Education the Answer for Scottish Geographic Society
Image source: Markus Spiske via Unsplash
The Royal Scottish Geographic Society (RSGS) has been abiding by its royal charter for ‘the advancement of geographical science’ for over 160 years from its base in Perth. The organisation has cherished its role as an educational charity since 1884.
A deficit in focused and unfiltered climate change education has been mooted as a pervasive problem in Scotland, across all age groups. Many are apparently ignorant to the meaning - or the likely consequences of - climate catastrophe.
According to Mike Robinson, CEO of RSGS, it is not just young people who need to have their eyes opened wider: “I don’t think we’re prioritising education enough yet. My priority for education is people my age and older. Yes, fine, let’s get better education into schools, but I think it is people of my generation and older who need to sort this out and owe you a better future. We need to wake up really quickly to what is going on and get on with it. I think part of the reason we are in the bind that we are in, is because people have been able to marginalise the issue and not see it as a serious issue when it really is.”
Finance has been another word buzzing alongside education during COP26. Shortfalls in financial investment devoted to averting climate catastrophe, as well as delays to previously promised funds for the global south, have been consistently negative themes since COP26 began. The financial commitments agreed in principle at COP26 will have real world impacts, yet lives have been lost, and millions of homes and livelihoods are at risk now, due to a lack of financial aid.
Robinson added: “There is no money in it, no one is financing it and, frankly, we are still subsidising the wrong things. People understand the need to do something, but they don’t usually want to do what’s suggested.
“With transport for instance, we keep designing places to be driven round but you can’t design a place where everyone can drive a car, and everyone can park a car and fit on the road - you just can’t.”
Private businesses ranging from Tanneries to Chemical Manufacturing are high on the global list of polluters. In Scotland, petrochemical company Ineos topped the Scottish Environment and Protection Agency’s 2019 figures - with a reported 3.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide being poured into the atmosphere.
Discussing the role of private businesses, Robinson said: “I was on the 2020 Business Leaders Forum, (and) it had the CEOs from Scotland’s biggest companies there. I was one of the environmental representatives on that group and what became really obvious from those conversations was that very few people in business either understood the issue at all or weren’t understanding how it was relevant to them.
“So, they weren’t taking it seriously and to me that is exactly what we have to tackle. I don’t think it is possible to understand climate change and not want to change it. If you don’t want to do something about it, you don’t understand it.”