Climate Change

Warmup Article Instructions: please read the article “Sea Levels Will Rise Faster Than Ever” Highlight/underline things that surprise you Put a star next to things you think are really important Answer the questions on the next slide

Article Questions What are the specific causes of sea level rise mentioned in this article? How are people around the world affected differently by the consequences of sea level rise? Other than sea level rise, what are some other impacts of climate change mentioned in the article? How could sea level rise affect our lives here in Texas?

Agenda Warmup Climate Change PPT & Notes “Bill Nye: Episode 1” video notes

Definition of Climate Change A change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time (decades to millions of years) Can refer to fewer events or more extreme weather events

How does this happen? Volcanic Activity Variations in solar radiation Plate tectonics Human activities – referred to as global warming

Bit of History The Earth has gone through several extreme climate changes throughout its 4.6 billion years of existence Molten Ice Ages (7!) Hot climates with high CO2 levels Cooler climates with lower CO2 levels How do we know this? There is archaeological evidence in rocks, soil, ice, trees, corals, and fossils

Weather Weather refers to: The state of the atmosphere in a particular place and time. Weather occurs over short time periods. Weather predictions usually cover days or weeks.

Types of Weather What terms do you associate with weather? Ask students to think of things that they associate with weather. Perhaps it is helpful to make a list on the board.

What Causes Weather? Weather is an expression of the climate system. The climate system is the interaction of the atmosphere, biosphere, and other parts of the Earth that determine weather at a time or place A system is the interaction of different parts that produce something new. Teacher’s Note: This is probably a new way for students to think about weather or climate. It might be good to have students rephrase in their own language what they think it means for the weather to be an expression of the climate system. The Biosphere The Atmosphere The Oceans

Studying Climate Involves Long-term Trends Temperature Difference From Normal (°C) Looking at weather change involves only days, weeks, or months. Studying climate change requires studying long-term trends, often times 30, 50, or 100 years. (Students don’t need to understand this graph, but they should just recognize the time frame that shows the climate. This graph will come up again in LP 4) http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/

Relating Climate and Weather Here is a graph that relates the climate and weather. Have students work in pairs to look at the graph to understand that weather is an expression of the climate system. It might be helpful to scaffold it in the following way: Define the x and y-axis. What do they represent? What does an individual point on this graph represent? What do the two different colors represent? What is the trend in the thick lines? What is the trend in the wavy lines? Which lines do you think represent weather and which represent climate? At this point it is important to tell students that climate is usually measured in 30 year periods. This is not an exact number, but is rather a convention used by scientist. Notice that long-term averages, here the climate, is represented by the thick red (highs) and blue (lows) lines. Each day’s or months weather may not be exactly like the long-term climate, but it fluctuates with the trend shown by the climate line.

Greenhouse Gases Greenhouse gases = water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone Greenhouse effect = the process where radiation from the sun passes through a planet’s atmosphere and warms the surface. This effect is critical to supporting life on Earth Human activities (like burning fossil fuels for energy) have put more greenhouse gases up into the atmosphere Result = Those gases cannot escape Earth’s atmosphere, so the planet keeps getting warmer

Types of Energy: Fossil Fuels Fossil fuels = oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear Not renewable during human lifetimes

Types of Energy: Renewable Energy Renewable Energy = wind, solar, tidal, geothermic (volcanoes) Renewable during human lifetimes One of the biggest problems that renewable energy first faced was issues with energy storage It’s not sunny every day, so my solar panels won’t work! That problem is being fixed/has been in some cases Politicians and big businesses are reluctant to give up the profits from oil, gas, and coal sales Millions of jobs at stake Also problems with trying to convert large areas to solely renewable energy sources

Eat less meat! It takes TONS of water to raise animals (1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef) The meat industry produces around 1/5 of the man-made greenhouse gases in the world

What Can We Do? Change to renewable energy Invest in the environment Clean it up Plant more natural, local plants (trees, wildflowers, bushes, etc.) Recycle Eat less meat Use reusable water bottles Eliminate plastic bag usage Vote! What else?