The Trilogy of Ocean, Climate and Coast:
The Urgency and Exigency of Literacy
The N° of places is limited to 20.
So, you should apply early.
International,
interdisciplinary,
intercultural
exploratorium
Ocean Open University
Université Internationale de la Mer
The Inter- Ocean-Climate School will be an exploratorium* or a kind of mini Model UN. It is open to all stakeholders with an interest in the intersection among the state of our climate, the well-being of our oceans and the health of our coasts (where about half of the world's population live). The diversity of issues is clearly illustrated in the Mediterranean.
All stakeholders have an interest in becoming literate in matters relating to our oceans, our climate and our coasts, especially as they intersect with one another in complex ways and as they influence each other with ever-shifting forces.
Stakeholders include include people who, and organisations that, have an interest in becoming ocean-coast-climate-geoethics literate, so that they may arrive at balanced and geoethical decisions regarding their planning and acting for the future of the oceans and coasts, especially the future as they will be shaped by accelerating global warming and climate change. Stakeholders as a collective must navigate their way to a balance between effectiveness (doing the tight things) and efficiency (doing things the right way).
Stakeholders may include: Researchers, decision makers, citizens, scientists, students, activists, environmental organisations, NGOs, scientific institutions, local and central government agencies and their representatives, business and industry, local politicians, health, tourism, utilities, military and transport.
*An exploratorium may be thought of as a participant-oriented forum for the hands-on, collaborative exploration of known issues through a new lens with the purpose of opening up pragmatic, action-oriented paths. This is somewhat similar to a Model COP.
The Inter- Ocean-Climate School is an official event of the
United Nations Decade of Ocean Science
for Sustainable Development.
The Inter- Ocean-Climate School
will bring together four content areas
oceans, coastal processes, climate change & geoethics,
as well as their interrelations.
Several learning methodologies are used, including:
participatory simulation, educational gaming, foresight & debriefing
in a spirit & context of
international, intercultural, interdisciplinary sharing.
Goal
Our overall goal is to encourage you:
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to become an even better ocean-climate-coast-literate and geoethical stakeholder and
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to help other people to become literate in the ocean-climate-coast nexus,
in other words,
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to learn about the ocean, coasts and climate system, to behave in a responsible manner in that system and to learn how to pass on your knowledge and skills to others.
Ocean-climate-coast-geoethical literate citizens:
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understand the inter-relatedness or nexus of the oceans, coasts and the climate and their importance to humanity and nature, and are aware of the social, political and governance issues involved;
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communicate about the oceans, coasts and the climate and their interaction in a meaningful way;
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are able to assess the validity and veracity of texts (publications, research, broadcasts, media, comments, debates, etc) that mention oceans, coasts, climate and their interrelationships;
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make informed and geoethically-responsible decisions regarding their individual and collective impact on the climate, on the oceans, on their coasts, on the sustainability of ecosystem services and on planetary boundaries;
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hone their skills and deepen their knowledge (know that and know how) in ocean-climate-coast literacy, in regard:
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to relevant parts and levels of both formal education systems and informal learning communities, including life-long learning,
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to pedagogical materials and procedures, their design, evaluation and implementation (including facilitation and debriefing),
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to learning processes and its barriers.
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Based on a statement by the Irish Ocean Literacy Network.
Opportunity for learning
Five interrelated threads will lead our way through the various workshops and activities of this international, cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary exploratorium. The school will be an exciting opportunity for stakeholders to broaden and deepen their literacy in oceans, climate and coasts, their interactions and their relationships with nature and humanity. Stakeholder participants will:
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learn about the complexity of the interrelations among:
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the impacts of global heating and climate change on oceans and coasts, especially in the Mediterranean basin,
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roadmaps** of policies and actions for learning communities and educatiobal authorities,
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the issues related to the human, biological and physical resources, biodiversity, sustainability, policy, governance, geoethics, health issues and cultural diversity of the oceans and their coasts under the impact of severe, inevitable global warming, driving climate change, and
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ways in which we may help people to understand these dynamics, to become more ocean-climate-coast literate and to make more responsible decisions related to ocean-climate-coast issues;
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become actors in the definition, building and writing of literacy programmes and policies, pedagogical actions and materials that need to be adopted and undertaken to help people adapt to and mitigate against the effect of climate change on oceans and coasts;
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engage with, get to know and make friends with fellow stakeholders with a variety of views, problems to solve and solutions to offer;
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break new ground in sharing, creating, learning about and promoting effective ways to engage people and communities to undertake positive action to mitigate and adapt to the ravages of climate change on oceans and coasts, especially in the Mediterranean.
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become familiar with methodologies, such as issues- and solutions-oriented foresight methods, data-driven, decision-focused, participatory simulation (Companion Modelling), educational games, and debriefing protocols and facilitation that enable stakeholders to help others become more ocean-climate-coast literate;
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participate creatively, collectively and constructively to unravel the complex web of interrelated issues and to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty;
Several weeks before the start of the School, we will give you some background, to help you get up to speed on some of the concepts, issues and methods in the School.
** Please see the Methods page for notes on the term roadmap.
No prior experience of foresight or simulation is necessary for participation in the International School. However, it would be useful to have at least some basic notions related to oceans, coasts, climate change and some of the issues involved.
Objectives
Several objectives intertwine in synergistic fashion, each one reinforcing the others:
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Provide a structured, methodologically-proven, creative and participatory framework for participants to learn about, engage with and be challenged by the complex interactions among, and dynamics of, actions, resources, science, sustainability, evolution, ethics, best practices, policy and governance related to oceans, especially the Mediterranean basin, and its coasts under the physical and societal consequences of climate change;
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Give participants the experience of being actors in the definition, building and writing of new learning programmes for concrete actions for the climate, coasts and oceans, especially in the Mediterranean basin;
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Allow participants to experience three different, but complementary, methodological approaches from the inside, and take back new implementable skills to their place of work;
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Give participants the hands-on experience of actually practising and improving their personal, social, technical and scientific skills in the negotiation of programmes for learning and roadmaps for action;
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Provide a rich opportunity for participants to do in-depth networking and make meaningful connections with like-minded people;
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Enable each participant to express themselves freely, in their own unique way and at their own level;
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Offer the opportunity for each participant to reap the reward of working closely with others, and of becoming owners of a common work, the (to-be-written) programmes for learning and roadmaps for actions for climate-impacted coasts and oceans, especially the Mediterranean. The programmes and roadmaps are likely to be useful later when participants return to their organizations and embark on or continue in their quest for implementing appropriate action.
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In short, encourage greater ocean-coast-climate literacy (literacy of oceans, coasts and climate and of the interactions among those three systems and between them and humanity), and thus help us to be more geoethical and the world to become just that bit more sustainable.
Target groups
The IOCS is designed for a broad range of stakeholder, including:
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Citizens, especially those with a close interest in the future and health of the oceans and coasts, especially in the Mediterranean, and impacted by strong climate change;
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Students at all levels (BSc/BA to PostDoc), enrolled in programmes related to the themes of the IOCS;
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Researchers, scientists, teachers, trainers and professors working in areas related to the themes of the summer school;
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Representatives of national and international organizations, such as NGOs, citizen associations, UN agencies, ocean research groups, local to international environmental groups, etc.;
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Officers of local and central government agencies, such as Ministries of the Environment or Ministries of the Oceans or of the Climate, especially those bordering on an ocean.
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Professionals working in areas related to the sea and coasts;
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Workers and leaders in business and industry, such as utilities, transport, health, media, tourism, military, trade and shipping, all of which will be highly impacted by, as well as have an impact on, climate change, including sea-level rise.
Please take a moment to visit and follow our YouTube channel. If you would like to suggest a film to include, please send us the link to oceans.climate at gmail.
Web of issues, topics, areas, stakes, ...
Below is a potpourri of interrelated issues, topics, focal points, stakes, concerns, problems and dangers that may well be raised during the summer school. Please feel free to email us with your own items (email address below).
abrasion, acidification, activism, activists, adaptation, air pollution, animal welfare, aquaculture, art & artists, attrition, behaviour change, biodiversity, biological resources, biosphere, business, capacity building, carbon, circular economy, citizen science, citizenship, climate impacts, climate literacy, climate refugees, climatology, CO2, coastal erosion, coastal processes, common good, common pool resources, corrasion, cross-cultural communication, cultural diversity, currents, deep sea mining, deep-sea mining, deposition, eco-tourism, ecosystems, ecosystem services, education, energy transition, environmental degradation & protection, environmental organisations, epidemics, ethics, extinction, fisheries, fishing, food security, food, forests, geoethics, geoethics literacy, geopolitics, intercultural communication, islands, geoethics, GHGs, GNH, governance, government, harvest, health, human rights, human well-being, human, industry, interdisciplinarity, invasive species, IPCC, learning, life support, marine debris, marine protected areas, marine resources, mass extinctions, media, military, mitigation, multidisciplinarity, natural resources, NGOs, ocean, ocean literacy, ocean governance, ocean technologies, olives, over-fishing, pandemics, peace, physical resources, phytoplankton, plastic, policy, politics, pollution, population growth, post-growth, postgrowth, poverty, refugees, research funding, research programmes, resource depletion, rights of nature, science, science communication, scientific institutions, SDGs, sea ice, sea level rise, sea temperature, slavery (esp in fishing vessels), solidarity, storytelling, sustainability, sustainable prosperity, sustainable tourism, sustainable fishing, transport, truth, UNCLOS, UNFCCC, utilities, water, watersheds, waves, wealth gap, wellbeing, wetlands, wildlife,
Some documents on these topics will be found on this page.
Our Inter- Ocean-Climate School (IOCS) will work in the spirit of this Editorial:
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6444/911, reproduced below for your convenience.
World Oceans Day 2021
8th June is World Oceans Day, the United Nations day for celebrating the role of the oceans in our everyday life and inspiring action to protect the ocean and sustainably use marine resources.
