Environmental Gap 2

• Maslow’s needs - Social.
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) - 10. Inequalities, 4. Education.

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Worldwide, there is emerging evidence of the important role of Indigenous knowledge for climate change adaptation, and that it is necessary to consider different knowledge systems in climate change programs (Petzold, Andrews, Ford, Hedemann, & Postigo, 2020). In Australia, investigations have been initiated regarding how Indigenous knowledge systems might indicate a paradigm shift for the ethical and advanced design of new technologies. Accordingly, by exploring concepts in Indigenous science and its influence on contemporary scientists, including an embrace of traditional practices, implications of a hypothetical shift in autonomous systems in robotics and AI are investigated (Abdilla & Fitch, 2017). An analysis of the Indigenous experience of maritime travel in conjunction with the geological history over the past 50,000 years reveals a future scenario in which the risk of damaging sea level rise exists for both committed environmentalists and climate change deniers.

​This scenario provides the environmental adversaries with a common cause. The common challenge is for both parties to establish joint contingency plans for adaption to the possible serious sea level increase. This challenge is discussed in the following “Recommended action regarding environmental gap 2”. As an adjunct to the environmental cause, the Indigenous stories in this scenario serve to strengthen the social and historical significance of Indigenous society.

Gaps and inconsistencies in the current mainstream environmental discussion have been identified in the preceding EnviroConvergeBlog 01. These gaps potentially affect the optimism or pessimism that adults and students may feel for the future of the environment over the next twenty years. This Blog (EnviroConvergeBlog 02) expands on the first of these environmental gaps.

Environmental Gap 1

• Maslow’s needs - Safety.
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) - 13. Climate action.

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The short-term global warming narrative
Climate researchers such as Mann (2012) use temperature proxy data to produce narratives covering the previous 2000 years. In this process, Mann relates that the warmest period on record was the second half of the 20th century, describing this phenomenon graphically as a hockey stick. This research is promoted as a wake-up call that humans are heating the planet, and that the Earth will suffer increasing impacts if action is not taken to reduce emissions. This is the conventional environmental narrative that humans are causing global temperature rise. This position is supported in the popular technical media by Ryan (2019), attributed to the University of Bern, when producing the following figure (Figure 3.4) “Global warming/cooling rates over the past 2,000 years.”