Universities must prepare young people for climate change
It is imperative that universities center climate change into their missions and prepare young peoples for the planetary challenges they will face this century.
Universities play a critical role in preparing young people for their careers and for their lives more generally. They are afforded intellectual legitimacy. When they enact certain policies, culture and society can change.
Universities must implement climate change into all academic disciplines.
Climate change will impact all aspects of our lives. Therefore, climate information must permeate all majors and all academic disciplines.
I double-majored in International Relations and Psychology. Climate change will undoubtedly impact relations between countries and the international system more generally. Climate change is a recognized “risk multiplier” for conflict. The failure of the COP process to halt warming is obviously relevant to international politics and governance. Candidly, it is more difficult to think of an issue more central to international relations this century than climate change (and international governance more generally on a changing planet).
From the perspective of psychology, climate change impacts will produce new kinds of anxiety, trauma, and mental health effects that must be studied and remedied. Understanding the psychology of social change is also critical—how can we motivate ourselves to be open to the kinds of changes we need to truly stop warming and stabilize the climate?
This kind of thinking must now permeate all intellectual domains.
Universities must provide grounded career advice that acknowledge climate reality.
Career offices need to provide relevant advice with respect to building a career on a changing planet. What kind of skills and expertise will be needed this century to address planetary threats such as biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, and global warming? How can people build meaningful careers that can also prioritize climate stability?
On a day to day level, career offices need to prepare students for a world of greater structural instability. There is no guarantee that the political, economic, or social conditions that marked the last century will continue to persist this century.
Universities must be willing to provide ethical frameworks relevant to addressing climate change.
Universities must be able to provide meaningful ethical and moral frameworks that can help people consciously navigate the Anthropocene. The manner in which planetary crises are solved is just as important as solving them. Solutions must be grounded in the human rights and equal rights of all individuals and peoples. In particular, solutions must protect the rights of marginalized and vulnerable communities.
If we as a society choose to ignore the concept of the equal dignity of all people, then we will build a world this century that is rife with vicious kinds of inequality and novel forms of exploitation.
The root cause of climate change has been the unthinking exploitation of natural resources without concern for planetary boundaries. Changing this philosophy and creating one that is more respectful of the natural world and the human rights of others is the only way that humanity will survive on this planet in an enduring and dignified way.