{"id":8345,"date":"2023-06-21T08:40:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T08:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8345"},"modified":"2023-06-21T08:40:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T08:40:42","slug":"a-climate-literate-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2023\/06\/21\/a-climate-literate-person\/","title":{"rendered":"A climate-literate person ..."},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote the other day<\/a> about the lack of a definition by the RMetS of 'climate literacy'. \u00a0I was wrong, it seems (thanks to all those with better memories than me for pointing it out). \u00a0RMetS said what it means to them it in the DfE-funded climate literacy survey<\/a> that they carried out in 2022 (which they are now repeating I'm told). \u00a0It is:<\/p>\n

Understanding of the Earth\u2019s climate and the impact of global warming<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Well, perhaps. \u00a0Do you get the impression that someone said as literacy is about understanding and climate change is caused by global warming, why not just stick these together? \u00a0It rather looks like it. \u00a0If so, it's all rather underwhelming and lacking in much by way of a conceptual basis.<\/p>\n

The trouble is that adding 'literacy' to a noun \u2013 financial literacy \/ economic literacy \/ sustainability literacy \/ carbon literacy \/ design literacy \/ literacy literacy \/ etc \u2013 is just too easy. \u00a0Actually, I made literacy literacy<\/em> up but it makes just as much sense as some of the others. \u00a0Having added 'literacy' the temptation is then to think 'job done', and avoid the hard work of exploring and justifying what it all means. \u00a0This takes us back to the RMetS \u2013 and many others.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the idea of literacy, especially at its most foundational level, is reading and writing, both of which are actions which can and do lead to understanding and often to other things. \u00a0Call me picky if you like, but it follows (for me at any rate) that this idea of writing \/ reading\u00a0\u2013 coding \/ decoding<\/i> \u2013 must be there if the addition of 'literacy' it to be justified in the examples set out above (there are many more).<\/p>\n

So is there a way of thinking about climate literacy that does this? \u00a0It might seem rather unlikely on the face of it as, whilst reading a climate<\/em> makes a lot of sense (we all do this if we climate shift when going on holiday), what does writing a climate<\/em> mean?<\/p>\n

Well, here's a possibility.<\/p>\n

The US Global Change Research Programme<\/a> talks about it this way:<\/p>\n

Climate Science Literacy is an understanding of your influence on climate and climate\u2019s influence on you and society.<\/p>\n

A climate-literate person:<\/p>\n