{"id":7607,"date":"2019-12-09T07:47:43","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T07:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7607"},"modified":"2019-12-09T07:47:43","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T07:47:43","slug":"what-should-young-people-be-learning-about-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2019\/12\/09\/what-should-young-people-be-learning-about-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"What should young people be learning about climate change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spend time exploring this question in my talk in Birmingham last week. \u00a0It is, after all, the question that young people are asking and demanding action on. \u00a0More broadly, the question might sensibly be:\u00a0What should everyone be learning about climate, as it's a question that has salience well beyond schools. \u00a0This is the outline of what I said:<\/p>\n

There are 4 necessary focuses\u00a0on climate change:<\/p>\n

1. What is climate?<\/div>\n
2. Evidence for global heating and the changing climate<\/div>\n
3. Looking ahead\u00a0what might happen?<\/div>\n
4. What can we do?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
1. What is climate?<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Topics to cover include:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
    \n
  • what is it?<\/li>\n
  • how is it different to weather?<\/li>\n
  • what determines it?<\/li>\n
  • how and why does it vary from place to place?<\/li>\n
  • how and why does it change over time?<\/li>\n
  • natural cycles<\/li>\n
  • what timescales are involved? \u00a0etc<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    Most of this is straightforward and is taught in schools now, though not necessarily in the context of a changing climate. \u00a0There are a lot of curriculum resources available.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    \n
    2. Evidence for global heating and the changing climate<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    Topics to cover include:<\/div>\n
    \n
      \n
    • the greenhouse effect \/ global heating<\/li>\n
    • global temperature measurements over time<\/li>\n
    • natural climate cycles<\/li>\n
    • changes to CO2 levels in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution<\/li>\n
    • rising sea levels etc<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
      This is less straightforward and not all of it is taught to all students. \u00a0DfE encourages schools to cover these topics if they want to. \u00a0There are resources galore.<\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n
      \n
      3. Looking ahead\u00a0what might happen?<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
      <\/div>\n
      Topics to cover include:<\/div>\n
      \n
        \n
      • IPCC extrapolations<\/li>\n
      • +1.5 \/ 2.0 \/ 3.0 degrees?<\/li>\n
      • ice sheets melt<\/li>\n
      • sea levels rise<\/li>\n
      • permafrosts melt<\/li>\n
      • positive feedback loops<\/li>\n
      • runaway CO2 rise<\/li>\n
      • desertification<\/li>\n
      • species loss \/migration<\/li>\n
      • economic collapse<\/li>\n
      • war \/ famine \/ disease<\/li>\n
      • mass migration of people etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        This is much more complicated largely because it concerns what if questions, extrapolations, and speculations. \u00a0Very little of this is taught in any systematic or coherent way<\/div>\n
        <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
        \n
        4. What can we do?<\/strong><\/div>\n
        <\/div>\n
        Topics to cover might include:<\/div>\n
        \n
          \n
        • lead by example: repent for our past carbon sins<\/li>\n
        • net zero-carbon emissions by 2050\u00a0 2040\u00a0 2030\u00a0 2025?<\/li>\n
        • shall we become vegan?<\/li>\n
        • support other countries to go green<\/li>\n
        • adopt the Green New Deal at home<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          This is the most complex of all because it concerns political issues and values.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          I spend time exploring this question in my talk in Birmingham last week. \u00a0It is, after all, the question that young people are asking and demanding action on. \u00a0More broadly, the question might sensibly be:\u00a0What should everyone be learning about...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}