You would have thought that, with the climate behaving very erratically, that we are now all very aware of what’s happening to our planet: indeed, should the Climate Awareness Partnership Sidmouth change its focus, now that we are all so ‘aware’ of the climate?
Well, in the super-aware university town recently, an unmissable programme of climate-focused events was announced across Oxford; children are taught about the issues, but nevertheless, last week, Warwickshire schools united in a colourful handprint initiative for climate awareness; and a couple of months ago, the ever-so-aware Guardian featured comedian David Cross cracking jokes to spread climate crisis awareness.
This determination to make us more aware is also happening worldwide – with governments of every hue and communities in every corner doing their best to spread the word.
So, Türkiye’s ruling party has just launched a nationwide climate awareness push; in Pakistan, a young woman uses music to raise climate awareness; and we learn about the impact of nature connectedness on Chinese adolescents’ climate change awareness – to name but a few of the stories currently online.
But what has exercised many is whether ‘awareness’ translates into ‘action’.
For example, some five years ago, research was carried out about the impact of climate change awareness on climate change adaptations – the point being made that “in developed countries, climate change awareness is much advanced therefore their climate change adaptations are also far better than those employed by farmers in the developing countries like Pakistan.” However, the farmer protests last year about carbon taxes provided us with lessons from the Netherlands on how ‘awareness’ does not necessarily result in policies which hard-pressed farmers can work with.
It does seem, though, that an understanding of good practice can spread both awareness and action
Southern Africa is building a Great Green Wall, learning lessons from the successful project in the Sahel to keep back the desert. Meanwhile, in the UK, with Europe’s lowest tree canopy, the government has promised Green Infrastructure: the catalyst for Urban Greening, citing Exeter’s draft local plan and floating reed bed restoration at Bristol Harbour as examples of ‘GI’ which were shared at a G7 meeting in Italy.
Finally, there are really good examples from around the world on how we can encourage taking action by becoming more aware of what’s happening with the climate.
Here’s a great tool – from The 89 Percent Project, an initiative of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now, giving us arguments that prompt us to engage in more climate action:
Which arguments or information prompt people to engage in more climate action? An international team of researchers has studied the factors that could raise awareness about climate change and pro-environmental behaviour. To this end, they analysed around 60,000 sets of data from 63 countries. Probably the biggest international dataset on the psychology of climate change, it is now even accessible online via a web application. You can filter the search results by categories such as country, age or income to see how the 11 psychological interventions affected the respective group.
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