1.1.4 Values/attitudes
Values, sometimes expressed as ‘attitudes’, are perhaps the most challenging of the three elements to develop. McCowan (2021, p. 5) suggests values relating to the political and moral spheres are particularly relevant to the climate crisis and ‘have an instrumental relevance in relation to climate change as they shape beliefs, attitudes and behaviours’. McCowan comments:
Values relating to climate change include those relating to the natural world (what Orr [1994] calls biophilia), but also importantly those relating to social justice, equality and liberty. Since greenhouse gas emissions are the result of social, political and economic organisation, reducing them necessarily entails changing the organisation of society and the distribution and use of resources.
Educational programmes can support the development of values in many ways, including raising awareness of the impact of the climate crisis on the most vulnerable inhabitants of our planet.