Thomas Friedman, writing in the New York Times entitled today’s post Global Weirding is Here. Friedman prefers to use the term “global weirding” instead of global warming because the result of global warming is very “weird” weather. He puts it this way:
The weather gets weird. The hots are expected to get hotter, the wets wetter, the dries drier and the most violent storms more numerous.
I like Friedman’s use of the term, and have commented (Teaching About Global Warming, or Should It Be “Global Weirding”) on it before on this weblog, and have made many posts on global warming and climate change.
The weather has been weird not only this Winter, but last Fall many communities in the Southeastern part of the country, especially in the Atlanta area experienced the worst flooding in nearly a century. This Winter, the Eastern part of the USA has been hit with one snowstorm after another with Washington and Baltimore getting more snow than in more than 50 years. Of course all of this snow this year, especially in Washington, has played into the hands of the climate change deniers, especially Senator James Inhofe. Inhofe has stated on the floor of the U.S. Senate that global warming is a hoax. Apparently some members of his family built an igloo in D.C., and mockingly named it Al Gore’s home. As Friedman points out, how can we have serious discussions of climate change when we have a U.S. Senator, who has been a member of Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works. This committee is responsible for writing the major legislation on environmental issues, including climate change. And Inhofe is the ranking Minority member! As much as we continue to deny global warming, the evidence is clear that the Earth is heating up. There is data to support the idea of global warming (even in light of the British email controversy). One place to seek information is Joseph Romm’s website, Climate Progress. His site is dedicated to bringing data together that we can read, as well as links to peer-reviewed research papers. Dr. Romm has posted An Illustrated Guide to the Latest Climate Science, which includes graphs and links. Here is one graph, Annual Global (Land & Ocean) Temperature Anomaly. 
Yet this period of controversy is a perfect time and opportunity to involve our students in an investigation of global warming (weirding) and climate change. One teaching resource that I used for many years is the Lawrence Hall of Science GEMS teachers guide, Global Warming & the Greenhouse Effect. Although initially written in 1990, the content of the book is a very good outline for a unit of teaching. The pedagogy is inquiry-oriented, and the book also emphasizes humanistic science strategies by involving the students in their own experiments, and in a debate-oriented conference within their own classroom.
Global Warming & the Greenhouse Effect Teacher's Guide
- Session 1: What Have You Heard About the Greenhouse Effect?
- Session 2: Modeling The Greenhouse Effect”
- Session 3: The Global Warming Game
- Session 4: Detecting Carbon Dioxide
- Session 5: Sources of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere
- Session 6: Changes On Noua’s Island
- Session 7: The Worldwide Effects of Climate Change
- Session 8: World Conference on Global Warming
There are many reasons for teaching about global warming and climate change. Friedman discusses some of these (although he is not writing an article on the pedagogy of global weirding), and in his words, here is is a kind of context for teaching this content:
Even if climate change proves less catastrophic than some fear, in a world that is forecast to grow from 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion people between now and 2050, more and more of whom will live like Americans, demand for renewable energy and clean water is going to soar. It is obviously going to be the next great global industry.
China, of course, understands that, which is why it is investing heavily in clean-tech, efficiency and high-speed rail. It sees the future trends and is betting on them. Indeed, I suspect China is quietly laughing at us right now. And Iran, Russia, Venezuela and the whole OPEC gang are high-fiving each other. Nothing better serves their interests than to see Americans becoming confused about climate change, and, therefore, less inclined to move toward clean-tech and, therefore, more certain to remain addicted to oil. Yes, sir, it is morning in Saudi Arabia.
Additional Teaching Resources:
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