Teaching Climate Literacy in High Schools & Universities
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In this talk, given November 2019 at the Lund University Teaching and Learning Conference, I answer four research questions. The TL DN answer is in () below, see slides for more details: 1. What does one need to know to be climate literate? (Understand the IPCC Summary for Policymakers, which we made into a teaching framework, please use it!) 2. How well do universities teach climate literacy? (poorly) 3. How well do high schools teach climate literacy? (poorly) 4. How much do high schools focus on high-impact climate actions? (very little)
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Teaching Climate Literacy in High Schools & Universities
- 1. A university climate curriculum based on synthesis science @KA_Nicholas Kimberly Nicholas Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) kimnicholas.com Warming stripes for Sweden, 1860-2018, Bolin Centre 1
- 2. @KA_Nicholas Guardian, 2017 Sweden’s climate law: 85% emissions reductions by 2045 2
- 3. @KA_Nicholas #FridaysForFuture, 15 March 2019 3
- 4. Research questions 1. What does one need to know to be climate literate? 2. How well do universities teach climate literacy? 3. How well do high schools teach climate literacy? 4. How much do high schools focus on high-impact climate actions? @KA_Nicholas 4
- 5. Research questions 1. What does one need to know to be climate literate? 2. How well do universities teach climate literacy? 3. How well do high schools teach climate literacy? 4. How much do high schools focus on high-impact climate actions? @KA_Nicholas 5
- 6. Key SPM Messages 19 Headlines on less than 2 Pages 2009: WGI Outline Approved 14 Chapters Atlas of Regional Projections 54,677 Review Comments by 1089 Experts 2010: 259 Authors Selected Summary for Policymakers ca. 14,000 Words 3rd Lead Author Meeting, Marrakech, Morocco, April 2012@KA_Nicholas 6
- 7. Synthesis Science on Climate @KA_Nicholas It’s warming It’s us We’re sure It’s bad We can fix it 7
- 8. Support for climate policy and social action linked to key beliefs @KA_Nicholas Ding et al., 2011, Nature Climate Change 8
- 10. Qualitative coding of IPCC Synthesis Report, 2014 @KA_Nicholas 10
- 11. @KA_Nicholas Nicholas et al., 2015, http://www.kimnicholas.com/climate-change-curriculum.html Design by Pontus Ambros 11
- 14. Nicholas et al., 2015, http://www.kimnicholas.com/climate-change-curriculum.html Design by Pontus Ambros It’s us @KA_Nicholas 14
- 15. Nicholas et al., 2015, http://www.kimnicholas.com/climate-change-curriculum.html Design by Pontus Ambros It’s bad @KA_Nicholas 15
- 16. We can fix it! Nicholas et al., 2015, http://www.kimnicholas.com/climate-change-curriculum.html Design by Pontus Ambros @KA_Nicholas 16
- 17. Research questions 1. What does one need to know to be climate literate? 2. How well do universities teach climate literacy? 3. How well do high schools teach climate literacy? 4. How much do high schools focus on high-impact climate actions? @KA_Nicholas 17
- 18. 56% of 70 int’l courses on climate teach only one of 6 topics @KA_Nicholas 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70Coursescoveringtopic Nicholas et al., 2015, http://www.kimnicholas.com/climate-change-curriculum.html 18
- 19. Research questions 1. What does one need to know to be climate literate? 2. How well do universities teach climate literacy? 3. How well do high schools teach climate literacy? 4. How much do high schools focus on high-impact climate actions? @KA_Nicholas 19
- 20. Wynes & Nicholas, 2019, PLoS ONE
- 21. Wynes & Nicholas, 2019, PLoS ONEFigure: Emma Li Johansson Canadian high schools teach human warming, not consensus, impacts or solutions N=10 provincial curricula and learning objectives
- 22. Research questions 1. What does one need to know to be climate literate? 2. How well do universities teach climate literacy? 3. How well do high schools teach climate literacy? 4. How much do high schools focus on high-impact climate actions? @KA_Nicholas 22
- 23. 2010 emissions must be halved globally by 2030 to be on track to limit warming to 1.5°C (IPCC 2018) Wynes & Nicholas, 2017, Environmental Research Letters @KA_Nicholas Graphic by Catrin Jakobsson 23
- 24. Budget for household emissions for <1.5°C: 2.5 tons/person/year in 2030 (1.5° Lifestyles Report) @KA_Nicholas One roundtrip flight NYC-London= 64% of a sustainable annual carbon budget Wynes & Nicholas, 2017, Environmental Research LettersGraphic by Catrin Jakobsson 24
- 25. Only 4% (10/216) actions mentioned in Canadian high school textbooks are high-impact Wynes & Nicholas, 2017, Environmental Research LettersGraphic: Catrin Jakobsson
- 26. Some reflections Photo: Tobias Schwarz/Getty Images
- 27. Emissions pathway to stay below 1.5°C warming: must plummet towards zero @KA_Nicholas Source: https://www.cicero.oslo.no/no/posts/klima/stylised-pathways-to-well-below-2c • Rapid transition away from coal, oil, & gas • Reduced animal agriculture • Increase carbon in soils and vegetation 27
- 29. @KA_Nicholas 29
- 30. Conclusions • There is an urgent need for a comprehensive, research-based climate change course in higher education, which at present is largely unmet. • Current climate education tends to be narrowly focused and misses many of the most important elements of climate literacy. • Climate education must stop failing 21st century students. • Universities have a responsibility and opportunity to lead by example in putting our research into teaching and practice. @KA_Nicholas 30
Editor's Notes
- We live in a warming world How quickly we manage to limit warming will determine the quality of life for us, our students, and life on earth for thousands of years. Social context: Univ. law “we all must teach sustainability” Sweden has a climate law we must meet Voters- inform elections, evaluate parties UN SDGs, climate action, paris agreement (inform jobs, etc.)
- There’s a disconnect between education and society/the real world Climate impacts are happening fast, Catastrophic ecological tipping point or transformative social tipping point- which will come first? Given this context: What do students need to know about climate change? https://www.greenpeace.org/malaysia/story/1154/our-favourite-photos-from-the-student-climate-strike/
- IPCC- government appointed experts from around the world under umbrella of UN Their job is to synthesize the peer-reviewed literature I argue that understanding the basics in IPCC Summaries for Policymakers is what it means to be climate literate State of the science- universal agreement (both scientific and political, line by line agreement for SPMs) Increasingly criticized for being too conservative (their findings are very robust, but may miss/underestimate likelihood of high-risk events/tipping points)
- Here’s how to sum up what the IPCC says by working group.
- Research behind the 5 things- see my website (people need to know this to support climate policy/behavior change)
- These 5 points also make a handy footnoted protest sign, feel free to reuse!
- To turn the IPCC Synthesis report into a curriculum framework for climate literacy: We used qualitative content analysis (NVivo software) to code the content of the IPCC AR5 Synthesis Report. Two independent researchers coded the entire report, with 92.8% agreement between categories. • The coding frame was developed in an iterative process. Initial categories were identified from the major headings from the Summary for Policymakers from the three working groups of the IPCC, and five elements from Krosnick et al. (2006, Climatic Change) and Ding et al. (2011, Nature Climate Change). • These were used to identify six core topics (center of wheel) and their constituent elements, refined through ongoing coding, resulting in the above framework for a comprehensive climate change curriculum. (“it’s climate” was added here, it includes basic physics that are well understood and not reviewed by IPCC, but often found in elementary courses/textbooks and needed to understand some of the work of IPCC, e.g., how energy and heat is transferred from equator to poles via ocean and atmospheric circulation).
- Ta-da! Here’s the framework.
- We could be in Svante Arrhenius’ day in terms of how we’re teaching climate at universities today. We are not preparing students for the world in the 21st century if we’re not teaching that climate change is bad. We analyzed the curricula of 70 courses on climate change currently being taught at top universi:es worldwide rela:ve to our framework. • Based on analysis of syllabi available online or provided by course instructors, we found that the majority (56%) covered only one of the six core topics; only one course (at Harvard University) covered all six topics (data not shown). • Within the core topics, the most commonly taught (by nearly 60% of courses) was “It’s climate,” focusing on the func:oning of the natural climate system. Less than 20% included climate change impacts (“It’s bad”), and less than a third focused on climate change policy and solu:ons (“We can fix it.”)
- We found that learning objectives tend to focus on knowledge of the first three elements, with little or no emphasis on scientific consensus, climate change impacts, or ways to address the issue. The provinces of Saskatchewan and Ontario provide the most comprehensive standards for climate change education, while Nova Scotia and New Brunswick provide the least. while in general Canadian curricula cover the fact that anthropogenic climate change is happening, there was not enough focus on possible solutions, and some provinces presented human causes as a subject of debate, rather than a scientific consensus. “A focus on inaccurate scientific controversy is problematic,” said lead author Wynes. “If you ask students to debate whether or not climate change is happening, or if it’s caused by humans, it gives them the idea that there’s disagreement on facts established with great scientific certainty.” Despite having the highest per capita greenhouse emissions in the country, Saskatchewan was found to have the most comprehensive climate change curriculum. B.C. ranked 9th. Number of core climate change topics addressed in high school curricula (out of a maximum of 6). The topics include physical climate mechanisms (“It’s climate”), observed increase in temperature (“It’s warming”), human causes of warming (“It’s us”), scientific consensus (“Experts agree”), negative consequences associated with warming (“It’s bad”), and the possibility for avoiding the worst effects (“We can fix it”). Saskatchewan: 6 Ontario: 5 Newfoundland and Labrador: 5 Quebec: 5 Prince Edward Island: 5 Alberta: 4 Northwest Territories: 4 Nunavut: 4 British Columbia: 3 Manitoba: 3 Yukon: 3 New Brunswick: 1 Nova Scotia: 1 Right?
- Emissions today must be reduced fast- these come from the sources in the red box, so living car, flight, meat free are the highest impact personal climate actions to cut emissions fast. Choosing to have a child has a long-term carbon legacy, which over many generations is enormous at today’s emissions rates. However, people alive today will use up the remaining carbon budget to limit warming to 1.5°C before 2030 at present rates of burning fossil fuels and raising livestock. So the urgent task to stabilize the climate is to reduce emissions from those sectors immediately. Study: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541 Magazine articles, films, infographics, supporting materials: http://www.kimnicholas.com/responding-to-climate-change.html
- Study: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541 Magazine articles, films, infographics, supporting materials: http://www.kimnicholas.com/responding-to-climate-change.html
- High school science textbooks (N=10, cover 80% Canadian student population) coded for each suggested action
- https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/environment/who-is-behind-fridays-for-future
- Resource for teaching climate solutions: We Can Fix It World Café.
- https://www.chalmers.se/en/news/Pages/swedish-universities-develop-comprehensive-framework-for-their-climate-work.aspx
- Using scientific syntheses as the basis for university curricula would help close the gap between research and classroom learning, promote increased scientific understanding, and help ensure that the resources devoted to scientific synthesis efforts are translated to broader benefits for society. Such courses are essential to promote deep student learning using thoughtfully designed teaching and assessment activities to promote intended learning outcomes, as well as the real-world illustration of the method of scientific inquiry applied to socially relevant problems..