Exploring the effects of an environmental education course on the awareness and perceptions of climate change risks among seventh and eighth grade learners in South Africa

Anthropogenic climate change caused by the release of excessive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere is the biggest challenge of the 21st century. Man-made climate change threatens the biosphere on which all forms of life depend. Climate change requires human effort to manage the impact of extreme events such as droughts, flooding, and heatwaves. As such, human decision-making processes are crucial for the successful management of climate change impacts. The decision-making process include awareness and perception of climate change risks. Awareness and perceptions of (natural) hazard risk are determinants of human response (adaptation) to environmental shocks (climate change and variability). To this end, this study explores the effects of an environmental education course on the awareness and perception of climate change risks among seventh and eighth grade learners in South Africa. This exploratory study collected primary data through the implementation of emergent participation tools in focus group discussions with learners (n = 23). These emergent participation tools are the Problem tree and the Hazard, Impact and Vulnerability matrix. Responses from a comparison group were juxtaposed with those of environmental education beneficiaries through a qualitative content analysis technique. Findings reveal that environmental awareness has an effect on perceptions of current and future climate change risks. Learners are concerned about short-term risks more than long-term risks. Short-term risks such as meeting basic needs and dealing with criminality are priorities over long-term risks such as climate change. A daily struggle to meet these basic needs represent the local context and discourse within which learners view and experience their world. Learners do perceive the causal linkages between different climatic and non-climatic risks. Drawing such causal linkages raises awareness and perception and this cause-effect relationship is necessary for behavioural change. Environmental education is necessary to raise the awareness and perceptions of learners to environmental risks such as climate change. More studies are required to explore the topic of environmental education on raising awareness and perceptions of environmental risks such as climate change with head of households.