Why A Great Teacher Is Critical In A Climate Crisis
With lessons learned from COP28, we must break down the ‘Climate Crisis’ into manageable portions — starting with education.
After I mentioned in passing that Sir Jonathon Porritt was scheduled to be one of my guests for my climate change podcast series, a close friend responded, “How much better the world would have been had more of us heeded the warnings he sounded three or four decades ago” . I completely agree. Lost years can never be restored. Time once lost is gone forever. You might as well ask the great Nile River as it rushes onward to the Mediterranean Sea to bring back its rolling floods. It cannot.
The whole Cop28 summit reeked of hypocrisy. In fact, only two of the 28 COP summits — the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement — are considered moderate successes. The other 26 summits have been termed failures. The success rate is not remarkable under these circumstances, which raises the question of whether it is prudent to try something new now. Put another way, what can we do to make up for these lost decades my friend spoke of, in the metaphor of the great River Nile?
The challenge of climate change that lies ahead of us all is reminiscent of Sisyphus, a character from Greek mythology. In the Greek legend, Sisyphus is destined to roll a boulder up a mountain, but each time he reaches the summit as it were, the boulder rolls back down to the foot of the mountain. This is what all the last 28 climate summits look like to a reasonable bystander. Surely there must be a better way. How about we resolve to break down the ‘Climate Crisis’ into manageable portions with realistic and achievable goals instead of us playing Sisyphus?
A recent study published in a medical journal The Lancet stated that “global heat deaths are projected to increase by 370% if action is not taken to limit the effects of global warming.” It continued, “If average global temperatures reach 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — as is expected without drastic action — an additional 524.9 million people are also expected to experience food insecurity, aggravating the global risk of malnutrition.”
Imagine my shock then when I later read in the Guardian that “the president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, [had] claimed there is ‘no science’ indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global warming to 1.5C.” When the Cop28 climate conference officially closed on December 12, 2023, the president returned to his home in Abu Dhabi, where “he [went] back to his job directing an oil firm that is planning the fifth biggest increase in oil and gas production in the world.”
The whole Cop28 summit reeked of hypocrisy. According to the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition, at least 2,456 oil and gas lobbyists were granted access to the blue zone at Cop28. That is significantly more people than in every country delegation except those of Brazil and the UAE. The world’s largest private and state-sector oil companies, Exxon Mobil and Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, led a pledge by 50 oil and gas producers to reduce emissions from their own operations (such as reducing methane release to almost zero by 2030), which could have short-term benefits. These companies’ representation clearly paid off. How? Because they succeeded in delaying the shift and promoting difficult-to-implement technologies like carbon capture since none of them were willing to reduce the production of oil and gas. Sixty percent of the world’s electricity still comes from gas, oil, and coal, and forty percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from the power industry.
The above harsh reality notwithstanding, I welcome the final Cop28 statement. Section 28 of the final text “calls on” countries to contribute to global emissions reduction efforts by:
(a) Tripling renewable energy capacity globally and doubling the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030;
(b) Accelerating efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power;
(c) Accelerating efforts globally towards net zero emission energy systems, utilizing zero- and low-carbon fuels well before or by around mid-century; and,
(d) Transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science.
A mouthful it may be, but it suggests that all governments must now create a national strategy detailing their plans to cut emissions. It means that all countries must describe their plans of action through 2035, as they must comply by 2025. At first glance, this is really fantastic news. And as Kaisa Kosonen, senior political advisor at Greenpeace International said, “The signal that the fossil industry has been afraid of is there: ending the fossil fuel era, along with a call to massively scale up renewables and efficiency this decade.”
There is a catch, though. And it is about money. Money is a problem because rising interest rates make it harder for countries, especially developing nations, to pay off their debts. They also don’t have the money to effectively transition to renewable energy. Few places have been as impacted by recent global shocks as severely as African countries, and governments here have frequently been unable to repair the damage. Widespread starvation in the eastern Horn of Africa, record-breaking flooding in Libya and South Sudan, and catastrophic storms in southern Africa are all consequences of climate change. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 decreased grain shipments to Africa, driving up food costs at a time when many African nations were attempting to work out how to revive their severely circumscribed economies from COVID-19.
This coincides with a period when Western decision-makers, who are already facing economic difficulties at home, could be hesitant to try to persuade taxpayers to send additional money abroad. However, it may be much simpler to conceive of aiding Africa in her hour of need than many Western leaders think. As noted in ‘Challenging Africa’s Toxic Image,’ wealthy countries should seriously consider investing in Africa as an act of enlightened self-interest. If major powers are reluctant to act in their own best interests, it will be interpreted as an abdication of responsibility, and Cop28 may as well be dismissed as just another failed conference in the tradition of past ones.
However, there could be another way forward: The World Youth Report (2020) estimates that 1.2 billion young people, or 16 percent of the world’s population, are between the ages of 15 and 24. As such, UNESCO has designated the youth as a priority group. What if we followed UNESCO’s example and gave the youth top priority? Stated differently, how about dedicating a significant amount of the much-heralded Loss and Damage Fund — decided upon during the opening plenary of the first day of the Cop28 Summit in Dubai — to the recruitment of first-class teachers to educate the rapidly growing young population in the developing world, most especially in Africa?
Prioritising the youth would both reflect a hard-won win by the developing countries and a sincere determination from the wealthy, polluting nations that continue the destruction that is already underway. It would signify a radical change in the way we manage the continuing climate crisis. In fact, I believe that this is the main reason why Sir Jonathon Porritt’s groundbreaking book, Hope in Hell, is so significant. The book’s main focus is on the youth.
Rather than persist with the current approach that prioritises convenience, as reflected in all past failed climate conferences, we should embrace education as a deliberate policy with a view to training up the youth as leaders of tomorrow. Recall that the youth are Africa’s single most significant natural resource, exceeding by far even oil. By inculcating Africa’s youth with imagination, we shall equip them with the ability to take responsibility for their countries as leaders. Leaders are made, not born. Let us scrap traditional models of education, which do more harm than good by standardising mediocrity, and instead focus on training Africa’s youth in such a way that they rediscover the art of critical thinking.
Critical thinking, according to The Foundation for Critical Thinking, is “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualising, applying, analysing, synthesising, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.”
The above definition chimes with a podcast conversation I recently had with Mr. Robert Pacilio, a retired American public-school teacher. When I asked him if he believed that a teacher in a classroom might eventually be replaced by an artificial intelligence bot, he replied: “I don’t think an artificial intelligence bot can teach invisible things. An artificial intelligence [bot] could spit out a very interesting essay with footnotes, source citations, and all of that. But what does the student really think about [a given] subject? The question really is, what do you think? I would say to kids, I’m going to teach you how to think today. And here’s what we’re going to think about. I’m going to tell you that my favourite season of the year is autumn. And I’m going to give you three opinions about autumn. They’re opinions; they’re not facts. And after I give you the three opinions, I’m then going to lay out a couple of facts, factual things about autumn.”
Detailing his method of teaching, he continued: “One thing is that I love is how the leaves turn [in autumn]. And then a fact under that is that, well, oak trees turn yellow. That’s a fact. And after I got you to list the facts behind your opinions, I would then ask you, ‘why does a yellow leaf float your boat? Why is that so great?’ And when you answer why, that is when you’re starting to really critically think. So, I would diagram the entire essay about autumn and then look at the kids and say, ‘Now here’s what you gotta do. You’ve got to pick a different season. Whether it’s summer, winter, or spring, I want you to give me two reasons why you like it’. And underneath that, there are two facts about that reason. And underneath that, there are two reasons why that fact matters.”
Mr. Pacilio concluded that’s something you can’t mimic with artificial intelligence: “I think that teachers are going to have to figure out how to create a game plan that is more specific so they can actually see the kids figuring out for themselves why it matters. In the summer they see their grandmother. Why did that matter to you so much? Because artificial intelligence isn’t going to tell you why your grandmother matters to you. You are going to tell yourself why your grandmother mattered… The classroom is the operating table. You open up their brain, you pull things out, and you see what’s going on. And so that’s how I used to teach writing and teaching [critical] thinking by breaking it down into a structure. And then, after they have the structure, I say, OK, now you can be eloquent. Now you can break off the structure, and you don’t have to feel like you have to put one step directly in front of the other. But first, I’ve got to know that you can [critically] think for yourself.”
The ability to think critically is not new. According to the France24 English broadcast below, ‘critical thinking’ has been practised for as long as 2,500 years. The documentary, a four-part special report on climate change and indigenous peoples, shows how Aboriginal Australians effectively fight climate change by managing bushfires — a long-standing skill that the Australian government now recognises.
As recently stated by Ban Ki-moon and Graca Machel, “[If] we embrace innovation and entrepreneurship with [the youth] at the helm, the climate crisis does not have to spell total catastrophe for the future of food systems. The transformation of the agri-food industry depends on practical research and development that transforms regional obstacles into worldwide opportunities. Enabling [the youth] with the necessary tools, information, and funding is essential; this will play a critical role in turning weaknesses into strengths.” The wisest investment of all is employing teachers to inculcate critical thinking skills in the next generation of African leaders. This is why I believe that in a climate crisis, having a great teacher(s) is critical.
