Introduction

What is this course?

Connecting for Climate Change Action is an innovative course that is developed to address the need for climate change literacy. Addressing climate change requires participation from people in all disciplines, sectors, communities, and backgrounds, and yet it does not form a core learning experience in many disciplines.

“Connecting for Climate Change Action,” uses a storytelling approach to bring Western and Indigenous Sciences together to educate, encourage discussions and motivate action on climate change.

This innovative, experiential, and online learning opportunity will engage and stimulate learners to action in mitigating climate change so we can leave the Earth a sustainable place for future generations. This course is our opportunity to improve climate change literacy, examine systemic inequities, and promote discussion and action for people from all walks of life.

Rationale for creating “Connecting Through Climate Change”

Despite scientific consensus across the world that human-driven climate change is happening as we speak (and way faster than we predicted), most countries are unprepared to navigate a rapidly changing and unpredictable environment. Government and corporate policies do not reflect the imminent actions necessary to prevent unnecessary death and destruction, and many populations are disproportionately adversely affected due to factors such as race, class, nationality and geolocation.

As wildfires and extreme weather events becoming more frequent and their corresponding headlines, alarming, more and more people across the world are viewing climate change as a global emergency. Despite these fears and concerns, many people feel helpless when it comes to taking action. The issues seem vast, and out of the average person’s control. The large systemic issues driving climate change, such as corporate pollution and resource extraction, seem to create a bystander effect – someone else will do something about it, right? We’d like to hope so, but – the system is made up of people. People like you, and me. Collectively and individually, and we all have roles and responsibilities to the next generations to come.

Recent research shows that ~60% of Ontarians believe that global warming is occurring as a result of burning fossil fuels (Mildenberger et al., 2016). Yet, the majority of Ontarians don’t believe climate change will cause them personal harm and that the best way to deal with climate change is to adapt to it. These statistics point to a misinformed population unaware of the necessity and urgency to both mitigate and adapt to climate change (IPCC, 2018). To effectively prepare for climate change, individuals, municipal to federal governments and most business sectors must be involved and prepared to act. Indigenous Peoples maintain their inherent responsibilities to the land through culture and ceremony, and therefore, are legally and uniquely poised to challenge Canadian climate change policies, land use, development and resource extraction. By braiding Indigenous and Western perspectives on climate change we intend to promote an educated, informed and engaged population while supporting Indigenous self-determination.

Connecting Through Climate Change was made for your learners

The course is a series of creative and innovative learning modules that can be used as a whole or as a subset. We encourage you to use the modules to provide a climate change lens in any discipline. It is our hope that these modules can also be used to facilitate community workshops aimed at preparing for climate change. We provide learners in Post-Secondary Education settings and communities with climate change knowledge and the opportunity to explore their values and those of others to promote the societal changes necessary for a sustainable future (Corner et al., 2014). We contribute to learners’ “green skills”, including basic skills in science and more specialized knowledge of sustainable energy and carbon foot-printing that are critical for labour markets across many sectors to remain competitive during the transition to a low carbon economy (Martinez-Ferdenaz et al., 2010).

Climate change impacts and solutions are not sector specific. Use these modules as a launching point for more discipline specific learning in these and other disciplines.

• Geography
• Indigenous Studies
• Agricultural Sciences
• Engineering
• History
• Medical Sciences
• Languages
• Sociology
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Earth Science
• Gender Studies
• Social Work
• Political Science
• Teacher Education

Let us know how you are using the course, modules, or learning objects!