Climate Change Education and the Ecological Footprint
Open accessAbstract
Global warming has become one of the most important scientific, political, and social issues of our era. In designing an effective mitigation strategy, it is clear that public education must play an important role. This study looks at various components of climate change literacy within a cohort of university students and investigates the impact of action-oriented learning on student understanding. Results from questionnaires given to primarily nonscience students enrolled in weather and climate courses are used to examine student knowledge of climate change. In agreement with prior research, this study finds that significant student misconceptions exist regarding the causes of global warming and the relationship between global warming and ozone depletion. Most students seem to connect global warming only with visible pollution, such as exhaust from either a car or factory, while discounting more indirect emissions such as from electricity use and through product or food consumption. The authors then explore how a learning activity designed around the “ecological footprint” affects student ideas about their personal energy use and connections with global warming. The results show that a relatively simple learning activity that personally engages the student improves understanding of the connection between personal energy use and global warming. This work suggests that similar curricula, employing methods of personal engagement and social activism, be further developed to aid in the teaching of climate change.
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Educational activities centered on climate change and carbon footprints can engage learners in understanding the connection between personal and collective actions and their impact on global climate, and can enable individuals to make climate-friendly lifestyle choices such as reducing energy use.
“Research has shown that educational activities centered on climate change and carbon footprints can engage learners in understanding the connection between personal and collective actions and their impact on global climate, and can enable individuals to make climate-friendly lifestyle choices such as reducing energy use [142].”
From Tackling climate change with machine learning (2023) · cites this paper as [142]
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Research works printed but not linked: 1
- THE LIFE CYCLES OF EXTRATROPICAL CYCLONES Edited by Melvyn A. Shapiro and Sigbj0rn Granas Containing expanded versions of the invited papers presented at the International Symposium on the Life Cycles of Extratropical Cyclones, held in Bergen, Norway, 27 June-1 July 1994, this monograph will be of interest to historians of meteorology, researchers, and forecasters. The symposium coincided with the 75th anniversary of the introduction of Jack Bjerknes's frontal-cyclone model presented in his seminal article, "On the Structure of Moving Cyclones." The monograph's content ranges from a historical overview of extratropical cyclone research and forecasting from the early eighteenth century into the mid-twentieth century, to a presentations and reviews of contemporary research on the theory, observations, analysis, diagnosis, and prediction of extratropical cyclones. The material is appropriate for teaching courses in advanced undergraduate and graduate meteorology.
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- Authors
- Cordero, E. C., Todd, A. M., & Abellera, D.
- Affiliations
- San Jose State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cordero, Eugene C.
- ORCID
- Cordero, Eugene C.
- Venue
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
- Publisher
- American Meteorological Society
- Published
- 2008-06
- Volume
- 89
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 865-872
- ISSN
- 0003-0007 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-0477
- OpenAlex
- W2115878674
- Cited by
- 160
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 12.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (publishedVersion)
- San Jose State University Scholar Works (San Jose State University) (submittedVersion)
- San José State University ScholarWorks (San Jose State University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Climate Change Communication and Perception
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental and sustainability education
- Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
- Keywords
- climate change education, climate change literacy, ecological footprint, ozone depletion, hands-on learning, university students, public engagement with climate change
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