Climate Emergency Teach-in Recap
On March 2nd 2020, the Milano Whole Earth Taskforce, made up of students, faculty, and staff, brought together The New School community for a Climate Emergency Teach-In. Leonardo Figueroa Helland and Mindy Fullilove, the faculty members behind the event, are recipients of a 2019-2020 Tishman Center Faculty Grant and the teach-in was created as part of their “Whole Earth” Curriculum project. Génesis Abreu, a current Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management student, was invited to join the Whole Earth Taskforce as a research assistant and has been key in bringing the project to life.
The aim of the teach-in was to raise awareness, build community momentum and open a space to share ideas and proposals concerning the climate emergency and what The New School can do to further climate-related education and actions.
The teach-in consisted of six modules, where faculty members and organizers opened up the discussion to the following questions:
What should The New School do to address the Climate Emergency?
How must The New School change in the face of this Climate Emergency?
What can The New School do to challenge the root causes of the crisis?
How ought The New School work to enable more just and sustainable futures?
How can The New School support frontline communities?
What ideas and proposals should be considered for a potential plan to address the climate emergency?
Leonardo Figueroa Helland opening the Climate Teach-in with a module on Planetary Emergency: The Urgency of Change for Just Sustainabilities
Leonardo Figueroa Helland opened the event with a presentation on the urgency of change for Just Sustainabilities. He pointed out the three common strands of thought and modes of action around the climate emergency: 1. Denialism; 2. Greenwashing; 3. Acknowledgement of the planetary crisis and the need for radical change.
The third perspective rejects false solutions and understands that modern institutions, in their current form, cannot properly address the climate crisis. Educational institutions are part and parcel of the system of capitalism, market society, economic growth and the state. Thus, Leonardo called for withdrawal from mainstream education and for taking the voices of frontline grassroots communities seriously. Right now, The New School does not represent the most diverse constituency in terms of front line communities and the questions posed by Milano Whole Earth Taskforce are meant to encourage The New School community to imagine radical transformation.
Mindy Fullilove leading the module on Root Shock and Culture Shift: Crisis and Response
Mindy Fullilove led the second module and spoke on root shock and culture shifts. Root Shock is the traumatic stress reaction to the loss of all or part of one’s emotional ecosystem. Mindy opened by saying that every single person, no matter what their background is, is, to some extent, losing the world they love, and the emotions of that have to be understood. Our world has been torn apart and we do not know what we are going to pass on - this level of root shock is, perhaps, something the world has never seen before. Moreover, this root shock has fallen on a weakened collective and weakened social fabric. As a social psychiatrist, Mindy spoke to the importance of producing social integration. Given the level of urgency, it is crucial that we produce peaceful environments in which people can take care of each other. Our old thinking can’t save us, we need a new ecological consciousness
Ana Baptista, Acting Director of the Tishman Center and Chair of the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management program, led the third module, speaking about environmental and climate justice and the work of grassroots social movements. Ana spoke about how do we support the front lines and be allies with the front lines. However, before engaging with the frontline communities, she urged people to question their own positionality: Have we done our homework? Have we shared our resources? Have we been invited? Have we checked our own assumptions and bias?
Ana Baptista leading the module on Social Movements and Policy Change: Environmental and Climate Justice
John Clinton, the Interim Dean of Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment led an open discussion around the question: what can we as an institution do so we don’t have to make a choice between being in graduate school and continuing organizing? What are the skills and knowledge students feel like they really need at this moment?
Students have pointed out the importance of moving outside the classroom and directing students for tangible actions they can do and ways to engage in the political discourse. Many have emphasized the importance of imagining what the possibilities are: bridging together what we can imagine and how we can implement it. The imaginary is very blocked among many but by re-igniting it we can model what free housing/real sustainability/ radical climate action can look like. Students and faculty also pointed out the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between students from different schools, as right now each department is rather siloed, including in ways they are approaching the climate emergency.
Mark Lipton, Professor of Management, led a discussion on public engagement and management for change in times of crisis. The group discussed how we can influence the key audiences, given the current insufficient urgency to take action on climate change, and ways that The New School can influence the urgency of action and mobilize resources.
(Final panel participants from left to right) Jess Serrante from Radical Support Collective, Amin Husain and Amy Wang from Decolonize This Place, and Génesis Abreu as the panel moderator.
The teach-in ended with a powerful panel on direct nonviolent action with organizers of Decolonize This Place, Amin Husain and Amy Wang, and Jess Serrante from Radical Support Collective and moderated by Génesis Abreu. The panelists spoke on how direct nonviolent action creates spaces to imagine something that is not there. It is training our bodies to move in ways we are not used to. Jess, an alum of The New School, spoke about how academics tend to think from the head up: so, while many of us might understand the systemic injustices in the world, few go beyond theory and actually use their bodies to make a difference. Amin Hussain pointed out that words like privilege are problematic on elite private campuses, as people tend to acknowledge it and move on without any further action. Moreover, campus organizing can be issued-siloed and in the institutions are not critiquing their own systems.
To meaningfully partake in action, each person needs to do the work of understanding how our current system is hurting them and then make the strategic and political choice of solidarity. The panelists also noted that, fortunately, there are a lot of people waking up to the climate crisis and are engaging in direct action. This upswell is powerful but is also dangerous, as some throw themselves into action assuming that getting arrested is effective when it does not actually mean anything for the climate movement. Slowing down, asking for advice, connecting to elders and more experienced organizers is challenging but it’s where good and effective organizing comes from.
Jess Serrante spoke about the multiple phases of what it means to engage in climate justice work: 1) Acknowledging that we’re here: we live in a living Earth and that’s a gift; 2) Mourning: grieving the fact that we’re not living in the world that we want; 3) Letting that move us to action: that allows us to BE with what is in a way that’s much more sustainable. We also have to grieve the fact that most of us are complicit in the crisis but that it should not stop us from taking action.
The climate teach-in was an incredibly powerful event bringing together The New School community to address the most pressing issue of our time. One of the biggest takeaways is that we, as an institution, and all of its members still have a long way to go. Understanding the root causes of the crisis, seeing why the climate crisis is a justice issue, collectively dealing with the emotional distress these realizations can bring, imagining a radically different future, and then in mindfully engaging in action that strives to make that vision a reality are all a part of the process. If you haven’t yet, please make sure to sign the petition calling the New School to declare a Climate Emergency.
Milano Whole Earth Taskforce is still gathering thoughts and ideas in relation to those questions, as the answers will be built into a platform for climate action. If you haven’t shared your thoughts yet, whether it is in relation to The New School as whole or a specific school or unit within it, please do so via this Google Form link.