Climate change: Menace or myth? Teachers Notes These activities focus on the science and impacts of climate change. The aim of this module is to present the evidence for climate change, some of the potential impacts and let students decide for themselves. These notes are designed to supplement the activities and should be read in conjunction with them. Climate Change Learning Outcomes - by the end of this module students should be able to: • Explain the greenhouse effect. • List and describe effects of climate change. • Make predictions about the future. • Be able to present opinions based on evidence. Language Support In many of the activities you will find language support (LS) referred to. These are there to help you and your student’s structure language learning and make some of the tasks more manageable.
1. Is the Climate Changing? There is still debate about whether climate change is a natural or human induced phenomenon. 97% of scientists on the UN International Panel for Climate Change agree that climate change is significantly influenced by human activity. This activity illustrates some of the facts that support this. Start this activity with a quick brainstorm, asking your students ‘is the climate changing?’ Note student answers and keep them for later. Ask your students to read through the data and information below in small groups. Once they have read through the data ask them to make short presentations (2 minutes max), they could use flipchart paper to help present their ideas. Use the language support sheet (LS1) for help. At the end of the activity review the student’s answers to the ‘is the climate changing’ question.
2. The Greenhouse Effect Task 1 The greenhouse effect is the main cause of global warming. Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans in recent decades. Predictions from the UN International Panel on Climate Change say that global temperatures could rise by 1.4 and 5.8 °C by 2100. This could have very big impacts! Ask students to read the text which describes the greenhouse effect. Then hand out the diagram with the missing text asking students to complete the diagram. Task 2 In preparation for some of the later activities in this module, ask your students what they think the effects of the greenhouse effect might be. Do they think it is really happening? Whose fault it is? Ask students to group their ideas using the blank table in the student activity sheets. Below are examples of some of the possible answers. The ‘whose fault is it?’ has deliberately been left blank. This is a difficult question to answer accurately. We could say it is all our faults, specifically, developed countries with high carbon emissions. Other activities in this module will explore potential impacts in more detail. List your ideas below in the appropriate heading Global Impact • Sea level rise. • Reduction in agricultural productivity.
Size of impact (high, medium, low) High High High
Whose fault is it?
•
Increased desertification.
European Impact • Increasingly hot summers. • Reducing snow fall affecting ski season. • Species loss due to changing ecosystem conditions. • Increased levels of vector borne diseases. National Impact • Increased localised flooding. • More extreme weather conditions.
Medium Medium Medium Medium
Medium Medium
3. Impacts of Climate Change Task 1 This activity asks students to match pictures with descriptions and explain their results. The activity is designed to encourage students to think about the potential impacts of climate change and then examine them in more detail in task2. Task 2 This is a formal writing activity. Students are asked to select one impact of climate change and write a broadsheet newspaper article of 250 words. You could start this activity by brainstorming with your students ‘what makes a good article.’ Ask them to think about newspaper articles that they like and why. 4. Climate Change Opinions Task 1 Working in groups of 4 or 5, students will survey the opinions of their classmates using the prepared survey. Alternatively students could design their own survey. Once completed students will prepare a presentation about their survey findings. You could create a debate on the results. For example, search the internet for news articles about climate change (www.bbc.co.uk is a good source). Do your student’s results match what is written in the news? Task 2 These quotes really confirm the global acceptance of climate change and the need to act! Ask your students to work in pairs and read each quote, then decide if the ‘agree,’ ‘disagree’ or ‘don’t know’ with each quote. Write 2 - 3 sentences next to each quote explaining their answer.
You will notice that the quote from George Bush is grammatically inaccurate. George Bush ‘known’ for his inventive use of the English language! He probably meant to say that ‘I believe that not only can we solve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, I believe we will.’ 6. Myths and Facts Students are provided with several statements about climate change, but which of them is fact and which of them are myths? Working in groups, use the table to sort them out. Once students have decided which are myths and which are facts, hand out the answers. Are there any surprises in between your student’s answers and the real answers? Myths and Facts Answers MYTH: Global warming can't be happening, since winters have been getting colder. MYTH: Satellite measurements of temperature over the past two decades show a much smaller warming in the atmosphere than is measured by thermometers at the surface. This contradicts global warming predictions based on climate models. MYTH: The global warming over the past century is nothing unusual. For example, the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), roughly from A.D. 1000 to 1400, was warmer than the 20th century. MYTH: Human activities contribute only a small fraction of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions, far too small to have a significant effect on the concentration of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. MYTH: The Earth's warming is caused by natural factors like increased sunlight and sunspots or decreased cosmic rays, not by greenhouse gases. MYTH: Models have trouble predicting the weather a few days in advance. How can we have any confidence in model projections of the climate many years from now? MYTH: The science behind the theory of global warming is too uncertain to draw conclusions useful to policy makers. MYTH: Society can easily adapt to climate change; after all, human civilization has survived through climatic changes in the past. FACT: Winters have been getting warmer. Measurements show that Earth's climate has warmed overall over the past century, in all seasons, and in most regions. FACT: Recent research has corrected problems that led to underestimates of the warming trend in earlier analyses of satellite data. The new results show an atmospheric warming trend slightly larger than at the surface, exactly as models predict. FACT: Ten independent scientific studies all have found a large 20th-century warming trend compared to temperature changes over the past millennium or two. Uncertainty exists as to exactly how warm the present is compared to the past. FACT: Modelling studies indicate that most of the warming over the past several decades was probably caused by the increase in human-produced greenhouse gases.
FACT: The primary scientific debate is about how much and how fast, rather than whether, additional warming will occur as a result of human-produced greenhouse gas emissions. FACT: While humans as a species have survived through past climatic changes, individual civilizations have collapsed. Unless we limit greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, we will face a warming trend unseen since the beginning of human civilization. (Myths and facts copyright Š 2002 Environmental Defense.)
7. How much is enough? The majority of people accept that climate change is real and influenced by man to the extent that we will create severe problems if we do not reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we produce. But much do we have to reduce emissions by? Most people underestimate the amount by which we need to reduce greenhouse emissions. The answer is 60-80% by 2050‌just imagine running your car or heating your home using 60% less energy! In order to attain such reductions we require radical new ways of thinking and acting. Start by asking your students to guess by how much we have to reduce emissions by if we are to avoid severe climate change effects by 2050? Write the answers down. Ask how many students have heard of the Kyoto Protocol? Explain that this is a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gases globally. How much will the Kyoto Protocol reduce carbon dioxide emissions by? Again ask students to guess. The answer is about 5% at best! Now use the reading, either handed out or read out, to find the real answer. Some students may be surprised, even depressed, to hear this. Conclude by saying that we shall be examining positive solutions and that it is not all doom and gloom! 8. Climate Change Quiz The quiz below is a good way to review learning during this module and practice listening skills. You could either read out this quiz for the whole class to answer, or ask students to prepare their own quizzes in teams and test each other in a class competition!
Climate Change Quiz 1.
Which of the following can be caused by global warming and climate change? Floods Droughts Hurricanes Spread of tropical diseases Animals becoming extinct
2.
What are the gases carbon dioxide, methane and *HFCs known as? (*HFCs are the gas in aerosols, refrigerator coolants and air conditioners.)
3.
Why are they called this?
4.
When fossil fuels are burnt to make electricity, what is the main gas that is released?
5.
Can you name three ways of making electricity without burning fossil fuels?
6.
Which of the following are fossil fuels? Coal Air Oil Gas Water
7.
Can you list four things that you do that need electricity?
8.
Which of the following uses fossil fuels? Cars Walking Power stations Reading Factories Aeroplanes
9.
What is causing the ice caps in the Arctic to melt?
10. Who is responsible for helping to stop climate change? 11. Can you name four things that you can do to help stop climate change? The answers are below. 1.
All
2.
Greenhouse gases
3.
Because they trap heat next to the Earth like in a greenhouse
4.
Carbon dioxide
5.
Wind, solar power (from the sun), water power (waves and tides and watermills),power from plants (biomass), using the natural difference in temperature between the Earth and the air (geothermal)
6.
Coal, oil, gas
7.
Watch TV, listen to music, have lights on, watch a video/DVD, use the computer, cook, use a fridge/freezer, wash clothes, use the air con, etc
Vocabulary Revision Vocabulary activity Print off the sheet and make one copy for each group of 5 students in the class. First of all, carry out a vocabulary activity led by the teacher and then hand out the cut up sheets to the groups to do the activity in their own groups while the teacher facilities. Alternative vocabulary activity – Pictionary Students work in pairs in groups of four or six. Each pair takes a turn in picking up a piece of paper with a word on it which they must then draw a picture of so that their partner guess the word which written on the piece of paper. They have only one minute to draw and guess. No talking from the person drawing! After one minute, they move on to the next pair.
Menace
Myth
Greenhouse effect
Deviation
Projected
Intensity
prone to
incidence
Ice cores
pollen
climatic
panes
biosphere
absorb
pyramid
Stabilise
To fell
Yields
Atoll
Vast
Standby
Renewable
Modest step
Mindblowing
Consensus
Sound alarm bells
Trend
Kyoto protocol
Doom and gloom
To curb
HFCs
Methane
Biomass
Carbon dioxide
Aerosol