Environmental Science Professor Challenges Thoughts on Climate Change

Anita Soracco is hopeful about combating climate change but says that we need to collectively act now, which includes comprehensive education starting at an early age. As a professor of Environmental/Physical Science and the Coordinator of the Liberal Arts-Environmental Science Option Program at QCC, Soracco has noticed that her students are frustrated about the lack of climate change education in the K-12 system.

"They feel disappointed and worried. They see that there's so many different environmental problems and they feel like if they had known this information earlier...maybe they would have made different decisions in their lives and could've done more," Soracco said.

Last month, Soracco was published in The Boston Globe where she addressed the need for climate change education, citing a study that showed a decrease in college students' carbon emissions after a one-year course.

Soracco has seen this firsthand in her Sustaining Earth's Environment course, which was developed after former QCC President Gail Carberry signed American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment. Through research assignments, field trips to places like Worcester's water treatment plant and guest speakers from the field, students get a multifaceted look at the many ways that humans affect the environment. Soracco has witnessed her students stop drinking bottled water, forego plastic bags for reusable ones and rethink choices about food and personal hygiene products. 

"It's amazing to see. Those are the moments I live for," Soracco said.

While personal responsibility is important, Soracco said, it's equally important to advocate for systemic change. She noted that fossil fuel companies invest large amounts of money on campaigns to deflect attention away from their practices, which have been proven to negatively affect the climate. This diversion keeps the average person focusing on their individual choices, which are important but aren't nearly enough. According to Soracco, the technology is available to be 80% renewable by 2030 but it's not being used, similar to mitigation techniques such as education.

"Now my students understand the role of environmental policy and why it's so important to get involved in local and national elections," she said.

Environmental justice is also a vital aspect of Soracco's coursework. She noted that marginalized communities always experience environmental problems worse than other communities. 

"You have to think about who's living in the flood zones, which countries are bearing the first big effects of climate change, which housing is near the fossil fuel factories and the mining operations that take place on indigenous lands," Soracco continued.

She noted that in many of the richer, fossil fuel consuming countries, like the United States and Canada, people think there are no global water or food shortages, but areas such as Africa's Sahel region are already suffering from impacts to their soil and water due to climate change.  

Soracco commended QCC for obtaining a significant amount of energy from renewable sources, but suggested that the college could do things such as integrate more electric vehicle charging stations and water bottle filling stations.

Because these environmental issues are so pervasive, Soracco would like to start a course devoted entirely to climate change. The Liberal Arts, Environmental Science degree option started at QCC in 2016. Soracco said it is becoming quite popular, and is a reason for optimism in our future as students create change in their personal lives on both a local and national scale.

"I think there is hope and that's what the leading climate scientists say, that there's hope if we change our behavior. But we need to act quickly," she said.