High School Curriculum: Climate Change: The Science and Solutions

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At the 2019 WV Science Teachers Association Conference, retired school teacher Randi Pokladnik, PhD, presented three curricula for high school teachers to use in their classrooms:

Climate Change: The Science and Solutions;
The Benefits of Renewable Energy; and
Fracking, Cracker Plants, Plastics, and You.

Scientists all around the world are in agreement that man-made greenhouse gas emissions have changed the climate of the planet we all live on.

What are the basic scientific facts that point to this conclusion? How do temperature proxies in nature back up scientific data and observations? How are some major changes on the planet, such as the polar ice melting and the Amazon forests fires, causing the effects of climate change to accelerate? What are some of the problems that this crisis will bring to communities across the planet and in our own backyards? What can we do to mitigate or adapt to the effects of climate change?

These are some of the questions examined in Climate Change: The Science and Solutions. A pdf of this lesson plan is below, along with supporting materials, which you may download to use in your classroom, no matter where you are. Find The Benefits of Renewable Energy lesson plan here. Find Fracking, Cracker Plants, Plastics, and You at this link. Also see: Fracking boom tied to methane spike in Earth’s atmosphere.

If you would like the PowerPoint version of Climate Change: The Science and Solutions shared with you via Google Drive, please e-mail info@ohvec.org.

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One of the supporting resources is this from the IPCC – the International Panel on Climate Change:

And here are multiple, supporting peer-reviewed studies:

REOURCES from EDX Climate Denial 101

https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:UQx+Denial101x+1T2019/course/

Introduction:

Consensus of Evidence

Science is not a democracy quote
Reisman, J. P. (2011). Exposing the climate hoax: It’s ALL about the economy. New Jersey: Lyra Books.

Burning fossil fuels produces CO2
Revelle, R., & Suess, H. E. (1957). Carbon dioxide exchange between atmosphere and ocean and the question of an increase of atmospheric CO2 during the past decades. Tellus, 9(1), 18-27. Link to PDF

Post, W. M., Peng, T. H., Emanuel, W. R., King, A. W., Dale, V. H., & DeAngelis, D. L. (1990). The global carbon cycle. American Scientist, 78(4), 310-326. Link to PDF

Less heat escaping to space
Loeb, N. G., Wielicki, B. A., Doelling, D. R., Smith, G. L., Keyes, D. F., Kato, S., … & Wong, T. (2009). Toward optimal closure of the Earth’s top-of-atmosphere radiation budget. Journal of Climate, 22(3), 748-766. Link to PDF

More IR at the surface
Feldman, D. R., Collins, W. D., Gero, P. J., Torn, M. S., Mlawer, E. J., & Shippert, T. R. (2015). Observational determination of surface radiative forcing by CO2 from 2000 to 2010. Nature, 519(7543), 339-343. Link to abstract

Cooling in the upper atmosphere
Santer, B. D., Painter, J. F., Bonfils, C., Mears, C. A., Solomon, S., Wigley, T. M., … & Wentz, F. J. (2013). Human and natural influences on the changing thermal structure of the atmosphere. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(43), 17235-17240. Link to paper

Changing structure of the atmosphere
Laštovička, J., Akmaev, R. A., Beig, G., Bremer, J., & Emmert, J. T. (2006). Global change in the upper atmosphere. Science, 314(5803), 1253-1254. Link to Word-doc

The sky is falling – Gavin Schmidt “quip”
Schmidt, G. (2006), The sky IS falling. 26 November 2006 RealClimate.org http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/11/the-sky-is-falling/.

Consensus of scientists

Doran, P. T., & Zimmerman, M. K. (2009). Examining the scientific consensus on climate change. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union, 90(3), 22-23. Link to PDF

Anderegg, W. R., Prall, J. W., Harold, J., & Schneider, S. H. (2010). Expert credibility in climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(27), 12107-12109. Link to paper

Diethelm, P., & McKee, M. (2009). Denialism: what is it and how should scientists respond?. The European Journal of Public Health, 19(1), 2-4. Link to PDF

Kahan, D. M., Jenkins‐Smith, H., & Braman, D. (2011). Cultural cognition of scientific consensus. Journal of Risk Research, 14(2), 147-174. Link to PDF

Plous, S. (1991). Biases in the assimilation of technological breakdowns – do accidents make us safer. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21(13), 1058-1082. Link to abstract

Talisse, R., & Aikin, S. F. (2006). Two forms of the straw man. Argumentation, 20(3), 345-352. Link to PDF

Smith, N., & Leiserowitz, A. (2012). The rise of global warming skepticism: Exploring affective image associations in the United States over time. Risk Analysis, 32(6), 1021-1032. Link to PDF

CONSENSUS OF Papers

Oreskes, N. (2004). The scientific consensus on climate change. Science, 306(5702), 1686-1686. Link to paper

Cook, J., Nuccitelli, D., Green, S. A., Richardson, M., Winkler, B., Painting, R., … & Skuce, A. (2013). Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature. Environmental Research Letters, 8(2), 024024. Link to paper also see www.skepticalscience.com/tcp.php

Shwed, U., & Bearman, P. S. (2010). The temporal structure of scientific consensus formation. American Sociological Review, 75(6), 817-840. Link to paper

Knowledge Based Consensus

Miller, B. (2013) When is Consensus Knowledge Based? Distinguishing Shared Knowledge from Mere Agreement. Synthese, 190(7): 1293-1316. Link to PDF

Oreskes, N. (1988). The rejection of continental drift. Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 311-348. Link to paper

Oreskes, N., & Wegener, A. (1999). The rejection of continental drift: Theory and method in American earth science. New York: Oxford University Press. http://media.hhmi.org/hl/12Lect2.html

Oreskes, N. (2012, November). Building scientific knowledge: The story of plate tectonics. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Holiday Lectures on Science – Changing Planet: Past, Present, Future. Lecture conducted from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD.

PSYCHOLOGY of Denial

Ideological Bias

Kahan, D. M., Braman, D., Slovic, P., Gastil, J., & Cohen, G. L. (2007). The second national risk and culture study: Making sense of-and making progress in-the American culture war of fact. GWU Legal Studies Research Paper, (370), 08-26. Link to PDF

Campbell, T. H., & Kay, A. C. (2014). Solution aversion: On the relation between ideology and motivated disbelief. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(5), 809. Link to PDF

Leiserowitz et al. (2013). Climate change in the American mind: Americans’ global warming beliefs. Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/files/Climate-Beliefs-April-2013.pdf . Accessed online 05 April 2015

What we know: The reality, risks, and response to climate change. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). http://whatweknow.aaas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/whatweknow_website.pdf . Accessed online 05 April 2015

five characteristics of science denial

Diethelm, P., & McKee, M. (2009). Denialism: What is it and how should scientists respond?. The European Journal of Public Health, 19(1), 2-4. Link to PDF

Kahan, D. M., Jenkins‐Smith, H., & Braman, D. (2011). Cultural cognition of scientific consensus. Journal of Risk Research, 14(2), 147-174. Link to PDF

Plous, S. (1991). Biases in the assimilation of technological breakdowns – do accidents make us safer. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21(13), 1058-1082. Link to abstract

Talisse, R., & Aikin, S. F. (2006). Two forms of the straw man. Argumentation, 20(3), 345-352. Link to PDF

Smith, N., & Leiserowitz, A. (2012). The rise of global warming skepticism: Exploring affective image associations in the United States over time. Risk Analysis, 32(6), 1021-1032. Link to PDF

Dragons of inaction

Gifford, R. (2011). The dragons of inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation. American Psychologist, 66(4), 290. Link to abstract

Gifford, R., Scannell, L., Kormos, C., Smolova, L., Biel, A., Boncu, S., … & Uzzell, D. (2009). Temporal pessimism and spatial optimism in environmental assessments: An 18-nation study. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 29(1), 1-12. Link to PDF

Pahl, S., Harris, P. R., Todd, H. A., & Rutter, D. R. (2005). Comparative optimism for environmental risks. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25(1), 1-11. Link to abstract

Ajzen, I. (2002). Perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 32(4): 665-683.

Lorenzoni, I., Nicholson-Cole, S., & Whitmarsh, L. (2007). Barriers perceived to engaging with climate change among the UK public and their policy implications. Global Environmental Change, 17(3), 445-459. Link to abstract

Heath, Y., & Gifford, R. (2002). Extending the theory of planned behavior: Predicting the use of public transportation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32(10), 2154-2189. Link to PDF

Ding, D., Maibach, E. W., Zhao, X., Roser-Renouf, C., & Leiserowitz, A. (2011). Support for climate policy and societal action are linked to perceptions about scientific agreement. Nature Climate Change, 1(9), 462-466. Link to PDF

McCright, A. M., Dunlap, R. E., & Xiao, C. (2013). Perceived scientific agreement and support for government action on climate change in the USA. Climatic Change, 119(2), 511-518. Link to abstract

Lewandowsky, S., Gignac, G. E., & Vaughan, S. (2013). The pivotal role of perceived scientific consensus in acceptance of science. Nature Climate Change, 3(4), 399-404. Link to abstract (Link to PDF)

van der Linden, S. L., Leiserowitz, A. A., Feinberg, G. D., & Maibach, E. W. (2014). How to communicate the scientific consensus on climate change: Plain facts, pie charts or metaphors?. Climatic Change, 126(1-2), 255-262. Link to PDF

Heath, Y., & Gifford, R. (2006). Free-market ideology and environmental degradation the case of belief in global climate change. Environment and Behavior, 38(1), 48-71. Link to abstract

BIG OIL Knew About Climate Change

https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/13/climate-change-oil-industry-environment-warning-1968

https://www.smokeandfumes.org/documents/document16

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/nov/05/scientists-warned-the-president-about-global-warming-50-years-ago-today

https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/files/2009/10/broeckerglobalwarming75.pdf

CLIMATE CHANGE AND HEALTH

Lancet Report

Temperature Proxies

https://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/proxies/paleoclimate.html

Excellent List of Peer Reviewed articles on MANY Topics related to climate change!!!******