Description

Climate Change - The Basic Facts

The 'greenhouse effect' is a well-understood process by which naturally occurring heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane, absorb solar radiation. Without this natural warming process, the Earth’s climate would be much too cold for human habitation.  

However, since the industrial revolution, our planet has experienced a drastic increase in the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) in its atmosphere as a result of human activities. This process has triggered a condition called climate change, often referred to as global warming. There has been lots of debate around the existence, causes and effects of climate change in the past, but today, there is little doubt that the increasing average air and ocean temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, widespread melting of snow and glacial ice, rising average sea level and increase in extreme weather events like droughts, heatwaves, wildfires and flooding as observed in many cities across the world have been influenced by climate change. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the major international scientific effort to understand climate change and what can be done. The 2014 IPCC report is clear: Human interface with climate systems is occurring. Climate change poses risks for human and natural systems, and that the effects will be severe, pervasive, and irreversible. There is an extraordinarily high degree of consensus within the scientific community on the impact of human-produced GHGs and their impact on the climate. 

Meeting greenhouse gas emission goals set by the Paris Agreement requires commitments at the local, regional, and national levels. Understanding your personal carbon footprint is the first step to reducing your GHG emissions. Your carbon footprint will detail the sources of emissions so that changes to your choices and actions can be focused on your largest emitting factors. 

Measuring greenhouse gas emissions is also an important first step in improving the management of those emissions, and the activities/operations responsible for producing them in our schools. GHG emissions are produced from activities associated with the (1) lighting, heating, and cooling of facilities, (2) the powering of machinery and equipment within those facilities, (3) the transportation of students to and from school, (4) use of paper, and (5) the use and consumption of food. Whether or not an organization plans to become carbon neutral, measuring and managing emissions can result in cost savings, increased organizational efficiencies, and lead to better asset management.

RESOURCES

Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye | National Geographic

Climate Change is a real problem. NewGenCoal is all about solutions.

Climate change (according to a kid)

Climate Change: The Basics, Climate Atlas of Canada

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Task

Niklas Hagelberg, Coordinator of the Climate Change Programme at UN Environment, “Schools going carbon-neutral provides a great opportunity to demystify carbon neutrality for students and can give them a practical experience through inclusion in curricula and operations of the school.”

CALCULATING OUR CARBON FOOTPRINTS - HOME & SCHOOL

• International Student Challenge Carbon Footprint Challenge
  
• Earth Day Network
• The Nature Conservancy
• Zero footprint [This calculator was made specifically for students/youth and is accessible in six languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu.]
• Foot Print Calculator for Schools by Graz University of Technology, Institute for Process and Particle Engineering

1. By yourself, use one of the carbon calculators listed above to calculate your impact on carbon dioxide emissions - personal & your home

2. In groups, try your best to calculate the carbon footprint of your school. 

• Easy - linked HERE

• Complicated - linked HERE - You may not be able to find all the information you need to complete. Try your best. :)
  
  

3. Alone or in groups, think about the following questions:

Personal-Level

• What activities in your daily lives have the largest carbon footprint?
• How does your footprint/usage compare to that of your friends? Who has the lowest/highest impact in your school group? Why?
• What surprised you the most?
• What things can you and your family change to lower your carbon footprint?
• How do you think living in a city may affect the ability to change one's life to have a lesser carbon footprint than someone from a rural community? What other factors interplay - Gender? Class? (dis)ability? Others?

Community-Level

• Create a list of actions that improve the overall sustainability of your school and the greater community.
  
  • What alternatives are available for you to mitigate the carbon footprint of your school or community?
    
  • Which of the ideas/changes is easy? Which are the most difficult? 
  • Do those that are easy have a large or small impact on climate change?
• Who in your community, region, or country could you enlist to help support and develop a plan for your school to reduce GHGs/become carbon neutral - from transport to planning to procurement?
  
• What are achievable short and long term reduction targets?

Political-Level 

• There are many calculators available on the internet - some made by governments, others by environmental groups or industries/companies. Why would any organization (an oil company, a Non-Profit or Government agency) be interested in a carbon footprint/water usage calculator?
• There has been a shift in standard economic policy conversations to include "The Social Cost of Carbon (SCC)." It is a monetary estimate of global climate change damages to society from an additional unit of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. When governments measure the costs and benefits of a policy or investment decision, they need a value for CO2 emissions. If the SCC is high, then the benefits of cutting CO2 are large and costly climate actions will be justified. If the SCC is low, regulations might be more trouble than they’re worth.
  • If the world acts like a perfect economic model, then the “optimum” amount of climate effort is where the additional costs of cutting further emissions are balanced by the benefits of limiting further warming.
  • But... How do we account for the fact that many of those who contributed the least to the problem stand to suffer the most both economically and socially?

4.  Write a Blog - Post HERE

Reflect on the information you’ve covered in these two activities to complete the 'Connect, Extend, Challenge' thinking routine below using the prompting questions to help you

• CONNECT your personal & school footprint:
  • How does your footprint reflect the economy/ status/ location/ politics of your country?
  • How does your footprint relate to power imbalances & justice when it comes to carbon mitigation plans in your country?

• What new ideas or realizations EXTENDED or pushed your thinking in new directions?

• What is still CHALLENGING or confusing for you to get your mind around? What questions, wondering, or puzzles do you now have?

• Blogs should be posted HERE, with the title First Name, City, Country: Blog Name (For example: Shola, Lagos, Nigeria: My Carbon Footprint)

**If you are having difficulties with language, use GOOGLE TRANSLATE to help - Write in your first language, select English, and then hit "Translate" You can copy and paste this English version of your text into your blog post, comment, or discussion.

5. Reflect on other people’s work

• Read five other blogs. Comment on them with your thoughts about their writing.

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