Recently I was asked What is Climate Education to me? I replied that the term is rather new!
From the evident damage to the natural world around us and elsewhere, it seems clear that we humans are not well-educated about Earth’s climate, climate used here to include the broader environment and ecology (1). We do not know much about the adverse impact of our routine actions on the climate, or if we do know the climate related problems and its solutions, it does not show much in the world around us. Simply put, knowing how the material world really works is central to knowing about the climate and the broader environment and ecology (2).
If we ponder upon the question further it becomes irrefutable that understanding the basics of Earth’s climate system is crucial for anyone involved in climate education or related education or research spaces. All of us may have some understanding about our changing climate, what is driving this change, and the actions that are needed to tackle the crisis and adapt to the modified, less-hospitable state of the Earth. This understanding may be rooted in the climate science that we have consciously learnt, or random information that we have gathered from our surroundings unconsciously.
But sometimes what we believe or know may not be the true reality. It is worth stepping back, to unlearn the erroneous elements in our knowledge, and learn it correctly and more completely, even resetting our beliefs, if needed.
Learning and education are related concepts; the primary purpose of education is to impart learning, which in turn leads to other desired outcomes, such as degrees and employment. But we do not learn only through education. We also learn a lot from others, without any formal role of education. Further, each living animal and plant, is also born with certain in-built knowledge, what is referred to as nature of the species; nature and nurture combine to determine our learning and behaviour (3). There is some element of choice, especially in animals, what we can call their agency of decision-making, but it is always embedded in the structures and not entirely free or independent.
Isn’t prevalent human behaviour our primary climate education?
If we want to understand how to impart climate education successfully for learning outcomes, don’t we need to recognize that the behaviour of others in our hyper-connected, global society is a central source of learning and it lends to our belief system? The way others in the society behave sets the norm for our own behaviour. Both our nature (what we are born with) and nurture (the surroundings or upbringing) influence us and determine our overall behaviour (3). Thus, to me, climate education should include a strong understanding of the role of fellow humans, i.e., how humans (we) created numerous ecological and environmental crises over the last few centuries by building on each other’s missteps (such as unsustainable levels of consumption and inappropriate technologies), and how we can possibly change our behaviour to address these crises (4, 5). An understanding of the recent history of problematic human behaviour can be very educative, even transformative, in changing our future behaviour using the wisdom of scholars and practitioners of better living (6, 7). And the role of science is central to developing a correct understanding of how the world really works (2) and what may be possible within the limits of laws of nature (8, 9).
How and why human actions created climate crises
I emphasize our role as we often seem to think or behave as if someone else created the problem, or someone else might do something about it. Also, too often we see the crises described in hard-to-understand technical terms, such as levels of greenhouse gases, or trivial sounding degrees of temperature rise, that create a barrier to understanding the most crucial elements: human-created structures and human agency are the fundamental forces driving up climate crises and that it is not a trivial crisis at all.
Apart from the how part of this interesting story, we also need to understand the why part; without understanding the why part, or the drivers of our collective behaviour, we may not have a lasting solution. The problems that we created may sometimes seem unintended, but were the underlying motivations and associated systematic changes also inadvertent? Wasn’t there a conscious effort by businesses and political leaders to drive up consumption and create a powerful culture of wasteful lifestyles that is now the global norm of what is a good life (10–12)? Even if we leave out such theories that may seem like a conspiracy to create planetary crises, haven’t most businesses, leaders, and consumers also created and contributed to a paradoxical global system of pursuit of endless economic and material growth in a finite world (13–15)? How do we feel logical or rational talking about year-on-year growth in economy within the same limited area and space of a state or country?
Climate educations is needed for all, not just students
I have come across several educators, or people in general, who say that it is too late for my generation to change. But I believe that it may be too late for the world if we rely on a new generation to learn, gain power, and become active in driving change. The next generation may be able to drive change quite slowly over time as the powers to decide are invariably with the older generation, around the world. We need to educate all of us, not just those in schools and colleges.
Behavioural science is central to success
It is very clear that humans are the drivers of the current ecological and environmental crises, even though leading geologists decided not to call the current epoch as Anthropocene (16). While technology is the main instrument through which the climate damage happens, humans are the creators of the these environmental-unfriendly technologies. Only if human behaviour is directed towards more desirable outcomes for the ecology and environment, can we succeed in climate education and action (17).
But are we ready to act on our collective knowledge on climate, or are we too smart for our own collective good to convert our knowledge into wisdom (18)? There are new dramatic visions for a bright future from several thinkers, even doers (19–22). I am hopeful that we can accelerate our climate education and drive a lot more action for better climate outcomes, sooner than later.
References
1. A. Witze, Dust: how the pursuit of power and profit has turned the world to powder. Nature 621, 31–32 (2023).
2. V. Smil, How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future (Penguin UK, 2022).
3. P. Bloom, The Human Mind: A Brief Tour of Everything We Know (Random House, 2023).
4. R. Dietz, D. W. O’Neill, Enough is enough: Building a sustainable economy in a world of finite resources (Routledge, 2013).
5. H. E. Daly, Economics in a Full World. Scientific American 293, 100–107 (2005).
6. E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (Thesis, 1977).
7. D. W. O’Neill, A. L. Fanning, W. F. Lamb, J. K. Steinberger, A good life for all within planetary boundaries. Nat Sustain 1, 88–95 (2018).
8. B. Gates, How to avoid a climate disaster: the solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need (Vintage, 2021).
9. T. Wyatt, Actions speak louder than words: the case for responsible scientific activism in an era of planetary emergency. The Royal Society Publishing (2024). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240411.
10. B. O’Neill, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic (2nd Edition). Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning 19, 70–72 (2008).
11. V. Lebow, Price competition in 1955. Journal of retailing 31, 5–10 (1955).
12. E. L. Bernays, Manipulating Public Opinion: The Why and The How. American Journal of Sociology 33, 958–971 (1928).
13. P. Seidel, Uncommon Sense: Shortcomings of the Human Mind for Handling Big-Picture, Long-Term Challenges (Steady State Press, 2020).
14. Zumbish, “UNCommitted To Act” in State of India’s Environment, Down to Earth Annual., (Centre for Science and Environment, 2024), pp. 332–335.
15. A. Escobar, “Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of The Third World” in Encountering Development, (Princeton University Press, 2011).
16. D. Carrington, D. C. E. editor, Geologists reject declaration of Anthropocene epoch. The Guardian (2024).
17. Climate change and human behaviour. Nature Human Behaviour 6, 1441–1442 (2022).
18. C. Dilworth, Too smart for our own good: the ecological predicament of humankind (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
19. S. Pitroda, Redesign the World: A Global Call to Action (Penguin Random House, 2021).
20. C. Eisenstein, Sacred economics: Money, gift, & society in the age of transition (North Atlantic Books, 2011).
21. J. Farley, D. Malghan, Beyond uneconomic growth: economics, equity and the ecological predicament (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016).
22. K. Raworth, Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017).
Environment & Human Behaviour 