by Kimi Waite
Children are the future, and that means solutions to global climate change must start in public schools. More specifically, as a longtime public school educator, a professor, and an author of two books on teaching climate change and environmental justice, I believe we need to instill a passion for, and a sense of urgency about, environmental justice.
As the Trump Administration continues its anti-DEI agenda, environmental rollbacks, and attacks on science, teaching environmental justice will equip students with the necessary tools to resist and push back against the root causes of the climate crisis. Teaching environmental justice is needed so students can reclaim erased narratives, collect their own counterdata, and take action in their communities.
New York’s New Standards Show What’s Possible
New York’s Board of Regents, which oversees the New York State Education Department, recently moved to adopt instructional requirements in climate change for all K-12 public school students. The new requirements will mandate instruction on the causes and impacts of climate change, as well as solutions.
School districts will have flexibility in how this is done, and climate change instruction can be woven into existing subject areas, such as art, social studies, math, science, or physical education, or taught as a standalone class. This instruction should also emphasize environmental justice.
You Can’t Teach Climate Without Teaching Justice
Climate change disproportionately impacts marginalized communities, which means you can’t teach about the climate crisis without also teaching about justice and equity. This means that climate change instruction needs to be taught across all subject areas so students can understand the root causes of the climate crisis, such as systemic racism. Teaching students to be data detectives can help them understand these root causes.
For students to become data detectives, the first step is to introduce the purpose of data and help them develop data literacy. Cultivating data literacy involves teaching students to critically examine the story behind the data and analyze the patterns and trends it reveals about larger social and environmental injustices. This starts with asking questions. When I taught kindergarten in South Los Angeles, I told my students that data detectives do three things: They notice something and ask a lot of questions, they find out information in different ways, and they do something about it.
Data Makes Injustice Visible — and Teachable
Environmental data can be used to bring real people and communities in our country to life, and the injustices they experience, in a way that students can fully appreciate and learn from. Publicly accessible environmental justice datasets are vital because they show the relationships between environmental hazards, such as waste and pollution, and socioeconomic vulnerabilities, such as race and class. When examined and paired, these datasets enable the identification of communities disproportionately affected by environmental hazards.
For example, Wilmington, in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, is home to the third-largest oil field in the United States. According to a 2022 survey, one in three households in Wilmington reports cancer, and more than half report someone with asthma. In addition, the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery was the largest and oldest refinery on the East Coast. Although it closed in 2019, it was the city’s most significant contributor to air pollution.
This data is essential because it makes the stories and experiences of underrepresented communities visible. However, the Trump Administration’s campaign of disappearing data and removing essential environmental justice screening tools threatens environmental protection and environmental justice.
Why Data Matters in Classrooms
The Administration’s anti-DEI and anti-science agenda has included the rollback of EPA rules that protect frontline communities and the dismantling of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. For instance, data collection tools, like EJScreen, the federal environmental justice mapping and screening tool, were removed from the EPA website in February 2025. This leaves teachers without actionable classroom tools to help students visualize, analyze, and understand the patterns between race, socioeconomic status, and inequitable environmental protection.
When I taught kindergarten, my 5- and 6-year-old students and I used this tool to research air pollution in their South Los Angeles community. My students engaged in this learning through various subjects. In math, they created bar charts of their findings and compared the data with that from more affluent areas of Los Angeles County, such as Beverly Hills. In language arts and social studies, they wrote their conclusions in their scientific notebooks and shared findings with their local representatives.
Students as Community Data Researchers
However, the power of data lies in its double-edged nature: While it has been used as a weapon by those in power to consolidate control and rewrite history, data can also be mobilized to push back and engage in resistance against existing power structures. Students need to learn about both — and learn skills to become data researchers in their own communities.
If the Trump Administration erases the data, students can take on the role of data scientists and collect counterdata on environmental injustices in their own communities. Students can do this by engaging in Youth Participatory Action Research, conducting local community health surveys in their area, photographing environmental concerns in their neighborhoods, examining U.S. Census data, and using community science apps to collect new data. Students can also speak to the school board, the school PTA, community members, or local media about their concerns.
This Is U.S. History
Teaching the true history of the United States includes teaching about climate change and environmental justice. This education should be nationwide and occur across all subject areas. While ongoing anti-DEI legislation continues, teachers and activists have been mobilizing and pushing back. The resistance must continue because this is a battle that we can’t afford to lose.
Kimi Waite is the author of the forthcoming book, “Teaching Environmental Justice in the Elementary Classroom: Entry Points for Equity Across the K-5 Curriculum,” and co-author of the book “What Teachers Want to Know About Teaching Climate Change: An Educator’s Guide to Nurturing Hope and Resilience (K-12). She is a 2021 Public Voices Fellow with the OpEd Project and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
