Teaching about climate change

Bear in mind that information about climate change is evolving and changing quickly. Yet, resource materials used in schools are often outdated. Try use up-to-date information and evidence in your lessons ant ensure you avoid bias.

• See GCSE Geography Students Let Down by Outdated Textbooks Teaching Inaccurate Climate Science.

In geography lessons students need to be taught:

• The underlying physical processes in order to understand why climate change is happening
• How and why climate in changing across the world
• Strategies for mitigation and adaptation.

Before you begin to teach the reasons for climate change, make sure you are clear about what is known (e.g. the causes and consequences of burning fossil fuels) and what is still to be clarified (e.g. how much hotter will it become? How fast? How quickly will sea levels rise?)

Collect together evidence of current impacts that are already occurring in the world that you can use for illustrative resources (e.g. decreases in Arctic pack-ice; fierce bushfires in Australia) and in the UK (e.g. shifting seasons, torrential rain, floods and drought). Look for local examples that will make it clear to students that this affects them.

Some of the key topics to teach about climate change are:

• The causes of global warming
• The consequences of climate change, e.g. shifting seasons, increased flooding, drought, extreme weather and rising sea-levels
• Reducing the impact of climate change, e.g. how to adapt and how to reduce the impact.

Be aware that some of these ideas may be difficult for students to understand. They can’t ‘see’ carbon dioxide and the implications are often too wide ranging for them to grasp easily. They may also be aware of global warming ‘denials’ as reported by the media.

COP26 was a big event during the autumn of 2021 and the stimulus activity devised by Barton and Finch Noyes (2022) is a good way to keep students mindful of personal targets to address their carbon footprint.

David Hicks has written extensively on these issues and you should read his articles in which he outlines not only why geography teachers should teach about climate change but also what aspects are most important for the next generation to know. He believes, ‘we have a duty to prepare them for a climate-changed world very different from today’. Hicks (2019) suggests using an investigative framework to study climate change.

David Hicks (2011) asks us these questions:

• How can we teach about climate change in such a way that it does not worry or disempower young people?
• How can we ensure that climate change is not just one more topic to ‘tick off’ in the curriculum?
• If climate change requires a new generation of concerned and active citizens, how can we ensure that school geography contributes to this?

Ponder these three questions as you read more about teaching climate change and plan your lessons. 

Roberts believes that in studying the challenge of climate change students need to be made aware of:

• different ways in which groups. organisations and the media present different messages (see figure 12.5)
• issues that divide opinions and who makes the decisions at different scales(see figure12.6)
• how disinformation can play a role in influencing opinions.

Teachers must also comply with the current legal requirements to provide a balanced view and avoid ‘promotion of partisan political views’.

Read Roberts (2023) pp. 116-9, ‘What needs to be considered in discussing issues related to climate change?’.

Roberts (2023) reminds us that some of the evidence and arguments that students might encounter when investigating climate change have been influenced by disinformation financed by powerful vested interests. Read about this on pp. 146-8, ‘Disinformation on climate change’.

TIDE is an organisation that highlight the needs of learners, the role of teachers, and the culture of schools to explore the potential of an education-driven agenda responding to the climate crisis. See the Elephant Times 4.2 Seeking Conversions – Education and Climate Crisis.

A group of geography and environment researchers wanted to better support schools and teachers to approach climate change in a way that will suit young people’s interests and concerns. They felt the focus was mainly on science and economics, involving abstract ideas which overlook the social, cultural and psychological ways people around the world are affected by climate change.  

To address this they have written a comic for school students that looks at how people around the world experience climate change. It is called Everyday Stories of Climate Change, it looks at the ways low-income families have had to adapt to climate change in five countries across three continents.  Download the free novel and Download the Teacher Guide  

• Read more in Gemma Sou’s blog on Everyday Stories of Climate Change 
• Refer to this presentation at the GA Conference 2024 about how graphic novels can support EAL learners in developing their curiosity, focusing on the climate crisis 

Listen to these podcasts:

•  Gemma Sou The human geography of the climate crisis 
• Dr Sylvia Knight, Royal Meteorological Society  
• Dr Tim Daley and Kate Stockings – Climate Change and the Climate Crisis 

Look at Global Inequalities and the Climate Crisis (GICC) is a curriculum resource of five lessons with accompanying resources that supports geography teachers to explore the relationships between global inequality and the climate crisis with Key Stage 3 classes, using the country of Cameroon as a case study. See an outline of the lessons here.

Look at Climate Change – Causes and Effects Resources created by the GA, in collaboration with Kit Marie Rackley, for teaching KS3 and 4 students about the ways in which we can model climate change, investigate the origins of greenhouse gases and assess its current and future impacts.

One further aspect of climate change education that you should consider is that research has illustrated the growing prominence of ‘ecoanxiety’ among young people around the globe (Hickman 2021) and that education is key to empowering young people to feel that they are able to contribute to finding solutions. It is, therefore, important to promote hopeful climate education.

And finally, what do the students think about their climate change education (CCE). Reilly et al (2024) collected data from more than 100 young people across the UK, Ireland, Italy and Finland.  Their findings were that: 

• CCE should be taught more effectively and with greater depth in schools.  
• there should be a more practical approach to develop their understanding of the climate crisis beyond the abstract and theoretical.  
• following this, CCE should take a solution-orientated approach because currently it  failed to offer a way forward or opportunities for action.  
• repetition in CCE content should be reduced. 
• CCE should draw from local and national examples to demonstrate the importance and urgency of the climate crisis. Many consider the climate crisis is one that does not impact them directly, either geographically or temporally.