As climate change increasingly impacts daily life in Canada, educators are calling for enhanced lessons on the topic in schools. This comes as students prepare to return to classrooms following one of the worst wildfire seasons in Canadian history, which destroyed homes and forced thousands to evacuate. Many Canadians have been affected by the resulting haze from wildfire smoke.

Lisa Jeffery, a high school science teacher in Leamington, Ontario, has observed a significant change in her students' perspectives on climate change over the past decade. "It's not looking terribly optimistic when our country is on fire most summers as it is right now," she stated during an interview amid air quality warnings in southern Ontario. Jeffery noted that while Ontario's science curriculum mandates that teachers dedicate about a quarter of the semester to climate change and environmental education, there is potential for more discussions across various subjects.

"(Climate change education) extends to every single subject in our curriculum," Jeffery said, expressing concern over missed opportunities to integrate climate discussions into other areas of study.

A recent survey conducted by Learning for a Sustainable Future revealed that 62 percent of Canadians believe climate change should be a top priority in education. The survey, which included over 4,200 participants, found that many teachers face obstacles in teaching climate change. Two-thirds of respondents cited a lack of time, while 60 percent indicated a need for more professional development.

Rochelle Tkoch, a Grade 7 and 8 teacher in Ontario's Niagara region, has implemented an interdisciplinary approach to teaching climate change. Her students engaged in a project analyzing how traveling by car to access affordable produce contributes to CO2 emissions. They also calculated the carbon emissions associated with transporting that produce. "There were some really interesting light bulb moments for students, looking at how locally sourced produce can actually combat some of those issues with CO2 emissions," Tkoch said.

However, Tkoch acknowledged that this approach can be overwhelming for educators. "It looks really overwhelming and really messy because our curriculum is designed in silos. We have science class, language class, social studies or geography, and we’re still very regimented and very trained to think about subjects that way," she explained. She emphasized the importance of breaking down these silos to help students make connections between climate issues.

The Ontario Education Ministry stated that the provincial curriculum already includes opportunities to learn about environmental issues and climate change, with recent updates to science and geography courses. In Alberta, where devastating wildfires have also occurred, teachers are advocating for curriculum changes to include more climate change education. Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers' Association, expressed concern that the politicization of climate change could hinder teachers' involvement in curriculum development. He recalled a 2019 incident where the education minister questioned the inclusion of climate impacts from the oil and gas industry in a test question. "Having politicians stand up and make comments about the curriculum … just makes things much worse if people get riled up with that sort of stuff," Schilling said. He emphasized the need to depoliticize the topic to allow students to explore and form their own conclusions based on scientific evidence.

Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides responded by stating that the province's curriculum provides numerous opportunities to examine climate change from various perspectives, including in science and technology courses. He noted that the K-12 science curriculum helps students tackle complex concepts related to environmental stewardship and energy efficiency.

Violette Baillargeon, a high school teacher in Surrey, British Columbia, highlighted the necessity of teaching climate change as a means to prepare students for the future. "We have a moral imperative to talk about the responsibility we have toward the planet and towards one another," she said. Baillargeon noted that her students often return to school discussing recent wildfires, flooding, and extreme heat events that have affected their lives. "Talking about climate is talking about what a consensus of scientists have agreed is happening currently and continuing to happen at an accelerating rate," she added.

Baillargeon, who serves on an environmental justice committee, was motivated to enhance climate discussions in her classes after witnessing the plight of migrants fleeing drought in Central America during a trip to Mexico in 2018. She emphasized the interconnectedness of language, culture, and the inequities tied to the climate emergency. "We can't talk about the language without talking about the culture, and we can't talk about the culture without talking about the inequities present in the global south and how those are tied to the climate emergency," Baillargeon said.