A group of scientists associated with the United Nations has just issued a report on “climate change.”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that human habits and activity is responsible for global warming and for higher sea levels.
If this continues, according to the report, there will be more serious heat waves, more melting of land ice, and dramatic changes in plant and animal life.
Because it is a draft, the report is still being reviewed, but experts in climate change believe there won’t be many changes in the final version.
The report is published by a different group of scientists every five or six years, and is considered the standard on the risks of climate change.
Each report has found more evidence that the planet is warming and that humans are the cause.
Some critics believe that the current situation is more likely due to short-term factors or weather cycles. They believe that the climate situation will change on its own eventually.
But the UN report says the reality is clear and the facts are there.
Luckily, because humans cause the problem, humans can help solve the problem.
Everyone can use less energy (light and electricity), recycle and reuse, and use their cars less.
If this happens, less carbon dioxide will be released into the air and the air closest to the Earth will cool down.
And that would be a good thing.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
What is global warming? What are the effects of global warming that you can see and feel? What are the effects of global warming that are invisible to you?
Reading Prompt:
According to the article and your own understanding, what role do humans play in global warming?
How could you personally reduce climate change? How could your family? How could your school? How could your community?
Brainstorm and select one way that you could reduce global warming, which you could do immediately. Share this idea with a friend and your family and try it out for 2 weeks. At the end of the two weeks, reflect on the following questions:
1. How difficult was it to make a change in your life?
2. How do you think this change helped the planet?
3. Could you continue this change for the next month? Why or why not?
Junior
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Intermediate
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Grammar Feature: Synonyms
This article is written for Junior and Intermediate students. If you wanted to re-write this article for a Grade 3 student, what words would you change? Think of simpler synonyms for these words which would make the article easier to understand.
