CHAPTER INTRODUCTION
The topic of global warming is obviously a very important one, but it can be difficult to teach because of the way it has unfortunately become politicized. For this reason, it is very important that you approach the topic in a clear, science-based way, while also taking care neither to minimize nor to overstate the case. To that end, you will see that the approach we take in this chapter is focused on two key principles:
- The first principle is that the basic “big picture” science of global warming is very simple, even while the details of the climate can become quite complex. We therefore aim to keep the focus on this basic science, which will give students the tools they need to talk about the topic in a clear and informed way.
- The second principle is that it is critical to teach the topic of global warming with inspiration rather than fear. That is why we start out by asking students to think about the world as it might be when they are 100 years old, and then continue with this theme of long-term thinking throughout the chapter. In this way, students can see that while the current trend is indeed scary, it is by no means inevitable that it will continue. And if we solve the problem of global warming, the world that awaits them could be one in which advancing science and technology will also make it possible to solve many other problems, including problems of poverty, disease, and much more. In essence, after covering this topic, we want students to be inspired to help create the amazing world that is possible if we all work together on today’s challenges. To this end, we urge you to start with the Discussion found on this opening page of the chapter.
A couple other related notes as you begin teaching this topic:
- For your background and in case questions arise, you may wish to know more about various topics covered in this chapter than we present for the middle school students. For this reason, we generally include references or links where you can learn more. You might find the book A Global Warming Primer, posted freely online at www.globalwarmingprimer.com (select the “primer” link to read it), to be particularly useful. This book (by the lead author of this project) is written in Q&A format, and you are likely to find most of your questions answered in it; and if you don’t find the answer to a particular question you have, check some of the online resources listed at the end of that book.
- An important note about interpreting temperatures in this chapter: We use Celsius as the primary temperature scale, but students in the U.S. will be much more familiar with the Fahrenheit scale, so we try to include Fahrenheit equivalents where they can add context for U.S. students. This is straightforward, but you have to be careful when considering changes, such as a temperature increase or decrease. For example, an actual temperature of 1°C is equivalent to 33.8°F, but a temperature change of 1°C is equivalent to a change of 1.8°F (because 1.8° on the Fahrenheit scale represents the same change as 1° on the Celsius scale). This means that if students try to use an online converter between the two scales, they will get incorrect results, which means you’ll have to help them understand why the values look different when we consider temperature changes instead of absolute temperatures.
Figure/Video 7–1 – This map shows how regional average temperatures in recent years compare to their averages from the 20th century (specifically, the average from 1951–1980). Press play to watch how the temperatures have changed since 1880. Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio.
Watch the above video closely. Notice that for the first few decades (starting from the year 1880), different regions seemed to warm or cool almost randomly. But more recent decades show a very clear trend: our entire planet Earth is getting warmer, even while some regions are warming more than other regions. This general trend is what we call global warming , which is sometimes also called climate change .
Now think about your own future. Based on advances in medical science, there’s an excellent chance that you can live to be 100 years old, or even older. What will your world look like at that time? It’s probably obvious that if the trend shown in the video continues, the world may not be a very good one.
For this reason, the issue of global warming — and how we can stop it — may well be the single most important issue of our time. We’ll therefore devote this entire chapter to the topic of global warming: the science behind it, the consequences it has for us, and most important, how we can solve the problem and create a better future for everyone.
Discussion
Your World at Age 100
As the text above says, there’s an excellent chance that you will live to be at least 100 years old. So let’s think about what that means in the context of global warming and your personal future. Discuss the following questions in small groups or as a class.
- What year will it be when you celebrate your 100th birthday?
- Watch Video 7.1 again. If the warming trend of the past few decades continues, what temperatures might you expect for your location — and for other parts of the world — when you are 100 years old? Do you think that would be the kind of world you’d like to live in?
- Now, imagine an alternative future, one in which the world comes together and stops global warming very soon, so that temperatures do not continue to rise far beyond what they are today. What would that mean for the world when you are 100 years old, compared to the world imagined in question 2? Be sure to consider the fact that we can expect continuing advances in science and technology.
- Based on your answers to the above questions and what you already know about global warming, what do you think we should be doing about it? Make a class list of recommended actions. Save the list, and then you can revisit it at the end of the chapter to see if you’ve come up with any new ideas.
This important discussion helps set the stage for our theme of teaching about global warming “with inspiration, not fear.” We encourage you to steer the discussion in a positive direction, so that even while many students may be fearful for their future — and a few may not believe the danger is real — you can keep them focused on the fact that we still have an opportunity to create the kind of future that most everyone would want to live in. Specific notes:
- (1) Answering this question is very easy (since it is just their birth year + 100), but you should also get them to think about the answer. In particular, it will be will past the year 2100 when today’s middle school students turn 100.
Note that this is very interesting in the context of media reporting on global warming: most projections of the effects of global warming go out only a few decades, and it is very rare to see projections going beyond 2100 — yet that is likely to be within the lifetimes of many or most of today’s students.
In case your students wonder how realistic it is for them to live to age 100: A century ago (e.g., around the 1920s), life expectancy in even the most developed countries was only about age 50. Today, a few countries have achieved life expectancies above age 85. That’s a 35-year increase in life expectancy over the past century. Given that history, and the fact that medical science continues to advance, it actually seems quite likely that life expectancy will exceed age 100 by the year 2100. In other words, there really is an excellent chance that most of your students will live to see their 100th birthday, and still be quite healthy at that time. - (2) This question should help students recognize that if current trends continue, there is really no doubt that temperatures will rise significantly by the time they reach age 100. You can leave it at that or, if you want to get into deeper analysis, you could have students record data from the video on how temperatures have changed in your region over the past several decades, and then use those data to project forward for to the time when they would be 100.
- (3) In terms of inspiration, this is the most important question in the set. The goal should be to get students to think about how scientific and technological advances could transform the world. We’ll discuss this in more detail in the last section of this chapter, but we want students to begin to realize that there ARE alternative and better futures. Again, the key is to inspire students to imagine the world as it could be. I like to refer to this as a “post-global-warming” world, meaning a world in which, for example, we have eliminated global poverty, vastly improved human health, stopped environmentally destructive mining by moving mining operations to the Moon, and are seeing humans explore worlds throughout our solar system.
- (4) This last question asks you to help students create a preliminary list of steps that we should be taking to ensure a good future rather than a poor one. There should be no constraints on what they include at this point. For example, students might suggest personal actions, community actions, national policies actions, or global treaties. We encourage you to make sure they don’t ignore the role of education!
Note: Be sure to save the lists that students make now, so that you can return to them at the of the chapter and see what they might have decided to change.
Journal Entry
Education for 100 Years
In the discussion above, you talked about the fact that there’s a very good chance you’ll live to be 100 years old, or even older, and how global warming may affect the world you live in. But for your own personal future, there is another factor that will be at least equally important in determining whether you get to live the kind of life that you dream of: your education.
Spend a few minutes thinking about how your education will be important to the rest of your life. In your journal, make a short list of what you hope to accomplish in your education for: (1) the rest of middle school; (2) high school; (3) beyond high school (for example, college, trade school, on-the-job learning, or lifelong learning by reading or watching documentaries). Then write a paragraph or two about how you plan to achieve your goals and how you think that meeting these goals will help you between now and the time you turn 100 years old.
This journal entry is designed to take a step away from a strict focus on science and instead to think about education more generally. The prior discussion (Your World at Age 100) may well be the first time that students have ever really thought about the fact that they are likely to still be alive well past the year 2100. This means that, independent of global warming or other national/global events, their education will have a lot to do with what their personal future looks like. So while the topic of a long life is on their minds, we suggest having them write in their journals about the value of education, and to set some personal goals. Hopefully, this will lead students to think about how they should work at and value their education as they finish middle school and enter high school, and to at least think about the possibility of attending college or a trade school.