The Unraveling: Losing Our Climate Anchor Institutions

A few of my favorite colleagues, national climate educators, gathered at the NAAEE conference in 2024, the day after the last presidential election.

I am an independent contractor in the environmental education field, but I have never worked truly alone. My success, and the success of my peers, has always been rooted in a vibrant, interconnected community of practice. We thrive when we work together.

However, since early 2025, that foundation has begun to crumble.

The Sunset of the Anchors

In a remarkably short time, the landscape of our field has been fundamentally altered. Two pillars of our community—the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS), which served for over 35 years, and Climate Generation, a leader for 20 years—have officially sunsetted.

Simultaneously, the CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network) program has lost its dedicated staff and funding. While its digital resources remain accessible for now, the "human heartbeat" that powered the network has been silenced.

This isn't just an administrative shift; it is a systemic erasure. While many climate research institutions are being stripped of their federal funding and dissolved—their data and outputs often removed from the public square—the education arm of this work has been equally disrupted. In many cases, it has been dissolved entirely. We are witnessing a double-pronged attack: the removal of the science itself, and the destruction of the bridge that connects that science to the public.

A Life Changed by ARCUS

The loss of these institutions is deeply personal. It was because of ARCUS and their PolarTREC program that I became an Arctic educator. They provided the pathway for me to spend time on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean, an experience that transformed my worldview and allowed me to become a national leader in polar education.

Beyond the expeditions, ARCUS provided transformative training on how to be a respectful visitor in Alaska Native villages, modeling a visionary, equitable approach to science. Similarly, Climate Generation fostered the relationships that allowed me to attend COP26 in Glasgow as an observer. They led the Summer Institute for Climate Change Education (where I was a regional cohort leader for 5 years), which centered climate justice and amplified voices that are typically not heard. These organizations didn't just teach facts; they shaped how we show up in the world.

The Value of "The Hallway"

The true impact of these institutions went far beyond their concrete deliverables. They were the architects of connection through:

• Convenings and Cohorts: They brought people together for mentorship, leadership training, and collaborative projects.

• The "Informal" Network: The most fulfilling moments often happened in the margins—the hallway conversations, the 1:1 sideline chats, and the breakout room discussions where we felt truly seen.

• Digital Arteries: Listservs and online platforms reached across the globe. You don’t realize how valuable these "invisible" tools are until they go missing, like the NASA Stem Gateway Connects or the lack of active moderation of the NAAEE Climate Change Education eePro group.

For someone living in rural Colorado, these virtual and national connections were a lifeline to a diversity of perspectives I don’t encounter in my daily life.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Today, there is a gaping hole where that sense of belonging used to be. It is a struggle to maintain the intellectual and emotional stability needed to continue this work while it is being actively discredited and defunded. The most critical crisis of our time—climate change—is no longer considered important by those in power who control the funding sources.

But while a few giant "anchors" are gone, the collective hasn't entirely vanished. A few networks I am part of are still holding on: the Youth Climate Summit Network, Earth to Sky, statewide, and national environmental education associations, Colorado Climate Empowerment, and the CLEAN listserv.

The Reveal after the Unraveling

We are in a period of deep grief. This is a fragile time for many who have committed their lives to this vocation, only to feel "thrown out." Yet, it is in times like these that we need each other even more.

We cannot let go of our relationships. We must hold the hurt and the grief together so that we can take the next steps forward. These remaining networks will only survive if those of us who still have the capacity keep showing up to support them. Together we have so much to build from. We can’t leave it all behind. Rather we must find new ways to dream forward and imagine what is possible—together. For my part, I will keep showing up for these smaller circles, because I know we cannot do this work alone.