What Is Climate Risk?

Articles/Websites

Grades9, 10, 11, 12Biology, Geography, Health

Scientist Reviewed

Provided by Probable Futures

Open Resource

What it is

This article defines climate risk and its three types, which become increasingly prominent as climate change increases and weather becomes more extreme.
Students will learn about exposure risks, physical damage, and systemic response risk, and the factors that increase risks and vulnerability.

Teaching tips

Positives

The article takes time to talk about preparedness and how it can decrease one's vulnerability, which is great for students who feel anxious after discussing this topic.
The article also links to helpful graphs and charts to help students analyze related data.

Prerequisites

Students should understand climate change and how it may increase the frequency and/or severity of extreme weather events.

Differentiation & Implementation

After reading this article, students can check out the Climate Risk Index 2025 to see how other countries are at risk for climate change-related weather.
Students can research the extreme weather that threatens their region as climate change worsens and create a preparedness plan to decrease their vulnerability.
To understand systemic response risks, students can analyze an extreme weather event from the recent past and the responses of human-made and natural systems to that event.

From the scientist review

Climate risk is thoroughly defined, and its three types are discussed. This resource gets ahead of common misconceptions about climate and weather and rightly focuses on how global climate change can exacerbate local weather events. Featuring clear text and a link to the interactive Climate Futures maps, this resource is recommended for teaching.

How we review resources

Ready to use it?

Hosted on probablefutures.org

Open Resource

Want this to fit your class?

Add your location for local examples, questions, and action ideas.

At a glance

Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
Subjects: Biology, Geography, Health
Language: English
Location: Earth
Provider: Probable Futures
Authors: Probable Futures
Published: April 11, 2025
Last updated: July 16, 2026
: Reviewed by our climate scientists How we review

Standards alignment · R.9-12.5 + 5 more

Maine Climate Education Hub

English Language Arts

R.9-12.5Provide an accurate summary of various texts; determine the central idea(s) or theme(s) and analyze its development throughout each text.
R.9-12.7Interpret words and phrases as they are used in various texts, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

Science and Engineering

HS-ESS2-2Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
HS-ETS1-1Analyze a major global challenge to specify qualitative and quantitative criteria and constraints for solutions that account for societal needs and wants.

Social Studies

Geography1 (D2): Students understand the geography of the United States and various regions of the world and the effect of geographic influences on decisions about the present and future by using inquiry to predict and evaluate consequences of geographic influences.
Geography2 (F2): Students understand geographic aspects of unity and diversity in Maine, the United States, and the world, including Maine Native American communities, by summarizing and interpreting the relationship between geographic features and cultures of Maine Native Americans, and historical and recent immigrant groups in Maine, the United States, and the world.

Cookie Preferences

What it is

Teaching tips

From the scientist review

Ready to use it?

Want this to fit your class?

Related Teaching Resources