multimedia presentation on climate change

10 videos to watch to discuss climate change with students

By Lauren McAlpine on February 1, 2021 in News + Updates , TED-Ed Innovative Educators

Shutterstock

TED-Ed Innovative Educator , Kim Preshoff, based in Williamsville, NY, has been an environmental teacher for over 30 years.

Here, Preshoff shares a list of TED-Ed Lessons and TED Talks to watch and discuss with students.

As an environmental educator for more than 30 years, I have had the unique perspective of watching the climate change issue evolve over time and see first-hand students that care about what is happening. They care about future generations and they want change. So, how can we help them? Climate change can be a daunting and sometimes scary topic to discuss. My consistent response: “Knowledge is power!” Only by providing students with the science of climate change, and perspectives about what is truly happening in areas across the world, can we empower them to make a difference. Climate change must become a daily topic of discussion in classrooms across the globe, and part of everyday conversations.

TED has created several unique and informative lessons on climate change that will provide students, educators, and parents with the science and background necessary to understand the true impact of this issue. I consider these five animations my must-watch list:

Climate change: Earth’s giant game of Tetris  - Joss Fong

Using the game Tetris as a comparison, this video is a terrific introduction to the carbon cycle, what can cause an imbalance in that cycle, and how that imbalance is affecting Earth’s climate. Can you define the greenhouse effect? You will after this lesson! It also covers the creation of fossil fuels, how they cause today’s imbalance in the carbon cycle, and the effect deforestation has on the carbon budget. This lesson is a fun and unique way to present the difficult topic of the carbon cycle.

Is the weather actually becoming more extreme? – R. Saravanan

Knowing the difference between weather and climate is a key point in the discussion of climate change issues.  Extreme weather events such as heat waves, wildfires and tropical cyclones have been increasing over the last 40 years. Could climate change be the culprit? Earth’s average temperature has increased nearly 1 degree C over the last 150 years– the end result is more energy in Earth’s atmosphere, and in turn more extreme weather events. Questions about climate versus weather? This lesson will clarify the differences.

Why the Arctic is climate change’s canary in the coal mine  - William Chapman

How can the Arctic be used as a predictor of climate change? The Arctic region is kept in balance with feedback loops– both positive and negative.  Positive loops amplify effects while negative loops stabilize effects. Studying these feedback loops in relation to cloud cover, melting sea ice, and reflectivity can help scientists predict the effects of climate change. The Arctic is the most often talked about region in regard to climate change– this lesson will provide the background information needed to understand why.

Underwater farms vs. Climate change – Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Megan Davis

What exactly is aquaculture? Can aquaculture help fight climate change? Is there a sustainable way to farm the ocean? Aquaculture, while providing food for people, can have some negative repercussions. The answer: restorative ocean farming. A sustainable underwater farm can feed people a more healthy diet, provide jobs, and, at the same time, sequester carbon from the atmosphere. When students are looking for potential solutions to climate change– use this lesson as an example.

Can wildlife adapt to climate change? – Erin Eastwood

How resilient is nature in adapting to climate change? Scientists have seen changes in organisms, but many of these changes are not heritable. Approximately 20 different species have evolved adaptations to climate change. While this might seem like good news, humans will have to play a role in maintaining biodiversity, and helping species to continue to thrive in this changing environment. This lesson may provide a bit of hope about animals versus climate change.

In addition to these lessons, TED’s new initiative COUNTDOWN , has amplified TED Talks that provide great perspectives on issues around the world that people are facing everyday. Remember, with climate change problems, there are also climate change solutions. Through learning new perspectives, we can truly understand what other communities are going through and make changes that positively impact every person on this planet. Here are the TED Talks on my must-watch list:

10 years to transform the future of humanity or destabilize the planet  - Johan Rockstrom

Has the Earth reached its climate change tipping point that could potentially make earth uninhabitable for future generations? Evidence is pointing to yes; we have begun to potentially destabilize Earth as we know it, yet we have failed to mitigate climate change. Rising sea levels, permafrost belching methane, and interwoven systems may be the downfall of Earth’s stability. Want solutions? Stewardship, science, a view of Earth as a global commons, and a willingness to change. This TED Talk will provide you with a solid foundation about what is happening in regard to climate change.

Cities are driving climate change.  Here’s how they can fix it  - Angel Hsu

Urban areas contain the majority of people on Earth, and these cities have a great impact on climate change. They can decrease our carbon footprint or they can be urban heat islands. One solution is equity in greenspace for all residents of all economic levels and races. This talk provides perspective about the unique issues encountered by people living in large urban areas, and ways they can mitigate the effects of climate change.

Climate justice cannot happen without racial justice  - David Lammy

When struggling with racial injustices, climate change gets put on the back-burner. But racial and climate injustices must be addressed together. Who is most likely to breathe in polluted air, live in an area suffering from extreme heat, or have homes surrounded by fewer trees? People of color who make up a greater percentage of our low economic communities. Often, individuals and countries that are most vulnerable to climate change are  those who contribute the least to the issue. Only by bringing all stakeholders to the climate change discussion can this truly be remedied. Watch this talk and gain perspective about the need to involve every citizen in the climate change discussion.

The city planting a million trees in two years  - Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr

How can deforestation affect a community? Lack of trees can cause landslides, flooding, and loss of biodiversity. Aki-Sawyerr’s goal is not to just plant trees, but to grow a tree steward program. The end result is a city that is collectively proud to protect itself and its homes as trees are planted in yards, schools, offices, and public spaces. While it may not be the complete answer to climate change, these trees provide a much needed carbon sink for her city. This TED Talk is proof that taking action can truly make a difference.

How to be a good ancestor  - Roman Krznaric

We as humans are destroying the environmental inheritance of future generations- those with no voices about what is occurring. We need to become good ancestors, but how? Be a time rebel, extend your vision– look forward to the future, and keep our future Earth inhabitants in mind when planning out goals. Ask kids who to vote for and discuss the future with them. Focus on and learn from nature, regenerate the Earth, and take care of the place that will take care of our offspring. This TED Talk emphasizes the importance of looking forward for the sake of future generations.

Interested in learning more about climate change? Here are some additional resources and platforms:

TED-Ed’s Earth School , a 30-day journey of daily Quests using videos, resources, and activities compiled by Earth experts for students to learn more about the environment and climate change

The  Count Us In  project, which has 16 actionable steps you can take on your own, with your family, friends or school

United Nations Environment Program

NASA: Global Climate Change

NPR: Resources on Climate change

NOAA Climate

Climate Matters • November 25, 2020

New Presentation: Our Changing Climate

Key concepts:.

Climate Central unveils Our Changing Climate —an informative and customizable climate change presentation that meteorologists, journalists, and others can use for educational outreach and/or a personal Climate 101 tool.

The presentation follows a ”Simple, Serious, Solvable” framework, inspired by climate scientist Scott Denning. This allows the presenter to comfortably explain, and the viewers to easily understand, the causes (Simple), impacts (Serious), and solutions (Solvable) of climate change. 

Our Changing Climate is a revamped version of our 2016 climate presentation, and includes the following updates and features:

Up-to-date graphics and topics

Local data and graphics

Fully editable slides (add, remove, customize)

Presenter notes, background information, and references for each slide

Supplementary and bonus slides

Download Outline (PDF, 110KB)

Download Full Presentation (PPT, 148MB)

Updated: April 2021

Climate Central is presenting a new outreach and education resource for meteorologists, journalists, and others—a climate change presentation, Our Changing Climate . This 55-slide presentation is a guide through the basics of climate change, outlining its causes, impacts, and solutions. This climate change overview is unique because it includes an array of local graphics from our ever-expanding media library. By providing these local angles, the presenter can demonstrate that climate change is not only happening at a global-scale, but in our backyards.

This presentation was designed to support your climate change storytelling, but can also double as a great Climate 101 tool for journalists or educators who want to understand climate change better. Every slide contains main points along with background information, so people that are interested can learn at their own pace or utilize graphics for their own content. 

In addition to those features, it follows the “Simple, Serious, Solvable” framework inspired by Scott Denning, a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University (and a good friend of the program). These three S’s help create the presentation storyline and outline the causes (Simple), impacts (Serious), and solutions (Solvable) of climate change. 

Simple. It is simple—burning fossil fuels is heating up the Earth. This section outlines the well-understood science that goes back to the 1800s, presenting local and global evidence that our climate is warming due to human activities.

Serious. More extreme weather, rising sea levels, and increased health and economic risks—the consequences of climate change. In this section, well, we get serious. Climate change impacts are already being felt around the world, and they will continue to intensify until we cut greenhouse gas emissions. 

Solvable. With such a daunting crisis like climate change, it is easy to get wrapped up in the negative impacts. This section explains how we can curb climate change and lists the main pathways and solutions to achieving this goal. 

With the rollout of our new climate change presentation, we at Climate Central would value any feedback on this presentation. Feel free to reach out to us about how the presentation worked for you, how your audience reacted, or any ideas or topics you would like to see included. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS & SPECIAL THANKS

Climate Central would like to acknowledge Paul Gross at WDIV-TV in Detroit and the AMS Station Science Committee for the original version of the climate presentation, Climate Change Outreach Presentation , that was created in 2016. We would also like to give special thanks to Scott Denning, professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University and a member of our NSF advisory board, for allowing us to use this “Simple, Serious, Solvable” framework in this presentation resource.

SUPPORTING MULTIMEDIA

• member log in
• thought of the day
• For People New to RC
• The Origins of RC
• Euskara (Basque)
• Hrvatskijezik (Croatian)
• Dansk (Danish)
• Nederlands Voorlopige Vertalingen
• Suomea (Finnish)
• Français (French)
• Deutsch (German)
• Magyar (Hungarian)
• Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
• Italiano (Italian)
• Norsk (Norwegian)
• Polski (Polish)
• Portuguès (Portuguese)
• Limba Român (Romanian)
• Slovensky (Slovak)
• Español (Spanish)
• Svenska (Swedish)
• Subscriptions
• Present Time
• Contents 198
• Contents 199
• Contents 200
• Contents 201
• Contents 202
• Contents 203
• Contents 204
• Contents 205
• Contents 206
• Contents 207
• Contents 208
• Contents 209
• Contents 210
• Contents 211
• Contents 212
• PDF Downloads
• Recent Articles
• RC Journals
• Fundamentals Teaching Guide Part II (Liberation) Readings
• Fundamentals Teaching Guide Part I
• Resources for RC Editors
• Rational Island Publications website help
• Community Building
• RC Liberation Theory
• Ending Racism
• Transformation of Society
• Articles About Teaching
• Fundamentals Class Outlines
• Care of the Environment
• Other Important Categories
• Articles from recent issues of Present Time
• Important Articles by Harvey Jackins
• Our Work to End Racism and Genocide
• International Liberation and Commonality Reference People
• Draft Program for Native Liberation
• Care of the Environment Draft Policy and Draft Program on Climate Change
• Women's Policy Statement
• Draft Policy on Disability Liberation
• Liberation of Basque People
• Raised Poor Draft Policy Statement
• "Mental Health" Oppression and Liberation
• Older Draft Policy Statements
• Drafts of drafts
• Liberation theory articles
• Mission Statement
• NGO Forum CSW60 No Limits workshops
• Publications
• Photos of No Limits at Beijing Plus 20
• Video excerpts of No Limits at Beijing Plus 20
• Women's March
• The Basics of RC Women’s Liberation
• Language Liberation
• About the Re-evaluation Foundation
• Information for Contributors
• Grant applicants
• Leadership Global Majority
• Global Initiatives
• Development of Young People
• Care of the Environment and Sustaining All Life
• Foundation leadership
• Foundation finances
• Contact the Foundation
• Articles by Tim on the Transformation of Society
• RC literature
• Three RC Websites
• Climate Change and the RC Communities
• Unified Goal on the Climate
• Sustaining All Life
• Climate Change Resources (from outside the RC Community)
• 2022 Guidelines for the RC Community
• Guidelines for Use of the Electronic Lists
• Goals of the RC Community
• Articles Supporting the Guidelines
• Web site Organizing Tools Class 1
• Web site Organizing Tools Class 2
• Web site Organizing Tools Class 3
• Web site Organizing Tools Class 4
• Regional and International
• Outside USA
• Inside the USA
• Order Forms
• Teacher Applications
• COVID-19 (coronavirus) and the RC Community
• Community Goals
• Electronic Mailing Lists
• Listing of webinars
• Victoria, Australia
• NYC/NJ metropolitan area
• Seattle RC Community
• Washington DC RC Community
• Apply for Online Class
• Lesson 1: Basic Human Nature/Listening
• Lesson 2: Distress Recordings and Distress Patterns
• Lesson 3: Discharge
• Lesson 4: The Role of Counselor and Client
• Lesson 5: Fundamental Counseling Techniques
• Lesson 6: More on Contradictions
• Lesson 7: And Even More on Techniques and Contradictions
• Lesson 8: The Early Roots of Distress Recordings
• Lesson 9: Co-counseling Session Reports
• Lesson 10: Rational Human Needs and Addictions
• Lesson 11: Oppression and Liberation: An Introduction
• Lesson 12: The Counseling Relationship
• Lesson 13: Thinking, Logic and Power
• Lesson 14: Setting Goals
• Lesson 15: Reality
• Lesson 16: Our Goodness, Our Relationships, and Our Confidence and Hope
• Lesson 17: More on Oppression and Liberation: The Basics and Ending Racism
• Lesson 18: Overview of Other Major Forms of Oppression
• Lesson 19: Counseling on Relationships, Closeness, and Sex
• Lesson 20: Care of the Environment
• Lesson 21: RC Learning Theory
• Lesson 22: RC Literature - Reading and Writing
• Lesson 23: The RC Community, Teaching, Leaading and Inviting
• While You Wait
• Classes near you
• How to Begin RC
• Commitments
• Welcome to RC
• Basic Theory
• IRP Perspectives
• Taking a Needed Initiative (on the climate emergency)
• On the Middle East
• Harvey Jackins
• Videos on Community Building, Counseling, and Liberation
• Comprehensive Glossary of RC Terms
• Glossary of terms for people new to RC

RECORDING UPDATE

Would a Society Without Oppression Need Artificial Intelligence Frank van den Heuvel Sunday, May 12

Outline for presentation of the basics of climate change with videos and graphs ( pdf download )

All information is found in more detail and with citations in Why We Prioritize Addressing Climate Change, www.rc.org/climatepriority . Many people have asked me for the collection of videos and slides that I have used in presenting basic information about climate change. Videos and graphs really help keep people’s interest, as do frequent mini-sessions and a light approach. Here is my collection. (I happily accept additions to this information.)

This is far more than you can use in a one or two-hour class. I recommend that you look through them all and choose the ones that make sense for your audience.

You may also want to mix in some of the videos on this page , www.rc.org/climatechange , listed under Funny videos or Videos that get your attention out.

Diane Shisk

(August 28, 2019)

PDF IS UPDATED, I'M STILL ADDING GRAPHS INTO THIS VERSION

Introduction

The scientists that are watching climate change closely think there is still time to resolve this crisis if we act now. Millions of people across the world are addressing these issues. I want all RCers to be informed enough to be able to engage in a basic conversation about climate change and take action in the ways that makes sense for them. A 60-second introduction to climate change is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4e5UPu1co0 .

Greenhouse Gases (GHG)

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere. This video shows the natural cycle of carbon dioxide emitted in a year’s time, and its absorption by photosynthesis. It also shows very clearly the countries that are emitting the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. (It's also a beautiful video to start with.)

https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/142/video-super-hd-view-of-global-carbon-dioxide/

Industrialization, fossil fuel combustion, land-use change (deforestation and industrial agriculture), and overexploitation of resources have created a heat-trapping blanket of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) around the Earth.

The most dangerous of these GHG emissions is carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), although other emissions and substances (methane, nitrous oxide, and black carbon, among others) are also dangerous and together contribute about 50% of the warming of CO 2 . This chart from the EPA is based on global emissions in 2014 and shows the percentages of the different greenhouse gases emitted.

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data

The following graph shows that the current accumulation of CO 2 is unique in the history of the Earth, resulting from emissions since the start of the industrial revolution. It charts the levels of CO 2 found in the atmosphere over the last 400,000 years (information gathered from Antarctic ice cores), and the natural cycles of the CO 2 levels rising and falling as the Earth moves in a slightly elliptical pattern around the sun.

Before 1750, CO 2 levels fluctuated between 180 and 210 parts per million (ppm) during ice ages and increased to 280–300 ppm during warmer interglacials [1] . Only after the start of the industrial revolution (and the quick transition to fossil fuels as an energy source in western nations first, and then globally) has the level of CO 2 in the atmosphere exceeded 300 ppm. That level has risen pretty steadily since 1750, reaching 412 ppm today. This is reflected in the spike at the right-hand side of the graph.

This video shows the accumulation of CO 2 in the atmosphere from 2002 to 2016 (scroll down on the webpage to the video called Time Series: 2002 - 2016). White represents 365 ppm of CO 2 and red represents 425 ppm.

https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/

This video (How Global Warming Stacks Up) is designed to graphically illustrate how the common theories for global warming put forward by climate skeptics don't match the reality of historical facts.

https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/144/video-how-global-warming-stacks-up/

This video shows the comparative rise in CO 2 emissions from the largest emitters by country since 1850.

While China surpassed the U.S. in annual emissions a few years ago, the U.S. continues to be the country that has emitted the most CO 2 into the Earth’s atmosphere. The average CO 2 emissions per person of someone living in the U.S. are about twice those of someone in China.

Sixty percent (60%) of CO 2 emissions come from the largest economies: China, the U.S., Russia, India, the European Union, and Japan. The U.S. (with 5% of the global population) contributes 16% of emissions.

While some countries have “peaked” (reached their highest point of emissions and emissions are now decreasing), CO 2 emissions globally are continuing to rise at the rate of 1.7% annually.

An excellent website: Our World in Data: CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions has all of this information in one place: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions

This graph shows “historical emissions” of the largest CO 2 emitters.

Global Temperatures

The rise in global temperature tracks the rise in greenhouse gas emissions. CO 2 emissions and temperature have tracked closely and as a result, the past three decades have been successively warmer than all previous decades on record, with the last 20 years logging the hottest temperatures yet.

This video shows the gradual warming of the Earth from 1884 to 2017, showing how warming begins to accelerate rapidly in the 1980s to the present (scroll down the webpage to Time Series).

https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/

New records are being set every month. The rate of warming now is twice as fast as in the 1950s and 1960s. Seventeen (17) of the 18 hottest years on record have been since 2001; with 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018 the four hottest years on record. June 2019 was the hottest year on record.

The hottest temperature in 2018 was recorded in Pakistan: 53.5C (128.3F).

This animation shows temperatures by country from 1900 to 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Ra2HR27pQ

This link shows how much warmer your city will be in 2050.

https://www.vox.com/a/weather-climate-change-us-cities-global-warming

Heat Waves impacted all parts of the world in 2018, causing death, droughts, and wildfires. Global warming is starting to overtake natural variability as the main driver of extreme heat waves.

At our current levels of 412 ppm of CO 2 with the resulting 1°C temperature rise we are already experiencing many damaging effects of climate change including rising sea levels, loss of formerly arable lands, population displacement by extreme weather such as violent storms and floods, prolonged droughts and famine, biodiversity loss, mass extinctions, watershed destabilization, and life-threatening food scarcity.

As the global temperature rises, these problems are multiplying in frequency and intensity. These damaging results of climate change are already a reality in all parts of the globe, but worse closer to the equator (already the warmest places on earth), the Arctic (because of the special vulnerabilities of an ice cap), and where people live on very limited resources.

The graph below shows where an additional 0.5°C of temperature rise, from 1.5°C to 2°C, will have the most immediate effect.

The current 1°C temperature rise is a global average. A quarter of the planet’s population lives in places where temperature rise is already 1.5°C.

Projected Impacts of Climate Change

The figure below shows the projected impacts of climate change according to global temperature change.

Desertification

The map below shows areas that are vulnerable to desertification .

Sea Level Rise

Ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica is a major cause of sea level rise. The oceans are currently rising by approximately 1.5 inches per decade. That is predicted to increase to 1 foot per decade by 2050 and 2 feet per decade by 2070. Greenland doubled its rate of ice loss between 2009 and 2014.

Greenland saw temperatures 40 degrees above normal in June 2019 causing unprecedented melting there and elsewhere in the Arctic.

This beautiful film gives more details.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kteMXaUNvlc

This video explaining sea level rise, though recent, doesn't include the latest information that the rate of melting from the Antarctic ice sheet had accelerated threefold in the last five years. There is a lot of concern that thresholds for irreversible, multi-millennial loss of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may occur at 1.5°C or 2°C global warming.

https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/163/video-new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-accelerating/

Even small rises in sea levels (3-6 inches / 5-10 cm) will double the risk of flooding to coastal cities.

Warming temperatures have caused a 40% reduction in Arctic sea ice since 1978. The Arctic region is warming at a rate twice that of the global average, with 2017 setting a record low for maximum ice extent. Temperatures hit 100°F in Prudhoe Bay in the summer of 2018 and the ice (which once froze over in September) didn’t freeze until January. This video shows the shrinking Arctic ice cover.

https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/143/video-record-breaking-climate-trends-in-2016/

Extreme warming of the Arctic in the summer of 2019 has led to unprecedented levels of melt. 

This has a direct impact on Indigenous populations, who are losing their coastal villages and experiencing declines in the species they depend on for survival – endangering their ways of life and ability to live on their land. All these effects are multiplied by toxins released from fossil fuel exploration and mining in the Arctic Circle.

Tipping Points

Tipping points are points at which rising temperature cause impacts (positive feedback loops) that trigger additional warming. For example, when Arctic sea ice melts, we’re left with more exposed ocean water whose darkness absorbs more of the sun’s heat, therefore contributing to warming. Theoretically we could reach such a tipping point without triggering this kind of feedback loop if the excess atmospheric carbon was removed quickly enough. A point of no return, which is harder to pinpoint than a tipping point, is the level at which these feedback results are irreversible. Currently, we have already crossed some global tipping points and could be on the way to a point of no return.

The figure below shows an estimate of the temperature at which certain tipping points are likely to be reached.

Extreme Weather Events

With every 1°C of temperature rise, hurricanes/typhoons are predicted to occur 3-4 times more frequently. With 2°C, they could occur every other year, and be 10x more powerful. Disasters of equivalent strength kill between 12 and 45 times more people in poorer countries than in wealthy ones.

Scientists are studying the relationship between extreme weather events and climate change, and are increasingly confident about many connections, shown in the graph below from the Union of Concerned Scientists in 2012.

  A warming earth and atmosphere leads to conditions that foster wildfires: drought, dried out soil and underbrush, warmer air temperatures leading to more wind and lightning. The clearing of forest for agriculture (often by burning off the forest cover as it is faster and cheaper) is another large contributor. The number and intensity of fires has increased greatly in the last two decades due to these factors.  This 2019 video from NASA provides a glimpse of global wildfire trends over the past two decades.  https://e360.yale.edu/digest/a-look-at-two-decades-of-wildfires-globally-in-just-30-seconds

Food Insecurity

Under-nutrition is identified as the largest health impact of climate change in the 21 st century. A six percent (6%) decline in global wheat yields and 10% decline in rice yields is expected for each additional 1°C rise in global temperature, with substantial impacts on under-nutrition and stunting in food insecure or poor regions. An additional 7.5 million children are expected to be stunted by 2030, 4 million of whom are expected to be affected by severe stunting, increasing to 10 million children by 2050. Recent studies also show that some crops have less nutritional value when grown in hotter conditions.

An excellent interactive graphic on climate change and food insecurity is found here https://awfw.org/food-insecurity-climate-change/ . Below is the basic infographic: the larger the human figure, the higher the percentage of undernourished people in the region; the darker the color of terrain, the higher the hunger and climate change vulnerability.

Species Extinction

Currently, with 1°C of warming, 30% of species are at increasing risk of extinction. Hotter temperatures decreased access to water, scarcer food supply – all will take a toll. Most corals will be bleached if we sustain a 1°C temperature rise. Coral reefs host 25% of the world's biodiversity and provide important coastal protection from storms. Scientists have found no evidence of these disasters before the late 20th century.

Vulnerable Communities

The effects of climate change are harshest on people living in poverty, those in the poorest countries – countries and communities historically targeted by colonialism, genocide, imperialism. Climate change is called a “threat multiplier,” meaning if you were already under threats such as food insecurity, inadequate housing, health, poverty – the threat will be multiplied by climate change. Poor people are disproportionately affected not only because they are often more exposed and more vulnerable to climate-related shocks, they also have fewer resources and receive less support from family, community, the financial system, and social safety nets to prevent, cope, and adapt.

The maps in the website below show the countries that are most at risk from climate change, based on government stability, food and water supply, and healthcare.

https://blog.theecoexperts.co.uk/countries-survive-climate-change-2018

Climate Refugees

In the last 10 years, 22.5 million people have been displaced by climate-related or extreme weather events globally. By 2060, about 1.4 billion people could become climate change refugees because of heat waves, rising sea level, and extreme weather. This map shows the regions of the world most climate refugees came from in 2005 and why they were forced to leave their land.

Reversing Climate Change

The paris agreement.

The Paris Agreement (2015 United Nations climate talks) commits nation-signers to keep global temperature rise to well below 2°C (making all efforts to limit it to 1.5°C in order to avoid devastating sea level rise) to avoid the most drastic, life-threatening global climate change. (There was almost unanimous agreement among the scientific and international community on this point in 2015, although with the passage of time an increasing number of scientists say a 2°C increase is too much.) So far, the Earth has warmed approximately 1°C.

This graph shows the projected levels of greenhouse gas emissions for 2025 and 2030 under various scenarios. The emissions gap is the difference between the level of GHG emissions needed to keep global temperate at 2°C goal and emission levels based on promises. If the emissions gap cannot be closed by 2030, it is extremely unlikely the 2°C goal can be reached.

The chart below shows the impact of a campaign in England to reduce household emissions, which resulted in a significant decrease in household emissions between 1990 and 2017.

This website shows what is called the global carbon budget, meaning the amount of carbon dioxide we can still emit before warming to 1.5°C and 2°C. The far-right circle represents temperature increase between 1850 and the present, the middle circle represents the rising amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere, and the left circle shows the amount of CO 2 humans can still emit and stay below 1.5°C and 2°C.

http://openclimatedata.net/climate-spirals/from-emissions-to-global-warming-line-chart/

To limit global temperature rises to 2°C, we need to stay below one trillion tons of CO 2 . This website tracks our progress towards emitting the trillionth ton.

http://trillionthtonne.org/

The current national commitments agreed to in Paris would allow a temperature rise of 3.7C - 5°C. While that is acknowledged and the United Nations is pushing countries to do more, most countries are struggling to meet their current commitments. This website shows the progress each country is making toward meeting their commitment under the Paris Accord.

https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/

Rapid Phase Out of Fossil Fuels

To have a 66% chance of staying below a 2°C increase in global temperature, we can only emit 800 more gigatons of CO 2 into the atmosphere. (This is from a 2016 article .) To have a 50% chance of staying below 1.5°C we can only emit 353 gigatons. (Most scientists now think this is no longer achievable.) But coal mines and oil and gas wells in operation in 2016 contained fossil fuels that would release 942 gigatons of CO 2 . That means we cannot use all that is currently in production.

Fossil fuel companies have an additional 2,795 gigatons of CO 2 in their reserves that will be released if current priorities, policies, and practices do not change.

If the world had begun in 2012 to reduce CO 2 emissions, this would have required a 6% carbon pollution reduction annually. If we wait until 2020 to reduce emissions, it will require a15% annual reduction.

Emissions climbed 1.7% in 2017, as the world’s energy consumption increased 2.2%, while percentage of renewable energy remained at 4%. “Keep it in the Ground” (meaning develop and use no more fossil fuels) is a basic climate justice strategy to lower CO 2 emissions, accompanied by a rapid and just transition to renewable resources ("just" in that it not be at the expense of workers, poor people, indigenous people, and people of the global majority).

If we stop fracking, we immediately slow global warming. Recent studies show that dangerous quantities of methane are released into the atmosphere during the fracking process. Because methane is more than 30 times more warming than CO 2 , immediately reducing methane emissions will curtail warming significantly and immediately. However, the G20 countries are investing $1.6 trillion in gas production and methane emissions are rising.

US Continues to Expand Fossil Fuel Development

The US is one of the world’s largest producer and user of fossil fuels and the US continues to expand fossil fuel development. Existing oil and gas fields and coal mines already contain enough carbon to push global temperatures beyond the goals of the Paris Agreement. Part of the solution to reversing climate change is to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Here is a link to the report Drilling Towards Disaster: Why U.S. Oil and Gas Expansion is Incompatible with Climate Limits. You can download the full report or selected findings from the report.

http://priceofoil.org/2019/01/16/report-drilling-towards-disaster/

Projected CO 2 Emissions from US-Produced Oil and Gas

Co2 emissions unlocked by new oil and gas development in us, projected co 2 emissions from developed and undeveloped oil and gas in the permian basin, stop fossil fuel subsidies.

Ending fossil fuel subsidies is another important part of the solution. Globally the world subsidizes the fossil fuel industry $1.4 trillion per year. U.S. subsidies are $20 - $30 billion per year. (U.S. subsidies for renewables have varied widely, but average $4 billion per year.) This graph shows proposed cuts in the U.S. President's proposed 2018 budget next to the amounts subsidizing coal, oil, and gas.

Renewable Energy Growth

Decarbonizing the energy sector requires urgent action on a global scale. The cost of renewable energy is now comparable to that of fossil fuel, and massive development of renewable energy should be supported. However, globally 80% of energy still comes from burning fossil fuels and that has been steady for a few decades. Each year the use of new and renewable sources of energy (solar, wind, and hydropower) increases, but the growth is matched by the growth in use of fossil fuels.

Renewable energy contributed 40% of the total increase of world energy power generation in 2016. But current predictions for continued growth in the renewable sector are inadequate, and fossil fuels are not being replaced quickly enough. While energy production and consumption patterns are changing fast, the shift to renewable sources needs to happen faster to reduce emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change. The main cause of this seems to be the profit imbalance: renewables are simply not profitable enough for investors. Public funding will need to be greatly expanded.

Renewable Energy

Ninety-six percent (96%) of electricity will need to be low carbon by 2050. This would require $3.5 trillion in energy-sector investments on average each year until 2050.

The chart below shows the growth in renewable energy investment by country / region.

This chart shows the growth in wind energy generation globally.

Concerns about impact of wind turbines on wildlife loss has been overstated. For example, bird deaths due to wind turbines is much lower than deaths caused by coal and other fossil fuels.

The chart below shows the growth in global solar energy generation by country / region.

The cost of renewable (solar and wind) energy continues to decrease with solar experiencing a very notable drop.

Here is the link to a report that explains how solar energy can help meet the global need for electricity and help to stop climate change:

https://www.climaterealityproject.org/sites/default/files/solarfactsebook_03_2019.pdf

Here is an interactive map that shows how 100% renewable energy can look like in 2050 depending on where you live.

https://thesolutionsproject.org/why-clean-energy/#/map/countries/

Preserving Carbon Sinks

Carbon and methane sinks – natural ecosystems on land and in the ocean that absorb or hold GHG emissions, specifically plants, forests, soil, and the ocean itself – are crucially important. Today more than half of human-caused carbon emissions are captured by these natural ecosystems, keeping the emissions out of the atmosphere. We must preserve these ecosystems and create additional ones – by stopping deforestation, planting millions of trees, and adopting regenerative agricultural practices that trap rather than release carbon from the soil.

Most models for keeping temperature increase below 2°C predict we will “overshoot” 2°C, and then have to rapidly reduce emissions by drawing them out of the atmosphere. Natural sinks are inadequate for this; we will need to develop a new sink with the GHG storage capacity of the ocean.

The oceans are the world’s largest carbon sinks. They have absorbed about 1/3 of the CO 2 produced from human activities since 1800 and about 1/2 of the CO 2 produced by burning fossil fuels. There is concern that saturation is occurring, so more CO 2 emissions will remain in the atmosphere.

Ocean absorption of CO 2 also leads to ocean acidification that endangers marine ecosystems. The oceans are 30% more acidic now than in 1750. Here is a good, short video on oceans as carbon sinks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgzCY6LccRQ

The majority of deforestation happens to clear land for industrial agriculture and grazing. Between 2000 and 2016 the world lost nearly 10% of its intact forests, and deforestation is increasing. Undisturbed forest landscapes absorb more than 25% of the CO 2 in the atmosphere. Here is a good short video on the importance of maintaining rainforests:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wVY1kDIIB0  

The graph below shows the importance of increasing carbon sinks to replace the shrinking capacity of the Earth’s forests and oceans. Recent studies show that large quantities of CO 2 can be drawn down from the atmosphere by restored and well managed natural carbon sinks.

Financing the Transition

Wealthy nations are most able to help Frontline Nations adapt to climate change and gain access to renewable energy. Much of the wealth of the wealthy nations comes from exploitation of the resources of Frontline Nations. The Green Climate Fund was established by the United Nations in 2011 to raise $100 billion from the wealthy nations per year by 2020, but to date only $10.3 billion has been pledged. Lack of adequate support for measures of finance and adaptation for Frontline Nations continues to be a major stumbling block at the negotiations and will be a major issue at COP24 in Poland.

A Green Climate Fund dashboard tracks current financing: https://www.greenclimate.fund/what-we-do/portfolio-dashboard

Recent reports estimate that the global infrastructure investment required from 2016 to 2030 to remain below a 2°C rise is approximately $7 trillion per year, and $53 trillion in cumulative investments is needed to transition to a low-carbon energy system from 2016 to 2035.

Fair share calculations, based on a country’s historic emissions and income levels, show that the U.S. and EU have each pledged about 1/5 th their fair share. More information is here: https://www.cidse.org/publications/climate-justice/equity-and-the-ambition-ratchet.html , and represented below.

What to Do?

There are many proposals for stopping climate change and staying below 2°C. Several are summarized at the end of this article : www.rc.org/sciencesummary . The diagram below contains many elements common to these plans.

Climate Change: Impacts, Solutions and Perceptions

Running time 0:17

What scientific evidence exists that Earth's climate is changing? What's the difference between climate change and climate variability? How does a changing climate affect people and the natural environment? What can we do to lessen and adapt to the impacts of these changes? This collection of videos presents experts' lectures and discussions on these topics in a series of public forums hosted in 2011 by NOAA and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at George Mason University.

We value your feedback

Help us improve our content

Related Content

News & features, climate science 101: what is the difference between weather and climate, climate science 101: historical perspectives on climate change, climate science 101: climate change communication and public engagement, maps & data, drought - monthly outlook, sea level rise - map viewer, ocean heat content - seasonal difference from average, teaching climate, inter-tribal youth climate leadership congress, weather + climate day and contest, toolbox for teaching climate & energy, climate resilience toolkit, climate variability and change lectures, july 2013, translating climate science into hydrology, america's climate choices.

Got any suggestions?

We want to hear from you! Send us a message and help improve Slidesgo

Top searches

Trending searches

memorial day

12 templates

66 templates

american history

75 templates

music video

21 templates

150 templates

Climate Change

It seems that you like this template, climate change presentation, premium google slides theme, powerpoint template, and canva presentation template.

Are you preparing a presentation on climate change for class? Surprise your teacher with this professional template. It has green colors, connected to the environment, and includes pedagogical illustrations related to ecology. It has a guide index to help you focus your presentation. Begin with an introduction about what climate change is, its causes and consequences. It also includes maps to highlight country data, charts, and recommendations. And if you want to round off your presentation, we encourage you to use the illustrations from Storyset. They will look great!

Features of this template

• 100% editable and easy to modify
• 34 different slides to impress your audience
• Available in five colors: Green, Blue, Pink, Purple and Yellow
• Contains easy-to-edit graphics such as graphs, maps, tables, timelines and mockups
• Includes 500+ icons and Flaticon’s extension for customizing your slides
• Designed to be used in Google Slides, Canva, and Microsoft PowerPoint
• 16:9 widescreen format suitable for all types of screens
• Includes information about fonts, colors, and credits of the free resources used

What are the benefits of having a Premium account?

What Premium plans do you have?

What can I do to have unlimited downloads?

Combines with:

This template can be combined with this other one to create the perfect presentation:

Don’t want to attribute Slidesgo?

Gain access to over 24900 templates & presentations with premium from 1.67€/month.

Are you already Premium? Log in

Available colors

Original Color

Related posts on our blog

How to Add, Duplicate, Move, Delete or Hide Slides in Google Slides

How to Change Layouts in PowerPoint

How to Change the Slide Size in Google Slides

Related presentations.

Premium template

Unlock this template and gain unlimited access

Register for free and start editing online

Public Science Symposium on Climate Change at JPL

On Saturday, Oct. 24, from 2 to 4 p.m. at JPL, Earth scientists with expertise in the fields of atmosphere, ocean and ecology presented brief talks on the scientific evidence for global warming, including a discussion of what individuals and society can do to slow global warming. There was also a demonstration of NASA's "Eyes on the Earth" multimedia project. The symposium was sponsored by the JPL Green Club.

The presentations and related multimedia are available for download below.

•  [[LINK||FILE:agenda.pdf||Agenda]]
• [[LINK||FILE:Von_Karman_Symp-Oct24_09-Final.ppt||Mous Chahine - "No country is immune from effects of increased greenhouse gases"]]
• [[LINK||FILE:Chahine_movies.zip||Movies and images from Chahine presentation]]
• [[LINK||FILE:boland_climate_CL09-4409.ppt||Stacey Boland - CO2 sources/sinks: Earth satellites' contributions]]
• [[LINK||FILE:waliser-symposium.ppt||Duane Waliser - Calibration of climate models]]
• [[LINK||FILE:TerrestrialCarb-McDonald-v3b.ppt||Kyle McDonald - Terrestrial carbon cycles]]
• [[LINK||FILE:holt_polar_symposiumOct20091.ppt||Ben Holt - Arctic ice cover changes]]
• [[LINK||FILE:Fu_Oct24_09.ppt||Lee Fu - "Sea level rise is an unambiguous consequence of a warming climate"]]
• Kevin Hussey - Demonstration of " Eyes on the Earth "
• [[LINK||FILE:JoBea_JPL_6.ppt||JoBea Holt - What we can do to slow climate change?]]

Recent News & Features

Ask NASA Climate

images of change

Science News by AGU

Simpler Presentations of Climate Change

Share this:.

• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Science Leads the Future

Are We Entering The Golden Age Of Climate Modeling?

Alumni push universities forward on climate, indoor air pollution in the time of coronavirus, how an unlikely friendship upended permafrost myths, the alarming rise of predatory conferences, science leads the future, and the future is now.

Has this happened to you? You are presenting the latest research about climate change to a general audience, maybe at the town library, to a local journalist, or even in an introductory science class. After presenting the solid science about greenhouse gases, how they work, and how we are changing them, you conclude with “and this is what the models predict about our climate future…”

At that point, your audience may feel they are being asked to make a leap of faith. Having no idea how the models work or what they contain and leave out, this final and crucial step becomes to them a “trust me” moment. Trust me moments can be easy to deny.

This problem has not been made easier by a recent expansion in the number of models and the range of predictions presented in the literature. One recent study making this point is that of Hausfather et al. [2022], which presents the “hot model” problem: the fact that some of the newer models in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) model comparison yield predictions of global temperatures that are above the range presented in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). The authors present a number of reasons for, and solutions to, the hot model problem.

Models are crucial in advancing any field of science. They represent a state-of-the-art summary of what the community understands about its subject. Differences among models highlight unknowns on which new research can be focused.

But Hausfather and colleagues make another point: As questions are answered and models evolve, they should also converge. That is, they should not only reproduce past measurements, but they should also begin to produce similar projections into the future. When that does not happen, it can make trust me moments even less convincing.

Are there simpler ways to make the major points about climate change, especially to general audiences, without relying on complex models?

We think there are.

Old Predictions That Still Hold True

In a recent article in Eos , Andrei Lapenis retells the story of Mikhail Budyko ’s 1972 predictions about global temperature and sea ice extent [ Budyko , 1972]. Lapenis notes that those predictions have proven to be remarkably accurate. This is a good example of effective, long-term predictions of climate change that are based on simple physical mechanisms that are relatively easy to explain.

There are many other examples that go back more than a century. These simpler formulations don’t attempt to capture the spatial or temporal detail of the full models, but their success at predicting the overall influence of rising carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) on global temperatures makes them a still-relevant, albeit mostly overlooked, resource in climate communication and even climate prediction.

One way to make use of this historical record is to present the relative consistency over time in estimates of equilibrium carbon sensitivity (ECS), the predicted change in mean global temperature expected from a doubling of atmospheric CO 2 . ECS can be presented in straightforward language, maybe even without the name and acronym, and is an understandable concept.

Estimates of ECS can be traced back for more than a century (Table 1), showing that the relationship between CO 2 in the atmosphere and Earth’s radiation and heat balance, as an expression of a simple and straightforward physical process, has been understood for a very long time. We can now measure that balance with precision [e.g., Loeb et al. , 2021], and measurements and modeling using improved technological expertise have all affirmed this scientific consistency.

Table 1. Selected Historical Estimates of Equilibrium Carbon Sensitivity (ECS)

Settled Science

Another approach for communicating with general audiences is to present an abbreviated history demonstrating that we have known the essentials of climate change for a very long time—that the basics are settled science.

The following list is a vastly oversimplified set of four milestones in the history of climate science that we have found to be effective. In a presentation setting, this four-step outline also provides a platform for a more detailed discussion if an audience wants to go there.

• 1850s: Eunice Foote observes that, when warmed by sunlight, a cylinder filled with CO 2 attained higher temperatures and cooled more slowly than one filled with ambient air, leading her to conclude that higher concentrations of CO 2 in the atmosphere should increase Earth’s surface temperature [ Foote , 1856]. While not identifying the greenhouse effect mechanism, this may be the first statement in the scientific literature linking CO 2 to global temperature. Three years later, John Tyndall separately develops a method for measuring the absorbance of infrared radiation and demonstrates that CO 2 is an effective absorber (acts as a greenhouse gas) [ Tyndall , 1859 ; 1861 ]. 
• 1908: Svante Arrhenius describes a nonlinear response to increased CO 2 based on a year of excruciating hand calculations actually performed in 1896 [ Arrhenius , 1896]. His value for ECS is 4°C (Table 1), and the nonlinear response has been summarized in a simple one-parameter model .
• 1958: Charles Keeling establishes an observatory on Mauna Loa in Hawaii. He begins to construct the “ Keeling curve ” based on measurements of atmospheric CO 2 concentration over time. It is amazing how few people in any audience will have seen this curve.
• Current: The GISS data set of global mean temperature from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies records the trajectory of change going back decades to centuries using both direct measurements and environmental proxies.

The last three of these steps can be combined graphically to show how well the simple relationship derived from Arrhenius ’s [1908] projections, driven by CO 2 data from the Keeling curve, predicts the modern trend in global average temperature (Figure 1). The average error in this prediction is only 0.081°C, or 8.1 hundredths of a degree.

A surprise to us was that this relationship can be made even more precise by adding the El Niño index (November–January (NDJ) from the previous year) as a second predictor. The status of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation ( ENSO ) system has been known to affect global mean temperature as well as regional weather patterns. With this second term added , the average error in the prediction drops to just over 0.06°C, or 6 one hundredths of a degree.

It is also possible to extend this simple analysis into the future using the same relationship and IPCC AR6 projections for CO 2 and “assessed warming” (results from four scenarios combined; Figure 2).

Although CO 2 is certainly not the only cause of increased warming, it provides a powerful index of the cumulative changes we are making to Earth’s climate system.

A presentation built around the consistency of equilibrium carbon sensitivity estimates does not deliver a complete understanding of the changes we are causing in the climate system, but the relatively simple, long-term historical perspective can be an effective way to tell the story.

In this regard, it is interesting that the “Summary for Policy Makers” [ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2021] from the most recent IPCC science report also includes a figure (Figure SPM.10, p. 28) that captures both measured past and predicted future global temperature change as a function of cumulative CO 2 emissions alone. Given that the fraction of emissions remaining in the atmosphere over time has been relatively constant, this is equivalent to the relationship with concentration presented here. That figure also presents the variation among the models in predicted future temperatures, which is much greater than the measurement errors in the GISS and Keeling data sets that underlie the relationship in Figure 1.

A presentation built around the consistency of ECS estimates and the four steps clearly does not deliver a complete understanding of the changes we are causing in the climate system, but the relatively simple, long-term historical perspective can be an effective way to tell the story of those changes.

Past Performance and Future Results

Projecting the simple model used in Figure 1 into the future (Figure 2) assumes that the same factors that have made CO 2 alone such a good index to climate change to date will remain in place. But we know there are processes at work in the world that could break this relationship.

For example, some sources now see the electrification of the economic system, including transportation, production, and space heating and cooling, as part of the path to a zero-carbon economy [e.g., Gates , 2021]. But there is one major economic sector in which energy production is not the dominant process for greenhouse gas emissions and carbon dioxide is not the major greenhouse gas. That sector is agriculture.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated that agriculture currently accounts for about 10% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, with nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and methane (CH 4 ) being major contributors to that total. According to the EPA (Figure 3), agriculture contributes 79% of N 2 O emissions in the United States, largely from the production and application of fertilizers (agricultural soil management) as well as from manure management, and 36% of CH 4 emissions (enteric fermentation and manure management—one might add some of the landfill emissions to that total as well).

If we succeed in moving nonagricultural sectors of the economy toward a zero-carbon state, the relationship in Figures 1 and 2 will be broken. The rate of overall climate warming would be reduced significantly, but N 2 O and CH 4 would begin to play a more dominant role in driving continued greenhouse gas warming of the planet, and we will then need more complex models than the one used for Figures 1 and 2. But just how complex?

In his recent book Life Is Simple , biologist Johnjoe McFadden traces the influence across the centuries of William of Occam (~1287–1347) and Occam’s razor as a concept in the development of our physical understanding of everything from the cosmos to the subatomic structure of matter [ McFadden , 2021]. One simple statement of Occam’s razor is, Entities should not be multiplied without necessity.

This is a simple and powerful statement: Explain a set of measurements with as few parameters, or entities, as possible. But the definition of necessity can change when the goals of a model or presentation change. The simple model used in Figures 1 and 2 tells us nothing about tomorrow’s weather or the rate of sea level rise or the rate of glacial melt. But for as long as the relationship serves to capture the role of CO 2 as an accurate index of changes in mean global temperature, it can serve the goal of making plain to general audiences that there are solid, undeniable scientific reasons why climate change is happening.

Getting the Message Across

When and if the simple relationship derived from Arrhenius’s calculations does fail as an accurate index of changes in mean global temperature, it will still provide a useful platform for explaining what has happened and why.

If we move toward an electrified economy and toward zero-carbon sources of electricity, the simple relationship derived from Arrhenius’s calculations will no longer serve that function. But when and if it does fail, it will still provide a useful platform for explaining what has happened and why. Perhaps there will be another, slightly more complex model for predicting and explaining climate change that involves three gases.

No matter how our climate future evolves, simpler and more accessible presentations of climate change science will always rely on and begin with our current understanding of the climate system. Complex, detailed models will be central to predicting our climate future (Figure 2 here would not be possible without them), but we will be more effective communicators if we can discern how best to simplify that complexity when presenting the essentials of climate science to general audiences.

Arrhenius, S. (1896), On the influence of carbonic acid in the air upon temperature of the ground, Philos. Mag. J. Sci. , Ser. 5 , 41 , 237–276, https://doi.org/10.1080/14786449608620846 .

Arrhenius, S. (1908), Worlds in the Making: The Evolution of the Universe , translated by H. Borns, 228 pp., Harper, New York.

Budyko, M. I. (1972), Man’s Impact on Climate [in Russian], Gidrometeoizdat, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Foote, E. (1856), Circumstances affecting the heat of the Sun’s rays,  Am. J. Sci. Arts ,  22 (66), 382–383,  ia800802.us.archive.org/4/items/mobot31753002152491/mobot31753002152491.pdf .

Gates, B. (2021), How to Avoid a Climate Disaster , 257 pp., Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

Hausfather, Z., et al. (2022), Climate simulations: Recognize the ‘hot model’ problem, Nature , 605 , 26–29, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01192-2 .

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2021), Summary for policymakers, in Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis—Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , edited by V. Masson-Delmotte et al., pp. 3–32, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U.K., and New York, https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM.pdf .

Loeb, N. G., et al. (2021), Satellite and ocean data reveal marked increase in Earth’s heating rate, Geophys. Res. Lett. , 48 (13), e2021GL093047, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL093047 .

McFadden, J. (2021), Life Is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe , 376 pp., Basic Books, New York.

Tyndall, J. (1859), Note on the transmission of radiant heat through gaseous bodies,  Proc. R. Soc. London ,  10 , 37–39,  https://www.jstor.org/stable/111604 . 

Tyndall, J. (1861), I. The Bakerian Lecture.—On the absorption and radiation of heat by gases and vapours, and on the physical connexion of radiation, absorption, and conduction, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London , 151 , https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1861.0001 .

Author Information

John Aber ( [email protected] ) and Scott V. Ollinger, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham

Update, 26 September 2022: This article has been updated to include the early contribution of Eunice Foote in the study of CO 2 and its effects on Earth’s climate.

Citation:  Aber, J., and S. V. Ollinger (2022), Simpler presentations of climate change,  Eos, 103, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EO220444 . Published on 13 September 2022.

Text © 2022. the authors.  cc by-nc-nd 3.0 except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited., features from agu publications, jupiter’s magnetosphere has a semi-open relationship with the solar wind, a powerful new model for u.s. climate–air quality interactions, reflecting on 5 years at the helm of jgr: planets.

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock Locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

What is Climate Change? PowerPoint Presentation

Publication date, pdf document.

• Northern Forests
• Northern Plains
• Southern Plains
• International
• Climate Literacy & Training
• Climate Solutions
• Climate Vulnerabilities
• Environmental Justice
• Partnering Agencies
• Tribal Nations
• Aquaculture
• Specialty Animals
• Carbon & Greenhouse Gases
• Climate Science
• Specialty Crops
• Field Crops
• Pests & Disease
• Saltwater Intrusion
• Education (K-12)
• Altered Precipitation
• Temperature
• Agroforestry
• Food Security
• Agriculture
• Seasonal Shifts
• Assessments
• Demonstrations
• Tribal Programs
• Research & Data

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

8 Ways To Teach Climate Change In Almost Any Classroom

Anya Kamenetz

NPR/Ipsos conducted a national poll recently and found that more than 8 in 10 teachers — and a similar majority of parents — support teaching kids about climate change.

But in reality, it's not always happening: Fewer than half of K-12 teachers told us that they talk about climate change with their children or students. Again, parents were about the same.

The top reason that teachers gave in our poll for not covering climate change? "It's not related to the subjects I teach," 65% said.

Most Teachers Don't Teach Climate Change; 4 In 5 Parents Wish They Did

Yet at the same time, we also heard from teachers and education organizations who are introducing the topic in subjects from social studies to math to English language arts, and at every grade level, from preschool on up.

That raises the question: Where does climate change belong in the curriculum, anyway?

The "reality of human-caused climate change" is mentioned in at least 36 state standards, according to an analysis done for NPR Ed by Glenn Branch, the deputy director at the National Center for Science Education. But it typically appears only briefly — and most likely just in earth science classes in middle and high school. And, Branch says, that doesn't even mean that every student in those states learns about it: Only two states require students to take earth or environmental science classes to graduate from high school.

Joseph Henderson teaches in the environmental studies department at Paul Smith's College in upstate New York. He studies how climate change is taught in schools and believes it needs to be taught across many subjects.

"For so long this has been seen as an issue that is solely within the domain of science," he says. "There needs to be a greater engagement across disciplines, particularly looking at the social dimensions," such as the displacement of populations by natural disasters.

Why Science Teachers Are Struggling With Climate Change

At the same time, there's a tension in pushing more educators to take this on. "I worry a lot about asking schools to solve yet another problem that society refuses to deal with."

As a potential response to this criticism, the nonprofit Ten Strands follows an "incremental infusion" model in California. In other words, environmental literacy becomes part of subjects and activities that are already in the curriculum instead of, the organization says, "burdening educators" with another stand-alone and complex area to cover.

We also heard from teachers who say they are searching for more ideas and resources to take on the topic of climate change. Here are some thoughts about how to broach the subject with students, no matter what subject you teach:

1. Do a lab.

Lab activities can be one of the most effective ways to show children how global warming works on an accessible scale.

Ellie Schaffer is a sixth-grader at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, D.C. In science class, she has done simulations on greenhouse effects, using plastic wrap to trap the sun's heat. And she has used charcoal to see how black carbon from air pollution can speed the melting of ice.

These lessons have raised her awareness — and concern. "We've ignored climate change for a long time and now it's getting to be, like, a real problem, so we've gotta do something."

Many teachers we talked with mentioned NASA as a resource for labs and activities. The ones in this outline can be done with everyday materials such as ice, tinfoil, plastic bottles, rubber, light bulbs and a thermometer.

Teaching Middle-Schoolers Climate Change Without Terrifying Them

On the Earth Science Week website, there's a list of activities and lesson plans aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. They range from simple to elaborate.

2. Show a movie.

Susan Fisher, a seventh-grade science teacher at South Woods Middle School in Syosset, N.Y., showed her students the 2016 documentary Before the Flood , featuring Leonardo DiCaprio journeying to five continents and the Arctic to see the effects of climate change. "It is our intention to make our students engaged citizens," Fisher says.

Before the Flood has an action page and an associated curriculum. Common Sense Media has a list of climate change-related movies for all ages.

The 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth and its 2017 sequel, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power, have curricular materials created in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation.

3. Assign a novel.

Rebecca Meyer is an eighth-grade English language arts teacher at Bronx Park Middle School in New York City.

She assigned her students a 2013 novel by Mindy McGinnis called Not a Drop to Drink .

"As we read the novel, kids made connections between what is happening today and the novel," Meyer says. "At the end of the unit, as a culminating project, students chose groups, researched current solutions for physical and economic water scarcity and created PSA videos using iMovie about the problem and how their solution could help to combat the issue."

Educators On A Hot Topic: Global Warming 101

She described the unit as a success. "They were very engaged; they loved it," she explains. "A lot of them shared this information with their families. When parents came in for parent-teacher conferences, they mentioned their kids had been talking to them about conserving water."

Not A Drop To Drink belongs to a subgenre of science fiction known as " cli-fi " (climate fiction) or sometimes eco-fiction. You can find lists of similar books at websites like Dragonfly.eco or at the Chicago Review of Books, which has a monthly Burning Worlds column about this kind of literature.

Looking for English topics for younger students? EL Education covers environmental topics, including water conservation and the impact of natural disasters, in its K-5 English language arts curriculum.

4. Do citizen science.

Terry Reed is the self-proclaimed "science guru" for seventh-graders at Prince David Kawananakoa Middle School in Honolulu. He has also spent a year sailing the Caribbean, and on his way, he collected water samples on behalf of a group called Adventure Scientists , to be tested for microplastics. (Spoiler: Even on remote, pristine beaches, all the samples had some.)

He has assigned his students to collect water samples from beaches near their homes to submit for the same project. He also has them take pictures of cloud formations and measure temperatures, to see changes in weather patterns over time. "One thing I stress to them, that in the next few years, they become the voting public," he says. "They need to be aware of the science."

5. Assign a research project, multimedia presentation or speech.

Gay Collins teaches public speaking at Waterford High School in Waterford, Conn. She is interested in "civil discourse" as a tool for problem-solving, so she encourages her students "to shape their speeches around critical topics, like the use of plastics, minimalism, and other environmental issues.

6. Talk about your personal experience.

Pamela Tarango teaches third grade at the Downtown Elementary School in Bakersfield, Calif. She tells her students about how the weather has changed there in her lifetime, getting hotter and drier: "In our Central Valley California city of Bakersfield, there has been a change in the winter climate. I told them about how, when I was growing up in the 1970s, we often had several two-and-three-hour delays to school starting because of dense tule fog, which affected visibility. We really never have those delays in the metropolitan area. It is only the outlying areas, which still have two-and-three-hour dense fog delays, and they are rare even for the rural areas."

(Although the Central Valley winter has indeed become hotter and drier because of climate change, recently a University of California, Berkeley study has attributed the reduction in tule fog specifically to declines in air pollution.)

7. Do a service project.

"I teach preschoolers and use the environment and our natural resources to highlight our everyday life," says Mercy Peña-Alevizos, who teaches at Holy Trinity Academy in Phoenix. "I stress the importance of appreciation and eliminating waste. My students understand and have fantastic ideas. We recycle and pick up around our neighborhood."

Environment And Energy Collaborative

Skipping school around the world to push for action on climate change.

Environmental service projects can be simple, elaborate or just for fun. Check out the #trashtag challenge on social media, for example.

8. Start or work in a school garden.

Mairs Ryan teaches science at St. Gregory the Great Catholic School in San Diego. "The sixth-graders oversee the school garden, as well as our vermin composting bin, christened the 'Worm Hotel'. The garden is their lab and the students 'live and learn' soil carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture. Our school's compost bin is evidence that alternatives exist to methane-producing landfills. In looking for more solutions to reduce methane, students debate food reuse practices around the world."

Check out ThePermacultureStudent.com for resources on building school gardens with rainwater capture and compost systems to regenerate the soil. There are local and regional resources such as the Collective School Garden Network in California and Growing Minds in North Carolina, which offer basic plans for a school garden as well as lesson plans that connect gardening to Common Core standards.

Here are some more resources

After the publication of our climate poll story on Monday, we heard from people all over the country with dozens more resources for climate education.

Alliance for Climate Education has a multimedia resource called Our Climate Our Future , plus more resources for educators and several action programs for youth.

The American Association of Geographers has free online professional development resources for teachers.

American Reading Co. sells an English Language Arts curriculum called ARCCore that includes climate change themes.

Biointeractive, created by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has hundreds of free online education resources, including many on education and the environment , and it offers professional development for teachers.

Climate Generation offers professional development for educators nationwide and a youth network in Minnesota.

CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network) has a collection of resources organized in part by the Next Generation Science Standard it is aligned with.

Global Oneness Project offers lesson plans that come with films and videos of climate impacts around the world.

Google offers free online environmental sustainability lesson plans for grades 5-8.

The Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility has a group of 19 lessons for K-12.

"We believe that the social and emotional skills we help strengthen in young people and adults are sorely needed to combat the fear and avoidance we and students experience around climate change," spokesperson Laura McClure told NPR.

The National Center for Science Education has free climate change lessons that focus on combating misinformation. They also have a "scientist in the classroom" program.

The National Science Teachers Association has a comprehensive curriculum .

The Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, N.Y., has a book called the Teacher-Friendly Guide to Climate Change.

Ripple Effect "creates STEM curriculum" for K-6 "about real people and places impacted by climate change," starting with New Orleans.

Ten Strands offers professional learning to educators in California in partnership with the state's recycling authority and an outdoor-education program, among others.

Think Earth offers 9 environmental education units from preschool through middle school.

The Zinn Education Project (based on the work of Howard Zinn, the author of A People's History Of The United States) has launched a group of 18 lessons aimed specifically at climate justice. Some are drawn from this book: A People's Curriculum For The Earth: Teaching Climate Change And The Environmental Crisis .

MIT Global Change

Search form.

‘Invisible 60 percent’ of Africa’s population threatened by climate change-amplified droughts

• Skip to global NPS navigation
• Skip to this park navigation
• Skip to the main content
• Skip to this park information section
• Skip to the footer section

Exiting nps.gov

Alerts in effect, climate change: multimedia presentations.

Last updated: April 23, 2020

Park footer

Contact info, mailing address:.

1 Bear Valley Road Point Reyes Station, CA 94956

415-464-5100 This number will initially be answered by an automated attendant, from which one can opt to access a name directory, listen to recorded information about the park (e.g., directions to the park; visitor center hours of operation; fire danger information; wildlife updates; ranger-led programs; seasonal events; etc.), or speak with a ranger. Please note that if you are calling between 4:30 pm and 10 am, park staff may not be available to answer your call.

Stay Connected

What Is Climate Change?

Climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates. These changes have a broad range of observed effects that are synonymous with the term.

Changes observed in Earth’s climate since the mid-20th century are driven by human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, raising Earth’s average surface temperature. Natural processes, which have been overwhelmed by human activities, can also contribute to climate change, including internal variability (e.g., cyclical ocean patterns like El Niño, La Niña and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation) and external forcings (e.g., volcanic activity, changes in the Sun’s energy output , variations in Earth’s orbit ).

Scientists use observations from the ground, air, and space, along with computer models , to monitor and study past, present, and future climate change. Climate data records provide evidence of climate change key indicators, such as global land and ocean temperature increases; rising sea levels; ice loss at Earth’s poles and in mountain glaciers; frequency and severity changes in extreme weather such as hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and precipitation; and cloud and vegetation cover changes.

“Climate change” and “global warming” are often used interchangeably but have distinct meanings. Similarly, the terms "weather" and "climate" are sometimes confused, though they refer to events with broadly different spatial- and timescales.

What Is Global Warming?

Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s surface observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. This term is not interchangeable with the term "climate change."

Since the pre-industrial period, human activities are estimated to have increased Earth’s global average temperature by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), a number that is currently increasing by more than 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade. The current warming trend is unequivocally the result of human activity since the 1950s and is proceeding at an unprecedented rate over millennia.

Weather vs. Climate

“if you don’t like the weather in new england, just wait a few minutes.” - mark twain.

Weather refers to atmospheric conditions that occur locally over short periods of time—from minutes to hours or days. Familiar examples include rain, snow, clouds, winds, floods, or thunderstorms.

Climate, on the other hand, refers to the long-term (usually at least 30 years) regional or even global average of temperature, humidity, and rainfall patterns over seasons, years, or decades.

Find Out More: A Guide to NASA’s Global Climate Change Website

This website provides a high-level overview of some of the known causes, effects and indications of global climate change:

Evidence. Brief descriptions of some of the key scientific observations that our planet is undergoing abrupt climate change.

Causes. A concise discussion of the primary climate change causes on our planet.

Effects. A look at some of the likely future effects of climate change, including U.S. regional effects.

Vital Signs. Graphs and animated time series showing real-time climate change data, including atmospheric carbon dioxide, global temperature, sea ice extent, and ice sheet volume.

Earth Minute. This fun video series explains various Earth science topics, including some climate change topics.

Other NASA Resources

Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio. An extensive collection of animated climate change and Earth science visualizations.

Sea Level Change Portal. NASA's portal for an in-depth look at the science behind sea level change.

NASA’s Earth Observatory. Satellite imagery, feature articles and scientific information about our home planet, with a focus on Earth’s climate and environmental change.

Header image is of Apusiaajik Glacier, and was taken near Kulusuk, Greenland, on Aug. 26, 2018, during NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) field operations. Learn more here . Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Discover More Topics From NASA

Explore Earth Science

Earth Science in Action

Earth Science Data

Facts About Earth

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Timeline: Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore born March 31 in Washington DC.

Gore enrols at Harvard. Bored with his English major, he discovers a passion for politics and later graduates with honours in 1969. He also becomes interested in the topic of global warming after taking a course with Professor Roger Revelle, one of the first scientists to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Gore quits law school in March 1976 to run for the House of Representatives. He wins a Congress seat and is then re-elected three times, in 1978, 1980, and 1982.

Gore holds first congressional hearings on the climate change, and co-sponsors hearings on toxic waste and global warming.

Gore successfully runs for a seat in the United States Senate, where he serves as a senator for Tennessee.

Gore runs for president, but fails to obtain the Democratic nomination. While spending time with his son, who is recovering from a near-fatal car accident, Gore begins to write a book on environmental conservation.

Bill Clinton chooses Gore to be his running mate for the 1992 United States presidential election.

Gore's book, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, is published.

After a successful election campaign, Gore is inaugurated as the 45th vice-president of the United States.

As vice-president, he pushes for the implementation of a carbon tax to modify incentives to reduce fossil fuel consumption, which is partially implemented.

On Earth Day, Gore launches the Globe programme, an education and science activity that uses the internet to increase student awareness of their environment.

Clinton and Gore are re-elected for a second term in the 1996 election.

Gore helps broker the Kyoto protocol and pushes for the passage of the treaty, which calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. He is opposed by the Senate, which unanimously passes a resolution stating that the US should not be a signatory to any protocol that does not include binding targets and timetables for developing as well as industrialised nations or "would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States".

The refusal to sign is symbolic, as the protocol is non-binding unless it is ratified by the United States.

Gore symbolically signs the Kyoto protocol.

After two terms as vice-president, Gore runs for president, losing controversial election to George Bush. He wins popular vote but loses electoral vote.

Gore announces he will not stand as presidential candidate in 2004 elections. He criticises Bush for the war in Iraq.

Gore returns his focus to the problem of climate change. He edits and adapts a slideshow he had compiled years earlier, and begins to tour it as a multimedia presentation around the US and worldwide.

Gore launches the company Generation Investment Management, which aims to blend traditional equity research with sustainability issues.

After the premiere of the film The Day After Tomorrow in New York, film producers Laurie David and Lawrence Bender see Gore's slideshow presentation. Inspired, they meet with director Davis Guggenheim about the possibility of making the slideshow into a movie. Through sceptical at first, Guggenheim agrees after seeing the presentation.

An Inconvenient Truth is released in May.

In the film, Gore reviews scientific opinion on climate change, discusses the politics and economics of global warming, and describes the consequences of global climate change if the amount of human-generated greenhouse gases is not significantly reduced. Using Antarctic ice core samples, he examines the annual temperature and CO2 levels for the past 650,000 years.

The film includes many segments intended to silence critics who say that global warming is unproven.

Gore states that he will devote 100% of the profits to a new campaign to further spread the message about global warming. The makers of the film, Paramount, commit 5% of their profits for the film to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

On a bank holiday weekend in the United States, the film grosses an average of $91,447 (£45,097) per theatre - the highest amount for any film released that weekend, and a record for a documentary.

Figures released in June 2007 showed that the film had grossed over $24m(£11.8m) in the US and over $49m (£24.1m) worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing documentary in America after Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and Sicko.

Later that month, the film is screened at the Cannes film festival.

January 2007

An Inconvenient Truth receives standing ovations at the Sundance film festival in Utah.

February 2007

An Inconvenient Truth wins the Oscar for best documentary, and the Sir David Attenborough award for excellence in nature filmmaking.

During global warming awareness month, Gore and Virgin boss Richard Branson announce the Virgin Earth challenge, a competition offering a $25m (£12.3m) prize for the first person or organisation to produce a viable design that results in the removal of atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Gore hosts an event in Cambridge for power players from business, media and sport. He makes his slideshow presentation and teaches them how to make the case for action on climate change in their industries.

Gore testifies about global warming during a hearing held by the Congress committee on energy and commerce.

The Scottish executive announces plans to screen Gore's documentary as part of its geography curriculum.

Gore backs campaign to switch off London's lights for one night in mass carbon saving event.

Gore organises Live Earth, a seven-continent, 24-hour sequence of concerts taking place in London, Sydney, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg and New York to raise global awareness on climate change.

October 2007

Al Gore wins Nobel peace prize.

An Inconvenient Truth is criticised by a high court judge who highlights what he says are "nine scientific errors" in the film.

December 2007

Gore speaks at the UN climate conference in Bali, attacking Bush's position and urging ambitious plans despite the US refusal to compromise, saying that the US position will change when a new administration takes over.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) launches an advertising campaign claiming that Al Gore's Tennessee home uses 20 times the energy of the average American household. A spokeswoman for Mr Gore says that this claim is based on old data, prior to major renovations on his home being completed.

Gore, through the Alliance for Climate Protection, launches a three year, $300 million campaign which aims to mobilise millions of Americans to force politicians to implement aggressive reductions in emissions.

La Scala in Milan announces it has commissioned a full-length opera based on An Inconvenient Truth, to be staged in 2011.

Gore endorses Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate.

Gore calls on the US to produce all its energy from zero-carbon sources within 10 years, saying that the future of human civilisation is at stake.

September 2008

At the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York, Gore calls for direct action, saying he believes 'we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants'.

December 2008

Speaking at the UN climate change conference in Poznan, Poland, Gore says people have become too obsessed with celebrities such as Paris Hilton, O J Simpson and Anna Nicole Smith, preventing people from focussing on the crisis of climate change.

January 2009

Gore testifies to the Senate foreign relations committee about the dangers of global warming, two days after President Obama vows to put the US at the forefront of the battle against climate change.

In an interview with the Guardian , Gore says he believes that following the election of Obama a 'political tipping point' has been reached and there is now enough political momentum to tackle the challenge of global warming.

• Environment
• Climate crisis

Most viewed