Climate Crisis

In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report examining the consequences of 1.5°C to 2.0°C global warming. The report is produced to inform policy makers of the expected impacts climate change will bring, and explores how that changes under different future where we emit too much greenhouse gases compared to scenarios where we rapidly decarbonise.

• Human activities have caused an average 1.0°C warming so far, and at current rates of warming this is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052.

• Greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere will persist for centuries/millennia, causing warming to continue even after we stop emitting.

• Climate models predict great differences in the severity of 2.0°C warming compared to 1.5°C.

The report has been criticised for being too conservative, and encouraging slow policy response because of the way high impact but lower risk or poorly understood feedback events are represented.

If you are keen to find out more about the causes, effects, and what to do, I hope you might find some of the resources below as interesting and useful as I have.

Online Resources

An easy to understand summary by carbonbrief of the impacts outlined in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s special report on 1.5°C of warming published in October 2018.

Hay Festival and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) have made a series of videos, pairing leading scientists and notable artists to communicate cutting edge environmental science.

The CCC regularly publishes reports to parliament on decarbonisation and climate change preparation. In its 2019 progress report, the CCC lambastes the government; “Despite well-intentioned ambition the UK has fallen behind in progress to tackle and prepare for climate change”. Just 1 policy action out of 25 recommended by the CCC in 2018 was delivered by the government.

Everything you need to know about the IPCC 2018 report on 1.5°C. Explained with eye catching infographics highlighting important aspects of the report in easy to digest blog posts.

Climate change focused news. This is a particularly good resource for following events like the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP).

The reasons and motivations behind the extinction rebellion movement, and how to join.

The climate crisis is a global problem, that requires goverments globally to act and rapidly decarbonise. Current politics doesn’t allow these changes to happen at the speed needed to meet IPCC ‘safe’ targets. Public pressure is needed to bring about these changes at both a community level and global scale.

An online magazine with articles published primarily by academics. Keep up to date on the latest environmental news as written by scientists and academics.

A grassroots movement supporting fossil free and divestment campaigns. This website has lots of resources for joining independent climate and environmental movements.

This BBC article written in collaboration with carbon brief and Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute explains temperature increase predictions, and the basics of climate models used by groups including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Teaching Climate Science

Whilst climate change remains the most urgent threat to our existence, understanding our options in mitigating this crisis is crucial. And of course we need lots of young people to become weather and climate scientists!

Lets teach some of the science!

Maths for Planet Earth

GCSE and A Level style questions prepared by the Environmental Change Institute in Oxford.

“Our aim is to integrate climate change into the school curriculum, beyond the usual suspects of geography and environmental science. The world needs brainy mathematicians to help tackle climate change. All of these questions closely follow example problems from GCSE and A level past exams. "

IPCC Special Report Global Warming of 1.5°C Summary for Teachers

Written for teachers to prepare a class on climate crisis, this document gives a simple but accurate introduction to climate science and the IPCC’s SR15 report on the impact of 1.5°C global warming.

Discussing Climate Science in the Classroom

A collection of climate science lessons prepared by NASA’s JPL Education outreach. Several prepared lessons include instructions for the teacher on running the class, and links to all the data. Provided lesson extensions make this adaptable to suit enthusiastic pupils in any year of high school or sixthform.

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