Africa contributes a measly 3% of global carbon emissions, yet no continent is feeling the heat – literally – as much. Rising temperatures are killing our livestock, and coastal areas face the brunt of rising sea levels. It’s a harsh reality brought on by a world that has prioritized convenience over sustainability.
Growing up in Nigeria, environmental consciousness wasn’t a class, it was life. It wasn’t some abstract concept – it was turning our backyard farm into a living example of sustainability. We didn’t need to go to the market for fruits or dairy; we cultivated them ourselves. We didn’t just burn weeds, we learned to compost them. This wasn’t unique to my family – it was a cultural wellspring, a deep understanding that protecting the environment benefits us all. At school, our curriculum had a lot of home economics and understanding cultural nuances. Every Friday we would learn about the farmland, and would till the ground of our own school and clear the bushes to turn them into compost, to harvest them and take them to the school kitchen.
Then I moved to Rwanda for university, the country with the highest forest-land ratio on the continent. Here, too, the environment is a national priority. Every Saturday, the whole country comes out to clean. There is community involvement and engagement in environmental health. I live a life where I ensure everything I use is and do is done consciously.
My experience is proof that our climate change education already exists, and, more than that, it’s embedded in the culture. And so I realized that the problem wasn’t with African education. It was with climate education elsewhere. The solution isn’t forcing Africa to change. It’s about the rest of the world catching up.
The developed world, the biggest polluters, need to take responsibility for the mess they helped create. Rising temperatures affecting food availability and prices are a direct consequence of their actions. Climate justice isn’t just about helping vulnerable countries adapt to a changing climate; it’s about addressing the root causes that push people towards environmental degradation simply to survive.
Everything is interconnected. The planet is a complex system where every variable affects another. Rising temperatures disrupt agricultural production, pushing food prices up. It is why we have 75% of arable land on the continent of Africa and yet not enough to eat. Even my dad has seen chickens die as a result of the heat. This creates a vicious cycle for people already struggling to put food on the table. As the saying goes, you can’t force a hungry or angry man to care about the environment around them. They’re much more likely to satisfy their hunger than protect a tree or the wildlife around them. This is global warming at a granular level. That’s why social safety nets are crucial. We need to give people the ability to focus on the future, not just survive the day. I am studying planetary health now think that the global government and entities like the UN have a role to ensure that there’s justice served.
My experience in Nigeria wasn’t some anomaly. It was a model- one the world could learn from. In my home country, we understood the importance of traditional cultural practices – practices like composting chicken manure, a technique I learned from a young age, many of which are for the benefit of the environment. This knowledge, passed down through generations, needs to be celebrated and incorporated into curriculums around the world, as the new report by the GEM Report and MECCE Project, Learning to Act for People and Planet makes clear. Education should be influenced and should add to what already exists culturally.
Perhaps what developing countries can learn from us is how we have been able to integrate nature close to us. Nothing beats stepping bare foot outside and feeling the nature and feeling connected with mother earth. In Rwanda, where I now live, everyone knows about farming. Meanwhile, I was amazed when I went to the United States for the first time to see that people have to buy soil to plant anything. This disconnect from nature fuels a cycle of destruction.
This isn’t just about Africa. It’s about our planet’s future. We all share this Earth, and a sustainable future requires a united effort. Let’s learn from each other, in-and-outside school, and build a world where environmental consciousness isn’t a privilege, but a common thread that binds us all.
