Tackling the Climate Crisis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Change Education and Communication

Abstract

Despite high levels of public awareness about anthropogenic climate change and increasing pressure on the political sphere, climate action among large parts of the general public still remains relatively low. However, climate strikes and demonstrations with ten thousand of predominantly young participants in the recent past may have uncovered new drivers, processes, and forms of individual as well as collective engagement with climate change. So what are the individual and societal preconditions, factors, and mechanisms that facilitate or prevent action on climate change among different segments of the population? And what are the potentials and limitations for climate change education and communication efforts? Here, various disciplines within the educational, psychological, social and climate sciences, as well as humanities can provide the theoretical and practical instruments to understand public engagement with climate change.

This session aims to provide multiple perspectives into the challenges and opportunities of climate change communication and education. Inviting contributions from a broad range of disciplines (e.g., education, psychology, communication, public understanding of science, humanities, social and natural sciences), this session focuses on the perception, processing, communication, application, learning, and education of climate information and knowledge. Talks or posters may relate to all approaches (e.g., theoretical and practical, quantitative and qualitative), scales (i.e. local, national, global), and age levels (e.g., children, adolescents, adults). We encourage contributions from young scientists (Master- or PhD-projects), while interdisciplinary projects are especially welcomed too.