Climate Action Day Adapts to Virtual Term, Budget Constraints

By Otto Do, Lina Huang and Ava Yu

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s Climate Action Day (CAD) will proceed through an online platform with optional, asynchronous activities for community members. This virtual programming replaces an on-campus CAD which, due to funding constraints, would have looked slightly different from the events of years past.

This year’s CAD was to be a full-day, in-person event with more excursions than previous years. All students, except preps, would have traveled off-campus this year. “Preps were to stay on campus and learn the basics of how to be sustainable on campus and some of the elements of the campus that are currently sustainably designed,” Committee Member and Science Instructor Sydney Goddard said. 

Furthermore, more grade-wide activities would have taken place. In the original plan, lowers would visit local farms, uppers would participate in environmental service projects and seniors would travel to nearby marine habitats.

The plans for more interactive, rather than guest speaker oriented activities, were arranged in light of new funding constraints, according to Committee co-chair and English Instructor Jason BreMiller. “Historically, all environmental programing has been supported by a particular fund which contains less available funding this year than it has in the past—simply because it has been drawn down through use,” he said. Bremiller noted that no cuts were made to the fund, and that Climate Action Day does not actually have an annual budget.

“The CAD Committee has sought to establish a dedicated CAD fund, but has been unsuccessful in those efforts,” Bremiller said. “The irony here, of course, is that a day devoted to conversations around sustainability does not currently include a sustainable financial model. The Committee hopes that the Academy will explore further funding possibilities in order to meet this need.”

Despite these funding constraints and the short time frame to retool their program, the committee opted to transfer their activism online. “[We distributed] communication to the community that seeks to acknowledge the importance of the day, and of the 50th celebration of Earth Day, that provides both resources and suggestions for engagement from afar,” BreMiller said. 

“[The event] will not be nearly as powerful as what we had planned, but hopefully something meaningful as we cast our hopes toward the next time we can all gather together here on campus,” Bremiller said.

This virtual program exists on a newly-created website. “We’re going to have links to different Zoom calls that you can join throughout the week of Earth Day,” upper and Committee member Bea Burack said. “To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we will organize a collection of articles, books and podcasts for people to engage with. Additionally, we will encourage students to join climate-action-oriented campus organizations, as some of them will continue their work during the summer.”

Videos of speakers who would have presented at Exeter will be included on the website, Committee member and upper Anneliese Cowles added. 

“We hope that students will find an online event or article that intrigues them and take the time to explore it,” Committee member and upper Erin McCann said. 

Upper Alicia Gopal noted her appreciation of the CAD Committee’s adapted program. “Obviously, climate change isn't the number one issue on everyone's mind right now. But that doesn't mean we should sit still, and it's important at a time like this to give people the tools they need to stay informed so we can be prepared to take more action in the future. What the committee has planned will do exactly that,” Gopal said. 

Since Earth Day’s inception in 2015, the Academy has celebrated Climate Action Day to emphasize Exeter’s commitment to environmental education. “CAD is a vital expression of the Academy’s recognition of the significance of climate change and the challenges it poses to our community and the rest of the world,” CAD committee member Warren Biggins said. 

The day serves as a powerful reminder of the Academy’s responsibilities in the fight against climate change. “[Despite] the trustees having listed sustainability as one of their strategic planning focuses, our student body doesn’t match that focus,” Cowles said. “Almost everyone on campus is aware of climate change, but many students do not make a significant effort to make tangible changes to their lives to fight it, either because they don't know how or because it would require them to make sacrifices to their comfort and lifestyle.”

“We mark this day not as akin to celebrating a holiday, an honoring, or certainly just an out from school, but to underline the magnitude that this single day is but one [in] 365 that require such focus, critical inquiry and attention, shared involvement in dealing with, as the eco-philosopher Timothy Morton has termed… global warming, a “hyper-object” whose dimensions and impact are so vast (and dangerous) that we can barely grasp its full nature and ramifications,” committee member and Music Instructor Dr. Jon Sakata said. 

Much of the power of CAD lies in its variation to Exonians’ routines. “[This day is an] annual intervention into how our daily mental, social, political-environmental patterns, practices [and] rhythms are brought into sharp relief with how the enmeshed relations of planetary life re-contextualize and bring critical lenses to our past, current and future (in)actions, aptitudes and ineptitudes, but also transformative capacities and caring in spite of the menagerie of excuses for why things cannot change or don’t change quickly enough,” Sakata said.

Goddard encouraged students to engage with climate action beyond the Academy’s plans. “I invite my colleagues and the greater PEA community to do climate action projects and or assignments,” Goddard said. “I have created several assignments for the week of our climate action day as well as an environmental service project for my students to do with others in their household.” 

With lockdowns around the world sharply cutting global emissions, humanity’s race to solve climate change has found new hope. However, Cowles noted, the climate is still in a precarious predicament. “We are at a very unique time where we are barely feeling the effects of global warming right now… If we don't act, those who come after us won't have the ability to combat climate change or [even] enjoy the same world that we have now,” she said. “No generation has sufficiently acted before us, and we are the last generation that can reasonably hope to prevent substantial damage to our planet.”

For Goddard, CAD is an opportunity like no other to energize Exonians and protect the environment. “I want students to feel some power and hope in the face of this existential threat.  I hope that education about climate change and action to counter it will help them feel they can make a difference,” Goddard said. 

Cowles agreed that students have a role and responsibility in the fight against climate change. “Exeter has taught us to be leaders rather than followers and to give rather than take. Now is our chance to prove that we have learned from our time at Exeter and make a stand.”