Cascades Climate Challenge: Taking home the lessons of glaciers

McGinty, Megan

Communicating climate change and its effects is a complicated and politically challenging issue (Pew Research Center 2010). Recent research has shown that data alone are not sufficient to engage audiences on the topic of climate change (Center for Research on Environmental Decisions 2009). In addition, places where climate change is manifesting itself most dramatically, such as the glaciers of the North Cascades National Park Complex, Washington, are often perceived as irrelevant. In other cases, an informed perspective is needed to explain the significance of the data collected and the trends they indicate. North Cascades Institute and North Cascades National Park seek to address this disconnect between the scientific facts of climate change and lack of public awareness and response with the Cascades Climate Challenge. This program is cultivating the next generation of America’s climate change leaders using experiential field science, study of climate change impacts, and community service. High school students from diverse communities across the Pacific Northwest spend three weeks in North Cascades National Park studying climate change with researchers in the field and developing their presentation skills. In the fall, the students return to their home communities and lead a service project based on teaching other youth in their area how climate change will affect them and what they can do to address it. Students leave the program more informed about climate science, with a better understanding of its impacts on the environment, communities, human health, and the economy, and prepared to engage their communities in strategies to alleviate the effects. By equipping emerging leaders with the skills to begin addressing climate change, we hope the people who will be most affected by it will also be better able to shape the future.

Cascades Climate Challenge: Taking home the lessons of glaciers

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