People who say “drill-baby-drill” are much like people in the 1980s when personal computers came on the scene saying we need more typewriters and carbon paper (paraphrased from Thomas Friedman–see the video in this post).  The “drill-baby-drill” is a mantra of those who are stuck in the past, with their heads in the sand,  and don’t see that what is needed to deal with our hot planet is “invent-baby-invent.” In yesterday’s post, I wrote about Thomas Friedman’s new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, and in this post I want to explore one aspect of Friedman’s analysis of how we got to where we are now, that is a hot (not just warm), flat (the rise of middle classes in countries such as China, Russia, India), crowded.  On a late night talk show, Friedman talked about his new book and the underlying themes of this new work.  Here is that interview, which I hope you will find interesting and entertaining:

What do you think?  Did Friedman’s comments ring any bells for you?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve taken notice of the vast number of hurricanes that launch out of the Atlantic and track toward North America.  Is this the result of climate change?  I live in an area of the country that is experiencing a very severe drought.  In fact, one the largest lakes in Georgia, Lake Lanier, is at its lowest level in years, and it provides the source of drinking water for millions of people.  Is this drought related to climate change?  The mid-western region of the U.S.A. has experienced some of the most powerful floods on record, and it seemed for a while that there was no end in sight.  Is this related to climate change?  And then, as Friedman says, there was Hurricane Katrina.

Climate change is a phenomenon that has occurred throughout geological time.  The earth, for example has experienced at least four different ice ages, that is ice ages that occurred long before the most recent ice age, the Pleistocene Ice Age.  One of the Earth’s truisms is that the climate is a “changin.”  It always has, and it always will.  BUT….

Up until the mid-1700s, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million of air, and according to geologists, for 10,000 years, it was that figure.  Now it is 384.  An increase of nearly 40%.  Scientists agree that this increase is due to industrialization, and deforestation.  CO2 is one of four major greenhouse gases (also including water vapor, methane, and ozone).  Carbon dioxide contributes between 9 – 26% of the greenhouse effect, and the jump in CO2 levels can be easily tied to human activity.  Of course their are deniers, who continue to cast suspicion and doubt on research, and use interesting wedge strategies to influence thinking on global warming.  But in my own opinion, they are very much like the “drill-baby-drill” people who fail to accept the new direction that is needed.  Deniers make use of statistics and research results to make dumb decisions, or no decisions.  This is why the U.S. Senate has made very little progress in climate change and global warming legislation.  It lacks the leadership, and it has a few deniers who think like this (Freidman, 2008, p. 124):

Climate-change deniers are like the person who goes to the doctor for a diagnosis, and when the doctor tells him, “If you don’t stop smoking, there is a 90 percent chance you will die of lung cancer,” the patient replies: “Oh, doctor, you mean you are not 100 percent sure?  Then I will keep on smoking.

We have abundant evidence that human activity has influenced climate change to the point where we experience, in Thomas Friedman’s terminology, global weirding.  Strange weather.  Unusual flooding.  A line-up of hurricanes in Atlantic.  Drought in regions that normally get 40 – 50 inches of rain per year.  Really hot summers.  And perhaps, with tongue in cheek, fall has been cancelled.

Teaching about global warming, global weirding, if you will, can be a liberating experience for our students. What I mean here is that knowledge of science is power.  Helping students understand the issues and the science related to climate change is the first step to help them move ahead and see the future as needing radical changes in energy policy.  The solution to the problem warming is already emerging in some nations and states, as well individual industries.  Leadership at the national level is sluggish, and lacks the motivation that exists locally.

According to Friedman, a new plan is needed to deal with climate change.

How would you go about helping your students understand the issues related to climate change, and how to plan for a new energy future?

Resources

• Global Warming Resources for Educators: Union of Concerned Scientists
• Teachers Guide to High Quality Materials on Climate Change and Global Warming: Selected by the NSTA SciLinks Program
• Climate Change Information Kit
• PEW Center on Climate Change