This report summarizes the food waste problem, evaluates the potential impact of reducing food waste in the coming decades, and quantifies the reduction in carbon emissions that could be achieved.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This article is succinct and provides information about secondary impacts (like deforestation) that are relevant to this issue.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with the terms Gigatons, sequester, and CO2eq.
Differentiation
There are a number of related climate change solutions linked at the bottom of the page for further exploration.
Students can monitor and record the food waste in their household over a week and explore methods to reduce this waste.
Cross-curricular connections could be made with social studies and geography when discussing the different reasons for food waste in different countries.
Scientist Notes
Food waste is an environmental problem worsening the impact of climate change. This resource gives valid explanation of the correlation of food waste to climate change. Recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-3 Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
HS-ESS3-3 Create a computational simulation to illustrate the relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversity.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-7 Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.10 By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.10 By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.