An interagency team, spearheaded by Frank Niepold and Haley Crim of CPO’s CEE Division and Carol O’Donnell from the Smithsonian, is working to create an updated version of “Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science”. The document was originally released in 2009 and has informed educators, policymakers, and scientists across the United States and internationally for over a decade. USGCRP has formally approved the Climate Literacy guide being updated in 2023.
The updated guide will reflect current climate science, engagement, and education methods and includes new focuses on workforce, justice and solutions. The public will have an opportunity to comment on the original guide with what they’d like to see in the new guide. Comments will be instructive to every part of the updated guide, including how the document is structured, what topics are included, which images are used, words defined in the glossary and how topics are weighted within the document. The updated Climate Literacy Guide will be developed with the 5th National Climate Assessment and will be released as a U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) product in the winter of 2023.
The USGCRP is a federal program mandated by Congress to coordinate federal research and investments in understanding the forces shaping the global environment, both human and natural, their impacts on society, and inform responses at local to international scales.
Access the 2009 guide »
For more information, contact Haley Crim.
