Global, National, and Regional

CEQ FACT SHEET: Actions to Build Resilience to Climate Change Impacts in Vulnerable Communities. With cities, states and tribes already confronting the costly impacts of climate change, the Obama Administration is committed to ensuring that communities develop smart strategies and partnerships for building climate resilience. As part of his Climate Action Plan, the President established the State, eoocal, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience (Task Force) in 2013 to help the Federal Government respond to the needs of communities nationwide that are dealing with the impacts of climate change. The Task Force recommendations emphasized the importance of supporting communities that are likely to be disproportionately affected, including those that already face economic- or health-related challenges. The Third U.S. National Climate Assessment also noted that socioeconomic disparities can exacerbate the vulnerability of certain populations, including low-income, tribal, and some communities of color, due to in part to limited capacity and resources necessary to prepare and adapt.

Using TEK to model the effects of climate change and sea-level rise on coastal cultural resources at Tolowa Dunes State Park, Del Norte County, California: Project Report from NPLCC (North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative). The project objectives were to obtain information regarding past catastrophic events, such as tsunamis, and TEK through oral history interviews with Tolowa elders regarding the effects of climate change and tsunamis on traditional smelt fishing camps; generate a GIS model of coastal inundation due to sea level rise and overlay that with known archaeological and ethnographic resources; and generate a final report with detailed information of past tsunami events, and modeling the potential effects of climate change and sea level rise on archaeological and ethnographic Tolowa sites using TEK and GIS based upon the results of this study.

EPA Report: Climate Change in the US – Benefits of Global Action. Download a PDF version of the complete report, Climate Change in the United States: Benefits of Global Action, or download sections of the report, the technical appendix, and an overview fact sheet.

The League of Women Voters has been at the forefront of the environmental protection movement for decades, consistently supporting legislation to preserve our nation’s natural resources and protect our public health. They support legislation that seeks to protect our country from the physical, economic and public health effects of climate change while also providing pathways to economic prosperity. The League works to build grassroots support for action on climate change nationally and at the state and local levels in order to avoid irrevocable damage to our planet. Learn more about the Central Peninsula League of Women Voters. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides the best available science in regular reports on the state of global climate change. Download all or part of the Fifth Assessment Report (2013).

Science for Environmental Policy, UK News Archive, Climate Change and Energy. News archives for all articles.

The Climate CoLab is a project of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence in collaboration with many other organizations. In the Climate CoLab, you can work with people from all over the world to create proposals for what to do about climate change.

The IUCN library system has many resources on climate change adaptation, including this example: Transboundary water governance : adaptation to climate change.

Climate Feedback – Reporting on climate change can be confusing with different spins on news stories. This website, Climate Feedback, seeks scientific feedback for climate change information online, from scientists. They also have a Facebook Page. From the Union of Concerned Scientists, this 2014 article addresses this issue, discussing accuracy of cable news reporting of climate change.

The American Wind Energy Association is the national trade association for the U.S. wind industry – the country’s fastest growing energy industry. With thousands of wind industry members and wind policy advocates, AWEA promotes wind energy as a clean source of electricity for American consumers.

Yale Climate Opinion maps for the US – Estimated % of adults who think global warming is happening, 2014

The Northwest Climate Science Center has Pacific Northwest climate tools and data repositories, organized by topics of importance to the Northwest community.

Resilience is a program of Post Carbon Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the world transition away from fossil fuels and build sustainable, resilient communities.

The North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative has compiled several volumes of scientific literature relating to climate change adaptation. They also have a mailing list that sends a monthly newsletter packed with climate resource related information.

• Climate Change Effects and Adaptation Approaches for Terrestrial Ecosystems, Habitats, and Species,
• Climate Change Effects and Adaptation Approaches in Freshwater Aquatic and Riparian Ecosystems,
• Climate Change Effects and Adaptation Approaches in Marine and Coastal Ecosystems,
• Climate Change Effects and Adaptation Approaches for Ecosystems, Habitats, and Species – Executive Summaries for Marine & Coastal, Freshwater, and Terrestrial Systems

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Methodist Church offer faith-based positions on climate change. The perceptions project investigates perceptions to build understanding between scientific and religious communities.

MRI – Mountain Research Initiative – Advancing Global Change Research in Mountains – has a website and research blog.

Interactive Climate Map: Temperature, Precipitation, and Drought Outlooks – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) along with its academic and international partners are making great strides in linking severe weather, winter storms, droughts and floods, and hurricane events to climate variability such as El Niño and La Niña, and other modes of natural climate variability. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC), working with national and international partners, is at the forefront of turning this new understanding into practical tools and useful products for predicting such events and their impacts months to seasons in advance to reduce vulnerability and exploit opportunities for beneficial impacts. Better predictions of extreme climate episodes like floods and droughts could save the United States billions of dollars in damage costs. Water, energy and transportation managers would be able to plan and avoid or mitigate these losses.

Alaska and Arctic Specific

Arctic Adaptation Exchange – Connecting individuals and organizations focused on the north to share current and trusted information on climate change adaptation. Throughout the Arctic region, climate change presents both challenge and opportunity. Climate change can increase risks to infrastructure, human health, traditional ways of life, and ecosystem balance. Yet climate change also presents new opportunities for development, including resource development, shipping and tourism. Resources that monitor these changes, and help Arctic communities protect themselves and adapt with resiliance are key to future success in the Arctic. The Arctic Adaptation Exchange (AAE) facilitates knowledge exchange on climate change adaptation in the Arctic, and serves as a central information hub for communities, researchers and decision-makers in the public and private sectors. The AAE is a platform for individuals and organizations focused on northern issues to: explore how others in the Arctic region have responded to the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change; to share experiences and information on climate change impacts and adaptation initiatives and tools; and to connect with others who have experience and knowledge

The Earth is Faster Now – ARCUS has published a collection of ten papers describing contemporary efforts to document indigenous knowledge of environmental change in the Arctic. Compiled and edited by Igor Krupnik and Dyanna Jolly. The Earth is Faster Now reviews major individual studies on indigenous knowledge and climate change undertaken during the past few years, primarily in North America. The text is accompanied by local observations, quotations from interviews, personal observations, illustrations, and photographs. Contributors include well- known academic researchers and Native people from Canada, Finland, and the United States. The publication is designed to be useful to both researchers and communities as a tool for networking and communication. http://www.arcus.org/publications/eifn

DENALI CLIMATE ANTHOLOGY is available athttp://www.nps.gov/dena/getinvolved/dca.htm. The Anthology presents essays by five accomplished local authors about the effects of a changing climate on the lives and landscape they treasure in Interior Alaska commissioned the National Park Service from writers CHRISTINE BYL, JULIE COLLINS, CAROLYN KREMERS, TOM WALKER and ERICA WATSON. The collection is free and includes interactive photo galleries, video and audio clips. The collection also includes a foreword by nature writer and environmental philosopher KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE from work she donated as a writer-in-residence at the park in 2013.

The Arctic Circle is nonprofit and nonpartisan. Organizations, forums, think tanks, corporations and public associations around the world are invited to hold meetings within the Arctic Circle platform to advance their own missions and the broader goal of increasing collaborative decision-making without surrendering their institutional independence. The Arctic Circle is designed to increase participation in Arctic dialogue and strengthen the international focus on the future of the Arctic. Participating organizations will maintain their full institutional independence, identity and decision-making abilities. To this end, the Arctic Circle aims to create opportunities for everyone to attend different meetings, conduct their own networking and engage in one-on-one informal discussions. Organizations will be able to decide their own agendas and convene their own meetings.

Kenai Local Food Connection’s mission is to support local food by fostering healthy eating.The Kenai Local Food Connection is an informal group of local food advocates, growers, parents, cooks and friends. Some of us also work in positions dedicated to food and health. We are aligned with and sometimes collaborate with the Alaska Food Policy Council, Kenai Soil and Water Conservation District, Ionia, Kenai Peninsula Food Bank, Dena’ina Wellness Clinic, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Change4theKenai (the Prevention Coalition), Cooperative Extension, Sustainable Homer, Sitka Local Food Network and other grassroots food groups around Alaska. We hope that our activities support food security and health in the communities of Kenai, Soldotna, Kasilof, Sterling and Nikiski.   

Sitka Local Foods Network: A non-profit organization whose mission is to increase the amount of locally produced and harvested food in the diets of SE Alaskans.

Repeat Photography in National Parks of Southwest Alaska: How has this glacier changed in the last 100 years? What did this mountain look like before its last eruption? How are these trees responding to warmer, longer summers? These are all questions that can be answered, at least in part, by comparing photographs taken over time.

The City of Homer has a Climate Action Plan initiated in 2007.

The City of Juneau has a report on climate change impacts from 2007.

ACCAP (Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy) includes a variety of information about adaptation, climate, forests, wildfire, wildlife effects, and more. They offer monthly informative webinars. Of particular interest is the Fisheries, Food Security, and Climate Change in the Kenai Peninsula study.

ARCUS (Arctic Research Consortium of the United States) publishes the Witness the Arctic newsletter quarter, and has a variety of other information on climate change in the far north. Subscribe to their ArcticInfo listserve.

SNAP (Scenarios for Alaska + Arctic Planning) is part of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Check out the interactive, user-friendly Climate Tools section to look at charts, graphs, and maps about the climate for every region.

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium are tribal professionals who apply traditional knowledge, western science and technology to document unusual plants and wildlife, extreme weather, erosion, flooding, droughts, wildfire and other events that can threaten food security, water security and community health. Their LEO (Local Environmental Observer) Public Maps and resource links are available to the public. View observations our observation data on 2012, 2013, and 2014 spreadsheets or check out the new mapping tool. You can Like LEO on Facebook.  Take a tour of the LEO Viewer on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkrfJ7t-eRs. The LEO VIEWER is a smart phone app which provides access to the Local Environmental Observer (LEO) Network. It allows viewers to explore the LEO database and experience observations of environmental change through narratives, images and audio. View or download a PDF of the ACCAP presentation  by Mike Brubaker, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, with information about LEO entitled “A One Health Approach to Climate Change.”

https://accap.uaf.edu/…/files/One_Health_Alaska_10_13_15.pdf

Eye on the Arctic  has a number of resource areas concerning all things arctic and climate change.

UAF’s Geophysical Institute has a general science interest newsletter and column, the Alaska Science Forum.

The Alaska Division of Forestry has a number of program areas including Forest Practices, currently under revision for reforestation practices in our changing climate. The Wildland Fire and Aviation Program also has a variety of resources about wildfire for landowners, including links to the Firewise program.

Marine Resources

Gulf Watch Alaska has a monitoring program to understand the impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The Alaska Marine Conservation Council works to protect marine ecosystem integrity in Alaska, and promote thriving coastal communities.

AOOS (Alaska Ocean Observing System) has information on ocean and coastal processes and change. Alaska Sea Grant has coastal Alaska climate change information.

Adaptation

The Climate Change Response Framework in the Northeast US incorporates a variety of tools, partnerships, and actions to integrate climate change considerations into natural resource management.

Sustainability

UAF’s Sustainability Research program addresses the integration of cultural, economic, environmental, and energy components. It supports projects and perspectives that have positive impacts on future resources, ecosystem health, and human well-being.

Regime Shifts DataBase –  Large persistent changes in ecosystem services, from the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Also check out the Resilience Alliance‘s website.

Citizen Science

The Citizens’ Climate Lobby empowers citizens to connect with and influence their members of Congress, and to spread the idea that each one of us can address climate change solutions like Carbon Fee and Dividend

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium’s Local Environmental Observer (LEO) Network is the “eyes, ears and voice of environmental change in Alaskan communities. Visit their webpage to learn more on reporting and documenting unusual plants and wildlife, extreme weather, erosion, flooding, droughts, wildfire and other events that  threaten food security, water security and community health in rural communities.

Alaska Community-Based Monitoring provides information on a variety of citizen science programs around the state.

Invasive Species Information and Tools

CNIPM (Committee for Noxious and Invasive Plant Management) has statewide information about non-native plants species in Alaska. They also have a Facebook Group you can join for updates.

AKEPIC (Alaska Exotic Plant Information Clearinghouse) is a regional interactive database of all occurrence points for non-native plants species, hosted by the Alaska Natural Heritage Program. Check out the data portal to map distributions by species, and see what occurs near you.