With schools across the country shuttering classes due to the coronavirus, one climate education project is moving full-speed ahead.
On Tuesday, April 7 at 3:30 p.m., Kapiʻolani Community College will host a statewide webinar focused on equitable local solutions that can be implemented in Hawaiʻi to help respond to anticipated climate disruptions. The project, called Solve Climate By 2030, features simultaneous, university-led webinars in almost all 50 states plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and 10 other countries.
For college and high school teachers adapting to remote learning, “Climate Policy, Resilience, and Change in Hawaiʻi in the age of COVID” provides a ready-made lesson plan. Teachers can participate in the webinar, and then do related class activities online the next day.
“We in these islands cannot shape a hopeful, beautiful and rewarding future for the next generations, by ourselves. We will need the 50 other states, Pasifika territories and nations, and the other 180 sovereign nations to work together to find solutions fast,” said Bob Franco, director of Kapiʻolani CC’s Office for Institutional Effectiveness.
This event will bring together climate experts in Hawaiʻi who have been asked to identify three ambitious, but feasible things that could happen in the state over the next couple of years—reforms that would really move the needle on solving climate change.
The Hawaiʻi panel, entitled “Climate Policy, Resilience, and Change in Hawaiʻi” will be moderated by Krista Hiser, director of the University of Hawaiʻi System Center for Sustainability Across the Curriculum and will feature the following panelists:
- Chip Fletcher, Professor and Associate Dean of the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
- Makena Coffman, Professor and Director of the UH Mānoa Institute for Sustainability and Resilience
- Laurien “Lala” Nuss, Climate Resilience and Equity Manager of the Honolulu Office of Climate Change, Sustainability, and Resiliency
Online breakout discussions will engage participants in how to move on climate action, especially in this time of coronavirus.
The webinar focused on Hawaiʻi solutions is not just for environmental studies teachers. The challenges posed by solving climate change range across history, science, business, culture, economics, psychology, religion, government, media, journalism and the arts.
Registration for webinar
To learn more and pre-register for the Hawaiʻi climate solutions webinar, please visit www.solveclimateby2030.org, or contact hiser@hawaii.edu.
Pre-registration is recommended, as space is limited to 100 participants: https://forms.gle/6NUNsCfxjj7HQFG1A
Zoom link for Hawaiʻi webinar: https://kapiolani.zoom.us/j/612350129
About Solve Climate by 2030
The Solve Climate project has developed discussion guides to help teachers from all these disciplines lead a one-hour follow-on class. Across the country, college, high school and even middle school teachers are taking advantage of this opportunity. The conversations from each state will be archived at solveclimateby2030.org.
