Informing an Effective Response to Climate Change (2010) / Chapter Skim
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8 Education and Communication
8 Education and Communication
Pages 251-282
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From page 251... ...
However, the major greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, will stay in the atmosphere and continue to alter climate for centuries to millennia (Kempton, 1997)
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From page 252... ...
Although there are many other important approaches, we focus here on three specific areas: climate change education in the classroom, for the general public, and for decision makers. K-12, HIGHER EDUCATION, AND INFORMAL SCIENCE EDUCATION A student today may become tomorrow's business leader setting strategic priorities amidst changing energy markets, a mayor considering a seaport plan, a farmer adapting to new weather patterns, a designing policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions, or a citizen reducing his or her own carbon footprint.
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From page 253... ...
Federal agencies are just beginning to undertake climate change education and training initiatives, either as services they directly provide or as competitive grant programs to fund research, development, and implementation by experts in the field. These initiatives include the following: • NASA: Global Climate Change Education.
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This workshop resulted in a broader interagency effort to coordinate and produce Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science,2 a guide for the integration of climate education into national and state education standards. The document established a peer-reviewed overview of key concepts for climate education and has been used to support teacher workshops to ensure that educators are proficient in teaching climate science concepts.3 Their essential principles of literacy in climate science included the following: 1.
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Research, however, on the best way to integrate climate science into core curricula is limited. Climate education efforts have traditionally been organized as a branch of Earth or physical science and often do not include the human dimensions of climate change or the science of climate response that is now emerging as a critical future need (see further discussion in Advancing the Science of Climate Change, NRC, 2010b)
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Some specific examples include Oceans' Effect on Weather and Climate: Changing Climate, Climate Change From Pole to Pole: Biology Investigations, and Earth's Changing Surface: Humans as Agents of Change.4 In addition to printed materials, educators today can use a wide range of media and learning materials, including text, graphics, maps, simulations, websites, television programs, movies, field trips, experiments, and citizen science projects. An NSF-funded cognitive research project, Visualizing Earth, found that images and animations of Earth from space help students understand the complex interplay of Earth's atmosphere, land, oceans, and life, but that students sometimes needed help in the transition from local to global scales, and in understanding the complexities of change over multiple time scales (Barstow et al., 1999)
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Educational institutions can model what they teach and turn their campuses into "living laboratories and classrooms" by making their facilities more sustainable, including efforts to conserve energy and limit greenhouse gas emissions. Michael M
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Increasingly, there are also innovative informal learning settings that provide climate change education through special exhibits, presentations and discussions in town hall meetings, museums, science centers, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, planetariums, and other venues that help students and adults learn about climate change and make informed decisions about how to respond. THE GENERAL PUBLIC Communication about the risks posed by climate change requires messages that motivate constructive engagement and support wise policy choices, rather than engendering indifference, fear or despair.
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The field of climate change communication is still relatively young but has identified a number of key knowledge and information needs, roadblocks to understanding, guiding principles, and potential models for improved education and communication that can help advance public understanding of climate change, inform individual and collective choices, and support public deliberation about potential responses. While no formal national assessment has yet been conducted to determine the full state of public understanding of climate change causes, consequences, and potential solutions, several nationally representative scientific studies, as well as numerous public opinion polls, do provide important insights.
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. Informal science education (ISE)
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From page 261... ...
However, most Americans perceived it as a geographically distant problem that will primarily impact people, places, and species far away. Most also had little to no understanding of the potential health impacts resulting from increased climate change, while several studies have documented poor public understanding of some of the fundamental properties of climate change itself (Bostrom, 1994; Kempton et al., 1995; Leiserowitz, 2006; O'Connor et al., 1998; Read et al., 1994)
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. Nearly half of Americans trusted religious leaders (48 percent)
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. For example, a survey completed in January 2010 found strong public support, across political lines, for policies to develop renewable energy, improve energy efficiency, establish new regulations, and sign an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (see Figure 8.3)
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For example, in January of 2009, a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that global warming was ranked last of 20 national priorities, well below the economy, jobs, terrorism, social security, education, Medicare, health care, the deficit, and others. Energy, however, was the fifth highest national priority (Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 2009)
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From page 265... ...
, strongly supportive of national policies, and beginning to change some of their own climate-related behaviors. By contrast, a different segment of the public does not believe that global warming is happening or human caused (the "Dismissive")
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Research has also found that minorities are often more likely to believe climate change is happening, human caused, and a serious threat than white Americans (Leiserowitz and Akerloff, 2010)
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In general, climate scientists investigate complex interactions within the earth system, a way of thinking that many non-scientists struggle with. Climate science itself is often described in abstract, statistical, or technical terms that have little resonance for most Americans (Hassol, 2008)
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Most Americans have little time to focus on climate change, due to the day-to-day needs of parenting, working, paying bills, socializing, and the distractions of entertainment. Even individuals who are motivated to act often confront other barriers, such as the lack of capital to make household energy efficiency improvements; the lack of clean, safe, and affordable public transportation options; the lack of knowledge about
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. Another important barrier to improved public understanding in the United States has been the well-organized and well-financed campaigns by special interests, contrarian scientists, and defenders of the status quo to create public perceptions of scientific disagreement and to promote the idea that climate change is not happening, and that if it is happening, it is caused by natural factors or cycles, or will actually be a good thing (McCright and Dunlap, 2003; Menestrel et al., 2002; Oreskes, 2004)
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; while advocacy groups may attempt to raise public support for or opposition to proposed public policies. Some information campaigns are essentially one-way, such as from government agencies to the public at large (e.g., public service announcements)
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It should be communicated through the channels that the target audience pays attention to, using credible messengers that the audience trusts. For optimal effectiveness, information campaigns should incorporate evaluation and feedback mechanisms to assess what works and what does not, using an iterative, adaptive learning model.
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Avoid scientific jargon and use Degrees F rather than Degrees C everyday words "Human caused" rather than "anthropogenic" "Self-reinforcing" rather than "positive feedback" "Range of possibilities" rather than "uncertainty" "Likelihood" or "chance" rather than "probability" "Billion tons" rather than "gigatons" Maintain respectful discourse Climate change decisions involve diverse perspectives and values. Provide choices and solutions Present the full range of options (including the choice of business as usual)
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. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, public information campaigns were used to fight slavery, child labor, and tuberculosis.
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Both scientists and decision makers should seek ways to effectively communicate the complex issues of climate change to others. COMMUNICATION AND EDUCATION FOR DECISION MAKERS As citizens, policy and decision makers can also benefit from improved climate change communications to the public.
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that should incorporate considerations of climate change. Previous chapters discuss a range of information systems and decision support tools that can assist policy makers in making climate decisions -- such as climate and greenhouse gas information services and models for evaluating choices -- but these will be ineffective if those making decisions have an incomplete or inaccurate understanding
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While the scientific community has achieved great progress in the identification, description, and projection of the risks of climate change, the informational needs of the nation -- to either limit future warming or adapt to climate impacts -- now extend far beyond the relatively narrow boundaries of climate science. As described in Chapter 7, meeting the rising demand for information will require a significant investment by governments and other organizations in developing, validating, and providing high quality information about the causes, consequences, and potential responses to climate change.
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The United States also needs a national strategy and supporting network to coordinate climate change education and communication activities for policy makers and the general public, including the identification of essential informational needs; development of relevant, timely, and effective information products and services; construction and integration of information dissemination and sharing networks; and continuous evaluation and feedback systems to establish which approaches work best in what circumstances. The panel judges the following 5 elements as important guidelines for all climate education and communication programs to help people think deliberately, responsibly, and respectfully about climate change and the many related decisions they will face.
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From page 278... ...
While there are nascent efforts among these agencies to collaborate around climate education, this collaboration needs a more formal structure and a clear mandate to contribute to an overarching set of national goals for climate science education, with clear objectives and measures of success. Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science, cited above, provides an early example of the benefits of such federal coordination.
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From page 279... ...
This broad initiative needs to be both focused and revitalized: if the nation desires to develop a national strategy and resources to support climate change education and communication, a national climate education act could serve as a powerful response to the educational challenges of climate change. It would have the advantage of a single focal point of congressional action and would provide an integrated federal strategy and funding.
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The federal agencies that manage research activities mandated under the U.S. Global Change Research Act could choose to establish a research program to • Establish baseline levels of public understanding and responses to climate change and monitor changes in American climate literacy, including knowl edge, risk perceptions, and behavior; • Assess the effectiveness of different climate change education and communi cation strategies and programs; and • Provide federal support to increase the capacity of educational institutions, scientists, and students to collaborate with diverse groups and stakeholders needing climate change information.
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Recommendation 10: The federal government should establish a national task force that includes formal and informal educators, government agencies, policymakers, business leaders, and scientists, among others, to set national goals and objectives, and to develop a coordinated strategy to improve climate change education and communication.
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