Recommended Web Sites for Teaching Climate Change
Jump down to research summaries | data | imagery | climate policy
educational strategies | professional development | personal impacts and solutions
General
Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) - The CLEAN project, a part of the National Science Digital Library, provides a reviewed collection of resources coupled with the tools to enable an online community to share and discuss teaching about climate and energy science.
NASA's Global Climate Change Portal - This comprehensive website offers quick access to evidence of climate change, recent research, data, imagery and key climate indicators.
Earth: The Operators' Manual - This extensive website is the companion to Richard Alley's PBS TV program. The site covers the topics of climate change and sustainable energy, and explores the ways in which these two topics are linked. A large section of the site is for educators and contains video clips, teaching objectives, teacher tips, suggested activities, and educational standards.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (more info) home page
IPCC reports, including the most recent 4th assessment
Summary for Policymakers summary of the 4th assessment report with graphics
Integrating Sustainable Development and Climate Change in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report
National Academy of Science (more info) - Climate change reports produced by committees of the nation's top scientists, engineers, and other experts who are convened to address key scientific and technical aspects of climate change and other topics.
US Global Change Research Program ( This site may be offline. ) - This clearinghouse includes research results, climate research by other government agencies and scientific assessments of climate change impacts. The most recent report is the Global Climate Change Impacts in the US, which summarizes the science of climate change and the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future.
Global Climate Change: NASA's Eyes on the Earth - This comprehensive web site includes a thorough presentation of the scientific issues of climate change using up-to-date data, information about NASA climate research missions, image galleries, an educator's portal and more.
US EPA Climate Change (more info) Overview of basic sciences and policy issues
US Geological Survey (more info) - Climate home page
Climate Change Collection (more info) - A suite of science education web-based resources covering natural climate dynamics as well as human impacts on the climate system
Real Climate.org (more info) - A blog by climate scientists. Offers excellent, up-to-date summaries of many climate topics.
Skeptical Science - Up-to-date summaries of peer-reviewed science, presented in a user-friendly format and organized around frequent arguments made by climate change "skeptics."
The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication strives to advance public understanding and engagement with climate change science and solutions; and catalyze action by the general public and leaders of government, business, academia, and the media through improved knowledge and understanding. This group authors the Global Warming's Six Americas reports.
Climate Change Toolkit from the American Chemical Society is designed to provide scientists with a deeper understanding of climate science and to assist them in speaking about climate science with various audiences.
Global Change: Intersection of Nature and Culture - A forum with the purpose of exploring big questions about society and environmental change.
Summaries of Recent Research
Nature Reports: Climate Change (more info) - Current research, analysis and news about climate change, from the journal Nature
Science Daily: Global Warming News (more info) - Browse news, scientific articles, images and video on a variety of climate topics. The advertisements and layout of the site can be a bit distracting though.
Data Sets
NOAA Monthly/Seasonal Climate Composites - This web interface allows users to create customized plots of several climate variables with datasets available from Jan 1948 to the present. Data types include temperature, sea surface temperature, winds, pressure, humidity, precipitation, soil moisture and more.
NOAA The World Data Center for Paleoclimatology (more info) - Provides data about past climate and environment derived from a diverse range of proxies such as tree rings, ice cores, pollen, sediments and more. The data cover the globe, and while most span the last few millennia, some data sets extend back in time 100 million years.
NOAA A Paleo-Perspective on Abrupt Climate Change (more info) - Selected datasets from glacial times and the Holocene, with supplemental text and references. This site would be useful for students because it presents a complete story.
CDIAC Global Change Data and Information Products (more info) - CDIAC's data holdings include current carbon emissions by country, paleoclimate data, long-term climate trends, and more. The format is easy to browse.
Energy Information Administration Carbon Dioxide Emissions Data (more info) - International CO2 data from various fuel sources, plus projected CO2 emissions through 2030. Excel format.
Common Sense Climate Index (more info) - Simple climate statistics for many sites across the world. What's the climate record near your hometown?
Eight must-have charts summarize the evidence for a human fingerprint on recent climate change - These key figures are useful in illustrating the connection between human activities and recent climate change.
Imagery
Repeat Photography of Glaciers ( This site may be offline. ) - These paired photographs from the National Snow and Ice Data Center provide striking visual evidence of climate change.
Vital Climate Graphics (more info) - Compiled from the second IPCC assessment report, these graphics include causes of climate change and projected impacts such as temperature changes and sea level rise. The figures are browseable by title.
Global Warming Art - Over 130 different images, graphs and photos describing various elements of climate change. Each image has a description, citation and information for reuse.