This article by author Gaia Vince makes interesting projections about where massive populations of people will need to move and migrate to as the planet warms.
Students will learn about the places on Earth that are becoming less habitable and the many places that may be able to welcome climate migrants as temperatures rise.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This article paints an alarming picture that will surely engage students in a lively discussion.
The article, while jarring, lays out many places that will flourish as temperatures rise.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should understand how rising temperatures will impacts environments around the world.
Differentiation
Cross-curricular connections can be made in science classes discussing climate change and the greenhouse effect.
This article would pair well with a world map, where students can place post-its on the parts of the map that include notes from the text. After reading, students can analyze the notes and discuss trends that they see globally.
Social studies classes can use this article to connect to lessons about global networks and governing bodies, international agreements, immigration policies, and the economic impacts of climate migration for countries losing or gaining population.
Scientist Notes
The resource lays emphasis on how climate change is putting humans at risk, presenting unsafe conditions and options for migration. It appraises regions that are likely to be the worst hit from extreme conditions and areas likely to benefit from climate shifts. For instance, Russia is likely to benefit the most from increasing temperatures while tropical, polar, and arid regions are likely to be adversely impacted by climate change. Where adaptation options are finally exhausted, humans and other living things from islands, vulnerable areas, and coastal communities will tend to move inland and to safe places (and population density will likely increase there). This resource is in-depth and is recommended for teaching.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.14.9-12 Analyze historical, contemporary, and emerging means of changing societies, promoting the common good, and protecting rights.
D2.Civ.5.9-12 Evaluate citizens' and institutions' effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.11.9-12 Use economic indicators to analyze the current and future state of the economy.
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.10.9-12 Evaluate how changes in the environmental and cultural characteristics of a place or region influence spatial patterns of trade and land use.
D2.Geo.4.9-12 Analyze relationships and interactions within and between human and physical systems to explain reciprocal influences that occur among them.
D2.Geo.9.9-12 Evaluate the influence of long-term climate variability on human migration and settlement patterns, resource use, and land uses at local-to-global scales.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Informational Text (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.10 By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
