Carbon Literacy Knowledge

Completing this course will help you understand how our climate is changing and learn more about your role in taking action.

Course Description

This Carbon Literacy course looks at the basic science behind climate change. Completing this course will help you understand how our climate is changing and learn more about your role in taking action.

On completion of this course learners will understand:

• What greenhouses gases are and their relationship to weather and climate
• How the climate is likely to change and how we know this
• How changes in the climate are likely to affect us
• How our actions impact on the amount of greenhouse gases produced and the impact that they have
• How we can motivate others to take action and gain confidence in expressing our Carbon Literacy to others
• Where we can go to get help and what help is available to us
• What we are already doing locally and nationally
• What we can do to reduce our impact and the benefits and disadvantage of taking action

When you've completed this online training you will sit an online test and, once successful, you can download your Virtual College certificate.

Who should take this course?

The module is suitable for anyone wanting to further their knowledge about Carbon Literacy and be on their way to achieving their own Carbon Literacy accreditation.

What does this course cover?

The subjects covered in this module include:

Section 1

• Energy
• The greenhouse effect
• Relative contribution to global warming
• Carbon dioxide
• Climate change

Section 2

• What’s the scale of the problem?
• The scientists
• How confident in the science are we really?
• Conclusions
• Research
• How is climate change affecting us?
• The 2 degree threshold
• What the near future holds
• Global temperature records

Section 3

• How is climate affecting us already?
• Ice melt
• Positive feedback loops
• Albedo effect
• Peat
• Oxygen in the oceans
• Urban head island effect
• How does this affect us in the UK?
• Infrastructure
• Extreme weather events
• Coldest
• Driest
• Wettest
• Desertification
• Ocean acidification
• Sea level rise
• Taking action

Section 4

• Where does our energy come from?
• UK emissions
• No-renewable energy
• Renewable energy
• Renewable energy sources
• Renewable use in the UK
• Infographic
• Carbon footprints
• A load of laundry
• Cycling a mile
• A newspaper
• Drying your hands
• A carbon footprint of 10kg
• One kilo of cheese
• Global emissions
• Our choices

Section 5

• What can I do?
• Climate change denial
• Global emissions
• Reducing our impact
• UK emissions
• Your sector
• Disadvantages: 'The material world'
• Making choice

Section 6

• Internationally
• Nationally
• Double-edged swords

Section 7

• Where can we go to get help?
• Your sector

Section 8

• Comic
• Communicating our carbon literacy to others
• Putting 'carbon' in the conversation

Carbon Literacy Course Certificate

Learners will be able to download a digital certificate on completion which can be printed and filed for your records. The content of this course has been independently certified as conforming to universally accepted Continuous Professional Development (CPD) guidelines.