The Wandering Earth and Environmentalism in the California Class

I attended a seminar this summer that taught me that it is our responsibilty as educators to ensure that we ourselves are learning about sustainability so within the lecture looking at the themes in The Wandering Earth, you can focus on the precison of science/fact vs the ignorant mob and can integrate this information into our lesson and classrooms.  You can also use it as a launching point to talk about global warming and climate change though the text doesn't emphasize that humans are to blame for these two issues. 

Additionally, you can talk about problem solving such as using collective effort/collectivism as well as about legislation that is being used worldwide to combat what we've done to the earth. For example, San Francisco is not allowing the sale of water bottles and you will receive a fine if you do sell it. Also, in Asia you can look to places in Japan and China. Yokkaichi has 6 bins to organize their waste and then incinerates their waste; anything left over from the incineration is either used to make the paving for the roads or is taken to another part of Japan to break it down further. In China, people wear belts with mini bins to sort their waste and will receive a fine if you are not disposing of waste properly and has stopped the import of plastics. Our own students can be asked to focus on one or more of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals determined by the Paris Agreement: https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html) and use global competencies (here is the link to view them: http://calglobaled.org/classroom-resources/global-competence-indicator-posters) to try to come up with creative ways to solve local and worldwide problems as a project or discussion. 

All classes, no matter what the subject, should try to integrate environmentalism whether you use the novel discussed today, integrate articles showing examples of legislation or problem solving in other countries (especially China as they are one of the top producers of waste due to their high population and the United States that creates more waste per person despite having a smaller population) 

Here are some key exerpts about the neccessity of educating students in California according to the California Department of Education:

In 2015, as Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. established the nation’s most ambitious California greenhouse gas reduction target, he noted, “climate change poses an ever-growing threat to the well being, public health, natural resources, economy, and the environment of California, including loss of snowpack, drought, sea level rise, more frequent and intense wildfires, heat waves, more severe smog, and harm to natural and working lands, and these effects are already being felt in the state.”

"Now is the time to tackle this challenge. Under the leadership of State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI) Tom Torlakson, the Governor, and State Board of Education, and with the support of California voters and legislators, California public education is undergoing a historic transformation. Now is the moment to elevate environmental literacy as an essential element of a 21st century education in California, and to establish the leadership, collaboration, strategic partnerships, and necessary funding to ensure environmental literacy for all California students. Support for environmental education is high: 89 percent of Californians think that it is very important or somewhat important that local K-12 schools include environmental education."

Here is the link for more information about the full plan that was put together by the Environmental Literacy Task Force to reach all students about environmentalism:

https://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ca/sc/documents/environliteracyblueprint.pdf