Our award-winning Curious Climate Tasmania program asks one simple question: What do YOU want to know about climate change?
Information – and disinformation – about climate change is everywhere and often, frustratingly, the science can get lost in the noise.
It is important to us that we share our knowledge and that we’re tackling the questions you want answered.
And so Curious Climate Tasmania was born, commencing in 2019 to deliver public-powered scientific engagement, bridging the gap between experts and audiences with credible, relevant information about climate change.
The Curious Climate program was named winner of the Benefitting Society category at the 2022 Green Gown Awards Australasia, which recognise outstanding sustainability initiatives in universities and colleges.
Curious Climate Tasmania co-leader, Professor Gretta Pecl, from the Centre for Marine Socieoecology at the University of Tasmania, said she was amazed by how hungry people were for information.
“It started as a collaboration between ABC Radio, scientists, and the University of Tasmania,” she said. “ABC put a call out on the radio and people sent in hundreds of questions about climate change.
“We analysed and established what were the most common questions that people had in each region of Tasmania. We put a roadshow of scientists together to answer the local questions.”
The Curious Climate program was named winner of the Benefitting Society category at the 2022 Green Gown Awards Australasia, which recognise outstanding sustainability initiatives in universities and colleges.
A follow-up survey of 46 participants (by IMAS research student Emma Hamasaki) revealed that 82% of participants learned something new about climate change, 70% felt empowered to take climate action, and 81% shared the information they learned with family and friends (Hamasaki, 2021).
82%
Learned something new about climate change
70%
Felt empowered to take climate action
81%
Shared the information they learned with family and friends
Based on this success, the project format was modified to more specifically suit school children and their climate questions, and Curious Climate Schools was conceived, beginning in 2020 and including more than 50 schools.
“Children have a huge amount of questions about climate change and so it was my idea to extend Curious Climate into schools,” Curious Climate Schools lead Dr Chloe Lucas, from the School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences at the University of Tasmania, said.
“We’d choose climate schools, approach teachers to get their classes involved, the kids then voted on their top ten questions.”
A total of 280 student questions were submitted, of which 273 were “unique” questions, in that they were only asked once using the same words. Many of the questions submitted were complex, and often included multiple sub-questions.
Each student question was answered, either in video or webpage format, by the panel of experts, and those answers were uploaded to the Curious Climate Schools website, where they could (and still can) be explored by students and their teachers, as well as the wider public.
“We now have this fantastic resource on the web that will be a resource for kids for many years to come,” Chloe said.
We know that climate change is a source of anxiety for many children and young people today, and a lack of useful information impacts everyone’s mental health. Research has established that speaking about climate change is an important first step in easing that legitimate climate anxiety.
We recognise that children – and indeed the entire general public – deserve answers to their questions about climate change.
“The biggest thing for me was realising just how hungry people were for information on climate change,” Gretta said.
“The absolute bottom line is that the better we are able to understand each other, to work together, to use all the different knowledge that we’ve got, the better off our society will be.”
Watch our Green Gown Awards Australasia 2022 Curious Climate Tasmania Program video.