Telluride, Colorado---Commitment to Climate Change Action Resolution
More later, but for now let me just say that at some point we should expect a groundswell. Educators across Sonoma County, and now the country, know that we cannot remain silent while our lack of common-sense national climate policies threatens the well-being and future success of generations of children. Educators can speak up with an organized, non-partisan, respectful, and forceful voice to help break the logjam in DC. We do not expect anyone to abandon liberal or conservative values or philosophies. We do expect our leaders to be guided by the same foundations upon which school institutions are built: science, critical thought, belief in objective truth, a coherent moral system, and progress towards justice. We have enough imagination, pride, dignity, and patriotism to see the benefits of American leadership on the issue of climate change. Students, parents, and educators, we can use resolutions---student council, school board, PTA, and teacher's union---to clearly assert our expectation that all leaders at every level should embrace common-sense American values and attitudes towards climate change. It is totally appropriate for there to be robust debates about the best policies and solutions to climate change. It is totally inappropriate and inexcusable that such debates are not taking place in our most important public forum---the halls of Congress. Educators, we should hold our leaders, at every level, to the same high standards we hold our students and ourselves. As educators, we believe in people's ability to learn and grow if they are held to high expectations and given honest feedback. We are in the business of helping people become their better selves. We can apply this principle to leaders at every level. A small minority of leaders is currently leading our nation down a path that endangers our students and future generations. Here in Sonoma county, we have already seen firsthand the connection between climate disengaged leaders and harm to our children. Our kids have already suffered and the longer we abide climate disengaged leaders at any level, the greater and the more pervasive the harm will grow. Fortunately, by speaking up and sending clear, unambiguous social and political signals, we can help leaders evolve. We can speak up---through resolutions---to provide this feedback for the good of the country, the climate, our leaders, and our children.
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On Wednesday, 3.14.18 Credo High School Governing Board passed the groundbreaking "Commitment to Climate Change Action Resolution"
This may be the strongest climate change action resolution by any school board in all of human history! 5 important reasons: #1. This is the first time (to my knowledge) that any school board has described climate change as an "generational justice and human rights issue". Previous resolutions have hinted at that ("children's issue" and "human issue") but the CREDO resolution is the first to state it outright. As more schools pass these resolutions, not only is the threshold for future schools lower, but the language can grow bolder. We are introducing climate common sense into the commons; of course, climate change is an generational justice and human rights issue. Embracing this self-evident perspective and speaking freely about it in places of power and public discourse will allow us as a society to see it and then reflect on it. We can then decide that we don't want to be the people/nation to transfer this enormous burden to our own children and grandchildren. I think most Americans have not yet considered the difficult the generational justice implications of climate change because institutional and social silence and individual perceptual filters prevent them from seeing it. (See Jane Hirshfield's poem Global Warming for a poetic analogy of this---we are the natives unable to even see the "global warming moral crisis ship".) However, when schools like CREDO redraw the boundaries of mainstream public discourse, so that we can speak clearly and openly about the deep moral and spiritual crisis of our current national climate stance, they help shift paradigms in a way that lays the groundwork for rational climate policies. Paradigms, like memes, are mostly a social phenomena. Resolutions and statements at school board meetings actually do help change change paradigms. Most Americans would happily and enthusiastically choose climate action rather than turning their backs on future generations. They just haven't yet been able to "see" this choice and their role in it. Credo has highlighted this for us. Thank you CREDO board for having the heart to speak clearly, compassionately, and respectfully in a politically powerful and non-partisan way about this very important topic. You remind us that we do not have to be the people to place this burden on our future generations. #2. This is the first school board resolution passed after a student council formally requested that their board pass a resolution. The youth led on this one, not just in speaking but in writing. Their initial resolution can move up the scales. #3.This is the first resolution to "Resolve" that they "call on Congress to take swift and effective action". Other resolutions hint at it (all elected leaders should act) but this is more direct and powerful. Up until now, Congress has failed us all, but especially our children on this issue. CREDO board is providing constructive coaching, being assertive about what they specifically want Congress to do. #4. Carbon pricing mention. #5. Follow-up committee to recommend on-going action. Thanks again Credo! Who is next? CREDO High School Governing Board Public Charter School Board (March, 2018) Rohnert Park, CA
SCA Update:
Recent events: This past week (3.4 to 3.10.18) has been an awesome week for us.
Youth radio hosts Lily Willis and Cyrus Thelin interviewed Lola and Park Guthrie and Molly Whitely about the Schools for Climate Action campaign on Tuesday 3.6.8. Thanks Lily, Cyrus, and KWMR for this wonderful opportunity.
Here is the link to the archive. James Hansen: Some Basis for Optimism (but no time to waste)!This essay is worth a read.
Dear Trustees Noe, Walker, Stecher, Bruhner, and Landry and Superintendent Kellner, Thank you so much for your important vote last tonight on the Commitment to Climate Change Action resolution. Thanks, too, for your thoughtful supportive words about the youth and about our campaign. Every time I sit in on a school board meeting, I am reminded that school board members are true champions of democracy. You make so many important, difficult decisions. Thank you for your service to our community. You are now the 7th school board (5th in Sonoma County) to pass a strong climate action resolution thanks to advocacy by the SCA campaign. With your amendment creating a Superintendent's climate change committee and your mention of bi-partisan carbon pricing as a specific positive solution, your resolution is officially the strongest climate action resolution yet passed by any school board in the nation. As a constituent, I am proud of your strong stand and your example. Including you, there are now at least 55 school board members who have gone on official public record speaking up for climate action to protect current and future students. There are 90,000 school board members across the nation and we suspect at least 20,000 to 50,000 more share the values and perspective you expressed in your resolution last night. Climate change not only threatens our children's environment; our national retreat from climate action threatens to squander our proud national heritage and has done direct harm to our national identity and to our intergenerational relationships. Institutional silence on this justice issue has also eroded the relationships and values we hold most dear in schools. Many of the values fundamental to our institution are directly contradicted by our national retreat from climate action (be responsible for your messes, work together to solve problems, be fair, be courageous, etc.) By breaking official silence and bearing witness to the intergenerational neglect that climate inaction entails, you have begun to repair the damage to our institutional coherence and to our cultural fabric. More importantly, you have spoken up in a respectful, non-partisan way that generates political leverage for concrete solutions to this problem. We (Schools for Climate Action) will be working with Citizens' Climate Lobby and Put A Price On It to translate your resolution into political leverage for common sense bipartisan climate action. We believe that the respectful, organized, and non-partisan voices of school board members and student councils across the nation can be a significant force in breaking the logjam in DC. Our goal for Earth Day 2019 is for 3,000 school boards and student councils across the nation to make their political will for a common-sense national climate action explicit in climate action climate resolution such as you passed last night. Please consider helping us spread the word in two ways: 1. Share news of your resolution widely among your networks of school board members, especially those outside of Northern California. If we can energize the California School Boards Association and the National School Board Association, we'll reach 50,0000+ school board members. By retreating from national climate action, we, as a nation, have turned our backs on the next generation. Certainly, there are already tens of thousands of school board members across the nation who have a cry of grief stuck in their throats about this issue. Together, we can empower those school board members to speak up in politically effective, but non-partisan ways. School board leaders and educational communities can be the ones to call out the best in the American people and rally us all around common sense climate action in order to protect our precious children. Sonoma County board members have blazed a trail school board members across the country can follow. There are already Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress who strongly support common-sense bipartisan climate action---they just need the American people to make their political will explicit on this issue. Please also consider reaching out to board members and board member networks sharing this news. I have begun emailing school board members in Houston because, like us, they have seen first hand the direct harm children experience as a result of a climate-related disaster. There are 36 school districts serving Houston. There are likely scores of Houston school board members who might be eager for a way to speak up on for climate action the way you have done. 2. Share word of the Schools for Climate Action Website and our Working Summit on Sunday 3.11.18 from 2-4 at the Sebastopol Grange. Thanks again for all of your work in service of our community and especially for your important vote last night. Cheers, Park Guthrie 6th grade teacher~Parent~Schools for Climate Action Co-Founder and Lead Volunteer PS---Here is a link to a YouTube video of Kai's statement. Thank you SRCS Board for passing a Commitment to Climate Change Action Resolution!On Wednesday, 2.28.17 Santa Rosa City Schools became the 5th local school board to speak up for climate action in just 3 months. Sonoma County school board members are blazing a trail for school boards and school communities across the country. They are the 7th northern California school board to pass climate change resolutions since October. School communities across the country----90,000 school board members, 3 million teachers, and 10's of millions of students and their families, can speak up for federal climate action to protect current and future students. Our organized, respectful, non-partisan, and patriotic call for federal climate action can break the logjam in DC. Republicans and Democrats can pass fair, effective, and common-sense climate policies. Thank you Trustees Klose, Carle, Fong, Pugh, Kristof, Anderson, Sheffield and Mott, as well as Superintendent Kitamura! Here is a link to statements by Schools for Climate Action before the Santa Rosa City Schools' Board: Beth Mathews Celeste Palmer Park Guthrie
We are having technical difficulties. In some video clips the discussion of the resolution starts at 3:00:03. In other video clips it starts at 3:10:00 or 3:15:00. Schools for Climate Action SRCS Team Leader and Citizens' Climate Lobby Volunteer Beth Mathews, Celeste Palmer, Park Guthrie with a thoughtful intro from Board President Jenni Klose and thoughtful follow-up statements by several board members and the Superintendent.
Click the button above for a recording of Kai, Lola, Nevin, and Park on the Arnoldo's Tommy's Holiday Camp radio show on 1.23.18. The interview runs from about 10:00 minutes to 59:00 minutes. Thanks so much Arnoldo and KOWS 92.5! Less than two weeks after Sonoma County Office of Education passed their Commitment to Climate Change Action, the Trustees of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District unanimously passed the same resolution. This is the fourth local school district in three months to speak up for climate action to protect current and future students. Sonoma County educational leaders are blazing a trail for districts across the country to follow. Please spread the word widely by sharing this resolution and the meme that adults can speak up in respectful, non-partisan ways for fair and effective climate action. Speaking up in this manner is a patriotic act. Silence on the matter of climate change may undermine the values, the relationships, and the institutions we educators hold most dear. A big thank you to the SVSD board members (Nicole Abate Ducarroz, Salvador Picate Chavez, Dan Gustafson, John Kelly, and Britta Johnson) and to the Superintendent Charles Young who put the resolution on the agenda and to Associate Superintendent Bruce Abbott who presented it. Below is the resolution from their board packet (without signatures), but I just confirmed this morning that it passed unanimously. This happened with very little outside advocacy. Tom Conlon told me last night that he had shown up at the SVSD Board meeting on 2.13 to speak for a climate action resolution during Open Comment period. Unbeknowst to him, the Superintendent had already put the resolution on the agenda that evening with a recommendation to pass. This is further evidence that the educational sector has a latent desire to speak up to protect our students and future generations. It makes sense that this impulse to speak up to protect children and future generations is most apparent in the educational sector. Adults in education are mandated reporters---it is built into our institutional norms, codes, and culture. We are bound by law to report when we suspect abuse or neglect of a child. Our current climate trajectory and current national inaction is at the very best a case of intergenerational neglect on a massive scale. The educational sector may be able to be energized (more easily than other sectors such as the business sector) to sound a non-partisan, respectful, patriotic, and strong call for climate action. I think we need to focus on taking this movement within the educational sector to scale and doing so quickly, so that an activated and assertive educational sector can make a stronger case and move the national climate needle as quickly as possible. As a 6th grade teacher, the timeline and the ticking clock is very apparent to me. Some scientists suggest that we've got to bend the emissions curve by the time my 6th graders graduate from middle school to avoid non-trivial risks of catastrophic climate change! I have some ideas about how to prioritize our outreach efforts so that we can achieve resonance between different scales of the educational sector (local districts, county boards of education, state boards, California School Board Association, National School Board Association), between stakeholder groups (students and student councils, parents and PTA's, teachers and teacher's unions, etc.), and between the educational sector and non-partisan, respectful climate advocacy networks like CCL and Put A Price On It. Please email me ([email protected]) if you would like to join an upcoming "Taking it to Scale Strategy Talk". I have some hunches and I'd love to talk them over with more folks and hear what ideas other people have about taking this to scale. Also, please consider signing up for our March 11th Working Summit. I think 2,000 school board resolutions within the next year may feasible (with a lot of luck, of course). I think it would have a big impact on the national needle. I think if everyone who is reading this right now, took some coordinated actions towards this goal, there's a realistic chance we could hit it. Thanks for reading everyone. Again, please email me if you want to participate in a strategy chat about how to get these networks resonating and to take this to scale. Please spread the word about this exciting news.
Calling all students, parents, teachers, school administrators, school staff, board members, and community partners! Help launch the national movement to empower school communities to speak up for climate action in order to protect current and future students. Bring your laptop and friends from your school or school district.
Sonoma County schools are already speaking up in an organized, respectful, but SoCoStrong way, making the case for national climate action in order to protect current and future students. Thanks to the Harmony Union Teacher's Association, the Sebastopol Union School District, and the Sonoma County Office of Education, we are already national leaders in this effort. With your help, over the next year, we will engage and inspire tens of thousands of school board members, student councils, PTA's, and teacher's unions across the country to speak in an organized, powerful voice making the case for climate action to protect current and future students. Join the effort. Engage and motivate your networks. The nation and our children need us. We have greatness in us. Let's get this done! |
Authors
Kai Guthrie is a ninth grade student at Credo High in Rohnert Park, a Citizens' Climate Lobby volunteer, and one of the founders of Schools for Climate Action campaign. Archives
December 2019
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