Will climate education for the masses make a difference? – Today’s CLIDEMY poll
I’m aware this is an “existential” question for CLIDEMY, so your vote on it, as well as comments will be valuable.
Effective climate education for the “you and me”, the masses, is non-existent.
Two main reasons:
1. Many key stakeholders believe that abatement of greenhouse gas emissions is essentially an industry and government play. A very large proportion of the emissions come from industrial and commercial sources, and from agriculture/land use changes – even though the final value from all these is for you and me. It is thus imperative for the industry and government, along with other stakeholders such as investors and researchers to work together efficiently to reduce emissions fast. The role that the masses, the individuals, play in this process is relatively small.
2. Focussing on individuals to get educated and act effectively on climate might also be trying to do the impossible. If it is a leviathan task to get organized sectors comprising a few tens of thousands large businesses to act on climate, what chance do we have with 8 billion people in 200+ countries, each with different characteristics, aspirations and constraints, and where governments have far less leverage to use “carrot and stick” templates?
For the last decade or so, I had also been quite convinced with both the above arguments. Let’s get more realistic, and less romantic – was my reasoning.
But there are subtle reasons why providing the 8 billion people with effective climate education can make a massive difference – both in the medium and more importantly, in the long term. And these were the reasons that motivated me to start CliDemy – the Climate Academy.
While the Clidemy journey continues, let me know what you think about the importance of climate education for the masses at this 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐲 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐥.
Request all those having specific opinions and thoughts and pen them down in the Comments section. Thank you!
See my LinkedIn post on this topic
