Google “climate action northeastern U.S.,” and you’ll be inundated with tens of thousands of websites of unknown credibility and questionable helpfulness. How can anyone take meaningful action without a reliable foundation? 

Part of the answer is a new library-like tool, developed by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, with support from the state of Massachusetts, called the Climate Action Tool. 

Focused on the northeastern US, the tool is a library curated by scientific experts in the world of climate change and boiled down to accessible prose aimed at helping federal and state natural resource managers, as well as municipal groups, citizens’ initiatives, towns and even individuals who want to learn best practices informed by cutting edge science. 

“We first launched this tool ten years ago, focused only on Massachusetts,” says Toni Lyn Morelli, adjunct full professor of environmental conservation at UMass Amherst and U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist, one of the Climate Action Tool’s project leads. “We got tens of thousands of web site hits, from well beyond the state. For this new launch, we broadened our geographical boundaries to synthesize the latest research and point to examples and real-world scenarios to help guide our partners’ action.” 

One can search for information based on habitat type, from old agricultural fields to coastal beaches, or look for information based on the specific species one is interested in, from alewives to wood turtles. Or perhaps one’s interest is action based—how to plan for, adapt to or communicate climate science. 

The team will also host a webinar later in the spring to demonstrate the tool’s power. 

“Cities and towns, organizations and individuals want to do more to protect ecosystems and human communities from climate change,” says Scott Jackson, emeritus extension professor in environmental conservation at UMass Amherst and the other project lead. “The Climate Action Tool was originally developed and now has been expanded to help people adapt to those changes through individual and collective action.”