New York Times: Dot Earth Blog

A Times Course for Young World Changers Asks, ‘Sustain What?’

By Andrew Revkin

Most visitors know I left full-time journalism in 2010 to teach courses on communication and environmental policy at Pace University. But you may not know that The Times, itself, is expanding its mission beyond traditional journalism and, with a partner, has launched The School of The New York Times, offering mini-courses on weekends to high school and older middle school students and courses for professionals in various fields. There’ll soon be online classes and much more.

I jumped at the chance to design and teach one of the first classes this fall, focused on climate science and policy and built around the run-up to the Paris negotiations over a new climate agreement.

Starting January 24, I’ll be teaching a five-week course examining a single question: “Sustain What?”

One of the most overused and ill-defined words in conversations about the environment these days is “sustainability.” We’ll look at the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the world’s nations last fall. We’ll meet with an expert from the Wildlife Conservation Society to explore a tough question I’ve written on before: “How much nature is enough?” And of course we’ll discuss population and consumption trends and solutions, and climate and energy choices.

In the fall course, we watched the TED talk on climate models by Gavin Schmidt, the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, then spent two illuminating hours with him.

The students met with three recent graduates of Columbia University’s sustainable development program, working in environmental careers from the local to global scale.

The class split into teams mirroring the blocs of countries and interest groups hunkered in Paris — from the United States to the “climate vulnerable” nations, from Greenpeace to the World Coal Association. Sonali McDermid, a climate science and policy scholar at New York University, visited to discuss their positions in the context of the scope of the climate challenge.

The last session happened to fall on Dec. 12, the day the Paris climate agreement was adopted, and we connected by Skype with participants including Bill McKibben, Bjorn Lomborg, Kelly Levin of the World Resources Institute and M. Sanjayan, the conservation biologist featured here in the past.

With the Eiffel Tower behind them, Kaia Rose and Eric Mann, two young filmmakers creating a Web series called “Climate Countdown,” described their learning curve on video blogging and climate diplomacy.

In full disclosure, this is a business and I am paid a modest fee for my time. There is tuition, but there are some needs-based scholarships available (I wouldn’t do this otherwise, and hopefully that capacity will grow as the business grows).

To me, my new teaching effort is a natural extension of everything I’ve been writing about and doing for a very long time. Keep in mind that my most recent book, “The North Pole Was Here,” was for young adults.

I recently sought some input from management at The Times on the rationale behind nytEducation, the name of the new education business (developed with CIG Education Group). It’s part of a growing list of initiatives, including conferences on energy and cities and the like and guided trips (e.g., “Namibia – Saving the Rhino“). (If the media have a theme song in the innovate-or-die 21st century, it’s probably “Staying Alive.”)

Here’s how Michael Greenspon, general manager, news services & international, put it:

The New York Times is a trusted brand that has, through its journalism, lived in the education space for decades. With nytEducation, we broaden our role — connecting students and parents with renowned educators, industry experts and The Times’s award-winning journalists and providing unique learning opportunities that harness the rich history and breadth of resources that The Times has to offer.

I’m finishing the syllabus for “Sustain What” in the next few days.

I’d be happy to hear your suggestions for readings, Web tools or videos that you think make sense.

As an example, one guide will surely be the population analyst Joel Cohen, here talking about demographic trends.