Cornell University
IN-49: Innovation C

The Cornell Climate Online Fellows program was developed to unite professionals and students within a global online community that is empowered to address climate change through tangible action and innovative solutions. For 14-weeks, about 35 fellows are chosen to participate in a cohort to identify, discuss, implement, and assess greenhouse gas mitigation actions they take locally and/or within their social networks. Participants are committed to attending weekly conference calls, participating in online discussions, and conducting individual action projects. For instance, fellow Emmanuel Niyoyabikoze founded the action project Greening Burundi, which works to reforest Burundi and work to inspire environmental education for children and teens. The organizer of the fellowship Marianne Krasny has extended the opportunity to engage in climate change solutions by offering a massive open online course, or MOOC, version of the fellowship, “Network Climate Action: Scaling Up Your Impact.” The course is offered through the Civic Ecology Lab, and encourages participants to identify methods to scale up individual actions to maximize positive impacts. Through discussing and sharing resources, participants will be empowered to implement an action of their choice.