The PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership released a new video to promote their mission of transcending the climate change debate into a personal and community challenge. The video was produced by Dr. Stephanie L. Pfirman, Professor of Environmental Science and Alena Wels Hirschorn '58 and Martin Hirschorn Professor of Environmental and Applied Sciences at Barnard College, and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) as part of a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The video showcases the PoLAR’s ongoing project development efforts of solidifying new techniques of presenting complicated scientific material on polar climate change in very engaging digital and non-digital formats. Partners describe how and why they strive to help a diverse community of participants advance their critical thinking and problem solving skills, and develop systems thinking knowledge through their project games and interactive tools. These interviews bring front and center issues specific to polar climate change as it relates to detrimental changes occurring in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the earth’s system. In the video, Dr. Larry Hamilton of the University of New Hampshire states “even if the Arctic is thousands of miles away, we will feel it’s effects here.” Dr. Hamilton recently published some critical findings on voting habits and climate change beliefs located here A Four-party View of US Environmental Concern.

Dr. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University stated recently in Eco-Business that "the year 2015 will be our generation’s greatest opportunity to move the world toward sustainable development." Thus, the highly contentious and vexing issue of climate change will be a central topic in high-level negotiations at the United Nations between July and December of this year and is highlighted in the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s report “The Path To Dignity” making the timing of this initiative all the more important.

The PoLAR Hub (thepolarhub.org) is the official website of the PoLAR Partnership. It features the latest news and research in polar climate science and hosts all essential teaching and learning project resources focused on polar climate change developed by the PoLAR Partnership. The PoLAR Partnership is a team comprised of experts in climate science, learning theory, and formal and informal education.