The American people created the National Park Service to care for our truly exceptional landscapes and historic treasures, enshrine our nation's enduring principles, and remind us of the tremendous sacrifices Americans have made on behalf of those principles. Our charge is to preserve our natural and cultural heritage unimpaired so Americans may always experience the chirps of pika high on the alpine tundra, the view of stately saguaro cactus, or the plunging of glacial ice.

The National Park Service response to climate change is coordinated around four areas of emphasis:

• Using Science to help parks manage climate change
• Adapting to an uncertain future
• Mitigating or reducing our carbon footprint
• Communicating to the public and our employees about climate change

About the Climate Change Response Program

The Climate Change Response Program works to foster communication, provide guidance, scientific information, and recommendations that support stewardship actions to preserve our natural and cultural heritage from the detrimental impacts of global climate change.

The Climate Change Response Program is committed to implementing the Department of the Interior's climate change response initiative. Our response is strategic, adaptive, and collaborative, and supports the mission of the parks and the values of the public we serve. We promote new ideas, continually learn about the land, and reach out to partners. We recognize that climate change is complex and requires coordinated action in long-term planning and policy, and that collective action should promote national and global leadership. With climate change, we have an enormous challenge to conserve park resources and provide for the enjoyment of those resources by the people of this country.

About the Climate Friendly Parks Program

The Climate Friendly Parks program provides parks with the tools and technical support to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emission by integrating sustainability into their operations. Through demonstrating how they are reducing their own carbon footprints, parks are uniquely positioned to educate visitors about climate change and sustainability. The Climate Friendly Parks program equips parks with the sources to serve as models of climate friendly behavior in order to protect their natural and cultural resources. This program is a vital piece of the National Park Service Green Parks Plan (forthcoming), an integrated approach to address climate change through implementing sustainable practices in our operations.The Green Parks Planis an integral component of the larger National Park Service's Climate Change Response Strategy.