This session highlights the efforts focused on increasing climate knowledge, identifying barriers to climate literacy, and establishing best practices for climate communication. Climate communication involves informing audiences on the various changes to the climate and the environment from anthropogenic activities. Climate communication efforts may include but are not limited to museum exhibits, outreach activities, art galleries, and podcasts. A climate-literate person “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” (USGCRP, 2009). Continued work in this field is important because it ensures a scientifically literate populace as citizens need to be able to make informed decisions regarding climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

US Global Change Research Program, 2009: Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science. Second Version, 18 pp, https://downloads.globalchange.gov/Literacy/climate_literacy_highres_english.pdf.