By Matt McDermott
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Planet Green | Work & Connect
News and information about climate change is everywhere these days. Between the rapidly changing state of the science -- generally along the lines of "things are a lot worse than we thought" -- and growing numbers of vested business interests trying to deny anything is wrong, where can you go to get some good basic information to help students? Here are some good places to get an overview of the situation:
Discovery Channel - Global Warming
Normally I'd wait until the end to plug our own services, but Planet Green's parent's info on global warming is pretty comprehensive and presented in a very compelling way. It's all pegged around the Global Warming: What You Need to Know with a Tom Brokaw special, but don't let the steely eyed celebrity news anchor dissuade you, it's solid content.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Why not start at the source? The IPCC's fourth assessment report (now two years old) really lays the situation our pretty starkly. Pay no attention to claims that its predictions are alarmist -- in fact, given the huge number of people who had input on it, if anything it's not dire enough. At the Copenhagen Climate Congress this past March, the consensus of scientists there was that the worst-case trajectories of this paper were coming to pass. Check out the synthesis report from that conference for an unofficial update to the IPCC's report.
Climate Change North
This one is aimed really at educators in Canada's northern territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut) but frankly there's a lot of good info and specific lesson ideas for elementary, middle and high schoolers here that are worth checking out. Topics include (as one might expect) how polar bears and other wildlife are being affected by climate change, how climate change is likely to affect these northern regions, the impact of transportation on climate, and more.
Rainforest Action Network: Educators
The Rainforest Action Network has a growing list of lesson plans for middle and high school educators. There's a 77-page full curriculum, PDF fact sheets, and specific project areas such as a Green My School and Campus Challenge, Green My Ride, Soy What? Save the Rainforest From Giant Agribusiness, No New Coal, and Old Growth Forests.
PBS: NOW - Global Warming
PBS' NOW has a pretty extensive collection of video clips on issues related to global climate change: Renewable energy, ocean acidification, glacial melting, and coal are all covered. There's also a complete lesson plan PDF covering all the global warming basics.
More on Climate Change:
I'd be entirely remiss to not point out that Planet Green and TreeHugger both have countless posts on what changes global warming is already bringing about, what will likely happen in the future, and how we can slow or stop it:
8 Practical Reasons Why Global Warming Totally Sucks, Plus What's In It For You to Stop It
Global Fisheries Hit by Climate Change and Overfishing
Climate Change to Make the World Lazier, Study Finds
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