The Guardian’s reporting on the Spanish floods highlights how “natural disasters” are now, rightly, seen as climate disasters (Editorial, 1 November). As Dr Ilan Kelman describes in Disaster by Choice, the uncomfortable truth is that the majority of “natural disasters” are created or exacerbated by human choices.
In order to better prepare for such challenges, we need young people to become knowledgeable about, and positively engaged with, how the human and physical worlds interact – work that starts in the geography classroom.
Indeed, to study flood risk many geography pupils might not need to go much further than their school’s gates. The Department for Education has identified 10,700 schools currently at risk of flooding, which will rise to over 13,000 by the 2050s.
One debate that the curriculum and assessment review notes is whether the school curriculum is meeting young people’s needs in a world of rapid social, technological and environmental change. And, if we are to better prepare young people for their future, one of the review’s outcomes should be a strengthened geography curriculum.
Steve Brace
Chief executive, Geographical Association
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