UC Climate Stewards

The new UC Climate Stewards course of the UC ANR California Naturalist Program is a certification course for the public. The course prepares participants to engage within their communities in integrated climate solutions, community science, and communication to advance community and ecosystem resilience. There are 43 in-class hours (online and classroom), in addition there are 18 out-of-classroom hours (15 field trip hours and an 8 hour capstone project). Training covers climate science, communication, and community-scale action among other topics. Stewards will gain the skills they need to effectively communicate and engage in transformative local solutions. Participants will be exposed to up-to-date and locally relevant climate science to improve climate literacy and participate in citizen science with collective impact. The group and independent work will improve participants’ knowledge, self-efficacy and agency by improving climate literacy, understanding of local opportunities for climate mitigation and adaptation, and fostering climate change communications skills. In sum, this course advances a vision for California to have engaged communities and functioning ecosystems that are resilient in a changing climate.