This video explores how climate change impacts global food production, how continued climate change will impact certain regions more than others, and how NASA is using satellites to monitor changes in the Earth's climate.
Students will learn that agricultural systems can be harmed if temperatures become too high, developing countries near the equator are especially vulnerable to climate change, and NASA satellites provide free data that can help farmers adjust to climate change.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This video illustrates where most global food production comes from.
This video can be downloaded as a MP4 file.
Additional Prerequisites
It may be helpful if students already have an intermediate understanding of climate change.
It may be beneficial if students already know what a developing country is.
Differentiation
Students can watch this video at home to prepare for an in-class discussion on global environmental injustice.
Students can use this video for a research project on the economic impacts of climate change.
This video can support a lesson on climate change adaptation strategies for the agricultural sector.
This video can augment a classroom discussion about the connection between family planning and greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientist Notes
This video resource from NASA is an introduction to how climate change affects agriculture. NASA scientists do a good job of explaining how climate impacts will vary geographically and how increasing population puts another strain on global food supply. This video is clear and accessible, but it only provides a brief introduction to the issue and is devoid of any hard data. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
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.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.10.6-8 Analyze the ways in which cultural and environmental characteristics vary among various regions of the world.
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.
