Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra feature 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 a 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: Global Warming Linked to Humans, New Report Says, 02/05/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june07/climate_2-05.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What is global warming?

2. What are greenhouse gases? Where do they come from?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What important conclusion about climate change was released last week?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of more than 2,500 scientists from over 130 nations, said it is "very likely" -- or more than 90 percent probable -- that human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels, has caused the Earth's temperature to rise.

"Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level," the scientists said in the report.

2. By how much will the temperature of the Earth increase according to the report? What is causing this increase?

According to the report, the temperature on the Earth will likely increase about 3.5 degrees to 8 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050 if the concentration of carbon dioxide doubles pre-industrial levels, as expected.

3. Describe some of the changes expected as the Earth warms?

Northern areas will see more precipitation while semi-arid, subtropical regions will see even more drought and less rain, the New York Times reported.

With this climate change will come increasingly extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts and floods, the report predicted.

According to the report, sea levels are expected to rise between 7 inches and 23 inches in the 21st century -- and could be higher if ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland melt.

4. How might people be impacted by these global changes?

More water could immerse low-lying islands, and flood the coastal zones of countries like Bangladesh and cities such as Shanghai, China, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

And changing weather patterns could cause droughts and floods in Africa and Asia.

"If you're living in parts of tropics and they're getting drier and you're a farmer there are some acute issues associated with even small changes in rainfall -- changes we're already seeing are significant," Susan Solomon, the co-leader of the team that wrote the report's summary and an atmospheric scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the New York Times.

"If you're an Inuit and you're seeing your sea ice retreating already that's affecting your lifestyle and culture."

5. What needs to be done to slow the impact of global warming?

Scientists believe that global warming will increase even if humans reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. But reducing emissions is essential to minimizing the impact.

"If we don't bring the emissions under control, we can expect potentially very, very much greater changes than what we have already seen. So to use maybe an unfortunate metaphor, this is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what may be in store for us in the future," Michael Oppenheimer, a member of the U.N. climate change panel and a contributor to the report, told the NewsHour.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the poor, who are least responsible for global warming, will suffer the most from its impact. What do you think? Which countries emit the most harmful greenhouse gases? Which the least? How does this compare to projected areas of devastation?

2. One of the reasons the United States did not sign the Kyoto Protocol is that it does not ask China and India, the world's most populous nations, to cut greenhouse gas emissions. What are some predictions of how much China will emit as its economy grows? What can be done about this?

3. What can you do, on a small personal level, to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere? Come up with a plan to reduce your impact and share it with your school or community.

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of the topics in this exercise providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.