Building the world anew: on critical hope in climate change education
Christopher C. Jadallah, Kevin M. Barry, Kaleb Germinaro, Nikki Barry
Abstract
In this article, we grapple with the notion that the world is ending. In doing so, we revisit dominant discourses on hope, anxiety, and despair in climate change education. Across lands and waters, the urgency of the climate crisis necessitates that we respond in ways that look beyond saving the current world. Rather, we suggest that climate change education be refocused toward designing equitable futures and building the world anew – a project that must necessarily be rooted in the knowledge, perspectives, and practices of Black, Indigenous, and Third World communities as peoples who have each already survived world-ending events and whose experiences can guide what it means to learn to live with a changing climate. Climate change education that takes up this work has the greatest potential to not only generate critical hope, but to repair, revitalize, and renew social and ecological relations.