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Climate Change Literacy to Combat Climate Change and Its Impacts

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Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

Synonyms

Climate literacy; Climate science literacy; Carbon literacy

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Literacy

UNESCO (2004) defines literacy as “the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts […] enabling individuals to achieve their goals to develop their knowledge and potential and to participate fully in their community and wider society” (p. 13). Literacy can also be defined as competence or knowledge in a specific area.

Climate Change Literacy

If literacy can be defined as competence or knowledge in a specific area, then climate change literacy is competence or knowledge in the area of climate change, its impacts, and its solutions. The goals of climate change education entail:

that the learner has an understanding of the basic science of climate and climate change; that people and organizations can make informed decisions; and that our behavior changes to a degree that we are not causing the climate...

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Correspondence to Julie D. Johnston .

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© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Johnston, J.D. (2019). Climate Change Literacy to Combat Climate Change and Its Impacts. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Climate Action. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71063-1_31-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71063-1_31-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71063-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71063-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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