Jennifer Atkinson Leads Climate Education Seminar for Association of American Geographers

Jennifer Atkinson shared strategies for coping with climate distress at both the Center for Climate Literacy (CCL) and the Association of American Geographers’ (AAG) Spring 2025 webinar, where she spoke about Teaching Climate and Environmental Justice.

Atkinson featured resources and teaching strategies from her book The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators: How to Teach in a Burning World, with particular focus on navigating the emotional toll of the recent Los Angeles wildfires and the withdrawal of federal support for climate research, environmental regulation and renewable energy.

CCL, which is based at the University of Minnesota, supports preK-16 educators across North America with open-access resources, training, workshops, fellowships, and curricula to advance climate literacy education in every classroom. The AAG webinar was facilitated by the Human Dimensions of Global Change Specialty group, which hosts webinars each spring to share techniques that environmental educators can use to facilitate meaningful, healthy engagement with climate and environmental justice. Other speakers included Jessica Creane (Founder of IKantKoan) presenting on “Playful Agency: High Stakes Doesn’t Mean High Anxiety” and Anthony Levenda (Director of the Center for Climate Action & Sustainability at Evergreen State College) presenting on “Teaching climate action: experiential learning for climate and environmental justice.”