A consensus exists in the scientific community that climate change is driven by human activity. The changing climate is no longer debatable, and the importance of climate science is reflected in its first-ever explicit inclusion in the 2013 Next Generation Science Standards. Today’s K-12 students are tomorrow’s decision-makers, and promoting climate literacy is essential to ensuring that future policy and research decisions incorporate climate change mitigation and adaptation needs.  The new science standards that explicitly incorporate climate change are confined to middle and high school levels in the domain of Earth Science.  However, numerous opportunities exist throughout all grades and multiple domains to incorporate climate science into standards that are proximally related.  Furthermore, applying climate change issues to the region in which students live will personalize the experience and potentially increase the motivation for students to learn the science and ultimately, participate in activities that promote more sustainable practices. 

The following publications and websites are resources that address the science and policy of climate change on the local, national and global levels.

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