Climate Fundamentals for USFWS Employees

Target Audience:

All U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees

Summary and Objectives:

This course provides every U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee with a foundational level of knowledge about the Earth's climate system, the changes we are currently experiencing in that system, the impacts resulting from those changes and why this fits into programmatic responsibilities. Integrating strategies to adapt to changing climatic conditions is not a separate challenge from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Service mission and the work that employees are already doing.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• List one reason climate change climate change
  Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
  
  Learn more about climate change is important to you and your job.
• Distinguish the difference between weather and climate.
• Compare the differences of change seen global climate vs regional climate with refuge examples.
• Define what mitigation and adaptation are in the climate context.
• List several regional biological changes observed as a result of a changing climate.
• Identify methods to handle uncertainty in planning and selecting management actions.

Competency Addressed: 

Climate Science - Awareness, Climate Change Mitigation - Awareness, Climate Change Adaptation - Awareness