This video from Rutgers Climate Institute outlines the ways that farmers, specifically in New Jersey, will be impacted by unpredictable weather events as a result of climate change.
Teaching Tips
Positives
It is brief, while able to make a convincing argument that climate change will impact our agricultural systems and the ability to rely on certain staple foods.
Although it is focused specifically on agriculture in New Jersey, the content can be applied to agriculture globally.
Additional Prerequisites
The content of the video ends at 2 minutes, 26 seconds and the remaining time is the credits.
Students should understand why agriculture is dependent on predictable weather patterns, and how rising global temperatures lead to unpredictable weather patterns.
Students can use the resource, The Effects of Climate Change, to determine how farmers will specifically be impacted by climate effects.
Economics classes can evaluate how the economics of agriculture and our food systems will have to adapt to the changes in weather patterns.
Science classes can use this video and this other related resource for lessons about the water cycle, which is altered by the increase in global temperatures.
Scientist Notes
The video presents the uncertainties posed by climate change on agricultural production. Shifts in climate can cause extreme weather events, short-term droughts, unpredictable rainfall, violent storms, etc. It makes planting more difficult as farmers are no longer able to predict planting seasons using their indigenous knowledge and intuition. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.2.6-8 Evaluate alternative approaches or solutions to current economic issues in terms of benefits and costs for different groups and society as a whole.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
