Climate change

Climate change consist of the changes appear in the environment in different ways. These changes may occur because of natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, ocean circulation, however, the changes are caused at a higher level by human influence. During the last 100 years, the Earth’s surfaces have warmed up on average by about 0.6 ºC. To explain this, we have to make reference to the Greenhouse Effect what is the main cause of climate change. It consists of the fact The Sun emits solar radiation to the Earth’s Surface and the atmosphere acts like the glass in a greenhouse trapping some of the long-wave radiation. This process makes the temperature rise in the atmosphere as it does in the greenhouse and it makes possible the life in the Earth, on the contrary, it would be too cold and no life would be possible. Greenhouse Effect requires carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour to happen, it wouldn’t be possible without these gases. The problem occurs when the greenhouse effect is enhanced because of the increase in carbon dioxide produced by humans and the temperature is more than normal. That increase of carbon dioxide is because of processes like the burning of fossil fuels and forest clearing. (Buchdahl, J., 2002)

The Earth’s Greenhouse Effect (Buchdahl, J., 2002)

The main effect of Climate Change in the UK is climate change. It is important to clarify that climate and weather are different terms. Climate describes weather patterns recorded throughout the years and weather describes what we experience daily, like temperature and wind. Therefore, climate change leads to an increase in the average temperature between 0.9 and 2.4 ºC what means there will be more dry summers and less extreme cold winters. According to precipitations, they are expected to increase in most areas. Thus, it will exist extreme climatic conditions such as drought and storms. Apart from this, we can find effects in other areas, such as oceans where global warming will accelerate the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antartica and finally these areas will disappear. Ecosystems and biodiversity will be affected in terms that habitats will be degraded and fragmented and some species will be in extinction because they can’t live in different conditions they are used to do. (Buchdahl, J., 2002). Forest tree species are affected and it provides habitat for numerous plants and animals. Thus, loss of the three species will affect all the species that make up a complex forest ecosystem. The survival of species during the climate change will largely depend on their ability to migrate. (Hardy, J.T., 2003). Finally, climate change has effects on human health as well: respiratory diseases because of air pollution, increased the risk of cancer due to stratospheric ozone depletion and malnutrition… (Buchdahl, J., 2002)

It is important, as teachers, to explain to the children what the problem is, how and why it occurs and the effects it may have because they need to know and be aware of the importance of this. The issue must be explained seriously, because it is something that has negative effects in the world, through different media and strategies, making use of news that show the reality of climate change and let them know that is something real and not just something appears in films. Despite this, we have to be aware of they are children and it can’t be a dramatic explanation, we don’t intend to scare them, on the contrary, it must be just a serious issue taking account previous consequences around the world to know about it and learn the main reasons why climate change exists is because of human impact in a high level. After this, children will have knowledge about what climate change is and why it occurs, and finally that the reduction of it just depends on their behaviour and collaboration in their daily activities. My peers had information about it and since the beginning, we all already knew that human behaviour has an important effect on this without any doubt. For this, they were aware of the change of activities and actions people should do to reduce the climate change level, in spite of the changes people are making nowadays, we still have a lot of work to do.

Once we know some information about this issue, we would have to look for solutions in our daily life to reduce the emission of dioxide of carbon and thus the climate change. For this, we have to make reference to the main causes of climate change produced by humans, the following figure is an example of a typical everyday life greenhouse gas emissions.

GHG emissions in a small German city (after Brohmann, 2002) (Soyez, K. and GraBl, H.,2008)

Reducing climate change may sound something difficult to achieve but it is really easy through simple actions through personal activities. These actions can be divided into different categories: Turn down, in terms of programming thermostat temperature low at night, reducing the temperature of your home by just 1ºC; Switch off, to switch to green electricity or to switch off your air conditioner when you are not at home; Activity, to air dry clothes naturally instead of using a tumble dryer, to switch off lights when you don’t need them, to use the washing machine only when it’s full, to turn off the tap while brushing your teeth; Recycle, to use a reusable bag when you go shopping, to buy big bottles rather than small ones, recycle your waste; Walk, to consider public transport, bicycling or walking instead of car to travel by your own. (Soyez, K. and GraBl, H., 2008)

We can promote these simple actions in school and make them part of the daily routine of children. We could do this in the most possible fun way and make a pattern to not forget any of them. It would be nice to have a reminder in class with some actions they can do in class and share roles in which each of them has an action to do every day of the week and then the roles would rotate every day between them to do the different actions each one. This activity would consist of participating in the different categories previously explained. For example, one of them, in which children must switch off or turn off technologies stuff (computer, printer, TV, lights, heating, digital board) once they have been used and they have to be sure it is not electricity being wasted; another activity could consist of checking children are recycling their rubbish using the proper bills. We could promote as well the use of public transport to go to school or just walking. Apart from this, other actions don’t depend on the children, however, they can encourage their parents to do them. In this way, children will learn about the issue and they will be able to participate in it to improve the situation that it is present nowadays.

According to generic skills to be collaborative, critical thinker, analytical, knowledgeable, motivated and influential are part of this issue. This is because collaboration must exist to make possible a change of thoughts and interact each other, to be a critical thinker and analytical is essential because climate change is something makes you think about the impact your behaviour may have and about new actions may improve the situation. Knowledge is crucial to understand this topic and to be able to change actions in our daily routine and as well to promote it to children. It wouldn’t be possible to teach this if the teacher doesn’t know about what he/she is talking about. Finally, motivation and influence are key skills because to reduce climate change and improve your action you must be motivated to do it and think of it as a challenge. The teacher must be influential as well to teach children the importance of changing actions and above all to teach that actions in the children routine.

In relation with specific skills I would say that the more important ones are:

2.1.2 Communicate effectively, using a variety of media, to stimulate pupils and achieve the objectives of lessons.

2.1.3 Employ a range of teaching strategies and justify their approach.

2.1.5 Work effectively in co-operation with other professionals, staff and parents in order to promote learning

That is because as I explained before, communication and variety of media provide a better and effective learning for children. At the same time, the resources used in class must stimulate pupils and motivate to learn and work on the topic and finally achieve the objectives. Different strategies of teaching are required to provide a good learning process and working with parents to promote learning is really effective for children. This is because the content they are learning is not just implemented in schools but at home and in the daily routine as well, in this way children will remember the contents and they will be able to make use of it in their pattern. From my experience, the participation of parents on children learning is crucial because it provides motivation for them and a new learning process for them. They will feel even more comfortable and personally it will be more effective for them. It can be applied in other areas such as Language or Maths in which parents may be involved in the learning process of the children and use daily contexts to teach children new contents. I am achieving these at a high level because I know from my own experience that children learning is better if different strategies and resources are used and finally the results are worthy. However, parents collaboration and participation with teachers is essential to achieve it.

Buchdahl, J. (2002) Climate change. [Moodle Resource] Available: Sustanaible Development. [Accessed 02 December 2018]

Buchdahl, J. (2002) The Earth’s Greenhouse Effect. [Moodle Resource] Available: Sustanaible Development. [Accessed 02 December 2018]

Hardy, J.T. (2003) Climate Change. Causes, Effects and Solutions [Online] Available: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TKOhTRyFVIkC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=climate+change+causes&ots=DdyC97y74s&sig=cJJHMA489Yf-FiTJQtMjRrTnycg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false [Accessed 02 December 2018]

Soyez, K. and GraBl, H. (2008) GHG emissions in a small German city (after Brohmann, 2002). [Online] Available: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-211-78203-3.pdf [Accessed 02 December 2018]

Soyez, K. and GraBl, H. (2008) Climate Change and Technological Options. Basic facts, Evaluation and Practical Solutions. [Online] Available: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-211-78203-3.pdf [Accessed 02 December 2018]

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