In 2061, Gallatin will celebrate the 300th birthday of Albert Gallatin, the founder of our school. At the same time, sea levels will have risen, but not yet to the point of making Gallatin a beachfront property, weather patterns will be increasingly erratic and damaging, and the Western world will be at a point where it can no longer ignore the impacts of climate change. This is why our School of the Earth has been placed in the year 2061: it is a year of significance for both NYU and climate change predictions. Our hope is that Gallatin as School of the Earth will stand a beacon of hope and innovation for climate adaptation in the future of Gallatin, New York University, New York City and hopefully the world.

A School for The Environment

The entire world is an ecosystem, nothing is in isolation, and therefore our education does not exist in a vacuum. In the new design, the historical context of the development of the university and climate change will be visible. This can take many different forms: a permanent installation on Indigenous claims to the land or climate change, teaching about native environmental methods and habitats, photo essays on climate change around the building, constantly screening documentaries on climate change, and guest speakers on the history of climate change. We will have a renewed understanding of how humans have gotten to the point where they are affecting the climate and causing the issues that we are redesigning our school to combat.

There must be environmental understanding and information woven into all education. Comprehension of climate change and the environment around us will not be relegated to environmental studies and science students; instead it will be incorporated into all education. Gallatin is full of creative students that are deeply involved in arts and humanities and will therefore have to find ways to incorporate environmental awareness into all aspects of education, not just the obvious choices. Possible ideas include green murals, climate-awareness performance art pieces, and other humanities-based understandings of climate change. Gallatin is an interdisciplinary school and we should make climate and environmental awareness an active part of that interdisciplinary education.

Instructors: Peder Anker, Mitchell Joachim

Students: Ryan Porter Andrewsen, Aliza Joy Blond, Cash Callaghan, Danielle Margo Domsky, Juan Diego Galvez, Sophia Hampton, Michelle Lee Johnson, Laura Sejin Jung, Devansh Majithia, Annie Pluimer, Cecilia Reid, Arielle Ross, Olivia Catherine Saber, Alejandro Santana, Sabrina A Santos, Joshua J Shapiro, Cate Stitt Stern, Hanna Stern, Rachel Stern, Celine Sutter, Leland R Sutton, Zoya Teirstein, Jenna Zimmerman