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A Refreshed MIT Climate Primer to Better Serve Students, Educators, and the “Climate Curious”
This month, the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative launched the first major update to Climate Science, Risk & Solutions, an online introduction to the science of climate change that won the Webby Award for Best Editorial Feature with its 2020 debut.
The Climate Science, Risk & Solutions website, also called the MIT Climate Primer, is an interactive digital journey written by Dr. Kerry Emanuel, professor emeritus of Atmospheric Science at MIT and a celebrated climate communicator and hurricane researcher. The eleven chapters are punctuated with quizzes, interactive graphics, and videos that allow high school, college, and adult learners with no prior background in climate science to explore how scientists came to realize that the climate is changing, and, with those evolved findings, what actions people can take today to adapt to and mitigate the impacts.
“At MIT’s climate communications program, we often get questions about how scientists know what they know about climate change,” says Laur Hesse Fisher, director of the climate communications and engagement program at the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative. “In this Primer, Dr. Emanuel walks with readers, step-by-step, to unpack the scientific community’s emergent understanding of how the Earth’s climate is changing, with a level of skepticism and clarity that learners crave and deserve.”
As of this month, the Climate Primer is now informed by four more years of global climate research, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth comprehensive assessment report (AR6) on the state of climate science. The updated Primer includes more precise estimates of future global warming and its effects on global temperatures and extreme weather events, important advances in climate modeling, new actions taken around the world to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and the latest data about the pace at which clean energy and other critical climate solutions are being deployed.
Left: a figure which shows three warming scenarios with varying levels of carbon mitigation, from when Climate Science, Risk & Solutions was first published in 2020. Right: the updated 2024 figure showing the latest modeling of climate scenarios, as well as how it compares to warming of the deep past.
The updated Primer is also enhanced by linked resources for further learning, drawing on four years of publications at MIT Climate explaining key climate topics and answering frequently asked questions about climate change. The other interactive elements were created in conjunction with MIT Open Learning to include best-in-show multimedia elements to reach all kinds of learners, including the “climate curious,” who are newly interested in climate change or in a new climate topic, and are searching for easy-to-understand answers from trustworthy sources.
To date, the MIT Climate Primer has been used by over 100 schools, universities, and educational sites — like ShareMyLesson, Climate Interactive, and EdX.
“The pace of climate science has never been faster,” says Hesse Fisher. “And the same is true for efforts to reduce climate pollution. It’s critical for students and adult learners to have the latest understanding of the predicted impacts of rising climate pollution – and how our actions now make all the difference in creating a clean, prosperous, and beautiful future.”