Climate change is indeed occurring, and as per The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It is certainly due to human activity since the mid-20th century, the Industrial Revolution, and proceeding at an unprecedented rate over decades to millennia. For centuries atmospheric carbon dioxide has never reached today’s life-threatening levels. With the current global temperature rise, shrinking ice sheets, warming oceans, glacial retreat, decreased snow cover, declining Arctic sea ice, and ocean acidification, the evidence for rapid changes in the climate are more than compelling.

Source: ESA CCI/Planetary Visions; Atmospheric carbon dioxide rise

Could we resolve the issue through education?

The reasons why specific attention should be paid to the need for education and the possibilities it presents cannot be reduced to just one.  To begin with, addressing climate change through education will demand action at all levels of society starting from individuals themselves, and shifting to smaller and larger businesses, organizations, institutions, and national governments, and would hopefully lead to a practical shift in the operations of international bodies.

Climate change cannot be addressed and acted upon solely by certain individuals with privileged access to information. Instead, transfer of knowledge is necessary both intellectually and affectively, to decision-makers and their ultimate constituents at all levels possible. Second, enforcing the issue within education is required because, when it comes to the climate, learning from experience is learning too late.

In the context of the European Union, we can observe the European Commission taking necessary steps. The EU is tackling the impact of environmental changes through various policies through the European Green Deal, at home, and in close cooperation with international partners.

Abroadship supports the fight against the impact of changes in the climate as well and promotes Youth Exchanges and Training Courses that serve a better understanding of actions we as Youth can take.

Christina Mittermeier @Sea Lecacy, Canadian Arctic – ‘We cannot tell for sure why this bear was dying, what is certain is that as the Arctic continues to warm twice as fast as anywhere else on Earth, many more bears will face this fate over the coming years’

The photo above belongs to a personal archive and is part of an expedition performed by Sea Legacy during which both healthy and starving bears were encountered. However, as climate change accelerates, we will see less of the former and more of the latter. That is why treating the issue as a matter of urgency is vital, and progress should be drawn adhering to the bottom-up model where education is used as a stepping stone for societal change.

Education is the only sector capable of enabling society to benefit from climate change science by transferring scientific knowledge across societal sectors. The centrality education has in various processes can precipitate social change and climate change mitigation.  What is more, effective education brings about growth in the number of informed and engaged citizens, building social will or even pressure to shape policy, and often creating a workforce for a low-carbon economy. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia has reported various instances where education about the topic’s efforts met success and delivered progress in climate and energy knowledge, influence, and motivation.

The delay between decisions that induce climate change and their full societal influence could range from decades to millennia (Ledley et all, 2017). Subsequently, learning from education, rather than experience, is vital for those impacts to be avoided.

Author: Bilyana Hadzhikyanova

References

1. Kunkel, K. et al, (2013) “Probable maximum precipitation and climate change,” Geophysical Research Letters
2. Ledley, S. T., Rooney-Vagra, J. and Niepold, F. (2017) Addressing Climate Change Through Education
3. L. Polyak, et.al., (2009) “History of Sea Ice in the Arctic,” in Past Climate Variability and Change in the Arctic and at High Latitudes, U.S. Geological Survey, Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 1.2, chapter 7
4. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), (2018) Global Climate Change, Vital Signs of the Planet
5. National Research Council (NRC), (2006) Surface Temperature Reconstructions For the Last 2,000 Years. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.