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Provision of Climate Literacy in the Western Region of the United States

Tauhidur Rahman, Russell Tronstad, and Shannon Neibergs

Summary

The uncertainty of climate change and changing climatic patterns in the Western region presents unprecedented challenges to producers, especially to Socially Disadvantaged and Veterans (SDV) and beginning farmers. This means that shifts towards climate-sustainable production and risks management are required. However, climate literacy (CL) of especially SDV producers, necessary for their capacity to access climate information and their utilization in decision-making, is rather limited. For instance, frequently used terms in the climate forecast products fail to convey the intended meanings due to low educational attainments of SDV producers, and lack of customization of climate information. Thus, a provision of CL will improve the risks management of producers. However, to provide CL, an appropriate CL Curriculum (CLC) is required.

With funding from the Western Center, we have developed a CLC, based on extensive stakeholder engagements during 2022-2023, for educators that they can use to provide CL to producers in their regions. Among other issues, the CLC covers terminologies in climate forecast products; historical weather and climate patterns by counties; climate adaptation strategies adopted by communities under similar climatic environments; climate forecast records of the US agencies. Chapters of the CLC have been piloted with SDV producers in six locations in the West. The goal of this presentation is to share the CLC with the conference participants and seek their feedback. The final CLC will be publicly disseminated in summer 2024 as a product of the Western Center.

Details

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