Climate adaptation education: embracing reality or abandoning environmental values

Abstract

Given the magnitude and immediacy of climate change, how should environmental education (EE) address not only reducing our climate footprint but also climate adaptation? Whereas some approaches to adaptation education are consistent with EE foundational principles, others, while crucial for individual survival, address more immediate risks in ways that do not promote longer-term environmental quality. Using a literature review, we examine issues climate adaptation education raises for the field of EE. We then describe example programs that integrate climate mitigation and adaptation, drawing from EE programs in New York City following devastating floods brought about by Hurricane Sandy. These programs are consistent with a praxis or action research approach to EE where learning is embedded in restoration and other forms of action. We close with reflections on how EE might address climate change adaptation in a manner consistent with climate mitigation education and with our field's focus on improving environmental quality.

Climate change education and research: possibilities and potentials versus problems and perils?

“…the intended and unintended outcomes of the currrent provision and reach of climate change education on those involved in it, as well as those beyond it, and what and how to assess, evaluate and research climate change education (see Hicks and Bord 2001;Schreiner, Henriksen, and Kirkeby Hansen 2005;Selby 2009;Swim et al 2009;Bangay and Blum 2010;Taber and Taylor 2009;Marcinkowski 2009;Pruneau, Khattabi, and Demers 2010;Anderson 2012;Selby and Kagawa 2013;Chang 2014;Wibeck 2014;Shepardson et al 2017;Young 2018;Busch, Henderson, and Stevenson 2019;Gleason 2019;Krasny and DuBois 2019;McKenzie 2019, UNESCO 2019bMonroe et al 2019;Reid 2019a, UNESCO 2019b.…”

“…For some, such considerations will essentially boil down to hard choices, such as, on what education policymakers (still/should) have to put on the back burner, so to speak, if the energies and passion of educators and learners are to be focused on the task at hand (Moser and Dilling 2004;Laessøe et al 2009;Stevenson et al 2014;Krasny and DuBois 2019)? For others however, such consultations and their considerations risk wasting yet more time: aren't they also/really a part of a heady mix of displacement activities, double think and bad faith (Foster 2008;Selby and Kagawa 2010;Waldron et al 2019), relaying a broad-based and deep-seated reluctance to unlearn and relearn the purposes and practices of education in the face of a climate crisis (Lotz-Sisitka 2010;Marcinkowski 2009;Shepardson et al 2012)?…”

Beyond Tokenism: The “Born Frees” and Climate Change in South Africa

“…e former demonstrates extreme concern regarding the harmful environmental practices by both state and (small and large) corporate entities, but caution against the use of radical strategies to coerce industries and individuals to cut down on their GGEs [44,45]. ey specifically call for an integration of young people into climate debate by providing them the necessary training, information, and resources for effective engagement [46,47]. Nonetheless, the view which has gained wide traction or currency among reformists is that just as GGEs are the deeds of humans, so must youth resort to social justice to cut down on GGEs [29,48].…”

Still searching for (education for) sustainable development – reflections on the need, challenges, and chances of transforming education in the 21st century

“…Or perhaps we should focus on the adaptation to climate change, which would mean that education might possibly have to accept climate change as irrevocable, and thus take attention away from important consumption reduction and other climate change mitigation measures, and concentrate on preparing students for concrete 'real life'-matters under the given circumstances of climate change, e.g. taking "safe routes to school in the event of flooding" (Krasny and DuBois, 2016), thus becoming increasingly anthropocentric once more?…”