Climate Change: Climate Literacy and Response among USM Students

Wan Nur Syamilah Wan Ali Et.Al

doi:10.17762/turcomat.v12i3.1168

Abstract

Climate change is a serious issue that not only affects Malaysia but also worldwide. Previous studies found that climate literacy may have a significant relationship with climate response while the level of education does not affect climate literacy. Thus, this study was conducted to gauge the level of climate literacy as well as their responses for Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) students. A mobile climate application named SmaCli is proposed at the end of this study to address the issue of negative response towards climate change. The featuresof SmaCli are based on responses solicited from the questionnaire and the aim is to enhance climate literacy and encourage positive responses. However, for this paper, the prototype of the application is not included. A total of 196 responses were collected which consists of postgraduate and undergraduate students. The study found that 66% of the respondents have high literacy on climate change, level of education has no significant relationship with climate literacy level, mitigation act (climate response) showed a significant relationship with climate literacy level, and adaptation act (climate response) has no significant relationship with climate literacy. Hence, a concerted effort is still needed to improve climate literacy levels to ensure a positive climate response.

Highlights

Climate change involves many dimensions as it happened due to human daily necessity activities (Boon, 2010), which mainly resulted from excessive greenhouse gases emission
It is reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 that the emission increased by 70% between 1970 and 2004 resulting from human activities that lead to the rise of new diseases, viruses and pest which sparked new problems in the ecosystem (Kwon et al, 2019)
Climate action can be defined as efforts that could be taken in coping through climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as strengthening human adaptiveness to the impacts

Summary

Introduction

Climate change involves many dimensions as it happened due to human daily necessity activities (Boon, 2010), which mainly resulted from excessive greenhouse gases emission. This study which focused on the third objective of SDG 13, "Improve awareness and capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning" involved elements of climate response and climate literacy. In addition to that, Beck et al (2013) and Sinatra et al (2012) found that climate literacy had a significant relation to climate response When humans reduce their vulnerability in the act of mitigating and adapting towards climate change, the severity of climate change as well as its impacts can be lessened (Stacy, 2016)

Methods

Results

Conclusion