popcawn July 2024: Do you speak Carbon?

So, you’re worried about climate change: you know it’s going to affect our future, especially for our children and grandchildren, but you’re not sure how their future could look. You know that we need to reduce our carbon emissions and get to ‘Net Zero’, but you’re not sure how that might be done and what it would mean for our lifestyles. You hear people question whether we can do anything to halt climate change or why bother when China is emitting enough carbon for everyone on the planet. You ask yourself, ‘what difference can we make?'

This is where CA-WN’s new training can help you!  Alexina Cassidy and I have developed a Carbon Literacy® training course, accredited by the Carbon Literacy Project.¹

Carbon Literacy is defined as:

‘An awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis.’

The training will help you to better understand how climate change will affect us in different ways, how you can reduce your personal footprint, and will give you the confidence to talk about it. Talking about climate change is one of the most impactful things you can do when it comes to tackling it!

Becoming carbon literate involves completing the equivalent of one day’s worth of training and pledging two actions to reduce your carbon emissions. You will receive a certificate that you can show to your employer, potential employer, friends and family! You’ll join the 96,685 individuals from over 7,573 organisations who are already Carbon Literate.

We have already held our first course with members of the CA-WN steering committee, and they had this to say about it:

 "Excellent and well-researched course content...I particularly liked that it included both the science of climate change and how to talk about it."

"The extra reading/watching that was shared and clear referencing of sources so we could find out more was really useful."

"The main thing I learned was that the science telling us climate change is real and caused by humans is completely solid, and that we as a species can make the changes needed to halt climate change."

"You’re never too old to learn!"

We are providing the course on a not-for-profit basis, so the only cost is £10, which goes straight through to the Carbon Literacy Project for your pledged actions to be assessed and for your certificate to be issued. We’re planning to schedule four 2-hour sessions in September, that will be held online either on a weekday evening or at the weekend. We will offer different dates and times so hopefully there will be one to fit around your other commitments. Look out for more details over the next few weeks!

Footnotes:

1. The Project was established and is delivered by a Manchester-based not-for-profit organisation, Cooler Projects. The Project is held in trust for the people of Manchester and beyond and is overseen by The Carbon Literacy Trust. You can find more information here: https://carbonliteracy.com/