Constraints on Including Locally Held, Landscape-Based Climate Knowledge During a Community-Based, Collaborative Map-Building Exercise (Poster 3)

• In Event: Mapping the Terrain of Climate Change Education: Literacy, Curricula, Practices, and Policy

Abstract

National surveys demonstrate that adult Americans can be reluctant to discuss climate change, constraining community-based educational efforts. Untangling the complex reasons for this reluctance is needed before remedies can be developed. This research engaged six community members within a conservative-leaning, rural community in collaboratively designing an online, public map of a nature trail at the center of their town. Analysis of more than twelve hours of design session transcripts and artifacts found that participants believed in climate change but didn’t feel comfortable explicitly including local climate change data on their map. Analysis indicated that this might, in part, be due to the culture of avoidance of the term “climate change” found locally within formal climate change discussions.

Author

• Heather Killen, University at Buffalo - SUNY