THE CLIMATE LITERACY ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES: IMPROVING CLIMATE LITERACY ACROSS ALL STAKEHOLDERS AND AUDIENCES

“Climate Science Literacy is an understanding of your influence on climate and climate’s influence on you and society.” With the increasing evidence that the Earth’s climate is changing in unprecedented ways as a result of man’s activities [IPCC, 2007] it has become increasing important for individuals and society to become climate literate. In order to facilitate this the Climate Literacy: Essential Principles of Climate Science has been articulated (http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/Literacy/). This document has been endorsed by the 13 Federal agencies that make up the US Global Change Research Program/ Climate Change Science Program and twenty-four other institutions.

In order to promote the implementation of these Climate Literacy Essential Principles the Climate Literacy Network (CLN, http://www.climateliteracynow.org) was formed in January 2008. Made up of a broad spectrum of stakeholders, this group holds weekly discussions about the complex issues involved in making climate literacy real for all citizens, and how to leverage their efforts to address those issues. CLN has also put forward policy documents and educational guidelines to facilitate improving climate literacy and energy awareness. CLN is also developing a regional model to coordinate and leverage the wide range of activities that are already occurring, with plans that the model will be adapted to other regions around the country.

In this talk we will review the Climate Literacy: Essential Principles of Climate Science and their status, and discuss the activities of the Climate Literacy Network to improve climate literacy for citizens as individuals and for society as a whole.