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Taking motion for the Earth shouldn’t be restricted to Earth Day. So Earth911 is honoring the 52 years that Earth Day has been inspiring motion with 52 Actions for the Earth. The Earth Day theme this 12 months is investing in the planet. Each week from Earth Day 2022 to Earth Day 2023, we’ll share an motion you possibly can take to put money into the Earth and make your personal life extra sustainable.
This week, you possibly can put money into the Earth by supporting world local weather literacy.
Climate Literacy
To halt local weather change, we want a world shift to a inexperienced economic system. That form of change requires vital motion from people, governments, and companies. But individuals don’t act for change once they don’t perceive the issue, and proper now, scientists appear to be the one ones who actually perceive the important ideas of Earth’s local weather system. Too many people don’t even meet the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (a department of the U.S. Department of Commerce) standard for basic climate literacy: understanding your affect on local weather and local weather’s affect on you and your society.
Just as the economic revolution prompted the institution of a public schooling system and the area race spurred a give attention to STEM, climate literacy is a prerequisite for a inexperienced economic system. That’s why EarthDay.org is campaigning for universal climate education. As a part of their STEM schooling, each pupil in each college on this planet ought to obtain absolutely built-in, assessed local weather and environmental schooling with a robust civic engagement part.
Climate Illiterate
This is much from the case proper now. In the U.S., Okay-12 curriculum standards are decided on the state degree. Twenty-nine states and Washington, D.C., have state science requirements that embody human-caused local weather change. Fifteen states require local weather change however don’t specify its trigger. Five states solely require together with local weather change in elective highschool science programs. Pennsylvania’s requirements don’t handle local weather change in any respect. This lack of schooling signifies that solely 60% of Americans perceive that local weather change is a serious risk.
Across 33 African international locations, local weather change literacy varies considerably, however the data degree seems to be barely greater than within the U.S. Overall, 71% of Africans say local weather change must be stopped and 51% really feel they will do one thing to assist. Across Europe, 47% of individuals view local weather change as the most important problem, however there’s some indication that almost that many consider it’s too late to make a distinction. Meanwhile, in China practically three-quarters of Chinese individuals take into account local weather change a serious risk. Even extra — practically 80% — confidently consider that local weather change could be reversed.
Action: Tell Global Leaders to Commit to Climate and Environmental Education
COP27
It looks as if COP26 in Glasgow simply wrapped up, however it’s not too early to arrange for COP27. Governments will meet on the Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November for additional dialogue of actions to satisfy the Paris Agreement underneath the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
EarthDay.org will submit a letter to the chief secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa requesting the Paris Agreement signatory governments to provide local weather literacy the identical significance as every other key topic. To that finish, they request governments to make local weather schooling:
- obligatory,
- assessed,
- linked to civic engagement,
- and built-in into the usual curriculum for all Okay-12 college students.
Act now: Sign the letter.
