Washington: A new study has revealed that investing in empowerment through universal education should be an essential element in climate change adaptation efforts.
According to a new study from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), in many cases-particularly where the exact consequences of climate change are still unclear-educational expansion could be a better investment in protecting people from the impacts than conventional investments such as building sea walls, dams, irrigation systems, and other infrastructure.
The researchers said that education is in reducing disaster fatalities and enhancing adaptive capacity and the study shows that education is more important than GDP in reducing mortality from natural disasters, and that they also demonstrated that under rapid development and educational expansion across the globe, disaster fatalities will be reduced substantially.
The new study illustrates how alternative future trajectories in education lead to greatly differing numbers of expected deaths due to climate change, as education directly improves knowledge, the ability to understand and process information, and risk perception. It also indirectly enhances socioeconomic status and social capital. These are qualities and skills useful for surviving and coping with disasters.
The study was published in the journal Science.
