About this blog
Mark McCaffrey helped develop Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science which has been reviewed and endorsed by the US Global Change Science Program. Designed to aid teachers, policy makers, and the general public in understanding the intricacies of the climate system, the Climate Literacy principles present information about Earth's climate, the impacts of climate change, and approaches to preparedness and mitigation. More details ...
Mark is a co-founder of the Climate Literacy Network and attended the Inspiring Climate Education (ICE09) conference in Copenhagen to share insights about climate literacy efforts with colleagues from around the world. He is involved with the NASA funded Inspiring Climate Education Excellence (ICEE) project and the Climate LIteracy Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN), which is an NSF National Science Digital Library Pathway.
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Monthly Archives: March 2011
Conveying Climate Risk
Assessing and communicating the risk of, say, space debris impacting the International Space Station can be studied and then visualized fairly easily. Background information (what is space debris/junk after all?) and potential consequences, which are potentially catastrophic, are elements that … Continue reading
Ring of Fire
OK, the Ring of Fire isn’t really a climate literacy theme, although volcanos have played an important part in Earth’s climate history, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to showcase Penn State’s Richard Alley, who stars in an upcoming program … Continue reading
Limiting the Magnitude
Check out this video that ties to the America’s Climate Choices report on Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change. Also, here’s a snippet of an article entitled “Responding to Climate Change: “America’s Climate Choices” Lays Out Options” in Environment … Continue reading
Energy Literacy Heats Up
As was discussed at the first meeting, because the principles and concepts are overlapping and interrelated, the ideal would be for them not to be listed in a linear sequence, which suggests hierarchy. One could argue (as I did at one point) that starting with the basic physics and then moving to Earth’s energy and biology before bringing in the human dimension would be the most “logical.” But on the other hand, it is important to reach people where they engage with energy in their everyday lives, which would argue for starting with our own actions and behavior. Continue reading
Indicators of Change
There is much to unpack from this report, and the over 90 climate and energy related education and literacy efforts that have gained steam in recent years should take advantage of and add value to this important report, which involved experts from many agencies and research institutions.
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Getting CLEAN
A new program funded by the National Science Foundation, however, aims to help correct America’s climate and energy literacy shortfall. The Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network, or CLEAN (http://cleanet.org) provides a go-to place for educators, learners and the general public to find scientifically accurate authoritative materials on climate and energy science. The CLEAN website also facilitates a community of climate-aware educators and others who are on the front lines of climate and energy literacy efforts. Continue reading
What It Is
The speakers and breakout discussions have also delved more deeply into what “it” is in terms of the challenges and obstacles that have held back progress and the opportunities and, particularly late in the day, apps (as in mobile phone, ipad apps) that can help move the needle, break the log-jam of inertia relative to informing and engaging the public and key audiences around the urgent climate, energy and sustainability issues facing the planet. Continue reading
Jedi School for Climate Communications (Part 2)
From Susan Joy Hassol’s talk at the Tri-Agency meeting: words and lingo to avoid using with the public: GHG or greenhouse gas- (the greenhouse was always a metaphor, not actually how certain gases trap outgoing heat, so using the term … Continue reading
Jedi School for Climate Communications (Part 1)
© 2002 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Yoda and Susan Joy Hassol have two things in common. As Susan points out, both are short and both have experience and insights that others can benefit from. During her talk at the … Continue reading
