This short video explains what is causing climate change and the consequences of global warming.
Students will learn that greenhouse gas emissions have caused the Earth to warm at an unprecedented rate, endangering species that cannot adapt quickly enough to the changing environment.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The video is short and engaging.
This resource explains the fundamental causes of global warming in an easy way.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have some familiarity with greenhouse gases.
This is a simple explanation of greenhouse gases, so it only includes carbon dioxide and methane as examples. Other greenhouse gases include water vapor, nitrous oxide, and halocarbons.
Differentiation
After watching the video, students could discuss how and why the recent rise in global temperatures is different from historical changes in Earth's climate.
Biology classes could use this video in a lesson on evolution. The video explains that climate change is happening too rapidly for species to adapt. Students could write a paragraph explaining why species cannot evolve quickly enough to survive climate change.
Other resources on this topic include this StC lesson plan on climate change solutions, this media literacy activity on climate change and biodiversity, and this article about species that are confused by climate change.
Scientist Notes
The resource explains the greenhouse effect and the need to limit CO2 emissions from sources to combat climate change. The data presented in the video is unbiased. The resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
HS-ESS3-5 Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-6 Evaluate the claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms in stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
