Building on lessons learned over several summers, Kristin Raab—Health Impact Assessment and Climate Change Program Director in the Environmental Health Division of Minnesota’s Department of Health—packaged information from diverse communities into a cohesive toolkit that communities of all sizes can use to prepare for heat waves. The Minnesota Extreme Heat Toolkit describes changing weather conditions in Minnesota, the magnitude of potential health consequences from extreme heat, and key steps communities can take to prevent heat-related illnesses and deaths. The toolkit acknowledges that extreme heat response plans will vary with the size of the community and the habits of its residents: examples from the mostly rural Olmsted County and the urban centers of Saint Paul and Minneapolis illustrate a range of community plans that could be useful in Minnesota and beyond.

We are concurrently experiencing two global crises - the climate crisis and COVID-19. What are connections between the two? Why are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities disproportionately affected by both? This asynchronous Canvas course explores these questions and more. The course includes recordings from two guest speakers. Dr. Isabel Carrera Zamanillo from Stanford University presents on climate justice connections. Dr. Carrie Tzou, Professor and Director of the Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal at UW Bothell, shares strategies and instructional resources for teaching about COVID-19. 

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"River deltas across the globe are sinking – a problem for the half-billion people currently living on them. These landforms, created as sediment washes downstream towards a river’s mouth, are highly susceptible to environmental change. Human activity such as population growth and industrialization are dramatically accelerating this sinking, leading to increased flood risk and the loss of coastal wetlands. To keep deltas intact, a better understanding of the stresses they face is key. Many research groups have studied threats to deltas at the single-delta level; the scope and variety of these threats at the global level, however, isn’t clear. But researchers in New York have developed a method to classify the effects of human activity on deltas worldwide. The team used cluster analysis -- a way of sorting different variables into groups based on their similarity -- to spot patterns in datasets collected at 48 deltas..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In recent years, the redistribution of risk has created conditions for natural and technological disasters to become more widespread, more difficult to manage, and more discriminatory in their effects. Policy and planning decision-makers frequently focus on the impact that human settlement patterns, land use decisions, and risky technologies can have on vulnerable populations. However, to ensure safety and promote equity, they also must be familiar with the social and political dynamics that are present at each stage of the disaster management cycle. Therefore, this course will provide students with:

An understanding of the breadth of factors that give rise to disaster vulnerability; and
A foundation for assessing and managing the social and political processes associated with disaster policy and planning.

In this virtual professional development opportunity designed for teachers, EarthGen explores two global crises taking place concurrently - the climate crisis and COVID-19. What are the connections between the two? Why are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities disproportionately affected by both? Educators receive foundational information around climate justice, analyze the variables associated with vulnerability, exposure, and risk, and explore educational resources to bring this content into their classrooms.Contact EarthGen at info@earthgenwa.org for more information.

Students and community residents of four remote Alaskan villages measure environmental data to identify their climate vulnerabilities.