Fundamentals

• This resource explains Earth's changing climate, including historical data and approaching tipping points. 
• Students will learn about the climate of the distant past and how the stabilizing climate that began thousands of years ago allowed for humans to build civilizations and grow in population. 
• The basics of human-caused climate change are covered, as well as the unprecedented challenges associated with curtailing the fallout of fossil fuel usage. 

Positives

• This article is an excellent primer on climate change. 
• There is an option to listen to an audio recording of the article, which is an excellent choice for struggling readers or vision-impaired students. 
• The included graphs are powerful visual reminders of how drastic climate change is and the incredible action needed to avoid tipping points. 

Additional Prerequisites

• Be sure to click through all eight slides of the graph, as the information included is incredibly beneficial for understanding. 
• Students should be familiar with reading graphs. 

Differentiation

• Cross-curricular connections could be made in history classes by discussing the time periods discussed in the article, or in civics by discussing the changes that need to be made on a global-level in order to slow temperature rise. 
• This resource would be a great introduction in a climate science unit. It lends itself well to a whole-class discussion after reading. 
• Other resources on this topic include this lesson about climate futures, this video about the history of climate science, and this lesson that details historical climate change.

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.