Overview: The nonpartisan Georgetown Climate Center is a branch of Georgetown Law and advocates for climate adaptation, clean energy, and transportation policies in the United States.
How to Use This Resource: The Adaptation Clearinghouse is a database of Georgetown Climate Center research, reports, maps and resources. It is searchable by policy area, organizations, topic and keyword.
Adaptation in Action: Grantee Success Stories from CDC’s Climate and Health Program
Overview: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. It uses its prevention expertise to advise cities and states on investigating, preparing for, and responding to the health ramifications of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This progress report on the CDC’s climate change adaptation program details what health risks are caused by climate change and which programs have been most effective in combatting them.
Assessing Health Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Guide for Health Departments
Overview: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. It uses its prevention expertise to advise cities and states on investigating, preparing for, and responding to the health ramifications of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This report outlines how the nation’s health services are assessing risk and preparing to adapt to climate change.
Cambridge Climate Change Planning
Overview: The Community Development Department is the planning agency for the City of Cambridge in Massachusetts. Its climate adaptation mission is to assess the extent of Cambridge’s vulnerability and draft comprehensive policy to strengthen the city’s resiliency.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find the complete Cambridge plan to adapt to and prepare for climate change.
Climate Change Adaptation by Federal Agencies: An Analysis of Plans and Issues for Congress
Overview: The Congressional Research Service is the public policy research agency within the U.S. Congress.
How to Use This Resource: This report reviews federal agencies and their plans to adapt their infrastructure and operations to future climate change.
Climate Change Adaptation Project: Canada
Overview: The University of Waterloo is a public research university with a main campus located in Ontario, Canada.
How to Use This Resource: This site reports on Canadian adaptation challenges and works to prioritize which ones need immediate attention. It focuses especially on water supply infrastructure and human health.
Climate Change Indicators in the United States
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will ample data, interactive maps and exhaustive reports to support scientist’s belief that climate change is caused by human activity. This data is organized by topics such as greenhouse gases, oceans, and ecosystems.
Climate Change News Updates
Overview: The Ecologist publishes news on climate change and its impacts on agriculture, health, and the energy sector.
How to Use This Resource: The climate change coverage from The Ecologist combines in-depth reporting with fascinating stories of adaptation and survival.
Climate Change Threatens Health: Serious Threats Where You Live and What to Do About Them
Overview: The Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC is one of the largest and most influential environmental action groups in the United States.
How to Use this Resource: This mapping system charts which communities are most vulnerable to climate-related health threats and the actions being taken to prepare them.
Climate Confidential
Overview: Climate Confidential is an independent news source covering environment and technology. Funded by readers, its stories have appeared in The Atlantic and Scientific American.
How to Use This Resource: Find narrative-driven stories about technological innovation in the fight against climate change, drought and public health concerns.
Climate Preparedness Publications
Overview: The Resource Innovation Group is a nonprofit affiliated with the Sustainability Institute at Willamette University. It addresses the human causes and impacts of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: The Resource Innovation Group in Oregon has done substantial research at the nexus of climate change and public health, including developing human resilience. The site includes an archive of that work, as well as information about ongoing workshops in building resilience.
Community-Based Adaptation to a Changing Climate
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: This report discusses how climate change impacts community services, provides adaptation strategies, and provides links to other federal resources.
Data.gov
Overview: Data.gov is an online database that is managed by the U.S. General Services Administration.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find government-sponsored data on the projected impacts of climate change on the nation’s infrastructure, public health and natural resources.
Environmental and Climate Justice Program
Overview: The Environmental and Climate Justice Program is the branch of the NAACP advocating for climate change action in African-American communities.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find information the specific impact climate change has on African-American communities in the United States. The database includes policy reports, toolkits, and blog articles.
Health and Human Services Climate Adaptation Plan
Overview: The United States Department of Health and Human Services is a cabinet-level agency responsible for protecting human health.
How to Use This Resource: This report assesses the full impact that climate change will have on American health. It outlines plans to update its facilities and practices to better serve vulnerable communities within the United States.
Heat Island Effect Database
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: Heat islands are built-up areas that are hotter than nearby rural areas. They increase summertime peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, heat-related illness and mortality, and water quality. This is database of the ongoing research and strategies for mitigation.
Impacts & Adaptation – EPA State and Local Climate and Energy Program
Overview: This website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment, archives all EPA adaptation resources available to U.S. city and state governments.
How to Use This Resource: The resource offers discussion of the benefits of adaptation and adaptation planning, links to specific plans from New York City, Chicago and Miami, among others, and a wide range of resources and tools.
Impacts and Adaptations Research Hub
Overview: Climate Access is a network for those engaging the public in the transformation to low-carbon, resilient communities.
How To Use This Research: This archive holds extensive reports on adaptation efforts across the globe and is searchable by region and by climate change impacts.
Local Government Climate Adaptation Training
Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.
How to Use This Resource: This training toolkit was designed to brief local government lawmakers on the local level on climate change science, impacts, and policy solutions available to them.
States of Change: Stories of Climate Change from Close to Home
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: Journalists can use an interactive map to navigate a multimedia collection of stories, research, and data about climate change on a local level, searchable by region, topic or media within the United States.
U.S. Congress Bills on Climate Change Adaptation Database
Overview: The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to advance climate change and energy policy in the United States.
How to Use This Resource: This database provides a list of every climate change bill in the 113th Congress. It identifies the bill’s sponsor, summarizes its contents, and reports on its status. Bills are organized by topic, which include climate change adaptation, energy, transportation, renewable fuels, and carbon.
United States Federal Adaptation Resources
Overview: The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions is an independent nonprofit advocating for policy action to address climate change. It is the successor to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a database of adaptation resources such as reports, bill proposals, and datasets for policymakers on the federal, state and municipal level.
Beyond Storms & Droughts: The Psychological Impacts of Climate Change
Overview: The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific psychological organization in the United States. It works to advance the application of psychological knowledge nationwide.
How to Use This Resource: This report details psychological ramifications of climate change on human welfare.
Climate Change Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers
Overview: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a scientific body within the United Nations that reviews scientific, technical and socio-economic information on climate change.
How to Use This Resource: This synthesis report is provides a global perspective of climate change and addresses its causes, future impacts, and future pathways for adaptation.
Extreme Weather and Climate Readiness: Toolkit for State and Territorial Health Departments
Overview: The Climate Change Collaborative is a project from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to help prepare its agencies for the effects of climate change.
How to Use This Resource: In this report, journalists will find information on how the nation’s key public health programs are integrating climate readiness into their policies.
Africa’s Adaptation Gap: A Technical Report
Overview: The United Nations Environment Programme represents the environment within the United Nations system.
How to Use This Resource: Africa’s Adaptation Gap Report is a stark analysis of where Africa stands in relation to its adaptation goals. The continent serves as a cautionary indicator of what may happen should the emissions gap remain.
Climate, Mind and Behavior Symposium
Overview: The Garrison Institute is a nonprofit organization that explores the intersection of contemplation and action in the world.
How to Use This Resource: This symposium and resultant report examine the integration of climate change research findings about what drives human thinking on climate solutions.
Disaster and Crisis Coverage
Overview: The International Center for Journalists is a non-profit organization that promotes journalism worldwide.
How to Use This Resource: This report serves as a practical guide for journalists preparing to report on natural disasters during a crisis.
How Climate Change Action is Giving Us Wealthier, Healthier Cities
Overview: This Carbon Disclosure Project report surveyed 110 municipal governments worldwide to research the effect of climate change action on cities. It found it would enhance the municipalities’ economies, as well as the health of their residents.
How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find data on the municipal governments: which policymakers are addressing climate change, what they are doing, and how their efforts are working. The study found 91 percent of cities believe cutting greenhouse gas emissions will improve their economies, 55 percent are combatting climate change by promoting walking and cycling, and more than 75 percent of cities reported that their action will improve the health of their residents.
Integrating Climate Change Adaptation into Public Health Practice
Overview: Environmental Health Perspectives is a peer-reviewed research journal from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
How to Use This Resource: This article outlines the range of climate change’s impacts on human health, how national health facilities have already adapted, and what more they can do.
French National Climate Change Impact Adaptation Plan
Overview: The French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, and Energy is a cabinet-level agency responsible for policies on climate change adaptation.
How to Use This Resource: France’s climate plan focused primarily on fortifying national infrastructure and preserving public health.