While the climate-related disasters have been piling up for a long time, this year has been, as they say, off the charts.

Americans have never complained when politicians and adults played politics because the players and the rules were always clear and understood. But this has changed. It is now fair game for administrators to politicize public schooling and our children’s education.

One of toxic whiteness’ greatest successes is convincing white people that any talk about racism is taboo and, ironically, racist. 

The U.N. Secretary General and many media outlets have declared “Code Red,” calling for concerted action to avert a still greater climate calamity than is already assured.  We have a short window to take significant action, and we must make the most of it.

In recent weeks, we’ve watched a debate emerge over teaching about race in schools from grade school to college. We’d like to offer a firsthand account of what addressing issues of race and other discrimination on a college campus can look like.

Those of us in groups such as Medical Students for a Sustainable Future are educating ourselves and our colleagues, pushing for curricular reform, advocating for policy change, and working alongside the medical professionals already spearheading the important work of connecting patient health to planetary health. I urge other students of all medical fields to join us.

To the average healthcare consumer, it likely seems that strong policies exist to protect the rights of those with disabilities.  Yet 30 years after the inception of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, those with physical disabilities continue to struggle to find available, accessible, quality healthcare across the entire healthcare continuum