"[Climate change is] a very contentious matter of public debate ...I’ve read things about climate change. I would not say that I have firm views on it." Amy Coney-Barrett, US Justice of the Supreme Court, October 2020.
To be in a position, in late October of the year 2020, to hear views such as those stated by then-nominee for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney-Barrett, is quite staggering. Casting doubt on a scientific consensus and dismissing it as pure "public debate", reducing it to an ideology in a year when science has been at the forefront of thinking globally... UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson once wrote that climate change was debunked by a snowfall event, and has admitted to some that he simply doesn't understand it.
It is... well, unfortunately, it is not surprising. Anti-science populism has been the tell-tale heart of certain subsets of the right wing for some time; from anti-vaxxers to anti-maskers through climate denial.
But why do we still face this issue in such times? Some might point to education, but my own experience is somewhat different.
I started teaching Geography in 2012 to the high school age groups from 11-18, in a variety of settings, to a wide-ranging socio-economic spectrum of kids. While the profession eventually broke me, the day-to-day, nuts-and-bolts of being in a classroom with young people and trying to get them to care about our planet was a joy... and often a massive frustration.
Young people in this world of fast information get it. Their primary school lives are littered with "topics" that teach them the basics of things like recycling, animal kingdoms and, in some cases the basic sciences of our planet. And while many come to high school not quite understanding what "Geography" is, my experience is that the basic concept of climate change is there within them; they know the world is changing, its just up to us and the Science teachers to fill in the details. With luck, some of them enjoy it enough to take it on at GCSE, and then the fun begins...
When Michael Gove went on the educational offensive in 2014 part of the effect was to oversee changes to the Geography curriculum with regards to Climate Change - a requirement to study past climatic changes, natural causes of climate change, etc. The Exam Boards rightly responded by ensuring that these were covered robustly and scientifically, but when coupled with the misunderstandings now being picked up from vocal parents and media, the seeds of doubt had been sown.
That's not to say that all young people are climate deniers, far from it. Geography has seen a steady increase in uptake in spite of competition from other subjects, and those who study it frequently take it up further, or at least continue the discourse. I'd argue that this coming generation is perhaps the best informed, the best able and the most willing to deal with the crises that lay ahead, with the work of Greta Thunberg and the Climate Strikes playing a key role.
But how do we deal with denial at the very top of our political spectra?
How do we ensure that young people take the path of science?
And how come we're still asking these same questions twenty years after I completed by Geography A-Level?
