Our History and Current Trajectory
Sonoma County educators and education leaders were heartbroken by the trauma we witnessed young people experience due to the Tubbs Fire, a climate-related disaster. In the aftermath of the Sonoma County fire, more than a dozen Sonoma school boards passed climate action resolutions starting a nationwide campaign to encourage school districts to speak up for current and future students.
Park Guthrie, pictured here with his three children, co-founded the Schools for Climate Action campaign with the vision that education leaders had a key role to play to end climate silence by calling on Congress to act on climate.
In 2019, Park passed the Schools for Climate Campaign to a group of student leaders in northern California supported by climate justice educator, Nancy Metzger-Carter. Nancy and a core group of 20 students now run day-to-day operations of Schools for Climate Action. This group has expanded the initial aims of the campaign to include advocacy for climate education and youth mental health/climate anxiety amid the climate crisis, and youth voice in climate-policy. Empowering emerging student and teacher climate leaders continues as one of the core pillars of Schools for Climate Action.
Park has moved to provide leadership to the CTA Divest Campaign, which is focused on divestment of CA teacher/public pensions from fossil fuels, although continues to provide thought leadership. Follow his new divestment work on Twitter here.
