A pedagogy for the end of the world: teaching environmental health and justice in a sacrifice zone

This article describes pedagogical changes that I have made to my Environmental Justice class at the University of the Pacific in response to increasingly crisis conditions with regard to both climate change and higher education. Over the past 15 years, my students are increasingly low-income, first generation, and from Stockton, a so-called “sacrifice zone” with abysmal environmental health outcomes in the heart of California’s Central Valley. My increasing focus on local environmental health disparities, combined with the intensification of the climate crisis, and my decision to prioritize support for student mental health in the midst of climate anxiety, have resulted in a class that feels both connected and immersive. Students are engaging with readings and other course materials, actively participating in discussion, and pushing us further with their own questions, passions, and lived experiences. In this “post”-covid world in which student engagement has become increasingly difficult, student mental health is increasingly tenuous, and climate anxieties plague students and faculty alike, this feels extraordinary and worth sharing. This essay is a chance to reflect on why this shift has occurred, and the potential for university classes to draw working class, diverse students into environmental and climate justice movements at a time when they are so desperately needed.