This resource provides information about a Project Drawdown program that aims to increase well-being and reduce poverty by supporting the climate solutions that do both.
The resource includes text and a video about the program, the Lift Advisory Council Members, and links to numerous related resources.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students can learn about the program through both text and video.
There are links to videos, webinars, podcasts, articles, and other Project Drawdown publications that students can explore to learn more.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with the causes, effects, and solutions to climate change.
The Project Drawdown Climate-Poverty Connections Report details the specific solutions that both lessen climate change and poverty.
Differentiation
Students can discuss the issues of injustice that connect climate change and poverty, such as the disproportionate impact climate change has on people living in extreme poverty, even though they contribute very little to global emissions.
Economics classes can research methods for low-carbon economic growth and the financial barriers to implementation.
Geography classes can explore the regions of interest for this initiative, Africa and South Asia, and discuss the specific challenges of these areas and why they were targeted.
Civics classes can discuss how developed countries can best support developing countries in supporting equality, reducing poverty, and slowing climate change.
Scientist Notes
This webpage introduces Project Drawdown’s Drawdown Lift program. The page goes through the purpose, strategies, the advisory council, media, and introduces the connection between climate and poverty. The purpose of this program is to share information and evidence about at least 28 climate solutions that also improve overall human well-being, particularly in rural communities in Africa and South Asia. The program works with "researchers, practitioners, and change-makers." The webpage includes links to various publications and media, including webinars, podcasts, radio segments, and articles covering a variety of topics related to climate change and poverty. The page is updated regularly with new media. Because of this not all linked articles and media have been reviewed by us, however the program overall, many of their connected projects, and Project Drawdown in general have been reviewed. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.6.9-12 Critique relationships among governments, civil societies, and economic markets.
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.5.9-12 Evaluate how political and economic decisions throughout time have influenced cultural and environmental characteristics of various places and regions.
D2.Geo.8.9-12 Evaluate the impact of economic activities and political decisions on spatial patterns within and among urban, suburban, and rural regions.
Dimension 4: Taking Informed Action
D4.6.9-12 Use disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses to understand the characteristics and causes of local, regional, and global problems; instances of such problems in multiple contexts; and challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address these problems over time and place.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.3 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
