Global warming

            Schools play a major role in educating students about the environment around them. It nor only prepares them for careers, but also educates them on the impact that human activities have on the environment they live in. There is however a need for better approaches when it comes to teaching about global warming in schools.  Almost two-thirds of the students enrolled in schools in the United States are subjected to lessons about changes in the environment and climate that fail to reach the level of sound science education they ought to be learning. The misleading information could be one of the major factors promoting the existing confusion regarding the cause and effect of global warming amongst the public.

            A report by Suzanne Goldenberg (2016) revealed that there was short shrift when it came to teaching climate change to students in public middle schools and high schools in 50 states in the United States. The confusion regarding climate change and the role human beings play is intensified by the fact that students only spend about one hour or two during their academic year being taught about climate change. The situation is made worse by the fact that most of the information they learn is either misleading or wrong. Goldenberg (2016) further revealed that 7% of teachers taught that global warming is a result of natural causes; 4% of teachers opted not to teach about global warming, and 22% talked about the contradictions that exist regarding the cause and effects of global warming.

            There is, therefore, the need to create awareness on the importance of understanding what global warming is, the role human beings play and what can be done to overcome its harmful effects. This is especially because the earth’s climate has been changing and the impact of these changes are being felt on different aspects of human life (Baucom & Omelsky, 2017). Instead of relying on the misleading information however, research should focus on past historic event and changes in the environment to better understand the changes in the environment as well as human being’s contributions.

            A glance at the earth’s climate records over the last 20,00 years can help to explain how global warming occurred before human beings and also the different effects that human contribution has played towards global warming. Although climate change is also a result of human activities, natural factors play a significant role in the changes in the environment. Take the earth’s temperature as an example. The research argues that the earth’s surface temperature averaged 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the 21st century, which was warmer than the 2oth century (Baucom & Omelsky, 2017). While most of the global warming that has taken place over the last decades has been as a result of activities carried out by human beings, history indicates that global warming is also as a result of natural occurrences in the environment around us (Preston, 2019). An increase in how frequent intense rainfall or a drop in the snow covering the northern hemisphere results in ocean acidification, rise in the sea levels, higher temperatures during the day and other occurrences attributed to global warming.

FIGURE 2.2 Global surface temperature change from 1880 to 2009 in degrees Celsius. Hansel et al, (2006)

Black curve = Annual average temperatures

Red curve = 5-year running average

Green bars = Estimated uncertainty in the data during different periods of the record.

Evidence of the changes that have occurred to the planet throughout history can be seen in the boulders seen perched out of place and rock beds scraped down which could have been caused by alpine glaciers. The evidence suggests that northern regions were covered with continental sheets of ice that ran kilometers deep. The period of the ice age was especially full of exceptional climate change (Baucom & Omelsky, 2017). History further reveals that there was more than one ice age. Often times, ice sheets would make their way south ad retreat again over time. This could have been caused by the series of glacial periods that alternated with warmer climates that would last thousands of years.

During the Medieval Warm Period, for instance, the North Atlantic Region experienced a warm climate ranging from 950 to 1250 degrees (Preston, 2019). The changes in climate may have been a result of an increase in solar activity during that period, a fall in volcanic activity and changes occurring to the ocean circulation. The evidence of global warming during these periods adds on to current information regarding the cause of global warming. Since human beings could not impact the environment in any way significant to cause global warming, its existence in such times proves that global warming is just as much a result of natural causes as it is human activities.

The Medieval Warm Period was followed by the Little Ice Age which was a much cooler time in the North Atlantic. Temperatures were seen to drop to as low as 2 degrees Celsius. It was also the time during which the Middle Ages ended and the modern world came to be (Easterbrook, 2016). Using tree rings and the study of ice cores, researches have been able to prove that the earth became cooler during the Little Ice Age period. Records from winegrowers that existed during this time and written accounts on the cold can be found in letters and sermons composed during the same period. The changes, however, occurred in phases, with the initial drop in temperature taking place around 1300 which was later followed by a sharper and more abrupt cold period which started in the 1570s (Easterbrook, 2016). despite having taken place a long time ago, the events that took place throughout history can help to create a better understanding of what global warming is.

A lot of emphases have been placed on the role that human beings play towards global warming. This is mainly because human beings are not only responsible but stand to lose the most from the effects of global warming. Instead of focusing too much on human’s role however, schools need to educate on the changes that have occurred throughout history as well as changes that are occurring today that are not caused by human activities. Doing so will shift the blame from humans and focus more attention on the various factors that cause global warming. Similar to how temperatures rose and fell due to natural causes in the past, the same is taking place alongside human activities. Exposing the correlation between natural and man-made effects could, therefore, make it easier to understand global warming, its effects, and the role that people play in ensuring that the planet remains sustainable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Baucom I and Omelsky M, (2017) “Knowledge in the age of climate change”, South         Atlantic Quarterly

Esterbrook J,  (2016) “Temperature fluctuations in Greenland and the Arctic” Science Direct,      retrieved from, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-     sciences/medieval-warm-period

Goldenberg S, (2016) “Two thirds of US students are taught climate change badly, study finds” The Guardian,2016, retrieved from,          https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/11/two-thirds-of-us-students-are-           taught-climate-change-badly-study-finds

Preston C, (2019) “Teaching global warming in a charged political climate” retrieved from,             https://hechingerreport.org/teaching-global-warming-in-a-charged-political-climate/