Understanding the climate emergency and the youth-led global climate strikes: A package for BC educators

The growing climate emergency touches us all in ways we feel and process in different ways. By sharing resources, we can encourage the greatest action possible to help reduce our human impact on the planet and slow climate change.

Sierra Club BC has created an introductory guide to help support BC educators and students in exploring climate change, climate justice and the Global Strikes for Climate led by school-age youth. This package is best suited for BC educators (public, private and homeschool) of students in Grades 4 to 8 (ages 9-14). It can be used to connect discussion and climate action across subject areas. This content can be adapted to fit the needs of your students and community or for use with other groups of people. Contact education@sierraclub.bc.ca for support.

We hope this package will inspire resilience and action in your students and school community, and to see the connections we have with peoples, beings and environments both within and beyond our borders. We encourage you to explore with your students the impacts European colonization has had on the natural environment and the emergence of the climate crisis, and to learn from Indigenous peoples in your community as part of your exploration.

As part of the package, you’ll find two resources designed for teachers to read themselves and two resources that teachers can print and share with your students as class activities. You can also download the four included resources as separate files here:

“Big ideas that connect to climate change”

“Teacher reflection on climate change”

Carbon footprint colouring activity

“Hope is Contagious”