Climate Change

A service of NOAA, the Climate.gov page provides “science and information for a climate-smart nation.” Includes news about climate change, a page of maps and data about climate change, instructional resources, and the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit (“information and tools to help you understand and address your climate risks”).

The Environment and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ has a wide range of responsibilities: it “bring[s] cases against those who violate the nation’s civil and criminal pollution-control laws,” “defend[s] environmental challenges to government programs and activities,” “represent[s] the United States in matters concerning the stewardship of the nation's natural resources and public lands,” “is responsible for the acquisition of real property by eminent domain for the federal government,” “brings and defends cases under the wildlife protection laws,” and “litigates cases concerning Indian rights and claims.”

The EPA describes its mission as protecting “human health and the environment.” To that end, it develops and enforces regulations (“When Congress writes an environmental law, we implement it by writing regulations”), gives grants “to state environmental programs, non-profits, educational institutions, and others,” studies environmental issues, sponsors partnerships, teaches people about the environment, and publishes information related to its mission. This link points directly to an EPA page about climate change which includes information both about causes of and the future of climate change, scientific evidence of climate change, and information about steps that could mitigate the consequences of climate change.

“The mission of ‘Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet’ is to provide the public with accurate and timely news and information about Earth’s changing climate, along with current data and visualizations, presented from the unique perspective of NASA, the world’s leading climate research agency.”

“The Center for Climate Sciences at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory serves to advance our understanding of Earth’s climate system, enhance our ability to predict its change, and enable and communicate the multi-disciplinary climate science research of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.”

The NOAA site says that its mission is “[t]o understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts, to share that knowledge and information with others, and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.”

The EIA site says that the agency “collects, analyzes, and disseminates independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment.” This link points to an EIA page specifically about the environment, with data about emissions from various fuel sources, projections of supplies of fuels and renewable energy sources, and more general information about energy production and the environment.

The USGCRP site says that it “was established by Presidential Initiative in 1989 and mandated by Congress in the Global Change Research Act (GCRA) of 1990 to ‘assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change.’” Its page includes general information about climate change (including a section discussing indicators of change), regional impacts, reports, data, and a multimedia gallery. Also includes a link to the 2014 National Climate Assessment, which “summarizes the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future.”