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Resources for Teaching About Climate Change With The New York Times

Dozens of resources to help students understand why our planet is warming and what we can do to stop it.

By The Learning Network

How much do your students know about climate change — what causes it, what its consequences are and what we can do to stop it?

A 2022 report from the United Nations found that countries around the world are failing to live up to their commitments to fight climate change, pointing Earth toward a future marked by more intense flooding, wildfires, drought, heat waves and species extinction.

Young people in particular are feeling the effects — both physical and emotional — of a warming planet. In response to a writing prompt about extreme weather that has been intensified by climate change, teenagers told us about experiencing deadly heat waves in Washington, devastating hurricanes in North Carolina and even smoke from the California wildfires in Vermont. They’re also feeling the anxiety of facing a future that could be even worse: “How long do I have before the Earth becomes uninhabitable? I ask myself this every day,” one student wrote .

Over the years, we’ve created dozens of resources to help young people learn about climate change with New York Times articles, interactive quizzes, graphs, films and more. To mark this moment, we’re collecting 60 of them, along with selected recent Times reporting and Opinion pieces on the topic, all in one place.

To get you started, we’ve highlighted several of those resources and offered ideas for how you can use them in your classroom. Whether it’s a short video about a teenage climate activist, a math problem about electric vehicles, or a writing prompt about their diet’s carbon footprint, we hope these activities can get your students thinking and talking about climate change and inspire them to make a difference.

How are you teaching about the climate crisis, its consequences and its solutions? Let us know in the comments.

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Climate Change : Comprehensive Worksheets for Critical Thinking

Description

Explore the critical issue of climate change with our engaging and informative worksheets designed to help students understand its science and impacts.

This comprehensive collection covers a wide range of topics related to climate change, including weather and climate, causes and effects, and the socio-economic and environmental impacts.

Key features of this product include:

• Defining Key Terms : Worksheets that help students grasp essential terms like greenhouse gases and emissions.
• Comparing and Contrasting : Exercises that differentiate between climate change and global warming.
• Reading Comprehension : Passages related to climate change followed by questions to test understanding.
• Writing Assignments : Prompts that ask students to write about the potential effects of climate change.
• Research Projects : Activities that require students to investigate how climate change affects specific animal species.
• Creative and Critical Thinking : Projects such as creating infographics on climate change and sharing personal observations and opinions.

By engaging with these materials, students will not only gain a solid understanding of the science behind climate change but also develop critical thinking skills.

These worksheets are designed to foster informed, responsible citizens who are equipped to contribute to the global effort to combat climate change and protect our planet for future generations.

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Climate change and sustainability resources

Discover free lesson plans, experiments and activities to explore how chemistry can help us tackle climate change and build a more sustainable future

Get started with 14 ways to teach sustainability in chemistry

Based on the UN's sustainable development goals, our Sustainability in chemistry series brings together tips, ideas and curriculum-linked resources to connect your existing chemistry lessons with sustainability.

Global warming and the greenhouse effect

Develop your students’ understanding of the greenhouse effect, and investigate the chemistry behind efforts to reduce or capture greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The greenhouse effect

Modelling the greenhouse effect

In association with Nuffield Foundation

Use this demonstration to illustrate the greenhouse effect and the role of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

What causes the greenhouse effect? | 16-18 years

Reinforce your students’ understanding of the cause of the greenhouse effect using this lesson plan with a demonstration and activities for 16–18 year olds.

Other greenhouse gases

Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere cause a rise in global temperature. This worksheet looks at some data from other greenhouse gases to see if they have the same effect.

The carbon cycle and sequestration

Reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere | 14–16 years

A research and debate activity investigating how scientists are working to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

How to teach the carbon cycle at 11–14

Ensure your students have a firm understanding of the chemistry behind climate change

Carbon dioxide gets stoned

Locking Earth’s excess carbon dioxide away by turning it into rock

Climate change

Understanding climate change as a process | 14–16 years

A flow diagram activity to bring together learning about the greenhouse effect and climate change, with questions to consolidate understanding

Fossil fuels

Fossil fuels and global carbon emissions | 14–16 years

Classroom activity where learners explore and debate the issues around fossil fuels, energy and global carbon emissions

E10 petrol and climate change | 14–16 years

Fuel your learners’ understanding about fermentation and bioethanol, and check recall and application of knowledge while developing student literacy

Air pollution and the atmosphere

Find out more about the Earth’s atmosphere and the human and environmental impacts of air pollution in our cities and homes.

Atmospheric change

Frozen in time

2019-11-06T09:56:00+00:00 By Jamie Durrani and Kristy Turner

What chemical clues locked away in ancient ice tell us about Earth’s history

Radical changes in our atmosphere

2013-09-02T00:00:00+01:00 By Dudley Shallcross and Tim Harrison

Dudley Shallcross and Tim Harrison explain how a breakthrough has allowed us to study Criegee biradicals, and what this could mean for atmospheric science

Air pollution

Monitoring local air pollution levels | 14–18 years

Research and evaluate real data showing current and historical levels of the atmospheric pollutant nitrogen dioxide in your local area. Age range 14–16, with extension questions for 16–18

Pollution in your home

Measuring air pollutants lurking indoors, with classroom resources

Air pollution: a sinister synergy

New insight into the mechanisms by which nitrogen dioxide and ozone damage the human respiratory tract

Taking care of the air

How do we control the pollutants we breathe in? This article includes specification links and resources for your classroom.

Every breath you take

What’s polluting the air inside our homes? Nina Notman investigates

Energy and alternative fuels

From hydrogen fuel cells to solar power, use these resources to find out chemistry can help us cut emissions and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

A hydrogen powered rocket

Try this spectacular demonstration to make a rocket using a plastic drink bottle fuelled by hydrogen and air. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

Fuelling the future

Switching off coal and oil

The evolution of catalytic converters

From early smog problems to modern concerns about air pollution, catalysts pave the way in controlling the emissions from combustion engines

Hydrogen fuel from urine

Could urine be used to fuel our cars?

Energy Card Sort

In association with The Solar Spark at the University of Edinburgh

Sort solar energy themed cards into groups and work out the connections between those in the groupsust

The Solar Spark - solar energy resources

Browse this resource collection from The Solar Spark (University of Edinburgh) for worksheets, videos, experiments and more that explore the potential for solar energy.

Batteries and their impacts

Batteries are essential to the devices we depend on every day. They’re also key to new green technologies, including solar power and electric vehicles. But how do they work? And what impact do they have on the environment?

Your place or mine? The local business of lithium mining

Lithium-ion batteries will power the next generation of electric cars, but how can we mine lithium with minimal impact on the environment?

Lithium: separation, mining and battery power | 11–14 years

Test your 11–14 students’ knowledge of separation techniques; elements, mixtures and compounds; periodic table trends

New power, old batteries

Closing the loop in lithium-ion battery recycling from electric cars

Rechargeable batteries

Recharge your batteries | 14–16 years

Find out how lithium-ion batteries work, and the issues surrounding their manufacture and disposal

Rechargeable cells: the lead–acid accumulator

Use this practical to demonstrate the chemistry behind rechargeable batteries, using a lead–acid accumulator cell. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

Sustainable production and consumption

Add context to your teaching of life cycle assessments and polymers by exploring the science of recycling and how chemical scientists are creating more sustainable materials.

Plastic waste and recycling

Single-use plastic in period products

Forget bags and straws. Disposable period products are a much great contributor to the amount of plastic littering our environment

Plastic waste

Can science solve it? This article includes teaching resources

Recycling plastic bottles

Recycling plastic bottles prevents the plastic from going to landfill, saves energy and reduces our dependency on oil. But what do we have to do to put the bottle back on the supermarket shelf?

Sustainable plastics and other materials

Brick by brick

From green LEGO bricks to compostable shoes, Fiona Case investigates how Lego and Reebok are making biomaterials mainstream

Making materials from biomass

Biomass is regularly used as fuel, but have we been overlooking this sustainable resource as a source of chemical building blocks?

Plant-based plastics | 11–14 years

Put chemistry into context and encourage your 11–14 students to use their critical thinking skills with these classroom activities

Making plastic from potato starch

Try this class practical to make a plastic using potato starch and investigate the effects of adding a ‘plasticiser’. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

What's in a bag?

Creating compostable plastic

The environmental impact of fashion

Assessing the life cycle of fashion | 14–16 years

Examine the environmental impact of our clothing with these resources

Sustainable industry

Catalysts and reaction conditions for sustainable industry | 16–18 years

Research and presentation activity based on catalysts and reaction conditions in the context of sustainable industry

Reflect on your own consumption

Sustainable consumption: individual action | 14–16 years

A research and reflect activity to get your learners thinking about the materials they consume and the impact of individual actions

Protecting our oceans

From microplastics to acidification due to carbon dioxide emissions – our oceans are under pressure. But chemical scientists are at the forefront of work to reduce and repair the damage. Find out more about the problems facing marine environments and investigate acidification hands-on.

The pH scale and the chemistry of ocean acidification | 14–16 years

Worksheet to develop understanding of the pH scale and apply it in the context of ocean acidification. Extension questions provide more challenge on carbonic acid and acid base equilibrium, leading to a research task on the consequences for marine organisms

The other carbon dioxide problem

Carbon dioxide produced by human activity is acidifying the ocean at an unprecedented and alarming rate

Chemistry of the oceans | 14–16 years

A booklet aimed at students aged between 14 and 16 years. The text is supported by questions, tables of data and diagrams.

The massive problem of microplastics

As plastics fill up and pollute our oceans, recognising their value rather than thinking of them as disposable could help us deal with what has turned into a large, global problem

The reaction of carbon dioxide with water

Form a weak acid from the reaction of carbon dioxide with water in this class practical. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

Clean, sustainable water

Find out how we can use chemistry to improve access to potable water and learn about desalination, separation techniques, water analysis and the water cycle.

Water analysis

Separating salts from seawater

Try this simple practical to show that seawater contains a mixture of different salts. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

Dissolved substances in tap water and seawater

Compare the solids and gases dissolved in tap water and seawater in this class practical and demonstration. Includes kit list and safety instructions.

Water treatment and purification

Antibacterial properties of the halogens | 14–18 years

Water purification – practical videos | 14–16 students

Advances in water treatment

Water for life

The water cycle.

The life of water

Get hands on with H 2 O, changing states of matter and the water cycle. These experiments and investigations involve water in the context of space

Food, farming and nutrition

Sustainable agriculture means providing enough nutritious food for everyone while protecting our climate and environment. Find out how chemical scientists are helping to develop new approaches to farming, fertilisers and reducing food waste.

Fertilisers

Fertilisers and sustainability | 16–18 years

Investigate the rate of hydrolysis of urea and assess your learners’ practical skills, includes extension green chemistry questions on sustainable fertilisers

Reciprocal reading task: agriculture and ammonia | 14–16 years

Provide context and help build cultural and science capital, while improving learners’ reading skills

Mild method turns common mineral into fertiliser

Process could cut transportation costs and save farmers money

Reducing food waste

Waste not, want not

Elinor Hughes investigates some of the latest developments in recycling food waste 

Sustainable agriculture and food security

Achieving food security for Africa

Can seaweed-eating sheep curb methane emissions?

Organic chemists: contributing to food production | 16–18 years

Soil science

In association with Reckitt Benckiser

Additional resources

Lesson starters from science research news.

Add meaningful context to your lesson and inspire your students using these short summaries of current scientific research linked to curriculum topics, featuring quick questions to get students talking about chemical ideas.

Cooling homes with an endothermic reaction

Sunlight produces thousands of compounds from plastic

This smartwatch will self-destruct

Leaded petrol still poisoning London’s air

Seeding the ocean against climate change

Capturing carbon to help the environment

Carbon dioxide catalysis making jet fuel

Recycling plastic bottles into jet fuel

Merging solar cell and battery tech

Recycling lithium from electric vehicle batteries

Turning mixed plastic waste into natural gas

Algae produce synthetic chemicals

How ancient Maya peoples made potable water

Antidepressants in waste water may cause potent tap water toxin

Job profiles.

From monitoring the chemistry of our oceans to developing new, biodegradable plastics, chemical scientists are working to reduce our impact on the environment and make change possible.

Explore the job profiles below or visit A Future in Chemistry to find out more.

Section leader, wind

Chief executive officer

Head of research and sustainability

Research fellow, battery recycling

Market development manager

Analytical technician, plastics

Research & development team leader - smart food labels

Marine biogeochemist

Laboratory analyst and higher degree apprentice, water

Research innovations manager

Atmospheric chemist

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National Geographic Education Blog

Bring the spirit of exploration to your classroom.

Ultimate Critical Thinking Cheat Sheet

18 thoughts on “ Ultimate Critical Thinking Cheat Sheet ”

Can I use this for company training? Is there a purchase/copyright.

Hi, Dale: You will need to contact the Global Digital Citizen Foundation to request permission to use this resource.

#hi, where can i get a chart?

Hi, Alma! The good folks at the Global Digital Citizen Foundation can help you here: https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/critical-thinking-skills-cheatsheet-infographic

Where is the actual critical aspect of the “thinking”? I would want to see, “What are the premises of the argument? Are they actually true? What evidence supports it and contradicts it? What other explanations might cause that result? What would be the result of the intervention? Does the proposed intervention actually address the problem identified? Is the problem identified the right problem?”

Thank you, PaulR! The fact that these basic rhetorical questions are missing from this infographic illustrates what is wrong with our current methods of “debate” on issues from climate change to healthcare.

Great post. Thanks

Excellent. Useful for the classroom.

Go to the previous page where you saw this graphic. There is a link above it that will allow you to download it.

I want to purchase

https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/critical-thinking-skills-cheatsheet-infographic

How may I obtain a copy? Thanks.

I’m interested in a copy too.

I’d like to get one too. How can one be purchased? Thank you

Is this a poster that can be purchased? How can I get a copy?

I would appreciate to know if someone have translated that Cheatsheet in French language

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

How to fight climate change? With critical thinking, of course

How can we successfully fight climate change? With critical thinking, of course. John Cook, Peter Ellerton , and Dave Kinkead explain how in a recent article published by Environmental Research Letters: Deconstructing climate misinformation to identify reasoning errors . 

Misinformation can have significant societal consequences. For example, misinformation about climate change has confused the public and stalled support for mitigation policies. When people lack the expertise and skill to evaluate the science behind a claim, they typically rely on heuristics such as substituting judgment about something complex (i.e. climate science) with judgment about something simple (i.e. the character of people who speak about climate science) and are therefore vulnerable to misleading information. Inoculation theory offers one approach to effectively neutralize the influence of misinformation.

Typically, inoculations convey resistance by providing people with information that counters misinformation. In contrast, John, Peter and Dave propose inoculating against misinformation by explaining the fallacious reasoning within misleading denialist claims. They offer a strategy based on critical thinking methods to analyse and detect poor reasoning within denialist claims. This strategy includes detailing argument structure, determining the truth of the premises, and checking for validity, hidden premises, or ambiguous language. Focusing on argument structure also facilitates the identification of reasoning fallacies by locating them in the reasoning process. Because this reason-based form of inoculation is based on general critical thinking methods, it offers the distinct advantage of being accessible to those who lack expertise in climate science.

John, Peter and Dave applied this approach to forty-two common denialist claims and found that they all demonstrate fallacious reasoning and fail to refute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming. This comprehensive deconstruction and refutation of the most common denialist claims about climate change is designed to act as a resource for communicators and educators who teach climate science and/or critical thinking.

Deconstructing climate misinformation to identify reasoning errors is already influencing the debate about climate change. It has been mentioned in 9 news outlets including The Conversation , Science Alert and The Guardian . As of today, it has also been mentioned 560 times on Twitter, on 4 science blogs and has had 47 readers on Mendeley. Its Altmetric score has largely surpassed 500, making it one of the top 5% influential research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric. 

Welcoming 94 students onto campus for WRIT1999.

Making outstanding contributions to student learning

Thinking about thinking helps kids learn. How can we teach critical thinking?

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Climate Change: Answers to Guiding Questions

• Sustainability at AMNH
• Collaborators

Part of the Climate Change exhibition.

Teaching in the Exhibition: Answers to Guiding Questions

Following are answers to the guided questions featured in the climate change exhibition teacher's guide:

Climate Change Educator's Guide

Get an advance look at the exhibition's major themes and what your class will encounter. This eight-page guide for K-12 educators includes a Map of the Exhibition, Essential Questions (important background content), Teaching in the Exhibition (self-guided explorations), Come Prepared Checklist, Correlation to Standards, and Glossary.

Download »

1. Introduction

Why is atmospheric CO 2  on the rise? Levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) are climbing mostly because humans are burning fossil fuels in ever-increasing amounts —an activity that releases carbon dioxide. The increase began when coal replaced wood as a common fuel, and was spurred by the invention of the steam engine. CO 2 emissions have accelerated even more over the last 150 years with the commercial production of electricity from coal.

How are different kinds of machines powered? Machines are powered by different kinds of fuel, including oil (which includes gasoline and diesel fuels), ethanol, and electricity. Our world runs on electrical power, and much of that power comes from coal.

How have different kinds of carbon-based technologies affected human societies? Carbon-based technologies have vastly improved our lives. Labor once performed by humans is now carried out by machines. Harnessing electricity provided safe, bright light —and energy. Steam engines powered trains and boats, and oil-based power cars and planes move us comfortably around the world. Electronic devices, including personal computers and mobile phones, have transformed the way we work and communicate.

2. Climate Change Today

How do greenhouse gases affect Earth's atmosphere? The atmosphere is a transparent, protective blanket that admits enough of the Sun's energy to warm our planet. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere —carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), water vapor, methane, and nitrous oxide —retain some of this heat. Without this greenhouse effect, Earth's surface would be frozen and probably lifeless.

What human activities are causing the atmosphere to warm? Human activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, creates greenhouse gases. Burning coal to generate electricity is the most significant source of this CO 2 .; deforestation also plays a part. Humans are withdrawing carbon —in the form of coal and oil —from the long-term rock reservoir in which it sat for tens of millions of years, and pumping vast amounts of it into the surface reservoirs —the atmosphere, ocean, and biosphere. The increasing CO 2 content of the atmosphere is causing it to absorb and hold more heat emitted by Earth's surface.

3. Making a Difference

What can you do to conserve energy and reduce CO 2  in the atmosphere? There are many ways to reduce you and your family's energy use. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, install energy-efficient appliances, and turn off appliances and electronics when not in use. Take shorter showers. Drive less; instead, ride your bike or take public transportation, and carpool when you can. In the winter, dress more warmly instead of turning up the thermostat; keep blinds and curtains closed at night and open during the day. In the summer, raise the thermostat to 78, and turn on a ceiling fan instead of the AC.

How could you and others work together to broaden the effect of your actions? You could conduct school- or community-wide campaigns —using leaflets, posters, or announcements in school assemblies —that promote the activities listed above. Work with local organizations to promote public transportation, tree-planting, energy-efficient construction, and large-scale recycling programs. Get involved in Earth Day and other renewable-energy or conservation-oriented activities.

4. Changing Atmosphere

What's the difference between weather and climate? Weather describes the conditions today, tomorrow, or in the days to come. Climate is the average weather over years or longer.

What are some ways in which climate change affects weather? Warming may change wind and weather patterns, generally bringing more rain to ocean areas and less to land.

What's the evidence that Earth's atmosphere is changing? Cores drilled through ice caps contain samples of the different gases that made up the air when the ice solidified. These atmospheric "time capsules" show that there is more CO 2  in the atmosphere than at any time over the past 800,000 years —and probably much longer.

What are some of the consequences of a warming atmosphere take? Intense storms have and are expected to become more common, heat waves are likely to become more frequent and intense, and we can expect more droughts and floods.

5. Changing Ice

How will melting ice affect the world around us? Sea levels will rise. Low-lying land will experience erosion and become submerged, and coastal areas will experience more flooding during storm surges, with devastating consequences for the hundreds of millions of people who live near the ocean.

What role do seasonal changes in snow and ice cover play in Earth's climate? The bright white of ice and snow reflects the Sun's radiant energy back into space. Much of this takes place at the high latitudes, where ice and snow cover builds up during the winter and shrinks during the summer. More of that cover disappears when summers are long and warm. The more ice and snow that survive the summer, the cooler Earth stays.

Why is the Arctic so sensitive to climate change? The North Pole is significantly warmer than the South Pole because it's in the middle of an ocean. Long, warm summers decrease snow and ice cover and expose the dark water, which absorbs far more solar energy. As a result, the Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. On the other hand, Antarctica is less affected by climate change because it's much colder; its climate is insulated from the rest of the world by circumpolar ocean currents. Also, most Antarctic ice sits on land rather than water, so it's less vulnerable to warming ocean temperatures.

6. Changing Ocean

How do scientists study ocean temperature and chemistry? Many ships measure water temperature and chemistry as they travel across the oceans. Scientists also rely on satellites to measure sea surface height (which corresponds to temperature), and outfit buoys, floats, and ocean gliders to measure temperature, pH, salinity, or CO 2  content.

Why is the ocean so important to Earth's climate? The ocean plays a key role in the climate system because it holds far more CO 2  than the atmosphere or biosphere. Ocean waters absorb CO 2  directly from the atmosphere, and some ocean organisms take up CO 2  as they grow. Will climate change affect the ocean's ability to remove CO 2  from the atmosphere and thus intensify greenhouse warming? We do not know.

How might changing conditions affect marine ecosystems? About 30 percent of the CO 2  released by humans over the past 200 years has been absorbed by ocean waters. This has changed the chemistry of the water, making it less basic: the sea is "acidifying." Ocean acidification could make it harder for shell-forming organisms, from corals to tiny plankton, to grow their shells. Eventually, shell-forming organisms could disappear.

7. Changing Land

Why will both droughts and floods become more common? When warm air passes over land, moisture evaporates from the soil, drying it out. At the same time, warming will likely change weather patterns, bringing much less precipitation to certain parts of the world. On the other hand, when water evaporates from Earth's surface, particularly the ocean, it adds a significant amount of energy as well as water vapor to the atmosphere. The result is storms that are less frequent but unusually strong.

What are some of the ways that climate change is affecting organisms? Some species are shifting their geographic ranges to higher elevations. Changes in temperature and rainfall patterns are enabling others to spread more widely. Some are blooming, migrating, or breeding earlier. While some organisms can adjust to climate change, others cannot. Tropical species, which typically can survive only within a narrow temperature range, are especially at risk.

8. A New Energy Future

Why is clean electricity key to solving climate change? Plants the produce electricity are responsible for more than 30 percent of global CO 2  emissions each year, by far the largest source of those emissions. In addition, CO 2  emissions from electricity production are growing much faster than emissions from other sources.

What do you think governments like ours should do? Answers will vary. They may include:

• Directly tax carbon emissions
• Develop a cap-and-trade system (which gives companies an economic incentive to reduce emissions)
• Invest in alternative energy technologies
• Raise fuel-efficiency standards for trucks and cars
• Build public transportation systems
• Give tax breaks to homeowners who use less energy
• Support research on renewable energy
• Give scholarships in environmental science
• Give prizes for innovation in green buildings and sustainable development
• Protect forests, plant trees, and work to prevent deforestation worldwide
• Work with governments around the world to protect shared resources like the oceans and the atmosphere

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Critical thinking, critical pedagogy and climate change education

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Climate change education (CCE) involves developing a wide array of relevant knowledge, skills and dispositions. As the causes, consequences and solutions to climate change transverse disciplines and sectors, educational responses need to support students in drawing together social and scientific considerations. Critical thinking is variously interpreted in educational contexts to include both argumentation skills, which enable students for example to assess data and draw logical conclusions, and social justice critique, where relationships and power structures are deconstructed. Critical thinking, as both knowledge skills and as critique, is the cornerstone skill in CCE because of its role in enabling learners to analyse existing and emerging evidence; to explore the complex relationships across time and place generated by climate change and the related justice issues; to evaluate, holistically, solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation; and to empower children to envision their capacities for action. Building upon the concepts of “praxis” and critical consciousness developed by Paulo Freire, this chapter proposes an approach to CCE rooted in critical pedagogy. The chapter considers climate change as an issue at the core of both ESD and ESJ and suggests how CCE can be implemented, building on these frameworks, in schools and classrooms.

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The Carbon Cycle and Climate Change

Using an active, problem-based approach to understand the carbon cycle and climate change

The Science Teacher—August 2019 (Volume 87, Issue 1)

By Katherine Street Hoover

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Environmental education for all students is becoming more urgent as societies strive to deal with challenges such as climate change and loss of biodiversity. Teachers have an important role to play in defining the environmental knowledge, beliefs, and actions of the next generation. Differing from general science education, environmental education includes the goals of increasing student knowledge about the environment and promoting pro-environmental behaviors.

Understanding the anthropogenic inputs responsible for alteration of the global carbon cycle is essential if we are to graduate environmentally literate citizens. The association between anthropogenic inputs of carbon into the atmosphere and climate change is best understood if students first have a solid understanding of the carbon cycle. In this three-part activity, students will research and diagram the carbon cycle, provide each other with constructive peer feedback, and then work as a group to apply this new knowledge to create a presentation focused on community solutions to climate change.

Carbon is the most important element to all life on Earth. Making up an average of 20 percent of total body weight, it is part of cell membranes and walls, forms part of essential proteins, and stores energy for later use (Friedland, Relyea, and Courard-Hauri 2011). Along with its role in living organisms, carbon is also found stored in rocks, sediments, soils, the ocean, and the atmosphere. These are the reservoirs that carbon cycles through as it moves, sometimes quickly and sometimes more slowly, among the biotic and abiotic elements of the Earth.

The primary mechanisms involved in the movement of carbon from one reservoir to another are photosynthesis, respiration, sedimentation and burial, extraction, combustion, and exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and oceans. One of the faster processes in which carbon moves between reservoirs occurs in the food chain, where plants remove carbon from the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and combine it with water to create sugars. As animals consume plants, they digest the sugar molecules, and respiration, excretion, and decomposition return the carbon to the atmosphere or soil. Longer-term storage of carbon is found in the oceans, as well as in rocks and fossil fuels that are buried deep beneath the Earth.

Human activities—such as extracting fossil fuels and burning them, breaking down carboniferous rocks (such as limestone for the production of cement), and deforestation—have an enormous impact on the global carbon cycle. As a result, global atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide have been rising since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (see “On the web”). Student understanding of climate change and the human role in the alteration of the atmosphere is greatly facilitated by knowledge of the carbon cycle.

The activities described in this article use active, collaborative, inquiry-based learning techniques to engage students in developing a model of the carbon cycle and developing community-based solutions to the problem. Inquiry provides a pathway by which students can become more engaged learners, actively seeking answers (Barrow 2006). Data has shown that inquiry-based teaching has a significant positive effect on student learning and that engaging students in generating, developing, and justifying explanations as part of other science activities is an important element to help students learn science (Furtak et al. 2012).

Further evidence suggests that teacher-led inquiry lessons have a larger effect on student learning than those that are entirely student-led or those that are taught using traditional methods, such as lecture (Furtak et al. 2012).

Instructional plan

The lesson begins with a three-minute TedEd video titled “Climate Change, Earth’s Giant Game of Tetris,” which connects the carbon cycle to climate change and describes several ways that human impacts are responsible for increased planetary warming (see “On the web”). The TedEd website also has five multiple-choice and three short-answer questions to get students thinking about the carbon cycle, climate change, and human impact.

The teacher can then provide the students with a framework for their research by instructing the students to think of the carbon cycle in terms of carbon reservoirs (areas that absorb and store carbon for long periods) and carbon fluxes (the mechanisms that move carbon between reservoirs, such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration).

The students will work in groups of four or five. Teachers should use their knowledge of their own student’s abilities in the creation of groups and provide scaffolding accordingly. English Language Learners (ELLs) and students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) will benefit from vocabulary lists or notes provided by the teacher. The activity requires the following supplies:

• Portable computers with internet access
• Chart paper and markers
• Sticky notes

Part I: Carbon cycle

Although the students have been instructed to define the carbon cycle in terms of carbon reservoirs and carbon fluxes, they have not been provided with a list of reservoirs. The student groups will create their own research plans, use the internet to find the information, and create a diagram of the carbon cycle on the provided chart paper. Instruct the groups to find at least six carbon reservoirs and the fluxes between them, and suggest the use of box-and-arrow diagrams.

Creation of the carbon cycle model allows students an opportunity to develop a model based on evidence to illustrate the relationships between components of a system, satisfying this dimension of the Next Generation Science Standards ( NGSS ) science and engineering practices. The NGSS disciplinary core idea, that changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus affect climate, is addressed as students are also instructed to find at least three ways that humans interfere in the carbon cycle. These should be listed separately on the bottom or the back of the chart paper that they will use to draw their cycle. After this initial instruction, the teacher’s role is that of a facilitator, walking from group to group, providing necessary supplies and minimal guidance.

Examples of completed student carbon cycles are found in Figures 1 and 2.

Part 2: Peer feedback

As the student groups complete their carbon cycle diagrams, they are instructed to display them around the room. When all are complete, the students participate in a gallery walk to provide feedback among the groups and to solidify student understanding of the carbon cycle. Gallery walks are an excellent way to expose student misconceptions and give students the opportunity to use scientific language, rather than simply hearing it from an instructor during a lecture (Francek 2006).

The gallery walk

Prior to the activity, the teacher should provide an explanation for the purpose of the activity, such as “discussion with other groups will help to make everyone’s carbon cycle better and more accurate.”

Split the student groups in half. Two students from each group will “walk the gallery” while the other two remain with the group’s carbon cycle chart to participate in discussion with others during the activity. Students for whom English is a second language (ELLs) should be supported by pairing with native English speakers for the gallery walk.

Explain the procedure to the students. The student pairs will visit the other stations, look at their carbon cycle charts, and discuss the differences from their own chart, as well as differences in reservoirs or mechanisms for the movement of carbon. Every five minutes the student pairs move to the next group.

Provide each group with sticky notes and the Gallery Walk Discussion Worksheet (Figure 3). As they move from group to group, they should use the sticky notes to record their feedback for each group’s carbon cycle and stick it on the chart paper at that station. Groups that follow should not duplicate the same ideas. Encourage students to engage in discussion and to note the similarities and differences in the reservoirs and fluxes that other students have included in their carbon cycle models. The students should also be encouraged to compare modes of human interference in the cycle with each group and perhaps add some to their own list. The gallery walk discussion worksheet is used to record this type of new information or ideas that they would like to add to their own carbon cycle pictures.

Gallery Walk Discussion Worksheet.

1. Record the group number

2. Record notes on things you would like to add or change about your own carbon cycle based on your discussion

3. Record any questions you have based on your discussion

When each of the pairs has visited all of the other stations, the students will switch with the others in their group and stay with the group carbon cycle poster while the other groups walk the gallery. This way, all students get an opportunity for this important feedback and interaction.

Once all students have completed their walk, they should return to their original group. Using the sticky notes provided by other students and the notes they took on their own discussion worksheet, they should work as a group to improve their carbon cycle.

Part 3: Carbon in our town

Students are asked to apply their new knowledge of the carbon cycle and anthropogenic inputs that interfere with the cycle by creating a presentation suitable to present to our city council that answers the following questions:

• How can we use data to effectively lobby our community about the dangers of climate change and the changes in individual behaviors that can influence its severity?
• What can city officials do to promote citizen behaviors that will decrease our town’s total greenhouse gas output?

The students then present their ideas to the “city council” (the class), develop a plan for further research, and carry out the research. As a planning aid, the students are provided with a brainstorming worksheet (Figure 4). The groups produce a five-minute presentation (typically using video or PowerPoint) and use data to either persuade the audience as to the urgency of mitigating our community’s contribution to climate change or explain why their plan will succeed.

Brainstorming worksheet.

With your group, brainstorm solutions that answer the following question: How can we use data to effectively lobby our community about the dangers of climate change and the changes in individual behaviors that can influence its severity?

Student presentations (Figures 5 and 6), as expected, vary in their quality, creativity, and depth of thought. Students may also consult the grading rubric to help them prepare their presentations (see “On the web”). This activity has resulted in many excellent—and a few truly outstanding—presentations that contain research-based, creative, and realistic solutions capable of having a real impact on our town’s total output of greenhouse gases. Sharing the presentations in class also results in authentic student questions and productive class discussions.

After completion of this activity, students should be able to

• Sketch a simple model of the carbon cycle, including carbon reservoirs and fluxes.
• List and describe multiple ways that humans interfere with the carbon cycle.
• Explain anthropogenic climate change.
• Describe individual, community, and global behavior changes with the potential to decrease anthropogenic inputs of greenhouse gases.

This activity lends itself to multiple assessment opportunities. First, as the students complete their carbon cycles and participate in the gallery walk, they compare their carbon cycle chart with those of others, eventually adding parts they left off or changing their own models. This is an important step, as inevitably some of the students’ initial models are incomplete or wrong. Comparison and discussion with other groups is essential to help students correct their own work. Second, the students are evaluated on their final presentation based on the rubric, which they have been given prior to presentation. Student learning from this activity is often also evaluated in a summative assessment given at the end of a larger unit that includes all of the biogeochemical cycles or other related material.

The project can be extended into related subject areas. For mathematics, the student groups can create a quantitative cost/benefit statement based on actual data. Students should calculate the monetary expenditures necessary to implement their plan for decreasing their town’s carbon footprint and the potential savings in pounds of carbon dioxide not added to the atmosphere. For engineering, have the student groups research, design, and report on engineering solutions for schools and city buildings that result in at least a 33% decrease in the town’s overall carbon footprint.

The activities described in this article use active, collaborative, inquiry-based learning techniques to engage students in creating models of the carbon cycle, evaluating and discussing those models with classmates, and developing ideas for community-based solutions to the problem of anthropogenic climate change. The activity is an effective way to help students connect the carbon cycle with climate change, a connection that most do not automatically make without explicit instruction. It also provides students with opportunities to connect global climate change to local activities, as well as to acquire and practice skills such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.

Carbon cycle project grading rubric

TedEd video, multiple choice and short answer questions

NOAA carbon cycle resources

Katherine Street Hoover ( [email protected] ) is a PhD Student in STEM Curriculum and Instruction at Texas Tech University and an AP environmental science and environmental systems teacher at Wylie High School in Wylie, Texas.

Barrow, L.H. 2006. A brief history of inquiry: from dewey to standards. Journal of Science Teacher Education 17 (3): 265–278. doi:10.1007/s10972-006-9008-5.

Francek, M. 2006. Promoting discussion in the science classroom using gallery walks. Journal of College Science Teaching 36 (1): 27–31.

Friedland, A., R. Relyea, and D. Courard-Hauri. 2011. Friedland/Relyea Environmental Science for AP. New York: Macmillan.

Furtak, E.M., T. Seidel, H. Iverson, and D.C. Briggs. 2012. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies of inquiry-based science teaching: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research 82 (3): 300–329. doi:10.3102/0034654312457206 .

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9 questions about climate change you were too embarrassed to ask

Basic answers to basic questions about global warming and the future climate.

by Brad Plumer , Umair Irfan , and Brian Resnick

This explainer was updated by Umair Irfan in December 2018 and draws heavily from a card stack written by Brad Plumer in 2015. Brian Resnick contributed the section on the Paris climate accord in 2017.

There’s a vast and growing gap between the urgency to fight climate change and the policies needed to combat it.

In 2018, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that it is possible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius this century, but the world may have as little as 12 years left to act. The US government’s National Climate Assessment , with input from NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Pentagon, also reported that the consequences of climate change are already here, ranging from nuisance flooding to the spread of mosquito-borne viruses into what were once colder climates. Left unchecked, warming will cost the US economy hundreds of billions of dollars.

However, these facts have failed to register with the Trump administration, which is actively pushing policies that will increase the emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Ever since he took office, President Donald Trump has rejected or undermined President Barack Obama’s signature climate achievements: the Paris climate agreement; the Clean Power Plan , the main domestic policy for limiting greenhouse gas emissions; and fuel economy standards , which target transportation, the largest US source of greenhouse gases.

At the same time, the Trump administration has aggressively boosted fossil fuels: opening unprecedented swaths of public lands to mining and drilling , attempting to bail out foundering coal power plants , and promoting hydrocarbon exploitation at climate change conferences .

Trump has also appointed climate change skeptics to key positions. Quietly, officials at these and other science agencies have been removing the words “climate change” from government websites and press releases.

Yet the evidence for humanity’s role in changing the climate continues to mount, and its consequences are increasingly difficult to ignore. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations now top 408 parts per million, a threshold the planet hasn’t seen in millions of years . Greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high in 2018. Disasters worsened by climate change have taken hundreds of lives, destroyed thousands of homes, and cost billions of dollars.

The big questions now are how these ongoing changes in the climate will reverberate throughout the rest of the world, and what we should do about them. The answers bridge decades of research across geology, economics, and social science, which have been confounded by uncertainty and obscured by jargon. That’s why it can be a bit daunting to join the discussion for the first time, or to revisit the conversation after a hiatus.

To help, we’ve provided answers to some fundamental questions about climate change you may have been afraid to ask.

1) What is global warming?

In short: The world is getting hotter, and humans are responsible.

Yes, the planet’s temperature has changed before, but it’s the rise in average temperature of the Earth’s climate system since the late 19th century, the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, that’s important here. Temperatures over land and ocean have gone up 0.8° to 1° Celsius (1.4° to 1.8° Fahrenheit), on average, in that span:

Many people use the term “climate change” to describe this rise in temperatures and the associated effects on the Earth’s climate. (The shift from the term “global warming” to “climate change” was also part of a deliberate messaging effort by a Republican pollster to undermine support for environmental regulations.)

Like detectives solving a murder, climate scientists have found humanity’s fingerprints all over the planet’s warming, with the overwhelming majority of the evidence pointing to the extra greenhouse gases humans have put into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide trap heat at the Earth’s surface, preventing that heat from escaping back out into space too quickly. When we burn coal, natural gas, or oil for energy, or when we cut down forests that usually soak up greenhouse gases, we add even more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, so the planet warms up.

Global warming also refers to what scientists think will happen in the future if humans keep adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Though there is a steady stream of new studies on climate change, one of the most robust aggregations of the science remains the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fifth assessment report from 2013. The IPCC is convened by the United Nations, and the report draws on more than 800 expert authors. It projects that temperatures could rise at least 2°C (3.6°F) by the end of the century under many plausible scenarios — and possibly 4°C or more. A more recent study by scientists in the United Kingdom found a narrower range of expected temperatures if atmospheric carbon dioxide doubled, rising between 2.2°C and 3.4°C.

Many experts consider 2°C of warming to be unacceptably high , increasing the risk of deadly heat waves, droughts, flooding, and extinctions. Rising temperatures will drive up global sea levels as the world’s glaciers and ice sheets melt. Further global warming could affect everything from our ability to grow food to the spread of disease.

That’s why the IPCC put out another report in 2018 comparing 2°C of warming to a scenario with 1.5°C of warming . The researchers found that this half-degree difference is actually pretty important, since every bit of warming matters. Between the two outlooks, less warming means fewer people will have to move from coastal areas, natural weather events will be less severe, and economies will take a smaller hit.

However, limiting warming would likely require a complete overhaul of our energy system. Fossil fuels currently provide just over 80 percent of the world’s energy. To zero out emissions this century, we’d have to replace most of that with low-carbon sources like wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal, or carbon capture.

Beyond that, we may have to electrify everything that uses energy and start pulling greenhouse gases straight from the air. And to get on track for 1.5°C of warming, the world would have to halve greenhouse gas emissions from current levels by 2030.

That’s a staggering task, and there are huge technological and political hurdles standing in the way. As such, the world’s nations have been slow to act on global warming — many of the existing targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions are too weak , yet many countries are falling short of even these modest goals.

2) How do we know global warming is real?

The simplest way is through temperature measurements. Agencies in the United States, Europe, and Japan have independently analyzed historical temperature data and reached the same conclusion: The Earth’s average surface temperature has risen roughly 0.8° Celsius (1.4° Fahrenheit) since the early 20th century.

But that’s not the only clue. Scientists have also noted that glaciers and ice sheets around the world are melting. Satellite observations since the 1970s have shown warming in the lower atmosphere. There’s more heat in the ocean, causing water to expand and sea levels to rise. Plants are flowering earlier in many parts of the world. There’s more humidity in the atmosphere. Here’s a summary from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

These are all signs that the Earth really is getting warmer — and that it’s not just a glitch in the thermometers. That explains why climate scientists say things like , “Warming in the climate system is unequivocal.” They’re really confident about this one.

3) How do we know humans are causing global warming?

Climate scientists say they are more than 95 percent certain that human influence has been the dominant cause of global warming since 1950. They’re about as sure of this as they are that cigarette smoke causes cancer.

Why are they so confident? In part because they have a good grasp of how greenhouse gases can warm the planet, in part because the theory fits the available evidence, and in part because alternate theories have been ruled out. Let’s break it down in six steps:

1) Scientists have long known that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — such as carbon dioxide, methane, or water vapor — absorb certain frequencies of infrared radiation and scatter them back toward the Earth. These gases essentially prevent heat from escaping too quickly back into space, trapping that radiation at the surface and keeping the planet warm.

2) Climate scientists also know that concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have grown significantly since the Industrial Revolution. Carbon dioxide has risen 45 percent . Methane has risen more than 200 percent . Through some relatively straightforward chemistry and physics , scientists can trace these increases to human activities like burning oil, gas, and coal.

3) So it stands to reason that more greenhouse gases would lead to more heat. And indeed, satellite measurements have shown that less infrared radiation is escaping out into space over time and instead returning to the Earth’s surface. That’s strong evidence that the greenhouse effect is increasing.

4) There are other human fingerprints that suggest increased greenhouse gases are warming the planet. For instance, back in the 1960s, simple climate models predicted that global warming caused by more carbon dioxide would lead to cooling in the upper atmosphere (because the heat is getting trapped at the surface). Later satellite measurements confirmed exactly that . Here are a few other similar predictions that have also been confirmed.

5) Meanwhile, climate scientists have ruled out other explanations for the rise in average temperatures over the past century. To take one example: Solar activity can shift from year to year, affecting the Earth’s climate. But satellite data shows that total solar irradiance has declined slightly in the past 35 years, even as the Earth has warmed.

6) More recent calculations have shown that it’s impossible to explain the temperature rise we’ve seen in the past century without taking the increase in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into account. Natural causes, like the sun or volcanoes, have an influence, but they’re not sufficient by themselves.

Ultimately, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that most of the warming since 1951 has been due to human activities. The Earth’s climate can certainly fluctuate from year to year due to natural forces (including oscillations in the Pacific Ocean, such as El Niño ). But greenhouse gases are driving the larger upward trend in temperatures.

And as the Climate Science Special Report , released by 13 US federal agencies in November 2017, put it, “For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence.”

More: This chart breaks down all the different factors affecting the Earth’s average temperature. And there’s much more detail in the IPCC’s report , particularly this section and this one .

4) How has global warming affected the world so far?

Here’s a list of ongoing changes that climate scientists have concluded are likely linked to global warming, as detailed by the IPCC here and here .

Higher temperatures: Every continent has warmed substantially since the 1950s. There are more hot days and fewer cold days, on average, and the hot days are hotter.

Heavier storms and floods: The world’s atmosphere can hold more moisture as it warms. As a result, the overall number of heavier storms has increased since the mid-20th century, particularly in North America and Europe (though there’s plenty of regional variation). Scientists reported in December that at least 18 percent of Hurricane Harvey’s record-setting rainfall over Houston in August was due to climate change.

Heat waves: Heat waves have become longer and more frequent around the world over the past 50 years, particularly in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Shrinking sea ice: The extent of sea ice in the Arctic, always at its maximum in winter, has shrunk since 1979, by 3.3 percent per decade. Summer sea ice has dwindled even more rapidly, by 13.2 percent per decade. Antarctica has seen recent years with record growth in sea ice, but it’s a very different environment than the Arctic, and the losses in the north far exceed any gains at the South Pole, so total global sea ice is on the decline:

Shrinking glaciers and ice sheets: Glaciers around the world have, on average, been losing ice since the 1970s. In some areas, that is reducing the amount of available freshwater. The ice sheet on Greenland, which would raise global sea levels by 25 feet if it all melted, is declining, with some sections experiencing a sudden surge in the melt rate. The Antarctic ice sheet is also getting smaller, but at a much slower rate .

Sea level rise: Global sea levels rose 9.8 inches (25 centimeters) in the 19th and 20th centuries, after 2,000 years of relatively little change , and the pace is speeding up . Sea level rise is caused by both the thermal expansion of the oceans — as water warms up, it expands — and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets (but not sea ice).

Food supply: A hotter climate can be both good for crops (it lengthens the growing season, and more carbon dioxide can increase photosynthesis) and bad for crops (excess heat can damage plants). The IPCC found that global warming was currently benefiting crops in some high-latitude areas but that negative effects are becoming increasingly common worldwide. In areas like California, crop yields are estimated to decline 40 percent by 2050.

Shifting species: Many land and marine species have had to shift their geographic ranges in response to warmer temperatures. So far, several extinctions have been linked to global warming, such as certain frog species in Central America.

Warmer winters: In general, winters are warming faster than summers . Average low temperatures are rising all over the world. In some cases, these temperatures are climbing above the freezing point of water. We’re already seeing massive declines in snow accumulation in the United States, which can paradoxically increase flood, drought, and wildfire risk — as water that would ordinarily dispatch slowly over the course of a season instead flows through a region all at once.

Debated impacts

Here are a few other ways the Earth’s climate has been changing — but scientists are still debating whether and how they’re linked to global warming:

Droughts have become more frequent and more intense in some parts of the world — such as the American Southwest, Mediterranean Europe, and West Africa — though it’s hard to identify a clear global trend. In other parts of the world, such as the Midwestern United States and Northwestern Australia, droughts appear to have become less frequent. A recent study shows that, globally, the time between droughts is shrinking and more areas are affected by drought and taking longer to recover from them.

Hurricanes have clearly become more intense in the North Atlantic Ocean since 1970, the IPCC says. But it’s less clear whether global warming is driving this. 2017 was an exceptionally bad year for Atlantic hurricanes in terms of strength and damage. And while scientists are still uncertain whether they were a fluke or part of a trend, they are warning we should treat it as a baseline year. There doesn’t yet seem to be any clear trajectory for tropical cyclones worldwide.

5) What impacts will global warming have in the future?

It depends on how much the planet actually heats up. The changes associated with 4° Celsius (or 7.2° Fahrenheit) of warming are expected to be more dramatic than the changes associated with 2°C of warming.

Here’s a basic rundown of big impacts we can expect if global warming continues, via the IPCC ( here and here ).

Hotter temperatures: If emissions keep rising unchecked, then global average surface temperatures will be at least 2°C higher (3.6°F) than preindustrial levels by 2100 — and possibly 3°C or 4°C or more.

Higher sea level rise: The expert consensus is that global sea levels will rise somewhere between 0.2 and 2 meters by the end of the century if global warming continues unchecked (that’s between 0.6 and 6.6 feet). That’s a wide range, reflecting some of the uncertainties scientists have in how ice will melt. In specific regions like the Eastern United States, sea level rise could be even higher, and around the world, the rate of rise is accelerating .

Heat waves: A hotter planet will mean more frequent and severe heat waves .

Droughts and floods: Across the globe, wet seasons are expected to become wetter, and dry seasons drier. As the IPCC puts it , the world will see “more intense downpours, leading to more floods, yet longer dry periods between rain events, leading to more drought.”

Hurricanes: It’s not yet clear what impact global warming will have on tropical cyclones. The IPCC said it was likely that tropical cyclones would get stronger as the oceans heat up, with faster winds and heavier rainfall. But the overall number of hurricanes in many regions was likely to “either decrease or remain essentially unchanged.”

Heavier storm surges: Higher sea levels will increase the risk of storm surges and flooding when storms do hit.

Agriculture: In many parts of the world, the mix of increased heat and drought is expected to make food production more difficult. The IPCC concluded that global warming of 1°C or more could start hurting crop yields for wheat, corn, and rice by the 2030s, especially in the tropics. (This wouldn’t be uniform, however; some crops may benefit from mild warming, such as winter wheat in the United States.)

Extinctions: As the world warms, many plant and animal species will need to shift habitats at a rapid rate to maintain their current conditions. Some species will be able to keep up; others likely won’t. The Great Barrier Reef, for instance, may not be able to recover from major recent bleaching events linked to climate change. The National Research Council has estimated that a mass extinction event “could conceivably occur before the year 2100.”

Long-term changes: Most of the projected changes above will occur in the 21st century. But temperatures will keep rising after that if greenhouse gas levels aren’t stabilized. That increases the risk of more drastic longer-term shifts. One example: If West Antarctica’s ice sheet started crumbling, that could push sea levels up significantly. The National Research Council in 2013 deemed many of these rapid climate surprises unlikely this century but a real possibility further into the future.

6) What happens if the world heats up more drastically — say, 4°C?

The risks of climate change would rise considerably if temperatures rose 4° Celsius (7.2° Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels — something that’s possible if greenhouse gas emissions keep rising at their current rate.

The IPCC says 4°C of global warming could lead to “substantial species extinctions,” “large risks to global and regional food security,” and the risk of irreversibly destabilizing Greenland’s massive ice sheet.

One huge concern is food production: A growing number of studies suggest it would become significantly more difficult for the world to grow food with 3°C or 4°C of global warming. Countries like Bangladesh, Egypt, Vietnam, and parts of Africa could see large tracts of farmland turn unusable due to rising seas. Scientists are also concerned about crops getting less nutritious due to rising CO2.

Humans could struggle to adapt to these conditions. Many people might think the impacts of 4°C of warming will simply be twice as bad as those of 2°C. But as a 2013 World Bank report argued, that’s not necessarily true. Impacts may interact with each other in unpredictable ways. Current agriculture models, for instance, don’t have a good sense of what will happen to crops if increased heat waves, droughts, new pests and diseases, and other changes all start to combine.

“Given that uncertainty remains about the full nature and scale of impacts,” the World Bank report said, “there is also no certainty that adaptation to a 4°C world is possible.” Its conclusion was blunt: “The projected 4°C warming simply must not be allowed to occur.”

7) What do climate models say about the warming that could actually happen in the coming decades?

That depends on your faith in humanity.

Climate models depend on not only complicated physics but the intricacies of human behavior over the entire planet.

Generally, the more greenhouse gases humanity pumps into the atmosphere, the warmer it will get. But scientists aren’t certain how sensitive the global climate system is to increases in greenhouse gases. And just how much we might emit over the coming decades remains an open question, depending on advances in technology and international efforts to cut emissions.

The IPCC groups these scenarios into four categories of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations known as Representative Concentration Pathways . They serve as standard benchmarks for evaluating climate models, but they also have some assumptions baked in .

RCP 2.6, also called RCP 3PD, is the scenario with very low greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. It bets on declining oil use, a population of 9 billion by 2100, increasing energy efficiency, and emissions holding steady until 2020, at which point they’ll decline and even go negative by 2100. This is, to put it mildly, very optimistic.

The next tier up is RCP 4.5, which still banks on ambitious reductions in emissions but anticipates an inflection point in the emissions rate around 2040. RCP 6 expects emissions to increase 75 percent above today’s levels before peaking and declining around 2060 as the world continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels.

The highest tier, RCP 8.5, is the pessimistic business-as-usual scenario, anticipating no policy changes nor any technological advances. It expects a global population of 12 billion and triple the rate of carbon dioxide emissions compared to today by 2100.

Here’s how greenhouse gas emissions under each scenario stack up next to each other:

And here’s what that means for global average temperatures, assuming that a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere leads to 3°C of warming:

As you can see, RCP 3PD is the only trajectory that keeps the planet below 2°C of warming. Recall what it would take to keep emissions in line with this pathway and you’ll understand the enormity of the challenge of meeting this goal.

8) How do we stop global warming?

The world’s nations would need to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by a lot. And even that wouldn’t stop all global warming.

For example, let’s say we wanted to limit global warming to below 2°C. To do that, the IPCC has calculated that annual greenhouse gas emissions would need to drop at least 40 to 70 percent by midcentury.

Emissions would then have to keep falling until humans were hardly emitting any extra greenhouse gases by the end of the century. We’d also have to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere .

Cutting emissions that sharply is a daunting task. Right now, the world gets 87 percent of its primary energy from fossil fuels: oil, gas, and coal. By contrast, just 13 percent of the world’s primary energy is “low carbon”: a little bit of wind and solar power, some nuclear power plants, a bunch of hydroelectric dams. That’s one reason global emissions keep rising each year.

To stay below 2°C, that would all need to change radically. By 2050, the IPCC notes, the world would need to triple or even quadruple the share of clean energy it uses — and keep scaling it up thereafter. Second, we’d have to get dramatically more efficient at using energy in our homes, buildings, and cars. And stop cutting down forests. And reduce emissions from agriculture and from industrial processes like cement manufacturing.

The IPCC also notes that this task becomes even more difficult the longer we put it off, because carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will keep piling up in the atmosphere in the meantime, and the cuts necessary to stay below the 2°C limit become more severe.

9) What are we actually doing to fight climate change?

A global problem requires global action, but with climate change, there is a yawning gap between ambition and action.

The main international effort is the 2015 Paris climate accord, of which the United States is the only country in the world that wants out . The deal was hammered out over weeks of tense negotiations and weighs in at 31 pages . What it does is actually pretty simple.

The backbone is the global target of keeping global average temperatures from rising 2°C (compared to temperatures before the Industrial Revolution) by the end of the century. Beyond 2 degrees, we risk dramatically higher seas, changes in weather patterns, food and water crises, and an overall more hostile world.

Critics have argued that the 2-degree mark is arbitrary, or even too low , to make a difference. But it’s a starting point, a goal that, before Paris, the world was on track to wildly miss.

Paris is voluntary

To accomplish this 2-degree goal, the accord states that countries should strive to reach peak emissions “as soon as possible.” (Currently, we’re on track to hit peak emissions around 2030 or later , which will likely be too late.)

But the agreement doesn’t detail exactly how these countries should do that. Instead, it provides a framework for getting momentum going on greenhouse gas reduction, with some oversight and accountability. For the US, the pledge involves 26 to 28 percent reductions by 2025. (Under Trump’s current policies, that goal is impossible .)

There’s also no defined punishment for breaking it. The idea is to create a culture of accountability (and maybe some peer pressure) to get countries to step up their climate game.

In 2020, delegates are supposed to reconvene and provide updates about their emission pledges and report on how they’re becoming more aggressive on accomplishing the 2-degree goal.

However, many countries are already falling behind on their climate change commitments, and some, like Germany, are giving up on their near-term targets.

Paris asks richer countries to help out poorer countries

There’s a fundamental inequality when it comes to global emissions. Rich countries have plundered and burned huge amounts of fossil fuels and gotten rich from them. Poor countries seeking to grow their economies are now being admonished for using the same fuels. Many low-lying poor countries also will be among the first to bear the worst impacts of climate change.

The main vehicle for rectifying this is the Green Climate Fund , via which richer countries, like the US, are supposed to send $100 billion a year in aid and financing by 2020 to the poorer countries. The United States’ share was $3 billion , but with President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris accord, this goal is unlikely to be met.

The agreement matters because we absolutely need momentum on this issue

The Paris agreement is largely symbolic, and it will live on even though Trump is aiming to pull the US out. But, as Jim Tankersley wrote for Vox , “the accord will be weakened, and, much more importantly, so will the fragile international coalition” around climate change.

We’re already seeing the Paris agreement lose steam. At a follow-up climate meeting this year in Katowice, Poland , negotiators forged an agreement on measuring and verifying their progress in cutting greenhouse gases, but left many critical questions of how to achieve these reductions unanswered.

But the Paris accord isn’t the only international climate policy game in town

There are regional international climate efforts like the European Union’s Emissions Trading System . However, the most effective global policy at keeping warming in check to date doesn’t have to do with climate change, at least on the surface.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol , which was convened by countries to halt the destruction of the ozone layer, had a major side effect of averting warming. In fact, it’s been the single most effective effort humanity has undertaken to fight climate change. Since many of the substances that eat away at the ozone layer are potent heat-trappers, limiting emissions of gases like chlorofluorocarbons has an outsize effect.

And the Trump administration doesn’t appear as hostile to Montreal as it does to Paris. The White House may send the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol to the Senate for ratification, giving the new regulations the force of law. If implemented, the amendment would avert 0.5°C of warming by 2100.

Regardless of what path we choose, the key thing to remember is that we are going to pay for climate change one way or another. We have the opportunity now to address warming on our own terms, with investments in clean energy, moving people away from disaster-prone areas, and regulating greenhouse gas emissions. Otherwise, we’ll pay through diminished crop harvests, inundated coastlines, destroyed homes, lost lives, and an increasingly unlivable planet. Ignoring or stalling on climate change chooses the latter option by default. Our choices do matter, but we’re running out of time to make them.

Further reading:

Avoiding catastrophic climate change isn’t impossible yet. Just incredibly hard.

Reckoning with climate change will demand ugly tradeoffs from environmentalists — and everyone else

Show this cartoon to anyone who doubts we need huge action on climate change

It’s time to start talking about “negative” carbon dioxide emissions

A history of the 2°C global warming target

Scientists made a detailed “roadmap” for meeting the Paris climate goals. It’s eye-opening.

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Critical Thinking Worksheets

• Brain Teasers - A great way to stimulate thinking. Don't worry, they come complete with answer keys.
• Compare and Contrast - Students examine differences and similarities in a variety situations.
• Dictionary Practice Worksheets - Practice your dictionary skills.
• Fact And Opinion - Students determine the validity of a body of work.
• How Many Are There? - Fun activities for examining patterns.
• Internet Search Worksheets - Fun Internet searches for students.
• Logic Puzzle - Each scenario is thought provoking. Lots of brain power needed here.
• Making Predictions - A good warm-up for inferences.
• Mazes - Your run-of-the-mill start and finish mazes.
• Name People That ...- Good creative thinking exercises.
• Name Places That ...- Good creative thinking exercises.
• Name Things That ...- Good creative thinking exercises.
• Secret Code - Students answer riddles through secret codes.
• Study Skills Worksheets - Great for test preparation.
• Sorting and Classifying - Great for meeting national standards.
• What Do You Remember? - A visual memory activity.

Activities That Improve Student Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is perhaps the most important skill we need. It is paramount not just for job success but also for making the best decisions in crucial life matters.

As an educator, you should explain to your students that almost all our mistakes can be attributed to a lack of critical thinking. You can pick just about any big blunder you made in the past. You will invariably find that it transpired because of a failure to think critically.

Remember, the best thing you can do as a teacher is to inculcate a strong sense of critical thinking in your students.

Here are the activities that will help students to develop critical thinking.

Discuss Cognitive Biases

There are myriad cognitive biases.

The fact of the matter is we succumb to these biases at some point in our lives. Hence, it pays to study these biases.

You can pick those biases you think are the most detrimental and insidious. You should then explain them to your students to learn to identify and avoid these biases.

Perhaps the most dangerous bias by far is the Optimism bias. It may sound rather innocuous because of the word ‘optimism’. However, it is far more sinister in reality.

Optimism bias tends to think that bad things won't happen to us - they will happen to others only. For example, many think they won't suffer a fatal car crash. Hence, some get involved in overspeeding and texting while driving despite knowing their perils. No wonder these two reckless acts are the main reasons for fatal car crashes.

Writing About Biases

After elucidating various biases and providing simple examples to help them grasp these concepts, you can instruct your students to write about adverse events in their lives when they succumbed to these biases.

What did you learn? What were the consequences? These are further questions you can ask.

Talking about one’s mistakes is never easy. It is hard to concede that we are wrong at times. However, if we want to become better human beings and find success, we must learn from our mistakes. But the first step entails admitting one’s mistakes.

This will also instill humility and reduce overconfidence.

Avoiding Biases – The Easy Way 

All biases and ensuring blunders are avoidable with one simple trick.

It just takes one word to get smarter – “why”. That is, you should question everything. As simple as that.

In particular, you should question all that you do and think.

Write it down first whenever you are about to take action or form an opinion about something. Then in front of it, just write “why?” You can then brainstorm and write for and against the idea in logical points.

If you make this a regular habit, you will avoid many mistakes and regrets. You will also maximize positive returns from your decisions.

Explain It to a 6-Year Old

This is something that can greatly benefit students in their academic endeavors.

We are inclined to think that we understand what has been just said. But just nodding along is not enough. You should be able to explain it to others.

The good news is that this goes far beyond altruism. In truth, it is self-empowerment. When you explain an abstruse concept to others, you bolster your own understanding of the same. Reiterating something embeds it more deeply into your long-term memory.

The social factor may also be beneficial and fruitful.

Do Your Research

Teach students to challenge common perceptions and conventional wisdom.

Explain carefully that this entails walking a fine line. You don't want to be dismissive, nor do you want to be naive. Instead, you should have an open mind and a willingness to do your research carefully.

Inform students about consulting reliable online sources. Explain that it is best to consider multiple authentic sources. Don't be satisfied with just the first entry in Google search results.

Here's how you can instill the importance of research in your students.

Instruct your students to research air pollution in the US. Those who do their research more meticulously will find that indoor air pollution is far deadlier than outdoor air pollution.

Tell them that they found out this key health fact courtesy of research. You can further instruct them to find ways of mitigating these risks.

Motivate your students to do research by telling them that they will be pleasantly surprised at the wealth of knowledge that they can uncover via dedicated research.

Beware of Disinformation

Disinformation is ubiquitous these days. It has become a weapon of choice for bad actors ranging from rogue states to unscrupulous individuals.

Critical thinking can help dispel misinformation and prevent you from becoming its victim.

You should help kids to detect and deal with weapons of mass distraction.

There was a time when fake news was disseminated largely via social media.

It is being spread by state-sponsored groups masquerading as legitimate media outlets on the internet. The scope and scale of these fake news campaigns are staggering to say the least.

One such fake news campaign involved no less than 750 fake sites posing as media outlets. Disinformation from this notorious racket reached millions around the globe and even found its way to UN and European Parliament meetings.

You can instruct kids in your class to do a project on internet disinformation, complete with case studies. You should also tell them to write about all possible ways to spot fakes and scams.

Bottom Line

Shown above are the activities to develop critical thinking in students.

You might agree that cultivating this key ability in your students is one of the best things you did for them.