After the IPCC report which came out on 9th August 2021, it was found that human activity is changing the climate in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways.

Therefore I am now calling on the government to take action to educate our children about the impact that humans have on the environment and climate change so that the leaders of tomorrow can make informed choices.

We all have a responsibility to look after our world and to make changes so it can be enjoyed by many more generations to come.

Sadly, our current curriculum does not reflect much of that. We are not teaching our children much about sustainability, about climate change, about the effects of our actions etc.

Looking through the National Curriculum of 2016, this is all I have found that links to looking after our world. Even then these links are vague and do not express the severity of the situation our world is in.

Nothing about our responsibility or looking after our world is mentioned in the Science curriculum until year 4.

Year 4 Science

- recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things

KS3 Science

- how organisms affect, and are affected by, their environment, including the accumulation of toxic material

KS4 Science

- positive and negative human interactions with ecosystems

Part of being responsible citizens should not just be learning about the how the government works and how laws are made but also learning about how to be responsible citizens of the world. There is nothing mentioned in the citizenship curriculum about this at all.

Looking further at the Geography curriculum we can’t find anything until in KS3 children are taught about:

- weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present.

However, does this include the future?

I am calling on the government to work with teachers and scientists to overhaul the national curriculum as soon as possible so that the dire situation that our world is currently in is reflected and children are taught specifically about what is happening.

It has to be made clear in our curriculum what the consequences of our choices and actions are and children should be encouraged to think about how this can be changed. We must raise a generation that grows up to question choices made, that develops a deep love for nature and a great sense of responsibility towards our Earth.

There are so many missed opportunities in our curriculum and if we are to go forward and meet climate targets in the future and turn this around, this is a m foundation we we have to put in place early to ensure the leaders of tomorrow are educated enough to do better and care more than our generation.