Bill Text: HI SCR58 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 58 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Urging The Board Of Education To Mandate Climate Change Curriculum In All Public Schools No Later Than School Year 2021-2022.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-10 - Re-Referred to EDU. [SCR58 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2020-SCR58-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	58
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2020
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

urging the board of education to mandate climate change curriculum in all public schools no later than school year 2021-2022.

WHEREAS, Hawai�i has maintained a consistent policy, community, and cultural agenda to protect our environment and address climate change; and

WHEREAS, in 2015, Hawai�i was the first state to set a one hundred per cent renewable energy standard, the most aggressive clean energy goal in the nation; and

WHEREAS, in 2017, Hawai�i also led the nation by enacting legislation to align with the Paris Agreement; and

WHEREAS, in 2018, Hawai�i became the first state to ban pesticides containing chlorpyrifos to protect the health of our children, and the first in the world to ban sunscreens containing chemicals harmful to our coral reefs; and

WHEREAS, Hawai�i, as one of the most isolated island communities in the world is susceptible to climate change impacts in weather change, sea level rise, and natural disasters that can affect critical infrastructure and local economy; and

WHEREAS, a global forecast of sea level rise is an average of 1.8 millimeters per year, but the Kahului, Maui forecast is higher at 2.1 millimeters a year; and

WHEREAS, more than seventy per cent of Kaua�i's and Maui's beaches have been affected due to chronic erosion over the last century, according to the 2016 United States Environmental Protection Agency report on "What Climate Change Means for Hawai�i"; and

WHEREAS, climate change is a borderless and intergenerational crisis, with diverse and far-reaching impacts across the globe and human activities are irreversibly changing the environment in which we exist requiring immediate and collective action on climate change; and

WHEREAS, climate change is a complex challenge that spans local, regional, and global impacts and will require diverse problem-solvers from scientific, cultural, and civic perspectives to seek relevant solutions; and

WHEREAS, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement have identified education as a key component of the global response to climate change; and

WHEREAS, many careers that help present solutions to climate change are strongly STEM-related (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics); and

WHEREAS, Hawai�i leads the nation in the proportion of STEM jobs that require a postsecondary degree (ninety-six per cent) according to a 2018 Georgetown University report on STEM education and workforce development; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirtieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2020, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Department of Education is urged to mandate a climate change curriculum in all public schools by no later than school year 2021-2022; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that climate change curriculum be included in the Department of Education's 2030 Promise Plan under School Design where "Students will be immersed in excellent learning environments that are thoughtfully designed around community's power to contribute to a thriving, sustainable Hawai�i"; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Chair of the Board of Education, Superintendent of Education, Chief Resiliency Officer of the City and County of Honolulu Office of Climate Change, Sustainability, and Resiliency, University of Hawai�i Director of Sustainability, and Chief Executive Officer of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.