Covering Climate as an Education Reporter – Starting in the Classroom

Where to Start

Journalists can watch how teachers integrate climate education into their classrooms and how teachers receive training about the ways to go about this. It’s also important to understand the real anxiety that students (and teachers) can experience when discussing the topic. 

“I think it’s just taking it apart and looking at the smaller sections,” Emily Walker said. Walker is a climate educator with Earthday.org, an organization that rallies behind the annual Earth Day movement to promote environmental awareness. She noted the value of approaching the topic of climate change with a solutions-oriented approach, such as monitoring school district climate pledges or cafeteria waste produced by items including non-recyclable trays. 

Think also of the developing green economy and how students fit into a new greener economy with a high school diploma, Earthday.org educator Dennis Nolasco said. He cited an Earthday.org report that says new green industries will be worth $10.3 trillion to the global economy if the world transitions to a net zero emissions environment by 2050. Workers will need to be skilled in or reskilled in “green jobs” and “green skills.” 

“Obviously, there are reasons why students are afraid of climate change,” he said. “I think one of the things that’s most important to know is: Students have hope … They just need to be taught to have hope.” 

Details in the Classroom

EdSurge reporter Emily Tate Sullivan noticed one schoolteacher kept individual bins in her class for sorting trash. When Tate Sullivan asked why, the Colorado elementary teacher explained that it helped break through the anxiety of climate change for students in a practical way. 

“It just stood out to me that the teacher with a bunch of 6- and 7-year-olds continued to naturally and deftly weave in sustainability and climate-related topics in her morning announcements and circle time,” Tate Sullivan said. 

She wrote a story based on these observations in which “hope is key” to “introducing young learners to climate consciousness.” 

Infrastructure needs are other things to note in classrooms. Three months later, Tate Sullivan published another story looking at how early learning centers are managing extreme heat for young learners. 

She’d seen a lot of reporting on middle schools and high schools not being equipped to handle weather changes, especially updated HVAC systems. Infrastructure wear-and-tear affects student attendance, such as when air conditioning units break down during the day, so children are sent home early. 

“If this is a problem for K-12 (schools), then it’s certainly a problem for early childhood (programs),” Tate Sullivan said. 

Details Outside the Classroom

Schools are “a microcosm of what’s happening in the world,” CapRadio journalist Srishti Prabha said. Prabha lives in California, where temperatures are more regularly spiking more than 100 degrees, so they started thinking about heat, weather, wildfires and classrooms. 

“You have all these different elements … and then you start asking: “‘How is this affecting schools?’” Prabha said. 

Prabha did a story about a Sacramento high school transforming a career and technical education program into an electric and hybrid vehicle shop training ground. Prabha reported on how students can now participate in a zero-emission automotive career pathway that includes electric and hybrid vehicles. It’s one of the first programs to do this in the state, Prabha reported. 

Prabha continues to think about climate on the education beat. 

“People talk about greener schoolyards and heat deserts … that’s happening in schoolyards because you have so much asphalt,” Prabha said.

There are “simple and concrete ways that school districts can … make fundamental changes that will help the climate,” Torsheta Jackson said recently at the Investigative Reporters and Editors’ online AccessFest. Jackson is an education equity reporter with the Mississippi Free Press and former schoolteacher. 

She noted how environmental reporting, or climate reporting, is becoming more noticeable on the education beat. She pointed at yearly school start dates being pushed back due to heat, and air quality concerns for teachers and students who stand outside during pickup hours. Buses, especially in districts that have not transitioned to hybrid or electric fleets, emit an estimated 8.4 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses annually, which can be inhaled daily by students and educators. 

Integrating Climate Into the Ed Beat

Earthday.org’s Walker is a former elementary school teacher who would take her students on walks outside to talk about the natural world as part of her lessons. She worked in an area with trees and other flora. 

“I think also (climate education includes) access to resources as well,” she said. “I know a lot of teachers are resilient, and they navigate around (lack of resources) to find ways to connect students to what they need to learn.” 

“Part of what’s great about covering climate on the ed beat, you’re often talking to educators and other people who, by virtue of their profession, are good at breaking complex things down into simple terms,” Tate Sullivan said. 

Beneath the Surface

In addition to covering the news, Marta Jewson of The Lens proposes looking underneath the surface to see how the long-term effects of climate change affect school operations. 

Jewson, an education reporter in New Orleans, wrote a story about a messy 55% spike in public school property insurance caused by disasters, including a series of three hurricanes (Laura, Delta and Zeta) in 2020 and another in 2021 (Ida). Charter schools may be assessed $100 more per student by skyrocketing insurance premiums, according to Jewson’s reporting. 

Jewson started asking herself some questions as she noticed patterns in the area where decentralized governance of charters muddies the process of responding to disasters. 

Questions included:

• What do school emergencies mean for these students and finishing their assignments? 
• How did each school provide for students in low-income families or unhoused students?
• How did each school plan to assist students with physical or mental disabilities and their families? 

Unnamed rain events, such as weather patterns brewing into tropical storms, cause repeated damage to schools. Teachers with children of their own have to decide whether to remain with their classes or pick up their children. 

Apart from hurricanes, Jewson pointed to increases in other climate-change driven disasters that affect schools, such as rising heat and unanticipated weather events, which includes variability in snowy climates. 

• Jewson cited a 10-year-old study out of the Harvard Kennedy School that said school closures due to snow days were better for student academic performance than keeping schools open during a storm. The study noted that teachers spent more energy catching up students who missed class than if the school were closed. The report could help position education reporters for covering the topic of attendance and climate. 

“I’m hopeful that that discourse can help people understand that climate change is clearly an issue across the country and not just schools along the Gulf Coast,” she said. 

More Reporting Tips

• Be prepared to combat misinformation and disinformation (just like during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic). Follow up with officials about where they are getting their own climate information. 
• Read up on climate coverage and chat with your newsroom’s environment reporter to see what they’re monitoring.What are they covering? How does this interact with your reporting? 
• Check out places such as Covering Climate Now for resources and support if your newsroom doesn’t have an environment reporter. Plus, reach out to nearby environment reporters. 

10 Questions to Ask

1. Who has access to natural resources (such as public green spaces, trees lining the roads, quality air, etc.)? Who does not – and how does this affect schools?
2. How are schools and their infrastructure adapting to rising temperatures?
3. What does attendance look like throughout the district? How does this overlap with hot days or the numbers of trees in these ZIP codes? How does this overlap with natural disasters?
4. Do schools have gardens on campus? Who is using them?
5. When were school buildings updated last in your district? How new or old is the air conditioning system?
6. What weather events naturally occur in your area? Has your district discussed these evolving weather patterns?
7. How costly is insurance in your district? Has this changed in the past five years?
8. Have any of your local school board members accepted contributions from climate-related interests or development interests?
9. Where does the district plan to build new schools? How does this affect the environment of your county?
10. What sort of buses does your district use? Has there been any discussion or movement to transition to hybrid or electric vehicles?