Writing in the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences, Morgan and Bruine de Bruin point out that “real-world problems in science, technology, and public policy such as climate change typically cannot be addressed adequately from the perspective of any single discipline.” They argue that to fight climate change it is crucial to work across disciplines, but that “too often, experts from these different fields do not know how to talk with each other. They may not know how to work together, or even perceive the importance of doing so.” The mission of TEA is to work with faculty and institutions to address these blind spots. 

Chabot College is typical of colleges around the nation in organizing knowledge around discrete academic disciplines. Chabot features over 75. Yet, only ONE of these disciplines might appear to our students to be addressing our planet’s environmental crises--Environmental Studies. Given the scale and urgency of our global environmental issues, asking one discipline to shoulder the burden will not suffice. 

Teach Earth Action supports ALL disciplines to “climatize” their curriculum. TEA offers professional development support for faculty to integrate a climate/environment lens into the classroom. For disciplines and programs that have already made strides to do this, TEA supports and helps to scale this work, as well as serves as a hub to bring faculty together to create synergy around “climatizing” work being done in individual colleges.