13. Provide support for students as they work by pausing the video, rewinding, and modeling how to answer the questions as needed. (Answer: Students may notice some types of events seem to be grouped in certain parts of the country.) Climate change and ecosystem degradation place new demands on disaster risk reduction approaches. 1145 17th Street NW Now scientists are increasingly looking at the role climate change is playing in specific disaster events. First, land cover--as shaped by land use practices--affects the global concentration of greenhouse gases. Ask: What general trend do you see? I f one uses the example of g lobal climate change and the disaster agents, e.g. Climate change often exacerbates disasters. The economic value of coastal areas within 500 metre from the European seas totals between €500-1,000 billion. Information, Media, and Technology Skills, Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information, Tech Setup: 1 computer per small group, Projector, Speakers. Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, USA : Cambridge University Press. Download here your action plan against climate change! 14. 2015. Climate change is already causing impacts on human and natural systems in Canada and around the world. Resilience is therefore a predominant concern. This activity targets the following skills: The resources are also available at the top of the page. Climate change will affect certain groups more than others, particularly groups located in vulnerable areas and the poor, young, old, or sick. Ask: Assess student understanding by reviewing their work on the Analyzing a Natural Disaster Event handout that they completed about Hurricane Harvey. Keep track of any such linkages over the course of the year. 1. The two most well known consequences of climate change are an increase in global-mean temperature and a rise in sea level. Facts about the Climate Emergency The Climate Emergency we currently face requires adequate and immediate action. Tell students they are going to focus on two extreme weather-related disaster events and look for evidence that climate change played a role. Sustainability Policy | Is there a consensus about the role of climate change in the extreme flooding from Hurricane Harvey? Global temperature shows an increase of about 0.8 degrees Celsius over the 65-years from 1948 to 2013. The change in global average temperature (in black) is calculated from Hadley Centre’s sea surface temperature records and the Climate Research Unit’s land surface air temperature records version 4 (HadCRUTv4) dataset, while the change in Canadian average temperatures (in blue) is calculated from the Canadian Gridded Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies (CANGRD) dataset. uncontrolled fire that happens in a rural or sparsely populated area. Ask students: What are some factors that may explain this general trend? They analyze how climate change affected the 2017 California wildfires and the … The main greenhouse gases are water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane. Natural Disasters and Climate Change Natural Disasters and Climate Change Students use maps and graphs to understand how the frequency of billion-dollar natural disaster events has changed over time. Figure 1.1: Polar bears walking on melting ice. Coastal areas are often most heavily impacted by the damaging winds, rains, and storm surges as the storm collides with or brushes land. Climate change, heavy rains, and increased temperatures are linked with the increased transmission of vector and waterborne diseases like malaria, dengue, and diarrhea (who). The link between land use and the climate is complex. This is why the presence of these gases is crucial for life on Earth. Some useful websites are listed in the Resources for Further Exploration section. 'It can get hotter or wetter on average or have more concentrated rain in a short period, but then get longer dry periods. 1.4 The resilience and adaptive capacity of all types of forests to natural disasters and the impact of climate change is significantly strengthened worldwide. Hurricane Iota: at least six killed and 60,000 evacuated in Nicaragua Read more This can all be contributed to climate change. From 1948 to 2016 the global average temperature increased by approximately 0.8°C. It is one of the most pervasive and threatening crises of our time. Addressing these underlying risk drivers will reduce … Code of Ethics. This means that there will also be changes in extreme conditions. Once students have identified that trend, challenge them by asking how that could be true, since there were more events in 1989 than there were in 2014. Ask students what variables are shown on the x and y axes of the graph (x is months and y is the number of events). In addition to property damage, floods, on average, kill more people than tornadoes, hurricanes, or lightning strikes in the United States each year. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Additionally, use the final discussion to identify and correct any misconceptions. Categories three to five are considered a major storm. Linkages between certain extreme weather events and climate change can increasingly be made while the weather event is relatively recent, which can help to highlight the need for climate change mitigation. Terms of Service | Watch a video about the 2017 California wildfires. Climate change adaptation is about preparing for the current and future impacts of climate change. 1.4 The resilience and adaptive capacity of all types of forests to natural disasters and the impact of climate change is significantly strengthened worldwide. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Figure 1 : Change in global and Canadian average temperature relative to the 1961-1990 reference period. … Hurricanes are the same thing as typhoons, but usually located in the Atlantic Ocean region. After students have completed the worksheet while watching Climate change is part of California’s perfect recipe for intense wildfire, distribute another copy of the worksheet to each group. Disaster losses are likely to increase into the foreseeable future as a result of drivers of change, including: climate change; critical infrastructure interdependence; and shifting demographics in Canada. Credit: The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. We are facing an existential threat and rapid prioritization of attention and action is necessary. The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests. Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. The projections of future climate patterns are largely based on computer-based models of the climate system that incorporate the important factors and processes of the atmosphere and the oceans, including the expected growth in greenhouse gases from various socio-economic scenarios for the coming decades. , fossil fuels, the line between the third and fourth type can be very fine. Adaptation also involves taking advantage of opportunities from climate change. Climate change mitigation is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Why or why not? Ozone depletion and climate change have usually been thought of as environmental issues with little in common other than their global scope. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The purpose of this guidance note is to explore how coherence of the post-2015 global frameworks - especially the Sustainable Development Agenda, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change - may be pursued in practice in Asia-Pacific countries. Increasing sea level (1,7 mm/year) changes the shape of coastlines, contributes to coastal erosion and leads to flooding and more underground salt-water intrusion. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. National Geographic Headquarters Climate models provide a glimpse of the future, and while they do not agree on all of the details, most models predict a few general trends. The primary components of sea-level rise are thermal expansion and the melting of small (continental) glaciers. As a result, more countries are acting on the imperative to implement national and local disaster risk reduction strategies. Despite a small amount of uncertainty, scientists find climate models … Do people leave or move out of the areas after major natural disasters? Climate change is starting to be factored into a variety of development plans: how to manage the increasingly extreme disasters we are seeing and their … Sadly, climate change is only one – albeit a whopper – of the countless market failures that degrade our lives. This includes describing the range of conditions that are possible. The evidence is clear: the global climate and Canada's climate are changing, Canada's Changing Climate Report: Understanding Observed Global Climate Change, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report: The Physical Science Basis, Canada in a changing climate: sector perspectives on impacts and adaptation, Climate Risks & Adaptation Practices for the Canadian Transportation Sector 2016, Canada's Marine Coasts in a Changing Climate, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, adapting to the effects of climate change, Take action to respond to climate impacts, Adaptation primers (Canadian Society of Landscape Architects), Climate data and scenarios: synthesis of recent observation and modelling results, Frequently asked questions about climate change, Climate change and public health fact sheets. Climate change is expected to affect every country in the world, but its impact will not be felt equally across all regions. Its effects include higher temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, rising sea levels and more frequent extreme weather events. When you reach out to him or her, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. It is one of the most pervasive and threatening crises of our time. Most important, the market doesn’t generate the public goods sometimes known as “ecosystem services”, such as nutrient cycling, soil formation, oxygen creation and a livable climate. Climate change is a direct threat to a child’s ability to survive, grow, and thrive. 2. Learn more about floods with these resources. [2] But globally, greenhouse gases have increased since then, bringing humanity very close to the dangerous levels of global warming that were predicted. They should navigate to the website on their own devices and write the answers to the following questions on a piece of scrap paper: Walk around and check students’ answers and address any problems with understanding. The basics of climate change, disasters and displacement. Point out that the costs of these disasters are calculated by considering property and infrastructure damage and business interruption. Washington, DC 20036, National Geographic Society is a 501 (c)(3) organization. As a class, determine a working definition of the term natural disaster. Dramatic and unprecedented natural disasters have had little effect on the public. Regardless of why the climate is changing, emergency managers have to be poised to … The sun’s energy warms the Earth and the warmed Earth releases heat to the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases absorb heat and radiate some of it back to the Earth, raising surface temperatures. The greenhouse effect, however, is a natural phenomenon that can be described as the capacity of the atmosphere of absorbing and retaining sun rays’ humidity and warmth. Climate change is expected to hit developing countries the hardest. In Canada, temperature has increased about 1.7 degrees Celsius over the 65-years from 1948 to 2013. Water [3] As scientific evidence abou… Climate change, the periodic modification of Earth’s climate caused by atmospheric changes and the atmosphere’s interactions with geologic, chemical, biological, and geographic factors. The impact will be heavy. Ask students to give you examples of natural disasters, including floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, wildfires, tornadoes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, snowstorms, and severe thunderstorms. The Climate Emergency we currently face requires adequate and immediate action. Research to see if scientists are able to link the events to climate change. To understand climate change, we first need to understand the difference between weather and climate. Cassandra Love, Educator and Curriculum Developer, Alexandra M. Silva, Science Educator, Peter Gruber International Academy, Virgin Islands 9-12 International Baccalaureate MYP Science, DP Biology, and DP Environmental Systems & Societies MEd Instructional Leadership: Science Education; MS Ecology & Evolution, Deirdre A. Doherty, PhD, Conservation Ecologist, Jeanna Sullivan, National Geographic Society, Sarah Appleton, National Geographic Society. Further changes are inevitable, with larger changes projected for higher emission scenarios. Students examine key causes and impacts of climate change on Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, as well as mitigation and adaptation strategies. All of these pose risks for agriculture, food and water supplies. The main characteristics of climate change are increases in average global temperature (global warming); changes in cloud cover and precipitation particularly over land; melting of ice caps and glaciers and reduced snow cover; and increases in ocean temperatures and ocean It also includes changes that are forecast over the next few days, for example, in temperature and rainfall. Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) and some industrial processes are the main sources of carbon dioxide. As these massively destructive and costly events become more frequent, scientific evidence points to climate change as a leading cause. The link between land use and the climate is complex. But, as individuals we can slow down global warming by implementing small more sustainable actions within our community. Read or summarize the text under the heading “2017 in Context.” Make sure students understand that the number of billion-dollar events in 2017 was significant because it was higher than both the historic and recent five-year average and because of its high economic impact. They analyze how climate change affected the 2017 California wildfires and the flooding from Hurricane Harvey. These events are newsworthy primarily because they resulted in great damage to property and possible loss of life.) Addressing climate change as one of the drivers of disaster risk, while respecting the mandate of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, represents an opportunity to reduce disaster risk in a meaningful and coherent manner throughout the interrelated intergovernmental processes. Deforestation contributes to the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere and climate change © Lou Levit. Ask: What do the colored and gray lines represent? The climate system involves the atmosphere - specifically processes within the troposphere, such as air circulation patterns - land surfaces and oceans. The coastal areas are important sources of GDP per se. In the United States, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions has held steady since 1990–even though our economy and our population has grown. 3. According to the latest research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we have less than 11 years to make the transformation necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Catastrophic weather events include hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, and droughts, among others. The key is for students to understand that a trend over time does not mean that every year will have more billion-dollar disaster events than the last. Have students investigate how natural disaster events affect human migration. Certain gases in the atmosphere trap this heat and act like the glass of a greenhouse. Ask: What types of natural disasters are shown on the map? The Arctic is an incredibly important and very fragile ecosystem – and it’s warming at a much faster rate than much of the rest of the world. This is caused by natural processes linking the atmosphere, ocean and land, as well as variations in heat output from the sun. Review the environmental conditions that make wildfires more likely. He explains, 'Climate change is how the characteristics of the weather we experience in a certain place change. gradual changes in all the interconnected weather elements on our planet. Climate change is just one of the stressors currently impacting nature. Climate change is defined as gradual changes in all the interconnected weather elements on our planet over approximately 30 years. Climate change impacts in Afghanistan culminate from overlapping interactions of natural disasters (due to changes in the climate system), conflict, agricultural dependency, and severe socio-economic hardship. Disasters displace three to ten times more people than conflict and war worldwide. Because of this, the models always consider some level of uncertainty – but models measuring smaller areas with higher resolutions produce more accurate models. Learn more about the impacts of climate change: Dealing with climate change requires both mitigation and adaptation actions. Following blizzards and an unusually frigid winter in 2015, only 37% of Americans said climate change … Then replay the video, and this time ask students to complete the worksheet as they watch. As most researchers agree, the main environmental factors that can cause displacement and will become more significant in the coming years due to anthropogenic climate change are the increased strength and frequency of storms and floods, droughts and desertification, and sea-level rise (IOM, 2014, p. 38; Piguet et al., 2011, p. 6). (Answer: Students may note some events affected densely populated cities, which might increase the amount of property damage. As extreme weather events such as cyclones and heatwaves increase in frequency and ferocity, they threaten children’s lives and destroy infrastructure critical to their well-being. Use this curated collection of resources to teach your classroom about hurricanes. For example, rising temperatures can increase the length of growing seasons or the varieties of plants that can be grown in different areas. Global temperatures and sea levels are rising, and possibly contributing to larger more devastating storms. Climate change may not be responsible for the recent skyrocketing cost of natural disasters, but it is very likely that it will impact future catastrophes. For example, if you live in northern California you are more likely to be impacted by a wildfire, landslide, or earthquake than if you live in Charleston, South Carolina, but less likely to be hit by a hurricane. The main effects expected are as follows. Pause the video and ask students to briefly explain the evidence Park Williams gives linking climate change to an increase in wildfires generally. Learn more about adapting to the effects of climate change. More recently, scientists have begun to explore the role that climate change plays in specific weather-related natural disaster events. NOAA: Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters, PBS NewsHour: Climate change is part of California’s recipe for intense wildfire, Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: Overview, PNAS: Assessing the present and future probability of Hurricane Harvey’s rainfall, PRI: Scientists pinpoint link between climate change and Hurricane Harvey's record rainfall, Washington Post: Climate change upped the odds of Hurricane Harvey’s extreme rains, study finds, Scientific American: Global Warming Tied to Hurricane Harvey, New York Times: Scientists Link Hurricane Harvey’s Record Rainfall to Climate Change, National Geographic: How Climate Change Likely Strengthened Recent Hurricanes, EPA: A Student's Guide to Global Climate Change—Warmer Oceans. In addition to changes in climate that are caused by natural climate variability, climate change can be caused by human activity. Ask students to just watch the first time through with the questions on the worksheet in mind, but not to try to complete the worksheet at this point. Project the U.S. 2017 Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters Map from NOAA’s Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: Overview webpage. Print. Learn more about climate trends and projections. Importance: Why Should We Care About Climate Change? Ask: What patterns do you notice in the locations of these events? Climate change magnifies the existing risks and vulnerabilities associated with disasters, due to changing patterns of some hazards and due to increased population exposure and land-use changes. While they can often be predicted, the loss of life and property take an emotional and economic toll on the community impacted. Students can take notes as they watch the remainder of the video and then craft the worksheet responses from their notes. The annual average economic losses from climate-related disasters are in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The two most well known consequences of climate change are an increase in global-mean temperature and a rise in sea level. The active San Andreas fault runs through California and causes regular earthquakes, while the warm waters transported by the Gulf Stream can intensify a storm heading for South Carolina. The jagged, solid lines show the annual data, while the linear dashed lines show the long-term trend over the 1948–2016 period for both global and Canadian data. Divide students into groups of two or three and distribute the Analyzing a Natural Disaster Event handout to each student. What would make these events newsworthy? For years, scientists have known that climate change can lead to more extreme weather events. These countries and cities are among the places that will be the worst hit We are facing an existential threat and rapid prioritization of attention and action is necessary. Do you think most wildfires are affected by climate change? Learn more about the causes of climate change and the greenhouse gas effect: Each of the last three decades has been warmer globally than any decade on record. The climate varies naturally from year to year and decade to decade. This figure shows changes in global and Canadian average temperature relative to the 1961 to 1990 reference period. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Hurricanes are tropical storms that form in the Atlantic Ocean with wind speeds of at least 119 kilometers (74 miles) per hour. The CSA approach pursues the triple objectives of sustainably increasing productivity and incomes, adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions where possible. 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