The National Park Service is spending nearly $300,000 on an internship program that teaches college students skills on how to communicate messages about climate change.
The "Climate Change Communication Internship Program" is a partnership with George Mason University that gives students paid internships to make infographics and websites about how humans are causing global warming.
"This paid summer internship program—in partnership with the National Park Service—trains and places undergraduate and graduate interns in National Capital Region national parks to develop materials and programs that communicate the impact of climate change on natural, cultural, historical, and recreational resources in the parks," according to the program's website. "Our interns have developed a variety of products ranging from park ranger communication toolkits to park-specific webpages."
The internship began under the Obama administration in 2012. The program costs an estimated $287,308, according to a notice published by the National Park Service on Wednesday.
Past internships have taught environmental studies majors how to "effectively communicate" efforts to mitigate climate change and how to "inspire others to make changes in their own lives."
Students created a video for Catoctin Mountain Park in Thurmont, Md., that "describes why recycling and composting are climate friendly actions."
This year's interns are making a short film about sea level rise in Belle Haven, Va.
George Mason University says it started the program because of "five important facts," including "climate change is real" and is "caused by human actions." The university also claims "more than 97 percent of the experts agree" on climate change and that climate change is "harming us."
Finally, the university says, "We can solve this problem, if we work at it."
George Mason University claims the Paris climate change deal can solve the problem. Signed by President Obama in 2015, the deal was an international agreement where nations vowed to prevent the planet's temperature from rising by 2 degrees Celsius in the future.
"Therefore, the overarching question we are attempting to answer—and the defining rationale for creating our center—is: How can sufficient public and political will be created, fast enough, to limit the Earth’s warming to less than 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degree Fahrenheit), and to protect people with sensible climate change adaption measures?" the university said.
President Donald Trump is reportedly going to pull the United States out of the Paris accord.