This collection of photos from the NASA Climate website features images of global change, such as floods, wildfires, and retreating glaciers. Not all images show change caused directly by climate change and energy use, and descriptive captions indicate causes for change in most of the images.

The main content objectives covered in this unit are the phenomena of global warming, carbon cycle, ocean acidification, and its impact on plants, animals, and the marine ecosystem. The main purpose of this is to provide the reader with the basic knowledge base about these processes and understand the main players that are responsible for them. Fossil fuel pollution by human activities is contributing to the increase in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Some of the CO2 is being absorbed by the oceans. This process increases the number of free hydrogen ions in the oceans, making the ocean water more acidic. This phenomenon is called ocean acidification. When oceans become acidic, they can negatively affect the plants, living organisms such as shell-forming organisms, and other marine life. The results of this process are devastating and this unit hopes to bring students’ attention to these dangers.

A simple three-part diagram from UNEP GRID Vital Water Graphics showing how global warming could impact coastlines and populated areas of Bangladesh with a 1 and 1.5 meter sea level rise relative to the current coastline.

This lesson is comprised of three activities (three class periods). Students use web-based animations to explore the impacts of ice melt and changes to sea level. Students are introduced to topographic maps by doing a hands-on activity to model the contours of an island. Then students examine the relationship between topography and sea level rise by mapping changing shorelines using a topographic map.

Facing sea level rise, increasing numbers of wildfires, and encroachment of invasive species, managers of a national forest chose to integrate climate change into their new plan.

This video is one of a seven, Climate Change: Lines of Evidence series, produced by the the National Research Council. It outlines and explains what evidence currently exists in support of humans playing a role in contributing to the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

A federal study assessed vulnerabilities of transportation infrastructure to extreme events in Mobile, Alabama. The effort also resulted in tools and approaches that other transportation departments can use to assess and address their own vulnerabilities.

In this activity, students explore the way that human activities have changed the way that carbon is distributed in Earth's atmosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere.

This activity relates water temperature to fishery health within inland freshwater watersheds as a way to explore how environmental factors of an ecosystem affect the organisms that use those ecosystems as important habitat.

The City of Ann Arbor recognized stormwater runoff as a growing threat to the quality of their water supply. They're addressing the issue with two complementary strategies.

In this learning activity, students use a web-based geologic timeline to examine temperature, CO2 concentration, and ice cover data to investigate how climate has changed during the last 715 million years.

This resource is an informational video about the impact of climate change on the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica.

Learn how scientists have pieced together a continuous 800,000-year record of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and ocean temperatures in these videos from NOVA: Decoding the Weather Machine. Use this resource to review the difference between inference and observation and to consider the relationships between carbon dioxide, Earth's temperature, and climate change.

These three laboratory activities build student knowledge of anthropogenic global climate change through use of the Columbia University-National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Educational Global Climate Model (EdGCM). They are designed to build student proficiency with each of the major steps used in a climate modeling experiment. The goal is to build student climate modeling skills and knowledge of climate models to enable students to conduct their own climate change research using EdGCM.

Key Questions:
How do scientists research the impact of humans on the global climate?
How does global climate modeling differ from and rely upon the work of other physical scientists?
In what ways can the methods of climate science help us understand how our own lives impact the global environment?
What limitations does global climate modeling hold as a research tool for understanding and predicting anthropogenic global climate change?

Students are presented with examples of the types of problems that environmental engineers solve, specifically focusing on air and land quality issues. Air quality topics include air pollution sources, results of poor air quality including global warming, acid rain and air pollution, as well as ways to reduce air pollution. Land quality topics include the differences between renewable and non-renewable resources, the results of non-renewable resource misuse and ways to reduce land pollution. (Water quality is introduced in a later lesson in a separate presentation, as it is the focal point of this unit curriculum.)

Our planet is currently being challenged by dramatic changes to earth and human systems under the influence of climate change and variability. These include changes of population and environmental dynamics that impacts human health. Thus, climate change is considered the biggest threat to human health in the 21st century. Health impacts can be direct typically related to extreme weather events; indirect with linkages to climate change induced environmental alterations and damage or in relation to displacement, conflict and social disruption. This presentation provides a series of examples of changes of environmental and social determinants of health with negative or positive health impacts. These include impacts on communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases and mental health of importance in particular in vulnerable urban and rural settings as well as among sensitive community groups exposed to variations in temperature and precipitation patterns.

This session will expand the student´s knowledge about human health and quality of life in the context of global and local ecology. Examples will be provided on how environmental management and development influence human health. The session provide an overview of the disease burden attributable to the environment, and much of this burden is placed across different geographical regions of the world. Examples will be presented on the impacts of poor quality water, insufficient access to water, lack of appropriate sanitation and poor personal hygiene. Other examples of environmental health factors included relate to reduced forest cover, unsustainable agricultural production systems, climate change, and poor management of natural resources that significantly influence livelihood, food security and migration patterns.

Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “Some people are weatherwise, but most are otherwise.” Ol’ Ben understood that weather can have a great effect on our everyday lives, and he knew the importance of having an understanding of what makes the atmosphere work (and not just knowing when it’s safe to fly a kite). In Meteo 3, we will examine all aspects of the weather. You’ll learn the fundamental processes that drive the atmosphere, along with some of the tools we use to measure those processes. You’ll also learn about large-scale weather systems, severe convection, tropical weather, and climate change. As a result, you’ll be a better consumer of weather information and forecasts. So… do you want to be weatherwise?

This video features changes in the land, sea, and animals that are being observed by the residents of Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories, Canada â many of whom hunt, trap, and fishâbecause of their long-standing and intimate connection with their ecosystem. Scientists interview the residents and record their observations in order to deepen our understanding of climate change in the polar region. Background essay and discussion questions are included.

In this lab activity, students use brine shrimp as a proxy for krill to study how environmental factors impact behavioral responses of krill in the unique environment of Antarctica.