ES-5830: Climate Impacts: Communication, Facilitation, and Stakeholder Capacity Building

There is broad scientific consensus that climate change is occurring and is caused by human actions. However, there is limited implementation of climate adaptation to help create resilient local communities. Local and regional governments have access to a wide range of resources that can help them become more resilient to climate impacts. Even with this information, communities still face significant barriers bridging the gap from planning to action. In fact, the US Third National Climate Assessment lists implementation as the number one significant gap in the success of adaptation. In order to overcome many of these barriers at the local level, civic engagement is needed to support municipal implementation of climate mitigation and adaptation actions. Engagement is a broad term that is often a precursor toward a specific action or behavior. In order to sufficiently engage the public on climate change, it is important to understand how people relate to this issue. In particular, what prompts individuals to take action or become involved in an issue. If we are looking for community members to collaboratively solve complex issues to achieve climate resilience, then we need to have a thorough understanding why people engage in an issue or specific behaviors. Collective actions at the societal level (civic or political action behaviors) include involvement and support of policies, plans, and funding for implementation of municipal projects that could increase local climate resilience. Community engagement with the issue of climate change typically is lacking at the local level. How individuals feel about climate change, how much they know about the issue, and how they act are all types of engagement that are needed for societal change. Research indicates a range of predictors that affect engagement, including emotions, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, identities, knowledge, worldviews and values, personal efficacy, response efficacy, mental models, meaningfulness, habits, routines, and social and cultural context. This module will provide guidance on how to effectively engage the general pubic in order to build the political will and public support needed for implementation. Learn how to identify and implement an effective communication and engagement strategy through evidence-based tactics, including a stakeholder process that can be used to develop place based responses. The course will also touch on the inequity of impact to populations due to climate change and build understanding of the social justice ramifications associated with climate change vulnerabilities.
Min. Credits: 1.0
Credit Basis: Semester credit
Location(s): Antioch Univ New England
Method(s): Online (asynchronous)
Course Type Environmental Studies

About

Leadership

Administrative Resources

Discover Our Campuses

Academic Focus Areas

Programs by Type

Programs by Modality

Programs by Campus

Academic Resources

Admissions

Information for

Dates & Deadlines

Tuition & Fees

Financial Aid

ES-5830: Climate Impacts: Communication, Facilitation, and Stakeholder Capacity Building