A final report released by the Climate Literacy Zoo Education Network (CLiZEN) finds that zoo-goers are ripe for learning about climate change and could contribute to climate change mitigation. Zoo- goers feel an affinity towards animals and thus are found to care more about the environment and environmental issues.

The results suggest that zoo and aquarium patrons consider zoos to be trustworthy resources for learning about climate change mitigation.  Additionally, patrons were found to use their visits to engage in discourse regarding humans’ relationship with the natural world, providing an appropriate venue to improve climate change literacy.

 According to Alejandro Grajal, senior vice president of conservation and education for the Chicago Zoological Society: “These findings give us the opportunity to help visitors understand climate change and to provide educational information about what they can do to make a difference”.

By Kaitlin Szacki, [email protected]