You & CO2: Climate Change Education

“You and CO₂” is an innovative, interdisciplinary project combining research and public engagement activities to encourage young people, aged 12-15, to engage with the global problem of climate change on a local scale and to commit to behaviour changes that will reduce their carbon footprints.

Through three workshops delivered in class, we educate the students about the role of carbon dioxide in climate change and the carbon dioxide emissions associated with everyday activities. The students read/play No World 4 Tomorrow, a custom-built interactive digital fiction on climate change, and then create their own interactive stories on the topic.

Through discussing and creating their own works of fiction, we encourage the students to explore their ideas about climate change and the role that individual citizens play in shaping the world’s climate. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of these workshops on young people’s engagement with climate change, and to assess whether their personal feelings about their own responsibilities for their carbon dioxide emissions change over the course of the workshops.

This project is conducted by Dr Jennifer Rudd (PI) in the School of Management at Swansea University, Dr Lyle Skains at Bournemouth University, Dr Ruth Horry in the Department of Psychology at Swansea University, and Dr Helen Ross at Helen’s Place. For more, go to http://youandco2.org.