This article examines the impact of family planning and inclusive education on climate change, human population projections, and emission disparities between high-income and low/middle-income countries.
Students will learn that inclusive education and family planning lead to slower population growth and less carbon emissions.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This article recognizes that past conversations about human population growth have been marred by racism and classism.
This article also discusses the historical emissions of the entire African continent.
Additional Prerequisites
It may be helpful if students have an intermediate understanding of voluntary family planning and existing gender inequality.
Students should understand the causes and impacts of climate change.
Some students may need the terms family planning, emissions, autonomy, and others defined before reading the article.
Differentiation
Students can use this article for an informative essay on how gender-inclusive education leads to social, economic, and environmental benefits.
Students can read this article at home to prepare for an in-class discussion on reproductive health in the United States and abroad.
This article can support a unit on gender inequality throughout human history and why this inequality still exists today.
This resource from Project Drawdown discusses the role of family planning and education in mitigating the climate crisis. Changes in these sectors could also help to improve health outcomes, increase gender equality, slow population growth, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For instance, more access to family planning and education can potentially reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 70 gigatons between 2020 and 2050. This article is well-sourced and is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
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.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.11.9-12 Evaluate how economic globalization and the expanding use of scarce resources contribute to conflict and cooperation within and among countries.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.10 By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.8 Evaluate the hypotheses, data, analysis, and conclusions in a science or technical text, verifying the data when possible and corroborating or challenging conclusions with other sources of information.
National Health Education Standards
Standard 1: Students will comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention to enhance health.
1.12.3 Analyze how environment and personal health are interrelated.
1.12.6 Analyze the relationship between access to health care and health status.
