This video defines environmental tipping points and then discusses the potentially catastrophic dangers of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and permafrost melting in the Arctic.
Teaching Tips
Positives
It speaks to the catastrophic urgency of the climate crisis without sounding hyperbolic.
It uses metaphors that are easy for students to visualize. For example, the video uses the tabletop game Jenga as a metaphor for one of the Earth's tipping points.
Additional Prerequisites
This video cites capitalism as one of the causes of the climate crisis.
It has an ad at the beginning of the video.
The content of the video ends at 9:56 and the remaining time is a sponsored ad and outro.
Differentiation
Teachers can skip around to relevant material because the video is sectioned into chapters about tipping points, Amazon deforestation, Arctic permafrost melt, and prevention.
Students can do independent research on the other tipping points mentioned in the video that are not discussed in detail.
Students can do independent research on the prevention ideas and movements mentioned in the last chapter including ecosocialism, Indigenous sovereignty, solar punk, and red new deal.
The resource provides the latest report on human-caused climate change and presents the cascading impact of human activities. Data on the level of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest and melting ice in the Arctic region and Siberia are accurate. The resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS2: Earth's Systems
HS-ESS2-2 Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-2 Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
MS-ESS3-5 Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
HS-ESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity.
