This article, by Chelsea Severin, is part of a series highlighting members of the Office of Sustainability’s Experts Database. In a collaboration with instructor Hannah Monroe’s course, LSC 561: Writing Science for the Public, students interviewed campus sustainability experts and produced short feature stories.
Dr. Noah Feinstein is worried about climate change.
“Lots of academics respond to their worry by studying the thing they’re worried about,” he told me wryly at the beginning of our interview. “Sometimes, we even do good in the world.”
Feinstein is a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education, but some of his work takes him across campus, to the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He describes himself as an “interdisciplinary guy” but positions most of his work within science and technology studies, which approaches science within its broader societal context, asking: “How do people make sense of science?”
Technically, what Feinstein studies isn’t intrinsically climate change or sustainability — it’s how people think about sustainability. How do engineers define sustainability? Teachers? Environmentalists? If everybody is using the same word for different ideas, how does anything get done?
The problem, as Feinstein lays out, is that when people use the same terminology to mean different things, it makes effective collaboration more difficult. For example, in the context of science education, discussions about sustainability focus on how new scientific and technological developments can be used to solve global problems. However, this approach to sustainability doesn’t account for the fact that many global problems have a social component: people’s behavior and choices.
Environmental education, meanwhile, frames sustainability in terms of what people can do to preserve and maintain the ecological network we all inhabit. To Feinstein, balancing these competing tensions is a key part of planning for a sustainable future. His research identifies how different conceptualizations of sustainability are being put into practice, especially with regard to climate change adaptation.
“Even if we manage to transition to a net zero carbon economy overnight, we’d still be living on a different planet than the one we were born in,” Feinstein said. “The atmosphere is already different.”
The challenge, then, is to help communities adapt to new conditions.
For Wisconsin, that means a few different things. Changing weather patterns will have a major impact on agriculture. Many Wisconsin farmers grow crops that rely on the weather conditions associated with cold Wisconsin winters. Maple syrup farms need temperatures that hover around the freezing point; cranberry bogs rely on ice cover. Climate change means milder winters for Wisconsin, which puts both industries at risk.
Feinstein also points to climate migration as a potential ripple effect for Wisconsin. As more people move to Wisconsin to avoid extreme heat, more pressure will be put on Wisconsin’s resources. Additionally, Wisconsin communities that have historically been developed to handle extreme cold may be less prepared to weather extreme heat.
Ultimately, climate change poses an unavoidable threat to key parts of what makes Wisconsin Wisconsin. Today’s communities have the choice to hold onto what they already have for as long as they can, or to look forward and explore how to transform themselves without losing their identities.
As a result, Feinstein has also turned his attention to youth-centered organizations focused on climate change, including Groundwork USA.
“For me, as a not-young person, the challenge is, ‘How can institutions support youth-centered and youth-led movements in [transforming their communities]?” Feinstein said.
He is interested in exploring the different types of models that groups are developing to help people do work in their communities. In practice, his work often becomes what he refers to as “shuttle diplomacy,” or bridging the gap between community groups, policymakers, and educators. His most recent publication introduced climate policymakers to a broader definition of “education.” Up next is a companion piece that tasks educators with engaging with the systemic issues of climate change and climate change policy.
“How do people make sense of science?” I asked Dr. Feinstein, as our interview session came to a close.
“Together,” he told me. “That’s the most important thing I could possibly say.”