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Day Two: The effects of climate change

Morning session: The effects of climate change in different countries
Key focus
How are people affected by climate change? Who is most affected?

> Background information for teachers (morning)
> Morning activities

Afternoon session: More on the effects of climate change – past, present and future
Key focus
Past, present and future effects of climate change. How does it make people feel?

> Background information for teachers (afternoon)
> Afternoon activities

Morning   Afternoon

Four activities: Three activities: > Effects of climate change (1 hour) (154KB pdf) Pupils watch a slide show then draw story strips illustrating how climate change affects some of the people featured. > More climate change case studies(111KB pdf) Pupils examine case studies of people affected by climate change, then write stories or draw pictures based on them. > Who is responsible? (20 mins) (151KB pdf) Pupils look at a map showing what carbon emissions are produced by people in different parts of the world, and discuss it. > Has climate change affected people I know? (93KB pdf) Pupils prepare questions for interviews with older people. > How responsible are we? (30 mins) (136KB pdf) Pupils look at an online 'calendar' which comprises the carbon emissions of different industrialised countries and discuss why they vary. > From my grandchild (93KB pdf) Pupils imagine what life in the UK will be like in 50 years time, then write a story or poem about their imaginary future grandchild. > What do we want to do? (40 mins) (136KB pdf) Pupils do a scoring activity to help them decide what they can do about climate change.     Download a pdf of all morning activities with worksheets and information (273KB pdf)   Download a pdf of all afternoon activities with worksheets and information (128KB pdf)

Morning
Oxfam believes climate change is serious and will adversely affect the lives of people around the world.

'Climate change is real and will affect the whole global economy. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC - a high level, independent, scientific advisory body) developed a scenario for 2080 that predicts the following types of impacts, assuming there is no action to limit greenhouse gas emissions:

• Sea levels could increase by 50cm – Almost twice as many people as now would be exposed to severe flooding from storm surges - 18 million people. The majority of people who would be affected live along the coasts of South and South East Asia.
• Water availability could decline – Over three billion people in the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent could be facing acute shortages of water.
• Seasonal rainfall patterns could be severely disrupted – Drought and floods could increase, but the most damaging shifts would likely be relatively small changes in rainfall which, cumulatively, could dramatically decrease global crop yields; areas such as sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia and tropical areas of Latin America could face acute food insecurity.
• The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events could increase – Leading to loss of life, injury, mass population dislocations, and economic devastation of poor countries.
• Human health could suffer from a combination of effects – People's resistance to disease could be weakened by heat stress, water shortages, and malnutrition. Increases in air pollution could lead to a rise in respiratory illnesses. In these conditions infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, schistosomaisis could proliferate rapidly.

…but they will affect the poorest people first and most

No one will be immune, but climate change will have a disproportionate effect on the lives of people living in poverty in developing countries. Between 1990 and 1998, 94 per cent of the world’s 568 major natural disasters and more than 97 per cent of all natural disaster-related deaths were in developing countries.

• People living in poverty are more likely to live in unplanned, temporary settlements, which are erected on unsuitable land – most prone to the risks of flooding, storm surges and landslides;
• Most eke out a precarious economic existence - subsistence farming or fishing - and have no savings or assets to insure them against external shocks;
• They lack sanitation and their limited access to clean water, poor diet and inadequate health-care provision undermine their resistance to infectious diseases;
• Their lack of social status and the informal nature or remoteness of their settlements means that they do not receive adequate warnings of impending disasters;
• Relief efforts are least likely to reach them;
• Lack of education and official neglect means they have little alternative after disasters but to remain in or return to the disaster-prone areas, with diminished assets, and await the next, calamitous event.

Poverty increases people's exposure, and climate change increases the risks; people living in poverty and poor communities are most vulnerable'.

Source: Oxfam's Introduction to Climate change.

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Afternoon
Again, a range of possible activities is suggested for the class or individual pupils to choose from.

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