Understanding how human activities are causing climate and other global changes requires a basic understanding of climate, how it differs from weather, and at least a little about how climate and related science is conducted.

Here is a selection of high-quality free on-line resources helpful for teachers looking to review the basics of climate science, understand the historical development of the science, improve their climate science pedagogy, and prepare to counter doubt and denial about climate change.

Climate change denial is already threatening the integrity of science education in formal and informal education settings. In the public schools, such threats are primarily due to laws adopted or considered at the level of state government, policies adopted or considered at the level of the local school district, and actions adopted or considered at the level of the individual classroom, where teachers may either deny climate change themselves or encounter pressure from climate change deniers in the community.

There is a debate among those involved in social controversies surrounding climate change about how to refer to the positions that reject, and to people who doubt or deny, the scientific community’s consensus on the answers to the central questions of climate change. Many such people prefer to call themselves skeptics and describe their position as climate change skepticism. Their opponents, however, often prefer to call such people climate change deniers and to describe their position as climate change denial.