Kalamazoo’s climate movement took off last year. Roughly a dozen local groups united to form a coalition and organized rallies and teach-ins. They also persuaded the city and county governments to declare climate emergencies. High schools played a role, especially Kalamazoo Central, where a passionate teacher and his students had big plans for 2020. But the pandemic and the move to online learning has turned those plans upside down. The interruption comes as U-S climate activists prepare for a critical election.
Josh Gottlieb had an awakening last year. The Kalamazoo Central High School physics teacher heard a sobering interview with a journalist who writes about global warming. Gottlieb says as he listened, he went from knowing about climate change to fearing it viscerally. Last summer, Gottlieb said he owed it to his students and his own children to do something about it.
"To keep my promise to them that I would protect them, and to do my job as an educator, I feel like it is my responsibility to do everything I can even if it feels scary and hard."
Gottlieb mobilized his students over the following months. They turned out for Kalamazoo’s climate strike, a big rally downtown, last September. Speaking to the crowd, his student Kearney Miller said young people are always fielding questions about their future.
"Maybe it’s time we start telling them what we’re doing now to make sure we have a future. Thank you."
Gottlieb’s students also came up with a proposal to make the school district’s buildings more efficient. They won $10,000 in a national competition to help make it happen. The Central climate team also worked out an ambitious plan to register voters block-by-block ahead of the November election.
"It was going to be historic..."
Gottlieb spoke again last month.
"...and of course, completely derailed."
Derailed as the COVID-19 pandemic reached Michigan, and the state closed the schools, then moved teaching online.
"I have had very little contact with students and that’s where I draw all of my energy."
A massive on-the-ground effort to register voters no longer seemed possible. Gottlieb says it was like he and his students ran full-speed into a wall.
"They are my communication channels and they are the team! And without them there is no team. And so I’ve felt impotent since then."
"I was getting really excited for everything going on. It just felt like it was all really picking up and then it just immediately died."
That’s Kearney Miller again, who spoke at the climate rally. Miller’s classmate Kendal VanDam says before the shutdown, the group did try to register a few voters at the Kalamazoo Public Library.
"We’re hoping the little work we did helps…"
Local organizers also have plans for keeping young people involved in the movement after the election. (Bug sounds) On a recent Wednesday at a Kalamazoo Nature Center field station west of town, a local high school student gets a forehead fever check.
The Nature Center’s new Youth Climate Leaders program brought students together from high schools around the county this summer to learn about global warming. They’ll spend the rest of the year trying to get their peers interested in climate change. This small group is meeting in person, but student Kyli Schipper acknowledges concerns about COVID may limit other face-to-face gatherings. Still, she says if they build a web presence now, eventually they can invite more people to in-person events...
"Once it’s safe to, we can use whatever we’ve managed to establish during pandemic to kind of grow even more after pandemic."
That’s likely to be well beyond November 3rd. But for some of Josh Gottlieb’s students at Central High, Election Day is still front and center. Kearney Miller and Kendal Van Dam recently met to try to revive the school’s climate action group.
"We’re trying to hope we can still have an impact even this close to election day and just hoping we can make this important election help our future and the planet’s future."
They want to focus on voter turnout, even if all they can do is post on social media.