Dr. Ahmed Afzaal, associate professor of religion, published a book for teachers that is also helpful for the rest of society in dealing with the damage of climate change.

While “Teaching at Twilight” is geared primarily toward college professors, “its core message is of urgent relevance to anyone who cares about the welfare and well-being of the younger generation.”

Afzaal warns that “our civilization is in the initial stages of collapse. In addition to social and economic disruptions and political upheavals, the ongoing collapse is demolishing our taken-for-granted certainties and precipitating a profound crisis of meaning. Given the enormous challenges of living through the coming years and decades, we must fundamentally change how we live, teach, and lead.” 

In the preface for the book it states: “This book is not about “sustainability.” In some ways, it is about the opposite of sustainability, about what happens when we fail to achieve a sustainable state within the grace period that nature gave us for this purpose. Nor is this book about saving the planet; instead, it provides suggestions for moving forward after we’ve realized that humanity may already have caused more damage than nature can fix on human time-scales.” 

Instead of warning what will happen unless we change course on climate change, the book explores what educators can do now given that we did not heed the warnings and “bad things have already started to happen.”

“Teaching at Twilight” is “an unsettling but urgent message and a must-read for all educators,” but it’s also for parents, religious leaders, community organizers and the like — literally anyone/everyone.

Dahr Jamail, author of “End of Ice,” said the book “makes the case for teachers to question why we educate, how we educate, and what education is for in this time of collapse.”

Learn more about the book at . 

Afzaal says in the preface: “This is not the book that I wished to write, but it is definitely one that needed to be written.”