Highlights in climate news:

Climate change is a heavy topic, even in the best of times. It is all too easy to get caught up in the daily struggle and forget to celebrate the progress being made—both at home and around the world. For those dedicated to climate resilience right now, these are challenging times. Given the challenges we face, we would like to take a moment to share some much-needed climate wins.

A win close to home…

The Neighborhood Resilience Corps, a Denver-based nonprofit, received a grant from Denver’s climate office to educate youth about urban-specific climate change issues. Change for the future, the corps believes, starts with students. In early April, the corps led roughly twenty Denver high schoolers on local field trips. Students explored community gardens, Denver’s water recycling plant, and the green roof system and greenhouse at Colorado State University’s Spur research center. Some students came away considering careers in climate resiliency. The program emphasizes the importance of education and community care when threats like climate change loom impossibly large. (Read more about this at Colorado Public Radio.)

A win for the States…

On April 12th, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a letter stating that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) “will restore the climate-change-related web content that was removed post-inauguration, including all USDA webpages and interactive tools.” This is following a lawsuit early February by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, alongside two environmental organizations. The groups claimed that the removal of federal information was a threat to their livelihoods, as they relied on these tools to make decisions. Restoring this information is a huge win for farmers, researchers, and advocates across the United States. To read The Verge’s full article on the topic, click here.

An international win…

The 89 Percent Project is an international journalistic initiative aimed at highlighting the fact that “between 80 and 89% of the world’s people want their governments to be doing more to address climate change.” This data comes from a survey of 130,000 people in 125 countries.

The crux of the issue is that while the vast majority of people want stronger climate measures, they do not believe that their peers think the same. Most people in the survey stated they are willing to contribute to the fight against climate change, but often did not believe their fellow citizens would be willing to do the same. This perception gap can affect policy as well, with legislators vastly underestimating the public support of climate initiatives. Thus, it’s important for people to understand that their views are shared by many in order to make progress on climate action. Click here to read an article about this in the Guardian.

COOLER CLImates Project: Youngins Trash Mob

What can help kids understand the impact of trash? CLImates Colin Carter and Evan Hill (who call their team The Youngins Trash Mob) created a game for middle-schoolers that focused on environmental and sustainability education. Their project goal was to “plant the seed of sustainability early in the minds of elementary to middle school kids, making it as fun and memorable as possible.”

The project combined an informative presentation for middle school-aged students at Heath Middle School in Greeley, alongside a sustainability game. According to Carter and Hill, “The presentation went very well because of how we organized it to be largely interactive, where we would propose an idea and then do a response slide. An example of this would be explaining where trash goes when we throw it away, and then asking the class what was the last thing they threw away.”

The game was also a great success. It was a variation on freeze tag, focused around collecting and recycling fake “trash” tokens around campus. Students could also collect real trash for game points. Carter and Hill were not originally expecting students to find so much trash during the game. “This went really well until it took an unforeseen twist where students started finding lots of trash around their campus, and they realized how efficient finding real trash was as a method of gaining points. This ended with us filling up an entire trash bag with litter by the end of the game.” As a result, Heath Middle School had a much cleaner campus!

Be sure to check out the Sustainability Tag instructions and lesson plan created by Carter and Hill. Amazing work by this team!

Podcast Feature: Dr. Mitzie Meyers Commitment to Planetary and Holistic Health

Mitzie Meyers of the CLImates faculty cohort has recently been featured on the Nurses for Healthy Environments Podcast, a podcast focused on interviewing nurses who work at the intersection of health and environment. Dr. Meyers focuses on planetary health, with a strong background in both nursing and environmental issues. Click here to listen!

From the Nurses for Healthy Environments Podcast site: “Again and again, nurses are spearheading social change, climate action, environmental justice, and improving health for vulnerable populations, while using their valuable clinical skills, teaching, and caring. Nurses’ work can seem overlooked or taken for granted, and we are here to tell their important stories. We hope you enjoy meeting the nurses in the Nurses for Healthy Environments podcast!”

Care for Air and Community Festival: Sunday, June 29th from 4:30pm-7pm

The Greeley Clean Air project will be holding its final event on Sunday, June 29th from 4:30pm-7pm at East Memorial Park! This will be a celebration to hang out, recap, celebrate and energize forward! This free event will have food, activities, games, giveaways and MORE! All are welcome, whether you have attended previous events or not. If planning to attend, please fill out this RSVP form to receive further information and updates!

Come celebrate all the work accomplished together throughout the Greeley Clean Air project!

Save NSF

Save The U.S. National Science Foundation, or Save NSF, is a group dedicated to saving scientific grants given through the NSF. With so much scientific funding being cut, often specifically targeting environmental and climate research, organizations such as Save NSF are vital to the future of science in the U.S. Save NSF’s mission is “to support the science community and its allies by providing the tools to advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation. NSF funding is critical to this work.” Click here to learn more and get connected with this cause.

Free Tools for Teaching Climate Literacy

The STEM Teaching Tools site has provided some free resources on climate literacy education. This can be used both for self-education as well as educating others. From their page on the topic: “Climate literacy is critical to understanding the complex interaction of human social, economic, historical, and political systems with the biogeochemical systems upon which we depend—and to envision and work towards just solutions.” Click here to access these resources!

Homegrown National Park

When the world feels overwhelming, sometimes the best remedy is to look to our own backyards. Homegrown National Park (HNP) is a grassroots movement empowering everyday people to combat the global biodiversity crisis. HNP’s call to action is “Add native plants and remove invasive ones everywhere that we live, work, learn, pray, and play.” Their website offers practical guides, regional native plant databases, and tips for turning traditional lawns across America into diverse ecosystems—click here to check it out! Beyond the gorgeous results, biodiverse yards save water, support pollinators and local habitats, and may even help return some of peace of mind in the face of climate anxiety.

Meet the COOLER Team:

COOLER Directors and UNCO faculty: Cindy Shellito (Principal), Sharon Bywater-Reyes, Chelsie Romulo

COOLER Community Director: Arika Virapongse (Middle Path EcoSolutions)

COOLER Evaluation Director: Rupu Gupta (Rupu Gupta Consulting)

COOLER Community Managers & UNCO Student Team: Anna Dispirito, Kyle Thoutt, Genevieve Hankins (COOLER Newsletter Student Editor)