Tag Archives: Climate

Climate Change: Learning Log

Leave a comment

Key Learning:

Fridays lectures and workshops definitely made me more aware of climate change and the impact we are having on issues such as global warming. It specifically allowed me to gain a deeper understanding into:

  • What climate change actually is and it differs from day to changes in the weather. I now have a better understanding that climate change is taken from the average weather and temperatures over a considerable period of time.
  • How politics and climate change are so closely linked and the impact our politics and our beliefs can have and are having on climate change. Louise’s workshop allowed me to see that as humans we are far less likely to support a party that is aiming to fight climate change and global warming as the language we use when discussing it is always so far in the future meaning we struggle to want to take responsibility for it when we aren’t going to see its affects immediately in our day to day lives.
  • Some interesting ways of teaching or doing practical activities in class related to climate change and the weather. In particular I found the cloud in the jar and the thermometer task quite interesting experiments and our both something I would consider doing with a class in the future.
  • The impact that climate change is having. The lectures and work involved in this module to do with climate as always when dealing with the issue of climate change and global warming makes it shocking clear the impact its having on the planet with videos of ice caps melting and others showing the amount of CO2 that we are putting into the air.

Impact on my views/lifestyle/practice:

This weeks work has impacted on my views of climate change. I am now far more aware of it than I have been in the past and far more concerned about doing my bit to help reduce my own carbon footprint which while already not too bad at 71% could probably be slightly lower. As a flat I know that we are now trying to recycle a lot more, this is something that I have never really done in the past but as Ayrshire council provides recycling bins and with their being a bottle bank near by it seems only fair that we start to our bit their and recycle more.

In practice I can definitely see myself using a lot of the activities and experiments Andrew showed us linked in with some lessons on climate change as I could see how making a tornado in a jar and building their own thermometer could be very interesting for children. It is also very important that we educate children in climate change from a young as they will want to do something about it they will be keen to do walk to school weeks and recycle more and contribute to other environmentally friendly projects in and around the school. This then makes them more aware of the impact they are having on the environment and gives more hope for a healthier future for the Earth.

Areas of interest to explore further/develop:

  • I plan to look into the politics behind climate change slightly more as it was something that I had never truly considered just how much it impacted in how we try to tackle the issues of climate change and global warming.
  • I also plan to look further into the experiments Andrew showed us to see what other ideas are available when teaching about climate change and how others would suggest linking them into a lesson.

Climate Change: Study Task

Leave a comment

Through the reading and work on this module I have become more aware of the factors that our effecting my carbon foot print in my day to day life and what are consequentially affecting global warming when looked at across the world as a whole. From completing the survey my carbon footprint was outlined at being 71% however I was slightly surprised at some of suggestions that the site made to reduce my carbon foot print. It is easy to forget that simple things such as buying more locally produced produce and just less items in general can reduce my footprint as things have become so easily accessible and readily available within our society it is easy to forget how far they have been transported or where they have been imported from and the effect that must be having on the environment. It was also surprising just how much goes into calculating my carbon footprint I hadn’t realised quite how many factors of my life contribute towards calculating it.

It also reminded me that I should be more mindful of throwing food away with the World Wide Fund for Nature stating that “one third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted”. However the survey did also remind me of what I am now doing to help the environment our flat has recently begun ensuring that we recycle more by using the recycling bins provided and making trips to places such as bottle banks so that our glass is reused. Therefore one value is definitely in reminding you of the bigger affect every little thing that we can do can have on the environment.

Learning about climate change in school is vital so that children take responsible for the environment and are more aware of the damage we can cause to it from an early age. It also allows linkage to other aspects that will help improve children’s lives such as encouraging them to walk to school or to use more public transport as not only will this lead to them reducing their carbon footprint but in the case of walking or cycling it could lead to them having a more active life style.

I was also intrigued to learn that the government had such long term goals in place to be completed by 2050 to reduce Scotland’s carbon footprint with the government’s legislation stating that by 2050 Scotland’s emissions will be 80% lower than the baseline. It will be interesting to see if by 2020 they are on track with their target of 42% lower as it is going to take some fairly drastic steps to lower Scotland’s emissions so dramatically. The document in general made for quite an interesting read to show more what the government has put in place to deal with climate change although ideally it looks as though some stricter rules and targets would be better for the planet however they would be a lot harder to implement and stick to. 2016-09-27