Education is our most powerful tool for changing hearts and minds, transforming society, overcoming climate inaction and empowering a generation of scientifically-minded and civically-engaged youth who are committed and prepared to tackle climate disruption

But not just any education. We must avoid passive learning that paralyzes and disempowers, making climate crisis seem too massive, too far away in space and time, or someone else’s problem. Climate education must include integral, inquiry-based, community-rooted strategies that invest both young and adult learners in the challenge, cultivate empathy, and instigate a sense of agency and generational purpose.

In the last years, Bending the Curve has been transformed into a set of educational protocols taught across the University of California system, expanding now to the California State system, Stockholm University, the National University of Taiwan, among others, in both in-class and digital formats. We are presently leading efforts to transform the protocol into a set of learning tools for K-12 students.

In Winter, 2017 Ramanathan and Forman piloted the Bending the Curve report as an undergraduate course at UC San Diego. The course has been taught every year since, cross-listed as a collaboration between the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO 209) and the Department of Political Science (POLI 117)

Bending the Curve is a unique approach since it presents climate disruption as a complex but solvable problem, integrating science, technology, ethics, policy, governance, finance, ecosystem management, and societal transformation.  Students become active learners, challenged to apply their knowledge through a variety of inquiry-based activities. Our engaged learning methods empower students to feel they can do something about it.

The Center on Global Justice is primarily responsible for educational content (instructional videos, textbook chapters) related to climate justice and social transformation.

For more on the Bending the Curve educational toolkit, visit our project website: https://btcmacarthur.ucsd.edu/