Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Rising Arctic Temperatures Lead To Global Environmental Changes, 11/10/04
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec04/arctic_11-10.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Have you heard of global warming? What is it?

2. Do you think winters are getting warmer and summers are getting hotter?

3. How can scientists tell if the planet is getting warmer?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What conclusion did a recent Arctic report come to? What are some consequences according to the report?

The Arctic is warming at a faster pace than any other part of the world, according to a new report - the most complete evaluation of the Earth's northern cap - released Monday.

A rise in temperature around the North Pole is melting large areas of Arctic ice, causing dramatic weather changes and declines in populations of polar bears and walruses, among other changes, scientists say.

2. Why are the findings controversial?

The findings are likely to increase pressure on the Bush administration, which has acknowledged a possible human role in global warming but says the science is still too murky to justify mandatory reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions.

3. Which group created the report? Who are there members and participants?

The Arctic Council, a group made up of Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, commissioned the 140-page Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA). Nearly 300 scientists worked on the study, as did elders from the native communities in the region.

4. The report showed rising temperatures in the Arctic region. How might these changes impact the rest of the world?

The rising temperatures have decreased the amount of the ocean that is covered by ice to the lowest amount ever recorded. The Greenland ice cap and other Arctic glaciers could disappear in summers by 2060-2100, according to scientists, who worry that the resulting rise in ocean levels could cause flooding at ocean coasts all over the world.

5. How might Arctic young people be impacted by these environmental changes? Why is this important to anyone living outside the area?

Many young people in the area face increased chances of skin cancers and immune system disorders due to heightened exposure to ultraviolet radiation - estimated at about 30 percent higher than any earlier generation.

"Global warming connects us all," Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit who chairs the Inuit Circumpolar Council, told the Los Angeles Times. "The Arctic is the world's health barometer, and the Inuit are the mercury in that barometer."

6. According to the report, what is causing this increased warming?

Most of the warming is blamed on increased use of fossil fuels like crude oil, natural gas and coal, which create greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases have increased in the atmosphere by almost 30 percent since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuels, which are used in cars, factories and power plants, make up 80 percent of the world's energy use.

The Arctic is especially vulnerable to warming because snow and ice reflect heat and when they melt, the dark ground and water accelerate the warming by absorbing heat.

7. What are some positive impacts according to the report?

Although much of the report is negative, it does contain some positive outcomes from the increased temperatures in the Arctic. Some species, such as the Arctic char fish, could flourish. The growing season for wheat in Canada could become longer and certain sea routes, such as the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route near Russia, could open up, easing access to oil and gas deposits.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1.Do you agree with the following quote, why or why not? Should we be concerned about the environmental changes in the Arctic area? Explain your reasoning.

"Global warming connects us all," Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit who chairs the Inuit Circumpolar Council, told the Los Angeles Times. "The Arctic is the world's health barometer, and the Inuit are the mercury in that barometer."

2. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment did not make specific policy recommendations. They will be released on November 24. Pretend that you are one of the Arctic Council members. Which country are you and what are your policy recommendations concerning this report? How might your policy recommendations be different if you were a different country? Why?

3. Research the average winter temperatures in your community over the last 100 years. Do you see any patterns? What might they mean?

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.