“How to teach about climate without making your students feel hopeless”

Dr. Diana Liverman, a geographer at the University of Arizona, published this piece on the pedagogy of climate change in last month’s Washington Post.

“[In the past,] students left my class feeling despondent and powerless. . .How would my students be motivated to do something if they felt paralyzed by fear and hopelessness? . . .”

So Dr. Liverman changed her way of teaching and began addressing historical cases of environmental policy and science successes. She brought in students who are activists for change on campus and in the local community.

“I’m not ignoring the terrifying things we are doing to our environment and our neighbors, it’s just that I am providing solutions and hope as well,” Liverman writes.