Búsqueda de babosas marinas: Understanding Barriers of Environmental Literacy and Climate Advocacy within Southern California Spanish-Speakers

The Hispanic and Latino populations are the largest ethnic minority in California, and more than 10.4 million Californians consider Spanish their first language. However, English is the primary language in most educational and public spaces. This means Spanish-speaking communities have limited access to coastal ecosystems and learning opportunities about coastal areas impacted by climate change and extreme weather, which becomes a barrier to civic engagement, climate advocacy, and local decision-making. During the 2023 summer, we partnered with local climate advocacy organizations and held educational programs at two public beaches in southern California. The presentations in English and Spanish taught foundational environmental information to participants, followed by tidepool exploration. We surveyed participants at the events to understand whether participatory science events affect climate advocacy and environmental literacy. We also assessed if demographic factors, including education level, income, and age, impacted their outcomes. Using data obtained from the pre and post-survey, we hypothesized the participatory science events would increase environmental literacy and climate advocacy levels among young adults in the range of 18-24 years of age and those whose primary and/or only language is not English. Ultimately, we show that educational programming targeting non-English speaking communities has tremendous power to challenge low environmental literacy rates and lacking civic engagement within intersectional and underrepresented populations. Therefore, the active creation and funding for systems supporting environmental education and advocacy action are key to moving beyond the traditional realm of what has historically been the norm in American society.