Values and strategies

Continuing on the report of Climate Action.

These are the values that the Alberta study found need to focus upon in engaging young people. While they were specific, they also have broader application.

• Security - learning needs to suggest that climate changes and the actions we are asked to take bear a relationship to a predictable future.

• Achievement and self direction - a desire to learn the skills to build the world they want to create.

• Place attachment - focus on the locality where students live and love.

• Continuity - young people want to see new energy initiatives create the prosperity that former ones did.

• Responsibility and agency - Young people realize that the future is theirs - and they are prepared to take responsibility for it.

The study noted that only a small number - 10% - dismissed the reality of climate change. Building on the previous studies of Alberta adults, these are the narratives that are seen as relevant to teens

• Love of locale (in this case, Alberta, but the same could apply to any province or region.

• Early adulthood - high school students are the next generation and are eager to take responsibility for their world.

• Climate - it will be challenging to talk about when parents’ employment or family history has depended upon fossil fuel industries. This must be a starting point. We do have to talk about it and recognize climate science based facts. It also helps to face the fact that we have overcome hard issues in the past by facing them realistically and honestly

• Energy - Clean energy solutions are under development. There have been energy transitions in the past and we have survived them.+