USD Magazine Spring 2013

USD MAGAZINE 4 AROUND  THE PARK consortium spearheaded by USD faculty is using a hefty grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to try to redefine the way San Diegans learn about climate change and how they prepare for and respond to its effects. The Climate Education Partners, led by Associate Professor of Marine and Environmental Studies Michel Boudrias, was recently awarded $4.93 million for the second phase of its project. The grant was one of just six

GOING TO EXTREMES [ j u s t t h e f a c t s ] by Karen Gross A Michel Boudrias heads San Diego’s Climate Education Partners

bestowed across the country, and the only one given to a group based on the West Coast. The team is looking at climate change from a strictly local per- spective, and focusing its efforts on those with the potential for changemaking within their spe- cific communities. “The reason this started is that NSF, NOAA and NASA have all been funding climate change edu- cation nationally for many years and the needle wasn’t moving,” Boudrias says. “There seemed to

be some disconnect between the efforts and the responses from the general public.” The partnership involves col- laborators from USD, California State University, San Marcos, the Scripps Institution of Oceanogra- phy, The San Diego Foundation and the Steve Alexander Group. Its plan is to move the needle by working with so-called “key influ- entials” to disseminate informa- tion about San Diego’s changing climate, demonstrate local evi- dence of its effects, and have

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