Highlights

Since 1989, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has submitted annual reports to Congress called Our Changing Planet. The reports describe the status of USGCRP research activities, provide progress updates, and document recent accomplishments.

In particular, Our Changing Planet highlights progress and accomplishments in interagency activities. These highlights represent the broad spectrum of USGCRP activities that extend from Earth system observations, modeling, and fundamental research through synthesis and assessment, decision support, education, and public engagement. Highlights describe the state of science at the time of publication of each yearly report, and may not reflect more recent advances in understanding. The date of publication of the source report is noted on each highlight page.

USGCRP’s 2012-2021 Strategic Plan recognized the need for better representation of the social dimensions of global change within the Program’s activities, in order to fulfill its goals of advancing fundamental global-change science while informing decisions and engaging stakeholders. Under this impetus, the interagency Social Science Coordinating Committee (SSCC) was established in 2014 and has made progress in developing strategies for integrating the methods, findings, and disciplinary perspectives of the social and behavioral sciences into USGCRP’s activities.

Since its inception...

Analyzing the Rising Costs of Climate Change to Human Health

In April 2016, USGCRP released The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment (Climate and Health Assessment), a significant advancement in understanding of the impacts of climate change on human health. It strengthens the finding in previous literature that climate change increases health risks for all Americans, that certain populations are particularly vulnerable, and that these threats are likely to increase as climate change progresses. In particular, an annual...

Indicators are measurements or calculations that represent how a complex system is changing over time—for instance, the unemployment rate is an indicator of overall economic health. For the climate system, indicators offer a simple representation of how a highly complex system is changing, providing a benchmark for decision makers that can be used as a gateway into more complex and context-specific information. Indicators allow multiple audiences—including scientists, planners, policy makers, educators, and the public—to better understand and communicate the causes and effects of climate...

Expanding the Global Change Information System

The Global Change Information System (GCIS) was launched in May 2014 as a repository of global-change data that could be easily and efficiently accessed, integrated with other data sets, and maintained and expanded over time. GCIS initially supported traceable data and metadata for findings and graphics in the Third National Climate Assessment (NCA3) and expanded considerably in support of the 2016 assessment...

Implementing the Climate Education and Literacy Initiative

The Climate Education and Literacy Initiative, launched by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in coordination with USGCRP and many of its member agencies, helps connect American students and citizens with the best available, science-based information about climate change. Efforts through the Initiative are increasing learning opportunities for students, equipping educators with science-based information and resources, enhancing climate-related...

As a part of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Climate Education and Literacy Initiative (Highlight 21), Federal and non-governmental experts are collaborating to harness the promise of educational games and interactive media to enhance understanding and awareness of climate-change impacts and solutions. Games are increasingly used in educational settings to help inspire curiosity, creativity, collaboration, optimism, and problem-solving...

Like many developing countries, India faces a disproportionate share of adverse impacts from climate change, including the exacerbation of its already substantial public-health challenges. The government of India has recognized health as a priority area in its climate-adaptation strategy, and many states now include initiatives related to health in their climate action plans; however, internal public-health capacity for climate-change adaptation is limited. The National Institutes of Health, with support from NOAA and the Department of State, collaborated with organizers in India to host a...

Modeling Permafrost Response to Climate Change

Vast quantities of carbon—twice the size of the current amount in the atmosphere—are stored in frozen permafrost soils in Arctic regions. The Arctic climate is warming much more rapidly than the global average, leaving these carbon pools highly vulnerable to release into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane as soils thaw and decompose, leading to a feedback cycle of further warming and increasing carbon release. The potential for these carbon stocks to increase global-warming rates, and the rapid changes already observed in the permafrost region, have captured the attention of...

Improving Predictions of Changing Arctic Ecosystems

A key challenge for Earth System Models is accurately representing land surface and subsurface processes and their complex interactions in a warming climate. This is true for ecosystems across the globe, but particularly critical for Arctic ecosystems, which are projected to warm at a rate twice that of the global average by the end of the 21st century. The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments in the Arctic (NGEE-Arctic) project is addressing this challenge by integrating process studies, ecosystem observations, and computational...

Much of the precipitation along the U.S. West Coast is delivered by phenomena known as “atmospheric rivers”—narrow bands of moist air that may extend for thousands of miles across regions outside of the tropics, and play a critical role in regional water supply and storm activity. Atmospheric-river events play a beneficial role in building up Western water supply and snowpack but are also the source of a large majority of floods in the region. Many uncertainties about key processes that affect storm development...

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Highlights

Increasing Representation of the Social Sciences in Global Change Research

Analyzing the Rising Costs of Climate Change to Human Health

Improving Indicators of Change

Expanding the Global Change Information System

Implementing the Climate Education and Literacy Initiative

Using Games for Climate Education

Building Public-Health Capacity for Adaptation in India

Modeling Permafrost Response to Climate Change

Improving Predictions of Changing Arctic Ecosystems

Understanding Atmospheric Rivers and West Coast Precipitation