WebJunction - Climate Change

Climate Change

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Current funding for the Gi21 program ended on September 30, 2008 and the information found in the program modules is up-to-date as of December 31, 2008. To facilitate use of the modules from now till the future continuation of the program, new documents can be posted from each module and sub-module main pages and the community discussions are open. However the main module pages and documents will not be updated. If you have any questions, please contact Kirsten Clark.

This is an overview of resources from the US government on climate change.

Contents

Key Resources

NOAA http://www.noaa.gov/climate.html is charged with helping society understand, plan for, and respond to climate variability and change.

NOAA has an Office of Global Programs http://www.ogp.noaa.gov/library/rtnw91.htm . The Report to the Nation on Our Changing Planet:The Climate System gives a good overview of what factors can affect our climate and make change.

There are two basic areas of information on each of the web sites: what you can do to help slow the effects of climate change and the science that explains what is happening to our environment.

Guide to Resources

U.S. Geological Survey http://www.usgs.gov/ states that they are dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the landscape, our natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten us.
The opening page of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/index.html about climate change is a portal to all the information provided on their web site. They provide access to definitions of terms, and explanations of the connection between weather events, human behavior, government and international policies and climate change.
Do you have questions about the Kyoto Protocol or why the United States decided not to participate in that international agreement? The International Cooperation page http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/policy/internationalcooperation.html provides information to answer that question as well as to let you know which international agreements the United States has been promoting and supporting and why.
United States agencies are working both within the U.S. and internationally to provide resources, infrastructure and planning for a greater understanding of climate change and its effects on the world economy. The multilateral page on the EPA website http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/policy/international_multilateral.html provides links to their partners and activities.
Climate change has the potential to affect our health as well as our environment. This page of links http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/index.html provides information that explains what we know (or do not yet know) about how our lives will change.
The site http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/polarregions.html is divided into pages that discuss various regions including the "Polar Regions" and "Forests and Coastal Zones." Each area responds uniquely to the effects of climate change. The links to "U.S. Regions" as well as "International Regions" allow the reader/searcher to consider the global effects of climate change.
The page titled "Adaptation" http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/adaptation.html explains that no matter how much humans try to improve our earth's environment, we may never be able to completely mitigate the effect we have had thus far, so we may need to adapt. This page explores that topic in a positive manner.
NASA http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html might not be your first choice when looking for climate change information but more and more they are involved through extensive information which has been gathered by their satellites.