JIGSAW ACTIVITY 2010
Climate
Change and Human Societies
Note: Adobe pdf
documents will be available on the STEM-IPY website only for the duration of
this workshop.
1.
Public
Attitudes about Climate Change
What
do our students, their parents, our neighbors, etc. know about the Earth’s
climate system and climate change? Where
are the gaps in our knowledge? These
articles explore the idea of climate literacy and look at how Americans view
climate change science.
Climate
Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate
Sciences (same as booklet) http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/Literacy/
Malka, A., and others 2009. The
Association of Knowledge with Concern About Global
Warming: Trusted Information Sources Shape Public Thinking. Risk
Analysis vol. 29(5): 633-647. . (see pdf)
Pew
Research Center, survey summary: Fewer
Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming
A
powerpoint by L.M. Christian
explaining the above survey: The
Public’s Views on Global Warming: Trends
from the Past Year
Climate
Change in the American Mind by Anthony Leiserowitz
(also a powerpoint)
American
University, School of Communications, survey summary: The Climate Change Generation
(see
pdf)
Psychology
of climate change communication:
News Article: http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/opinion/40940
The full guide (quite long—skim or
prioritize sections to read): http://www.cred.columbia.edu/guide/
2.
Sea Level Rise
Rising sea level will not only impact coastal communities by increasing
their exposure to storms resulting in property loss, FEMA costs, insurance
structures etc., but will also result in millions of eco-refugees displaced
from low lying areas. This topic
explores why sea level is rising, the best estimates for rate and also the
reality check of the toll this will take on all of us and local and
economies.
Long, Antony, J., 2009, Back to the future: Greenland’s contribution to sea-level change, GSA Today, June, v. 19(6) 4-10. (see pdf)
Kerr, Richard A, 2009, Arctic
Summer Sea ice could vanish soon but not suddenly. Science 323, 27 March 2009, p. 1665 (see
pdf)
Ananthaswamy, A. 2009, Going, going….New Scientist 203, 2715:28-33. (see pdf)
FEMA Launches Effort to Measure Impact of
Climate Change on Flood Insurance -- http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/06/11/11climatewire-fema-launches-effort-to-measure-impact-of-cli-7828.html
Global Sea Level Rise: Observation, Causes,
and Prediction A Joint Earth Sciences/U.S. National Committees Session at the
American Association for the Advancement of Science 2009 Annual Meeting,
February, 2009. http://sites.nationalacademies.org/pga/biso/IUGG/PGA_048545 (you can view ppts)
Dixon, T.H. and others. 2006.
Subsidence and flooding in New Orleans: A subsidence map of the city offers insight into the failure
of the levees during Hurricane Katrina. Nature
v. 441:587-588. (see pdf)
Northern Alaska Coastal Erosion, text and
photos of wave erosion along the Beaufort Sea, http://geology.com/usgs/alaska-coastal-erosion/
NYT article Wanted: a new home for my country, May 8, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/magazine/10MALDIVES-t.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
Other sea level links……
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/human-shishmaref.shtml
http://www.shishmarefrelocation.com/
http://www.alaskaconservationsolutions.com/acs/images/stories/docs/Shishmaref_09-2006.PPT
http://www.ghf-ge.org/programmes/human_impact_report/index.cfm
3.
Consequences
for Transportation as we know it.
As CO2 increases and the climate warms there will be
consequences to transportation in the arctic and through out
the world. Especially in the arctic,
thawing ground will disrupt transportation, buildings, and other infrastructure.
What are the costs and consequences of this for everyone?
Transportation and Climate http://www.epa.gov/OMS/climate/ (there is quite a bit on this site, a couple
people in your group may want to tackle this one)
Grahn et al, 2009, The role of biofuels for
transportation in CO2 emission reduction scenarios with global
versus regional carbon caps, Biomass and bioenergy v.
33 (3):360-371 (see pdf)
Arctic villages
and impacts –
http://www.greenfacts.org/en/arctic-climate-change/l-3/6-melting-permafrost.htm
http://www.earthjustice.org/library/legal_docs/summary-of-inuit-petition-to-inter-american-council-on-human-rights.pdf
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/06/01/transportation-emissions-drop-by-52-in-2008/
and this update:
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/05/25/transportation-emissions-risse-fall-with-economy/
New York Times
articles about increases in Arctic shipping:
4.
Consequences
for Energy Use
Fossil fuel burning is the primary source of CO2 yet we
as a society are seeking to exploit US sources of fossil fuels like those off-shore and in the Arctic. How do we rationalize our dependence on
fossil fuels and still come ‘green” in our actions?
NPR -- U.N. Report Points to
Fossil Fuels in Warming (this is the news story about the next document). http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7128923
IPCC Summary for Policymakers
(18 pages, lots of figures; a summary of the report that the NPR story refers
to)
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-spm.pdf
Scientific American - CO2 emissions from energy use dropped in U.S.
last year
The Union of Concerned Scientists:
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/clean_energy_101/
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_and_impacts/impacts/the-costs-of-coal.html
Arctic Oil and Gas reserves
http://energy.usgs.gov/arctic/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/05/28/arctic.oil.gas.reserves/
Science News and Views http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/528/2
5.
Climate
Change and Health: polar focus vs. low
latitude
Climate change will impact
human health in different ways and to different degrees around the world. Are we prepared to think about sustainable
health policies in a warming world?
Several
articles can be found here: http://www.who.int/globalchange/publications/en/index.html
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/health.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2009/06/climate_change_deaths.html
This
is quite a lengthy report—you might split it up or pick and choose sections. http://chge.med.harvard.edu/programs/ccf/documents/ccf_report_oct_06.pdf
The CDC’s site about climate change and public health: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/climatechange/
Paul Epstein has written a
number of important articles; you can download many of those, listed here:
http://chge.med.harvard.edu/about/faculty/epstein.html
A
news release about the impact of CO2 on city dwellers:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/su-ucd031510.php
and the related journal article:
Jacobson,
M.Z. 2010. Enhancement of Local Air
Pollution by Urban CO2 Domes.
Environmental Science and
Technology v. 44(7): 2497-2502 (see pdf)
A
press release about the connection between high CO2 and asthma http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/pdfs/042904childhoodasthmaGWreleaseFINAL.pdf