Scientific Literacy Still Low

· 4 minutes read

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Out of 23 big countries being surveyed, Indonesia had the highest proportion of people doubtful of manmade climate change. This phenomenon indicates people’s low scientific literacy, which could have an implication on the lack of their responsibility on environmental damage.

The survey was conducted by YouGove, a data analytics company in the UK, as part of the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism and The Guardian Project.

In this survey, Indonesia is in the first rank. Of the 1,001 respondents in Indonesia, 18 percent did not believe climate change was caused by human activities. Saudi Arabia is in second rank, where 16 percent of the respondents doubted that climate change was caused by humans, followed by the United States with 13 percent of respondents. The total respondents, which were surveyed online, reached 25,000 people from 23 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and America.

"This can be our reflection about the low level of scientific literacy in society. Not only among ordinary people. Even many academics in Indonesia do not yet believe that climate change is caused by human activities," the chairman of the Indonesian Young Scientists, Alan Koropitan, said on Sunday in his comment to the survey.

According to Alan, the post truth phenomenon, when emotional attraction is more influential in shaping public opinion than objective facts, also influences people\'s acceptance of science.

This phenomenon is not only occuring in Indonesia. In the US, it is strengthening in the era of President Donald Trump. Even the president had repeatedly stated that change was a conspiracy to suppress the US economy. "From the aspect of the Indonesian government\'s policy, now there is political will and a number of policies have been made. For example, some of the measures in coping with climate change have been stipulated in the RPJMN [National Medium Term Development Plan]," he said.

However, at the community level, literacy related to climate change is very low. "On the other hand, we continue to be bombarded with anti-science things, especially through social media. As a result, information that has no scientific basis can easily enter the community," Alan said.

Responsible

Alan is worried that the low level of public literacy related to climate change will affect their response and responsibility to participate in breaking the pace of global warming that has contributed to climate change.

In fact, science has indicated that the global warming rate is accelerated by human activities, especially after the Industrial Revolution due to the high rate of carbon emissions. Researchers at the University of Indonesia\'s Climate Change Research Center (RCCC-UI) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) Indonesia, Sonny Mumbunan, said the number of respondents in each country needed to be questioned.

"Why, for example, was the number of respondents interviewed in Germany 1,497 or higher compared to Indonesia, even though our population is far bigger. In China, which has a larger population, the number of respondents was only 1,021 respondents," he said.

Sonny added, beyond the statistical method of the number of the respondents, the figure of 18 percent of Indonesians who did not believe in climate change was caused by human activities war relatively low. "From this survey, it indicates that one in five people doubt that climate change is manmade. This is good enough for Indonesia, given that climate change is indeed a complex phenomenon that is not easily understood by the public," he said.

Referring to research conducted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Sonoma State University (SSU) on environmental issues and political preferences in the 2019 elections, environmental issues, including climate change, were not considered important when compared to economic issues.

In addition, there is also a discrepancy in the understanding of environmental issues at the technocrat level. Even so, according to Sonny, the community has actually felt the effects of climate change and environmental damage. The survey conducted on 1,350 oil palm farmers in five districts in South Sumatra and Riau showed that forest fires, smoke, and drought were risks that were considered very important and can affect their income. "However, if our respondents are asked whether it is related to climate change because of our actions, surely the answer is no or do not know," he said. (AIK)

Editor:

kompascetak