EdTalk | While Greta Thunberg channels enduring climate change fears, schools in Hong Kong are taking action
Embedding environmental issues in the curriculum encourages pupils to gain skills, transform ideas into positive action and have confidence in a better future
More and more, climate change is grabbing headlines around the world. Many of them feature 17-year-old Swedish student Greta Thunberg, front and centre. But while Thunberg does her thing – sailing across the Atlantic, addressing the United Nations – what is really happening at schools around the world for the average student?
In truth, climate change has been an issue for young people for a long time. I have been a school principal in three continents for more than 20 years and this has always been an issue about which young people (and the not-so-young) have felt passionate. Recycling initiatives, clean-ups of natural beauty spots and campaigns about endangered species have been promoted for many years in many areas.
What is different now is the intensity of feeling and the sense of desperation that so little has been achieved to avert the harmful effects. Whatever your personal view about climate change, one undeniable fact is that many of the initiatives mentioned are simply common sense. What can schools do? The answer is a lot, if you trust the ideas and minds of young pupils.
In our school, here are some of the actions implemented with the passionate involvement of pupils, staff and parents:
• “Naked Lunch” Fridays where no packaging in pupils’ packed lunches or snacks is allowed. Some students appeared on CNN to advocate this cause.
• Meat-Free Mondays where all choices in the cafeteria are meat-free, and this is encouraged for packed lunches too.
• Food waste composter so that all organic waste is composted. Later, pupils can use it to plant herbs and vegetables at school.
