Climate Change IP

The Climate Change IP is an interest project from the Girl Scouts of Virginia Skyline Council.

Skill Builders

*Learn about climate, weather, greenhouse gases, climate change, global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, fossil fuels, renewable energy, and carbon dioxide emissions. Understand the connections between them all and draw a diagram to show how they all relate. Knowing these connections, discuss why climate change is a problem and what can be done about it.
Complete a Discover activity from the Girl Scout Climate Change Action Guide (coming soon).
Complete a Connect activity from the Girl Scout Climate Change Action Guide (coming soon).
Invite a speaker from the Climate Project to visit your troop meeting to talk about climate change. If this is not possible, watch a documentary such as An Inconvenient Truth, The 11th Hour, Planet in Peril, or others available for checkout from Girl Scouts of Virginia Skyline Council.
Visit a local weather station and learn how they determine patterns in climate and weather. How do they measure humidity, temperature, wind speed, and rainfall and make weather predictions? Read a book or several chapters about climate change. Below is a list of suggested books, which are all available for checkout from Girl Scouts of Virginia Skyline Council.

50 Simple Steps to Save the Earth from Global Warming, The Green Patriot Working Group, 2008
Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community, Bill McKibben, 2007
Fighting for Love in the Century of Extinction, Eban Goodstein, 2007
Ignition: What You Can Do to Fight Global Warming and Spark a Movement, Jonathan Isham and Sissel Waage, 2007
Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment, James Gustave Speth, 2005
The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth, Tim Flannery, 2005
Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World's Highest Mountains, Mark Bowen, 2005
Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, Mark Lynas, 2008
Stop Global Warming: The Solution Is You, Laurie David, 2006

Learn about alternative energy such as solar power, wind power, geothermal energy, and hydropower. How do these technologies help reduce climate change? Find out if any of these technologies exist within your community.
Play PowerUp, IBMs new interactive and educational climate change game. Save the planet Helios from ecological disaster!
Go to a department or hardware store to learn about products that are more energy efficient. How will energy efficiency help reduce electricity use and global warming? How could you use these new technologies in your home? If you switched to more energy-efficient appliances and products, how much money and energy could you save? Think about how much less pollution would be created.
Learn about the United States Green Building Council and Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design (LEED). What is LEED certification? Either visit a LEED building or research one on the Internet. Learn about why the building is LEED certified and how it helps reduce the impacts of climate change.
Use the Internet to explore climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the Kyoto Protocol. Read at least three online articles about climate change.

Participate in the ITSCOOL to Light Up the World Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Program and Sale.
Help teach younger girls about climate change and how they can make a difference. You can fulfill this requirement by becoming an ITSCOOL educator.
Visit the mayor of your city or town or write to other local government officials with suggestions for improving alternative transportation within the community.
Work to have your school, church, or another community building purchase green power.
Take the official Girl Scout Climate Change Cadette/Senior Pledge (coming soon). Learn about each action of the pledge, sign it, and submit it to Girl Scouts of the USA.
Complete a Take Action activity from the Girl Scout Climate Change Action Guide (coming soon).

Learn about different college majors related to climate change. These could relate to the environment, science, technology, engineering, public policy, community organizing, etc. Talk to a college student in one of these fields.
Visit a climate change youth advocate group such as Focus the Nation, Step It Up, SustainUS, or the Student Environmental Action Coalition. Talk to a student involved in one of these organizations and find out how it has affected her or his career goals.
Research people who have made a significant difference for climate change and the environment. How did they get involved in this area? What inspired them? Some examples are Al Gore, Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall, and Olya Melen.
Shadow a person in the environmental field for the day. See how she or he impacts the environment and works to make the world a better place
Become an intern at a local environmental group working with climate change. Such organizations include the Climate Project, Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, Kiwanis, Nature Conservancy, National Park Service, World Wildlife Fund, Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency, and so many more!