You may be wondering what the term “climate literacy” means. In the 2009 publication “Climate Literacy:  The Essential Principles of Climate Sciences,” a climate-literate person is defined as having the following four characteristics:

• understands the essential principles of Earth’s climate system
• knows how to assess scientifically credible information about climate,
• communicates about climate and climate change in a meaningful way, and,
• is able to make informed and responsible decisions with regard to actions that may affect climate.

The forum could not have been held at a better time–the day after the final presidential debate, during which neither candidate mentioned the “C” words, “climate change,” for the first time in several election cycles, and after a summer of  extreme weather events such as the Mid-Atlantic derecho and the near-nationwide drought. It was clear to forum attendees that the extreme weather was climate change-fueled, and that if our political leaders and the media are to recognize those connections in the future, we need to continue to increase climate literacy at all levels in our society.

Reassuringly, we’re not starting from scratch. Countless studies and reports already offer some facts on which to base programs. The more that people know about climate change, the more concerned they are; the Alliance for Climate Education travels to high schools across the nation holding school-wide climate emergency assemblies presenting the basics of climate science and asking students to commit to “Do One Thing” to reduce their carbon footprint. They have reached over one million students and spurred environmental projects at high schools nationwide. Earth:  The Operator’s Manual is a documentary film about ways ordinary people are already mitigating and preparing for effects of climate change. Writer-director Geoff Haines-Stiles calls the storytellers in this doc “unusual suspects,” as they don’t generally fall into the demographic categories that regularly talk about the importance of addressing climate change, further conveying the point that we all have a role to play when it comes to climate change.

Talking about climate change can be an overwhelming experience for young children, or anyone, really, so the experts say that when breaching the subject, talk about a local issue, something small but highly visible, and then, over time, increase the scope of your discussion.

After a variety of panels, attendees broke out into groups for brainstorming sessions, coming up with dream headlines about climate literacy in 2020–”US leads in green jobs, unemployment rates lowest in decades” and “Climate change major topic in presidential debates,” as examples–and then thinking about ways to turn these dream headlines into reality. After being exposed to the hard work of everyone at the conference, there is no doubt that climate literacy will continue to increase in the future. In fact, it already is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pKYIrrGZzVc

Many days it’s rather depressing to be a climate scientist.  It can be hard to keep a positive outlook when we seem to be on a trajectory toward more and more severe impacts. But, every so often, I get to witness firsthand real stories of hope and inspiration. These moments are what keep me going and make me confident that we are going to have a brighter future.

Last week, I had one of those moments. I attended a conference on climate change education organized by NASA, NOAA, and NSF. Being at a meeting with so much positive energy and creativity devoted to helping kids and adults understand what’s happening to the climate was invigorating in itself.  The real highlight of the three days for me, however, was getting to hear from Cliff Etheredge.

A Real Climate Hero

Cliff Etheredge a farmer from Roscoe, Texas, who convinced nearly all of his neighbors to install a wind farm on their land.  His story is featured in a new PBS program based on Earth: The Operator’s Manual, a book by climate scientist Richard Alley (another climate hero!).

Conventional wisdom suggests that Roscoe would not be on the cutting edge of climate solutions, but Cliff helped his neighbors understand that leasing their land for wind energy development made good business sense. Check out this video clip about his story and all the positive impacts his efforts have had for his community.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Climate Solutions Help Communities Become Climate Resilient

Roscoe is in west Texas, an area hard hit by last year’s record-breaking drought.  I asked Cliff how Roscoe had been affected by the drought.  He replied that the local baler usually processes 100,000 bales of cotton each year, but last year they only had 6,000 bales.  Ranchers had been forced to sell off 90% of their mother herds at a huge financial loss.

In fact, Cliff said that the only positive, regular source of income was from the wind turbines.  Each turbine can be counted on to bring in $10,000-$15,000 a year.

What is remarkable to me about this anecdote is that investing in an energy source that helps us to cut carbon emissions, an essential step to tackling climate change, also was instrumental in helping this community weather the worst drought that most of its residents had ever witnessed. Indeed, as Congress today heard testimony about how weather and climate extremes increase the vulnerability of our energy systems, they would do well to also consider how moving to new energy sources can reduce those vulnerabilities and provide some level of financial cushion to communities like Roscoe, TX.

Reasons for Hope

With teams of passionate, creative climate change educators out there, reaching more and more people, and with everyday heroes like Cliff Etheredge out there implementing real-world climate solutions, we can all feel hopeful. We just need some common sense, ingenuity, and persistence to solve these problems. Otherwise, in Cliff’s words, we run the risk of “messing in our own nests!”