“CLIMATE CHANGE” STUDENT’S FILE

(4.5 weeks:11March – 10April)

PLAN

  1. Lead-in
  2. Climate Change Awareness Test
  3. Reading 1: PICTURING CLIMATE CHANGE
  1. Obligatory material
  • Reading 2: THE PLANET IN PERIL
  • Reading 3: GLOBAL WARMING? THE DENIERS ARE MY HEROES!
  1. Additional texts
  • Reading 4: A CLIMATE OF OUR OWN MAKING
  • Reading 5:HOW GREEN IS YOUR PET?
  • Reading 6:THE DANGER OF CLIMATE CHANGE FOR RUSSIA
  1. Lead-in
  • Climate Change Awareness Test
  1. Do such words as “climate” and “weather” denote the same thing?
  1. What is the difference (if any) between such terms as ecology, climatology and environment?
  1. What is the mechanism of the greenhouse effect? What are the main greenhouse gases?
  1. What determines a certain shift from fossil fuels to alternative fuels in the world?
  1. How dangerous is the ozone layer depletion? Why?
  1. What is environmental law concerned with? What are the most important environmental treaties?
  1. How influential is the IPCC in the sphere of climate change?
  1. What are the priorities of Greenpeace? What methods does this organisation use to achieve its goals?
  1. What does the term “the Little Ice Age” denote?
  • Reading 1:

Picturing climate change
Stefan Bronnimann
Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland
The possibility of future climatic changes and man’s interference with climate are not new topics. Concerns of this kind are deep-rooted in our cultures. As a consequence, many aspects of the current debate on climate change and global warming are not unprecedented but have a history of their own. This concerns not only the scientific concepts involved. There is also a history of the public perception of the scientific climate debate, of the attitudes towards human intervention with climate and of the economic, social, and political relevanceattributed to the topic. There is one often neglected aspect of the history of the climate change debate, namely how the scientific concept of climate change has been communicated to the public in thepast and how it is presently.
Climate change research
The questions of whether and how climate changesand whether and how man influences climate havebeen debated by scientists at least since Theophrastusin the 4th century B.C. His works were translated intoLatin in the Renaissance period and were influential tothe thinking of scientists at that time. Two importantlines of debate in the discussion on climaticchange up into the 19th century concerned the impactof land-use changes on climate and progressive climatechanges. In the early and mid 18th century, climatechange was a subject treated by the philosophersof the enlightenment period such as Montesquieu andHume. More scientificapproaches to climate change research started in thesecond half of the 18th century, in line with effortsin agricultural, forestry and medical research and furtheradvanced by scientific travelling and exchangeand the availability of meteorological instruments.
A milestone in the history of climate changeresearch and its public awarenesswas the theory of ice ages which had important implications forclimate research in general. It required mechanismsable to explain a large change in mean temperature.This challenge was a trigger for many climate changetheories, some of which have influenced the discussion until today.The theory of the CO2greenhouse effect originated, at least partly, in thedebate on the causes of ice ages. Some scientists speculated that lower concentrations of atmosphericcarbon dioxide could have caused ice ages.
The processes considered in the 19th century to cause shorter-term climate changes were mainly solarinfluences and anthropogenicactivity, but volcanicforcing and themeltingoficesheetsandglacierswere also discussed.Among the anthropogenic influences on climate, theoldest topic is the effect of land-use changes. The debateon this topic became more and more popular duringthe 19th century when in many European countries deforestationand desertification became politically relevant. Effects of anthropogenic fossil fuel combustionon weatherand climate have been considered since the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, the debates about climatechange and anthropogenic influence on climateculminated in a vivid discussion of the causes of the iceages, the nature of historical climatevariability, the possible human influence on future climate, and alsothe impact of climate change on the evolving economiesand societies. The discussion was not confinedto the scientific community, but also included politicalinstitutions and was carried out in public.
Public perception of climate change andanthropogenic influence on climate
The question of whether climate is changing and whether man is influencing climate is not only or not primarily a scientific one. Climate has always been a matter of vital interest to societies, and sohave changes in climatic conditions. However, climatechange cannot be perceived by individuals and thereforegives rise to speculation and imagination.
Concerning the causes of climatic changes, there hasalways been the idea in the public consciousness that man influencesclimate.It was familiar to people in medieval times. Forexample, extreme weather events were perceived aspunishment, and prayers and ceremonies were believedto please God so as to make the weatherfavourable. Witches were thought to be able to changeweather. After the Enlightenment period and during industrialisation,anthropogenicclimatechange appearsin the public perceptionto diffuse concerns. A good example relates tothe ‘year without a summer’, 1816, when in Switzerlandsome people blamed the modern lightning conductorsfor causing the endless rainfalls.In these cases the anthropogenicinfluence was not real, and the people were led by religious or mysticbeliefs or simply by superstition and fears, not by scientificarguments. Apart from some scattered quotes in newspaper reports, there is little indication of scientific views on climate change atthat time.
A public perception of the scientific debateon climate change started only later, probably towardsthe end of the 19th century which expressedambivalence towards climate change: there were age-oldfears about extremes of climate, but there were alsotourist illusions of a warm climate. Despite some fears, climate change was notpresented as something entirely negative. There was astrong fascination for the topic and there was a positive judgement of a change towards a warmer climate. In fact, ‘global warming’ has for a long time beenconsidered beneficial to mankind. There was not only a positive judgement, butthere were even plans to make the climate warmer. This positive judgement gave way to a predominantly negative one only after the 1950s.
Nevertheless, theseexamples reveal that there are ‘age-old concerns’ aboutextremes of climate which are part of the culturalbackground, for scientists as well as for the public. These concerns may also play a role inthe current debate on climate change, i.e. the way it iscommunicated by scientists, activist groups and the media as wellas the way it is understood by the public.
Today, the climate change issue is illustratedmore often with photos of recent extreme weatherevents. They make allusion to the often heard notion that extreme events have increased in frequency and will furtherincrease in frequency due to climate change. Thus,
they imply that we are currently witnessing the start of anew, disastrous climate epoch—of course, the projectionof weather extremes into an apocalyptic future climateis not new. The communication is based on the sameage-old concerns. It seems that, in the current newsmarket, photos of extreme events sell better than illustrationsof a slowly ongoing climate change.
Scientists often portray the global warming issue assomething unprecedented, and in many respects it certainlyis. However, we often forget that the statementsof today’s climate researchers add to a debate whichhas been going on for centuries and in which resoundmany deep-rooted notions.
Ex. 1 Read the text and answer the following questions:
  1. How long is the history of climate change research? How did it develop?
  2. What theory was a turning point in the history of climate change research?
  3. What is the cause of so many speculations about changes in climatic conditions?
  4. How did people account for climate change in the past?
  5. When did people’s perception of climate drastically change?
  6. How do the media present climate change issue nowadays?
  7. What conclusion does the author of the article come to?
Ex.2 Look for words and expressions in the text to match the following definitions, translate them, reproduce the context in which they are used in the text.
  1. to regard as belonging to, resulting from, produced by
  2. knowing something, knowing that something exists and is important, being interested in something
  3. a possible effect or a result of an action or a decision
  4. to form an opinion about something without knowing all the details or facts
  5. created by people or caused by human activity
  6. dissolution of a thick layer of ice covering a large area of land for a long time, esp. those in Antarctica and Greenland
  7. a slowly moving mass of ice originating from an accumulation of snow
  8. the act of cutting down or burning the trees in the area
  9. a process by which fertile land turns into barren soil
  10. any process in which a substance reacts with oxygen to produce a significant rise in temperature and the emission of light
  11. the fact of climate being likely to vary
  12. enclosed within bounds; limited; restricted
  13. the simultaneous existence of two opposed and conflicting attitudes, emotions, etc
Ex.3Continue the following strings of collocations with the words in bold. Use some of the word combinations in sentences of your own.
  1. to attribute : relevance, ______, ______, ______
  2. anthropogenic: activity, ______,______, ______
  3. to be confined to: ______, ______, ______
  4. to have, ______, ______, ______, ______awareness of
  5. to have, ______, ______, ______, ______implications for
Ex.4 Fill in the gaps using the words and expressions from Ex.2 and Ex.3.
  1. Surrounded by winter snow and ice, melting seems to be a good thing, but, on a global scale, the ______of ______and______ is a sign of global warming.
  2. ______ effects, processes or materials are those that are derived from human activities, as opposed to those occurring in biophysical environments.
  3. While much of that debate was ______ to economic terms, some broader ideas of social planning were also proposed.
  4. Generally, the lack of policy development has been due to either limited awareness or ______towards climate change issues.
  5. Written accounts of miracles ______ to Jesus are believed by different denominations to varying degrees: much depends upon interpretation and the reliability of the source.
  6. Nowadays due to media coverage as well as increase in public______, global warming has become the topic of discussion everywhere.
  7. Climate change will have enormous financial ______in the years to come.
  8. ______ is expanding and accelerating into the remaining areas of undisturbed forest, and the quality of the remaining forests is declining.
  9. The rest of the dry land has either become desert or is being threatened by ______.
  10. Excluding fossil fuel______, how else do humans affect the carbon cycle?
  11. Climate ______ can cause abrupt disruptions, such as floods, droughts, or tropical storms.
  12. This contradiction sums up Western Europe’s ______ towards Russia, at once welcoming it as its own and rejecting it at the same time.
  13. Just as one may ______ on global warming induced catastrophes, one may just as plausibly also ______on catastrophes that may result from absent global warming.

  1. Obligatory material
  • Reading 2:

The Planet in Peril
Jim Hansen
YaleGlobal, 2006
Global warming, arctic ice melt and rising oceans will shrink nations and change world maps
In Sweden and Norway, the treeline is marching northward and uphill as the snowline recedes. In the Arctic, the polar bear finds its habitatshrinking. Elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, animals are slowly moving north to escape rising temperatures. Behind the silent movement hides a disturbing story that we had better take note of before it is too late. If the present warming trend continues, rising seawater will claimcoastalcities all over the world.
Animals have no choice but to move, since their survivalisatstake. Of course, climate fluctuated in the past, yet species adapted and flourished. But now the rate of man-madeclimate change is reaching a level that dwarfs natural rates of change. If climate change is too great, natural barriers, such as coastlines, spelldoomfor some species.
If emissions of greenhouse gases continue to increase at the current rate – "business as usual" – then a large fraction of the species on Earth, as many as 50 percent or more, may become extinct. The species most at risk are those in polar climates and the biologicallydiverse slopes of alpine regions. A few species, such as polar bears, no doubt will be "rescued" by human beings, but survival in zoos or reserves will be small consolation to bears or nature lovers.
In the Earth's history, during periods when average global temperatures increased by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit, there have been several "mass extinctions," when between 50 and 90 percent of the species on Earth disappeared forever. If human beings follow a business-as-usual course, continuing to exploit fossil fuel resources without reducingcarbonemissionsorcapturingandsequestering them before they warm the atmosphere, the eventual effects on climate and life may be comparable to those at the time of mass extinctions. Life will survive, but on a transformed planet. For foreseeable human generations, the world will be far more desolate than the one in which civilization flourished during the past several thousand years.
To arrive at an effective policy we can projecttwoscenarios concerning climate change. In the business-as-usual scenario, annual emissions of CO2 continue to increase at the current rate for at least 50 years. In the alternative scenario, CO2 emissions level off this decade, slowly decline for a few decades, and by mid-century decrease rapidly, aided by new technologies. The business-as-usual scenario yields an increase of about 5 degrees Fahrenheit of global warming during this century, while the alternative scenario yields an increase of less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit during the same period.
The last time that the Earth was five degrees warmer was 3 million years ago, when the sea level was about 80 feet higher. In that case, the world would lose Shanghai, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Venice and New York. . In the US, 50 million people live below that sea level. China would have 250 million displaced persons. Bangladesh would produce 120 million refugees, practically the entire nation. India would lose the land of 150 million people.
The greatest threat of climate change for human beings lies in the potential destabilization of the massive ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, a catastrophe that would be as irreversible as the extinctionofspecies. The business-as-usual scenario, with 5 degrees Fahrenheit global warming would certainly lead to the disintegration of the ice sheets. The only question is when the collapse will begin. The business-as-usual scenario, which could lead to an eventual sea level rise of 80 feet could produce global chaos, leaving fewer resources with which to mitigate the change in climate. The alternative scenario, with global warming under 2 degrees Fahrenheit, still produces a rise in the sea level, but the slower rate allows time to develop strategies for adapting to the changes.
The Earth's creatures, save for one species, do not have thermostats in their living rooms that they can adjust for an optimum environment. But people – those with thermostats – must take notice, and turn down the world’s thermostat before it is too late.
It’s not too late – but the world has at most 10 years to alter the dangerous trends of global warming
The threat to the planet from global warming is clear: including species extinction, violent weather patterns and the washing away of coastal cities, displacing millions. Fortunately, so are the solutions. Despite what naysayers claim – that energy-use patterns cannot be altered to any great extent – real change is possible given the political will to enact it. If such change is not enacted, however, pessimisticprophecies become self-fulfilling, especially with intensive efforts by special-interest groups to prevent the public from becoming well-informed.
In reality, an alternative scenario is possible. The US is only half as efficient in energy use as Western Europe, which encourages efficiency by fossil-fuel taxes. China and India, using older technologies, are less energy-efficient than the US and have a higher rate of CO2 emissions.
Available technologies could improveenergyefficiency. Economists agree that the potential could be achieved most effectively by a tax on carbon emissions, although only strong political leadership could persuasively explain the case for such a tax to the public. Consumers who make a special effort to save energy could gain; well-to-do consumers who insist on three Hummers would pay for their excess.
Achieving a decline in CO2 emissions faces two obstacles: the huge number of vehicles that are inefficient in using fuel, and continuing CO2 emissions from power plants. The world must delay construction of new coal-fired power plants until the technology needed to sequesterCO2emissions is available. Intheinterim, new electricity requirements should be met with renewable energies. Much could be done to limit emissions by improving fuel-efficiency standards in buildings and appliances. Such improvements are entirely possible, but require strong leadership.