From the Archive: Climate Change Is an Education Emergency
- Adam Brumer
- Mar 13
- 2 min read
In September 2021, I published an op-ed in Education Week arguing that climate change should be understood not only as an environmental or economic issue, but as an education emergency.
At the time, schools across the United States were already experiencing the early effects: wildfire smoke forcing closures across the West, hurricanes disrupting learning along the Gulf Coast, and extreme heat increasingly affecting school days in regions not built for it. My core argument was simple: when climate events interrupt learning, damage school infrastructure, or destabilize communities, they directly undermine students’ opportunity to learn.
Four years later, the premise of that argument feels even more urgent.
Extreme weather events have become more frequent and disruptive. Schools in multiple states now regularly close due to wildfire smoke or dangerous heat. Flooding and hurricanes continue to displace communities and interrupt academic calendars. In many places, climate impacts are no longer rare emergencies—they are becoming recurring features of the school year.
Yet education systems are still largely organized as if these disruptions are temporary anomalies rather than structural challenges that require planning and adaptation.
Treating climate change as an education emergency does not mean turning schools into environmental policy centers. It means acknowledging three practical realities for education leaders:
Learning time is increasingly vulnerable to climate disruptions. School systems must plan for continuity when extreme weather interrupts traditional schedules.
School facilities and infrastructure must adapt. Buildings, transportation systems, and energy use all shape whether schools can remain safe and open during climate stress.
Students need the knowledge and skills to understand the world they are inheriting. Climate literacy is increasingly part of preparing young people for the future.
Education systems have always adapted to the challenges of their time—from industrialization to technological change. Climate disruption may be the next major test of how resilient and responsive those systems can be.
For those interested in the original argument, you can read the full op-ed here:
Even several years later, the central question remains: if climate change is already reshaping the conditions under which students learn, how should education systems respond?
