Scientific literacy: What do we need to know to make informed choices?

Climate literacy and carbon literacy are some of the most established frameworks for literacy in environmental science. They cover basic understandings of how carbon emissions are influenced by human activity, as well as the ways that individual or organisational decisions can make a difference to climate change. 

As emissions reduction measures move towards tackling scope three emissions, carbon literacy training will continue to increase in importance as a significant proportion of emissions in this scope will relate to behavioural change. 

Current climate literacy training should be updated to reflect the increased focus on adaptation and resilience and to support understanding and buy-in for adaptation plans. Climate literacy needs to be rolled out across all disciplines of environmental science to enable interdisciplinary collaboration in research and development — a key determinant of achieving climate-related targets and managing risk effectively.

Ocean literacy encompasses an understanding of how the ocean influences people and their lives, and how the ocean is influenced by the actions of people and society. It plays a key role in the UN Ocean Decade's mechanism for change, addressing key challenges such as 'changing humanity's relationship with the ocean', where ocean literacy is fundamental.

The concept of ocean literacy has existed since the early 2000s, starting with seven essential principles to underpin marine education to help people become ocean literate. Understanding those essential principles and fundamental concepts of how the ocean works are important aspects of ocean literacy, but it also extends to the ability to communicate about the ocean in a meaningful way and to make informed decisions about the ocean and its resources.

The last 20 years have seen a range of initiatives around ocean literacy, including the development of policy and education toolkits, which has built momentum for greater literacy in the future. The concept of ocean literacy has evolved in lot in recent years, with the focus shifting more towards the social aspects, recognising that ocean relationships, stories and actions are especially salient. As humanity continues to grapple with environmental crises in the future, ocean literacy must continue to evolve to make the impacts of linked crises real to people, and to help them understand how their relationship with the ocean can cause or address environmental challenges.

See our recent #IESTurningTheTide event on ocean literacy for more information.

Technological literacy broadly covers the understandings needed to engage in an ever-changing technological landscape, as new developments become essential parts of everyday work and life. As technology interacts with people in different ways, most technological literacy is bespoke by nature, giving people an awareness of how technology affects them and how they can interact with it.

Environmental scientists need to rapidly respond to advancements in technologies and ensure they are upskilled in deploying appropriate technologies, understanding their outputs and their limitations, and practicing reactive agility to manage risks and maximise benefits of technological use. 

Supporting technological literacy across other non-specialist stakeholders, such as citizen scientists, will also be important given this issue to ensure understanding of the correct use, and limitations, of certain technologies and resultant datasets.

Process literacy provides an understanding of governance systems and policy processes, so that people have an awareness of how policy decisions shape their lives and how they can engage with those processes.

Within policy processes, the perspective of participants plays a crucial part in determining how they interact with those systems, so having process literacy as a means of engaging with processes and the roles people play within them is a prerequisite to the proper functioning of those systems. Key stakeholders will need to understand their role in a manner which allows for the potential to secure multiple benefits for society, the economy, and the environment. 

For example, where planning and development processes are seen to be adversarial between developers, local authorities, and environmental experts, those parties engage in an adversarial manner. There is less propensity for data sharing, less willingness to collaborate on design early in the process, and less capacity for mutually beneficial outcomes. When policy systems operate in such a way, drivers in those systems stress against the overall potential to secure multiple benefits.

To enact change, environmental scientists need robust knowledge of policy and organisational governance. Policy knowledge should go beyond understanding regulation and reporting requirements, to cover how the policy process works and how it can be influenced. Understanding the interface between policy, the public, and science will also be crucial to develop levers for change. Knowledge of organisational governance and how it can be influenced will also be key. Creating senior leadership buy-in is a key success factor for embedding sustainability and limiting greenwash.

Systems literacy is a critical step towards engaging with a future where environmental crises are increasingly prevalent. It covers an understanding of the ways that complex social or natural systems interact, as well as an awareness of how to influence those systems for the common good.

To build a positive future of environmental science it is crucial that tools are developed to embed systems thinking and build bridges for truly interdisciplinary practice. Frameworks will be needed to support interdisciplinary working as well as novel approaches to knowledge sharing like best practice communities and knowledge networks, case studies of successful projects using interdisciplinarity, upskilling in science communication and systems literacy, and forums to connect disciplines. 

Professionals also need to be open to new approaches and ways of working, whilst maintaining the high standards and robust scientific methods that are currently used. This aligns with that broader need for shared understandings which unite the public, policy makers and integrate multicultural perspectives and scientific literacy. 

Systems literacy will be needed, not just among the scientific community, but more broadly among policy makers and the public. There is a role for environmental science and scientists in supporting raising the public’s consciousness and understanding in this area and supporting evidence-led behaviour change and solutions. This will go beyond just needing specific tools or techniques for systems approaches, but also a deep understanding of the natural and social systems themselves.