“Climate change is a hoax.”

At least, that’s what some people still believe.

In today’s world, many with power and influence seem to believe that as long as they accumulate enough wealth, their children and future generations will somehow be shielded from the consequences. In a society that worships money and power, the common good is too often overlooked – and climate change has become one of its greatest casualties.

The truth, however, is right before our eyes. We’ve all witnessed the anomalies – record-breaking heat, prolonged droughts, devastating fires, floods, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms, and declining biodiversity. These events are becoming alarmingly frequent and, sadly, increasingly “normal.” Yet their impact is never equal. Like war and disease, climate change hits the most vulnerable the hardest – low-income communities, the elderly, children, people with disabilities, and women. With limited capacity to adapt, these groups face rising health risks, loss of livelihoods, displacement, and trauma.

So, which side of the coin should we stand on – the side that lives in denial for comfort’s sake, or the side that chooses to act? In our social-media-driven world, where anyone can find “evidence” to support any belief, the truth has become harder to find. Young people today are growing up surrounded by conflicting messages – and too often, doing the right thing comes second to building wealth.

But here’s the hard truth: no political leader, no church, no saviour is coming to fix this for us. This fight is ours.

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” – Robert Swan

Education and awareness are our strongest weapons against climate change. They drive behavioural change, encourage innovation, and empower communities to act. Awareness helps people understand risks, adapt to extreme weather, build practical skills, and develop a sense of shared responsibility. Knowledge cuts through ignorance, bureaucracy, and greed – it exposes the truth many leaders would rather ignore while the planet sends distress signals.

Young people are at the heart of this movement. Through them, we can push back, adapt, mitigate, and maybe – just maybe – reverse the effects of climate change. By investing in their education and building their capacity, we give the world hope. The youth are the change makers, the leaders of tomorrow, and this is their world. If we teach them early to love and protect it – and equip them with the right knowledge to debunk the “hoax theories” – then we will have done our part.

Atacama Consulting Foundation has chosen to do exactly that. As the social impact arm of Atacama Consulting, an Environmental and Social Consultancy firm in Uganda and East Africa, the past 20 years of the firm’s existence have highlighted a growing need to educate and nurture more environmentalists. With the increasing global calls for climate action, very few Ugandan students pursue Environmental Science courses, and those who do often struggle to stay enrolled due to financial constraints.

To bridge this gap, the Foundation established the Atacama Consulting Foundation Scholarship Programme to support academically gifted but financially constrained undergraduate students pursuing Environmental Science courses. The programme is designed not only to provide financial assistance but also to nurture the next generation of environmental leaders who will champion sustainability and community transformation. Currently, the Foundation supports 11 students across five partner universities in Uganda and of course, this is only a beginning. The Foundation hopes to grow the programme’s reach even further.

With the growing misinformation and the push back against climate action, there is a desperate need for more knowledgeable and passionate people fighting for the environment. And who better to lead this effort than the students who have already chosen this path?

Knowledge without awareness is like building an engine but never giving it fuel to run. As we support more environmentalists through their education, it is also important to lift their communities as well. Just like finding patient zero in a pandemic is important for development of a cure, it is equally as important to reach those on the front line of the effects of climate change. Educating them about the effects of climate change and how they can possibly adapt is key to this fight. Unfortunately, the language of climate change, the jargon and technical terms, often feels alien to the common person. For many, even the phrase “climate change” sounds like rocket science. If I were to ask a coffee farmer in my village in Masaka about global warming, they might not understand what I mean – but if I asked how the changing seasons and the extreme heat have affected their yields and farming practices, they could talk for days.

“You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, inform them, and help them understand that these resources are their own.” – Wangari Maathai

Here is where our fight begins. Because climate change is a global problem that affects everyone, yet so many continue to discredit it, we must start with those who already feel its impacts – the passionate and the vulnerable. Let’s take the conversation out of the air-conditioned boardrooms, and bring it to the communities on the frontlines: the ones whose crops are failing, whose homes are flooding, whose futures are uncertain. With the right knowledge and support, they have the potential to fight back.

Education and awareness create momentum. They inspire climate-friendly behaviour and build collective action. When people know better, they do better – and when we act together, real change becomes possible.

In the end, climate change isn’t someone else’s problem. It’s ours – and education and awareness is where the fight begins.

By Cliff Mukasa, Atacama Consulting Foundation