Support for Climate Change Education Centre Helps Get the Message Out

The Climate Change Education Centre (CCEC) has received $9,800 in Provincial Government funding to increase awareness of the science and impacts of climate change throughout the province. The funding will also assist the centre in its efforts to help individuals take action to reduce greenhouse (GHG) emissions.

�I want to congratulate the centre on its public education programs that bring the climate change message to the people of our province, particularly our youth,� said the Honourable Charlene Johnson, Minister of Environment and Conservation. �This funding will allow for more program development and help develop a network of community partners which, in turn, will help reiterate the need to reduce emissions and keep the environment and sustainability uppermost in all our decision making.�

Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador has been the host organization for the Climate Change Education Centre since 2002. The centre provides public education and outreach that covers a wide scope of climate change related information and creates partnerships with a number of community-based organizations, including municipalities, industry and youth. As part of its mandate, it has a particular focus on reaching rural and remote communities. It is the centre�s long-term vision to increase knowledge and understanding of climate change and be the catalyst for actions necessary to address this issue.

Conservation Corps has been actively involved in climate change activities since 2000. Some initiatives include:

• Implementation of One Tonne Challenge initiatives such as the Choose the Challenge web page design contest;
• Implementation of the Tuning into Climate Change Project (a radio/Internet broadcast that focused on raising awareness of climate change);
• Partnered with Newfoundland Science Centre and others to host the Climate Change Exhibit;
• Delivered climate change capacity building workshops to more than 50 non-government organizations which has increased engagement of this sector in climate change programming; and,
• Disseminated more than 18,000 information kits on various aspects of climate change.

�It is important that we have the ability to continue to establish partnerships and get the climate change message out to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, and this funding helps us meet those objectives,� said Krista House, Public Education and Outreach Coordinator for Conservation Corps Newfoundland Labrador. �We understand, all too well, the serious implications of climate change, and we need to consistently help individuals and groups reduce GHG emissions wherever and whenever possible.�

Since its inception in 1992, Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador has employed more than 1,800 youth through its Green Team and intern programs.

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2009 11 17                       9:10 a.m.