Overview: The global nonprofit Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative invests in climate resilience worldwide by providing select cities with financial and logistical guidance, and access to solutions, service providers and partners to help develop and implement resilience strategies.
How to Use This Resource: The website provides detailed reports on member cities via a database that allows users to select cities based on region and specific challenges. The site also maintains an active blog.
Adapting to Climate Change in Coastal Parks
Overview: The National Park Service is a branch of the United States Department of the Interior and is responsible for the upkeep and protection of national parks.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a comprehensive report on how rising sea levels threaten national parks and what action is underway to address this threat.
Cal-Adapt: Exploring California’s Climate Change Research
Overview: Cal-Adapt provides access to the state’s scientific research and data. It the product of a collaboration between UC Berkeley’s Geospatial Innovation Facility, the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research Program, and Google.org.
How to Use This Resource: This database provides interactive data and maps on the effects of climate change on California at the local level.
California Climate Change Assessments
Overview: The California Natural Resources Agency is the state governmental body designated to address climate change adaptation and resiliency.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a portfolio of projects for California’s climate change assessment plans. The state recently released a Climate Change Research Plan that spells out near-term research needed to keep the state on track with its climate goals.
Center for Government Excellence
Overview: The Johns Hopkins University Center for Government Excellence improves upon government decision-making by providing grassroots evidence, transparent accountability, and citizen engagement.
How to Use This Resource: Journalist will find meticulously researched metadata in this Johns Hopkins database on its partner cities such as New Orleans, Seattle, and Chattanooga.
Climate Adaptation Publication Database
Overview: The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association advocates for adaptation policy in the San Francisco Bay Area.
How to Use This Resource: Review an archive of research and policy recommendations to reduce carbon emissions and prepare the city for extreme weather and sea level rise.
Portland and Multnomah County Climate Action Plan
Overview: The Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability develops practical policies to enhance Portland’s climate resiliency and decrease its carbon footprint.
How to Use This Resource: This report outlines the actions that Portland will take in the next five years to reduce carbon emissions and build up infrastructure to withstand extreme weather such as floods, heatwaves, and landslides.
Risky Business: The Economic Risks of Climate Change to the United States
Overview: The Risky Business Project is an independent assessment of the economic risks posed by a changing climate in the United States. It is the product of economic research firm Rhodium Group, which specializes in analyzing disruptive global trends, led by project co-chairs former New York Major Michael R. Bloomberg, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and philanthropist Tom Steyer.
How to Use This Resource: This extensive and high-profile financial risk-assessment report outlines a range of potential negative impacts if climate change adaptation lags for each region of the United States, as well as for selected sectors of the economy. More extensive reports have since been released on the Midwest, Southeast and California.
States at Risk: America’s Preparedness Report Card
Overview: Climate Central is an independent organization of scientists and journalists researching and reporting climate change in the United States.
How to Use This Resource: This interactive report identifies the major climate threats facing the U.S – flooding, extreme heat, drought, and wildfire – and for each state provides a risk assessment score based on the extremity of weather and adaptive actions in place.
USDA Climate Hubs
Overview: The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the federal department responsible for developing and executing law on farming, agriculture, forestry, and food.
How to Use This Website: Each climate hub within this interactive map of the United States links to data on that region’s climate, as well as to practical information about climate resiliency and adaptation toolkits for farmers, ranchers and landowners.
National Landmarks at Risk
Overview: The Union of Concerned Scientists is an independent consortium of scientists and advocates that work to develop and promote sustainable policies worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: Climate change has put many of the United States’ iconic landmarks and heritage sites at risk. This report is a selection of case studies that illustrate the urgency of the problem. According to its findings, the Statue of Liberty, the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Boston Historical Districts, and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado could all face dire fates without action.
Playing with Fire: How Climate Change and Development Patterns Are Contributing to the Soaring Costs of Western Wildfires
Overview: The Union of Concerned Scientists is an independent consortium of scientists and advocates that work to develop and promote sustainable policies worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a data-packed report on the causes and costs of wildfires in the western region of the United States.