Sarah Fortner writes magazine feature for AAC&U on sustainability in higher education
Fortner is director of sustainability at Carleton.
Sarah Fortner, director of sustainability, wrote a feature for Liberal Education magazine titled, “A Global Responsibility,” about sustainability in higher education. The magazine is published by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).
It is time for higher education to make Earth’s climate future a top priority. We must ready our graduates to solve climate problems and advocate for environmental action. From fires in Los Angeles, floods in Asheville and San Antonio, and extreme heat in Phoenix and Japan to record rains in Italy, climate disasters are affecting communities across the United States and around the world. “The effects of human-caused climate change are already far-reaching and worsening across every region of the United States,” states the Fifth National Climate Assessment, the nation’s preeminent report on climate change. (In June 2025, the Trump administration deleted the website hosting the report; as of September, an archived version could still be found at https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/61592.)
Many young people, especially college students, are keenly aware that the time to act is now. Fifty-nine percent of young people are very or extremely worried about climate change, according to a recent survey of ten thousand people ages sixteen to twenty from ten countries, including the United States. Not only do today’s college students have more lived experiences dealing with the impacts of climate change than previous generations have had but they will also inherit a world with far greater climate risk. This generation rightfully feels a sense of betrayal and widespread dissatisfaction with inadequate government climate response.