Climate and ocean literacy: Cultural dimensions
- 1Université Côte d Azur, France
- 2International Ocean-Climate School (IOCS), France
- 3Worldwide Sustainability Warriors, Barbados
- 4Department of Civil Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty, Near East University, Cyprus
- 5Energy, Environment, and Water Research Center, Near East University, Cyprus
Climate and culture influence each other. On the one hand, climate change (CC) and ocean degradation (OD) have an impact on culture (with a small c). According to UNESCO (2021), the negative impacts of CC on culture include loss of cultural heritage, local knowledge and language. CC also reduces access by communities to their culture.
On the other hand, culture plays an essential role in helping communities to fight against, adapt to and mitigate CC and OD (UNESCO, 2021). Culture includes knowledge, know-how and local practices in combating climate and OD. Culture is informally and formally transmitted through society and education. UNESCO (2021) illustrates the role of culture in fighting against CC:
Culture is a powerful resource for addressing climate change impacts. … Intangible cultural heritage practices have proven to be highly effective tools for helping communities prepare for, respond to and recover from climate change-related impacts and emergencies.
CC and ocean literacy methods encourage and embody cultural diversity. This presentation will provide examples of the cultural dimensions of climate and ocean literacy. These includes:
- The views of indigenous communities about climate and ocean literacy (Barbados);
- EN-ROADS (international and Iran), an online participatory simulation, often includes people from several cultures, especially in online workshops;
- IOCS (intercultural and France), an online participatory simulation, specifically includes an intercultural dimension and encourages people from different cultures to participate.
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Reference
UNESCO. (2021). Culture & climate change, Question & answers. Paris, UNESCO. https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/info_sheet_climate_change.pdf
How to cite: Promduangsri, P., Promduangsri, P., Alvarez de la Campa, S., Bolouri, F., and Gökçekuş, H.: Climate and ocean literacy: Cultural dimensions, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-217, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-217, 2023.