A Climate Future
Driving Question: How will climate change shape health, jobs, and human systems in the future?
While we know that climate change is already having a very real impact on natural and human systems around the world, it can sometimes be difficult to see and feel the way melting sea ice or a few degrees’ rise in temperature will impact you personally. But climate change is subtly adjusting the ways we live our everyday lives. In this lesson, we will look at how climate change and our response to it will impact our health, our jobs, and our complex human systems. In doing so, you’ll think about future ways you might be involved in solving the climate problem.
- Evaluate the potential impact of climate change on human health.
- Investigate how climate change may reshape jobs, including the emergence of new job sectors and increased demand in some fields.
- Analyze the potential consequences of climate change on human systems, including energy and migration.
- Identify personal actions that can have an impact on climate change.
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Guiding Questions
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Skim
Before you read, you should quickly skim the article, by looking at the headings of each section and the charts. Read the questions below as well, so you know what to look for when you read!
Key Ideas
- What’s the good news when it comes to the relationship between human health and our environment?
- How might climate change negatively impact human health?
- How might job opportunities change in response to climate change?
- How will our response to climate change transform our energy systems? What are some things individuals can do to mitigate the effects of climate change?
- What’s one way climate change will impact human migration?
Evaluate
- The article lays out several informed ideas about the future, both how it will change and how we must change it. Do you agree with the future presented in this article? What do you think is missing from this vision? Provide at least one of your own ideas about how our health, our jobs, and human systems might change in the future.
Using the graphic biographies and careers chart, complete the Climate Expert Exploration activity below.
