Barriers and Beliefs: How Saskatoon Adolescents Make Sense of Climate Change

Based on recent scientific predictions, we are likely to experience the most serious effects of climate change within the next three decades. Therefore, the current generation of adolescents will be responsible for grappling with the most deleterious effects of climate change as they enter adulthood. However, research shows that adolescents worldwide may be ill prepared for this future, since they lack fundamental knowledge about climate change, do not see it as an imminent personal threat, and do not engage in substantive pro-environmental actions. I was confused about the apparent gaps between adolescents’ climate change attitudes and the seriousness of climate change and concerned about the lack of climate change education in Saskatchewan science curriculum. Therefore, I set out to explore how Saskatoon adolescents were making sense of climate change. To address this research question, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 Saskatoon high school students. As a result of these interviews, this study has revealed that many of the participants were concerned about climate change and hopeful about the future in spite of it. However, the results also revealed that climate change remains a distant and invisible threat for many of the participants, even for those who have substantial knowledge about it. The results also suggest that pre-existing psychological and social factors may enhance or impede climate change educational efforts. Taking these factors into account, this study makes several recommendations for enhancing climate change education in Saskatchewan and addressing the distance between Saskatoon adolescents and climate change