An award has been made to George Mason University to establish a Phase I Climate Change Education Partnership (CCEP) in collaboration with the American Meteorological Society, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, American Geophysical Union, American Association of State Climatologists, and Climate Central. The overall goal of the CCEP Phase I project is to establish a coordinated national network of regionally- or thematically-based partnerships devoted to increasing the adoption of effective, high quality educational programs and resources related to the science of climate change and its impacts. This project will focus on establishing a national network of on-air broadcast meteorologists, climate scientists, university research programs, and key climate and weather science organizations, to engage, train, and empower local broadcast meteorologists to educate and inform the American public about climate. The specific goals include (1) identifying the resources, training and other forms of support that will enable weathercasters to incorporate relevant information about climate change into their broadcasts; (2) identifying, among those weathercasters still undecided about the reality of anthropogenic climate change, (a) the nature of their indecisions, and (b) opportunities to help them reach a conclusion consistent with scientific consensus; (3) developing a prototype conflict analysis and resolution process between weathercasters who reject the scientific consensus and those who accept it so as to (a) understand their differences and the patterns of interactions and (b) develop frameworks that mediate their concerns; (4) developing linkages with existing climate- and weather-related citizen science programs to enable weathercasters to involve their viewers in climate and weather science; (5) identifying curriculum and curriculum development needs for teaching climate science to undergraduate meteorology students and certificate candidates; and (6) designing a five-year implementation plan that (a) leverages the accomplishments of objectives 1-5 into an initiative that can achieve our goal and (b) is financially sustainable. More information on this project is available by visiting www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503465, or contacting the PI.
The goal of this project was to develop a climate change education partnership involving climate scientists, social scientists, and the nation’s TV weathercasters with the aim of increasing public understanding of the relationships between climate, climate change, local weather extremes and community vulnerability. A previously funded NSF pilot-project tested the potential of TV weathercasters as climate educators (Award # DRL-0917566) and found that when TV weathercasters make the effort to educate their viewers about the local implications of climate change, their viewers learn (as compared to viewers of other news stations in the same media market). In this project, a partnership was formed – including universities and research centers (Mason, Yale, Cornell, National Center for Atmospheric Research), professional societies (American Meteorological Society, National Weather Association, American Association of State Climatologists, American Geophysical Union), government agencies (NOAA, NASA), and non-profit organizations (Climate Central, National Environmental Education Foundation) – to develop a strategic plan intended to help TV weathercasters nationwide become effective climate educators. Seven distinct research projects – including surveys, in-depth interviews, and workshops with broadcast meteorologists – were conducted as part of the planning process. Key findings included: at least half of all weathercasters would like to report on climate change, but current rates of reporting are low; lack of time is the biggest barrier to reporting on climate change; weathercasters are interested in reporting on a wide range of local climate change stories; and weathercasters report that providing them with broadcast-ready materials, professional development opportunities, and access to experts will make it easier for them to report on climate change. The plan calls for the development and distribution of broadcast ready graphics and talking points – and professional development activities – designed to make it easy for interested weathercasters to educate their viewers about the local weather and related implications of climate change. A CCEP-II proposal was submitted to implement this plan; that proposal was not funded. The outcome of this project is that the two professional societies that represent broadcast meteorologists (AMS and NWA) – in partnership with universities (Mason and Yale), government agencies (NOAA and NASA) and a non-profit organization (Climate Central) – are now seeking funding from other sources to implement the plan to enable TV weathercasters as climate educators. To share what was learned in this planning process, thus far, nine reports, journal articles and book chapters have been published.
