The role of youngsters in tackling climate change
David Hempleman-Adams, industrialist and adventurer looks at the important role of young people in tackling climate change.
It doesn’t surprise me that the current global, coordinated action to tackle climate change has been spearheaded by young people.
Adults get confused by trivialities whereas young people focus on the essentials and can see that the most important problem facing us all is climate change. While adults might give up when faced with an impossible problem, children still believe in making the impossible happen.
And kids are surprisingly well-informed. I remember my own daughters coming home with homework asking what the difference is between global warming and climate change – it’s built into their DNA, which it never was when I was a child. Climate change and its impacts are at the forefront for all ages, even down to six-year olds who are emboldened by their peer group. Kids are also very skilled at influencing their parents to take action.
Old farts like me don’t necessarily like the truth and certainly don’t like being preached to by a youngsters. But what they are achieving is magnificent and I hope there will be a lot of other younger people taking up the mantle, especially in the UK.
The charity I set up in 2009, Wicked Weather Watch, www.wickedweatherwatch.org.uk aims to help children feel fully informed about climate change through a hands-on approach in the classroom and beyond. WWW offers unbiased information to teachers and kids about the impact of climate change, especially on the Arctic, where I have seen dramatic changes since I first visited the region in the 1980s. I want to use my personal experiences to help educate young people about the knock-on effects to us all of thinning pack ice and melting permafrost.
In these pictures, we can see young children in Cheltenham enjoying learning about the loss of arctic ice and its implications during an interactive lesson supported by WWW.
Hopefully the work of Wicked Weather Watch will equip kids and adults with enough knowledge to encourage everyone to take whatever steps are necessary to protect our planet and fight climate change.
David Hempleman-Adams is an industrialist by profession and an adventurer by preference. He first visited the Arctic in the 1980s and his regular visits have made him passionate about using his personal experiences to educate young people.
“I have seen massive changes, from the thinning of the pack ice to the melting of the permafrost. This inevitably has a knock-on effect on the local people’s lives, traditions and culture. The ends of the Earth are seeing the most rapid changes of global warming and the Arctic is the canary in the mine – we will see the effects in UK and rest of the world in the not so distant future.”
Find out more about how Wicked Weather Watch work with primary pupils and teachers:
www.wickedweatherwatch.org.uk, or contact Director Gill Johnson on info@wickedweatherwatch.org.uk