Contextualizing climate change education: taking nature seriously

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper argues that a proper response to the onset of potentially catastrophic human-induced climate change requires an understanding that is both broader and deeper than that which frequently informs current policies and that focusses on technological solutions and some behaviour modification. Such a technologically orientated response is seen as standing in danger of reinforcing what are argued to be the key underlying causes of anthropogenic climate change: immoderate anthropocentrism and conceiving nature essentially as purely a resource. A view of nature that seeks to characterize and respect nature’s intrinsic moral standing that is based on recognizing its inherent integrity, normativity and intrinsic value is developed. The genuinely receptive-responsive relationship with nature that emerges is argued to lie at the heart of the kind of environmental consciousness that can properly address climate change issues and that therefore constitutes a central concern of climate change education.