2025 Current Issue Resources

Roots and Resiliency Current Environmental Issue Study Resources​
2024-25_indiana_current_issue_study_guide.pdf
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2025 Current Issue Objectives

Key Topic #1:  Climate Change Projections

1. Describe the causes of climate change, including the greenhouse effect.
2. Explain the impacts of climate change on the environment, as well as social and economic impacts both locally and globally.
3. Differentiate types of climate models and the various components that enable models to project future conditions.
4. Understand Indiana's past and future climate models as well as future forest predictions for the State.

Key Topic #2:  Forest Health in a Changing Climate

5. Describe how wildfire impacts the hydrology, wildlife, and soils of forest communities.
6. Describe the conditions of drought as it relates to forest ecosystems, and identify how increasing drought severity and frequency impacts global forests.
7. Describe how the prevalence and spread of forest pests and diseases are expected to shift with climate change.
8. Describe an ecozone or ecological land classification, and identify how different types are anticipated to shift based on climate change projections.
9. Identify boreal forest-dependent species, and explain how climate change may threaten their populations.

Key Topic #3:  Inherent Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Land Stewardship

10. Identify differences between Indigenous worldviews and Western worldviews regarding land stewardship.  (Study Tip - No need to memorize this document - just have an understanding of the viewpoints)  Pages 67 - 114

Key Topic #4:  Vulnerability Assessments and Adaptation Strategies

11. Describe a forest vulnerability assessment, including its purpose and steps.
12. Define adaptive capacity in relation to vulnerable flora and fauna of forest communities
13. Distinguish how various ecozones face differing levels of vulnerability and explain which ecological factors drive this vulnerability.

Key Topic #5:  Legislation and Regulations

14. Identify key takeaways of the 2015 Paris Agreement and how the commitments made influence forest sustainability.
 Visit each of the following topics to access the Reference Material & Learning Objectives: