MCAN! Climate Change 101

• This short article explains the difference between climate and weather, defines climate change and global warming, and provides the evidence of recent warming and more information about the impacts of climate change in Maine.
• Through the article and 2020 report, students will learn that fossil fuel emissions are driving global climate change, precipitation is becoming more frequent and severe in Maine, and the Gulf of Maine's chemistry and temperature is changing.

Positives

• The article's graph on increasing global temperatures is from NASA and there are interactive vocabulary words highlighted in the text with definitions.
• The report is well-cited and provides future scenarios to consider.
  

Additional Prerequisites

• Students should understand the connection between combustion engines and fossil fuel emissions.
• Students should know how to read charts and graphs.
  

Differentiation

• This article or report could enhance a lesson about economic incentives, externalities, and the costs of not addressing climate change.
• This could augment a classroom discussion on walkable cities, how they could lower fossil fuel emissions and pollution, what these lower emissions would mean for the environment, and how citizens could pressure their governments to make cities more walkable.
• This is a great refresher or introduction to climate change and could accompany a lesson about the origins of greenhouse gas emissions or the activities most responsible for emitting them.
• The report could support a lesson about the risks of climate change to human and natural systems.