At the January 14 FJUHSD Board meeting, Caleb Yoo, a Troy High School sophomore, asked trustees to support a resolution expanding environmental and climate change education at FJUHSD. Caleb is currently a California Youth Climate Policy (CYCP) delegate representing Orange County.

Created by a partnership of The Sierra Club, Ten Strands (www.tenstrands.org), and Undaunted K12 (www.undauntedk12.org), the CYCP annually accepts 40, California high school students. It focuses on teaching the students foundational knowledge and leadership skills. Engages them in skill-building activities related to environmental climate advocacy, and awarding a $500 stipend to those students who complete the course.
I recently spoke with Caleb and he shared his perspectives on climate change and environmental education. He feels that the easy fit for climate change education in science classes, but says there are cross-over opportunities in other subjects.

Particularly interested in biodiversity and the human factors that support and threaten natural habitats, Caleb studies climate engineering, which proposes large-scale recapturing of carbon released into the atmosphere by human factors.

He is interested in environmental and chemical engineering and wants to travel around the world photographing animals in their natural habitats. He said his chemistry teacher first made him aware of climate change impacts and he sees intense weather and natural disasters, like wildfires, as having some of the most immediate and powerful impacts on our present and future environment.

Caleb and most of his friends feel overwhelmed by the numerous environmental issues today and often feel like the solutions they are aware of are a hassle and too expensive to sustain in their lifestyle. He believes that little steps toward making better choices about environmental impacts could lead to additional support of alternative fuel sources, new careers focused on mitigating the intense impacts of climate change, and political policies to protect the future environment for both humans and the natural world that we depend on.

Caleb also thinks that environmental education covering impacts of pollution, biodiversity, weather intensity, food production, fuel options, and practical recycling could allow students to make informed choices to mitigate challenges they know about but often feel helpless to change.

Caleb’s next step is to start a Climate Change Education club at Troy High School for next fall. He plans to request that the subject of climate change and environmental education be officially on the FJUHSD Board agenda so that the trustees can discuss the resolution in public discourse.

Caleb’s brief conversations with the FJUHSD Trustees and Superintendent, Dr. Steve McLaughlin, made him hopeful they would take this matter seriously. As Ten Strands’ Will Booth said in his 2023 article on CYCP, “Action is the antidote to despair.” Caleb’s request to the FJUHSD Board demonstrates that there is a lot of youthful concern about climate change impact, which education and sustainable practices can channel “towards well-defined meaningful objectives.”