Education mistakes about climate change

cold waves

Climate change is a phenomenon that is affecting the entire planet in one way or another, stronger or weaker, but its consequences are being seen more frequently every day.

However, the vast majority of skeptics who do not believe in climate change do not have a scientific opinion to discredit this phenomenon. They simply deny the existence of a change in the global climate due to ignorance, fear of accepting reality, disinterest, indifference, naivety or confusion. Why do people deny the existence of climate change when its effects are so obvious?

Denial of climate change

more droughts due to climate change

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2016, 31% of adults in the United States do not believe that man is causing climate change and 20% believe that there is not even enough evidence to prove the existence of this phenomenon. Something similar happens in all countries of the world.

However, today it can be observed how, year after year, the effects of climate change are accentuated. Effects such as the intensity and duration of droughts due to a decrease in rainfall, an increase in tropical storms and hurricanes and the one most noticeable worldwide: the increase in average temperatures.

There are people who ask for respect for their opinion when they deny the existence of a change in the global climate. However, this seems somewhat incomprehensible, when 97% of the scientific community from around the world affirms that the influence of human activities is affecting the dynamics of the climate system in all areas of the world.

Climate change does not affect all regions equally, but it does affect everyone. It is true that this is attributed to problems in the social perception of environmental problems. Environmental problems are heard daily in the news in areas perhaps far from the viewer. For this reason, the perception of the environmental problem does not affect in such a direct way people's conscience by not directly affecting the problem.

It is difficult to admit that life as we know it today on Earth can change radically in a matter of decades. Climate change is something very complex and in the dissemination of which we end up making mistakes. For older people with ingrained lifestyles, it is something impossible or heroic to think that you can make them believe in the existence of global climate change.

Errors in the transmission of climate change

floods due to climate change

When we try to raise awareness about climate change there are several problems that we face and that we tend to err on. The first thing is that we use a more complex and sophisticated language, sometimes so encrypted that it is exclusive. Terms like mitigation, adaptation, resilience, acidification, greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide, etc. They are used by scientists and environmentalists very naturally. However, outside of this niche, not many people understand what it is. We also use numerous acronyms in our vocabulary that, sometimes, we even find it difficult to pronounce. Acronyms such as IPCC, UNFCCC, COP.

Some figures that for us seem conditioning, for other people they say nothing. For example, the benchmark figure for increase in average temperatures of the planet by 2 degrees, we know that it is the limit by which the changes in the planet will be irreversible and unpredictable. However, for many people this is not indicative of anything.

We rarely explain how, with this increase in temperature, the moors would disappear, the drinking water in the world would decrease, the polar caps would melt and the sea level would rise, etc. For many, an increase of 2 degrees in temperatures can mean only a change of wardrobe.

Do not create alarmism

When raising awareness about climate change it is essential not to fall for alarmist messages. Messages that predict the end of the world or the apocalypse, since they are counterproductive. The interlocutor may think that if we have nothing left to do to fix it, then we only have to enjoy while the good lasts.

Climate change is something that is already happening and transmitting and raising awareness about it is of vital importance.


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  1.   Tito Erazo said

    The article is very important and timely, since it says it very well, many times we forget that on many occasions we are addressing a heterogeneous public, that is, educated, moderately educated and with a low level of education, and for this reason, We have to address ourselves in an understandable language, especially if we address ourselves through the media, but it is also a reality that sectors interested in that are not explained in an understandable way, in the face of a reality that is constantly happening, because it I have also said that the earth is a dynamic being (it is in permanent movement), to create better living conditions, but since we have ignored this, those natural changes, when man has broken the balance, become catastrophic, being precisely the most dangerous those with limited resources, which are the majority. Hence, UNESCO recommends "FORMAL AND NON-FORMAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION", that is, in technical language for those of us who are fortunate to have been educated, and in their own language for those who have not had that opportunity, but to the experience of life gives them wisdom. In this way, these changes that necessarily and naturally occur for our well-being would not be exaggerated.