Educator Guide: Earth Cannot Avoid a Warmer Future

Climate
Earth
Environment
Data Analysis

September 11, 2021

people riding in a backhoe amid flooding in China — Torrential rains flooded Xinxiang in China’s Henan province in mid-July 2021, leading to dramatic rescues like this one. A new U.N. report finds that human-caused climate change is linked to extreme weather events all around the globe.

Cui Nan/China News Service via Getty Images

About this guide

In this guide, students will learn about a United Nations assessment that concludes human-caused climate change is behind extreme weather events. Then, students will discuss and compare climate scenarios and visualize some of the data.

This Guide Includes:

Exercise type:Comprehension
Topic:Climate

Looking ahead to a hotter future

Students will answer questions about the online Science News article “The new UN climate change report shows there’s no time for denial or delay,” which describes a massive scientific assessment that concludes human-caused climate change is behind extreme weather events. A version of the story, “Earth cannot avoid a warmer future,” appears in the September 11, 2021 issue of Science News.

Exercise type:Discussion
Topic:Climate
Category:Data Analysis

Visualizing climate change scenarios

Students will learn about climate scenarios, analyze a chart of climate change impacts under four scenarios and create a data visualization for one climate change impact.