What’s the climate crisis got to do with education?

This week, with scorching temperatures across the UK, over 1,000 schools have had to shut due to unsafe temperatures. This reflects something deeply embedded in our work: the fact that the climate crisis and education are inextricably linked.

We know better climate education is needed, and we’re keeping up that fight. Bad climate education has got us here: leaders in governments and businesses making short-sighted decisions. Meanwhile, rampant misinformation is flooding news feeds, and people haven’t been given the tools and knowledge to know what’s true. This leads to poor decision-making, political inaction and climate anxiety for young people.

On the flip side, where young people are given comprehensive, science-backed climate education, they can be empowered. They develop green skills that will help in their careers, they learn about the nature around them and how they can protect it. They’ll go on to be leaders who care about and are equipped to help our world. They’ll want to protect the earth, it’s people and it’s nature.

With the backdrop of the current news cycle, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. But we’re hopeful for our future. Last year we empowered 138,000 young people to lead for climate and nature. And we’re not stopping there. From working directly with amazing universities, colleges and schools, to supporting young activists – we’re determined to see this through.

Over the past year we’ve made amazing progress, we’ve empowered young people to influence government legislation, championed youth activist groups like Teach the Future and worked directly with students and staff to protect nature on their university campuses.

If you’d like to support our fight, you can help by sharing this blog on LinkedIn, or setting up a regular donation to fund our work.