Climate change is an important issue that every young person has a right to be educated on. Rewise Learning has engaged in many projects encouraging learners to envision a greener and more sustainable future. For example, our Climate Connect Learning Hub provides educational resources with 24/7 online access. The content on this hub is aligned with the National Curriculum across England, Scotland and Wales and offers teaching plans for educators, quizzes and challenges, and learning material in a variety of different styles. This hub teaches learners about climate change, the importance of reaching Net-Zero Carbon and what SSE Solutions is doing to combat climate change. Rewise is taking steps to ensure young people are aware of the impact climate change has on the planet but why is this so critical and how can we shift our perception to see how climate change affects our daily lives?
Does Summer Feel Colder This Year?
The summer weather in the UK has not lived up to expectations. Spring felt cold and miserable, with rainfall at 132% of the national average and the arrival of summer did not bring the sunny reprieve that many had hoped for. However, research shows that the temperature for June was barely below the long-term average. Data provided by the Met Office uses the temperatures between 1991 and 2020 to provide a base average temperature for each day, month, and season in the year. Although June 2024 started cool, with the first few weeks roughly 2°C cooler than average, after the heat wave at the end of the month, it was only 0.4°C cooler than average. So why have so many people felt that summer has been more miserable and cold than usual?
How Climate Change Shifts Our Perception of the Weather
Climate change has set the expectation of yearly temperature increases as “regular”, which has caused even a minor temperature decrease to feel unprecedented. It does not take long for increased temperatures to start to feel like the norm. June felt so cold because we had been comparing it to the June of the past few years, having even experienced the hottest June on record in 2023. The data below shows the average temperature highs of June 2023 (left) and June 2024 (right) in comparison to the 1991-2020 average. While this year is only barely below average, in contrast to the previous year, the weather feels wildly different, with a 2.9°C average decrease and roughly a 4.5°C difference between the first half of the month.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (The Met Office, 2023 and 2024).
The Impact on the Next Generation
Expressing frustration about the weather is a common British habit but could it have the power to undermine efforts to combat climate change? By instilling in young people the perception that this summer has been unseasonably cold, the effects of climate change are understated. The baseline for what should be considered concerning subtly shifts. If this summer is considered unseasonably cold, it portrays the scorching June of last year as a normal standard.It is possible that the normalisation of temperature increases could affect the public will to act on climate change. This is why we must inform and educate young people about climate change and avoid normalising potentially life-threatening weather events.
“Shifting Baseline Syndrome” is the idea that as the climate continues to degrade, each generation will accept that as normal. It is incredibly difficult to perceive long-term changes in climate because it is easy to forget what the temperature was like 5 or 10 years ago and focus on a much smaller time frame. In order to overcome this phenomenon, we must continue to rely on scientists for climate data and on the vigilance of our educators to inform young people of the changing climate patterns.
How You Could Help
Climate change is real and important but what can you do to help? If you work for a business that needs to fulfil CSR requirements or simply wants to engage in more CSR initiatives then look no further than Rewise Learning. Our work directly impacts the education of young people across the country and helps combat the effects of shifting baseline syndrome.
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