This week saw the report on the largest opinion poll ever conducted on tackling global warming published; The Peoples’ Climate Vote.
More than a million people in 50 countries took part in the survey, with almost half the participants aged between 14 and 18. The poll was organised by the United Nations Development Programme in conjunction with the University of Oxford. Around 1.22 million people of all genders, ages, and educational backgrounds took part, but with significant numbers of younger people (around 550,000 people aged 14-18).
Top four policies to tackle climate change:
Conserve forests and land (54%)
Use solar, wind and renewable power (53%)
Climate friendly farming techniques (52%)
Investing more money in green businesses and jobs (50%).
Overall, younger people were more likely to agree with the view that rising temperatures were an emergency, with nearly 70% in favour.
One of the key differences that emerged in the data was the level of education.
"When it comes to demographics, something that we saw very clearly was that there is a high correlation between a level of education and belief in the climate emergency. The more educated you are, the more likely you are to believe that there is a climate emergency… And this is really, really powerful, because it doesn't matter where you're from, it doesn't matter your age, education really, really is important." - Cassie Flynn, Strategic Adviser to the UNDP.
The findings of The Peoples’ Climate Vote clearly indicates the need for comprehensive climate education. Education is the key to recognising the crisis and acting in accordance.
Taking the Space Race as precedent for when a challenge is taken seriously, we can see that the investment implications for education systems has to be substantial. The Space Race prompted mass American investment in education (particularly in science and engineering); the National Science Foundation (NSF) contributed $500 million for teacher and classroom development after the successful launch of Sputnik. NASA’s funding peaked in 1966 (consuming more than 4% of the US federal budget), and three years later, after less than a decade of serious investment, man landed on the moon.
Climate change is a much bigger problem, but the basic model still stands: massive, targeted investment in education, research and development remains the best way to make huge technical leaps forward and solve our greatest challenges. If young people are to understand this crisis and be equipped for the green businesses and jobs of the future, the change inevitably has to start in our schools, colleges and universities.
Grace Corn, SOS-UK and Teach the Future Project Manager
Sources
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55802902
- https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/climate-and-disaster-resilience-/The-Peoples-Climate-Vote-Results.html
