A tariff, defined by the Oxford dictionary, is a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports. This is already more research done than what many Americans that voted for pro tariff policies in this recent election have even done. This is the largest problem we have in our political status quo — a distinct lack of knowledge. Though it should be obvious, the most glaring problem with the world is Earth’s damaged environment. Beyond that, the problem is that those who have the power to affect the environment know next to nothing about what is actually good for it. With that, policies like the Green Deal are actively being revoked, almost entirely due to a lack of environmental education.
A possible solution for this lack of education is simply to educate people. This education should be coming from a class that teaches environmental science, and should be required. With this, every person leaving high school (specifically in California, or even more specifically, CHS) would have proper knowledge to govern themselves accordingly as to benefit the environment. On paper, this sounds great. With everyone informed of the real problems with climate change, the lack of knowledge would be eliminated. However, this plan is not without its flaws.
Jenna Mittman teaches AP Environmental Science at CHS, and was generous enough to share her time to answer a few questions about this concept. The first problem with requiring a class to graduate is exactly that; making a class required changes a lot. Dedicating an entire period for an entire year is a large burden, especially when considering the amount of classes that California already requires to graduate. Mittman instead proposed another idea, a way to help teach environmental science without taking up an extra class period.
“Teaching most core classes within the lens of Environmental issues, especially climate change,” Mittman said. “Physics, Biology, Chemistry…. it all can be taught with the overarching phenomena being climate change, pollution, changing oceans, conservation, etc.”
With this, it is possible to educate high school students without requiring them to have a stricter high school schedule. However, there is a catch. Enforcing teachers to teach subjects that they are both unaware of and uninterested in can be detrimental. Unfortunately, many teachers do not believe in climate change, and would therefore not teach environmental studies effectively. Beyond that, it is possible some teachers may stop pursuing teaching if a ‘controversial’ change like this was implemented.
Despite these problems, the ends of taking this new path will almost certainly justify the means. If many of the people in power today had the knowledge from an environmental science class, a lot of the problems faced with nature today – as well as the things stopping us from solving them – would not be the setbacks that they are.