Atlas of Our Changing Environment

The United Nations Environment Program hosts a helpful interactive map displaying more than one hundred examples of environmental change around the world. Each placemark on the map has close-up views of the land and a story about environmental change at that location. For example, clicking on the placemark for Manaus, Brazil will reveal close-up imagery of site and detailed information about the environmental changes taking place. If you click through the links in the placemarks you can find the references used in constructing the information available through the map.

Applications for Education
The Atlas of Our Changing Environment could be a good resource for teachers developing lesson plans about climate change. You could have your students explore the map and select a site that is of interest to them to research in more depth. After conducting their research your students could then develop potential solutions to the problems at their chosen site. Have students present their plans to their classmates to discuss the viability of their proposed solutions.