As the climate crisis continues, universities are uniquely positioned to effectively prepare future alumni to engage in sustainable behaviors and create a resilient future. Despite the steps to develop sustainability efforts and curricula in higher education, it is imperative to acknowledge the influences on a students' understanding about environmental issues and solutions.
As the world faces more energy emissions and more frequent bouts of water scarcity, energy and water conservation messages by agencies and educators are important to inspire conservation-minded actions in people. However, people tend to be driven by their own motivation, or vested interest, to act. Many conservation messages typically do not consider the need of an individual's vested interest, and therefore may fall flat in inspiring action.
Climate change is a social and environmental issue impacting many communities around the world. Understanding ways to mitigate and adapt to these impacts of climate change are important for the continued strength of local communities. In particular, younger generations can be crucial in spreading the lessons learned from climate change education with their use of social media and their increased motivation to act.
Changing an adult's mind about climate change is difficult. Studies have found that adults' political ideologies strongly influence their views on climate change – and that individuals tend to seek out information that fits their preconceptions. The complexity of climate change science and the availability of misinformation have added challenges to the process of building a strong collective response.
Climate change is a complex topic to teach, and challenges arise in inspiring pro-environmental behaviors in students based on the content teachers provide. For example, climate change causes and effects are hard to understand when elements like greenhouse gases are invisible to the human eye. Further, the impacted areas of climate change receiving the most attention for scientific research typically lie far from the average person, like the Arctic or a coral reef, and thus are not relevant enough to cause motivation to act.
Taiwan created its nationwide ESD requirement, the Environmental Education Act (Act), as part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programs and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Act requires about one-sixth of Taiwan's population, including all K-12 students and civil servants, to complete at least four hours of ESD instruction each year. Topics include the circular economy, climate change, sustainable development, reducing carbon emissions, and more.
One goal of environmental education is to expose students to career opportunities in the environmental sector. Environmental education programs can attempt to increase student interest in environmental jobs, but the focus typically leans toward science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) careers even though the environmental field includes various other career types such as law, business, and social advocacy. A student's vision of environmental jobs may therefore be limited, and research suggests this is true especially among students of color.
Spending time in natural settings has proven to be physically and psychologically beneficial for humans, and environmental education aims to reconnect youth to nature. However, it has become a reality that children and young people spend less time outdoors, which has been dubbed, nature-deficit disorder. The London-based Green Spaces, Learning Places (GSLP) creates opportunities for children to engage with their environment through interactive learning sessions in the United Kingdom's parks, heaths, and forests.
The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated some shortcomings of the educational system in the United States, particularly in environmental education concerning equitable policymaking. For instance, socio-political context can constrain effective decision-making and exacerbate the social inequities in the United States and the world, such as food insecurity or the lack of resources for virtual learning in marginalized communities brought on by the pandemic.
Parks and outdoor recreation areas are valuable sites for the public to engage with nature, but depend on visitors practicing good stewardship. Due to minimal staffing, parks must rely on indirect management of visitor behavior, via messaging that influences visitors to practice pro-environmental behaviors. The most famous example of indirect management is the Leave No Trace (LNT) program, which was started in the 1960s and continues today. Historically, LNT messaging has focused on individual knowledge gain, such as informing visitors of the six LNT principles.