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OVERWHELMED? INTIMIDATED?DONT BE AFRAID!!To be honest, each time I start to talk about climate change, I still feel intimidated. Its a huge issue, a complex and emotional topic, my inner voice you are but one little interpreterwho isnt even working as an interpreter right now. BUT, if you remember only one thing that I say today, I hope it will be this1Challenging youth to take climate change action.

WebRangersJunior Climate Ranger activitiesIf I had been afraid, WebRangers Junior Climate Ranger activities might never have been developed; and while it is not perfect, it is very gratifying to know that almost 19,000 youngsters have already completed the first activity which has been out there much longer than the other two. (The second and third activities were really just released Earth Day of this yearand still each of them has been completed by 3,000 or more kids.)These activities are a driect result of the first climate-centric ETS workshop and they are the work of a team of interpreters, educators and scientists from all three agenciesand all but ne US time zone!!2

How many are familiar with NPS Junior Ranger program?And how many with WebRangers?A subsetincludes lots of activities about various parks and topicsfor those who cant get there, dont know yet that they want to get therefun and educationalMore and more I am also seeing it as complimentary to in-park Jr Ranger programs as so many issues, like climate change, cross park boundaries.You can go in a do activities as a visitor, or you can join , in which case you get your own virtual ranger station; and you can track your progress, even earn rewards for completing a certain number of activities or a certain group of activities. You earn a global connectins globe for your ranger station if you complete all three JCR activities.3

You can get to the Climate Change activities either by choosing the science categoryabout 20 activities come up including oursOR by entering CLIMATE as your search wordBecause this is such a big topic, we decided to break it into three separate activities based on our three primary messages:Climate change is happeningHumans are the primary causeYou can help

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While each of them can stand alone, they make the most sense, and the message is most interpretive if all three activities are completed and if they are done in a specific order. So,To become a Jr Climate Ranger, you actually have to join WebRanger so that the site can track your progress, or it wont let you into activities 2 and 35

The first activity, Investigating Global Connections, 6

allows kids to explore seemingly unrelated changes occuring all over the world.7

Using a variety of techniques, including question/answer, storytelling, open-ended questions, and 8

Boulder Glacier, Glacier NPcomparison-contrast images, we allow kids to investigate these changes

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and come to conclusions about why each change is occurring.10

We then, we ask them to connect the dots and draw conclusions about what might be happening on a global scale.11

Through their investigations, the young rangers discover for themselves that he world is warmingclimate change is happening.

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Woo-hoo!! We had done it, we had overcome our fears and tackled climate change for kids!It took us about 18months, lots of collaboration and lots of dedicated hard work to get from the I have a dream stage to our first finished product; and we were elated!But we still had two activities to goand the scariest one, climate science for kids was still to come.13

It was great that kids were finally understanding that climate change is happening; but if we wanted them to act, then then we needed them to understand what is causing climate change and what role we playwe needed them to understand the science of climate change.This was the activity that really challenged all of us to put our fears aside. In fact, we actually procrastinated and fearsome adults are prone to do and worked on the final activity first. But will go through this in the order and audience would.14

Using techniques similar to those in the first activity, youngsters learn through exploration about the three factors that contribute to Earths global temperature: Its location relative to the sunThe amount of energy coming from the sun, andThe Earths atmosphereThey also draw conclusions about which of these is the most likely culprit in the mystery of Earths changing climate.

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Through storytelling, they then learn about the heat trapping effects of CO2 and other gases.16

And through interactive games, they are able to compare and contrast pre- and post-industrial carbon sources and sumps and see first-hand where the new carbon sources are.17

Over the course of the activity, the youngsters learn that carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases are changing Earths atmosphere, causing Earth to warm18

And that human activities play a major role in increasing CO2 in our atmosphere. Clearly, NASA science and imagery played a major role in the success of this activity. But so did being willing to overcome the fear of stepping outside of your box. Example: Peter became an interpreterdeveloping his young-fast/old-slow carbon programand then simplifying it for kids and recording it on video for this project.19

Perhaps our biggest fear, thought was that this is heavy stuff; and like all of you, the last thing we wanted was for our audience to feel like this guy. We were determined to leave our young audience with hope.20

As interpreters, we all know that in the end, we are trying to get people to actto care about and want to help us care for the places we are tasked with protecting.21You can help!

So, the last activity, What Can U Do?, is all about what anyone, even an 8-yr old, can do to help.

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As part of the activity, youngsters are given the opportunity to watch videos recorded by park rangers, scientists, and other kids, explaining what they are doing at home and in parks and refuges to try to reduce their climate change impacts.23

Then kids are asked to consider committing to taking action themselves. They are also encouraged to join a junior climate ranger community where they can share their thoughts, suggestions, ideas, and achievements with other kids.24

Our most important message, though, is that they are not alone25

Together we can make a big difference

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We just need to decide if and how we are going to make that difference.When it comes to climate change, one of the big ways that we as interpreters can make a difference is to talk about climate changebring the climate change and its impacts to our visitors attention, provide them with the best climate information and interpretation we can, and thenjust like the WebRangers, draw their own conclusions and decide for themselve whether they are going to be a part of the solution.27DONT BE AFRAID!!!Which brings me back to my original message. Interpreters are pretty amazing, one lone interpreter can have a huge public impactIf even the small group of interpreters in this room were too afraid to risk talking about climate change, then thousands of opportunities to help people connect climate change and its impacts to their own lives would be missed, and thousands of people who might have been spurred to action wont be, and that means the hope of making measurable progress on something that will impact every one of the billions of people on Earth, is that much further from our grasp; and THAT is something we should all be afraid of.

28SHANNAN MARCAKPublic Affairs SpecialistGrand Canyon National Parkshannan_marcak@nps.gov928-638-7958

KR/KS/KP + KA + AT = IOFood for ThoughtThis was a national product, but we tried to make this relevant to people and their parks. How did we do that? How could you connect climate change to your park?How did we make complex science palatable to our audience? Will any of our methods work for you? How is your audience different and how might you share the science with them?Do you think we created a sense of hope? If so, how? Hope is imperative to action. How will you achieve a sense of hope in your audience?30