Know your crisis
Designed to enrich young people’s understanding of the climate crisis, this toolkit explores global and local perspectives on environmental challenges. It combines interactive methods and reflective exercises to empower participants to envision sustainable futures and take action grounded in social and ecological justice.
Toolkit Overview ▼
Topic or issues covered
- Facts on the climate crisis
- World distribution of populations, CO2 emissions, poverty and wealth
- Climate (in-)justice on inter- and intra-state levels
- Imagining a better future
Aim of activities
The challenges emerging from the climate crisis will have to be tackled in the future by today’s young people. The proposed tools are designed to accompany young people on their journey to become knowledgeable and responsible global citizens who may adjust decisions and actions according to their values on sustainability and social justice.
Learning objectives
- Gain up-to-date knowledge about global warming and its impact.
- Develop skills to critically evaluate and interpret information related to environmental issues.
- Enhance the ability to draw meaningful conclusions for both personal and professional decision-making.
- Foster awareness of the importance of individual and collective action in addressing climate change.
Target group
15-30 years old
Brief summary of active and participatory methodologies used
- Group work, discussion and dialogue
- Interactive game
- Change of perspective
- Imagining future
Quality standard checklist
✅ Inclusion and diversity: the activity is open to all young people, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or socioeconomic background.
✅ Respect: this activity promotes an environment where young people respect others, their viewpoints and opinions, even if they differ from their own.
✅ Sustainability: this activity promotes behaviours and practices that respect the environment and are sustainable in the long term.
✅ Personal growth: offer opportunities for the personal and professional development of young people, helping them discover and cultivate their talents and passions.
✅ Active citizenship: this activity promotes the values of civic and social engagement by young people, encouraging them to actively participate in their community and make a difference in the world around them.
✅ Green Values in career: this activity promotes an idea of career orientation that considers ecological values and environmental sustainability, and encourages the adoption of eco-sustainable work practices.
Activity 1
GLOBAL CLIMATE 'PUB-QUIZ'
Materials and equipment required:
- Non-alcoholic beverages
- Small prize for the winning group
- Printed copies of quizzes (two copies of each quiz) DOWNLOAD
- Answers sheet DOWNLOAD
- Pens
Description of the activity:
Split participants into two groups, with each group working in teams of three, as the quiz questions can be quite challenging. Each team has 15 minutes for each quiz. Participants are allowed to search for information on the web to help answer the questions. Facilitators should be familiar with the quiz topics to guide discussions and provide clarification when needed.
Activity 2
WORLD DISTRIBUTION GAME
The world distribution game is an introduction to the topics of social and climate justice.
Materials and equipment required:
- Signs for the continents/regions DOWNLOAD
- World map (preferably a Gall-Peters projection that is true to the continents’ sizes)
- Pieces of fairly traded chocolate
- CO2-clouds in the number of participants DOWNLOAD
- Print-outs of three distribution charts DOWNLOAD
Description of the activity:
The climate crisis affects the whole world. Politicians and scientists agreed in Paris in 2015 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal that becomes ever harder to achieve. States, individuals, and the economy should contribute to the necessary change together! But how is the situation right now? How many people inhabit the earth? Where do they live? Who emits the most greenhouse gases in the world? How are wealth and poverty distributed? This is what we are trying to find out together in this game.
The facilitator distributes the signs for the continents/regions among the participants, each sign should be held by someone. Those holding the signs symbolise the continents/regions. Participants should now find the different continents/regions on the world map. Explain that even though geographically, the largest part of Russia is on the Asian continent, it is economically more similar to European countries and 94% of the Russian population lives in the European part (geographically) of the country. This is why Russia and Europe form one region in this game.
Part 1: Distribution of world population
- In the first part of the game, participants distribute themselves across the continents/regions to represent the world population and where they live.
- Ask how many people live on earth. If participants need help: Ask how many people live in their country or on their continent.
- When participants have a valid guess, compare with actual world population (refer to world population chart).
- Count participants and find out (referring to population chart) how many million people each participant represents. All participants together represent the entire world population.
- Ask participants to place themselves across the "continents" according to how they believe the world population is distributed.
- Once finished, participants of each continent calculate how many inhabitants they represent. They may relocate if they wish.
- Once everyone is satisfied, the correct distribution is read out loud (refer to population chart). Some participants (the young people decide who) may now relocate again, so that the representation is correct.
- Reflection round: What was known? What was surprising?
Part 2: Distribution of CO2-emission
- Every participant takes one cloud that represents a share of the world’s CO2-emissions (refer to the chart on distribution of CO2-emissions for exact share). All clouds together represent 100% of the world’s emissions. Now, clouds are placed in the continents/regions according to how participants believe that the world’s CO2-emissions are distributed. To keep an overview, clouds are put on the floor next to the sign naming the continent/region.
- When everyone is satisfied, the ‘population’ returns to their continent. Now, they state again how many they are and how many emissions they produce. It is still possible to redistribute clouds at this stage.
- At the end, the participants’ guesses are compared with the correct distribution noted in the chart.
- Clouds are again redistributed, if necessary, to represent the correct share of world emissions per continent/region.
- Reflection round: Examples for discussion points: What do global CO2 emissions have to do with the climate crisis and climate protection? What is the relation between population and emissions? What are the reasons why some continents/regions produce fewer and some more greenhouse gas emissions? How do the European figures relate to ‘our’ lifestyle? Where does the production of ‘our’ consumer goods take place?
Part 3: Distribution of wealth and poverty
- For the last round, each group repeats which ‘continent’ they represent and how many people they represent.
- Everyone is handed paper with a piece of chocolate, that represents a share of the world’s GDP (refer to the chart on distribution of wealth and poverty for exact share). The chocolate taken together represents the entire GDP of the world. Point out that the chocolate may not yet be eaten.
- Like in the previous round, chocolates should now be placed next to the sign of continents/regions according to how participants believe that wealth/poverty are distributed in the world.
- When all the continents have their pieces, the inhabitants of the continents say how many people they are, how many emissions they have, and how many pieces of chocolate they have received.
- The participants’ guesses are compared with the chart and the pieces of chocolate are regrouped, if necessary.
- At the end, the inhabitants of the continents share the chocolate assigned to their region.
- Reflection round: Has everyone had a piece of chocolate? Did it taste good? How many pieces did everyone have? How did it feel to have enough or to not have any? What do you think are the reasons for the unequal distribution of emissions and wealth? What should be changed to make the world more just?
Activity 3
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS
This activity challenges participants to explore diverse perspectives on the climate crisis, fostering critical thinking and deeper understanding of global challenges.
Materials and equipment required:
- Print-outs of comic strips DOWNLOAD
- Pens and paper or flip chart markers and flip charts
Description of the activity:
The French graphic novelist Emma has published comics on socially relevant topics since 2017. In her book on climate change, she intelligently addresses the relation between the climate crisis and social and global justice.
Before starting, the facilitator introduces participants to the concept of climate justice. Then, the group is divided in two. Each group gets one comic strip and discusses the way in which it addresses the issue of justice/injustice. Then, they explore what could be done to stop the injustice from continuing. Each group notes down their ideas on paper.
In a third step, the two groups share in the plenary what their comics were about as well as their ideas for positive transformation.
Credit: Emma (2021), Ein anderer Blick auf den Klimawandel, 62-63, 71
Activity 4
CLIMATE ACTIVISTS: WORKING FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE ALL OVER THE WORLD
This activity highlights the inspiring work of climate activists worldwide, encouraging participants to explore their stories and reflect on their impact.
Materials and equipment required:
- Printed photo of Greta Thunberg or digital device to show it DOWNLOAD and Print M6
- Brief profiles of climate activists DOWNLOAD and Print M7
- Worksheets on climate activists DOWNLOAD and Print M8
- Devices with internet access
- Atlases or access to an online map
- Poster-making materials (sheets of A1 paper, pens, scissors, glue)
- Computer and projector (optional)
Description of the activity:
Step 1: The educator shows a photo of Greta Thunberg (M6) and asks the pupils what they know about her. She is a climate activist from Sweden who started to demonstrate, on her own, outside the Swedish parliament on Fridays to tackle the climate crisis – her protest grew into the worldwide Fridays for Future movement.
Step 2: The educator explains that Greta Thunberg is just one of many young people around the world who are campaigning for climate justice and for action to protect the climate.
Group work (60 min.)Step 1: The pupils form small groups. The teacher gives each group a profile of one climate activist (M7) and a copy of the worksheet (M8).
Step 2: The people featured in these materials as examples of climate activism are:
- Adenike Oladosu, Nigeria
- Vanessa Nakate, Uganda
- Marinel Ubaldo, Philippines
- Ridhima Pandey, India
- Amariyanna ‘Mari’ Copeny, USA
- Helena Gualinga, Ecuador
- India Logan-Riley, Aotearoa (New Zealand)
- Neeshad Shafi, Qatar
Note: There are so many climate activists that selecting a few to stand as examples will always be a somewhat arbitrary process. The principal criterion driving our choice was inclusion of people from various different parts of the world. Teachers may, of course, add other activists to the list in place of, or in addition to, those we have chosen. They may wish to include an activist from their own country.
Step 3: Teachers ask the groups to do research on the campaigns undertaken by their chosen activist to combat the climate crisis and on the country where the activist grew up. If pupils’ digital skills and English language proficiency are at a high enough level and given appropriate equipment, pupils can do their own internet research on the activists. They can find out more about these personalities and the causes they campaign for by looking at their social media profiles and activities (on Twitter or Instagram, for example) or watching YouTube videos of public speeches they have made at climate conferences or on similar occasions.
Step 4: If pupils are unlikely to be able to manage research of this kind or the appropriate equipment is not available, teachers can collate and print out additional information on the activists and bring it along to the lesson for the pupils to read and work with.
Step 5: The pupils create a brief presentation of key facts about the activist they have been working on and other interesting findings of their research. Teachers may stipulate the form the presentation should take or allow pupils to come up with their own ideas (such as making a poster or doing their presentation on the computer).
Presentation (20 min.)Each group gives a brief presentation (approx. 5 minutes, depending on the number of groups) to tell the rest of the class about their most interesting findings.
Reflection on learnings (5 min.)The class reflects on the lesson together. The teacher may ask questions such as:
- What do the activists we learned about in the presentations have in common?
- How do they differ from one another?
- What do they campaign for, and why?
- How do they campaign?
- What did you find particularly surprising/impressive?
- Which aspects of their activities appeal to you, and which don’t?
- Are you aware of any other climate activists?
Credits:
Activity 5
ECOLOGICAL HANDPRINT-MEMORY
This activity introduces participants to the concept of the ecological handprint, highlighting actions that contribute positively to the environment and distinguishing these from ecological footprints.
Materials and equipment required:
- Printed and laminated memory cards DOWNLOAD
Description of the activity:
This memory activity broadens the understanding of the concept of the ‘ecological handprint’ and teaches how to distinguish it from individual ecological behaviour.
Ecological footprint: the impact of a person or community on the environment.
Ecological handprint: an ecological handprint is the opposite of a footprint. It recognises the actions a person takes to have a positive impact on the environment, over and above reducing their own ecological footprint. If one does enough of these, they might even outweigh the size of their ecological footprint.
Step 1:The educator asks whether anyone has already heard of the concepts of the ecological footprint and the ecological handprint and to define them.
Step 2:The memory cards are laid out face down. The participants now form at least two teams. One team starts by revealing two cards. If the footprint and handprint action match, the team uses this pair to explain the difference between the footprint and handprint action. Then it's their turn again. If they do not uncover a matching pair, the cards are covered up again and the next team takes their turn. The team that has the most pairs at the end wins.
Evaluation and Reflection (5–10 minutes):After the game, the team leader ensures that all participants have understood the difference between footprints and handprints.
Tips for Youth Workers:
- Attention; red herring! There is one card that is not part of a pair. ‘I am organising a clothes swap party’ is often mistaken for a handprint option because it is an action for many people. However, clothes swap parties do not permanently change any structures. The card is therefore not a handprint campaign. It would only be one if the clothes swap party becomes a permanent structure for sustainable handling of clothing. The participants should use this card to recognize the difference between a footprint campaign for many people and a handprint campaign.
Credits:
Activity 6
DIALOGUE BETWEEN FUTURE AND PRESENT
This reflective activity invites participants to imagine a dialogue between the present and the future, exploring the consequences of actions taken to address the climate crisis.
Materials and equipment required:
- Flip chart
- Two circles of chairs, one inside the other
Description of the activity:
The group is divided into two and sits in two circles facing each other. The inner circle of people represents the present, with the outer circle representing the future.
The outer circle starts a dream journey. Facilitator: "Please close your eyes for a minute and imagine the following: The year is 2050 and you are roughly 25 years older. The world has turned for the better and the global community (states, companies, civil society etc.) has tackled the current challenges. We live in a sustainable world... The world of work has contributed largely to the change… Think about how it was transformed to contribute positively to the changes.”
The facilitator now asks the inner circle to address the outer circle and ask how they feel as individuals, how the economy and the world of work are operating in this sustainable future.
Next, the inner circle is invited to a dream journey. "Please close your eyes for a minute and imagine the following: You are living in the world of today, maybe a little bit in the future. It is clear that the world has to change and the world of work and employment with it. It is up to everyone now to support the change. Think about the change that is needed now and how it can be realised.”
The future circle asks the inner circle how they feel, what role they play in the scenario, what occupation they have and how it helps to create a better world.
At the end, the facilitator invites participants to share their experiences. The moderator writes down the dreams and positive changes on a flip chart. The flip chart may remain in the room for positive inspiration.
Credit: