‘A thin net over an abyss’: Greta Thunberg and the Importance of Words in Addressing the Climate Crisis

‘Listen to the scientists.’ It is a refrain that Greta Thunberg has used on a number of occasions to impress upon us that we are running out of time if we want to halt the slide towards catastrophe. Now is the time to discuss the findings of science, and science education is the natural place to do so. And yet, there is no obvious, designated place for serious discussion about its findings. What is it that makes the appeal to science so powerful and yet makes discussion of meaningful action so difficult? Bruno Latour has problematised the self‐understanding of science and how it has removed itself from our capacity to express our interest in the world and what matters to us. However, one of the significant features that is emerging from the climate crisis is that science is once again enabling us to do so. The terms in which we express our understanding of the world are being rethought. Taking this further, I turn to Stanley Cavell, for whom our capacity to word the world is tied to our capacity for expression and the animation of language. Cavell offers us a means of understanding how and why our words matter. For young people, it is crucial that they believe their voices can be heard if the kind of transformation needed to avoid environmental catastrophe is to take place. The role of educators is to support them in this. In order to do so, education itself may need to be transformed.