Mindful Climate Action: Weaving climate change education into mindfulness meditation for personal and planetary health.
Abstract
Mindful Climate Action (MCA) is a response to the climate crisis that combines mindfulness meditation with education on climate change and sustainability to reduce carbon footprint for personal and planetary health. The MCA initiative is the first of its kind to examine the relationship between an individual's carbon footprint and health.
NOAA's Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) received an AGU Celebrate 100 Grant to develop curriculum that dovetails with the weekly MCA themes of wellness and sustainability. The results are the following easy-to-update PDF chapters freely available on-line at http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/education/MCA/ Carbon Footprint 101 Air Quality and Health Water Conservation Healthy & Sustainable Diets Active Transportation Energy Conservation Ethical considerations and compassion for vulnerable populations Reducing purchasing and consumption Mindful Climate Action (MCA) is an eight-week eco-wellness program that teaches basic mediation techniques interwoven with tips to modify habits and behaviors related to health and sustainability. MCA was pilot-tested with 16 individuals in 2017; a second pilot was enacted in summer 2019 with assessment during fall 2019. Outcomes assessed include dietary intake, self-reported health and happiness, household energy use, transportation, and estimated carbon footprint. In addition to outcome assessment, qualitative methods are used to assess participant experience and the new curriculum. This presentation will provide an overview of the MCA program and share data gathered from 2017 and 2019 cohorts. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time an approach such as this has been tested, and represents a new paradigm for confronting climate change.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMGC33F1441M
- Keywords:
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- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 0426 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 1615 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 6324 Legislation and regulations;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES