Abstract

Climate change is expected to pose grave consequences to communities around the world. It is predicted that many people, mostly in the developing world, will experience shortages of water and food as well as numerous health-related effects because of climate change. Therefore, rigorous global action is needed to enable developing countries to adapt to the effects of climate change. Universities play a pivotal role in addressing these issues and their impacts through research and technological innovations. Hence, assessing the extent to which university students understand climate change and its impacts displays the extent of hope in mitigating future changes in climatic conditions. This article assesses the knowledge and understanding of climate change and its impacts by students at an institution of higher learning in South Africa. This study utilised a quantitative approach and a descriptive design. The convenience method was used to obtain participants for the study. Self-administered questionnaires were utilised in a survey to collect data from the participants. A sample of 90 university students participated in the survey. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and T-tests. Reliability was measured using the Cronbach’s alpha. The study discovered that university students have low knowledge and understanding of climate change. As a result, the study concluded that if students could be well-informed about climate change issues, they could positively contribute to the development of their communities by crafting smart climate change mitigation and adaptation skills.

Highlights

  • Climate change and its impacts have grave consequences on communities and people’s livelihoods. Weber (2010) defines climate change as systematic changes in average weather conditions over time

  • The knowledge and awareness of climate change by university students is of paramount importance as it equips them with skills to deal with its future impacts

  • Mugambiwa and Tirivangasi (2017) are of the view that climate change is likely to reduce the role of agriculture to the gross domestic product (GDP) and pose a serious threat to national food security and the economy

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Summary

Introduction

Climate change and its impacts have grave consequences on communities and people’s livelihoods. Weber (2010) defines climate change as systematic changes in average weather conditions over time. The implications of climate change are likely to outspread beyond physical impacts to other aspects such as youth’s emotional health, social inclusion, academic and professional functioning of life. This addresses the limitations of a definition of climate change by Weber and Stern (2011) who defined climate change as a set of physical phenomena and public policy issue which is referred to as global warming. It is apparent that the effects of climate change should not be limited to physical phenomena and policy issues; rather, it should be related to a plethora of aspects. It is apparent that the effects of climate change can be classified into many distinct categories and as a result the phenomenon should be broadly defined

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