Interviews: HC Teachers Offer Their Insights About Climate Strikes

“There is NO Planet B” and “System Change, not Climate Change” were signs I saw at Queen’s Park where around 15,000 people, old and young, gathered on September 27, 2019.

We were preoccupied with schoolwork at Havergal when the Global Climate Strike took place. Through interviews with three HC teachers and an online survey to students, I attempted to discover how the Climate Strike is viewed at our school.

According to data collected from the Day School Office, at least 204 students from the Upper School attended the strike on September 27. According to the survey I conducted, HC students who missed classes for the strike did so mainly because they “wanted to show [their] support” for the global community of climate change advocacy. A student wrote that some other students attended the strike “with the intentions of making it some sort of social event,” which made “the strike lose meaning” for her since she expected the strike to be a serious protest rather than just a social event. 

“On that climate strike day, I certainly heard some comments made which gave me the impression that some of the students were going in order to be with their friends,'' commented Ms. Charlton, a Social Sciences teacher.

Mr. Grisé—a Civics and Political Science teacher—suggested to me that some students may have attended the strike due to their desire for “peer acceptance”. He said students “felt that they needed to be part of something, to be included in their friends’ group.” He also suggested that some students liked “appearing like they are [actually making a difference]”. “[Attending the strike still leads to some change] even if the intent of it was not necessarily wholly and solely pure,” he muses. 

Taking note that the Global Climate Strike happened during the run-up to the Canadian federal election, Mr. Grisé also offered some political insight, suggesting that the Climate Strike “certainly shaped the way [the federal political leaders] talked about climate on a national stage.”

“Climate was one of the top three issues that Canadians felt were important during the election… [the political leaders] talked about it a lot when debating, making climate action a really big selling point for some parties and attack point for other parties when it came to comparing their platforms between each other”. 

Ms. Charlton shared with me her futuristic perspective on the correlation between striking and implementation for climate change. She wondered if young people “[realized] that much more comprehensive action needs to be contemplated.''

“Are people realizing that, while a strike can focus the minds and it can invite conversation, it might be the very beginning of what’s truly a more complex process?” she asks.  

As the interviews came to an end, I raised a series of open-ended, philosophical questions: “Should human activities be considered a part of natural phenomena? What is the relationship between humans and nature?” The teachers responded with many different ideas, but they all held one conclusion in common: we as humans have the responsibility to reduce our activities’ negative impacts on Earth.

“Pollution is not really a ‘natural’ phenomenon per se,” said Mr. Tellis, a Biology teacher. “We do have the responsibility to make changes, and we have the capacity to become problem solvers. Our brains are bigger, so let’s not be selfish and put them to good use.”

Ms. Charlton also incorporated human intelligence into her reasoning: “We need to recognize that we are adaptable, we are clever, and that, frankly, we just need to roll up our sleeves and do some of that careful thinking and planning.”

Mr. Grisé pointed out that “Human beings certainly have an effect on climate… the science showing the correlation between greenhouse gas emissions and global temperature rise [is very clear].What we have control over really is less so about the extent or the rate of warming, and more so about our individual actions in reducing carbon emissions. So, we may not stop global warming, but we are able to slow it down, hopefully to a point that’s non-disastrous. I think [the future generations] have a right to enjoy a standard of living, so I do agree that there needs to be some type of compromise.”

There is an urgent need for society to address climate change issues. Societal change starts with individuals spreading an important message, united under a common goal. 

I hope our generation can become more conscious of who we are—a species capable and responsible of reducing their carbon footprint. If we can just take a few moments to reflect, we will realize how dependent we are on nature, even in an urban setting: the paper and ink used in this newspaper, the clothes we wear, and the building of the school are all made of materials from the natural world. Our technological advancements in the past few centuries seem to have distanced us from nature, but that doesn’t mean our actions won't affect it. We are a part of nature, always.