Climate Education For All

Dear Boards of Directors of Dutch Higher Education Institutions,
We are calling on you because you lead organizations that bear the responsibility of preparing students for their future as professionals. Together with a community of teachers, researchers and support staff, you perform this task with great dedication and care.
Over the past few decades, it has become increasingly evident that the future of students is threatened by the climate and ecological crisis. We therefore urge you to include mandatory climate education in all curricula in order to familiarize students with the systemic nature of the climate and ecological crisis and empower them to take action.
The latest IPCC report leaves no room for doubt or delay. Only with a dramatic, concerted effort will we be able to avert the worst of the climate and ecological crisis. This is the backdrop against which universities educate the generations that will have to deal with a fundamentally disrupted world. Lack of understanding ofFailing to understand the scale and urgency of the problem will leave these studentsthem vulnerable to misrepresentations by politicians and media outlets. Higher education institutions have a duty to educate students and to foster their development as responsible members of society. Surely this implies preparing the students to face the challenges posed by the climate and ecological crisis, and equipping them to lead and effect change.Higher education institutions have a duty to educate and prepare their students to face the challenges posed by the climate and ecological crisis and to foster their development as responsible members of society, who not only understand these issues but are also equipped to lead and effect change.
A mandatory climate course across all higher education institutions should be the first step towards fulfilling this responsibility. ThisThe course, to be implemented urgentlywithin a very short time frame, should offer a comprehensive overview of the systemic causes and consequences of the climate and ecological crisis and potential solutions. The complex nature of the problem requires action and leadership from individuals and organizations across all sectors of society. It is therefore vitalcritical for students of all academic disciplines to be educated bythrough such a course.
We note that this is not some sort of political crusade. As much as the climate delayers wish to politicize the climate and ecological crisis, it is only political in the sense that solutions are to be found through democratic means, in the political arena. We recognize that a true reckoning with the causes of the climate crisis threatens vested corporate interests. It is these agents that wish to politicize the issue. However, the problem itself, its urgency and its all pervasive nature, have nothing less to do with politics as do statistics, algebra, and grammar.
Universities in France and Spain have already taken the necessary steps to introduce such a mandatory climate course., and Dutch higher education should not fall behind. Students in the Netherlands and around the world are demanding change and it is time for a bold response.