Climate Education Roger C Stone University of Southern Queensland Australia

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1 Climate Education Roger C Stone University of Southern Queensland Australia

2 Basic premise: climate forecast information has no value unless it changes a management decision how do provide education in this framework? How to utilise climate forecasts in decision making. How much Nitrogen to apply given current low soil moisture levels and low probability of sufficient in-crop rainfall? Deciding, which variety to plant given low rainfall probability values and high risk of damaging frost and anthesis?

3 Underlying philosophy Meteorological institutions tend to regard information systems and forecasts as stand-alone products, whereas the farmer-agriculturally - orientated profession, in assessing information systems and climate forecasts as an aid to increasing farm productivity, regards these systems as a process. (Stone and Meinke, 2005) Answer for the educative process? - ensure that the (climate management) objectives are more farmer-driven - a knowledge-action system needs to be evaluated appropriate to the achievement of the farmers ultimate goals (e.g., towards more effective risk management), rather than the goals of the meteorological community (e.g., more or better understanding and use of its information and forecasts), The overall goal is to improve content, format, and distribution of information in order to increase use and impact of climate education (for farmers )(Hansen 2002b; Cash and Buizer 2005). A weather or climate product A processing system that includes weather/climate forecasts

4 Education on climate change and climate variability: Sivakumar (2002) stresses the urgent need, globally, for meteorologists/climatologists to increase their communication activities with farmers.! what cloud is that? - Note the detailed interaction - in the farmer s own environment. Meteorologists/climatologists/ extension specialists operating as one..

5 Cash & Buizer (2005) point out that designing fully end-to-end systems means that climate and weather forecast developers should begin their developmental and educational process by simply going into the field and listening to farmers, learning their perspectives, their problems, and their needs. Farmers are the same the world over (R. Motha, 2009)

6 Initiate conversations with lead innovators (as educators) within the farming community appears to be a key factor to success... These farming leaders can lay the groundwork for broader participation of other farmers and improved connection between scientists and farmers (from Cash & Buizer 2005).

7 Strong value in participatory approaches - discussion support systems Group facilitation and programmed learning

8 Participative approaches with farmers may reveal they may have an adaptive management strategy (e.g. planting strategy) in place that is independent of weather and climate information or forecasts! This may be in the form of response strategies to the current soil conditions that have been derived to best manage climatic risk. It is against this type of background that developers of new approaches in education and aids in risk management such as developing climate and weather forecasts must be prepared to set themselves and compare improvements in risk.

9 The value of case studies. There are some good general lessons that may be learnt from case study analyses from a number of regions where integration or dissemination of climate and weather information with farming decisions has been trialled. Case studies may represent a wide diversity of agricultural systems and various scales of farm operation.

10 The value of case studies in climate education Easy to read and understand actual working case studies: Masters of the Climate (MCVP). Some quotes! There s no such thing as too much information Getting sweet with climate technology (sugargrower). Keeping faith with forecasts From Grandad s records to cutting edge climate forecasts Trash blankets and climate predictions How climate affects the price of crumpets Making money from moisture

11 Leading farmers teaching through case studies farmer- to-farmer climate education!

12 Roles for Virtual Worlds Context Lifelike and virtually real. Community Relationship potential with all community - with teachers, students, alumni, colleagues, experts extension specialists, practitioners, researchers, business, employers, farmers Material Quickly manipulate and create digital materials for creative expression, machinima (film making) & visualization Combinations Mix and match these roles to create authentic tasks creates a discussion support system, improve presence for distance learners, improve communication or connect to a wider audience L. McKeown (2008)

13 Incremental and transformational adaptation (incl innovative agriculture and environmental management) online climate change education Professor Roger Stone 1, Professor Jim Taylor 2 Dr Lindy Orwin, Mr Torben Marcussen, Mr Jeff Black (ACSC) University of Southern Queensland, Australia; Dr Raji Reddy and Team, ANGRAU Project details How to reach millions and millions of farmers around the world with vital climate information? The project has determined effective means of developing and delivering key information on climate variability and change of relevance for agriculture world-wide. but has focussed, initially, on India. Screen shot of the UN WMO Agricultural Meteorological Program website Aspects associated with the use of specialist Internet Kiosks and similar programmes will be investigated to provide access to specialist information systems. Programs will be developed which will bring dynamic climate information and extension programmes to regions which would otherwise not have access to such information or local knowledge on how to utilise this information.. USQ is recognised both nationally and internationally for its outstanding distance education programs Discussing climate forecasts - Internet kiosk, Andhra Pradesh Contact Details: acsc@usq.edu.au; ACSC Website: WMO Website:

14 Providing a Virtual Framework Where experts are remote, suggest the need to use digital communication Integrate specialist knowledge in markets, climate science, agronomy Provide community access. Refreshing content! Central Governmental Climate Science capability Central Farm extension understanding Central Agronomy expertise Integrating models & Decision Support systems with Crop models On-line experts All accessible through a web portal

15 The challenge of multiple DSS In educative activity!

16 In the climate education framework, recognise the decision frameworks and the issues of scale - there are climate systems operating at many time scales! (Meinke and Stone, 2005). Decision type (eg. only) Logistics (eg. scheduling of planting / harvest operations) Tactical crop management (eg. fertiliser/pesticide use) Climate system (year) Intraseasonal (>0.2) Intraseasonal ( ) Crop type (eg. wheat or chickpeas) Seasonal ( ) Crop sequence (eg. long or short fallows) Interannual ( ) Crop rotation (eg. winter or summer crop) Annual/biennial (1-2) Crop industry (eg. grain or cotton, phase farming) Decadal (~10) Agricultural industry (eg. crop or pasture) Interdecadal (10-20) Landuse (eg. Agriculture or natural system) Multidecadal (20+) Landuse and adaptation of current systems Climate change

17 A role for formal and quantitative tertiary studies remains The State of Queensland has only 5 or 6 climate scientists..

18 An example?: Australian Sugar Farmer - Darren Reinaudo 22 April Climate pattern in transitional stage so I keep a watchful eye on the climate updates I take special interest in the sea surface temperatures (SST) particularly in the Niño 3 region. There is currently (2002) some indications of warming in the Niño 3 region which hints at a possible El Niño pattern.. Decisions: Sugar-cane replant would be kept to a minimum Harvest drier areas earlier, even if CCS may be effected. We don t run the farm based solely on climate information and forecasts, it s just another tool to consider when making decisions.

19 Conclusions: Focus climate educational aspects in agriculture/food on actual decision points eg frame the climate education around real-world decision-points. Focus on Discussion Support Systems that involve groups of farmers rather than (stand alone) decision support systems. Conduct fully participative educational aspects with users/farmers. Try to regard climate related outputs as more than stand-alone products - in an educational framework climate forecast outputs should fit an overall farm management process. (As the aim is to design fully end-to-end systems, climate systems educators could begin their developmental process by simply going into the field and listening to farmers, learning their perspectives, their problems, and their needs. Initiate conversations with lead innovators within the farming community so that farmers teach farmers (incl by example). Don t be afraid to tackle the big issues in farming in regards to climate education.. Provide many case study examples using real farming or user language and jargon.. Develop new forms of innovative educative processes (eg: web based or 2 nd life) if we are serious in reaching the millions of farmers. Develop core climate science undergraduate and post-graduate/diploma degrees.

20 THANK YOU Image courtesy: Selvaraju Ramasay, FAO.

21 My Links My Climate Links - BoM Seasonal Outlooks European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) - The Long Paddock - UK Met Office - UN WMO My Personal Links - Cricket - News (CNN) - Google India (Add your own links) My Agricultural Links - Indian Dept of Agriculture and Cooperation - International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Add your own links) To My Climate

22 Results of Managing for Climate and Weather workshop evaluation in Queensland, Australia, in terms of farmers opinions regarding the likelihood information obtained at the workshops would be of potential benefit in their future primary production decisions (N Cliffe, personal communication).

23 Seasonal Climate Forecasting Workshop (courtesy N Cliffe)

24 Workshop Objective/s Assist you to use seasonal climate forecasting information to make better management decisions in your business by: Building your understanding of climate forecasting generally Building your awareness of available forecasting systems/outputs Helping you to think about where this information may be used appropriately

25 Agenda Are there other climate related issues that are of interest to you?

26 Some guidelines for the workshop Mobile phones Listen to and respect other opinions Focus on the issue One person at a time

27 What is your local experience of rainfall and climate here?

28 What decisions might be influenced by climate information??? In groups, discuss and list some business decisions that could benefit from these forecasting products and information Think about: Crop management decisions Infrastructure decisions Investment decisions Other decisions

29 Industry Scale Axis What are the decisions? Linking climate information to user decisions complex issues of scale example for the sugar industry Industry Business and Resource Managers Government Irrigation Fertilisation fallow practice land prep planting weed manag. pest manag. Improved Planning for wet weather disruption season start and finish Crop size forecast CCS, fibre levels Civil works schedule Land & Water Resource Management Environmental Management Crop size Forecast Early Season Supply Supply Patterns -Shipping -Global Supply Water allocation Planning and policy associated with exceptional Events C l i m a t e forecast information Farm Harvest, Transport, Mill Catchment Marketing Policy

30 A Managing for Climate and Weather Workshop in action cloud observations 101 DPI late 1990s

31 However, farmers could still be encouraged to plant crops in seasons that may have not even been considered without knowledge gained from climate forecasting (Amissah-Arthur et al. 2002).