic global warming, the poem also challenges students to “go after that which is lost”: to open themselves to the trouble with which the poem as a whole may help them stay. and in this, the poem can work as a way of inviting students both into our own not-knowing and into the joint process of trying to find what’s next. in that spirit i’ll close with “ourselves or nothing”’s final lines: go after that which is lost and all the mass graves of the century’s dead will open into your early waking hours: belsen, dachau, saigon, phnom penh and the one meaning bridge of ravens, sao paulo, armagh, calcutta, salvador, although these are not the same. …. …everywhere and always go after that which is lost. there is a cyclone fence between ourselves and the slaughter and behind it we hover in a calm protected world like netted fish, exactly like netted fish. it is either the beginning or the end of the world, and the choice is ourselves or nothing. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 29 references felman, s., & laub, d. (1992). testimony: crises of witnessing in literature, psychoanalysis, and history. routledge. flannery, m. e. (28 march 2018). the epidemic of anxiety among today’s students. nea today. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxietyamong-todays-students forche, c. (1982). “ourselves or nothing.” the country between us. harper & row. hunt, k. (2023). finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. climate literacy in education, 1(1), 24–26. https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5322 interview with novelist peter dimock. (24 nov 2021). the scrum. youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwjyylsfck mcdonald, s. m. (24 jan 2021). the ministry for the future, or do authors dream of electric jeeps? current affairs. https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-doauthors-dream-of-electric-jeeps offill, j. (2020). weather. knopf oziewicz, m. (2023). what is climate literacy? climate literacy in education, 1(1), 34– 38. https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5240 sartre, j.-p. (1947). the age of reason (e. sutton, trans.). alfred a. knopf. zimmerman, l. (2023). staying with the climate trouble: on (not) containing the crisis in the classroom. climate literacy in education, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 zimmerman, l. (11 nov 2022). what kind of thoughts has the king of climate fiction got? tikkun. https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-ofclimate-fiction-got/ https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxiety-among-todays-students https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/epidemic-anxiety-among-todays-students https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5322 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovwjyylsfck https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-do-authors-dream-of-electric-jeeps https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/01/the-ministry-for-the-future-or-do-authors-dream-of-electric-jeeps https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i1.5240 https://doi.org/10.24926/cle.v1i2.5611 https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-of-climate-fiction-got/ https://www.tikkun.org/what-kind-of-thoughts-has-the-king-of-climate-fiction-got/ ramos, rodrigues, & rodrigues ú climate change denialism 30 climate change denialism: critical analysis of arguments in confrontation with climate science ricardo ramos, research centre in basic education (cieb), instituto politécnico de bragança, portugal maria josé rodrigues, research centre in basic education (cieb), instituto politécnico de bragança, portugal isilda rodrigues, education and psychology department, university of trás-os-montes and alto douro, vila real, portugal abstract climate denialism is a spectrum spanning outright denial and degrees of skepticism about the reality of climate change. denialism is fueled by disinformation or imprecise information that finds fertile ground on social media and takes advantage of the users’ fears and vulnerabilities, such as a lack of climate literacy and critical thinking. in this article, we offer examples of how to refute climate change denialism and expand notions of climate literacy to include the capacity to both identify and respond to climate disinformation. keywords climate change, climate literacy, education, climate change denialism climate deniers and the real science scientists overwhelmingly agree that climate change exists and is caused by anthropogenic phenomena (lynas et al., 2021). the consensus can be found in thousands of scientific studies from prestigious journals as well as entities recognized climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 31 for their scientific capabilities and veracity, such as nasa and the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc), which report that temperatures have been rising over the last century (nasa, 2015). all the same, since at least 1979, oil companies have paid scientists to deny the realities of climate change (reed et al., 2021). these oil industry-funded scientists have produced studies that deny climate change—a total of 3% of all published articles in the climate sciences (rasmus et. al, 2015). these studies have been analyzed by rasmus et al., (2015), who found them marred by several flaws, including fallacies and misrepresented results. despite the overwhelming consensus on the reality of climate change, these publications continue to feed climate denialism, a term that encompasses both outright denial and different forms of skepticism about the reality of climate change. but denialism can be resolved. below, we summarize a few common arguments posed by climate denialist. we also offer educators tools and resources to respond. is the influence on the climate only caused by natural factors? one of the arguments most used by climate change denialists is the natural variability of the climate. denialists argue that fluctuations in the climate are mainly the result of natural processes and that current climate changes are not unusual. granted, the climate has changed in the past, long before the industrial revolution. the planet has gone through several warm and cold periods (glaciers and interglacial eras). so, denialists think, if global temperatures have already changed naturally, long before human beings even thought of polluting, then the current warming must be of natural origin. below, figure 1 shows both natural factors that influence climate change (volcanoes, solar radiation, and el niño) and their influence on the earth's temperature versus anthropogenic, human-caused influence. ramos, rodrigues, & rodrigues ú climate change denialism 32 figure 1 main influencers of the earth's climate source: lean and rind, 2009 so, despite there being a natural influence on the increase in the earth's temperature, the greatest influence is anthropogenic (lynas et al., 2021). in addition to using this chart to illustrate this distinction, educators can also use en-roads simulator: an online platform that allows students to adjust levels of various factors, such as energy, transport, and land use, to then simulate variations in temperature increase. this also allows students to explore possible future scenarios. https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 33 i don't notice that the sea is rising. worldwide, the average sea level has risen around 9 cm between 1993 and 2021 (copernicus, 2022). but this is not evenly distributed globally, as sea level fluctuations vary from region to region. however, the advance of the sea in the western world, thanks to technology and engineering, may have a "solution." the most severe sea level rise is experienced largely in developing countries, where people have migrated in the face of the advance of the sea (sea level rise, 2020). even if students do not live in proximity to rising seas, educators can lead them through several activities to show the consequences of rising sea levels. several examples can be found at the national center for science education, or on the nasa website. it’s helpful to use a short video “sea level rise” by nasa, which introduces the concept of sea level rise its connection global warming. the video is brief, basic, and clear. students can also play the game “my coastal future”, which explores climate change impacts and encourages students to reflect on adaptation and resilience. the planet has experienced greater heat in the past and terrestrial life has prospered. the last period in which temperatures were higher than they are today was the eocene geological era (56 to 34 million years ago). during the eocene, the increase in global temperatures was due to multiple causes, but the main ones were strong volcanic activity and gas emissions (gradstein et al., 2020). this period was not conducive to a thriving biosphere: of the five mass extinctions that have occurred on our planet, four were caused by climate change, which extinguished between 75% and 86% of terrestrial life (barnosky et al., 2011). from the history of the great extinctions on earth, we can see that the increase in the planet's temperature was often influenced by gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, the same gases that are still released today because of human actions. to explore this notion, educators can use biointeractive’s earthviewer, an interactive map that enables students to explore the science of earth's deep history, from its formation 4.5 billion years ago to modern times. earthviewer dynamically shows how continents grow and shift as students scroll through billions of years. https://ncse.ngo/classroom-elementary-lesson-sea-level-rise https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-melting-ice-causes-sea-level-rise/ https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-melting-ice-causes-sea-level-rise/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msnohupep9i&list=pl9tfrgfq75552g7qva-itoeuo7fy11o5f https://mycoastalfutures.niwa.co.nz/ https://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/earthviewer ramos, rodrigues, & rodrigues ú climate change denialism 34 additional layers let students explore changes in atmospheric composition, temperature, biodiversity, day length, and solar luminosity over geologic time. don't plants do better in environments with very high co2? denialists often argue that carbon dioxide (co2) cannot be considered a pollutant because it is a gas that is indispensable to life, as flora require carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. granted, under controlled conditions of temperature, humidity, water, and nutrients, more co2 indeed induces more photosynthesis (dusenge et al., 2018). but not all plants like extra carbon. and for those carbon enthusiasts in the plant kingdom, co2 is not the only factor controlling growth. moreover, as a result of climate change, we don't always have controlled conditions, like in a greenhouse. if we change some of these parameters, especially temperature and humidity, then, regardless of whether there is more co2, a particular plant will become stressed, even decreasing its level of photosynthesis (bostrom, 2015). at this point, co2 becomes a pollutant, as it "disturbs the ecosystem" (hadipoor et al., 2021). as figure 2 shows, the rise in atmospheric co2 levels has not led to an increase in green areas or forests, woodlands, and the like (wallache, 2022). in fact, the amount of green areas has decreased as a result of the expansion of agriculture or acid rain resulting from excessive pollution. figure 2 deforestation process for agricultural expansion source: ritchie, 2021 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 35 has the amount of ice really been decreasing? if so, what’s the big deal? as you might expect, ice recovers and decreases depending on the time of year, but the trend has been downward over the decades. when we consult credible websites such as the national snow & data center (nsidc, 2023), and nasa (nasa, 2023), we see that the amount of arctic ice has been decreasing, as shown in figure 3 below. figure 3 ice decrease in the arctic region since 1979 source: (nsidc, 2023) melting ice caps can have many unexpected effects. three among them are of particular interest to students: 1) the loss of albedo effect, 2) loss of water, and 3) risk of zombie viruses. first, the albedo is a phenomenon associated with the white color of snow/ice having the ability to reflect solar radiation, causing heat to be returned to the atmosphere and not absorbed (nasa, 2012). using figure 4 (below), educators can https://nsidc.org/home ramos, rodrigues, & rodrigues ú climate change denialism 36 convey this fact to underscore that the loss of white (reflective) zones on the planet means that less of the sun’s radiation will be reflected back into space. figure 4 albedo feedback source: bahlburg & breitkreuz, 2017 second, water on our planet can be found in a liquid state (oceans, rivers, lakes and underground), a gaseous state (clouds, for example) and a solid state in the form of ice. many countries depend on glaciers and mountain snows for their water, which slowly melts and forms rivers. but climate change is melting these glaciers so fast that people are starting to run out of water for farming, cooking and other necessities (national snow and ice data center, 2018). to explore the implications of melting glaciers, educators can combine several resources, such as experiments, video explainers from the united nations, and nasa’s visualizations of ice loss over time. finally, viruses can hibernate for thousands of years in ice caps (lemieux et al., 2021; hunt, 2023). once the glaciers melt, these zombie viruses only need a single host to multiply (makush, 2020). this video can be used to better explain how viruses that are thousands-of-years-old can become active again. https://www.science-sparks.com/melting-polar-ice-caps/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1inafn7am0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1inafn7am0 https://climate.nasa.gov/images-of-change/?intent=131&id=879#879-retreat-of-the-quelccaya-ice-cap-peru https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3k4wirlcbw climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 37 final considerations public opinion on climate change is significantly affected by media coverage and social media posts, which may spread disinformation at a very fast pace, reaching people all over the world. disinformation jeopardizes the efforts needed to mitigate the impacts of climate change. in the face of increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events, it is crucial to combat climate denialism through accurate and affective climate communication, which is a skill central to climate literacy. in doing so, we can act collectively protect our planet and ensure a sustainable future for generations to come. references bahlburg, h., & breitkreuz, c. (2017). grundlagen der geologie. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-54931-5 barnosky, a. d., matzke, n., tomiya, s., wogan, g. o., swartz, b., quental, t. b., marshall, c., mcguire, j. l., lindsey, e. l., maguire, k. c., mersey, b., & ferrer, e. a. (2011). has the earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived? nature, 471(7336), 51–57. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09678 bostrom, d. (2015). plants cannot live on co2 alone. skeptical science. https://skepticalscience.com/co2-plant-food.htm copernicus. (2022). climate indicators: sea level. climate change service. https://climate.copernicus.eu/climate-indicators/sea-level dusenge, m. e., duarte, a. g., & way, d. a. (2018). plant carbon metabolism and climate change: elevated co2 and temperature impacts on photosynthesis, photorespiration and respiration. new phytologist, 221(1), 32–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15283 gradstein, f. m., ogg, j. g., schmitz, m., & ogg, g. (2020). geologic time scale 2020. elsevier. hadipoor, m., keivanimehr, f., baghban, a., ganjali, m. r., & habibzadeh, s. (2021). carbon dioxide as a main source of air pollution: prospective and current trends to control. sorbents materials for controlling environmental pollution, 1(1), 623– 688. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-820042-1.00004-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-54931-5 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09678 https://climate.copernicus.eu/climate-indicators/sea-level https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15283 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-820042-1.00004-3 ramos, rodrigues, & rodrigues ú climate change denialism 38 hunt, k. (2023). scientists have revived a ‘zombie’ virus that spent 48,500 years frozen in permafrost. cnn. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/08/world/permafrostvirus-risk-climate-scn/index.html lean, j. and rind, d. (2009) ‘how will earth’s surface temperature change in future decades?’, geophysical research letters, 36(15). available at: https://doi.org/10.1029/2009gl038932. lemieux, a., colby, g. a., poulain, a. j., & aris-brosou, s. (2021). viral spillover risk increases with climate change in high arctic lake sediments. proceedings of the royal society. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.23.457348 little, b. (2018). when cigarette companies used doctors to push smoking. history. https://www.history.com/news/cigarette-ads-doctors-smoking-endorsement lynas, m., houlton, b. z., & perry, s. (2021). greater than 99% consensus on humancaused climate change in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. environmental research letters, 16(11), 114005. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2966 makush, d. (2020). there are more viruses on earth than there are stars in the universe. smithsonian. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/there-aremore-viruses-earth-there-are-stars-universe-180974433/ nasa. (2012). measuring earth’s albedo. nasa earth observatory. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/84499/measuring-earths-albedo nasa. (2015). 2014 warmest year in modern record. nasa. https://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-yearin-modern-record nasa. (2023). arctic sea ice minimum extent. national ocean service. https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/ national snow and ice data center. (2018). why glaciers matter. national snow and ice data center. https://nsidc.org/learn/parts-cryosphere/glaciers/why-glaciersmatter national snow and ice data center. (2023). arctic sea ice. national snow & ice data center. https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ rasmus, b., nucittelli, d., & lewandosky, s. (2016). learning from mistakes in climate research. theoretical and applied climatology, 126. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1597-5 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/08/world/permafrost-virus-risk-climate-scn/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/08/world/permafrost-virus-risk-climate-scn/index.html https://doi.org/10.1029/2009gl038932 https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.23.457348 https://www.history.com/news/cigarette-ads-doctors-smoking-endorsement https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac2966 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/there-are-more-viruses-earth-there-are-stars-universe-180974433/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/there-are-more-viruses-earth-there-are-stars-universe-180974433/ https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/84499/measuring-earths-albedo https://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-year-in-modern-record https://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-determines-2014-warmest-year-in-modern-record https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/ https://nsidc.org/learn/parts-cryosphere/glaciers/why-glaciers-matter https://nsidc.org/learn/parts-cryosphere/glaciers/why-glaciers-matter https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1597-5 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 39 reed, g., hendlin, y., desikan, a., mackinney, t., berman, e., & goldman, g. t. (2021). the disinformation playbook: how industry manipulates the sciencepolicy process—and how to restore scientific integrity. journal of public health policy, 42(4), 622–634. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-021-00318-6 ritchie, h. (2021). the world has lost one-third of its forest, but an end to deforestation is possible. our world in data. https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-thirdforests snm. (2017). sea level rise to portugal. sea level rise. http://www.snmportugal.pt/index_en.html wallache, o. (2022). visualizing the world’s loss of forests since the ice age. visual capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-worlds-loss-of-forestssince-the-ice-age/ https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-third-forests https://ourworldindata.org/world-lost-one-third-forests http://www.snmportugal.pt/index_en.html https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-worlds-loss-of-forests-since-the-ice-age/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-worlds-loss-of-forests-since-the-ice-age/ screech ú interview with sarah guillory 40 “playing your part”: an interview with sarah guillory ben screech, university of gloucestershire, cheltenham, uk. abstract i was granted an interview with sarah guillory with the intention of publishing this in tandem with my article “after the flood.” the conversation develops many of the themes of the article, especially the author’s belief in the importance of resilience as a trait that will help young people in tackling the climate crisis. keywords agency, story, innovation, empowerment, home, nowhere better than here acknowledgements i would like to thank nick kleese for inviting me to take part in a panel presentation on climate literacy, for which this paper was originally written. i would also like to thank sarah guillory for granting me an interview and for her encouragement of my interest in her work. what prompted you to write nowhere better than here? sarah guillory: i always wanted to write a coastal erosion book. i live and teach in louisiana and so many people don't know how quickly parts of the state are, basically, disappearing. then in 2016, louisiana had a major flood and schools closed for a week. i thought, there's a story in this, about a child coming face-to-face with this disaster and trying to make sense of it all. http://sarahguillory.com/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/6226/3677 climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 41 what made you want to write about the effects of environmental change on the lives of young people, specifically? sg: because unfortunately, they're the ones who are going to have to deal with it. it will be a constant presence in their lives, whereas it was more of a background noise when i was growing up. i remember learning about recycling and there being some concern about acid rain, but kids nowadays are dealing with climate anxiety that is so much more prevalent and, like most anxieties, it’s only exacerbated by social media. these kinds of existential issues are in their faces all the time, whereas when we were young, it was more of a fleeting sound bite on the news. i wanted to write about a character living in this uneasy limbo between something that she has no control over, whilst also giving her an outlet, e.g.: planting marsh grass, to enact some degree of agency. that sense of movement and playing your part can help kids from feeling completely helpless. it’s so important; not just with the climate, but political engagement as well. i was really interested in the portrayal of dr. nelson in the novel, the environmental scientist who jillian befriends. can you discuss your development of this character? sg: i had one very influential teacher who changed the trajectory of my life and was someone that i wanted to be like. i felt it was important for jillian to have exposure to this kind of role model, [someone] who could help to guide her thinking on what to do about her predicament. i also wanted it to be someone who got out of a small town but decided to come back. i wanted dr. nelson to be an adult who had gone off to university, had studied climate effects in brazil, who had been to important and interesting places, yet had ultimately returned to her home state and hadn’t given up on it. so, this character gave me a way to show jillian that you can still fight when all seems hopeless, but you also have to believe in your cause and have the interest and resilience to keep going. it was important to have a sense of hope in the novel, that dr. nelson characterizes. and it was ultimately important for jillian to realize that ‘hey, i can do this on a much larger scale as i get older— this fight doesn't have to end here’. screech ú interview with sarah guillory 42 dr. nelson runs the ‘discovery center’. this was such a positive and inspiring force for good in the book. how important do you feel community outreach is in inspiring and advocating for greater environmental engagement amongst young people? sg: i think they’re really important. it was also important to me to show a girl from nowhere getting involved in that kind of thing, because i was a girl from nowhere and most of the books that i read growing up were about people from somewhere (usually big cities or europe), but they were never from the south. i wanted kids like me from working class families to see themselves reflected in literature. to see that they can be part of a solution as well, but again, on a small scale, without making them feel like they necessarily have to do these big grand things to make a difference. the discovery center encourages people to share oral stories about the places getting destroyed, about planting grass and things that everyone can do. when i was a kid, we would go camping and fishing, but we would always pick up other people's trash because that's what you did. you were good stewards of the land and you took care of it. i never questioned that; it was all just part of my childhood. maybe nowadays the importance of treating nature in that way has been slightly forgotten, so i wanted to put that into the story as well. groups like the discovery center in the book can help to teach young people this appreciation and care for the natural world so, yes, they have real importance. one of the things that struck me about your book was the way you didn’t patronise your readers by implying the existence of easy answers. climate change is a “wicked problem,” and your writing reflects this in a way that is neither hopeless seeming nor lacking in cognizance of the overall gravity of the situation. how did you tread this fine line? sg: i think that you have to have hope. adults are doing a lot of things to mitigate the effects of climate change, which young people should recognise. again, the link to mental health is important and optimism about the future is an integral part of that. however, we have basically locked ourselves into a situation where the oil and gas industry down here [in louisiana] has dug all these channels and caused all of this erosion but has also brought in a lot of money and fed a lot of families in a really poor part of the united states. it’s a balance where people are able to eat because they climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 43 have jobs in these industries, yet they also do so much damage to the environment. i was doing research for another book about the cypress tree industry because cypress forests are just being devastated. i started crying when i read about one tree they cut down with internal markings that dated it to 1066—the year of the norman invasion of britain. i was just like, “are you kidding me!” climate change is so complicated because there are all these moving parts relating to science, ecology, industry, etc. and they’re never quite in sync with each other. children need to understand how complex an issue this is. fiction can be a great way of teaching this. resilience is a key issue in nowhere better than here and jillian gradually learns this trait through her partnership with dr. nelson. why do you think resilience is so important for young people, especially if they wish to play an active role in tackling climate change? sg: resilience is key because this issue is not going to be fixed overnight. it's something i worry about very much with my students. they are no longer comfortable with the “productive struggle”, and i don’t blame them. i tell my students over and over that you have to sit in that uncomfortable place and experience struggle—this is what learning is. yet, they live in a world of immediate gratification with iphones and social media etc. so they are hugely uncomfortable with the idea that the process of achieving things can be worthwhile in itself. instead, they want to race to the outcome. this attitude is deeply problematic when it comes to dealing with climate change, because it’s not like there’ll be a moment when we just say “it’s done—it’s solved”; it will be constant slogging away to make incremental change. the way i think about it and teach it is that writing, running (my other love), and climate change are the same as any big problem: showing up in small ways every single day. kids have to learn that but it’s hard because they see so many polished things online. everything is polished, everything looks like it works out and they don't see the process to it. so there are going be setbacks. there are going to be times when it feels like what you're doing is accomplishing absolutely nothing. yet you have to keep coming back and standing back up and doing it again and again. i always say that hard work beats talent pretty much every single time. i have seen that academically and i have seen that in other ways. people who show up and keep showing up are the ones who achieve great screech ú interview with sarah guillory 44 things. i think that with climate change this process of keeping on showing up is not just going to help kids change things, but ultimately also help them be happy. i want them to find that balance and joy between fighting for what you believe in and just living in that joy; just living in that joy of existing. all that is going to take resilience. why do you think fiction can be such an important tool for teachers to use to engage young people with the climate crisis in the classroom? sg: young people need to see themselves in literature, to fall in love with literature, and to know that they are not alone. i think that is so important, and it's especially true with climate literature. any time you're talking about tough things, fiction is a safe way to explore something because you can look at it as fiction when things get really scary. you can have these very real conversations where not everybody in the classroom has to know that you're going through something personally; it’s the character that is going through this and you can share in their feelings safely. also, throughout my whole life, fiction has fired me up about things that were important, like recycling and ocean pollution, and it’s the same now. plus, there are great cross-curricular things you can pull in: you've got literature and you've got english, but you've also got the sciences, history, oral histories, and the history of place. they’re all interconnected, and climate literacy books are able to show children this. you can explore so much more through fiction and also empathise with things so much more easily than is possible with nonfiction. have you had any notable responses from readers or teachers about the book? sg: a middle school in baton rouge has chosen my book for the whole middle school to read. they're also going on a field trip to see erosion and visit scientists, so that’s really exciting. it shows that the book is capable of encouraging that bridge between story and real life. the book was also chosen by the state of louisiana to represent it at the national book festival in washington dc. they had a poster of my book up and there was a little girl with her parents, and she pointed to the book, and she was like, “i read that book.” i told her i’d written it, and we talked about it. she said that it wasn’t an assigned book for class and that she had chosen it herself. we then talked about jillian, although her favourite character was the dog (everyone loves that dog!). climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 45 finally, what is the topic of your next book and when will it be released? sg: on the topic of dogs, my next book is about the relationship between a little girl and her bloodhound. however, similarly to nowhere better than here, the book is also about her figuring out what home is and how the nature of home changes over time. all my stories are very much about family and home because i’m a homebody and i keep gravitating back to those themes. however, i’m hoping to return to more of the environmental stuff in the book after this one. de sena ú social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis 46 social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis in álvaro colomer's ahora llega el silencio (2019) antonella de sena, università degli studi di napoli “l'orientale”, naples, italy abstract the novel ahora llega el silencio (2019) by álvaro colomer is a recent example of spanish ecofiction, exploring themes of environmental and social justice in a postapocalyptic setting. this article shows the novel’s potential to address human rights, gender equality, social justice, climate and environmental issues. through a story of survival and unity in the face of chaos, colomer's work delivers a timely message about the need for cooperation, respect, and environmental stewardship for a better future. keywords ecofiction, ahora llega el silencio, ecocritical perspective, environmental responsibility. spanish-language ecofiction the 1970s was a decade marked by the rise of environmental awareness and activism, largely due to growing concerns about pollution, deforestation, and other environmental issues. this heightened awareness of the importance of protecting the environment led to the popularization of the concept of ecology, which focuses on the interrelationships between living organisms and their surroundings. it was during this time that ecology became a prominent theme in children's literature. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 47 ever since rousseau positioned children as having a natural inclination towards nature, various authors have noted a longstanding sensitivity to nature in children's literature (curry, 2013; harrison, 2019; young, 2018). before the 1970s, representations of nature in literature were often idealised and did not emphasize the interconnectedness of flora, fauna, and ecosystems. however, with the rise of environmental studies, children's literature began to embrace a range of ecological themes (wu, mallan, & mcgillis, 2013). in the spanish literary scene, authors such as gloria fuertes and elvira lindo have been instrumental in promoting a deeper appreciation of nature in children's literature. fuertes's poetry, such as el libro de las flores y de los árboles (2003), celebrates the beauty of the natural world, while lindo's novels explore themes of environmental conservation and sustainability. one recent trend in both spanish and global environmental literatures is apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fiction, which draws attention to issues such as overconsumption, the exploitation of natural resources, and the influence of multinational corporations. some works in this strand include anxo fariña’s a chave de atlántida (2011), vicent belda’s história de sam. deus ex machina (2014), rosa huertas’ corazón de metal (2015), and álvaro colomer’s ahora llega el silencio (2019). despite their postapocalyptic settings, many of these books bring together themes of climate change, human rights and social justice. in doing so, these texts invite readers to consider and enact climate literacy pedagogy. these texts are also part of an environmental justice literature that collectively “explore[s] the interconnectedness of human rights, social justice and ecological issues” (platt, 2004, p.183). these three concepts are central to modern ecofiction and colomer’s novel, as will be outlined in my analysis below. an ecocritical reading of ahora llega el silencio ahora llega el silencio [now comes the silence] by spanish writer and journalist álvaro colomer won the 2019 premio jaén de narrativa juvenil. the story is set in the city of barcelona, where all adults over the age of twenty-two are dying for no apparent reason. this event is attributed to a virus that affects the population over the age of twenty-two, but there are no answers or cures. the narrative begins six months since the onset of the virus. children, adolescents, and teenagers survive on the streets of barcelona, trying to cope with diverse tribes fighting for power and control. divided into seventeen chapters de sena ú social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis 48 and three parts, the story is told by an omniscient narrator who enters the minds of the characters, revealing their thoughts and feelings. the protagonists include astrea, a resilient sixteen-year-old girl who has refined her survival abilities to defend herself against king death, a malicious individual who derives pleasure from inflicting suffering on others. alongside astrea are nestor, seventeen, and leon, eighteen, who accompany her on a mission to protect a child, called lobo, under her guardianship. lobo, born before the “silence” phenomenon, symbolises “the bridge between the old world and the new” (colomer, 2019, p. 59). astrea’s story particularly foregrounds the notion of human rights. her narrative invites exploring the links between feminist and environmental issues. it also highlights the importance of issues such as gender oppression and women's contribution to the struggle against “dominant narratives of domination” (gaard, 2008, p. 323). astrea's commitment to upholding human rights is best exemplified by her unwavering dedication to protecting the defenceless child in her care. as protector and caretaker in the face of adversity, astrea embodies nurturing, resilient spirit, and deep sense of responsibility for others. as the narrator states, “she had to be a mother without being a woman first, and now she is forced to take care without anyone thinking of her” (p. 86). initially, only astrea is resolute in taking care of the child, whereas her fellow travellers nestor and leon are apprehensive about their own survival after king's death, worrying about potential threats that might arise from caring for the baby. however, as time passes, the trio forms a strong bond and evolves into a makeshift family, providing the child with affection and nurture akin to having “two fathers and a mother” (p. 154). by portraying astrea as a strong and capable leader who takes control of the situation, the narrative challenges gender stereotypes and promotes a more inclusive and equal view of relationships and caring roles traditionally assigned to women. in doing so, the narrative can empower young readers to challenge traditional gender norms and value the perspectives and contributions of women in a climate-changing society. the novel’s engagement with social justice comes from its representation of various communities, each with their own set of rules, which are then compared against one another. one such group is “the savages” made up of young individuals attempting to establish a society based on power over the vulnerable. referred to as “the new adults,” they abide by the law of the strongest, the sole principle enabling their survival: climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 49 “there was no one stronger than them, no one more experienced than them, no one more selfish than them” (p. 17). in contrast to the savages is the children's tribe, which is based on a society where leadership is shared among several individuals rather than centralised in one leader. each day, a different child assumes authority by wearing a white shirt, thus taking responsibility for collective decision making. the next day, that responsibility is passed on to another member, fostering a sense of collective leadership. the children in this community chant the mantra “all equal, all free” (p. 122), emphasising their belief in the equality and freedom of all members. the third group represented are the amazons, warriors who have created an all-female community where men are not allowed, united by a single goal: “to put an end to the oppression of men” (p. 102). this group is constantly growing, welcoming all oppressed women in the city of barcelona to join together and become stronger in pursuit of their goal. in depicting the three different societies, colomer seeks to convey the importance of solidarity, equality, and the rejection of systems based on domination and oppression. the contrast between the brutal rule of the savages and the collaborative leadership of the children's tribe highlights the detrimental effects of power dynamics based on strength and selfishness. the amazons, on the other hand, represent a strong and unified community fighting against gender oppression and advocating for women's rights and empowerment. while social justice and human rights themes lie at the heart of the novel, the narrative’s larger context is of a planetary apocalypse unleashed by nature itself. the narrator describes this as nature’s self-defence, as well as its retribution for human arrogance: the planet, seeing itself on the verge of collapse, had unleashed a global pandemic capable of eradicating, in one fell swoop, those human beings who had caused the greenhouse effect, who had polluted rivers, seas and oceans, who had manufactured nuclear weapons with which they could eradicate all life. […] in a final act of generosity, nature had decided that the virus would only affect adults, the ones truly responsible for the destruction of the ecosystem and had allowed those who could not be blamed to survive: children (p. 13). de sena ú social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis 50 as the novel progresses, and as the characters grapple with the consequences of their actions on the environment, nature’s retribution emerges as a theme. the planetary apocalypse serves as a warning of the dire consequences of environmental degradation and highlights the importance of taking responsibility for our actions. the surviving children, who are victims of the destruction caused by adults, play an important role in the narrative, symbolising hope for a better future and serving as a stark contrast to the irresponsible behaviour of the older generation. a pedagogical perspective ahora llega el silencio by álvaro colomer can be useful to discuss climate literacy in young adult literature, as it deals with issues related to ecology, nature, and the ecosystemic consequences of human actions. through the post-apocalyptic story set in barcelona, the novel invites readers to reflect on the harmful consequences of pollution and environmental destruction caused by adults, who are portrayed as responsible for the climate crisis. furthermore, the role of children and young survivors of the tragedy as bearers of hope for a sustainable future highlights the importance of protecting and respecting the environment for future generations. in the classroom, the novel can be used to stimulate discussion on issues such as human rights, social justice, gender equality and solidarity. by comparing the different social groups represented in the story, students can explore concepts such as power, shared leadership, the fight against oppression and the defence of women's rights. as students reflect on the social and political implications of each distinct social structure, they can bolster critical thinking skills and increase their awareness real-world injustices and inequalities. furthermore, the narrative’s eco-feminism and the portrayal of nature as a vengeful force against human arrogance can stimulate debate about the need for cultural and behavioural change towards the planet. students can be encouraged to reflect on their daily actions and the consequences these may have on the ecosystem, thus encouraging greater awareness and commitment to environmental protection, sustainability, human rights and social justice. in doing so, they can be encouraged to enter critical debate and promote equality, solidarity and respect for nature. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 51 references belda, v. (2014). história de sam. deus ex machina. edicions bromera. colomer, á. (2018). ahora llega el silencio. montena. colomer, t. (2010). introducción a la literatura infantil y juvenil actual. sintesis. curry, a. (2013). environmental crisis in young adult fiction: a poetics of earth. palgrave and macmillan. fariña, anxo. (2011). a chave de atlántida. edicións xerais. fuertes, gloria. (2003). el libro de las flores y de los árboles. biblioteca virtual miguel de cervantes. gaard, g. (2008). children’s environmental literature: from ecocriticism to ecopedagogy. neohelicon 36, 321–334. gasol, a. (1996). abans de l'ecologia, amb els clàssics. faristol, (26), 4-12. harrison, j. (2019). posthumanist readings in dystopian young adult fiction: negotiating the nature/culture divide. lexington books. huertas, rosa. corazón de metal (2015). editorial sm. platt, k. (2004). environmental justice children’s literature: depicting, defending, and celebrating trees and birds, colors and people. in s. i. dobrin & k. kidd (eds.), wild things: children’s culture and ecocriticism (pp. 183–184). wayne state university press. rousseau, j-j. (1763). émile: or treatise on education. la haye. wu, y., mallan, k. and mcgillis r. (2013). (re)imagining the world: children’s literature’s response to changing times. springer. young, r. (2018). confronting climate crises through education: reading our way forward. lexington books, rowman & littlefield. de sena ú social justice, human rights, and environmental crisis 52 the black snake: powerful imagery in we are water protectors sietse hagen, university of liverpool, liverpool, uk abstract we are water protectors presents a complicated example of the role horror can play in children’s literature. this article looks at terrifying, yet powerful imagery in this book, with its implications for both children’s literature as a form of activism and a critical discussion of the topics brought up by lindstrom and goade. i argue that horror functions as a mediator capable of bringing topics such as ecocriticism, activism, climate emotions, and colonialism to fruitful discussions in both elementary and university literature classes. keywords indigenous resistance, pipelines, climate emotions, water we are water protectors is an activist picturebook that employs disquieting imagery and discourse about environmental injustices. extractivism, biodiversity loss, pollution, and water degradation play central roles and are depicted as horrors of reality —in ways entirely appropriate for young readers. in fact, janet evans claims, “[m]any adults feel that challenging and controversial picturebooks are not suitable for children to read, however, it is they, as adults, who have problems coping with these challenging texts and not the children” (evans, 2015, p. 5). evans goes on to note that many childrens’ “everyday lives are often filled with far greater personal worries and challenges than those they may find in books” (p. 6), so representing these “worries https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 53 and challenges” is important. although it is complicated for adults to know what levels of fear children can manage, the authors of we are water protectors do not shy away from challenging and horrifying topics. environmental devastation plagues the modern world, and for the indigenous peoples represented in this book, protecting nature is central to their belief system. the environmental threats described in we are water protectors can become a focus of discussion around how to introduce young children to scary elements of reality. indigenous children regularly face systemic oppression and intergenerational traumas. to feel recognised or supported in their daily struggles, representing these issues is critical. as sandra beckett argues [a]ssumptions about children’s limited ability to deal with certain topics have often restricted their literary experiences and deprived them of fictional opportunities to explore dark, disturbing, and painful subjects that nonetheless touch them personally and constitute part of their life experience. this is particularly true in the case of the picturebook genre. (beckett, 2015, p. 66) even as children deal with upsets and struggles, they deserve a chance to see those issues represented in fiction where they can learn how to deal with them. the picturebook discussed here creates this type of positive representation, in which the horror of environmental destruction is counterbalanced with community resistance, solidarity and a deep sense of belonging. written by anishinaabe/métis author carole lindstrom, and illustrated by tlingit and haida artist michaela goade, , we are water protectors takes on this task by representing a dark threat to indigenous lifeways. the topic of is the protest against the dakota access pipeline being built on sacred land of the standing rock sioux tribe and the damage this causes the indigenous communities involved. the book functions as an introduction to environmental issues associated with the pipelines, and the climate emotions connected with them. for indigenous peoples, these emotions are mostly aligned with climate injustice, yet the book also proposes a hopeful tone in its call for activism. discussing this book in elementary classes can be highly informative for the young children who are its intended audience. the book offers a window into hagen ú black snake 54 indigenous life and the indigenous-led resistance to climate injustice. however, this book is also appropriate teaching material for university students, including the ways horror imagery can be employed in stories for the youngest audiences to bringing across the message around climate emotions. the questions and ideas proposed throughout this article can hopefully serve as inspirations for teachers for discussions centred around this book. the horror element is the pipeline itself, represented as a terrifying snake: black as oil and breathing out toxic fumes (figure 1). while only depicted on a few pages, the snake haunts the pages. it might not always be visibly present, but the trail of destruction it leaves behind is clearly illustrated. figure 6 (lindstrom, 2020, p.14) climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 55 at one point, for example, lindstrom describes an ojibwe prophecy about the earth that has two paths. one is the natural path that will lead the earth to be at peace and the people to live in unity, while the other is characterised by technological acceleration at the cost of environmental disaster. when it comes to the latter path, “[m]any native nations believe this path is symbolized by the oil pipelines, the ‘black snakes’ that crisscross our lands, bringing destruction and harm” (lindstrom, 2020, p. 35). another aspect of the snake’s horror is an oil leak. it is shown to corrupt the waters with poison, bones showing off an unnatural cause of death, almost even as if infected by radiation (figure 2). anne spice asserts the significance of “the interconnected networks of human and other-than-human beings that sustain indigenous life in mutual relation,” while also highlighting how that “network stands in stark contrast to the critical infrastructures of government and industry – infrastructures that are meant to destroy indigenous life to make way for capitalist expansion” (spice, 2022, p. 43). this image seems to signify the noxious nature of capitalism, a perpetuation of settler colonialism, that destroys nature to increase wealth. as spice underscores, this is true horror to the indigenous way of life. even this single image can figure 7 (lindstrom, 2020, pp. 9-10) hagen ú black snake 56 spark discussion around the role of horror in this book, as well as how horror might be subjective; is the spill more terrifying for an indigenous audience than a western one? learning to relativise, seeing how different cultures might have a different stance on environmental issues can be beneficial to their growth. the environmental destruction shown above has caused uproar among indigenous communities. the dakota access pipeline is one of the best-known examples related to this. lindstrom describes that in “april 2016, the standing rock sioux tribe stood up against the titans of industry to protect their region’s water and sacred burial grounds from one of these oil pipelines – the dakota access pipeline” (lindstrom, 2020, p. 35). the chairman of the standing rock sioux tribe, david archambault ii, called the pipeline “a black poisonous snake… made from nothing but greed” (archambault, as cited in macpherson, 2016). although the idea of the black snake existed in the mythology and traditions of various indigenous nations before archambault’s famous quote, we are water protectors popularised the term, especially in western media. more importantly, it connected the idea of the black snake that has lived in indigenous prophecy for centuries to the dakota access pipeline and all other pipelines crisscrossing native lands today. the black snake, called zuzeca sapa, “became the emblem of the movement’ that demonstrated against pipelines” (coleman, 2020, p. 105). it is this movement that signifies the importance of community in the fight against the black snake shown in this book. community is used in the book as a counterbalance to the horrors of the black snake, as well as an assertion of native resiliency and resistance: “take courage! i must keep the black snake away / from my village’s water. i must rally my people together” (lindstrom, 2020, p. 16). these two lines from we are water protectors best describe the powers of the protests against the dakota access pipeline and other pipelines: the powers of community. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 57 in one image, the black snake is represented as a monster invader (figure 3). the snake is monstrously large, almost blocking out the sun while menacingly looking down at the protagonist. still, the young girl faces the snake holding the hands of her community members. they stand up to the black snake together, as one. the reader is placed behind the girl, having her back, and facing the black snake together. this creates a sense of connectedness to the indigenous peoples standing up to fight against zuzeca sapa. it is a strong representation of the powers of togetherness. we might ask students how they feel about the view they gain as viewer in this image. do they feel connected? in an interview with pritchard, lindstrom says that her goal for this book is “a call to action” for children to “become water protectors and effect the well-being of the planet” (pritchard, 2020). by calling for people to come together to fight climate injustice, she connects the land to community. weaver writes that one thing most indigenous literature has in common “relates to this sense of community and commitment to it” and goes on to term this “communitism” (weaver, 1997, p. 43). communitism, weaver explains, “is formed from a combination of the words figure 8 (lindstrom, 2020, p. 20) hagen ú black snake 58 ‘community’ and ‘activism’ or ‘activist’” (weaver, 1997, p. 43). the effects of colonialism affect all indigenous peoples, and they share common values for community and environment. in this sense, we are water protectors is a good example of communitism: a rally for the collective to speak as one and protest that which threatens their way of life. analysing the use of horror elements in we are water protectors reveals the wider arguments lindstrom and goade make. the black snake that stands for the dakota access pipeline presents itself as something that needs to be defeated. it asks for a form of activism and a togetherness in conquering that which tarnishes the land. through this ecocritical call for communitism, the horrors of colonialism are brought up and confronted, alongside intergenerational trauma and settler colonialism. while the imagery of the black snake overwhelms these pages, it is those horrors of reality— pollution, extractionism, and pipelines—that hold the most power. besides informing child readers about their culture and community, this book brings about terrifying information while prioritising the agency and empowerment of the child. the use of terrifying imagery is intrinsic to this picturebook and is the mediator of how this information is conveyed to a child, in an age-appropriate manner. when dealing with this text in class, allowing the horror elements to take the front stage may help bring topics such as activism, collective memory, and colonialism to the fore. these themes are essential to the understanding of this text, but also reveal information about indigenous cultures and their fight against ecocrimes as a wider topic. discussion questions can be formed around these topics to use this book as an entrance into climate emotions as it will function for many indigenous children reading this when they are young. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 59 references beckett, s. l. (2015). from traditional tales, fairy stories, and cautionary tales to controversial visual texts: do we need to be fearful? in j. evans (ed.), challenging and controversial picturebooks (pp. 49–70). routledge. coleman, c.-l. (2020). how sioux-settler relations underscore the dakota access pipeline. in c.-l. coleman, environmental clashes on native american land (pp. 103–121). springer international publishing. evans, j. (2015). picturebooks as strange, challenging and controversial texts. in j. evans (ed.), challenging and controversial picturebooks (pp. 3–32). routledge. lindstrom, c. (2020). we are water protectors (m. goade, illus.). roaring book press. macpherson, j. (2016, august 15). dakota access pipeline owners sue north dakota protestors. the seattle times. https://www.seattletimes.com/nationworld/dakota-access-pipeline-owners-sue-north-dakota-protesters/. pritchard, c. k. (2020, april 21). interview with carole lindstrom – we are water protectors. caroline kusin pritchard. https://carolinekusinpritchard.com/interview-with-carole-lindstrom/. spice, a. (2022). fighting invasive infrastructures: indigenous relations against pipelines. in j dhillon (ed.), indigenous resurgence: decolonialization and movements for environmental justice (pp. 42-58). berghahn books. weaver, j. (1997). native american literatures and communitism. that the people might live: native american literature and native american community (pp. 345). oxford university press. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/dakota-access-pipeline-owners-sue-north-dakota-protesters/ https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/dakota-access-pipeline-owners-sue-north-dakota-protesters/ https://carolinekusinpritchard.com/interview-with-carole-lindstrom/ screech ú after the flood 60 after the flood: environmental activism, agency and action in sarah guillory’s nowhere better than here ben screech, university of gloucestershire, cheltenham, uk. abstract sarah guillory’s 2022 novel nowhere better than here explores how young people can take a proactive role in helping their community to mitigate the effects of ecological damage caused by climate change. the novel tells the story of jillian robichaux, whose louisiana home is threatened by coastal erosion. upon rescuing a box of old photographs of her town, jillian is forced to contend with the extent to which her town is now almost unrecognizable due to the constant intrusion of flood waters. jillian and her friends launch a project to plant marsh grass to counter the creeping erosion. in this way, guillory balances dystopian aspects with a more optimistic outlook, in exploring the role of child agents in engaging in tangible actions to offset the effects of climate change. keywords agency, story, eco-citizenship, empowerment, home, coastal erosion, floods, louisiana climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 61 acknowledgements i would like to thank nick kleese for inviting me to take part in a panel presentation on climate literacy, for which this paper was originally written. i would also like to thank sarah guillory for granting me an interview and for her encouragement of my interest in her work. sarah guillory’s middle-grade novel nowhere better than here (2022) is set in a town on a shrinking bayou—a small inland waterway in coastal louisiana. taking place in the aftermath of a flood that has devastated the small town of boutin, the book explores the practical abilities of young people in countering climate change-wrought destruction. the narrative is told from the perspective of jillian robichaux. part-climate activist and part self-appointed town archivist/oral historian, jillian becomes custodian of the town’s stories saved from “drowning” from the rising waters caused by climate change-driven coastal erosion. a subplot of the novel sees jillian embarking on a project to plant large swathes of marsh grass in an attempt to mitigate this erosion. “towns shouldn’t shrink like sweaters put through the dryer” (guillory, 2022, p. 64), jillian proclaims at the start of the book. the protection of her beloved hometown becomes her driving preoccupation in the text. this article explores the confluence between activism, agency and action in nowhere better than here, specifically through a discussion of how stories have the power to prompt young peoples’ environmental action. i hope to also show how children’s literature can have a crucial role in building young people’s climate literacy more generally, particularly in demonstrating how, as jillian puts it: “doing something is usually better than doing nothing” (p. 486). a key consideration in the novel is the extent to which “stories” are compatible with practicality, or “doing”. as the narrative progresses, readers move from a view of the protagonist with an interest in her “vanishing town” as something ethereal or “ghost-like” (p. 157), viewed in black and white photos: almost as a bygone artifact. however, this starts to change as the stories jillian collects from the older residents prompt a more tangible appreciation of the town and what she can do in the present and future to avoid more of her home being claimed by the encroaching tidal waters. https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/cle/article/view/6227/3678 screech ú after the flood 62 story itself becomes a kind of balm in the text: "stories have a way of healing broken places” (p. 142), jillian comments. however, such healing, she understands, also requires action: “in boutin you learned the value of things, learned to appreciate what you had and fix it when it broke” (p. 103). still, her role in such a process is not immediately clear. indeed, the novel considers questions of agency in relation to children’s potential contributions to enacting change. jillian initially questions her presumed lack of agency. i was a child and i’d had enough. mama and nonnie had always told me i could do anything, but that wasn’t really true. i was only one person—i didn’t make this mess (p. 304). as the novel progresses, jilian falls under the mentorship of dr. nelson: a scientist and coordinator of an environmental ngo tasked with tackling the state’s erosion issues. her sense of empowerment as a climate activist increases. admittedly, this implies an uneasy power balance wherein the child’s agency is essentially “granted” by an adult gatekeeper. readers can also reflect here on notions of dominion in the anthropocene more generally, something with which melinda benson’s seminal new materialism: an ontology for the anthropocene (2019) is concerned. most natural resource and environmental law is based on two critical ontological assumptions, common to enlightenment based thought. one involves the notion of agency—what it is and who has it. agency, defined here as the capacity to act, is generally speaking, a capacity presumed to belong only to human beings (p. 252). benson’s illustration of human dominion over the natural world mirrors adult dominion over children who try to exercise their agency in fighting for greater environmental action. although adults can encourage this process—as seen in guillory’s novel— youths frequently view adults as a hurdle to be overcome in order to bring about change. this criticism, for example, is central to greta thunberg’s famous “this is all wrong” speech (2019), where she proclaims: “we are in the beginning of a mass climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 63 extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth” (n.p). it follows that climate activists like greta thunberg and jillian in nowhere better than here view the anthropocene as necessarily a time for mobilization, which will ideally be supported by adults but need not depend on them. in learning to die in the anthropocene (2015), the climate philosopher roy scranton suggests that “[w]e’re going to need new ideas, we’re going to need new myths and new stories” (p. 20). as mentioned above, part of the way jilian enacts her agency in the novel is precisely through story. these consist of both the historical oral stories she collects in relation to the vanished parts of boutin, drowned over the decades due to rising flood water, and to a video montage to be screened at dr. nelson’s ngo. the montage consists of testimonies from residents describing what makes boutin their home and therefore worth saving. the material aspects of “home”—both in terms of the built environment and the role of memory in its conception—are important aspects of the text. crucially too, home and its “in-text” representation are inextricably linked with jilian’s identity. that wanting was for things not to change at all. i wanted the good parts of boutin to stay the same, to be perfectly preserved like some insect in amber, a portrait of a way of life that didn’t need to disappear. because, without all those things, i was afraid i had no idea who i was (p. 343). jillian’s use of the term “preserve” is key here. cultural critics hassan and xie argue that “cultural information embedded in cultural heritage should be preserved” (2019, p. 9). preserving this cultural information depends on human and structural resilience, the need for which, as jillian’s narrative also suggests, will comprise a crucial part of survival in the anthropocene. jillian also views her video project as a necessary form of cultural preservation: “the purpose of videoing these stories is to ensure pieces of boutin survive” (guillory, 2022, p. 546). meanwhile, the project to plant marsh grass is also ongoing. dr. nelson’s organization, called the discovery project, aims to tackle erosion through planting swathes of marsh grass to act as a breakwater. “this acre of grass we’re planting,” dr. nelson explains to her charges, “will grow to two acres by next year, then four the year after that. you are literally rebuilding louisiana right now” screech ú after the flood 64 (p. 465). on one of the planting expeditions, up to her knees in mud in the bayou, jilian comes to the important realization that, despite her own commitment to reversing the effects of climate change on her locale, ultimately “this would take all of us” (p. 467). the novel strongly makes the case then, for the importance of community action and the potential role of child activists in leading it. jillian initially recruits her friends. then, more and more townspeople participate in the actions she describes as “doing, helping, saving” (p. 473). strong activists have the ability to mobilize communities in taking action, jillian realizes, but how to reconcile this drive for public participation, with being a child? this challenge that jilian battles with throughout the novel is a dichotomy that kata dozsa explores in her recent volume on children as climate citizens (2023). through the global actions of the climate movement, the so-called generation z has demonstrated political sophistication, access to global knowledges, camaraderie and connection at a global cultural level. however, practice shows that children are rarely associated with traditional civil rights such as freedom of speech, association and assembly. moreover, participation in matters of public concern has not been to date an express right of children (p. 1). dozsa’s book, which considers various strategies for advocacy for children’s rights in climate-based “political fora,” mirrors aspects of jillian’s own fight to be heard in the novel. for example, jillian’s use of technology to create an online petition illustrates dozsa’s argument for the potential power of “digital spaces” (dozsa, 2023, p. 7). similarly, in the speech jillian gives to the adults at dr. nelson’s wetlands discovery centre on the importance of doing more to combat the creeping erosion jilian enacts young peoples’ right to public participation, which right is central to dozsa’s argument. on finishing her speech, jillian comments on her new feeling of empowerment from being able to extol the importance of this fight: “in this moment, i didn’t want to be anywhere else. it felt that someone had lit a fire inside my rib cage” (guillory, 2022, p. 542). another word for jillian’s empowerment is eco-citizenship and nowhere better than here casts jilian as representing a number of key eco-citizenship values, climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 65 behaviors and traits that young people who wish to act as effective actors in the fight against climate change must possess. extolling the virtues of such traits may be a good entryway into using the text pedagogically, as a stimulus for prompting young people to think more widely about their role(s) in this regard. they include being engaged in the world and a responsible citizen who understands the nature of the fight and what actions they can feasibly take. for example, jilian blends activism with more practical steps such as the grassroots initiatives. as well as leading her community to take a stand against state underfunding to deal with the fallout of the various environmental crises that have hit louisiana, from hurricane katrina to this most recent storm, jilian also understands the value of collaboration on a smaller scale, such as when she manages to recruit her (initially disinterested) friends to her cause. effective eco-citizens should be “empathetic and have a sense of morality by which they can become changers of their environment,” dozsa writes (p. 20). in the novel, this is interpreted as both empathy with dr. nelson and the other climate activists’ cause and from a broader perspective, in terms of jilian’s realization that “ecology deals with balance— we’re all connected” and that this “connection” is both “human and natural” (p. 200). in disciplinary literacy practice, authentic texts are prized because of their ability to address such traits. narratives can also help expound on key concepts’ terminology or disciplinary-specific language. for example, through the character of dr. nelson, young readers are introduced to concepts such as biodiversity, biosphere, restoration, coastal erosion and others. at its best, children’s literature can inspire activism, agency and action. it can, as children’s literature critic amy cutter-mckenzie puts it, “afford openings for dialogue both with and against dominant cultural texts, images, narratives and figurations of eco-cultural relations” (2014, p. 2). this is, in part, why i think nowhere better than here has profound pertinence. crucially, guillory imbues the text with a message of hope that is presented as inter-generational. boutin is “worth saving” not just because it is home, but also because of what it represents more generally about the fight in which we ultimately all have skin in the game. jillian demonstrates that young people have the ability to spearhead campaigns and to be role-models not just for other young people, but for adults too, in tackling climate change. screech ú after the flood 66 references benson, m. (2019). new materialism: an ontology for the anthropocene. 59 nat. res. j. 251. cutter-mackenzie, a. (2014). experiencing environment and place in children’s literature. routledge. dozsa, k (2023). children as climate citizens. routledge. guillory, s (2022). nowhere better than here. roaring brook. hassan, m & xie, h. (2019). climate change and conservation of coastal built heritage. springer. scranton, r. (2015). learning to die in the anthropocene. city lights. thunberg, g. (2019). “this as all wrong.” united nations publications. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 67 democracy and kinship in nausicaä of the valley of the wind nick kleese, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, minnesota, usa abstract this article argues that nausicaä of the valley of the wind provides generative openings for young people to imagine egalitarian political relations with nonhuman animals. at the same time, the film also reproduces the all-too-common image of the young monarch who almost single-handedly saves their people from destruction: an autocratic and authoritarian impulse that runs contrary to what a truly ecological democracy might look like. nevertheless, i propose that educators might still use nausicaä to help young people think through the politics of climate-minded media. keywords interspecies democracy, ecological democracy, authoritarianism, kinship, anime it’s 2024—a presidential election year in the united states. the vote in november was, as more than one commentator has noted, a referendum on the democratic process itself (cf berman, 2024). while the nation faced another authoritarian threat to its foundational values, the entire globe faces another year of shattered climate records across all metrics (cf dancer, 2023). meanwhile, right-wing culture warriors continue to use schools as piñatas for their so-called moral crusade. for educators to teach either democratic values or the climate crisis is to become vulnerable to their cudgels. kleese ú democracy and kinship 68 in what follows, i want to suggest that discussing films that have not yet been politicized, such as nausicaä of the valley of the wind, grant educators a safe opening to explore deeper and more meaningful ideological facets of the ecological and democratic crises. i find nausicaä especially useful for this purpose for two reasons in particular: 1) its speculative world helps keep viewers from seeing it as superficially political (e.g. aligned with one of two dominant political parties in the united states), and 2) its depiction of an ecological democracy is incomplete: interspecies alliances on the one hand, an authoritarian government on the other. as educators analyze the film with their students, they can work together to arrive at a clearer understanding of what kind of world we all deserve: an ecological democracy, one in which humans maintain egalitarian relationships with both their human and non-human kin. nausicaä of the valley of the wind set in a post-apocalyptic future, hayao miyazaki’s nausicaä of the valley of the wind (1984) depicts a world after anthropogenic ecocide. from the ashes of a once lush earth came the sea of decay—a toxic jungle growing larger and larger, pushing remaining human societies into smaller and smaller pockets of land. humanity’s retreat allowed the ohm—a species of giant insects—to have increasing range across the biosphere. in the film, most humans live in fear of both the sea of decay and the ohm, but not nausicaä, the titular heroine and heir to the throne of the peaceful valley of the wind. nausicaä is more generous and patient than other humans. she works to build relationships with the ohm. she actively studies the jungle. she is an optimist. but one day her work is interrupted when the neo-industrial tolmekians invade the valley. the tolmekians plunder the valley’s resources to resurrect the organic weapons that first devastated the planet. still, nausicaä’s careful study of the ohm reveals their rhizomatic political system, allowing her to forge a cross-species alliance. together, humans and ohm buck their tolmekian overlords and achieve a sustainable, egalitarian peace brokered by their ecocentric monarch. i am not the first to note the political valences within the film and in its cultural reception. writing about nausicaä, donna haraway (2016) notes that speculative fiction like miyazaki’s offers viewers insights about how we should be living here, now, in our already “damaged world” and in so doing “keeps politics alive” (p. 150). to access climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 69 these insights, however, viewers must resist applying readily available platitudes about “saving the earth” (cf gossin, 2015). miyazaki himself expressed wariness of the film’s increasingly normative reception and cautioned against oversimplifying—and thus defanging—its ecopolitical message. doing so, he argued, blunted the film’s actual critiques, transforming them into a greenwashed “government-approved eco mark” (miyazaki, 1996, p. 391). for the film to be generative, then, educators must help students analyze the actual ecopolitical relationships it depicts. below, i share two possibilities for analysis. kinship relations nausicaä serves as an excellent model for interspecies kinship relations. it also takes care to show the challenges to doing so. the film intentionally presents the ohm as dangerous, uncharismatic, and unknowable. in fact, the first time an ohm is seen it is actually not an ohm at all. rather, we see its exoskeleton—a hulking, monstrous husk with too-many legs and eyes like an enormous, wingless cicada. it gives you the heebeegeebees. but just as the seemingly fragile shell is in reality remarkably strong, so too are the ohm more than they initially seem. as nausicaä learns about them, she comes to understand that they communicate by changing eye color, that their social dynamics are rhizomatic rather than hierarchical, and that their rage—“the rage of the earth itself”—is caused when the tolmekians abduct an infant ohm. empathetic, nausicaä sacrifices herself to save the little ohm. in return, the ohm band together (literally) to resurrect nausicaä—a gesture of gratitude that the young human queen sees them not only as sentient persons, but as political entities in their own right. eco-authoritarianism nausicaä’s political relations with the ohm are egalitarian—not so much for her own human subjects. this power is her birthright. nausicaä is the only surviving child of king jhil, the valley’s much beloved but ailing monarch. his illness, caused by the toxins in the air, has left nausicaä in an outsized leadership role. the villagers constantly pester her for guidance and information. in fact, nausicaä seems to be the only one in the valley capable of doing any complex thought or skilled labor. she’s the only one knowledgeable enough to repair the windmills, fly the valley’s only glider, and serve as kleese ú democracy and kinship 70 lead pilot on airships. and she’s the valley’s only botanist—the film reveals that she has created a lab hidden in the castle cellars, where she has successfully cultivated plants long assumed to be extinct. but she keeps this lab a secret from the villagers, as if they can’t be trusted to know this. granted, nausicaä is a caring, selfless leader, but her feudal authority is never questioned—nor is that of any other ruling figure. the tolmekians are also a monarchy, led by princess kushana—a perfect foil for nausicaä. whereas nausicaä is pacifist, kushana is militant. whereas nausicaä lives in relation with non-human nature, kushana attempts to dominate it. nausicaä has a nonhuman sidekick, kushana has artificial limbs. and so on. this contrast serves, by extension, to juxtapose the peaceful, pastoral valley—which, true to its name, is fueled by wind power—with the neo-industrial tolmekia, whose battle tanks are fueled by carbon but manned by armored, sword-bearing warriors. and yet, both monarchies are absolute. there are no constitutive assemblies in either, no checks and balances. it seems that in the world of nausicaä, humanity’s political response to ecological collapse was to adopt authoritarianism and to two different ends. tolmekians had a militant authoritarian in kushana. the valley had a caring, benevolent one. according to the logic of the film, if ecological collapse occurs, we should be prepared to choose between these two options—should we be so lucky as to have options at all. ecological democracy and education despite its faults, educators can—and should—use nausicaä to discuss ecological democracy in the classroom. while it may prove easy to articulate praise of the film’s kinship relations, as well as critique its authoritarianism, imagining alternatives to the latter may prove more challenging. if this is the case, educators can take comfort in the fact that no one really knows what an ecological democracy will look like. in fact, chantal mouffe is adamant that democracy “must be reformulated in view of the ecological exigency” (p. 62). that is, we should plan on figuring it out as we go, and we should anticipate—and celebrate—disagreement. after all, democracy depends on diversity. if full consensus is achieved, differences are obliterated; full consensus in a democracy does not mean the full achievement of democracy, but rather its failure. using films like nausicaä in the classroom allows educators to discuss democracy and ecology in ways that avoid labels that might draw the ire of outside climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 71 stakeholders (e.g. right-wing, authoritarian, critical thinking) but nonetheless inspire deep conversation about political systems. after watching and discussing nausicaä, educators could extend the learning in several ways: ● ask students to imagine themselves as one of the villagers of the valley. what would be their experience of the film’s crises? how is their experience different from that of the protagonist’s? what would give them hope, anxiety, or fear? students could respond from the perspective of these “minor” characters to explore how political agency (or lack thereof) relates to everyday experience. ● let students design the valley village in which they would want to live. what would a more equitable and collaborative society look like? how would shared governance work? how are decisions made? resources distributed? how would non-human animals be represented? assign students to different teams or committees to submit their own proposals, preferably based on research about already existing systems of governance. ● ask students to read the story of how indigenous leaders of several pacific islands granted whales legal personhood. ask students to identify the specific rights associated with personhood (e.g. right to movement, cultural expression, etc), then ask them to pick another species. if that species were granted personhood, what species-specific behaviors, cultures, etc. would be protected? over a century ago, john dewey claimed that “[t]he very idea of democracy, the meaning of democracy, must be continually explored afresh; it has to be constantly discovered and rediscovered, remade and reorganized” (1937, p. 182). herein lies an additional promise of discussing films like nausicaä in the classroom. not only do they afford young people the opportunity to practice critical climate literacy skills, but they also grant young people the opportunity to discuss, debate, attempt, revise, and practice enacting democratic values. indeed: what better place than the classroom— those rambunctious, fraught, joyful, besieged, electric spaces where human beings come together in community—to realize dewey’s (1916) insistence that: https://www.npr.org/2024/04/03/1242451885/whale-personhood-climate-change-polynesia-maori-new-zealand https://www.npr.org/2024/04/03/1242451885/whale-personhood-climate-change-polynesia-maori-new-zealand kleese ú democracy and kinship 72 …democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. the extension in space of the number of individuals who participate in an interest so that each has to refer [their] own action to that of others, and to consider the action of others to give point and direction to [their] own, is equivalent to the breaking down of those barriers of class, race, and national territory which kept [humankind] from perceiving the full impact of their activity (p. 101, emphasis mine). climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 73 references berman, r. (2024, may 31). how 2024 could transform american elections. the atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/05/2024-electionreform-final-four-voting/678550/ dancer, s. (19 nov 2023). earth passed a feared global warming milestone friday, at least briefly. washington post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climateenvironment/2023/11/19/climate-change-2c-temperature-heat-record/ dewey, j. (1916). democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education. macmillan. dewey, j. (1937). the challenge of democracy to education. in boydston, j. a. (ed.), john dewey, the later works: 1925–1953. southern illinois university press. gossin, p. (2015). animated nature: aesthetics, ethics, and empathy in miyazaki hayao’s ecophilosophy. mechademia 10, 209-234. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/664567. haraway, d. j. (2016). staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. duke university press. meijer, e. (2019). when animals speak: toward an interspecies democracy. new york university press. miyazaki, h. (1996). on completing nausicaä of the valley of the wind: the story continues [interview]. in cary, b. & schodt, f. l. (trans.) starting point: 1979– 1996. viz media. mouffe, c. (2021). towards a green democratic revolution: left populism and the power of affects. verso. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/05/2024-election-reform-final-four-voting/678550/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/05/2024-election-reform-final-four-voting/678550/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/19/climate-change-2c-temperature-heat-record/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/19/climate-change-2c-temperature-heat-record/ https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/664567 damico ú intergenerational song 74 confronting climate denial with an intergenerational conversation/song james damico, indiana university bloomington, bloomington, in, usa abstract on september 19, 2019, millions of people worldwide participated in youth-led climate strikes. this article considers an artistic response to one of these strikes in a small midwestern community in the united states. the response is a song and video framed as a conversation between youth and adults about climate change denial. climate justice requires ongoing conversations with adults bearing responsibility for listening intently to the voices of youth advocating for climate justice. educators can help foster a deeper understanding of our current reality and inspire more timely and comprehensive climate action with artsbased approaches. there is potential for songwriting, as a form of literacy practice, to be more widely applied in k-12 schools and teacher education to further enrich a collective understanding and commitment to addressing climate challenges. keywords arts, music, climate change, denial, climate strike climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 75 on september 19, 2019, millions of people worldwide participated in youth-led climate strikes to demand action on climate change. strikes took place in more than 180 cities with youth urging world leaders to take clear, definitive steps to combat climate change. it was also the largest climate mobilization in united states’ history, involving more than 1,000 towns and cities, including major metropolitan cities of new york, boston, chicago, washington dc, and san francisco, as well as smaller communities like bloomington, indiana where i reside. the sunrise movement played a critical role across the united states, leading and organizing these rallies, and this was certainly the case in bloomington, indiana where middle school and high school students joined forces with university students as well as adult community activists for a sequence of events: a coordinated student walkout of class, a rally held at the university, a march through campus, an assembly at a community park for speeches and music, and a march to city hall to make a formal presentation to the mayor. as an observer and documentarian, i captured in photos and video much of the day’s content—signs, posters, and speeches—and how the youth moved through public spaces on their way to city hall. inspired by this experience, i wrote and recorded a song called “meet us in the street”. i also created an accompanying youtube video for the song. this article explores this artistic response to the world-wide climate strikes, framed as an intergenerational conversation about climate change denial. the need for climate conversations for noted climate scientist and communicator, katherine hayhoe, having conversations about climate change is the most important thing that we can do to address the crisis. while conversations will not necessarily lead to focused, collective climate action and policy change (e.g., latkin et. al., 2024), it remains essential that we talk about it and find ways to seek and forge common ground across different backgrounds and perspectives (hayhoe, 2021). one consistent finding in larger survey data is that people across age groups in the united states have different climate beliefs and views about what actions need to be taken. compared to youth and young adults, older adults are more likely to https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htrk-ukey1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bvctopzcli damico ú intergenerational song 76 equivocate about the existence of climate change or disagree with calls for large-scale climate actions. older adults are less open to a complete phasing out of fossil fuels (tyson, funk & kennedy, 2023) and are less engaged in climate change activism (tyson, kennedy & funk, 2021). the song “meet us in the street” addresses this intergenerational difference. addressing climate change through music the arts bridge a gap between scientific data and public understanding about climate change, often by activating emotional or visceral responses that can cultivate awareness and mobilize action. music, in particular, has a rich history in raising consciousness about environmental problems. iconic songs like “big yellow taxi” (1970) by joni mitchell, with the line “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot”, and “mercy mercy me (the ecology)” by marvin gaye serve as poignant environmental anthems. attention to environmental concerns also streams into the present with songs like “all the good girls go to hell” by billie eilish; “trouble in the water” by common; a club dance track called “melt”, by house dj kelly lee owens, that samples melting glaciers; “hands off the atlantic” by thom yorke; the song “new gods” by grimes on the album miss anthropocene; the song “the atlantic” by the group the weather station; and “the 1975” by the 1975 that features climate activist greta thunberg issuing a withering critique of climate inaction. my background i have been an educator for 30+ years, beginning as an elementary and middle school teacher before becoming a university professor. i have addressed environmental concerns across this time (damico, 2021) yet took up climate change more directly in 2008 during the us presidential race between barack obama and john mccain. at that time, both candidates acknowledged the scientific consensus on climate change and recognized the urgency for action. however, subsequent shifts in the political discourse prompted me to prioritize climate change in my teaching and scholarship to better understand the ways future teachers might engage with this critical topic (damico, baildon & panos, 2018; damico, panos & baildon, 2018). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ratqlft_g5c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqu892ggbts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pzsswwc9xa&t=172s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qduy3exv-uy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kw0vbveixe&t=195s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxf4l7nphoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmnnaamcbcg&t=4s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmnnaamcbcg&t=4s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfxorikgz2g&list=pla3hlkfsnlvbfwc6h-moozxhjsputhtit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_brop1yqjo&t=1s https://www.theweatherstation.net/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwcfzafufye&t=195s https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/us/politics/19climate.html climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 77 i approach climate change as a socioscientific topic because it traverses political, civic, geographic, economic, social, cultural, psychological, and historical dimensions (klein, 2014). i also employ a justice lens to climate change for two reasons. the most vulnerable populations, particularly those in the global south, bear the brunt of climate change effects despite having contributed the least to its causes. second, climate effects are compounded by existing inequalities—gender, racial, socioeconomic, and geographic—both within the united states and across the world. my climate-centered teaching and research also directly address climate denial—the refusal to accept the well-established scientific consensus on global warming and the reluctance to take necessary actions necessary to ensure a more stable planet (damico & baildon, 2022). finally, i am an avid songwriter and this includes a sizable batch of songs about resilience, hope, and possibility in our changing world. this article delves into one such song, “meet us in the street”. inspired by the september 2019 climate strike where i live, i recorded the song with local youth and adults in a music studio and created a video with the footage i captured to bring the song to life visually. the performance includes a lead vocal from my longtime musical partner, allen davis, who is also a teaching professor and director of the basic language program in spanish at indiana university. allen brings his many talents as a vocalist to a range of musical projects. this includes performing with the indianapolis symphonic choir. also featured in the song is a harmony vocal from stephanie power carter, professor in the department of teaching and learning and the director of the center for video ethnography and discourse analysis (cveda at the ohio state university. stephanie is also a songwriter and vocalist immersed in her own creative projects. the song is an intergenerational conversation that delves into the heart of our current climate dilemma. while youth persistently call for clear, decisive, and farreaching climate action, adults have tended to dwell in climate denial, minimizing, ignoring, or dismissing the need for timely and comprehensive climate change action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htrk-ukey1s damico ú intergenerational song 78 an intergenerational conversation accessible on all major music streaming platforms and as a youtube video, the song deals directly with climate denial among older americans. the opening lines of the song make this clear. denial takes center stage as an adult male narrator intones, my head’s been in the sand too long, my head’s been in the sand too long. my head’s been down so long, you forget how to be strong. my head’s been in the sand too long. the common idiom—“bury your head in the sand”—links to the title and cover illustration of the book climate change denial: heads in the sand by haydn washington and john cook (2013). while this idiom can be traced to the false view that ostriches hide their heads in the sand when threatened by predators, the image indicates someone is choosing to deny a problem exists. with the opening verse of the song, this avoidance or denial is paired with weakness, as captured in the line “you forget how to be strong.” the child’s response in the second verse, the first conversational turn, invites the adult to move from rumination to action, to unite in a place—the street—perhaps the most significant form of public assembly that has spearheaded social change throughout history and has been central to the global, youth-led climate movement. notably, to get to the open air of the street, the child needs to “head out of school”, the setting where teaching and learning about climate change has been lacking or nonexistent. striking in the street is also about justice. we’re heading out of school, striking in the street. we’re heading out of school, striking in the street. if there’s no justice, can’t be no peace. come out and meet us in the street. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htrk-ukey1s climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 79 with the third verse comes more reflection from the adult and a growing acknowledgment that behavior change for him might be possible. the proposed path toward self-awareness will be through his emotions (“a change in heart”). could be a change of heart just in time. could be a change of heart just in time. maybe a change of heart will open up my mind. a change of heart just in time. for the following verse, two children harmonize this conversational turn and again emphasize action, a declaration of the work ahead about two key sources for human species survival: clean water and air. the children remain unequivocal and resolutely determined to advance justice (what’s “right, good, and fair”). we’re going to clean the water, clear the air. we’re going to clean the water, clear the air. we’re gonna make it right—right, good, and fair we’re going to clean the water, clear the air. up to this point, the video has juxtaposed images of the singers with footage from the september 19 events in the town where i reside, including posters and placards created by youth. running text at the bottom of the video provides links to the following sources for further context and study: • intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc), a climate science authority, • desmog and inside climate news, leading climate journalists, • 350.org and the sunrise movement, prominent advocacy organizations, • from climate denial to ecoustice, website with education resources after an instrumental break, a chorus of adults is ready to reckon with the reality of climate change with the sunrise movement a catalyst for action. https://www.ipcc.ch/ https://www.desmog.com/ https://insideclimatenews.org/ http://350.org/ https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ https://www.denialtojustice.com/ damico ú intergenerational song 80 our heads have been in the sand too long, our heads have been in the sand too long, time for sunrise, for a new dawn. it’s time to be strong. with the final conversational turn, adults and youth together issue the call for others to join them on a journey to advance climate justice. come out and meet us in the street come out and meet us in the street if there’s no justice, can’t be no peace. come out and meet us in the street. next steps climate justice requires adults and youth working together to advance and enact climate-related solutions. this collaborative problem-solving must be firmly rooted in ongoing conversations with adults listening intently to the voices of youth advocating for climate justice. by doing so, we can deepen our understanding of the current reality and inspire more timely and comprehensive action. moving forward, i am dedicated to integrating the arts in my own climate-based teaching and scholarship. this includes highlighting the efforts of educators at all levels who use the arts to cultivate awareness and catalyze action. i also aim to explore how songwriting, as a form of literacy practice, might find broader application in k-12 schools and teacher education to enrich our collective understanding and commitment to addressing climate challenges and help create sustainable futures across generations. climate literacy in education volume 2, issue 1 (fall 2024) 81 references damico, j.s. (2021). then and now: time for ecojustice literacies. language arts. 99(2), 126-130. damico, j.s. & baildon, m. (2022). how to confront climate denial: literacy, social studies, and climate change. teachers college press. damico, j.s., baildon, m. & panos, a. (2018). media literacy and climate change in a post-truth society. journal of media literacy education. 10(2), 11-32. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle/vol10/iss2/2/ damico, j.s., panos, a., & baildon, m. (2018). “i’m not in the truth business”: the politics of climate change with pre-service teachers. english teaching: practice & critique. 17(2), 72-89. hayhoe, k. (2021). saving us: a climate scientist's case for hope and healing in a divided world. simon and schuster. klein, n. (2014). this changes everything: capitalism vs the climate. simon & schuster. latkin, c.a., dayton, l., winiker, a., countess, k., hendrickson, z.m. (2024). ‘they talk about the weather, but no one does anything about it’: a mixed-methods study of everyday climate change conversations. int. j. environ. res. public health.21 (279). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21030279 petrescu-mag, r. m., petrescu, d. c., ivan, a., & tenter, a. (2023). an intergenerational reading of climate change-health concern nexus: a qualitative study of the millennials' and gen z participants' perceptions. bmc public health, 23(1), 484. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15353-z tyson, a., kennedy, b. & funk, c. (2021). gen z, millennials stand out for climate change activism, social media engagement with issue. pew research center. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-outfor-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ tyson, a., funk, c. & kennedy, b. (2023). what the data says about americans’ views of climate change. pew research center. https://www.pewresearch.org/shortreads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climatechange/ washington, h.& cook, j. (2013). climate change denial: heads in the sand. routledge. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle/vol10/iss2/2/ https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21030279 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15353-z https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climate-change/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climate-change/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climate-change/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) editorial collective marek oziewicz, university of minnesota, (mco@umn.edu), senior editor. nick kleese, university of minnesota, (klees023@umn.edu), managing editor. curriculum/pedagogy team stephanie rollag yoon, university of minnesota, (sry@umn.edu), curriculum section lead editor. jana lo bello miller, university of minnesota, (lobello@umn.edu), editor. jeff henning-smith, university of minnesota, (henni143@umn.edu), editor. rebecca young, (ryoung1@binhamton.edu), editor. catherine cavanaugh, university of minnesota, (ccavanau@umn.edu), editor. literature/media team lorraine kerslake, universidad de alicante, spain, (kerslake@ua.es), literature section lead editor. tanja nathanael, san jose state university, (tanja.nathanael@sjsu.edu), editor. justyna deszcz-tryhubczak, university of wroclaw, poland, (justyna.deszcztryhubczak@uwr.edu.pl), editor. alexandra panos, university of south florida, (ampanos@usf.edu), editor. lara saguisag, new york university, (lara.saguisag@nyu.edu), editor. issn: doi: contact: about cle climate literacy in education (cle) is an openaccess, double-blind, peer reviewed journal sponsored by the center for climate literacy at the university of minnesota and published through university of minnesota libraries. cle publishes practical, teacher-oriented content on all aspects of climate literacy education at all grade levels and across all subject areas (primarily k-16, but including teacher education and professional development). we are a pocket journal focused on classroom practice which is why the articles we publish are short: 2000 words or less. our content is written in jargon-free prose accessible to the general audience. all submissions are peer-reviewed by two anonymous readers. authors can expect to hear results within two weeks after submission. we publish on a rolling basis. we welcome submissions in the following categories: curriculum, reflections, critical essays, and creative & multimedia. for detailed submission criteria pertaining to each category, please visit our journal website. we look forward to working with you! https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://climateliteracy.umn.edu/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/about/submissions 2 acknowledgements we are grateful for the generous support of the late dr. pete palmer, whose contribution allowed us to ferry this first issue from concept to publication. we are also grateful for the support of the university of minnesota libraries in helping us to bring this open-access, digital journal to fruition. a special note of thanks goes to emma molls and laureen boutang. they were—and continue to be—central in guiding us through this process. taylor goetsch, winner of the center for climate literacy’s inaugural arts for the planet visual media award, provided the cover illustration. izzy sheen created and generously donated rights to the logo to climate literacy in education. this logo will soon be digitized. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 3 volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents author title page editorial editorial collective introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism 1 curriculum abby hartzell critical literacy and climate change: 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit 4 mary-alice corliss lisa vicens rebecca young the science behind the story: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy 7 sonja braucht seeing through water: the impact of our decisions 12 reflection anna jennerjohn nearby nature 15 lorraine kerslake reconnecting with nature through haiku 21 kirsten hunt finding a way through: teaching naomi klein’s how to change everything: a young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other 24 tanja nathanael andri magnasun’s the story of the blue planet: towards ecotopia 27 katharine werthwine alex panos critical dialogue: climate literacy in context 32 critical essay marek oziewicz what is climate literacy? 35 nick kleese beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming 40 emily midkiff sara austin “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism 44 creative and multimodal katharine werthwine you are here 48 nick kleese taylor goetsch olivia gibson breanna hickmott juliana olave arts for the planet 50 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 1 introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism editorial collective: marek oziewicz, nick kleese, lara saguisag, jana lo bello miller, justyna deszcztryhubczak, lorraine joanna kerslake young, catherine cavanaugh, tanja nathanael, stephanie rollag yoon, alexandra panos, jeff henning-smith, and rebecca young welcome to the first issue of climate literacy in education! the journal is our collective effort to actively confront, in and with education, the climate breakdown and its drivers. climate change is the key existential issue of our time. it is already eroding possibilities for human and nonhuman lives across the globe. if not addressed adequately, it will continue to erode these possibilities at an accelerating pace, leaving today’s young people stranded in an unrecognizable wasteland that may become their future. but this is not the future we are willing to accept. at cle we believe that the story of climate change is yet to be told. it will be told and shaped by today’s youth and by all of us who stand up for young people’s right to futures in which they can thrive without compromising the earth’s biospheric integrity. at cle we believe that mobilizing all teachers on the ground to incorporate climate literacy in their everyday teaching can be a game changer for ushering in an ecological civilization. cle serves as an important tool in this transition. we are an open access journal published by the university of minnesota libraries and available for free to all teachers everywhere. our double-blind, peer-review process ensures that our content is academically rigorous and constitutes scholarship in the emerging field of climate literacy education. our formula of a pocket journal, in turn, ensures that our content—up to 2000 words maximum—is accessible and practitioneroriented. cle is thus designed not as a competition to regular academic journals—in which articles are less concerned with direct classroom use and range anywhere between 4000 and 8000 words—but as an ally to their work. this is why, alongside original research, cle also publishes teacher-usable content sourced by authors from their journal articles, book chapters, and longer publications that have appeared elsewhere. our focus is always on applicability to classroom practice. our primary audience is teachers and other educators who work with young people in formal and informal schooling settings. our goal is to share resources that help teachers build young people’s climate literacy. in every classroom, in every subject area, across all grade levels. on this level, the work of cle aligns with the mission of the center for climate literacy at the university of minnesota’s college of education and human development: to develop research, training, and design solutions for climate literacy education in k-12 classrooms. this work is framed by two premises and three commitments: https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ editorial team  introduction 2 the premises include a recognition of where we are and a vision of where we are going. the recognition part is our acknowledgment that the main systems of the current global civilization— our politics, industries, law, finance, agriculture, education, media, market economy, and others— were created without concern for the biosphere or designed to exploit it indefinitely. but winning a war against the planet will get us nowhere. so, our second core premise is that a different future is not just possible but necessary and nonnegotiable. the vision of where we want to be is a sustainable, just, and ecological civilization. how do we get to that future? the roadmap we envision is reflected in our three commitments: commitment to climate literacy. we believe that in order to transition to an ecological civilization, we need to achieve universal climate literacy. we need to become a climate literate society. climate literacy is an understanding that includes numbers and facts (i.e., climate science) but centers on developing values, attitudes, and behavioral change aligned with how we should live to build sustainable futures. for more on climate literacy, see oziewicz’s “what is climate literacy” in this issue. commitment to education. we believe that teaching about climate change should be at the heart of our educational practice. climate literacy can be scaffolded and must be taught to all k-12 students and across all subject areas: not just in science. for examples, see articles by hartzell, braucht, kerslake, corliss, vicens & young, jennerjohn, and hunt in this issue. centering discussions about issues of climate change in all subject areas and at all grade levels is the most meaningful action we can take to empower young people to become agents of change. commitment to stories. we believe that stories for young audiences are ground zero for building universal climate literacy. literature, film, games, and art forms for young people are not additional but the most important avenues for raising climate awareness and mobilizing action. this commitment to stories rests on the fact that human cognitive architecture is evolved for narrative understanding. stories are portals to understanding, remembering, and making connections between knowledge and emotion. they help us care and better navigate reality. see, for example, articles from kleese, nathanael, werthwine and panos, midkiff and austin, and werthwine in this volume. beyond these premises (which we share with a number of other organizations and journals) and the three commitments (whose specific combination, we believe, is unique to our work), the cle journal fills an important gap. although the vast majority of teachers and parents support the teaching of climate change in schools, teaching about climate change is almost absent in today’s curricula. teachers are not sure if and where climate change fits in their subject areas. school boards have no state policies to guide action, and state education departments have no national policies to build on. leading literacy and educational organizations have acted as if they live on another planet; climate change has been largely overlooked by scholars of children’s literature; and agencies have awarded a mere .12 percent of their funding to support climate-focused research in social sciences related to the change of attitudes, values, norms, and behaviors: a change that has long been recognized as central to any effective climate policy and action. under these circumstances, it seems naïve to wait for requirements and incentives for a transition to an https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5240 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5250 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5252 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5186 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5241 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5236 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5322 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5200 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5217 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5261 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5214 https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/article/view/5258 https://www.npr.org/2019/04/22/714262267/most-teachers-dont-teach-climate-change-4-in-5-parents-wish-they-did https://www.npr.org/2019/04/22/714262267/most-teachers-dont-teach-climate-change-4-in-5-parents-wish-they-did https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1300682.pdf https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1300682.pdf https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819550/summary https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s2214629619309119?via%3dihub climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 3 ecological civilization to trickle down from school boards, education departments, state, or federal regulators. this change can only emerge from the actual practice of ordinary people, especially climate literacy conversations that teachers can initiate in their classrooms. from classrooms, this conversation can expand to families, communities, and nations. this is the future we can create together, acting in our capacities as teachers, educators, and students. at cle we aspire to publish materials that model, facilitate, and inspire the ecocentric transformation of existing education from within: in all schools, with all teachers, at all grade levels. this effort, of course, is not limited to k-12 education. although our primary audience is classroom teachers, we believe that climate literacy work should also be happening at institutions of higher education, professional education, community education, and in all other spaces where earthlings learn about how to live now. the tools we promote and the resources we share are scalable, adaptable, and applicable to audiences of every age. in all formal and informal educational settings. each issue of cle will include articles in four content categories: curriculum, reflection, critical article, creative & multimodal. for a description of each category, see this page. we start with two issues per year, but we are committed to publishing as many issues as it takes to get these resources out into teachers’ hands. because we want this work to accelerate and expand as soon as possible, we aspire to a one-month turnaround about the publication decision from the submission date. articles will be published on a rolling basis and assigned to an issue open at that point. we will learn as we go, so some policies or strategies may get modified. one thing that will remain is our commitment to this work as a force to accelerate a transition to an ecological civilization. we know you care about earth and all its life forms as much as we do. we know you are concerned about the climate emergency and ready to stand up for the planet. climate literacy education is a practical, everyday effort we can do together in our classrooms. this journal is a space where we share ideas, tips, and inspiration. please talk about cle in your networks. please tell teachers about this work. please consider publishing with us, reviewing for us, and getting involved in any capacity you are able to. we encourage contributions from k-16 educators, k-16 students, scholars, artists, and informed participants in climate literacy learning. we especially welcome contributions from scholars from historically marginalized communities and geographies, in-service educators, and students. for author guidelines, see the submission page. and always, always feel welcome to reach out with any questions or concerns. our managing editor nick kleese can be reached at clejournal@umn.edu . thank you for being part of building universal climate literacy in all schools everywhere! https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/about https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-civilization/ https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/clj/about/submissions mailto:clejournal@umn.edu hartzell  critical literacy and climate change 4 climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit by abby hartzell, secondary ela instructor, hopkins, mn, usa abstract this 11th grade language & literature climate mini-unit was created to develop 11th grade students’ climate and critical literacy skills through analysis and discussion of multigenre climate texts. the unit covers several state standards related to media literacy in reading and inquiry-based writing. after completing this unit, students will understand the widespread, inequitable impacts of climate change and are equipped to engage with climate-related media and literature through a critical lens. keywords critical media literacy, multigenre texts, multimodal texts, anthropocene, holocene, ecosystem, sustainability, biodiversity, mass extinction, greenwashing overview in what follows, i share my experience of collaboratively designing and teaching a three-week climate change unit to four sections of standard-level 11th grade english at a title 1 public high school in the suburbs of minneapolis in spring 2023. my co-teacher and i were excited to develop our students’ climate literacy after we took a graduate course at the university of minnesota titled “adolescent literature, youth activism, and climate literacy” for our master’s in education program. we decided to fill a three-week gap at the end of the trimester with a mini unit in which students would learn about the facts of climate change, critically analyze various climate related texts, and engage in discussions about activism and personal/collective responsibility. the unit centered around a question: “what is climate change and how can i engage critically with this issue?” each lesson built upon the previous lessons to help students engage with the question and eventually develop their own responses. while teaching the unit, i was delighted by the level of engagement we saw in students. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/critical-media-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/multigenre/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/multimodal/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/holocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecosystems/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/extinction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/greenwashing/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 5 even though the school year was coming to a close and the weather was warming up, most students expressed genuine curiosity about climate impacts and solutions. they asked nuanced questions ranging from the responsibility of the camera crew to help the dying walruses they were filming to the plausibility of converting the electrical grid to 100% renewable resources. during our all-class discussion, students drew connections between the racial justice unit we had completed previously and the climate justice social media posts they had just analyzed. overall, teaching this unit reminded me of two important truths about my own experience as a teacher. first, when i am personally passionate about a topic, students tend to reflect back the same level of energy. second, making space for students to ask challenging questions and dive beneath the surface of the texts we read can take a lesson in exciting new directions. i cannot wait to see how these students apply their climate literacy in the future, and i hope they never lose their curiosity and critical lenses. narrative framing in the first part of the unit, students analyzed a series of climate narratives representing a range of genres. they first watched david attenborough’s documentary a life on our planet for an accessible framing of the problems and solutions associated with climate change. students honed their critical literacy skills by analyzing the short story “hermie” by nathaniel rich; the picturebook we are water protectors by carole lindstrom and illustrated by michaela goade; climate justice tweets by vanessa nakate, urban air quality, mark ruffalo, and climate justice alliance; videos from the climate stories project; and a slam poetry video by solli raphael and greenpeace. the unit culminated with lessons dedicated to analyzing corporate sustainability statements from target, nike, and starbucks; the song “colors of the wind” from disney’s pocahontas; and a podcast with jane goodall and ayana elizabeth johnson. at a glance title 11th grade language & literature climate mini-unit critical literacy and climate change unit time 3 weeks block schedule: one 50 minute and two 70 minute classes per week grade level(s) 11th grade core text david attenborough’s documentary a life on our planet supporting texts “hermie” by nathaniel rich we are water protectors by carole lindstrom and michaela goade https://www.climatelit.org/literature/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet/ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j7fyzyfro7tts1g_u5ykvwepn7bkwutt/view https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ hartzell  critical literacy and climate change 6 climate justice tweets by vanessa nakate, urban air quality, mark ruffalo, and climate justice alliance videos from the climate stories project slam poetry video by solli raphael and greenpeace. climate literacy terms anthropocene, holocene, ecosystem, sustainability, biodiversity, mass extinction, greenwashing objectives each lesson builds upon the previous lesson to help students engage with the question: “what is climate change and how can i engage critically with this issue?” materials and resources unit calendar with links to resources and slides going forward i thoroughly enjoyed designing and teaching this unit. one of my personal highlights was the last day of school when i led students in a discussion about the difference between individual and collective action. i asked students to come to a consensus at their table groups about which is more powerful: changing your personal behavior to combat climate change from the ground up or changing laws to combat climate change from the top down. it was exciting to listen to students debating the merits of each. ultimately, most groups decided that collective action was far more powerful. after discussion, i led students in an activity i call “blue marble,” for which i gave each student a physical blue marble that represents the earth. i then explained the metaphor: the earth is a tiny blue marble in space. we must do what we can to protect it and make it a better place, so what can you do for our only home? students rolled their blue marbles in their palms as they considered this question. i started by sharing that my own blue marble action is teaching climate literacy. as each student then shared their own actions, i couldn’t help but feel disappointed. after such a rich conversation about individual versus collective action, i was hoping students would think beyond classic individual actions, but most students said they planned to “use a reusable straw” or “drive less just for fun.” this response left me feeling motivated to engage students in the debate about individual versus collective action sooner in the unit so it could help help them reflect on their own power to influence collective change. i have since started working at a different high school. recently, my former colleague told me that one of our students from last year, now a senior, dropped by her room to say hi. at the end of their conversation, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue marble. a full summer vacation later, he still remembered the activity and his own, albeit small, commitment to taking care of our planet. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xa7hgrxau2qax9xp8gvmziet8ldjemkxxdusj2xmxdw/edit#slide=id.g1300a61040a_0_62 https://www.climatestoriesproject.org/us-climatestories.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gda50vw-mdq https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/holocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecosystems/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/extinction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/greenwashing/ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u1ql7htdffasxkvtytveblhum4gcf85ytotkdrgl9aa/edit?pli=1 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 7 the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy mary-alice corliss, cogniatm lisa vicens, cogniatm rebecca l. young, cogniatm abstract in this article, we first outline an inquiry-based pedagogical model for studying scientific phenomena through the lens of a story. then, we offer a middle school example that educators can pilot in their classrooms or use as a guide for constructing their own. the middle school pilot opportunity explores the science behind coastal erosion and the impacts of sea level rise in julie bertagna’s exodus. keywords climate change, sea level rise, climate science, pedagogical models, science fiction, fantasy, exodus a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories storytelling is a practice that has a long history in helping humanity make sense of the world. stories are powerful because they help bring data to life, allowing learners to connect meaningfully with information that may otherwise feel abstract. stories, therefore, can be valuable teaching tools for promoting deeper learning of complex phenomena such as climate change and its impacts, direct and indirect, on each learner. as a universal lens, narratives about the environment can facilitate conversations about the impacts of climate change by encouraging exploration into the patterns of human behavior that https://www.climatelit.org/literature/exodus/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/climate-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sea-level-rise/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-science/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/pedagogical-models/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/science-fiction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/fantasy/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/exodus/ https://ncte.org/statement/teaching-storytelling-position-statements/ corliss, vicens & young  the science behind the stories 8 contribute to them. leveraging cognitive research on mirror neurons, narrative empathy, and theory of mind, a transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy positions storytelling as a framing lens for critical topics that engage k-12 students in climate literacy education. investigating the science behind stories that address the impacts of climate change can help teachers guide collaborative problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication. we offer here a visual (see figures 1 and 2) and written outline of a 9-step inquiry-based pedagogical model designed to foster students’ climate literacy, empathy, and collective agency. if you are a teacher interested in piloting this model to help your students examine coastal erosion and sea level rise through the lens of julie bertagna’s young adult novel exodus, please contact mary-alice corliss and rebecca young (maryalice.corliss@cognia.org; rebecca.young@cognia.org). we are seeking educator and student feedback as we continue to develop this model and to build task designs merging stories and scientific phenomena across grade levels. real-world performance task design read the narrative read a story or narrative excerpt that addresses an aspect of climate change. this story (fiction or nonfiction) frames the instruction and must feel relevant to students because of its setting, conflict or characters. choosing an emotionally engaging story or episode cannot be emphasized enough— https://www.climatelit.org/topic/coastal-erosion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sea-level-rise/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/exodus/ mailto:maryalice.corliss@cognia.org mailto:rebecca.young@cognia.org climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 9 this investment is critical for learning, not only helping learners better retain new information but allowing them to process information empathetically to promote prosocial action. explore the science explore the science behind the phenomenon that drives the conflict of the story (e.g., sea level rise, coastal erosion, species extinction, pollution, weather). a phenomenon is more than simply a topic related to climate change: it is an observation that requires explanation of a problem that requires a solution. when framed in a storyline, students can use that context to develop a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. reflect on perspectives reflect on the phenomenon as it relates to the broader context of climate change, including, as appropriate, its local and global impacts. reflections should take place before, during, and after studying the narrative and should address both understanding and perception of the phenomenon (scientific, social, and others). the empathy continuum supports discussions related to the perspectives of characters and readers with the goal of engaging differing points of view and experiences. analyze contexts analyze climate-related contexts illuminated by the narrative: from setting descriptions that illustrate environmental impacts, through historical, social, or political backdrops that inform the story’s central conflict, and on to the personal motivations that drive character actions and dialogue related to it. targeted standards-based questions scaffold toward a culminating transdisciplinary performance task. examine data examine the phenomenon as it is presented in the story and consider the science behind claims, challenges, and potential solutions the author or narrator is exploring. real-world data stimuli are invaluable to support students’ understanding of the problem’s complexity, pervasiveness, and longterm impacts. evaluate solutions evaluate existing and potential solutions based on real-world contexts related to the phenomenon, gathering information from a variety of sources that helps extend appreciation both for what is happening in the narrative and in reality (present and future). investigate the effectiveness of solutions and make data-based predictions related to the story and any real-world parallels. collaborate to problem-solve collaborate to collect information and engage in problem-solving. compare narrative-based and real-world evidence to focus decisions, seek additional information, and develop solutions. synthesize findings across content areas and prepare recommendations for narrative-based and/or real-world audiences. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/coastal-erosion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/coastal-erosion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/extinction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/pollution/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/extreme-weather-events/ https://ib-innovate.com/2019/05/01/empathy-continuum/ https://ib-innovate.com/2019/05/01/empathy-continuum/ corliss, vicens & young  the science behind the stories 10 create and communicate create a product or presentation designed to communicate your findings with others (connected to the storyline and/or the school community). final products and presentations incorporate a transdisciplinary approach to learning, pulling from multiple subject and skill areas to respond to a real-world problem. share learning experience using final products and/or presentations with peers, school leaders, or community panels. sharing is designed to promote awareness and inspire action. demonstrate learning this task can be adapted for use as an instructional plan, as a formative or summative assessment based on scaffolded instruction, or as a performance-based project. assessments of learning can include self-reflection, peer reviews, and rubrics. interested in piloting a climate literacy task? in this last section we share an example of an opening task for the 9-step model of teaching climate literacy we introduced above. in this task, students are asked to analyze the science underlying the main conflict in the opening of exodus by julie bertagna. set in a dystopian future of 2099, the story opens on wing, an island where the protagonist mara lives with her family. the island is about to experience the same fate as most other land masses in the story’s world as global sea-level rise threatens to completely submerge it. the 6-page “the swallowing sea” chapter sets the conflict in motion as mara tries to persuade her family and other residents that they must leave their home in search of higher ground, if any still exists. “the swallowing sea” establishes the conflict between mara’s expectations to continue to live on the island of wing and the reality of global sea level rise, due to climate change, that will https://www.climatelit.org/literature/exodus/ https://books.google.com/books?id=l9st5bod3occ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 11 soon swallow the island. the chapter also comments on the patterns of human behavior that contribute to inaction. as the book unfolds, denial, fear, and misunderstanding are represented in the opposition mara faces, making it an effective lens through which to explore the complex contexts fueling today’s real-world conflicts in attitudes about climate change. the chapter, as an excerpt, could serve as an introduction to the science of coastal erosion or sea level rise or as part of a broader study on the impacts of a warming planet, specifically climate-related migration and the limitations of natural resources. the novel itself could be studied in full as part of a climate-focused literature unit too. it is highly engaging for the age group and offers rich opportunities for analyzing human behavior in response to climate change challenges. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/coastal-erosion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/coastal-erosion/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-migration/ braucht  seeing through water 12 seeing through water: the impact of our decisions sonja braucht, brandon valley public schools, brandon, sd, usa abstract seeing through water is a unit developed to bring awareness of climate change to eighthgrade middle school students in the english language arts classroom. the topic of water was selected because of the interdisciplinary connections and cross-curricular standards relevant for the middle school level. students are asked to justify how the actions of others impact the decisions they make. presented with accurate information, students make connections to their lives, become climate literate, and learn to take appropriate, thoughtful actions. keywords biodiversity, climate literacy, climate change, collective action, sustainability, youth climate activism, multimodal texts overview this unit came from a desire to engage students in understanding climate change in an accessible and meaningful way. water became the focus of this planning when it became clear that water quality was impacting students, families, and community members in the school district. this topic also meant understanding the context of the community surrounding students and how that impacts students’ perspectives coming into the conversation. in a district that is heavily influenced by the prominence of agriculture and political views that challenge the urgency of climate change, it was important to find ways to bring students into the conversation through personal connections and layering of texts. the intention of this unit is that students understand the ways water impacts everybody, starting with themselves. beginning with a variety of multimodal texts, i provide space for students to understand how water impacts all people and how our decisions impact water quality. after discussing the background texts, students engage with the novel memory of water by finnish author emmi itäranta. as students finish the course texts, they move into a participatory action research project where they consider the water quality in their own community and engage in ways to bring their new understanding to their classmates, families, and school. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/climate-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/climate-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/water-is-life/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/memory-of-water-2/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/par/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/par/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 13 narrative framing set in the postapocalyptic future scandinavia, memory of water is a dystopian story of a tea master who holds the knowledge of where water exists. as the protagonist noria learns more about this role, she decides how to do the right thing as it impacts her community. used with a collection of other multimodal texts, the novel provides a framing for students to consider the impact we all have on our water and how we can make choices to move toward safer water for all. at a glance title seeing through water: the impact of our decisions unit time 3-4 weeks grade level(s) 7-8th grade core text memory of water, by emmi itäranta supporting texts we are water protectors by carole lindstrom the fate of fausto by oliver jeffers short stories: “skywoman”; “lamentations” frozen 2: “when i am older (earth, wind, fire, water)” moana dream ln3: seven teachings of anishinaabe in resistance climate literacy terms biodiversity climate literacy climate change collective action indigenous environmental practices planetarianism sustainability youth climate activism objectives students will evaluate and justify how the actions of others impact the decisions we make (right or wrong). materials and resources unit guide https://www.climatelit.org/literature/memory-of-water-2/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-water-protectors/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-fate-of-fausto/ https://youtu.be/l5d67j3cawe https://www.climatelit.org/literature/youth-activism-marine-conservation-and-ecofeminism/ https://youtu.be/nauisgvrpc4 https://vimeo.com/538751145 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/indigenous-environmental-practices/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/indigenous-environmental-practices/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/planetarianism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/ https://www.climatelit.org/?s=youth+activism https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i5faiwc5e5-s6rr3p07lwhzxn9dnkegknlpkwabbudu/edit braucht  seeing through water 14 going forward several questions will occur as students move forward with this unit. the first one is how we can build on this unit going forward. although i do not have answers yet, i envision this unit growing to include several stem opportunities, connect to the art and music classes, get out into nature in our community, and function as a community outreach occasion from the youth perspective. references clements, r., muscker, j., williams, c., & hall, d. (2016). moana. walt disney studios motion pictures. honor the earth (2019). ln3: 7 teachings of the anishinaabe resistance. vimeo. https://vimeo.com/538751145. itäranta e. (2014). memory of water. harper voyager. jeffers, o. (2019). the fate of fausto. harpercollins publishers. lindstrom, c. and goade, m. (2020). we are water protectors. roaring book press. zombie studios. (2016). dream. [animated short]. youtube. https://youtu.be/nauisgvrpc4. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 15 playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature anna jennerjohn, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract children bring natural curiosity to outdoor exploration that allows them to notice the small details of natural spaces around them. often, adults must relearn this skill. a nearby nature mindset can help. in this reflection i share a personal story of children teaching me about nearby nature. i name eleven picturebooks that can help adults and children alike to notice the nature that they encounter on a daily basis in their own neighborhoods. keywords nearby nature, nature play, nature, picturebooks, early childhood climate literacy acknowledgements this blog was originally posted on the free forest school website as playing in a patch of dirt. my kids keep trying to teach me about the concept of nearby nature: that nature sites can be found in unexpected places close to home. back in the days of pre-covid life, one especially long weekday comes to mind. our family members had been at our respective places of work/school/childcare all day and then gone directly to a pto meeting in the evening, appreciatively shoveling pizza onto plates before the kids went to play in the gym. attending the pto meeting meant we missed our usual after school outdoor time. as we left the school that evening, our kids were in various levels of meltdown. despite my desire to get everyone in the car and buckled up, the kids were compelled to explore a small dirt patch by the bike rack. almost immediately, they settled into a calm – active alert state. one child scratched at the dirt with a little rock while the other two swung upside-down on the bike rack. i stepped back to observe. nobody was fighting. bodies were moving. the patch of dirt was just https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/nearby-nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature-play/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/picturebooks/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/early-childhood-climate-literacy/ https://www.freeforestschool.org/ https://www.freeforestschool.org/blog/playing-in-a-patch-of-dirt https://www.freeforestschool.org/blog/playing-in-a-patch-of-dirt https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/nearby-nature/ jennerjohn playing in a patch of dirt 16 right for them to get some sensory stimulation, even among little pieces of litter and possibly a bit of broken glass. everyone was calm again as we hopped in the car to head home. did hanging on a bike rack and playing in a patch of dirt count as time in nature? well, it certainly wasn’t forest bathing on the north shore of lake superior, but i would argue yes. nature, and its positive effects for humans, exists along a continuum. in one research synthesis, the author found that everyday nature, including views of nature out of windows and being in urban green spaces, has a positive effect on human health (kuo, 2015). another study cites a local urban park as a powerful tool for students with adhd: after a twenty-minute park walk, the students’ concentration improved significantly, in a similar way that the dirt patch helped my kids calm down that evening (faber taylor & kuo, 2009). for those of us who live in more urban areas and are looking for nature near home, this realization has important implications. we don’t need to wait to get out to “big nature” to reap the benefits that nature offers. we can take in smaller bits of nature near our homes. learning to appreciate nearby nature, as suggested by emma marris in her ted talk “nature is everywhere,” helps us expand our definition of nature to encompass all its aspects. the goal is not to stop protecting wild places, but to start noticing the natural places in our own neighborhoods where children can fully engage, touch, and go off path. the unglamorous dirt patch was enough to give my kids a sense of freedom and calm. they intuitively know the value of nearby nature and easily seek it out. as adults, we sometimes need reminders and reframings to slow down and learn to appreciate what we otherwise take for granted. with that in mind, i offer a collection of great picturebooks to help us all maintain a “nearby nature” mindset. the #ownvoices books in this selection feature a child from a nondominant group and the author or illustrator who identifies as a member of that group. i hope these books will help you enjoy nearby nature with your kids. free forest school has been instrumental in helping me slow down and let my kids lead, whether we are in the woods or exploring a storm drain. i am working to tune in to what my kids notice and to be in the moment for each patch of dirt that they find. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/forest-bathing/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/everyday-nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/nearby-nature/ https://www.ted.com/talks/emma_marris_nature_is_everywhere_we_just_need_to_learn_to_see_it?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/emma_marris_nature_is_everywhere_we_just_need_to_learn_to_see_it?language=en https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ownvoices/ https://www.freeforestschool.org/ https://www.freeforestschool.org/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 17 here and now by julia denos, illustrated by e.b. goodale. this book helps young children and their caregivers to focus on mindfulness in the moment. notice what is happening, in the here and now, in the exact place where you are rooted. finding wild by megan wagner lloyd, illustrated by abigail halpin. two kids go on an urban hike in search of “wild.” what will they find? where will they find it? this book shows that urban places offer wild spots, too. puddle by hyewon yum. a child doesn’t want to go outside because it's soggy and gray. his mom entices him by drawing pictures of him and his dog splashing in puddles. this does the trick to get the boy outside in real life. an ode to neighborhood puddles told in #ownvoices. a different pond by bao phi, illustrated by thi bui. in this #ownvoices story, a child and his father go fishing at a neighborhood pond early in the mornings. during this time together, the parent shares stories of his life in vietnam before emigrating to the united states while the boy proudly contributes to putting a fish dinner on the family table. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/here-and-now/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/finding-wild/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/puddle/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/a-different-pond/ jennerjohn playing in a patch of dirt 18 on a magical do-nothing day by beatrice alemagna. a child wants to stay on her device battling martians but her parent sends her outside to play. she’s determined to be bored until the magic of her play takes over. tiny perfect things by m.h. clark. one joy of caring for young children is the fresh eyes they bring to simple acts like a neighborhood walk. in this story a child and their caregiver notice all the tiny perfect things on their daily jaunt down the sidewalk. my forest is green by darren lebeuf, illustrated by ashley barron. the child in this book lives in a city and visits the urban forest throughout the seasons, afterwards creating nature art back at his apartment. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/on-a-magical-do-nothing-day/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/tiny-perfect-things/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/my-forest-is-green/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 19 now by antoinette portis. a book about being in the present. this child notices each leaf, puddle, and cloud that she encounters because she appreciates the nearby nature in front of her, right now. por todo nuestro alrededor/all around us by xelena gonzález, illustrated by adriana m. garcia. in this #ownvoices story, grandpa teaches his grandchild about the circles all around us: in the rainbow (the other half is underground), around his big belly, in the seeds they plant in the garden, in the round moon. daniel finds a poem by micha archer. daniel notices the specifics of the world around him. this book is great to read aloud due to the repetitive text—see the author’s ideas for actions to match the story here. seeing into tomorrow by richard wright and nina crews. another #ownvoices story, it presents a collection of haiku poems about the spring hills and shade trees of the author’s childhood. nina crews’ collage illustrations bring us back to those places. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/now/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/por-todo-nuestro-alrededor-all-around-us/ https://bookshop.org/books/all-around-us/9781941026762 https://www.climatelit.org/literature/daniel-finds-a-poem/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzc80z2geqk&t=542s https://www.climatelit.org/literature/seeing-into-tomorrow/ jennerjohn playing in a patch of dirt 20 references alemagna, b. (2017). on a magical do-nothing day. harpercollins. archer, m. (2016). daniel finds a poem. nancy paulsen books. clark, m.h. (2018). tiny perfect things. compendium publishing and communications. denos, j. (2019). here and now (e.b. goodale, illus.). clarion. faber taylor, a. & kuo, f.e. (2009). children with attention deficits concentrate better after a walk in the park. journal of attention disorders, 12(5), 402-409. gonzález, x. (2019). por todo nuestro alrededor/all around us (a.m. garcia, illus.). cinco puntos press. kuo, m. (2015) how might contact with nature promote human health? promising mechanisms and a possible central pathway. frontiers in psychology, (6)1093. doi: 10.3389/ fpsyg.2015.01093 lebeauf, d. (2019). my forest is green (a. barron, illus.). kids can press. phi, b. (2017). a different pond (t. bui, illus.) capstone young readers. portis, a. (2017). now. roaring brook press. wagner loyd, m. (2016). finding wild (a. halpin, illus.). alfred a. knopf books for young readers. wright, r. (2018). seeing into tomorrow (n. crews, illus.). millbrook press. yum, h. (2016). puddle. farrar, straus, and giroux. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 21 reconnecting with nature through haiku lorraine kerslake, universidad de alicante/ gieco, instituto franklin, uah, spain abstract this reflection outlines how haiku can be used as a creative form of writing to help students reconnect with nature, raise climate and environmental awareness, and promote change. it is based on a teaching experience described in more detail in the chapter “raising environmental awareness and rewriting education through haikus,” written by lorraine kerslake and mª encarnación carillo and published in literature as a lens for climate change: using narratives to prepare the next generation (rowman & littlefield 2022, pp. 171-193). keywords poetry, haiku, nature, environmental awareness acknowledgements i acknowledge that the seeds of this teaching experience come from a collaborative project called “the poetry reading project” developed during the 2019-2020 academic year by dr. maría encarnación carrillo-garcía and dr. lorraine kerslake. we live in a culture that is profoundly and systemically anthropocentric. this dominant culture considers humankind as superior to nature and other animals. it is guided by the assumption that it is only in relation to humans that anything else has value. now, more than ever, imagination is key in envisioning change and rethinking the way we interact with the world around us. the climate and ecological emergencies expressed in the multiplicity of interconnected phenomena—global warming, water pollution, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and others—are part of a broader problem, one deeply connected to our dysfunctional, anthropocentric relationship with nature. language is a human construct. it is largely aligned with culture and often positioned against nature, affirming humanity as an entity separate from the rest of nature. if so, how can we use language to rewrite the world? or to reimagine the relation between the human and non-human world? specifically, as educators, how can we promote forms of critical thinking that raise https://rowman.com/isbn/9781498594110/literature-as-a-lens-for-climate-change-using-narratives-to-prepare-the-next-generation https://rowman.com/isbn/9781498594110/literature-as-a-lens-for-climate-change-using-narratives-to-prepare-the-next-generation https://www.climatelit.org/topic/poetry/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/haiku/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-awareness/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/global-warming/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/pollution/marine-pollution/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/deforestation/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/biodiversity-loss/ kerslake reconnecting with nature 22 environmental and climate awareness? how do we encourage students to relate and identify with the world around them? using the classroom as a place for climate literacy conversations is one way to start. the integration of climate issues in the classroom can contribute to developing a more humanistic way of understanding and interacting with the world. from primary to tertiary education, literature is listed in the curriculum as one of the tools for the successful implementation of sociolinguistic, sociocultural, and emotional aspects of teaching. as educators, we face the challenge of creating spaces for helping our students learn to use language as a tool to recognize the embeddedness of humans in nature. in this context poetry can be a particularly useful tool to foster environmental and climate awareness. poetry is a unique and complex form of language. in most education contexts since the 1990s, teaching poetry has often been stigmatized as unnecessary, lacking practical purpose or value that matters in real life. unsurprisingly, at least in our experience, poetry is the genre that students seem least comfortable with. one way to introduce students to the power of poetry and connect it to climate literacy is to show them that they can become poets for a day. because poetry, especially its format called haiku, has unique affordances to reconnect students to the wonder of nature. a haiku is a traditional form of japanese poetry inspired by nature. a haiku poem includes three lines with a set syllable pattern, in which the first and last lines have five syllables, and the middle line has seven. the simplicity of its seventeen syllables, condensed in haiku’s 5-7-5 pattern, works as a structure around which a thought is written in an inspired moment. rather than communicate what to think and feel, haiku poems stress particular importance of the here and now. take basho’s “frog” poem: an old pond; a frog jumps in – the sound of the water. what makes this haiku interesting is not the fact that basho was the first to describe a frog but how the poem appreciates the sound of the frog jumping into the water, making the episode come alive before the eyes of the poet and the reader. the appreciation of the ordinary and the emphasis on the present moment allows haiku poems to capture and imagine events from a participatory point of view. this being with, the act of empathy and the ability to identify with the other, is also key to creating a more caring relationship with nature. the visual image that is conceived when reading and writing haiku can help develop environmental awareness and climate literacy while learning a language that brings one closer to nature. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-awareness/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 23 among teachers who use haiku, one practical challenge is whether to insist on the use of traditional conventions, including a strict syllable count of seventeen syllables: 5-7-5. although this convention should not be deemed rigid, students can be encouraged to respect the traditional haiku format together with three other “golden rules” as guidelines about what a haiku should do: • capture the essence of a moment in time: a sort of poetic photo snapshot. • find the extraordinary in the ordinary: imagine you are looking at nature for the first time. • reconnect our world to nature. a simple way to do this is to invite students to choose a topic related to a particular element of nature. it could be a season, a particular ecosystem, or larger environment: the sea, the mountains, whatever comes to mind. close your eyes, feel what surrounds you. sense it. smell it. breath it. feel it. become it. then brainstorm words related to the theme. try to write down the number of syllables next to each word. this is the basis of your haiku. now you are ready to draft it. given its brevity and evocative imagery, writing haiku can be a successful way to encourage students’ creativity. being only three lines long, a haiku is an easy and effective way to show the power of poetry even in a short class activity. it can be a particularly useful tool for students to express their thoughts and emotions freely and creatively, regardless of their age and level. in our experience, haiku poems often serve as an emotional outlet for students to reflect on their own feelings whilst connecting them to nature. given the inherent anthropocentrism of western culture, these connections can also nurture deeper ones that, in turn, foster a critical awareness of the myriad systems that shape all forms of life on earth. the main purpose of reading and writing haiku is sharing moments of our lives and experiences that have moved us. on the deepest level, this is surely one of the greatest purposes of all art, not just poetry. haiku can be implemented in the classroom at all grade levels as an approach to creative writing and an effective way to encourage students to use language as a form of connection between their inner selves and the natural world. writing haiku poems can contribute toward a more thoughtful appraisal of the role humans play in the world. it can help change our attitudes and move us beyond the present crisis toward a more sustainable way of being with earth. hunt finding a way through 24 finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other kirsten hunt, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract in this reflection i share insights from reading naomi klein’s how to change everything with undergraduate elementary education majors. i discuss how klein’s book offered pre-service teachers clear pathways for alleviating their own eco-anxiety and how it equipped them to help their future students navigate climate emotions. keywords climate change, eco-anxiety, nonfiction, hope, youth activism, green new deal, system change, how to change everything in fall 2022, i taught an undergraduate course on children’s literature that included a unit on building climate change awareness and the pivotal role of literature as a resource for this purpose. the course primarily serves elementary education majors, therefore discussions centered around pedagogical and curricular considerations for the classroom. despite the magnitude of information available about the climate emergency, it soon became clear that many of my students had little content knowledge about its geophysical and sociocultural impacts. this lack of content knowledge was coupled with a palpable anxiety about the future of our planet, referred to, variously, as solastalgia, climate grief, climate anxiety, or eco-anxiety (clayton, 2020). certainly, varying levels of anxiety emerge when one considers the link between geophysical climate change and mental health of students and educators. situated in a uniquely tenuous position of assuming responsibility for teaching students about what climate change is—and, importantly, what they can do about it— educators carry a large burden. many students of mine expressed this sentiment of simultaneously managing their own anxiety and also learning to hold the anxieties of their future students. “climate anxiety is something that worries me as a future educator,” one student wrote, “but it is not something to withhold from a young person, rather, it is something that should be done delicately” (undergraduate student, 2022). https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/climate-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecoanxiety/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nonfiction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/hope/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/green-new-deal/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/system-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/system-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-crisis/climate-emergency/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/solastalgia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-grief/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-anxiety/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecoanxiety/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 25 in response to this and other climate emotions, i chose to teach a nonfiction text that offers an in-road to building knowledge and initiating action. how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other (2021) by naomi klein exemplifies what i consider to be a key developmental process in understanding climate change and teaching climate literacy: knowledge, action, and hopeful futures. klein advocates for system change and provides a clear pathway through an otherwise overcomplicated amount of information. the book is an invaluable resource and i found it empowers the young reader with content knowledge, actionable tools, and—importantly—a sense of hope for the future. the hopeful thread weaved throughout each chapter is not encased in naivete. nor does klein leave the reader with shopworn recommendations such as the classic r’s of reduce, reuse, recycle. instead, she focuses on examples of activism that have been successful to counter climate change inaction on a sociopolitical level, along with constructing a base of knowledge for the reader. each chapter breaks down information into bite-sized chunks that provide space to open discussions. each includes photographs and breakout boxes that showcase activist-inspired vignettes. this formula not only creates a more digestible read for young/all readers; it creates a balance between information and story. and it is the story that threads a line of hope throughout what might otherwise be another work of nonfiction to further incite anxiety about the fate of our planet. take chapter 8, titled “the green new deal”. klein starts by showing how the united states has dealt with crises in the past: the new deal in the 1930s in response to the great depression and the marshall plan in 1948 to aid in post-war rebuilding of the world. this helps her lay the historical foundation for the ways that a green new deal is possible and achievable. klein’s writing is persuasive, speaking directly to the adolescent reader. “your generation is spreading the vision of a green new deal,” she says. “young people are telling us that politicians can no longer avoid it, and they are right” (klein, 2021, p. 251). my undergraduate students were equally inspired by klein’s insistence on what is possible. as one commented: “teachers can support student activism and educate [students] make the changes they want to the world. [how to change everything] was a great example of how text can give knowledge and a call to action for students to fight what they believe in” (undergraduate student, 2022). what evolved from the text-centered discussions has curricular considerations for classroom practice. the voices in the room echoed klein’s hopeful assertions that we can do better to support young people. and who better understands the radical nature of the youth than teachers? one good example of how klein’s book supports the bridging of information into pedagogical considerations for future classrooms came late in the unit. nearing the end of the book, students had participated in many discussions and activities to build a robust conceptual framework for grasping the complexities of climate change and the power of children’s literature for climate literacy pedagogy. there was a noticeable shift during the last week of the unit when students started to think through curricular options for teaching climate literacy in their future classrooms. there was also a growing excitement about how to incorporate activities and community-based activism for their future students. as one teacher-candidate wrote: “i have always been interested in climate change and finding new ways that we as humans can preserve the planet. this book was https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-emotions/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/how-to-change-everything-the-young-humans-guide-to-protecting-the-planet-and-each-other/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/system-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ hunt finding a way through 26 an amazing read for young adults and even younger ages that maybe do not understand climate change or ways that we can help” (undergraduate student, 2022). cognitive science supports my students’ experience about the power of stories: ojala (2012) characterizes “meaning-focused coping” as a strategy for children to hopefully and actively engage with climate change. clayton (2020) further supports meaning-focused coping as an adaptive response to the psychological impacts of eco-anxiety. she describes how the children in ojala’s study were able to “gain perspective on environmental problems by putting the problems into historical perspective, and/or [attempting] to find hope by trusting societal actors such as scientists to find solutions” (clayton, 2020, pp. 4-5). this, in turn, leads to high levels of engagement and efficacy, when students are able to draw upon their own beliefs and goals to mitigate the negative maladaptive response to climate change, namely anxiety (p. 5). having watched students engage with klein’s meaning-focused writing, i believe they experienced fewer moments of ecoanxiety and more moments of hope. in teaching climate literacy, we should be aware of our students’ eco-anxiety. we must develop the skills to teach and motivate them to not only thoughtfully respond to our world, but to be active solution-seekers. how to change everything helped my students understand their role as earthlings, humans, and future teachers who can inspire others to build a hopeful future. references clayton, s. (2020). climate anxiety: psychological responses to climate change. journal of anxiety disorders, 74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102263 klein, n. (2021). how to change everything: a young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. atheneum books for young readers. ojala, m. (2012). how do children cope with global climate change? coping strategies, engagement, and well-being. journal of environmental psychology, 32(3), 225233. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s0272494412000138 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102263 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102263 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 27 andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia tanja nathanael, san josé state university, california, usa abstract the reflection describes my experience of using andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet as a hopeful guide toward classroom discussions about sustainable futures. magnason’s novel helps students appreciate the environmental choices we are currently facing and provides an outline for what needs to be done. just like the children of the blue planet, we face similar challenges to overcome resistance to climate literacy and action. magnason’s message is hopeful and gestures at an ecotopian future. the book suggests that the choice to live sustainably is not as hard as it may seem. keywords anthropocene, climate action, consumer culture, utopia, dystopia, ecotopia, development, greenwashing, ecological overshoot, ecological destruction, system change, degrowth, ecotopia, story of the blue planet in august 2019, icelandic author andri magnason and a group of his researcher friends placed a plaque at the top of ok mountain commemorating the loss of the ok glacier in iceland. titled “a letter to the future,” the plaque acknowledges the loss of the glacier to human-driven climate change. it states boldly, “this monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. only you know if we did it” (magnason, 2019). this challenge to actively protect the environment is at the heart of magnason’s work, especially his ecotopian fable the story of the blue planet. since its icelandic debut in 1999, blue planet has been published or performed in 40 countries. it was also the first children’s book to receive the icelandic literary prize (magnason, n.d). i teach blue planet in my children’s literature course to facilitate discussions about climate change and our responsibility to the planet. i believe magnason’s novel helps students appreciate the choice we are currently facing and outlines what needs to be done. magnason’s blue planet is the home of eternally youthful wild children who live carefree lives on their idyllic island. with no adults around to tell them anything, the children are free to do as they please. one day, however, gleesome goodday crash lands his rocket onto the island, https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/consumerism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/utopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/dystopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecotopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/development/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/greenwashing/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-overshoot/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-destruction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/system-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/degrowth/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecotopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-story-of-the-blue-planet/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-story-of-the-blue-planet/ nathanael towards ecotopia 28 bringing with him all the trappings of civilization. gooday manipulates the children into selling him a fraction of their youth in exchange for the ability to fly. but best friends brimir and hulda soon discover that the price of their fun may be far more than they are willing to pay—perhaps the death of the planet itself. ultimately, the wild children must choose to give up their newfound powers in order to save their world. what i find personally interesting about the narrative arc of this text is the emphasis on the children’s awakening to their negative impact on their environment (i.e. ecological overshoot) and what they need to do next (i.e. system change). this growth in the characters’ climate awareness illustrates a move from the increasingly dystopian utopia toward ecotopia. the beginning of the story shows the wild children living in relative harmony with the natural world but fully unconscious of their impact on it. the children live in bliss, but it is a bliss of ecological and climate ignorance resulting from their human-supremacist worldview: “the wild children ate when they were hungry, slept when they got tired, and in between they played without anyone interfering” (magnason, 2012, p. 10). indeed, the world exists only for their pleasure. when brimir is first introduced, he is contemplating stealing penguin eggs for supper. shortly after that, hulda arrives with a dead seal and offers to share a meal with him. “it was no big deal,” she says, “i knocked it out with a club” (p. 14). they proceed to skin, grill, and eat the seal. this cultural marker points to the northern origins of the text, where seal is a common staple, especially among indigenous tribes. however, including this episode at the beginning also serves to illustrate the characters’ ignorance about their ecological footprint. beauty is all around them, and they exclaim rapturously about it, but nothing requires the children to reflect on their surroundings or on their role in sustaining the planet. with the arrival of gleesome goodday, a strangely garbed adult who represents consumer culture, the ignorance of the wild children is exploited. goodday is attired in a hawaiian shirt and carries a briefcase—arguably symbols for two significant exploiters of the environment: tourism and corporate business. proclaiming the children “horribly underdeveloped,” goodday declares that he will show them “real fun” by making their wildest dreams come true (p. 27). one such dream is the ability to fly. having arrived in a rocket ship, goodday is equipped with all manner of tools and gadgets, such as the “ap xu 456r 2000 super vacuum cleaner” (p. 30), which he uses to vacuum up the butterfly powder that enables the children to fly. at first, the children express their concern for the butterflies. but once they are assured that the butterflies have not been harmed— other than having their ability to fly stolen—the children reason: “there are no laws on this island so it must be okay to vacuum-clean butterflies” (p. 30). previous to goodday’s arrival, watching the annual flight of the butterflies was the wild children’s greatest joy (p. 27). now they are willing to trade that joy for the ability to fly themselves: a thought-provoking illustration of human expansionism. significantly, they emphasize their own lawless state to defend the theft of the butterfly powder. but the “fun” doesn’t stop there. although goodday seems to give the children only what they desire, the wild children enthusiastically embrace anything he offers, sadly at the expense of other children and beings on the blue planet. when the children discover that the butterfly powder https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-overshoot/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/earth-system/system-change/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/utopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecotopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-ignorance/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/human-supremacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-footprint/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/consumerism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/consumerism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/human-expansionism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/human-expansionism/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 29 only allows them to fly in sunlight, the children complain to goodday that they are bored at night. so goodday nails the sun to the sky to keep it shining all the time (p. 39). when clouds obscure the sun, the children ask goodday to fix the weather once again. this time, goodday creates a giant wolf from the smoke of his cigar to chase the clouds from the sky (p. 43). none of the children give a thought to what may be happening on the other side of their world due to the imbalance they have created by hoarding natural resources for themselves. before they can become climate literate, brimir and hulda must recognize the damage their fun has generated: the dystopia created from the wild children’s greed. when brimir and hulda are blown off course to the other side of the blue planet during a flying race, they discover a land in darkness. here, cut off from the sun, children and animals are starving and plants are dying. significantly, brimir and hulda discover that they no longer smell like real children due to the “teflon wonder stuff” (p. 48) that goodday coated them with. a bear refuses to eat them, believing they are either “plastic children or zombies” (p. 61). because brimir and hulda smell faintly of butterfly powder, the wild animals call them the “butterfly monsters” (p. 69). brimir and hulda take advantage of that fear to demand that the animals serve them food. their fun is cut short when the animals deliver to them a weak and pale child. befriending the boy darrow, they follow him back to his camp where they are introduced to other ghost children (p. 78). not actual ghosts, the ghost children are in a desperate condition due to the slow violence of being deprived of sunlight on their side of the planet. they relay their plight to brimir and hulda and proclaim what i argue is the core message of the text: “if the forest dies, we die too” (p. 81). embarrassed at their role in creating the dark side of the planet (i.e. environmental degradation), brimir and hulda mislead the ghost children into believing that their side of the world is suffering as well. the sympathetic ghost children gift brimir and hulda with precious food and supplies and most especially with a balloon that will get them home. brimir and hulda return from their journey with the knowledge that a choice must be made and the daunting task of convincing the wild children to make it. key to the resolution of the narrative is collective climate action and democratic process. brimir and hulda’s revelations meet with resistance from both goodday and the wild children. the wild children prevaricate, saying “somebody must do something sometime” (p. 95). they also put their decision to democratic vote, which is heavily influenced by goodday’s greenwashing. he argues that they can have their fun and save the ghost children, too: “if we all pull together and send the children in the darkness food and blankets and shoes, then we’ll save their lives and we can still keep the nail in the sun” (p. 103). but brimir and hulda know that the imbalance of resources will not alleviate the suffering of the ghost children. in due course, it is the generosity of the ghost children themselves that finally turns the tide, when they send crates of supplies across the sea. goodday initially plays off the fears of the wild children and tries to convince them the crates are full of bombs. instead, the crates are full of food, clothing, and stories. ultimately, the wild children agree to what is the book’s version of degrowth and respect for ecosystems balance: they return the butterfly powder to the butterflies and to unpin the sun. what is refreshingly absent from this text is active violence in resolving the problems of the blue planet. the wild children make conscious choices to change their world by changing themselves https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy https://www.climatelit.org/topic/dystopia/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/slow-violence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-degradation/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/greenwashing/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainability/degrowth/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecosystems-balance/ nathanael towards ecotopia 30 and the way they interact with their environment (i.e. system change). goodday is not killed, banished, or punished, but instead given a more limited role. this may suggest that regenerative economy and consumer culture built on respecting planetary limits may be possible. hulda provides the breakthrough when she asks goodday what he dreams of. when it turns out that he wants “to be a king” (p. 121), hulda and other children grant goodday’s wish, observing that a king in a castle is “like a monkey in a cage” (p. 124). by granting goodday his wish, the wild children will be able to keep an eye on him. the events that follow demonstrate that the wild children have learned from goodday, although perhaps not in the way he imagined. in exchange for his castle and title, goodday is persuaded to return the children’s lost youth and to unpin the sun. in the end, he even learns to appreciate fairy tales, starry skies, and the flight of the butterflies. the impact of the human enterprise on the environment cannot be denied, as the fate of ok illustrates. we can no longer pretend that what happens in one corner of the world has no effect on another. magnason maintains, “the melting of the glaciers is an issue all future generations will have to deal with and adapt to. as the glaciers are not vanishing and becoming nothing, they are becoming a rising ocean that will come splashing at the city gates of the world” (2019). magnason’s novel provides a hopeful, planetarianist narrative about people learning, coming together, and making informed choices for humanity and for the planet. the same choice is placed before us, just as it was for the children of the blue planet: can we undo what we have done? can we unpin the sun? and what ecotopian future are we brave enough to dream into being? references magnason, a.s. (n.d). books. www.andrimagnason.com. accessed 21 december 2022. http://www.andrimagnason.com/books/ -----. (2019). ok-glacier in memoriam // a letter to the future. www.andrimagnason.com. accessed 21 december 2022. http://www.andrimagnason.com/dreamland/2019/07/ok-glacier-in-memoriam-a-letterto-the-future/ -----. (2012). the story of the blue planet. (á. jónsdóttir, illus.; j. meldon d’arcy, trans.). triangle square. (original work published 1999). https://www.climatelit.org/topic/regenerative-economy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/regenerative-economy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/human-enterprise/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/planetarianism/ http://www.andrimagnason.com/books/ http://www.andrimagnason.com/dreamland/2019/07/ok-glacier-in-memoriam-a-letter-to-the-future/ http://www.andrimagnason.com/dreamland/2019/07/ok-glacier-in-memoriam-a-letter-to-the-future/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 31 critical dialogue: climate literacy in context kate werthwine, pasco county schools, florida, usa alexandra panos, university of south florida, st. petersburg, fl, usa abstract in this conversation kate werthwine, a high school english teacher in pasco county, florida, and alexandra panos, a former middle grades ela teacher who is currently assistant professor of literacy studies at the university of south florida and editor of climate literacy in education, talk about kate’s artwork published in this volume. kate and alex discuss how the current laws and policy practices in florida have impacted the stories that get shared in classrooms, including those that support learners in their own journeys to understand who they are and where they are from. keywords florida, zines, place-based education, book banning alex when i think about this piece, the first thing i wonder about is how that bookshelf came to be empty. kate so, last year, the bookshelf was full. it was a classroom library. i had all sorts of books that i had collected in both english and spanish. at the start of this year, with some of the changes in legislation and different decisions being made at the local level here in florida [and across the united states, see for example: friedman & tager, 2021; russel-brown, 2022; sachs et. al, 2022], the decision at my school and other schools around me—out of an abundance of caution—was to store the classroom library until we got more definitive guidance. so on the first day of school, i had an empty bookcase, which was very different from last year. alex where are your books? https://www.climatelit.org/us-state-settings/florida/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/zine/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/place-based-education/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/book-banning/ http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01f4752k89d https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4219891 https://pen.org/for-educational-gag-orders-the-vagueness-is-the-point/ werthwine & panos critical dialogue 32 kate my books right now are stored in the reading department. i did get a couple of boxes of books pulled from the book room that the school already okayed. so i now have two bins with some books that students can read in their free time. but the other books that i had collected are still in the reading room which students do not have access to. alex i just have to say this censorship is so deeply heartbreaking, maddening. i'm so sorry this is happening to you and your students. i guess i'm very struck that you are explicitly, or at least to me it feels very explicit, in this piece saying this empty bookshelf is part of climate literacy. why do you see those things as so interconnected, or juxtaposed? kate i think there's two things that really stand out to me. one is that some of the books i'm waiting to find out if i can put out are stories that touch on ecojustice. but, right now i don’t know… can we even talk about those stories? can we read those stories in our classroom? the other thing is, for me, i know some of those books were stories that helped me as a kid connect with where i live and the environment around me. i see these books as a way for my students to also learn about where we live and connect to the environment around them. right now, they don't have access to these stories in their place of learning. i think that telling stories and learning the stories about the place where you are is important for not only understanding where you live, but who you are. i think of different books that i read growing up in florida that were meaningful to me, like strawberry girl (lenski, 1945/2011) or hoot (2002/2019). they helped me understand who was here before me and how this place that i live in came to be. we take these stories, these guides, that teach us about ourselves and the natural world we are a part of with us wherever we go. right now, it's hard to figure out what stories we are allowed to tell in schools. alex we get stories in so many ways. books are not the only ways we get stories; certainly they're an important one. i guess it also makes me think about the hidden consequences your empty bookshelf brings up. this legislation is not only about books. it's also about the web pages and news stories and other ways of thinking that the policies and laws in your district and others across the state of florida (and the us) are navigating and that you're navigating. there is a chilling effect on all of the stories that we get to tell about who and where we are, and where we live. when i think about responding to environmental crises, we need as many stories at our disposal as we can find: to be present, to be with our past, and to imagine new futures together. when laws like these deprive teachers and children of autonomy in the stories they get to tell and share with one another—limiting children’s https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-justice/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/strawberry-girl/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/hoot/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 33 autonomy to forge new ways of being with one another—this allows climate crisis and climate injustice to perpetuate. the story of your experience is a story that deserves to be told, so thank you for sharing this beautiful piece. kate i think stories are survival guides. i really do. because that's how we learn from other people. and so right now, just having that sense of not even knowing what stories we can tell is disturbing. what’s going to be okay in the classroom to actually use? it’s hard trying to navigate all this stuff when we don't have specific guidance. as a teacher, i want to make sure that my students have access to the best things possible and access to the best education possible. right now, i am on uneven ground. what can i do? what can i give my students access to? what do we all need, right now? we need survival guides, we need stories. references friedman, j., & tager, j. (2021). educational gag orders: legislative restrictions on the freedom to read, learn, and teach. pen america. http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01f4752k89d hiaasen, c. (2002/2019). hoot. pan macmillan. lenski, l. (1945/2011). strawberry girl. open road media. russell-brown, k. (2022). 'the stop woke act': hb 7, race, and florida's 21st century anti-literacy campaign. university of florida levin college of law research paper, forthcoming. sachs, j, young, j. c., & friedman, j. (2022, april 24). for educational gag orders, the vagueness is the point. pen america. https://pen.org/for-educational-gag-orders-the-vagueness-isthe-point/ http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01f4752k89d https://pen.org/for-educational-gag-orders-the-vagueness-is-the-point/ https://pen.org/for-educational-gag-orders-the-vagueness-is-the-point/ oziewicz what is climate literacy? 34 what is climate literacy? marek oziewicz, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract this article offers a work-in-progress description of the concept of climate literacy as used in cle. the first part includes a working definition. this is followed by a brief historical outline and a two-fold approach to understanding climate literacy: as a narrow, disciplinary-specific competence versus a wider, interdisciplinary one. keywords climate literacy, climate science literacy, noaa, climate change education (cce), ecocentrism, care, click framework, ccesd framework, ecological design intelligence, sustainable development first, a working definition of climate literacy. i offer it with humility, aware of my limited subjective experience as a white, male earthling, and as a springboard to your own thinking. climate literacy is an understanding of the climate emergency—its facts, drivers, impacts, and urgency—that centers on developing values, attitudes, and behavioral change aligned with how we should live to safeguard the earth’s integrity in the present and for future generations. climate literacy requires harmonizing multiple ways of knowing—explicit/objective and tacit/subjective—into a lived, emotionally charged, and personally felt understanding of the planetary predicament in the anthropocene. it demands embracing our responsibility, both individual and collective, to stand up for everyone’s biospheric inheritance: for all of earth’s systems that sustain life and are currently reeling under multi-pronged assault from anthropogenic climate change. (for other definitions of climate literacy see noaa, 2007; miléř & sládek, 2009; milfont, 2012; hiser & lynch, 2021). there are many ways to unpack this definition and its guiding assumptions, so i want to add three additional points. first, i take inspiration from indigenous thinkers like robin kimmerer, tyson yunkaporta, kyle whyte, vandana shiva, winona la duke, wahinkpe topa, grace dillon, and others who champion the notion of knowledge as care. accordingly, the conceptualization of climate literacy offered here is care-centric. i believe that climate literacy includes a broad range of competencies which—for pedagogical purposes—may be described as falling into four core domains: earth care, people care, kinship care, and systems care (see “the click framework,” forthcoming in issue 2). https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-science-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/noaa/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/noaa/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/care/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/click/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ccesd-framework/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-design-intelligence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/sustainable-development/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-literacy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/individual-action/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/collective-action/ https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s187704281100111x https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22489642/ https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/jces/vol13/iss3/7 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 35 second, developing climate literacy requires looking past the upbeat, progressivist selfimage projected by the global neoliberal civilization into its darkest and most oppressive design features: racism, colonialism, extractivism, ecocide, greed, materialist reductionism, short-termism, anthropocentrism, speciesism, and others. climate literacy is the knowledge of the implicated, involving and connecting the worst perpetrators and the most innocent victims. in all its forms, it is difficult, uncomfortable knowledge. it demands that we choose truth over convenience, that we acknowledge the ecocidal nature of the neoliberal global system in which we live (klein, 2014; 2019; 2021; mann, 2021). no matter who you are, how privileged or underprivileged, becoming climate literate is challenging on a personal level. teaching climate literacy is also challenging on the interpersonal and institutional levels, not least because today’s education is a subsystem of an unsustainable civilization and was designed to support the needs of the ecocidal market economy. it can be transformed from within, but it comes at a cost too. third, climate literacy is a narrative capacity. it involves creating ecocentric ways of thinking, being, and acting, all of which require developing the language and conceptual framing to articulate our goals, identify models, and build coalitions. it is well established that human cognitive architecture evolved for narrative understanding. given that the primary means by which we navigate reality is culturally-dominant narratives—sometimes referred to as “stories-we-live-by” (stibbe, 2015, p. 6) or “intersubjective imagined orders” (harari, 2015, p. 117)—the shape of our future will be determined by the stories we choose to tell and by our courage to imagine what it takes to transition to an ecological civilization (oziewicz, 2022). accordingly, a climate literate person is not merely able to grasp the urgency of the climate emergency. they are also able to articulate this understanding as stories that engage anticipatory imagination and mobilize action. this is why stories are the primary tool for building universal climate literacy. i now want to offer a brief history of climate literacy as a concept and of two alternative terms: ecological design intelligence and climate change education. the term “climate literacy” was originally coined at a workshop organized by noaa and aaas in 2007. the purpose was to establish a common set of curriculum guidelines for climate education—guidelines that became “7 essential principles” and were published in a brochure climate literacy: the essential principles of climate science (2007, revised 2009). given the organizational profiles of noaa and aaas, climate literacy was from the start framed as a synonym for “climate science literacy”: learning about the science behind climate research and the science behind how the earth system works. or, in noaa-aaas wording, “an understanding of your influence on climate and climate’s influence on you and society” (noaa). a large body of research continues to view climate literacy as a science competence. this line of thought is also reflected in the next generation science standards, or ngss (since 2013). of course, we need to learn about climate science. but is this the only role education can play? the answer is no. a deeper challenge here is the technocratic framing, with its informationdeficit model, that narrows the scope of climate literacy to a mere knowledge of scientific facts (taylor, 2013; siegner & stapert, 2020). this framing promotes detached ways of knowing that leave no space for learning about, let alone learning to critique, the dominant paradigm of carbonhttps://www.climatelit.org/topic/neoliberalism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/racism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/colonization/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/extractivism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecosystems/ecocide/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/greed/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/materialist-reductionism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/short-termism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/speciesism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecological-design-intelligence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-change-education/ https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate https://www.climate.gov/teaching/what-is-climate-science-literacy https://www.climate.gov/teaching/what-is-climate-science-literacy oziewicz what is climate literacy? 36 intense perpetual growth that is known to be the key driver of climate change. the ngss framework works, but it works for a narrow band of learning. it is not designed to consider the entanglements of climate change with our food systems, legal systems, consumption habits, market practices, dominant ideologies, and other non-science spaces of human activity that drive climate change far more than the lack of familiarity with climate science. the realization that learning about the climate emergency should go beyond science has been around at least since the 1990s. one good example is david w. orr’s earth in mind (1994). orr opens up by saying that the crisis we face is not one of science or technology but “a crisis within the minds,” originating with our “inability to think about ecological patterns, systems of causation, and the long-term effects of human actions.” to counter this “disorder in thought,” orr believes we need education in what he calls ecological design intelligence: “the capacity to understand the ecological context in which humans live, to recognize limits, and to get the scale of things right.” such education, he says, is the only way to “calibrate human purposes and natural constraints” to shape both the technologies we use and “our ideas and philosophies relative to the earth” (p. 2). orr’s education in ecological design intelligence is probably the earliest version of today’s holistic notion of climate literacy as a wider, multidisciplinary, socio-cultural competence. although the technocratic tilt continues—with 99.88% of all funding available for climate-related research between 1990 and 2018 going to the natural and technical sciences (overland & sovacool, 2020)—the vast majority of scholars today lean toward a position that “climate change is about more than science”; it “must be understood as a socioscientific topic cutting across academic disciplines and their political, civic, geographic, economic, social, cultural, psychological, and historical dimensions …, as well as across traditions in environmentalism, activism, economics, politics, religion, and art” (panos & damico, 2021, p. 3). put otherwise, climate change is not a stem issue. it’s a worldview issue, entangled with our values, perceptions, beliefs, and lifestyles. this integrative thinking gave rise to another term that emerged as an alternative to climate (science) literacy: climate change education (cce). cce was first proposed in the climate change education for sustainable development program launched by unesco in 2010. based on the premise that “addressing global climate change takes more than science alone” (p. 1), the ccesd framework consists of four core areas, in which climate science education is just one. unlike the ngss, which limit learning about climate change only to science and only to grades 6-12, ccesd posits that climate change education should be accessible to all ages. moreover, it should be culturally-relevant—“oriented according to the local context and prioritize passing traditional knowledge and practices to learners”(p. 5)—and should aim “to bring a holistic understanding of climate change, its underlying causes, driving forces and impacts, as well as options to mitigate and adapt to them” (p. 4). this broader thinking about climate literacy also informs a number of ground-breaking books that appeared in the 2010s, say, rebecca a. martusewicz, john lupinacci, and jeff edmundson’s ecojustice education (2011), bill bigelow and tim swinehart’s a people’s curriculum for the earth (2014), and richard beach, jeff share, and allen webb’s teaching climate change to adolescents (2017). one result of these and other publications in the u.s. is that in 2019 both the https://islandpress.org/books/earth-mind https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000190101 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000190101 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ccesd-framework/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ccesd-framework/ https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138018846/ https://rethinkingschools.org/books/a-people-s-curriculum-for-the-earth/ https://rethinkingschools.org/books/a-people-s-curriculum-for-the-earth/ https://www.routledge.com/teaching-climate-change-to-adolescents-reading-writing-and-making-a-difference/beach-share-webb/p/book/9781138245259 https://www.routledge.com/teaching-climate-change-to-adolescents-reading-writing-and-making-a-difference/beach-share-webb/p/book/9781138245259 climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 37 national council for social studies (ncss) and the national council of teachers of english (ncte) passed resolutions calling for climate change to be included in social sciences and english language arts classrooms. i wish i knew about the developments in other countries too. where does it all leave us today? as of 2023, we live in a world where the need for climate literacy education—or climate change education—is urgent and widely recognized. the vast majority of parents, teachers, and students want schools to offer comprehensive climate literacy instruction, not just in science, but across all subject areas. the vast majority of schools do not meet this demand. this gap can be breached. as stated in 2021 unesco report, reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education: “research on the effectiveness of climate change education finds that much of it focuses exclusively on scientific teaching, without cultivating the full breadth of competencies necessary to engage students in effective action” (p. 34). our opportunity today is to design climate literacy curricula that engage all these competencies: intellectual, emotional, and creative. our challenge is to make climate literacy education available to all students in all schools everywhere. references harari, y. n. (2015). sapiens: a brief history of humankind. harpercollins. hiser, k. k. & lynch, m. k. (2021) worry and hope: what college students know, think, feel, and do about climate change, journal of community engagement and scholarship, 13(3), 96107, https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/jces/vol13/iss3/7 klein, n. (2014). this changes everything: capitalism vs. the climate. simon and schuster. klein, n. (2019). the (burning) case for a green new deal. simon and schuster. klein, n. (2021). how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other. atheneum books. mann, m. e. (2021). the new climate war: the fight to take back our planet. public affairs. milfont, t. (2012). the interplay between knowledge, perceived efficacy, and concern about global warming and climate change: a one-year longitudinal study. risk analysis, 32(6), 10001020. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01800.x miléř, t. & sládek, p. (2011). the climate literacy challenge. procedia: social and behavioral sciences, 12, 150–156. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.02.021 noaa. (2009). climate literacy: the essential principles of climate sciences. https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate orr, d. w. (1994). earth in mind: on education, environment, and the human prospect. island press. oziewicz, m. (2022). it wasn’t us: teaching about ecocide and the systemic causes of climate change. in r. l. young (ed.), literature as a lens for climate change: using narratives to prepare the next generation (19-51). rowman & littlefield. panos, a. & damico, j. (2021). less than one percent is not enough: how leading literacy organizations engaged with climate change from 2008 to 2019. journal of language and literacy education, 17(1), 1-21. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707 https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/jces/vol13/iss3/7 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01800.x https://www.climate.gov/teaching/climate https://rowman.com/isbn/9781498594110/literature-as-a-lens-for-climate-change-using-narratives-to-prepare-the-next-generation https://rowman.com/isbn/9781498594110/literature-as-a-lens-for-climate-change-using-narratives-to-prepare-the-next-generation oziewicz what is climate literacy? 38 siegner, a. & stapert, n. (2020). climate change education in the humanities classroom: a case study of the lowell school curriculum pilot, environmental education research, 26(4), 511531, https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2019.1607258 stibbe, a. (2015). ecolinguistics: language, ecology and the stories we live by. routledge. taylor, c. (2013). the discourses of climate change. in t. cadman (ed.), climate change and global policy regimes (pp. 17-31). palgrave macmillan. climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 39 beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming nick kleese, university of minnesota-twin cities, minneapolis, mn, usa abstract boardbooks featuring farmed animals are a staple of literature for very young children. yet their depictions of happy, colorful, and cute barnyard animals obscure the grim realities of farming today, including the fact that industrial animal operations are one of the key drivers of the climate emergency. this article explores this tension and suggests alternative ways to help youngest readers connect to the realities of farming through children’s texts. keywords boardbooks, farmed animals, industrial agriculture, barnyard friends, cafos, slow violence, convenient self-delusions in 1850, the united states federal census counted 11,516 pigs and 5,000 humans living inside 571 square miles of mesquawki land that would soon be named washington county, iowa (u.s. census bureau, 1850). these pigs lived alongside other animals: chickens, sheep, draft horses, milk cows, wild turkeys, foxes, domestic cats, mice, and more. as that century became the next, this agricultural diversity remained largely the same for the 2,500 farms raising over 120,000 total pigs and other livestock (u.s. census bureau, 1910). the growth continued. with the advent of veterinary vaccines, improved concrete formulas, more efficient manure removal, automated watering and feeding infrastructure, and a growing urban public, confined animal feeding operations (cafos) came into prominence as an unprecedentedly efficient technology. cafos segregated pigs into distinct buildings that corresponded with discrete stages of swine growth: farrowing houses, nurseries, and other buildings were designed and built for each phase. farms specialized and consolidated. the markets shifted. overhead plummeted. today, washington county is home to 22,000 humans and 1.5 million pigs: the third greatest concentration of pigs in the u.s. (usda, 2017). the confinement buildings housing these pigs are ubiquitous, lined up along the highways and gravel roads cutting perpendicular across the flatness. you can drive through the entire county and never see an actual pig. https://www.climatelit.org/topic/boardbook/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/farmed-animals/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industrial-agriculture/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/barnyard-friends/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/cafo/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/slow-violence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/slow-violence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/self-delusions/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/cafo/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/cafo/ kleese  beyond the barnyard 40 just as ubiquitous, though less immediately obvious from a passing car, is the havoc of slow violence (nixon, 2011) this industry wrecks: worsening water and air quality, myriad physical and mental health risks, and economic stratification (gurian-sherman, 2008; castillo & simnitt, 2020). in 2004, a study of rural wells in iowa found elevated nitrate levels in half of those sampled and detectable levels of coliform bacteria in nearly a third. in 2018, 700 iowa waterways were found to be polluted, largely owing to nitrates from manure runoff (iowa department of natural resources, 2020). research has also directly linked the intensification of the livestock industry to increased reports of cyanobacteria content in drinking water near livestock operations and to destructive algae blooms across the nation, particularly in the lower mississippi river delta (burkholder et al., 2007). humans who live near cafos are more likely to experience a range of adverse health effects, too, including respiratory disease, hypertension, bacterial infection, and cognitive impairments (casey et al., 2005). in face of this reality, here’s a fiction: the dozens and dozens of boardbook titles that comprise a fictitious genre called barnyard friends: a motley crew containing pigs, sheep, cows, ducks, horses, geese, dogs, and one lazy farm-cat lounging in the haymow (lawrence, 1989). these invite readers young and old to “imagine blissful barnyard friends who eat grass all day in the sunshine and go to warm snug stalls at night” (p. 73). some barnyard friends boardbooks are narratively driven, such as good morning, farm friends (bach, 2018), in which the multispecies cast enjoys life on the same farm over the course of a plot—in bach’s book, it’s a morning routine. other boardbooks, like my friends (tufari, 1987), constitute what bettina kümmerling-meibauer and jörg meibauer call concept books (2005). in these barnyard friends boardbooks, each page includes only one image of a farmed animal set above their common name in text. taken in totality, without plot, the images collectively coalesce into a concept: a diversified, small, sustainable farm. sure, farms like the one depicted in good morning, farm friends do indeed exist. but they are not nearly as common as is suggested by their abundant misrepresentation in boardbooks, nor do they supply a fraction of the total animal product that americans consume annually. moreover, there are zero boardbooks that depict cafos. so, what is at play in the disjuncture between contemporary american agriculture and the prominence of barnyard friends books? are they merely one of our convenient self-delusions? barnyard friends boardbooks are, for many infants, among the first encounters they will have with depictions of farmed animals. yet, the books’ lexical simplicity belies their massive ideological weight. so, in the face of an increasingly industrializing animal livestock industry and an increasing distance between the majority of americans and the animals they consume, i wonder: why should boardbooks be so instrumental in maintaining a lie? here’s another truth: boardbooks are important. they help infants and toddlers develop preliteracy skills that support lifelong literacy. boardbooks orient our youngest readers to the materiality of books themselves. they are made to withstand slobber, mud, paint, rips, bites, and all sorts of destruction wrought by the little hands capable of manipulating their easy-to-turn pages. likewise, the stark visual contrast between boardbooks’ plain backgrounds and simplified focal objects helps young eyes learn to distinguish images; clean fonts, consistently positioned on every page, aids in differentiating text from image. in short, as very young readers learn the sensorimotor https://www.climatelit.org/topic/slow-violence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/slow-violence/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/pollution/ https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep00054.9#metadata_info_tab_contents https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40572-015-0061-0 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/boardbook/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/barnyard-friends/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/farm-friends/ https://www.abebooks.com/9780688071875/friends-tafuri-nancy-0688071872/plp https://www.climatelit.org/topic/concept-books/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industrial-agriculture/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industrial-agriculture/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 41 skills needed to manipulate a book, they are also learning that a book conveys meaning beyond itself. boardbooks also do important cultural work. like all literature, boardbooks suggest something about the way the world is—and, by extension, what their young readers should expect from it. as with any ideological production, barnyard friends came from somewhere and some time. the condensed history goes like this: abc books featuring animals aboard noah’s ark become pastoral odes to an increasingly distant rural life. serendipitously, they proved just right for the simplified content needed for modern boardbooks. cows say moo. this is a pig. can you see the duck? despite its fictionality, the diverse barnyard remains pervasive, even celebrated. this celebration of a pastoral fantasy masks a truth about american agriculture that adults do not wish to admit to themselves, let alone share with the young people in their lives. and yet this reality must be faced if we are to understand the underlying socioeconomic structures upholding the climate emergency. if barnyard friends mask the ecological harm of the livestock industry, what can boardbooks do to help alleviate it? a knee-jerk reaction would be to publish boardbooks that depict cafos. as a thought experiment, this is provocative. but in reality, cafo boardbooks would neither be the most practical nor ethical response. here are three alternatives: 1. instead of purchasing one of the hundreds of barnyard friends boardbooks, adults could choose boardbooks that depict local agriculture that infants could experience firsthand. sara andersen’s vegetables (2008) or a day at the market (2009) could invite talk about the produce seen at farmer’s markets or community gardens while also offering opportunity to develop inside-out pre-literacy skills that center vegetable-related vocabulary. 2. boardbook creators and publishers can produce and promote more books akin to the above: concept books featuring farmer’s markets, regenerative agriculture, permaculture, or community gardens. they should also do so equitably, signing bipoc creators and highlighting bipoc producers and communities that have historically been made invisible in environmental literature, ecofiction, cli-fi, and other genres. 3. collectively, as educators and adults, we must develop the language needed to nuance the distinction between the farms depicted in barnyard friends books and the industrial farms that supply the vast majority of food in the united states. so, too, should we get smarter about what exactly is meant by the terms family farm, organic, industrial, diverse, and more. by clarifying the differences between livestock agriculture as it is practiced, livestock agriculture as we might wish it to be (if we even wish it to be at all), and the ways that it is misrepresented on the page, adults and young people alike can better understand the differences between fiction on the page and truth in reality. we need to learn to confront convenient self-delusions. it will be a necessary skill for continuing the work of facilitating discussions about the anthropocene writ large. https://www.climatelit.org/literature/vegetables/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/a-day-at-the-market/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/regenerative-agriculture/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/permaculture/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/community-garden/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/self-delusions/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ kleese  beyond the barnyard 42 references andersen, s. (2007). vegetables. sara anderson children's books. andersen, s. (2009). a day at the market. sara anderson children's books. bach, a. (2018). good morning, farm friends. random house. burkholder, j., libra, b., weyer, p., heathcote, s., kolpin, d., thorne, p. s., & wichman, m. (2007). impacts of waste from concentrated animal feeding operations on water quality. environmental health perspectives, 115(2), 308-312. casey, j. a., kim, b. f. , larsen, j., price, l. b., & nachman, k. e. (2015). industrial food animal production and community health. current environmental health reports, 2(3), 259-271. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0061-0 castillo, m. and simnitt, s. (2020). farm labor. economic research service: united states department of agriculture. retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farmeconomy/farm-labor/ iowa department of natural resources. (2020). 2018 305(b) assessment summary: 2018 integrated report including the 2018 impaired waters list. accessed 30 oct 2020: https://programs.iowadnr.gov/adbnet/assessments/summary/2018 gurian-sherman, d. (2008). cafos uncovered: the untold costs of confined animal feeding operations. union of concerned scientists. retrieved 9 nov 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep00054.9 kummerling-meibauer, b., & meibauer, j. (2005). first pictures, early concepts: early concept books. the lion and the unicorn, 29(3), 324-347. lawrence, e. (1989). neoteny in american perceptions of animals. in hoage, r.j. (ed) perception of animals in american culture. smithsonian institution press. nixon, r. (2011). slow violence and the environmentalism and of the poor. harvard university press. nodelman, p. (2010). the mirror staged: images of babies in baby books. jeunesse, 2(2), 13–39. tafuri, n. (1987). my friends. greenwillow. u.s. census bureau. (1850). statistics of iowa. (pp. 937-964). retrieved from http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/agcensusimages/1850/1850a-30.pdf u.s. census bureau. (1910). iowa. agriculture: 1909 and 1910. (pp. 505-552). retrieved from http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/agcensusimages/1910/06/01/1833/41033898v 6ch4.pdf united states department of agriculture. historical highlights: 2017 and earlier census years: iowa, 2017. national agricultural statistics service. retrieved from: https://www.nass.usda.gov/publications/agcensus/2017/full_report/volume_1,_chapte r_1_state_level/iowa/st19_1_0001_0001.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0061-0 https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/ https://programs.iowadnr.gov/adbnet/assessments/summary/2018 http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep00054.9 https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072343 http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/agcensusimages/1850/1850a-30.pdf http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/agcensusimages/1910/06/01/1833/41033898v6ch4.pdf http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/agcensusimages/1910/06/01/1833/41033898v6ch4.pdf https://www.nass.usda.gov/publications/agcensus/2017/full_report/volume_1,_chapter_1_state_level/iowa/st19_1_0001_0001.pdf https://www.nass.usda.gov/publications/agcensus/2017/full_report/volume_1,_chapter_1_state_level/iowa/st19_1_0001_0001.pdf climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 43 “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism emily midkiff, university of north dakota, grand forks, nd, usa sara austin, kentucky wesleyan college, owensboro, ky, usa abstract in “the disneyfication of climate crisis: negotiating responsibility and climate action in frozen, moana, and frozen 2,” we argue that frozen, frozen 2, and moana encourage young people to identify with princesses who take action against metaphorical climate change. although the films are hampered by disney’s own capitalist framework, extratextual discussion and activities can push young viewers past these limitations. this article demonstrates how to use frozen 2 as a springboard for effective ecopedagogy in elementary-school settings. keywords ecopedagogy, disney, youth participatory action research (ypar), activism, frozen, frozen 2, moana in “the disneyfication of climate crisis: negotiating responsibility and climate action in frozen, moana, and frozen 2,” we argue that frozen, frozen 2, and moana encourage young people to identify with princesses who take action against metaphorical climate change, even if the films do not achieve fully effective ecopedagogy as defined by scholars such as moacir gadotti, angela atunes, richard kahn, and greta gaard. the films themselves are hampered by disney’s own capitalist framework, but extratextual discussion and activities can push young viewers past the limitations of the films toward a more fully realized and active ecopedagogy. this article focuses on using frozen 2 as a springboard for effective ecopedagogy in elementary-school contexts. our original “disneyfication” article is guided by gaard’s analysis of ecopedagogy, which can be condensed into three questions to ask of children’s environmental media: 1) does it challenge the binary and power imbalance of human/nature?; 2) does a community or solitary child solve the environmental issues?; and 3) does it describe nature as having subjectivity and agency, or is nature passively rescued? (pp. 327–30). as we conclude, frozen 2 does particularly well at giving nature its own agency, satisfying the third of gaard’s criteria. however, frozen 2 does not quite meet the https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecopedagogy/ https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/frozen/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/frozen-2/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/frozen-2/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/youth-activism-marine-conservation-and-ecofeminism/ https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://muse.jhu.edu/article/819552/summary https://www.climatelit.org/literature/frozen/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/frozen-2/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/youth-activism-marine-conservation-and-ecofeminism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecopedagogy/ midkiff & austin  “the next right thing” 44 other two criteria. in order to mobilize the film as an effective ecopedagogical tool, the work started in the film must be finished outside of it through discussion, research, and projects. from the start, expanding on the ecopedagogical potential of frozen 2 must be grounded in a willingness to let go of the traditional power associated with adults and teaching. gaard argues that effective ecopedagogy challenges the binary and power imbalance of humans versus nature as well as the parallel relationship of children versus adults. therefore, research and activism extending from this film should be youth-led. this means going beyond constructivist principles of education and farther into surrendering adult control over the learning situation. the youth participatory action research (ypar) approach offers guidance for adults who want to learn how to put power in the hands of young people to develop more equitable adult-child community partnerships. ypar is designed with middle and high-school-aged young people in mind, but children in elementary school can achieve similar levels of leadership through an intentionally designed sequence of lessons that utilize p. david pearson & margaret c. gallagher’s model of gradually releasing responsibility. children who are accustomed to top-down structures in their classrooms, especially, will benefit from a slow introduction to having the power to direct research and produce solutions alongside adult collaborators. the process of gradually helping children recognize their own potential as activists can begin with the modeling present in frozen 2 itself. the characters anna, elsa, and kristoff may be much older than elementary school students, but we describe in our “disneyfication” article how these protagonists are designed to encourage children to identify with them. in order to prompt children to think more about how these characters are problem-solvers, students can be asked to describe how each of these characters recognizes a problem and takes action to resolve it or help another character resolve it. this conversation can lead into discussion of individual heroism versus community solutions. in our “disneyfication” article, we show how frozen 2 relies too heavily on individual action rather than community activism, which is another of gaard’s criteria for effective ecopedagogy. pairing the film with nonfiction books about community activism could produce more helpful comparisons about how real people take action and how this looks similar to and different from the action the characters take in the film. ideally, these books would demonstrate adults and children working side by side rather than “heroic” but isolated celebrity child activists. examples might include christina soontornvat and rahele jomepour bell’s to change a planet, books about indigenous community relationships to the natural world such as traci sorell and frane lessac’s we are grateful: otsaliheliga, or books about communities in nature such as tara kelley and marie hermansson’s listen to the language of the trees. teachers might also be tempted by project books such as penny arlon, susuan hayes, and pintachan’s the extraordinary book that eats itself, and while having a few such books on hand for students to see as models might be helpful, one of the foundational principles of ecopedagogy is that children develop projects for themselves rather than rely on adults to provide the ideas and materials. in addition to encouraging activism in young people, frozen 2 offers natural opportunities to explore the topics of damage to water and forest ecosystems, colonial violence against nature https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0361476x8390019x?via%3dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0361476x8390019x?via%3dihub https://www.climatelit.org/literature/to-change-a-planet/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-grateful-otsaliheliga/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/we-are-grateful-otsaliheliga/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/listen-to-the-language-of-the-trees/ https://www.climatelit.org/literature/the-extraordinary-book-that-eats-itself/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/animals/forests/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/industry/human-impact/colonization/ climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 45 and indigenous people, and intergenerational responsibility in the real world. however, learning more about the real versions of environmental damage or colonial violence may elicit big emotions. here, again, the potency of using frozen 2 characters as models comes into play. anna’s song “the next right thing” would be a powerful way to model dealing with the unpleasant emotions that come along with damage, violence, and accepting responsibility. environmental destruction and failed attempts at fixing it may produce strong climate emotions in children, including sadness or hopelessness, especially if the destruction in question has led to sickness or death for people or animals. children may have heard adults complaining that environmental problems are too big or someone else’s responsibility. discussing the lyrics of this song and encouraging students to apply anna’s situation to their own potential feelings—say climate grief or climate anxiety—would pair well with social-emotional learning goals and give them additional language for when they may encounter these emotions. having discussed their own potential as activists through the lens of frozen 2, students can explore local environmental issues and consider how they can be resolved. expanding this outside the film means taking the fictional agency depicted in the film, where nature spirits have the power to trap a whole forest and demand help from elsa, and transferring that fantasy-based concept into conversations about what nature can do in real life and where it needs human help. just as this framework establishes adults and children as collaborators, the final task is to frame research projects and activism as a collaboration with nature. some possible resources to begin thinking about this collaboration might include the white house’s nature base solutions resource guide, a 43-page document that includes a list of federal priorities for climate change reduction, the national environmental educational foundation’s citizen science initiatives which includes a list of ongoing federal projects that require local volunteers such as tracking butterflies or frogs, or mapping bird habitats, and the national science teaching association study on climate education in alaska. while not directly accessible to elementary-aged students, these resources, along with the youth participatory action research (ypar), might help guide educators in thinking about student-led collaborative activism. references bradford, nick. (2022). “citizens observing a changing climate.” neef. retrieved december 22, 2022, from https://www.neefusa.org/nature/plants-and-animals/citizens-observingchanging-climate frozen 2. (2016). directed by jennifer lee and chris buck, disney. gaard, greta. (2009). “children's environmental literature: from ecocriticism to ecopedagogy.” neohelicon, 36 (2), 321–34. doi: 10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7 hayes, s., arlon, p. & pintachan, (2021). the extraordinary book that eats itself: every page turns into an eco project that helps you save the planet. insight editions. kelley, t., & hermansson, m. (2022). listen to the language of the trees. dawn publications. midkiff, e., & austin, s. (2021). “the disneyfication of climate crisis: negotiating responsibility and climate action in frozen, moana, and frozen 2.” the lion and the unicorn, 45 (2), 154-171. doi: 10.1353/uni.2021.0013 https://www.climatelit.org/topic/environmental-destruction/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-emotions/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-grief/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/climate-anxiety/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/nature/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/nature-based-solutions-resource-guide-2022.pdf https://www.neefusa.org/nature/plants-and-animals/citizens-observing-changing-climate https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-april-june-2018-0/connected-climate-change https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home https://www.neefusa.org/nature/plants-and-animals/citizens-observing-changing-climate https://www.neefusa.org/nature/plants-and-animals/citizens-observing-changing-climate midkiff & austin  “the next right thing” 46 schier nolan, j. e. (2022). “ypar hub.” retrieved december 22, 2022, from https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home soontornvat, c., & bell, r. j. (2022). to change a planet. scholastic press. sorell, t., & lessac frané. (2019). we are grateful: otsaliheliga. findaway world, llc. spellman, k. v., sparrow, e. b., chase, m. j., larson, a., & kealy, k. (2018). “connected climate change learning through citizen science.” nsta. retrieved december 22, 2022, from https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-april-june2018-0/connected-climate-change white house council on environmental quality, white house office of science and technology policy, white house office of domestic climate policy, 2022. nature-based solutions resource guide. washington, d.c. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wpcontent/uploads/2022/11/nature-based-solutions-resource-guide-2022.pdf https://yparhub.berkeley.edu/home https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-april-june-2018-0/connected-climate-change https://www.nsta.org/connected-science-learning/connected-science-learning-april-june-2018-0/connected-climate-change https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/nature-based-solutions-resource-guide-2022.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/nature-based-solutions-resource-guide-2022.pdf climate literacy in education, volume 1, issue 1 (spring 2023) 47 you are here kate werthwine, pasco county schools, florida, usa artist statement “you are here” is an excerpt from a zine exploring how literacy, embodiment, and climate literacy intersect in the classroom. the zine reflects on the role that place-based learning has in my teaching practices and on some of the challenges i face trying to incorporate place-based pedagogy into my teaching. i initially created the zine during a writing retreat with other florida-based educators. over the course of the retreat, a major theme that kept coming up was shared vulnerability—that is, being willing to share our stories and hear the stories of others. perceptive and proficient readers need more than “skill and drill.” students need to engage with the stories of the people and places around them to develop their literacy skills and their understanding of the environments they live in. some invitations for reflection: ● think about the environment where you live and teach. where is your “here”? ● what stories can you tell about this place? whose stories are they? ● whose story is missing? keywords vulnerability, embodiment, zine, place-based learning, place-based pedagogy https://www.climatelit.org/topic/place-based-education/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/place-based-pedagogy/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/vulnerability/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/embodiment/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/zine/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/place-based-education/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/place-based-pedagogy/ werthwine  you are here 48 kleese, goetsch, gibson, hickmott, and olave  arts for the planet 50 arts for the planet nick kleese, univeristy of minnesota-twin cities, mn, usa taylor goetsch, minnepolis college of art and design, mn, usa olivia gibson, minnepolis college of art and design, mn, usa breanna hickmott, minnepolis college of art and design, mn, usa juliana olave, minnepolis college of art and design, mn, usa artist statement in 2022, the center for climate literacy launched the first iteration of its arts for the planet visual media contest. young artists currently enrolled at the minneapolis college of art and design were invited to submit visual media that explored some tenant of climate literacy: values, attitudes, and behavioral change necessary to safeguard the earth’s integrity in the present and for future generations. taylor, the contest’s overall winner, illustrated e is for ecocentrism, which depicts in both text and image what it might mean to decenter our human selves in our greater “web of weaving.” honorable mentions included olivia, who reimagines classic film tropes for the anthropocene in zoom out; breanna, whose work they will fade is a call to consider how human activity threatens the minnesota state bird, the loon; and juliana, in rrr, reveals fast fashion’s impact on one of the planet’s most incredible biomes, the atacama desert. we invite educators in all contexts to consider how facilitating similar programs can inspire students to actualize their climate literacy through insightful, meaningful, and engaging art. keywords visual art, student activism, ecocentrism, anthropocene, loons, fast fashion https://www.climatelit.org/arts-for-the-planet-inspire-climate-literacy-visual-media-contest-2022/ https://www.climatelit.org/arts-for-the-planet-inspire-climate-literacy-visual-media-contest-2022/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/visual-art/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/activism/youth-climate-activism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/ecocentrism/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/anthropocene/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/loons/ https://www.climatelit.org/topic/fast-fashion/ editorial collective about cle acknowledgements volume 1, issue 1, spring 2023 table of contents introduction: climate literacy as resistance, hope, and activism climate change and critical literacy 11th grade language and literature climate mini-unit abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward the science behind the stories: a research-based transdisciplinary approach to climate literacy abstract keywords a pedagogical model for exploring the science behind the stories real-world performance task design read the narrative explore the science reflect on perspectives analyze contexts examine data evaluate solutions collaborate to problem-solve create and communicate demonstrate learning interested in piloting a climate literacy task? seeing through water: the impact of our decisions abstract keywords overview narrative framing at a glance going forward references playing in a patch of dirt: eleven picturebooks and a plug for nearby nature abstract keywords acknowledgements references reconnecting with nature through haiku abstract keywords finding a way through: teaching with naomi klein’s how to change everything: the young human’s guide to protecting the planet and each other abstract keywords references andri magnason’s the story of the blue planet: toward ecotopia abstract keywords references critical dialogue: climate literacy in context abstract keywords references what is climate literacy? abstract keywords references beyond the barnyard: boardbooks and other big lies we tell about industrial farming abstract keywords references “the next right thing”: frozen 2 and youth-led activism abstract keywords references you are here artist statement