unmet need for professional development in strategic climate communications and issue framing.
11. Climate change denial among Extension colleagues was also described as impeding the ability of Extension professionals to work with their colleagues or to feel that the environment was safe to plan and implement programs. 12. There seems to be little coordination between seemingly disparate programs . Specifically, collaboration between Land and Sea Grant institutions could be much further enhanced and coordinated. While there are some regional and national efforts, the only national initiative that attempts to draw in Extension educators across programs and deals primarily with climate change and extreme weather is the National Extension Climate Initiative. While there are a number of additional related national efforts, they do not explicitly focus on climate change and extreme weather. There could be a much more focused emphasis and increased coordination across states, regions, and nationally. 4
Opportunities
13. We note both from the interview data as well as our analysis of the entire data set that there is a sense of urgency to increase climate change and extreme weather programming broadly and within and across disciplines; we also note a need to increase investment in resources including professional development, salaried personnel (FTEs), dedicated specialist and coordinator positions, and related resources associated with climate change and extreme weather programming. 14. Program impacts are largely unknown ; while there are some attempts to document and evaluate program outcomes, we found few examples and even fewer standardized methods of gauging program success and growth potential. Both standardized and context-based evaluation templates could be collected, developed and shared. 15. There is great potential to share programming experience, knowledge and resources within and between states, regions, and nationally. While many states may offer several climate or extreme weather resources such as factsheets or webinars, few have coordinated programs linking the resources and the various people and departments working on them; we note the lack of coordination may be the result of poor communication across the state system, or a more concerted effort to not draw attention to climate change and extreme weather.
16. A locally-based approach can be used to better prepare Extension professionals about the science behind climate change, and how best to teach about it. The evidence suggests that the
4 We note the ‘silo - effect’ often encountered in higher education can limit abilities to address major environmental issues facing our clientele. In reference to the Land Grant Extension system, Hill and Seger (2018) rep ort “...our system-wide culture of autonomy and entrepreneurship can often lead to a silo effect - a general lack of cooperation and integration of information” (p.65).
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