EDUCATIONAL POLICY ON CLIMATE CHANGE
AND
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
BY
Wisdom Obudigha
FEBRUARY,
2010
Definition
of Terms
Atmosphere: The gaseous
envelope of celestial body (as a planet).
Change: Change
implies making either an essential difference often amounting to a loss
of
original identity or a substitution of one thing for another.
Climate: Climate
is the average course or condition of weather at a place usually over a
period
of years as exhibited by temperature, wind, velocity, and precipitation.
Climate
Change: Climate
Change refers to a change of climate which is attributed directly or
indirectly
to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere
and
which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over
comparable
time periods.
Development:
To expand by
a process of growth.
Economic
development: Economic
development refers to a substantial increase in living
standards. It implies increased per capita income, better education and
health
as well as environmental protection.
Ecosystem: The
ecosystem is the complex of a community of organisms and its environment
functioning as an ecological unit.
Education: Education is
a process of shaping behaviour or modification of behaviour of
individual for adequate adjustment in the society.
Educational
Policy: Educational
policy
is defined as a statement of compliance designed to checkmate
educational administration (implementation)
Environment: The complex
of physical, chemical, and biotic factors (as climate, soil, and living
things)
that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately
determine
its form and survival.
Environmental
Education (EE):
Environmental education refers to organised efforts to teach
about how natural environments function and particularly how human
beings can
manage their behaviour and ecosystems in order to live sustain ably.
Gas: A fluid (as
air) that has neither independent shape nor volume but tends to expand
indefinitely.
Greenhouse
effect: Warming of
the surface and lower atmosphere of a planet (as earth or Venus) that is
caused
by conversion of solar radiation into heat in a process involving
selective
transmission of short wave solar radiation by the atmosphere, its
absorption by
the planet’s surface, and re- radiation as infrared which is absorbed
and
partly re- radiated back to the surface by atmospheric gases.
Policy: A policy is
a plan or course of action, as a government, political party, or
business
designed to influence and determine decisions, actions and other
matters.
Pollution: Is
the act of polluting (i.e. to make physically impure or unclean)
especially by
environmental contamination with man made waste.
Technology: Technology
is a broad concept that deals with an animal species usage and knowledge
of
tools and crafts, and how it affects a species ability to control or
adapt to
its natural environment.
Temperature:
The degree
of hotness or coldness measured on a definite scale like a thermometer.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
of the study
The earth
continues to experience record breaking temperatures caused by increased
concentrations of carbon dioxide (Co2) and other green house
gases
in the atmosphere. This build up is the result of human activities,
especially
our use of fossil fuels in, for example, automobiles and power plants.
The
Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s leading
scientific body assessing climate change recently raised its estimate of
warming
in this century to a possible 10.80F. The impact of this
unprecedented warming- increased floods and drought, rising sea levels,
spread
of deadly diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, increasing number
of
violent storms-threatening to be more severe and imminent than
previously
believed.
Thus
the need to understanding the links between climate change and
development,
with focus on the science of climate change, reducing human
vulnerability ,
managing land and water to feed nine billion people and protect natural
systems, energizing development without compromising the climate,
integrating
development into a global climate regime, generating the funding needed
for
mitigation and adaptation, accelerating innovation and technology and
overcoming behavioural and institutional inertia. It is against this
backdrop
that this study on Educational Policy on climate change and
environmental
education was carried out.
Statement
of Problem.
Nigeria, the
sixth largest oil producer in the world, the 1st largest in
Africa
and the most prolific producer in sub-Saharan Africa is beset by the gas
flaring scourge being ranked among the top three global- flarers. This
not
surprising since the Nigerian economy is largely dependent on its oil
sector,
which supplies 95% of its foreign exchange earnings.
Calls by
academics and politicians for the general protection of Nigeria’s Niger
Delta
do not address gas flaring as a climate change issue. Even though the
nation is
already being impacted, Nigeria’s gas regulations do not specifically
deal with
climate change, and presently there is no national legal framework to
deal with
climate change. The legal framework supporting the development of
renewable
energy in Nigeria is both complex and a changing mix of Federal and
State laws and
policies. The country does not yet have a “climate change policy”.
Instead, there has evolved a patch work of various Federal and State
laws which
attempt to discourage the activities giving rise to climate change.
Research
Questions
To carry out
investigations of the problem of this study, answers are sought to the
following research questions.
1. What measures can be
adopted in creating wide
public awareness on climate change issues and how to adapt to changing
environment?
2. What bio-diversified
and ecosystem services
have been put in place to help people help themselves in a changing
climate?
3. What steps are being
taken in energizing
development without compromising climate?
4. What policies have
been established to manage
land and water to feed nine billion people and protect natural systems?
5. What are the
implications of accelerating
innovation and technology diffusion as well as overcoming behavioural
inertia?
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE
REVIEW
Introduction
Nigeria is
one of the world’s biggest producers of crude oil and has vast reserves
of
natural gas. Nigeria, the sixth largest oil producer in the world, the
first
largest in Africa, and the most prolific oil producer in sub- Saharan
Africa,
is beset by the gas flaring scourge being ranked among the top three
global
flarers.
The impact
of climate change especially on rise of sea level may cost Nigeria a
whooping
N375 billion for protection in case of just 1 meter rise in sea level.
Apart
from this, an estimated population of 3.7million people could also be
forced to
become refugees due to relocation resulting from flood of about 18,000
square
kilometres of coastal areas. Speaking on “Climate change the future of
Nigerian
cities,” Olowokudejo pointed out that Nigerian coastal cities are at
high risk
considering their low lying nature, which is below sea level adding that
depending on the extent of sea level rise and protection measures put in
place,
up to 8.5million people may be affected. Over 90 percent of the economy
is derived
from oil and gas industry, which is located within the coastal zone.
United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The
convention came up with a report which has some telling predictions. The
document forecasts that the average temperature will rise to 1.8C to 4C
by the
year 2010 and sea levels will creep up by 17.8 centimetres to 58.4
centimetres
by the end of the century. If polar sheets continue to melt, another
rise of
19.8 centimetres is possible. Past reports from the organisation have
examined
the changes in the previous century. In a 2001 report, the
Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the average global surface
temperature had
risen by about 0.6 degrees since 1900, with much of that rise coming in
the
1990s- likely the warmest decade in 1000years. The IPCC also found that
snow
cover since the late 1960s has decreased by about 10 percent and lakes
and
rivers in the Northern hemisphere are frozen over about two weeks less
each
year than they were in the late 1960s. Mountain glaciers in non-polar
regions have also been in “noticeable retreat” in the 20th
century,
and the average global sea level has risen between 0.1 and 0.2 metres
since1900.
This study
examines educational policy on climate change and environmental
education, with
the aim of highlighting how these changes in the climate are adapted to
by
people.
Definition
of Policy: A policy is a
plan or course of action, as a government, political party,
or business designed to influence and determine decisions, actions and
other
matters.
Educational
Policy
Educational
policy is defined as a statement of compliance designed to checkmate
educational administration (implementation).
Climate
change: an issue for education.
Climate
change refers to a change of climate which is attributed directly or
indirectly
to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere
and
which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over
comparable
time periods.
Chris
Husbands, professor of education at the Institute of London (IOE), says
“The
basic science of climate change is clear: the earth is warming as a
result of
the emission of large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Increasing levels of green house gases are causing too much energy to be
trapped. It is clear, simple and the challenge now is to make sure that
it is
turned into wide public understanding (the-so-called green house
effect). But
at the same time, climatic changes are becoming more unpredictable,
making it
difficult to decide what to do. This means that climate change is now as
much
as educational as a scientific problem.
The
international Alliance of Leading Education Institutions (IALEI), which
brings
together 10 of the world’s leading centres for education research and
development, is publishing a report, “Climate change and sustainable
development, the response from Education”. The IALEI, whose members
include the
Institute of Education London (IOE), is the world’s first global think-
tank on
education. It says there are tough challenges if the potential of
education for
sustainability is to be mobilised. For example, teachers lack training
and
qualifications in education for sustainable development (ESD), and this
crucial
area of learning is too often tacked on to an overcrowded curriculum
because it
is not an exam subject.
The alliance
sees five key challenges, says Husbands. These are:
1. The risk and
uncertainty problem (we don’t
understand enough how physical processes will affect our lives, so we
cannot plan action with precision).
2.
The personal /
public problem (the light bulb
problem: it is easy for most of us to swap to low energy light bulbs,
but the
wider public and institutional changes are more challenging).
3. The morality and
personal choice problems
(the SUV problem: most of us know that many of the things we do are bad
for the
planet, but we still do them).
4. The delayed
gratification problem (…if we
stopped emitting carbon today, carbon concentrations in the atmosphere
would
continue to rise for 60 years).
5. The invisibility
problem (if carbon were
coloured, the sky would have changed colour in our life time- it isn’t,
so it
hasn’t).
The alliance says education
is not a
“magic bullet” which will solve the problems of climatic change and
sustainability, but without coordinated educational interventions, even
the
best thought through technical policies will fail.
Barriers to overcome
include limited
teacher qualifications, subject divisions within schools and a narrow
focus on
vocational qualifications. “In an attempt to be competitive in a global
market,
educational policy in many countries is focused on controlling the
effectiveness of education by means of tests and performance indicators.
This
reduces willingness among teachers and schools to experiment with new
approaches to teaching and learning”, says the report.
Environmental
Education
Environmental
education (EE) refers to organised efforts to teach about how natural
environments function and particularly how human beings can manage their
behaviour and ecosystems in order to live sustain ably.
The need for
a climate change law curriculum
The growth
of Environmental Education (EE) in Nigeria was enhanced in 1990 when the
National Council on Education (NCE) approved the National Conservation
Education Strategy (NCES) and directed the infusion of EE elements into
all
school subjects at all levels, starting with the Citizenship Education
Curriculum.
All States were further requested to designate State conservation
education
coordinators and encourage the establishment of conservation clubs in
schools.
Subsequently, Governmental and non- governmental organisations as well
as
international agencies collaborated and are achieving some landmarks.
The
Nigerian Government, through the Federal Environment Protection Agency
(FEPA)
and other relevant agencies, has undertaken programmes to enlighten,
educate,
and raise awareness of the Nigerian Population through media (both print
and
electronic) campaigns on environmental issues. Identification,
education, and
training of officials that would form the cores of the Environmental
Education
Network nationwide are being undertaken. In addition, the FEPA has
encouraged
the establishment of Environmental conservation clubs in secondary
schools. It
has also collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Education through the
National Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) on the
development of an Environmental Education Master plan and curricula for
both
the formal and educational system in Nigeria.
The
Greenhouse effect
Burning of
fossil fuel is universally recognised as one of the major contributors
of
increased green house emissions. Burning coal, oil and natural gas
releases
billions of tons of carbon every year that would otherwise have remained
hidden
in the earth’s crust, as well as large amounts of methane and nitrous
oxide.
More carbon dioxide is released when trees are cut down and not
replaced.
Meanwhile,
massive herds of livestock emit methane, as do rice farms and waste
dumps. The
use of fertilizers produces nitrous oxide. Long lived gases such as
CFCs, HFCs
and PFCs, used in air conditioning and refrigeration, are manufactured
by
industry and eventually enter the atmosphere. Many of these greenhouse
gas-
emitting activities are now essential to the global economy and form a
fundamental part of modern life.
Methodology
Design: Descriptive
design was used, the study sought to determine the impacts of
educational
policy on climate change and environmental education.
Area of the
Study: The study
was carried out in Yenagoa L.G.A. of Bayelsa State, located within the
lower
delta plain. The entire State is formed of abandoned beach ridges and
due to
many tributaries of the river Niger in this plain, considerable
geological
changes still abound.
Population: The
population considered all residents of Yenagoa L.G.A.
Sample and
Sampling technique: The
accidental sampling technique was used. A total
of 100 subjects were randomly selected.
Instrumentation: A
questionnaire constructed by the researcher titled “climate change and
the need
for environmental education” to collect data
Administration
of Instrument: Copies of
the instrument were administered to the respondents by
the researcher personally.
Data
Collection method: The
primary source was the questionnaire while
secondary sources included extensive secondary information retrieved
from
documented materials on the internet.
Method of Data analysis: Mean scores were used to analyse the data obtained. A cut-off point (arithmetic mean) of 2.50 and above was used to determine the measures used by government in conserving the environment from climate change issues.
Thank you for reading
Wisdom Obudigha
07083358834
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