Without adapting environmental education values, climate change is irreversible
8/30/21 by Willa Scolari
On a hot day in early August, voices of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the Working Group I contribution to the 2022 IPCC Report.
The much-anticipated report is the sixth of its kind and will equip international governments with crucial information in order to make important decisions regarding climate change. This year’s assessment was grave, announcing the key components that cause climate change, the fact that many harmful changes to our planet are irreversible and listing some methods to avert the worst possible damage.
The IPCC was founded by the U.N. in 1988 to assess the science related to climate change and strategize courses of action for adaptation and mitigation. Every six years or so, hundreds of scientists come together to write a report based on thousands of scientific research papers, and just a few weeks ago, Working Group I’s report on our environment’s current state was released. A “code red” for humanity, the IPCC scientists warned “global warming of 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century. Unless rapid and deep reductions in [carbon dioxide] and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades, achieving the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement ‘will be beyond reach.’”
Time is running out. The New York Times identified five key takeaways in the report: “human influence has unequivocally warmed the planet,” “climate science is getting better and more precise,” “we are locked into 30 years of worsening climate impacts no matter what the world does,” “climate changes are happening rapidly” and “there is still a window in which humans can alter the climate path.” I propose there should be a sixth takeaway: the lack of human connection to nature has contributed to the devastating state of our environment.
A connection to nature is one of the most crucial relationships. Since the time of hunter-gatherers, there have been spiritual or religious practices and philosophies of human connection to nature. Buddhism is one of the most common religions based on the principle of interrelatedness in everything, especially with the environment. This implies that humans are reliant on nature and that nature is reliant on mankind — when one portion of this system is harmed, the entire system is harmed. As a result, if individuals learn to live simply, in conjunction with and with respect to the planet, the environment will benefit as a whole. An example of this interrelationship between humans and nature is the Buddhist ideology of the five elements of nature: “earth, wind, fire, water and vacuum.” As the Dalai Lama writes, “the innermost subtle consciousness is the sole sort of creator, itself consisting of five elements” and they “serve as conditions for producing the internal elements, which form sentient beings, and that in turn causes the existence or evolution of the external elements.”
The quote “we are one with nature” highlights the literal truth in that we depend on Earth — its air, water, food, materials and resources. However, research has long shown that modern life has become much more disconnected from nature, harming and destroying the planet we call home. It has been known that climate change is a real and serious threat, but according to Pew Research, “Three-quarters of Americans are concerned about the environment, but fewer say they make an effort to live out that concern all the time.” Why, if one is concerned about an issue, would they not put in some effort to try to fix it? Because there is a lack of care, appreciation and empathy. While correlation does not imply causation, there shouldn’t be doubt that the disconnection of humans to nature in recent years has contributed to the lack of effort in saving the environment.
The decrease of human connection to nature is shown in the prevalence of urbanization, industrialization, capitalism and even advanced technology. Capitalism promotes direct climate disruptions like deforestation, logging, pollution, etc. In fact, the 2017 Carbon Majors Report “revealed that just 100 companies were responsible for 71 percent of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.” Our society has become so consumer-based that large-scale corporations care more about profit than nature, and will continue to destroy the environment, causing huge negative impacts on the planet and strengthening the gap between human and nature.
Technological advancements and social media have been a huge factor in the connection loss. The emergence of indoor and virtual recreation venues is now the new play date. According to Greater Good Magazine, in the 1950s, television quickly became the most popular form of entertainment, then video games in the 1970s and since the late 1990s, the internet has become one of the most popular forms of entertainment and spending leisure time. These technologies have partially replaced nature as a source of recreation and enjoyment. Now, young kids are seen everywhere with tablets, iPhones or iPads in their hands, watching TV shows or playing games instead of playing with one another outside in nature. A study performed by DJ Case and Associates reported “children 8 to 12 years old … spend three times as many hours with computers and televisions each week as they do playing outside.” Even when people are in the outside world, they do not seem to appreciate it in the same way — instead, they take pictures and take for granted that they may be witnessing a unique natural phenomenon, like a live bison roaming the sandy plains of Wyoming.
The current relationship between humans and nature is extremely concerning and dangerous, because it has led to a careless lack of appreciation for a source we coexist with and would be nothing without. Research shows that Indigenous peoples make up less than 5 percent of the world’s population but are estimated to protect 80 percent of the planet’s biodiversity. Enrique Salmón writes, “Indigenous people view both themselves and nature as part of an extended ecological family that shares ancestry and origins.“ It is the realization, similar to Buddhism, that life can only exist in any environment if “humans view the life surrounding them as kin.” In Native American cultures, there is a strong emphasis on human spirits, and that spirits are much more than just the human external self. They believe that every living thing, including animals, plants, rivers and other natural features, has a spirit. As a result, they treat whatever they think has a spirit as if it were another human, which creates appreciation, respect and harmony with nature.
The Global North needs to adopt values that honor and strengthen appreciation for nature if there is any chance to save our planet. Industrialization, consumption and extraction have driven the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. A fundamental disconnect from the natural world has allowed profit to rule above the survival of all living beings and is the reason why the IPCC’s report was so grave this August. We can learn to adopt new ways of thinking guided by Buddhism, Native American cultures and other cultures and religions that focus on nature by implementing educational programs focused on appreciating the environment. A Taiwanese study following curriculum reform in schools found that environmental education is identified as one of the seven essential educational topics, urging teachers to include environmental education in several school subjects. As a result, a number of elementary and junior high schools have developed “executive plans pertaining to environmental education and have further promoted various environmental subjects, courses and activities.” Following these initiatives, environmental education in elementary and junior high schools has become a major priority — one which should be mirrored worldwide to help strengthen human appreciation for the planet. Hopefully, the IPCC’s recent climate change assessment was enough to wake people up and smell the smoke from unnatural wildfires and hear the cries of wildlife in plastic to finally nourish their appreciation and connection with nature again before it’s too late.
Willa Scolari is a senior majoring in psychology.
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