…independent education

Act on Climate Change: Steps to Individual, Community, and Political Action

https://online.umich.edu/courses/act-on-climate-steps-to-individual-community-and-political-action/. 

“Act on Climate: Steps to Individual, Community, and Political Action is intended to help learners understand, address and respond to climate change as individuals and in partnership with their communities and political leaders. The course focuses on how to translate learning into action on climate change in the areas of food, energy, transportation and the built environment (cities). This course was co-developed and taught by Michaela Zint, Professor of Environmental Education and Communication, and University of Michigan Students. A range of academic climate change experts and professional leaders are featured.”  The Founder of Climate Steps, Dr. Annette Olson, took this course early on and it helped her formulate the plan for action plans with our resources. https://climatesteps.org/personal-planning-tools/. 

 

AimHi Earth – Sustainability Master Class   

No summary yet. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sustainability-masterclass-for-professionals-tickets-551462758957.

 

CCAI Summer School Lecture Series

The Climate Change AI summer school is designed to educate and prepare participants with a comprehensive background in artificial intelligence (AI) and/or a background in a climate change-related field to tackle major climate problems using AI. Topics include AI for Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification, AI for Climate Science, AI for Buildings and Cities, and so on. For each topic there will be expert(s) giving in-depth talk(s) about the topic, answering questions, and providing online coding tutorials. 

(Official website: https://www.climatechange.ai/events/summer_school.) Here is the resource link, with lectures and co-lab tutorials: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XoY34IWteQf-8pl4mVaVkXgAXJfrQfVXMqIcN_yioZE/edit#gid=0)

Related: 

1. AI/ML and SWE/Python Self-Study Materials: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gtdMPDEISW-e8tFhVcx24-Q6xfdFsFgr/edit#gid=1048929104
2. Climate Change AI General Resources: https://wiki.climatechange.ai/wiki/General_Resources. 

 

Citizen Climate Lobby’s (CCL) Citizen Climate University

A long, incredible playlist of courses/webinars on YouTube that deal with taking action both inside CCL and on your own. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?app=desktop&list=PLXjILMNokmN4ZOt59hPsGHC5Z7Y11g0nT

 

Climate Leadership Course, Cornell University. 

Four weeks.  Not free. https://online.cornell.edu/climate-change-leadership.

“This course provides an overview of climate change science and its impacts on the global food system so you’ll come away better prepared to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change on your business and contribute to potential solutions.”

 

Class Central

A central search site for university-level online courses on a multitude of subjects including climate change.  https://www.classcentral.com/subject/climate-change.   If you audit, it’s free.  Many of the ones listed below under Coursers and EdEx are also listed here.

 

Coursera

Coursera provides a window into their own specific courses, but also courses provided by partners, such as universities. https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=climate%20change.  The 183 courses are often not free, but their top 10 climate ones are: From them : 

“In summary, here are 10 of our most popular climate change courses”

• From Climate Science to Action: The World Bank Group
• ESG and Climate Change: University of Pennsylvania
• Global Warming I: The Science and Modeling of Climate Change: The University of Chicago
• Exploring Our Responses to Climate Change: University of Colorado Boulder
• Climate Change and Sustainable Investing: EDHEC Business School
• Global Energy and Climate Policy: University of London
• Our Earth: Its Climate, History, and Processes: University of Manchester
• What is Climate Change?: University of Colorado Boulder
• Global Environmental Management: Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
• Doing Economics: Measuring Climate Change: University of London

We at Climate Steps still need to take some to explore which ones are most suitable for public citizens to take action. 

 

EdEx

Similar to Coursera, EdEx links to a number of institutions, and provides a number of opportunities for climate action courses.  Usually, if you just audit the course (instead of Verified Education), the courses are free. Three potential ones:

1. University of Edinburgh:  Climate Solutions. https://www.edx.org/learn/environmental-science/the-university-of-edinburgh-climate-solutions.  5 weeks, 1-2 hrs per week:  “Learn how you can help tackle climate change.”
2. Nature-based solutions, from the Sustainable Development Goals Academy. https://www.edx.org/learn/nature/sdg-academy-nature-based-solutions-for-disaster-and-climate-resilience?
3. Smithsonian Institution.  Climate Change Communication.  https://www.edx.org/learn/environmental-science/the-smithsonian-institution-climate-change-communication.  “This online course will provide educators and volunteers with information about the drivers, impacts, and solutions of climate change, as well as strategies for talking about climate change in an informal education environment.”  If you audit, this is free.

See more at https://www.edx.org/learn/climate-change, including about carbon capture, macroeconomics, tourism, and agriculture.

 

Harvard University – Energy Within Environmental Constraints

Harvard has five climate-change related courses, but only one is free.  Energy within Environmental Constraints.  Intended for a diverse, nonspecialist audience, ” Energy Within Environmental Constraints … will teach you how to ask the right questions and estimate the consequences of different choices. This course is rich in details of real devices and light on theory. You won’t find any electrodynamics here, but you will find enough about modern commercial solar panels to estimate if they would be profitable to install in a given location. We emphasize costs: the cascade of capital and operating costs from energy extraction all the way through end uses. We also emphasize quantitative comparisons and tradeoffs.”

https://pll.harvard.edu/course/energy-within-environmental-constraints/2023-08

 

Project Drawdown, Solutions 101:

https://drawdown.org/. There is already a complete set of solutions to climate change that we just need to implement, as noted by Project Drawdown, which is considered one of the world’s leading research-based resources for climate solutions. 

“Project Drawdown’s mission is to help the world stop climate change—as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible. We do this by advancing effective, science-based climate solutions and strategies; fostering bold, new climate leadership; and promoting new climate narratives and new voices.”

A course on effective solutions under different main topics: https://drawdown.org/climate-solutions-101.  

Library of solutions: https://drawdown.org/solutions/table-of-solutions 

 

UN Climate Change E-Learning Portal:

A central website with multiple courses listed to help countries and individuals achieve climate change action both through general climate literacy and applied skills development. https://unccelearn.org/. 

 

University of Pennsylvania – LPS Online Certificate in Climate Change

“An Ivy League Certificate Designed for Professional Growth” – The phrase “Ivy League” annoys me, because it implies rich and elite (and expensive) in common American terms.  But University of Pennsylvania has a good reputation, so this course does have the potential to:  “[equip] you with an in-depth understanding of Earth’s climate system and the skills and knowledge to effectively communicate the consequences of a changing environment.”  But not for free.  Cost is not given, but a request for information form is available.  https://lpsonline.sas.upenn.edu/landing/certificate-clch.

We are glad to see universities and organizations everywhere starting to add climate courses.   The above is just a sampling.

 

**U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit – Training Courses 

For the 100 + training courses listed here, such as Climate Adaption Planning for Emergency Management, the key word in most is adaptation.

The training courses here can help you acquire the tools, skills, and knowledge you need to manage your climate-related risks and opportunities. All courses are free of charge, and are offered in at least one of three formats: online audio-visual presentations (“Online, Self-Guided” and “Tool Tutorial”), training webinars (“Online, Scheduled Lecture Series”), and residence training courses (“Onsite, Instructor-Led”). Each training module is accompanied with a test to help you evaluate your knowledge. These courses feature scientific information adapted from authoritative sources, prepared by recognized subject matter experts. The courses have been pilot tested with users and other subject matter experts and may be updated periodically, as needed.”

https://toolkit.climate.gov/training-courses.  We’ll take some and see what we recommend, but the climate.gov website is a solid tool.

 

Career Training

See also our Education page!

Online Solar Training and Renewable Energy Courses, from Solar Energy International (SEI)

This course is not free.  https://solarenergytraining.org/

From Dr. Cat Russell, our Energy program lead; she recommends this training course.

“I already have degrees in electrical engineering, but hadn’t worked in the solar industry before. I applied to a bunch of jobs, and just accepted a position as PV designer for Sunrun. I’ll be working from home designing residential PV systems, and putting my daily effort where my mouth has been for decades. I also live in an off-grid solar electric home, and have decided not to grid tie and move toward zero carbon by upgrading my home PV system instead, and installing a heat pump for primary heat so my propane fireplace becomes backup.”