Course overview
Welcome to Climate change and climate action
Climate change affects all of us to varying degrees. Shifting weather patterns that affect food production, rising sea levels that increase the risk of severe flooding and extreme weather events — for example, heat waves, hurricanes, storms, floods and droughts — are all indicators of major climate change around the world. The environmental, social and economic impact is enormous, and vulnerable communities, especially women and children, are particularly affected.
This course explains climate change and its impact on human lives from a local context, including local trends in severe weather and the impact of climate change on livelihoods. It has a particular focus on agriculture, water and food security. The activities and readings will help you to anticipate the impact of climate change in your own context, examine policies that are relevant to your location and develop a relevant advocacy strategy. You will learn to identify key strategies for climate action such as mobilisation and community-based conservation, identify critical conservation issues in a local context and align various climate actions and policies to support conservation efforts.
Climate change and climate action—Is this course for you?
This course is intended for people who are working with communities to strengthen their capacity to attain resiliency and food security — for example, grassroots-level volunteers, community leaders, community health workers and others who are in a position to support women and girls at the community level. You can use it for your own training or for working with your community.
You must be comfortable working in a digital environment to pursue this course.
Course outcomes
Outcomes
On completion of Climate change and climate action, you will be able to:
- describe local indicators of climate change.
- identify the impact of climate change on human lives, especially those of women and girls.
- develop strategies and take action to strengthen resilience and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
- identify and advocate for critical policies for mitigating climate change and its impacts.
Timeframe
Time
You will need approximately 7.5 hours to complete this course.
This course contains five units. Each unit will need approximately 1.5 hours of learning time.
An additional two hours of self-study time may be required.
Study skills
As an adult learner you will take a different approach to learning than you did when you were a schoolchild. You will choose what you want to study, you will have a professional or personal motivation for learning and you will most likely be fitting your study activities around other professional or domestic responsibilities.
Essentially you will be taking control of your learning environment. You will therefore need to think about how issues such as time management, goal setting and stress management will affect your performance. You may need to review skills such as essay planning, coping with exams and using the Web as a learning resource.
Your most significant considerations will be time and space — that is, the time you dedicate to your learning and the environment in which you engage in that learning.
We recommend that you take time now — that is, before you begin your self-study — to familiarise yourself with these issues. There are a number of excellent resources on the Web that can help you. For example:
This website has a list of resources about study skills, including taking notes, strategies for reading textbooks, using reference sources and dealing with test anxiety.
This website has useful links to resources on time management; efficient reading; questioning, listening and observing skills; “hands-on” learning; memory building; staying motivated; and developing a learning plan.
These two websites can get you started on your learning journey. At the time of writing, the links to them were active. To find more options, go to www.google.com and type in phrases such as “self-study basics,” “self-study tips” or “self-study skills.”
Need help?
At the learning centre, you will receive the same support as you would from a classroom teacher, or you might find a more experienced tutor to support you during a contact session.
Assessments
At the end of Units 1, 3, 4 and 5 in this course there is a summative assessment. There is also a self-assessment with three questions in multiple choice questions (MCQ) format for each unit. Each MCQ assessment will take 15 minutes to complete. There are no teacher-marked assessments.
Two formative assessments are also included in all five units to enhance your understanding of the unit topic and information.
