AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
In upstate New York, college students are learning about climate change through food. It's a way to convey lessons about a subject many students feel anxious about. And as member station WSKG's Rebecca Redelmeier reports, it's one way universities are working to teach students about a warming world.
REBECCA REDELMEIER, BYLINE: In a dining hall at Cornell University, freshman Amelia Catala (ph) is considering the pasta with meat sauce.
AMELIA CATALA: I'm actually going to do like this - no, I feel guilty doing this. But I want the meat.
REDELMEIER: But why do you feel guilty?
AMELIA CATALA: Because I just read about it. But it's so good.
REDELMEIER: Catala has been reading this semester that some foods, like red meat, contribute to human-caused climate change. It's been the homework for one of her classes, which is all about food and climate change. On this day, the class begins in the dining hall, and then Catala and seven other students migrate next door. Freshman Andrea Kim (ph) asks junior Angelica Malero (ph) what's on her plate.
ANDREA KIM: Is that eggplant?
ANGELICA MALERO: Eggplant and fish.
KIM: And fish. OK.
REDELMEIER: Kim is now supposed to tell Malero all the ways the foods on her plate will be impacted by climate change.
KIM: Starting with the rice - rice, like many other crops, are on the decline due to climate change because of increased temperatures.
REDELMEIER: The class isn't about shaming anyone for what they eat. It is about taking a different approach to teaching college students about climate change, one that's personal, says Professor Michael Hoffman.
MICHAEL HOFFMAN: When you tell the climate change story, it has to be relevant to people. And I'd argue there isn't anything more relevant than food.
REDELMEIER: In 2021, Hoffman co-wrote a book on how climate change could impact beloved foods, like coffee, chocolate and olive oil. Last year, he started this class, after students told him they were feeling dread about what climate change could mean for their futures.
HOFFMAN: When I would ask that question - how do you feel about your future, given climate change? - and, you know, the students just went on about uncertain, hopeless, I just thought, OK, they need some help.
REDELMEIER: But what actually helps students who are feeling scared or anxious about climate change? It's a question some universities around the country are considering, as more research finds that many young people experience distress due to climate change. To Hoffman, the answer is providing some real steps students can take.
HOFFMAN: Because I think it's so important, when we do talk about climate change, to provide solutions, the answers. What can I do?
REDELMEIER: Other professors are also rethinking how they teach climate issues, like Jennifer Atkinson at the University of Washington.
JENNIFER ATKINSON: When any of us talk about climate with students, we can't just talk about what's happening in the atmosphere and oceans.
REDELMEIER: Atkinson teaches an undergraduate seminar on the emotional toll of climate change. She keeps in mind that her students may have lived through floods or escaped wildfires before they even started college.
ATKINSON: We have to acknowledge and make space for them to talk openly about what's happening in their own lives, and be sensitive and compassionate about that.
REDELMEIER: Researchers at Yale University's program on climate change communication have found that most people are able to cope with the stress of climate change. But about 1 in 10 say they feel anxious or on edge about global warming several days per week. There is something that can help, though, says lead researcher Anthony Leiserowitz.
ANTHONY LEISEROWITZ: The best antidote to anxiety is action. And especially I would make a plug for action with other people.
REDELMEIER: That's where Leiserowitz says universities can play a role - teach students about action they can take.
LEISEROWITZ: Because when you don't have a sense of what you can do, then most people's natural tendency is to say, well, then I'm going to just hide my head and not think about it.
REDELMEIER: That's why courses like the food and climate class at Cornell could really help. Students learn what's at stake and what they can do - eat less meat, less dairy - which will contribute less to climate change. Cornell freshman Andrea Kim says she likes learning about solutions. And she's found her own ways of coping with the stress she sometimes feels in a warming world.
KIM: When we, like, start doomscrolling and just seeing, like, these terrible news articles about how bad it's getting, it can be a little sad. But you just have to put your phone down for a little while and, yeah, try to cheer up.
REDELMEIER: Kim says she usually cheers up by going outside. She says looking at the scenery on campus helps get her out of her head. For NPR News, I'm Rebecca Redelmeier, in Ithaca. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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