Climate change has consequences for the Earth system and human lives.

These ideas relate to the current and predicted consequences of climate change.

Most people are aware of the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, which is what climate scientists predicted for a warming world. The impacts of climate change on humans and environmental systems have become a focus for resource managers, medical professionals, emergency managers, insurance companies, and military planners. A great challenge of the 21st century will be to prepare communities to adapt to climate change while reducing human impacts on the climate system (known as mitigation). Additional factors such as poverty, a lack of resources, the absence of a political will, and the necessity for nations to work together add further complexity to this challenge. Many jobs and industries will be affected by the changes that are happening or are anticipated for the future.

Climate change has profound impacts at home and afar, today and in the future

The importance of this principle is readily apparent: our climate is changing and so is our world. Symptoms of climate change are all around us: extreme weather, diminishing sea ice, year after year of record-breaking warmth, drought, fires, and stress to ecosystems. Many of these consequences will create hardship for humans. Some key points are:

• The impacts of human-caused climate change are already being seen, from polar regions to our backyards, to communities around the world.
• The consequences of climate change will affect the biosphere on many levels, from coral bleaching to dying forests, to species extinction.
• Human infrastructure is threatened by a changing climate, such as encroachment of coastlines, stress to the energy grid, and shifting structures as a result of melting permafrost.
• A warming climate threatens mountain snowpacks, freshwater supplies, and hydropower that serve millions of people.
• Changes in climate and precipitation patterns are impacting agriculture and food security.
• Populations that are already vulnerable in terms of sea-level rise and food security are poised for the greatest hardships. Political unrest, migration of refugees, and global economic impacts are all visible outcomes. Some of these effects are already evident.

Helping students understand these ideas

Educators know that linking classroom topics to relevant news is a powerful way to engage students. The impacts of climate change are all too easy to find, but nonetheless using a local example is an effective way to draw students into the topic and help them unravel the science.

Keep in mind that alarming students and the public about the impact of climate hazards, such as droughts and extreme events, can be counter-productive and cause people to ignore the warnings, feel hopeless, or succumb to denial. However, glossing over the severity of the impacts and the enormous social and environmental ramifications of climate change can lead to a society that is ill-prepared to deal with change. Finding a balanced approach and avoiding a "despair deficit" is clearly good practice, both inside and outside of the classroom. For more on climate change and mental health see the CLEAN Climate Mental Health pages.

Another challenge for fostering public awareness of the consequences of climate change is that many of the effects are far away and may not directly touch the lives of our students in an obvious way. Two solutions to this are to use local data and examples to examine climate changes that affect your region, or to employ a case study approach that will allow students to gain a deeper sense of how these impacts will profoundly affect people and ecosystems in faraway areas.

Bringing these ideas into your classroom

Here are a few pedagogic strategies for teaching about climate impacts.

• Because climate change affects so many parts of our lives, the theme can be woven into a range of topics throughout a course or a unit. Subjects such as history, economics, or health can all touch on climate change. Climate impacts needn't only be addressed within the specific context of an earth science class.
• Student teams can investigate climate impacts on different parts of the earth system. Teams could learn how climate is affecting the cryosphere, coral reefs, birds, forests, native peoples, agriculture, transportation, diseases, national security, and many other avenues.
• A geographic approach could be used to examine impacts in different parts of the world.
• Students could write or read narrative stories about how climate affects people.
• Students could use imaginary time travel to visit the climate of the future, which would vary depending on the actions we take today.
• Students could use local climate data such as temperature, snowfall, and streamflow. Similarly, students could learn about economic impacts such as maple syrup production, crop yields, and winter recreation.
• Role-playing activities could be used to explore how the climate affects people in different walks of life such as farmers, construction workers, insurance agents, or pilots.

Integrating Solutions

When teaching about climate impacts, it's also a good idea to touch on solutions to climate change. Ideally, students can feel informed and empowered, rather than discouraged about the world's problems. Some possibilities include:

• Draw on case studies showing successful emissions reduction strategies.
• Explore adaptation strategies for humans, plants, and animals.
• Create an atmosphere of creativity and problem-solving as we all strive to meet this grand challenge.
• These ideas are discussed more fully on the next page, Humans can take action to reduce climate change and its impacts.

Teaching materials from the CLEAN collection

These concepts are well-represented in the CLEAN resources. One way to narrow the search is to look for a specific type of impact like melting ice and permafrost, sea-level rise, extreme weather, or impacts on plants and animals. Alternatively, you can search by region, like the US Southwest or US coastal areas.

Despite the best efforts of the CLEAN team to keep our teaching materials up-to-date, impacts on the climate system are changing rapidly. Be sure to seek up-to-date graphics and data to supplement some of these activities.

Middle school

• Drought: Identifying Impacts and Evaluating Solutions - In this set of activities, students learn about impacts of drought through news videos of communities facing serious water shortages, analyze drought data and models, and research and evaluate potential solutions. This lesson works well as a component within a larger unit on climate change, its impacts, and ways to address the resulting issues.
• After the Ice - Part 2: Our Land - This 7-minute video illustrates how the historic homeland for Arctic Native Americans is being affected by climate change. Shorefast ice and pack ice are present for a shorter part of the year. This has profound affects on the way of life in the Bering Sea region, to the point where the community may have to relocate.
• Carbonated Communities - This series of two lessons uses cutting-edge scientific research on the effects of climate change on communities in the intertidal. Through a combination of a dynamic presentation and several videos, students are introduced to the effects of climate change on the ocean (ocean acidification and temperature increase) and what is known about how ocean organisms are affected. Then students read and interpret graphs and construct a scientific explanation based on data from this research.
• Investigating Coral Bleaching Using Real Data - This sequence of 5 activities uses real-world data to understand how scientists monitor coral bleaching events.

High school

• HEART Force Drought Game - In this interactive game, students solve challenges that their community faces during the course of an extreme drought event by using available individual and community resources. Students work in three resilience teams to determine the strategies that they will invest in as a community as the drought situation evolves.
• Living Landscapes: Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Fish - Interactive map tool to assess how rising stream temperatures could affect native fish of the Northwest. Lesson concepts include the relationship between water temperatures, dissolved oxygen levels in streams, and the impacts of changing temperatures on native fish. Focused skills include use of an interactive map to assess how stream temperatures are expected to change and the impact on native fish.
• Advanced high school students can do an in-depth analysis of coral reef health: Using Data to Identify Hot Spots and Predict Bleaching Events. 
• Liz Hadly Tracks Impact of Climate Change in Yellowstone is a video that illustrates impacts to Yellowstone National Park's ecosystems. Examples include pine bark beetles and drought.
• Resource Watch - Resource Watch features hundreds of data sets all in one place on the state of the planet's resources and citizens. Users can visualize challenges facing people and the planet, from climate change to poverty, water risk to state instability, air pollution to human migration.

College

• Tools like Google Earth allow students to examine faraway effects of a changing climate in Google Earth Tours of Glacial Change.
• Predicting the Effects of Climate Change on Soil Loss examines soil erosion, climate change, and agriculture.
• Glacier (?) National Park - Students take a mathematical approach to analyze the loss of glaciers in this iconic national park.
• Estimating How Much Sea Level Changes When Continental Ice Sheets Form is a quantitative exercise to calculating sea level rise and fall. This video about Meltwater Pulse 2B would be a good accompaniment.
• Predicting Glacial Futures is a case study that explores ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet by way of outlet glaciers that flow into the ocean. Students do basic calculations and learn about data trends, rates of change, uncertainty, and predictions.