Is Education a Key to Reducing Vulnerability to Natural Disasters and hence Unavoidable Climate Change?

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The collection of articles in this Special Feature is part of a larger project on "Forecasting Societies' Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change" (an Advanced Grant of the European Research Council to Wolfgang Lutz). In investigating how global change will affect population vulnerability to climate variability and extremes, the project aims to help develop strategies that enable societies to better cope with the consequences of climate change. In doing so, the basic hypothesis being tested is that societies can develop the most effective long-term defense against the dangers of climate change by strengthening human capacity, primarily through education. Education can directly influence risk perception, skills and knowledge and indirectly reduce poverty, improve health and promote access to information and resources. Hence, when facing natural hazards or climate risks, educated individuals, households and societies are assumed to be more empowered and more adaptive in their response to, preparation for, and recovery from disasters. Indeed the findings from eleven original empirical studies set in diverse geographic, socioeconomic, cultural and hazard contexts provide consistent and robust evidence on the positive impact of formal education on vulnerability reduction. Highly educated individuals and societies are reported to have better preparedness and response to the disasters, suffered lower negative impacts, and are able to recover faster. This suggests that public investment in empowering people and enhancing human capacity through education can have a positive externality in reducing vulnerability and strengthening adaptive capacity amidst the challenges of a changing climate.

Green Returns to Education: Does Schooling Contribute to Pro-Environmental Behaviours? Evidence from Thailand

“…Not only does it contribute towards productivity improvement (Schultz 1998;Orazem and King 2008), it is also fundamental to other factors determining development such as health (Cochrane et al, 1982;Kippersluis et al, 2011), fertility (Osili and Long, 2008;Wolpin and Todd, 2006) and civic participation (Castelló-Climent, 2008;Dee, 2004;Glaeser et al, 2007). Recent evidence has pointed that education also contributes to vulnerability reduction in the context of climate change Muttarak and Lutz, 2014). In this paper, we have shown that, in addition, formal education significantly encourages pro-environmental behaviours, which is also crucial for the reduction of carbon emissions and the promotion of environmental protection.…”

Quantitative Assessment of Vulnerability to Climate Change in Rural Municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…d Proxy for human capital. It is assumed that the higher percentage of the population with higher education reduces vulnerability, therefore a negative correlation with vulnerability is assumed [36].…”

Forecasting societies' adaptive capacities through a demographic metabolism model

“…Recent empirical studies have demonstrated consistent evidence showing that countries and communities with higher average levels of education experience lower vulnerability to natural disasters 69 . This applies to both developed and less developed countries as well as different dimensions of vulnerability including preparedness and responses to disasters, mortality, morbidity, coping strategies, recovery from disasters and other relevant outcomes.…”

“…With the focus of this review on "dangerous" climate change, given the consistent evidence on the protective role of education in reducing disaster vulnerability 69 , we can conclude that better …”