Klímaváltozás, klímatudás és a klímaszorongás

Abstract

This study seeks to answer the question of the extent to which we know the complex phenomenon of climate change from a natural science perspective. Are our students at school getting the appropriate knowledge to correctly interpret the flood of information pouring into them from the media? Can we, as parents and pedagogues, give satisfactory and correct answers to their questions? In other words, do we have the necessary background knowledge to properly interpret climate challenges?We hypothesized that there is no significant difference on average between young people and adults regarding their perceptions of frequently heard environmental challenges, particularly the factors and correlations that affect climate change. This hypothesis was verified by our research.We must acknowledge that most challenges are in fact so complex and require so much background information that even teachers may be uncertain about judging a specific challenge, especially if it is a very different issue from their area of expertise. That is why it is important to leave teachers with the possibility of imperfection. In this regard, we must stress that, with respect to many environmental challenges, we adults are also in fact students, so it is important that the teacher should not refuse to address the issue just because he or she may be uncertain about it. The solution lies in the non-arbitrator, knowledge-manager teacher model, who does not decide for the students, but prepares them adequately so that they can make informed and conscious decisions on the given issue.