Two Northern Vermont University Atmospheric Sciences faculty had their work published in the July 2019 Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS). BAMS is the flagship magazine of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The peer-reviewed article, Improving Climate Change Literacy and Promoting Outreach in an Undergraduate Atmospheric Sciences Program, outlines the recent implementation of innovative curricular and extracurricular activities related to climate change within the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Northern Vermont University. The NVU Department of Atmospheric Sciences is at the forefront of improving climate change literacy among the general public through undergraduate education and public outreach.

In the paper, Dr. Hanrahan and Dr. Shafer discuss the importance of improved communication between experts and nonexperts for meaningful climate action to be realized. To achieve this, we expose all Atmospheric Sciences students, regardless of their career pathway, to the science of human-caused climate change. Then, the department encourages students to engage with nonexperts through public events, school visits, and a department-run website, TheClimateConsensus.com. As a result, we have observed a higher level of interest in climate change among students over the past few years. More students have demonstrated a heightened sense of responsibility to engage the public about this challenging topic, and some have expressed an interest in pursuing climate-change-related careers.  

The department thanks Jason Kaiser, Ari Preston, David Siuta, George Loriot, and Dawn Kopacz for productive conversations and helpful feedback. We also thank the faculty and staff at NVU-Lyndon for their enthusiastic support of our efforts. We are appreciative of the work by student recipients of the recently-established Climate Courage Award and Scholarship, Jonathan Hutchinson, Andrew Westgate, and Francis Tarasiewicz, and the donors who made the Climate Courage Award and Scholarship possible, Carl Bayer and Sheila Reed. Finally, we thank all of the former and current Lyndon Atmospheric Sciences students who have demonstrated courage by speaking out about climate change science, especially Arianna Varuolo-Clarke and Kayla St. Germain, who prompted the creation of the Climate Consensus Group in 2014.