Education about global climate change

Evidence for climate change is found in the geologic record well before the emergence of human beings. However, the notion of anthropogenic influences upon climate has led government policy makers to educate the public about human impacts upon and potential control of Earth’s climate.

Background

Educating the public regarding the notion of global warming somewhat evolved with the establishment of the in 1988. Since then the dissemination of the idea of global warming has occurred through the news media, via Internet sites, on social media, and through the publishing of formal and informal literature, along with other forms of media. Formal academic sources such as the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), the International Journal of Climatology, and Nature Climate Change are examples of scientific information sources. In contrast, books and films such as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and I am Greta (2020) are popular vehicles used to educate the public on the issue. Getting the word out about climate change and in particular global warming has transcended a variety of media and organizations.

Bringing the Issue to the Forefront

In 1962, before the notion of “global warming” was an environmental concern, Senator Gaylord Nelson, during the Kennedy administration, conceived a way to bring public attention to environmental issues. The idea ultimately came to fruition in 1970 as the first official Earth Day. Earth Day began as a grassroots movement bringing environmental concerns such as water and air pollution as well as the impact of population on the environment to an agenda at the national level. Since then Earth Day has evolved as a vehicle for educating the public about a wide range of environmental concerns, including the notion of anthropogenic influences on climate change. Earth Day, celebrated in the United States on April 22, and its UN counterpart, celebrated worldwide in March on the date of the spring equinox, have been among the best examples of successful environmental campaigns to promote awareness of global warming issues. Earth Day has served as a rallying point, especially for students, from the elementary to the university levels, concerned about environmental issues. The fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day was celebrated in 2020, amid increasing information and accompanying controversy about climate change.

Governmental Sources

The responsibilities of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) include addressing environmental issues, setting environment policy, and providing public information on the environment through hearings, press releases, and Web resources. Additionally, the EPA is an example of a US government agency concerned with informing citizens about environmental policy and the impacts these laws may have on the environment. The EPA publishes a wide range of information on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, climate and health issues, and climate economics via the Internet. It also provides curricular materials on climate change for educators and students and disseminates advance notices to the public regarding new regulations.

Intergovernmental Panels

The agency best known for its dissemination of climate change information is no doubt the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC emerged from the World Meteorological Organization and United Nations Environment Programme and is composed of scientists and government officials. It has been suggested that the concept of the IPCC was born from concerns first expressed by Swedish meteorologist Bert Bolin at an environmental meeting held in Stockholm in 1972. At that meeting, Bolin presented a hypothesis suggesting that an apparent rise in CO₂ levels from 1850 to 1970 had contributed to global warming. In 1988 the IPCC, with Bolin as its first president, was established. As an environmental organization concerned with informing the public about global warming issues, the IPCC acts as an intergovernmental clearinghouse assessing and disseminating scientific and other forms of research regarding natural and anthropogenic climate change. Every five years, the IPCC publishes an assessment report on the current state of climate change. The sixth assessment report, "Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability," was finished in 2022 and finalized in 2023.

Scientific Sources

An example of an organization producing research and publishing professional literature on issues surrounding climate change is the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA). This organization, established in 1928, is a nonprofit council of scientists from around the world, publishing and supporting research in areas such as sea-level change and the evaluation of paleoclimatic environments. The research published in INQUA’s scientific journal and newsletter is distributed to a wide range of readers. Every four years, the INQUA holds the INQUA Congress, where members of the scientific community can share research, write, and participate in sessions about climate change. In 2023, the INQUA marked its twenty-second Congress.

Based on the peer-evaluated scrutiny they endure, professional journal articles are the voice of scientific research and disseminate information to both the scientific and nonscientific communities. The International Journal of Climatology, published under the direction of the Royal Meteorological Society of the United Kingdom, provides articles on the research on climate in general, including themes dealing with climate change. Journals such as this provide the reader with a source of objective climate research. Additionally, it is through journals such as the International Journal of Climatology that further evaluation of the research can be made through review of the methods used and replication of the scientific investigations reported on within these articles. Nature Climate Change is a journal that publishes research on climate change, its causes, and its impact on the economy, society, politics, and the environment.

Sources Serving Public Policy

The intent of the United States’ National Research Council (NRC) is to assist in educating the public and to help facilitate the government in establishing public policy around a variety of issues pertaining to science. The NRC is the operating arm of the United States National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. In 2011, the NRC established a set of studies entitled “America’s Climate Choices” to help assist the public in anticipating problems arising as a result of climate change. Additionally, the NRC sponsored the Summit on America’s Climate Choices, an open meeting that helped establish a dialogue on climate change. The NRC has been successful in disseminating its information via the internet, with podcasts and websites.

Nonprofit Organizations

The National Research Defense Council (NRDC) is one example of an environmental action group. The NRDC was established in 1970 by law students and attorneys. Its membership exceeds three million. In addition to drawing attention to global warming issues, it provides its members with information pertaining to the establishment of environmental policy and news. Addressing such issues as energy efficiency, health, and pollution, the NRDC’s website educates the public on global warming and suggests steps for preventing or ameliorating it.

Alternative Sources

The Pennsylvania Council of Churches might sound like an unlikely source for climate education, but its Interfaith Climate Campaign is an example of one of many grassroots attempts at the community level to educate its members and the general public about the impacts of climate change. The campaign instructs members on climate topics through a website and community workshops. It also encourages outreach to public officials and governmental agencies and disseminates its program through videotapes and in-church bulletin papers.

Global Warming Cinema

In 2006, the award-winning film An Inconvenient Truth, presented by former US vice president Al Gore and directed by Davis Guggenheim, was released as a documentary on global warming. Although the film has undergone much scrutiny and criticism from school boards, scientists, and global warming skeptics, and in the classrooms of the United Kingdom, it is shown with a disclaimer and continues to be made available as an influential educational source on the impacts of global warming. Regardless of the scientific debate over some of the data presented, the film and book have served to increase public awareness of climate change and mobilize public opinion. In 2017, a sequel to the movie, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, was released and followed Gore on his continuing mission to educate regarding climate change. Additional documentaries about climate change include A Life on Our Planet (2020), Eating Our Way to Extinction (2021), and Burning (2021).

Literature

An amazing array of literature has emerged from both the positive and negative perspectives on global warming and climate change. During the 1970s, popular nonfiction such as John Gribbin’s What’s Wrong with Our Weather? The Climatic Threat of the Twenty-first Century (1979) described the potential for the return of ice-age conditions—global cooling.

Publications for the general audience since the beginning of the twenty-first century, however, have emphasized the climatic warming trend, reflecting concerns over the growth of air pollution (CO₂ and other greenhouse gas emissions), world population, and anecdotal experience of increasing temperatures, borne out by meteorological records, albeit short-lived. Notable contemporary titles include Greenhouse: The Two-Hundred-Year Story of Global Warming, by Gale E. Christianson (1999) and Al Gore’s Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (2006). Additional books include All We Can Save (2020) by Naomi Klein, The Uninhabitable Earth (2019) by David Wallace-Wells, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (2021) by Bill Gates, and The Climate Book (2022) by Greta Thunberg.

The counter viewpoint also persists in the popular literature. Books such as Christopher Horner’s Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed (2008) and Thomas Moore’s Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn’t Worry About Global Warming (1998) are examples of critiques and criticisms of popular views of global warming. A Climate for Denial: Why Some People Still Reject Climate Change Science (2017) attempted to explain why some remain skeptical of climate change.

Educating with a Theme

Additionally, the theme of global warming has entered science fiction literature and film. Films such as The Day After Tomorrow (released 2004), directed by Roland Emmerich, and books such as Jay Kaplan’s A Chilling Warmth: A Tale of Global Warming (2002) continue to keep the theme of climate change active in the minds of the public. Climate change has not been relegated to only science fiction, however. In 2021, streaming service, Netflix, released a comedy film about global warming, Don't Look Up, about two astronomers who take to the media to warn about a comet heading towards Earth.

Key Concepts

• anthropogenic climate change: changes in climate due to human activities
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): the U.S. agency charged with enforcement and regulation of environmental policies
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): an international organization of government leaders and scientists
• International Journal of Climatology: a professional journal published by the Royal Meteorological Society
• International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA): an international scientific organization devoted to research on climate change during the Quaternary period, the last 2.6 million years of the Earth’s history
• National Research Council (NRC): a private, nonprofit organization, founded by congressional charter in 1916, that functions under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences and provides policy information
• National Resources Defense Council (NRDC): a nonprofit environmental action group established in 1970
• nonprofit organizations (NPOs): organizations that use their profit for a particular cause or goal
• scientific journal article: a report written for a scientific journal and reviewed by a panel of peers
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): the official U.N. educational and informational outlet for environmental concerns
• World Meteorological Organization (WMO): the official voice on climate and weather issues within the United Nations

Bibliography

Alley, Richard B. The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Cho, Renee. "Climate Education in the United States: Where It Stands, and Why It Matters." State of the Planet, 9 Feb. 2023, news.climate.columbia.edu/2023/02/09/climate-education-in-the-u-s-where-it-stands-and-why-it-matters/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2024.

Christianson, Gale E. Greenhouse: The Two-Hundred-Year Story of Global Warming. New York: Walker, 1999.

"Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability." IPCC, www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2024.

Douglass, D. H., et al. “A Comparison of Tropical Temperature Trends with Model Predictions.” International Journal of Climatology 28, no. 13 (2007): 1693-1701.

Gribbin, J. What’s Wrong with Our Weather? New York: Charles Scribner’s and Sons, 1978.

INQUA 2023, inquaroma2023.org/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2024.

Kench, P., and P. Cowell “Erosion of Low-Lying Reef Islands.” Tiempo 46 (December 2002).

Lovelock, J. The Rough Guide to Climate Change. 2d ed. London: Rough Guides, 2008.

Mörner, Nils-Axel. The Greatest Lie Ever Told. Stockholm, Sweden: Author, 2007.