Things are warming up in Alaska, and that's not a good thing. At Kenai Fjords National Park, the average monthly temperature in December was nearly 6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, the same departure noticed in November. Just one day in December saw temperatures dip below freezing, as measured at the Seward airport.

A dozen days spent in national parks in Alaska this summer helped high school students from Ohio learn a little bit more about climate change up close. Their experience was part of the first “Climate Change Academy,” an immersive, comprehensive climate change course offered through the National Park Service.

For those of us who love our national parks and are confronted daily with media, politicians, and pundits warning us of a coming global-warming disaster, it’s only natural to ask what that warming will mean for our national parks. This is exactly what the well- known Union of Concerned Scientists discuss in their recent report, National Landmarks at Risk: How Rising Seas, Floods, and Wildfires Are Threatening the UnitedStates’Most Cherished Historic Sites.

A new guide that describes climate change in Alaska’s national parks seeks to engage both state residents and the parks’ two million annual visitors.