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: June 2011
Dueling Denial (Part Deux)
Wildavsky & Dake, 1990 The high degree of rationality individuals display in forming risk perceptions that express their cultural values can itself inhibit collective welfare rationality by blocking citizens from converging on the best available scientific evidence on how to … Continue reading
Dueling Denial (Part 1)
Our affluence, however relative it may be for us individually, makes for a bubble in which we can debate scientific principles and policy prescriptions that reflect our particular cultural frames and values… while meanwhile, emissions of heat trapping gases continue to spew into the atmosphere, ice melts, sea level rises, the ocean acidifies, population continues its exponential rise, and the planet’s biosphere is radically altered by human activities. Continue reading
Rigged?
Without solid climate science and energy awareness, how can we as a society step outside the staged arena with its theater and snipping in order to make truly informed choices, minimize very real risks, and empower ourselves as individuals and communities in order to build genuine resiliency into our lives? Continue reading
Good News/Bad News
Years ago a mentor of mine suggested that news is neutral, and whether it is considered “good” or “bad” is in the eyes of the beholder at that particular moment of time. I was reminded of this when reading the … Continue reading
Being Unreasonable
These are just a few examples of the projects the fellows are involved with to demonstrate the diversity and enthusiasm of these entrepreneurs who are tackling unreasonable problems with creativity, passion and humor. Continue reading
CLEAN Selected
CLEAN helps educators and the public find vetted materials that are scientifically sound and well presented, and ideally adds value to existing resources by correlating them to appropriate concepts and benchmarks and adding annotations on how the resources can be used to address important ideas and foster understanding. Continue reading
Not Just A River
Many of us, myself included, jump on jets, drive to work, use electrical devices powered primarily by burning coal or gas to make heat to turn turbines to generate steam to make electricity. Some large percentage of us in the United States and elsewhere in the collective one billion plus population who are the primary culprits causing climate change certainly feel moments of guilt about our negative impact on the planet as we live our modern, fossil fuel dependent lives. But the rub is, other than promoting greater awareness, better education and literacy and more effective policies, supporting clean energy and the like, we don’t know exactly what to do about “it”– the Great Disruption– in our everyday lives. Continue reading
