Paper long abstract:

The contemporary world's most important environmental issue is global climate change. In Central Asia in general, the most important consequence of climate change is to its water resources, due to the long-term melting of the mountain glaciers. Annual snow and glacial melt are the source of the vast majority of water resources in this region. Yet depending upon country and university, faculty and students have little familiarity of the most important international reports and studies of these issues from organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And this is true even though the IPCC is an organization created by two agencies of the United Nations. In this paper I will describe the challenges in science education and discuss approaches to improving environmental science education in this region. These challenges include internet, access to journals, and language of study. The paper will note examples where significant progress has been made.