Beyond awareness
A little less than half (24 out of 54) of the projects identified within WTFutures felt it necessary to develop their participants’ basic awareness of climate change and/or to dispense knowledge of its causes and consequences (in the form, for example, of a Climate Frescoe). The others did not see this as necessary. What surveys and projects alike do seem to say is that there is no longer a strong need to develop the awareness of climate change among young people, and that its first- and second-order consequences are also generally understood.
On the other hand, a few experiences (The Future of the Togolese Coastline) alert us to a possible consequence of being “climate native1”: the ‘naturalization’ of climate change, which, having always been part of young people’s life, can appear to have no history, no specific causes.
There are, of course, plenty of knowledge gaps remaining. Some of the projects try to fill them in ways that “do not look like a class” (Feeling Futures Through the Stuff We Wear) : peer-to-peer learning, building up knowledge from experience (the tour of a sustainable denim factory in Feeling Futures, the discovery of an organic produce store and an urban garden in Pedagogías del Mañana). The goal is not to make sure that participants have a comprehensive knowledge of climate change – probably an impossible task –, rather to give them the tools, the self-confidence and the desire to go find the information they need when they need it.
Taking climate literacy to the next level
There is a distinct educational element in many projects, focused not on generalities, but on more precise topics or issues:
- Adaptation to climate change, readiness in the face of extreme events and “polycrisis” (Aubervilliers 2124, La Crise dont vous êtes le héros…)
- Mixing climate literacy and futures literacy: in the words of Aniela Fidler Wieruszewska (Feeling Futures Through the Stuff We Wear), “framing sustainability in a futures lens evokes much more agency and generates more engagement.” Several projects concretely experiment this mix, particularly in higher education (Imagining 2060).
- Complexity and system-level change (Youth Climate Lab).
- Climate policymaking literacy: understanding who sets policy and how, how systems are regulated, how to assess and formulate policy, how negotiations work, etc. (LCOY, Net Zero and You(th)) This connects to one of our transversal insights, “School of Activism, Activism as School”.
- Emotional literacy: being able to name one’s eco-emotions and to relate to others’ emotions, process grief, “hold conflicting truths: that climate change is terrifying and that constructive action is still possible.” (Net Zero and You(th), Feeling Futures)
Integrating Climate Literacy into standard education
Several projects advocate for the presence of climate literacy in standard education, however, the way to reach this goal is not often described.
Climate change is not a discipline, rather a multi-faceted phenomenon that can never be grasped as a whole (a “hyperobject”, in the words of Timothy Morton). It can only be taught across disciplines (El Futuro es Clima), probably in a collective form (so that different learners can apply different lenses on the same questions), mixing hands-on and theoretical approaches (Eduponics). For the Youth Climate Lab, Climate literacy education should also be “designed with regional specificity and culturally appropriate materials.”
Following the “Young Foresight Fellows” behind the Emerging Horizons project, we can conclude that “advancing eco-literacy is a catalyst for transformative change”, in education and beyond.
→ We dive deeper into these changes in the related “Key Learning” in the WOW! section: Rethinking learning in today’s and tomorrow’s world.
A Climate Native is a person who has grown up in a world marked by the prospect, and increasingly the reality, of anthropogenic climate change and its consequences. See Climate Natives.