The Importance of Climate Change Education (plus six great resources!)

What is the difference between weather and climate? That’s the question that made me ponder what I know and don’t know about climate change. And in turn made me reflect on the importance of climate change education and then look for free online resources. Knowledge is a game changer! I’ve found some promising resources and am sharing them below for you.

The conversation about weather versus climate was started by Michelle at Boomer Eco Crusader for this month’s Climate Change Collective conversation. Her informative post can be read here and I really recommend checking it out: It’s Cold Outside — The Difference Between Weather and Climate

Find out more details about our Climate Change Collective at the end of this post.

The Value of Climate Education

As Michelle mentions in her post, people can use a lack of understanding and knowledge about things such as weather and climate to deny climate change and argue against it. Ignorance, which is simply a lack of knowledge or information, can be detrimental to our planet’s health.

Climate change education helps people understand and address the impacts of the climate crisis, empowering them with the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes needed to act as agents of change. 

UNESCO

How Climate Change Education Impacts our Personal Lives

• Climate education can empower us in our decision making, allowing our choices to be well-informed and the best ones for our current situation and the planet.
  
• Knowledge of issues and topics such as weather versus climate allows us to speak into conversations where mistruths are being spoken about.
  
• The more we know about a topic, the more inspired we can become about it, which can lead to being better environmental stewards of our planet and the areas we live in.
  
• An increased awareness can help us understand the government policies that are being put into place to prevent climate change and allow us to analyze whether we agree or disagree with them. Our votes are powerful and this knowledge can help us align our votes with our values.
  
• As our knowledge increases, our understanding of the changes happening in our weather patters will increase as well, which can allow us to be more prepared and ready to adapt.

Free Online Climate Change Education Resources

I haven’t had a chance to take all of these course options yet, but wanted to share some of the ones that looked interesting. And they are free! I love free access to education!

6 Climate Change Education Websites

1. UN CC: e-learn, UN Climate Change Learning Partnership

Visit the site here: https://unccelearn.org/

This site has a number of courses offered including a Climate Change IQ Test.

Some other course titles that sound interesting are:

Introductory e-Course on Climate Change
Gender Equality and Human Rights in Climate Action and Renewable Energy
Carbon Taxation
Climate Change: From Learning to Action

2. Coursera

Visit the site here: https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=climate%20change

Coursera has courses listed from a variety of institutions.

Some course titles that sound interesting are:

What is Climate Change? from the University of Colorado Boulder
Our Earth: Its Climate, History, and Processes from the University of Manchester
Global Warming I: The Science and Modeling of Climate Change from the University of Chicago

3. Open University

Visit the site here: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/climate-change/?active-tab=description-tab

This free course from Open University “explores the basic science that underpins climate change and global warming.” It sounds like a great one to start with!

4. Yukon University

Visit the site here: https://www.yukonu.ca/programs/continuing-studies/climate-change

Through the Climate Resilience Knowledge to Action Project, Yukon University has developed two climate change training courses. These two courses are: 1. Introduction to Global Society and Climate Change and 2. Climate Change and the Yukon.

5. Bournemouth & Poole College

Visit the site here: https://www.thecollege.co.uk/courses/free-online-course-certificate-understanding-climate-change-and-environmental-awareness

This one is specifically for those in the UK/EU, but it sounds like a great opportunity so wanted to include it even though I can’t participate.

Here are some details from the website: “This fully online level 2 Certificate in Understanding Climate Change and Environmental Awareness will teach you all about the principles of climate change so you can drive positive change and become ‘greener’ in the workplace and at home.”

6. UN Environment Programme

Visit the site here: https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/education-environment/what-we-do/massive-open-online-courses

“UNEP’s mission is to inspire, inform, and enable nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.”

Some of the course titles offered:

From Source to Sea to Sustainability
Nature-based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience

For more reading from our Climate Change Collective, check out this month’s post from Michelle: It’s Cold Outside — The Difference Between Weather and Climate

The Climate Change Collective

This post is a part of our Climate Change Collective conversations.

The Climate Change Collective was born out of an exchange that took place between Michelle and Jamie in the comments section of a Jamie Ad Stories blog post. Jamie and Michelle both care deeply about the impact of human activity on our planet and wanted to find a way to keep the climate change message top of mind for everyone. A tweet was sent out, bloggers responded, and we’ve all now teamed up to create the Climate Change Collective!

The idea is simple. The members of the collective will take turns writing a monthly blog post sharing their concerns and unique perspective about climate change. After the post is published, the rest of the group will keep the conversation going by sharing a link to the post on their blogs along with their thoughts and ideas. If you’re a like-minded blogger and would like to join our collective, please get in touch. The more the merrier!

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