**3. Preparing for the future**

Even with all this attention being drawn to environmental issues, today's youth are poised to inherit a world on the precipice of dramatic ecological upheaval. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [19] paints a dire picture of an intensifying climate crisis with complex impacts on human well-being. It underscores the urgency of the situation, highlighting how greenhouse gas emissions must be capped by 2030, and nearly halved by 2050. The report sets a goal of averting a global average temperature increase above the 1.5-degree tipping point that could result in irreversible damage to natural systems and catastrophic loss of human life [19]. Achieving such a dramatic change in greenhouse gas production will require rapid, substantial, and sustained changes in societies across the globe. The development of requisite technology, policies, knowledge, and systems will require tremendous investment and cooperation from all fields, including education [19]. Science educators thereby have crucial roles to play in equipping youth for participation in this rapid evolution of society.

On a global scale, the geographic regions and sociopolitical groups of the world most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and ecological devastation are also the ones with the largest per-capita population growth [20, 21]. These regions and populations are disproportionately facing the losses and damages associated with climate change while bearing the least of the responsibility for causing the calamity, an issue exposed front and center at the COP27 conference in Egypt [22]. The International Energy Association's data reveal the handful of nations responsible for generating the most carbon emissions outpace the ones with the least production of CO2 by over 1000 percent [23]. Further, the Global North is responsible for 92% of carbon emissions [23, 24]. Taken together, this means most of the Earth's population is about to inherit a planet reeling from the consequences of the choices of a handful of wealthy nations. It also means wealthy nations are going to need to enact dramatic changes to address climate change. Another consequence of this pattern is the LDNs will be pressured to catapult into a high-tech future while leap-frogging the scaffolds of fossil fuels if they are to obtain equitable access to economic prosperity [20]. Educators, both formal and informal, have a powerful role to play in preparing youth for changing this reality. They have the power to foster creativity and encourage curiosity in students. Educators must choose to confront the realities of our changing world head-on while helping students understand its relevance to their communities [25, 26]. If they do not, then students will simply replicate existing conditions or be forced to develop these skills and acquire this knowledge without their support: a daunting and potentially insurmountable hurdle.

The educational community has a responsibility to prepare youth to fully understand issues of sustainability. In fact, in a recent UNESCO study, 90% of youth agreed schools should be sites where people get prepared for issues of climate change [27], with 70% reporting they cannot explain climate change and can only explain its broad principles, or possess limited knowledge about climate change. This discrepancy highlights the need for educators to fulfill the moral imperative of preparing young people for the future. Moreover, youth activism reveals a distinct interest of youth in protecting the future of our planet. The school strike for climate change, a youth-led movement to draw attention to climate change by walking out of class in protest of the inaction of leaders towards addressing such issues, drew over a million students from hundreds of nations [28]. Subsequent movements such as '#Fridays for the future' continue to branch off the success of these endeavors in mobilizing continued youth resistance. Despite the urgency of the situation and the fervor of young people's resistance, educators, politicians, and administrators expressed concern over whether the protests were an infringement upon one's education (see Ref. [29]). In response to this concern, Kyle [29] expressed:

*I wonder why raising consciousness regarding the global crisis facing humanity is an infringement upon one's education. I hope educators will have the wisdom and*  *The Goals of Science Education Should Be Linked to the Central Tenets of Sustainable… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114114*

*courage to respond to the demands of youth, transform educational practice, and engage with a research agenda focused on the global challenges facing humanity (p. 150).*

Concerns around sustainability and social justice are a high priority for this generation of youth. By focusing on the interests of youth, educators can strengthen their engagement with sustainability, conservation, equity, and social justice, and facilitate a deeper understanding of the topics they are exploring in their academic pursuit.

Yet, in many nations, the moral imperative of adequately preparing youth to address climate change is regarded as secondary compared to the immediacy of school rankings and educator evaluations as measured by standardized test scores. This view of schooling does not need to be the case. The integration of sustainable development goals into science education standards and curricula can be a mutually beneficial enterprise, supporting the attainment of standards, while engaging students in meaningful learning focused upon real-world challenges, thereby preparing students for the world they will inherit. For the youth of today, the future is now [7].
