Climate Disagreement
Teacher Resources
Lesson 1.2 Teaching Guide
Video: Claim Testing
OER Teaching Sensitive Topics in Social Studies Guide
Support for having discussions that are difficult, but meaningful.
Driving Question: Why can it be so difficult to agree when it comes to climate change?
If the scientific community agrees that climate change is real, why is there so much disagreement among the public around this topic? In this lesson, you’ll explore the reasons there’s still debate around climate change and explore the tools you’ll use to help determine for yourself what to believe.
- Analyze why disagreement and misinformation about climate change exists.
- Identify what makes a source of information credible.
- Using claim-testing and digital-literacy skills, critically evaluate common climate change claims.
Opener
Quickly reviewing will help jog your memory about claim-testing skills that you learned about in the previous lesson. This will better prepare you to use the claim testers as you encounter and evaluate new information about climate change.
Article
You’ve likely heard people disagree about the causes and impacts of climate change. But if there’s so much evidence behind climate change, why is there still disagreement? This article will help you dig into this important question.
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Key Ideas
- What does the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) state about the evidence for climate change? Do scientists agree with the organization’s stance?
- How do political factors contribute to the disagreement over climate change domestically and internationally?
- What is one economic challenge to tackling climate change?
- What’s one way that how people think impacts climate disagreement?
- What is the role of misinformation in climate disagreement?
Evaluate
- How do the difficulties of addressing climate change impact our beliefs about it?
Activity
Closer
How do you decide what to believe? Reflect on what you’ve learned in this lesson and determine how you decide what to believe when learning about climate change, and in all areas of your life.