Sterling Terrain V02 - Flipbook - Page 13
Sterling College | 11
Climate literacy is essential for a functioning democracy, and we do not have
that right now in any country. This is not
to say that there is an information deficit
amongst the general public that ‘climate
change’ is real, and that we must do
something about it. Most citizens are so
busy with their everyday lives that the
best most can do is to acknowledge that
it is real, worry about it, and then drive
the SUV to the grocery store or to pick
up the kids. We live in a state of passive
hope or passive denial, and that is totally
understandable, because there are few
social or political signals that we are facing an emergency.
When the government signs into law an
unprecedented climate bill that does not
require companies to reduce their CO2
emissions, handcuffs renewable energy
development to new fossil fuel projects,
and gives billions of dollars of tax cred-
its to fossil fuel companies for at best
unproven carbon capture technologies,
some of that trust or hope dissolves into
worry and fear or anger. However, if every citizen clearly understood what the
climate science consensus requires that
we do to avoid a hellish life for our kids,
we would know who to trust, which one
of those emotions to feel, and would
be more likely to act beyond our middle-class comfort zone on their behalf.
Our present course of climate inaction,
or inappropriate action, would not be
possible with a climate-literate public.
We cannot possibly know where to aim,
what is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate breakdown, or know if
our leaders are responding proportionately to this existential threat, if we don’t
have the tools to understand what the
latest climate science or policy soundbite means.
Ready to learn more
from Dr. Short?
Join Sterling online for Climate + Change
This self-guided course equips learners with the knowledge and skills
to understand the science of climate change and move toward solutions
to combat our greatest existential threat. This course aims to illuminate
the dark cloud in our minds called climate breakdown, by equipping
learners with the scientific knowledge, emotional clarity, and practical
know-how to contribute to timely transformative systemic change in
all aspects of society.
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Dr. Heather Short,
Adjunct Faculty
Heather Short holds a PhD in
Earth Sciences, and has been
teaching college and university
students geology and Earth
systems science for 25 years,
focusing on the present climate crisis for the last 15.
She is currently adjunct faculty
at Sterling and a consulting
scholar with EcoGather.
Last year she resigned from
a tenured teaching post in
Canada to focus on educating
adults about the urgency of
the present climate and ecological emergencies. She grew
up in Bristol, Vermont, and is
the inspiration for and content
producer of Sterling’s online
Climate + Change continuing
education course.