The new administration in Washington has made it clear that it climate change would be one of the science-related issues that it would deal with, and there is clearly some evidence to support this.  In an article in USA Today, entitled Politics heats up global warming suggested that climate scientists should get involved in the issue to help with our understanding of the science of climate change, and the implications for the earth, people and the economy.  Climate change is also an important topic in science teaching, and many science teachers have approached the topic from a Science-Technology-Society (STS) approach.  

A new report, Restructuring Federal Climate Research to Meet the Challenges of Climate Change, was released this week by the National Academy of Science and was written by the Committee on Strategic Advice on the U.S. Climate Change Science Program; National Research Council.



As pointed out in the report the US Climate Change Science Program is developing a new strategic plan for the new administration, and thus this report will play an important role in the development of this plan.  

The report, which you can read using the links at the National Academies Press website as shown above, developed its report around a set of priorities.  These priorities would be very useful concepts to help design a teaching strategy for climate change.  Here are the priorities:

• Reorganize the program around integrated scientific-societal issues to facilitate cross- cutting research focused on understanding the interactions among the climate, human, and environmental systems and on supporting societal responses to climate change 
• Establish a U.S. climate observing system, defined as including physical, biological, and social observations, to ensure that data needed to address climate change are collected or continued 
• Develop the science base and infrastructure to support a new generation of coupled Earth system models to improve attribution and prediction of high impact regional weather and climate, to initialize seasonal to decadal climate forecasting, and to provide predictions of impacts affecting adaptive capacities and vulnerabilities of environmental and human systems 
• Strengthen research on adaptation, mitigation, and vulnerability 
• Initiate a national assessment process with broad stakeholder participation to determine the risks and costs of climate change impacts on the United States and to evaluate options for responding 
• Coordinate federal efforts to provide climate services (scientific information, tools, and forecasts) routinely to decision makers