Goal
Students learn the basics of the earth climate system and become familiar with GCMs and their limitations.  Students also become aware of the complexities of decision making in the face of an uncertain situation like the one that climate change poses.

Learning Outcomes
After completing the activities associated with this unit, students should:

• understand the interactions among the various elements of the earth climate system, including the atmosphere, oceans, and biosphere;
• be able to interpret a GCM output map;
• be able to identify, based on the GCM output, the regions and populations that face the greatest temperature increases;
• understand the concept of vulnerability to climate change;
• recognize the value and limitations of using GCMs; and
• understand the dilemma of decision making under uncertainty.

**For additional active learning materials and activities on climate change and greenhouse gases, see The geography of greenhouse gases module in this series (Liverman and Solem 1996). 

Activity 3.1:  Run-Away Warming and Cooling	-- Socratic questioning
Activity 3.2:  Global Circulation Models	-- Text comprehension and GCM output interpretation
Activity 3.3:  How Does Climate Change Affect Our Lives?	-- Interviewing and class discussion
Activity 3.4:  “Oh, I’m Just a Bill”: Decision Making in the Face of Uncertainty	- Text reading, mock legislative hearing, oral and written testimony

 

Suggested Readings
The following readings accompany the activities for this unit.  Choose those readings most appropriate for the activities you select and those most adequate for the skill level of your students.

• Background Information to Unit 3 (all students should read)
• Agarwal, A. and S. Narain.  1991.  Global warming in an unequal world:  A case of environmental colonialism.  New Delhi:  Centre for Science and Environment.
• Liverman, D.M. and K. O’Brien.  1991.  Global warming and climate change in Mexico.  Global Environmental Change 1, 4 (December): 351-364.
• Trenberth, K., J. Houghton, and L.G. Meira Filho.  1996.  The climate system:  An overview.  In IPCC. 1996a.  Climate change 1995:  The science of climate change.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, pp. 55-64.

Goals
This starter activity is provided as a way to capture students’ attention, to engage them, and to stimulate their thinking about the climate change and the complexities of the earth’s climate system.

Skills

• logical thinking

• Supporting Material 3.1

Tasks
In this activity, the instructor will use Socratic questioning to illustrate simplified positive feedback mechanisms in the earth’s climate system.  A suggested list of questions and expected answers are provided in Supporting Material 3.1.  This activity should take about 10-15 minutes within a single class period depending on the instructor and the students’ familiarity with the processes.
 
BACK
 

Activity 3.2  Global Circulation Models

 

Goals
This activity demonstrates the complexity of the earth’s climate system that GCMs attempt to simulate.  Students interpret a GCM output map and see firsthand the coarse spatial resolution that they offer.

Skills

• analysis of schematic material
• map interpretation
• analysis of the implications of modeled quantitative estimates

• Student Worksheet 3.2
• Supporting Material 3.2
• World Atlas, depicting topographical features and elevations
• Suggested reading:  Trenberth et al. (1996)
• Optional reading: Liverman and O’Brien (1991)

Tasks

Part A
Students analyze a schematic diagram of the earth’s climate system provided on the student worksheet and answer four questions about the diagram.  The purpose of this task is to make students aware of the information that can be gathered from such a graphic and to encourage them to assess such information critically, rather than simply skipping over it while reading.  (The diagram of the climate system is found in the text of the unit and on the student worksheet; many students will probably realize that they didn’t take the time to ‘read’ the diagram in the text.)  The first three questions are general questions about the climate system the answers to which students can easily derive from the diagram.  The final question, asking about what is missing in the diagram, is intended to make students think about the diagram and to recognize that some activities and processes may be underrepresented.
 

Part B
Students use the GCM output map (provided in Supporting Material 3.2) to answer several questions about climate change.  Students who are not familiar with maps may need some assistance understanding isolines and intervals. The purpose of the questions is for students to identify where climate change will be most severe and to realize that the greatest impacts won’t necessarily always be where the greatest warming occurs.  The questions also make students consider both human conditions and physical features that could make certain areas particularly vulnerable to climate changes.  Students may need to consult an atlas or other references to complete the worksheet.
 
BACK
 

 

Activity 3.3  How Does Climate Change Affect Our Lives?

 
Goals
As predicted by the IPCC, one of the likely results of climate change is an increase in extreme weather events.  In this activity, students learn the many ways in which extreme weather events affect our lives and make links between global climate change and local impacts.

Skills

• interviewing
• using primary data sources
• oral reporting

• Blank, overhead transparencies
• Overhead markers

Tasks
Students will interview each other about an extreme weather event that they can recall.  Divide students into pairs and ask one in each pair to serve as the “interviewer.”  Instruct the interviewer to ask his/her partner the following questions and to record the responses.

• Do you recall a particular extreme weather event that sticks in your mind?
• What was that event and why do you remember it?
• Did you feel vulnerable?  Why or why not?
• What impact did that event have on you?  On your community?  On your state?

After both people have been interviewed, combine the pairs into groups of six or more students and ask them to compare the responses from the interviews.  Students should be able to identify some generalizations among the different interviews.  Provide each group of six with an overhead transparency and ask them to list on the overhead the generalizations that they were able to make.  One student from each group should then explain the conclusions to the class.
To conclude the activity, attempt as a class to arrive at some generalizations about extreme weather events and how they affect us.  Brainstorm as to how humans have contributed to these extreme events and how humans have or may act to mitigate future impacts.
 
BACK
 

 

Activity 3.4  "Oh, I'm Just a Bill":  Decision Making in the Face of Uncertainty

 

Goals
Students are introduced to the difficulties in making decisions when faced with uncertainty, much like the dilemma that decision makers face when confronted by the issue of global climate change.  Students prepare testimony on a piece of legislation and take part in a mock legislative hearing.

Skills

• team work
• issue analysis and position formulation
• analysis of what counts as evidence
• political-style debate
• essay writing (in form of legislative testimony)

• Student Worksheet 3.4
• Supporting Material 3.4
• Suggested reading: Schneider (1993)
• At least 3 or 4 friends, faculty, or graduate students to serve as the Congressional Committee on the day of the mock hearing.

Tasks
Students write legislative testimony in response to a piece of proposed legislation outlined in the scenario on Student Worksheet 3.4.  Assign a group of students to play the role of a group of stakeholders in the proposal.  A list of possible stakeholders has been provided in Supporting Material 3.4.   Because developing the list of stakeholders can be an educational activity in itself, you may choose instead to have the students generate the list of stakeholders.  In this case, Supporting Material 3.4 should not be given to the students.

In their groups, students will first decide how their organization and constituents will be affected by global climate change and by the pending legislation.  Students must assume a position on the bill and prepare written testimony to be presented to the legislative committee.  Their testimony should be concise and well supported with evidence and research.  You can choose to have the students simply present their testimony to the class or you can devote one class period to a mock legislative hearing.

If you choose the mock hearing, select several people to serve as Congresspersons to whom the students will present their testimony.  Don’t use students in the class for this role -- ask your teaching assistant, other graduate students, or some friends or faculty members to serve in these roles.  The people you choose as Congresspersons should also play the role.  Instruct them to act like Congresspeople.  Some of them should be intimidating, loud, and visibly uninterested in the testimony.  Others can appear quite the opposite.  This is the reality that many people face when called to give testimony, so make this as real as possible.

Students will be evaluated on the written testimony to be turned in after the hearing and on their oral presentations to the Congresspeople.  The testimony should be at least 5 pages long, but can be adjusted to fit the class situation.
 
BACK