Education Responses to Climate Change and Quality: Two Parts of the Same Agenda?

Citation: Bangay, C. and Blum, N. (2010) Education Responses to Climate Change and Quality: Two
Parts of the Same Agenda? International Journal of Educational Development 30(4): 335-450.

Source: Walker and King (2008: 60) (Data reported in Fourth Assessment of the International Panel
on Climate Change)

Table 2: Six Climate Threats and Countries Most at Risk

I                  ~∣ = Middle income country (all others low income)

Source: World Bank (2009: 19)

Discussions regarding human-induced climate change and the nature and funding of action
to address impact are politically charged with issues of distributive justice (Klinsky and
Dowlatabadi 2009). There is an obvious inverse relationship between historical responsibility
for climate change, which predominantly lies with industrialised countries (CO2 levels began
their dramatic rise following the industrial revolution), and those vulnerable to its impacts.
There are clear tensions in addressing a global problem which is characterised by (i) impacts
of such varying geographic intensity, (ii) the varying degrees of „accountability’ nations will
accept for cumulative „historic’ CO₂ emissions, and (iii) the „right’ of developing countries to
follow the „high carbon’ development path that fuelled the economic growth of industrialized
nations. This throws up a further paradox: „development’ has traditionally resulted in
increasing levels of consumption, further adding to competition for resources. This has most
recently been demonstrated in the changing diet of the growing middle classes of newly
industrialized countries, who are exercising the choice afforded them by their new economic
power to engage in greater consumption of more resource-intensive, grain-fed meat
production. When considered in conjunction with the increased competition in use of
agricultural land for food vs. bio-fuel production (which is likely to further intensify as oil
reserves dwindle), the potential implications for food availability and hunger are apparent.

What is evident from all of this is that climate change presents an international challenge of a
magnitude that we have not previously encountered. Its impacts have the potential to
exacerbate existing tensions and create new ones which, in turn, have implications for
stability and security from local to international levels. An effective response to climate
change and its associated bio-physical and socio-economic impacts will therefore need to be
multifaceted and inherently political. Furthermore, in all of the high level discussions of

emissions caps and „carbon trading’ schemes it is important that the role of education is not
overlooked. Education has already been proven to have an impact on key issues in

population dynamics: fertility, child mortality, etc (cf. Bledsoe et al 1999). As has been noted:

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