Why care?

As we saw in the introduction video, we’re at a critical point in history.

We are currently on a path towards catastrophic climate breakdown. But collectively, we have the power to take a different path, where we avert climate breakdown, and at the same time improve our lives and societies.

This course is about understanding how we got into this situation, and what we can do, individually and collectively, to get out of it.

But, before we get into the details, it’s important to understand why we should care about any of this in the first place. There are a lot of different reasons why we might want to care about the climate crisis, and different people may be motivated by different aspects of it, such as:

• concern about their, or their family’s, safety,
• concern about nature and other wildlife,
• concern about the impacts on their job and livelihood.

Participate in the poll

What about you? What motivates you to engage with the climate crisis? Complete the poll below and make a note of your answer; you will need to refer back to it at the end of the course.

Launch the poll.

Please note, by selecting this link will be taken to a page containing content provided by a third party website.

A more accessible PDF version of this exercise is available in the Downloads section.

Have your say

After completing the poll, you can view the results to see what motivates your peers on this course to engage with the climate crisis. Considering the results:

• Do you see the fact that people have different reasons for engaging with the climate crisis as a problem or as an asset?
• Could you see yourself working together with others that want to take climate action for different reasons than the ones that motivate you?

Please share your thoughts in the Comments section below (and feel free to mention any other motivations that were not listed in the poll). You can respond to your peers’ thoughts and ideas. Please be respectful and note that there are no right or wrong answers here. The climate crisis affects us all in different ways, and understanding these diverse perspectives is crucial for developing comprehensive and effective solutions.