The Environment and Technology Section

Climate Change Teach In

General Resources
Internet Resources
Environmental Films
General Reading

Internet Resources:

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:
  http://www.ipcc.ch/
  
• Real Climate: Climate Science from Climate Scientists
  http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/start-here/
  
• Focus the Nation
  http://www.focusthenation.org/
  
• Union of Concerned Scientists
  http://www.ucsusa.org/
  
• Climate Justice
  http://www.ejcc.org/
  
• Journalist Ross Gelbspan’s website with updated news stories on climate change from around the world:
  http://www.heatisonline.org/
  
• Talks recorded from Robert Brulle’s Course on Global Warming (syllabus attached)
  http://broadcast.drexel.edu:8080/HTTPxml/GREATWORKS/GREATWORKS.html
  
• Congressional Budget Office (2003), "The Economics of Climate Change: A Primer", available at http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/41xx/doc4171/04-25-ClimateChange.pdf
• Heartland Institute, "Instant Expert Guide: Global Warming", http://www.heartland.org/archives/studies/ieguide.htm
• BBC website: Explanations/visualization of how global warming works
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/climate_change/defa
• National Public Radio website: This website has an excellent series covering a number of issues related to global climate change.
  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5394326
• Climate Choices from the Union of Concerned Scientists: http://www.climatechoices.org/
• League of Conservation Voters
  http://www.heatison.org/
  
  

Films to Consider:

• An Inconvenient Truth
• Baked Alaska
• Boiling Point: The Global Climate Crisis
• Everything's Cool
• Oil on Ice
• Water Rising
  
  
• Hot Politics
  (www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/view)
  Details the political issues involved in global warming; excellent interviews with top officials (gov't and scientific experts) on global warming and why the U.S. has not been involved in international treaties, etc.  Available to watch online, one-hour long, but can view separate chapters.
  
  
• The 11th Hour
  (http://wip.warnerbros.com/11thhour)
  Consider showing the middle section on corporate actors and economic
  structure - important areas of focus conveniently missing from Al
  Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. :
  
  "Instead of emphasizing how easy it is for people to green their habits
  (driving less, better insulating their homes, etc.) the assembled
  experts form a warning chorus that says humanity must learn to start
  valuing the earth before we kill it. The point is made quite clearly
  that the economic system, as currently structured, since it places no
  value on anything but unending growth, is inherently dangerous to the
  natural order of things, and will doom us all if not corrected." (review quote from
  www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/The-11th-Hour)
  
  
• Out of Balance: ExxonMobil's Impact on Climate Change
  (www.worldoutofbalance.org)
  
  This documentary includes a concise overview of the basic science of
  climate change (which I skipped over for my class full of Environmental
  Studies majors), outlines the economic history of the company from its
  origins as Standard Oil, and shows the strategies ExxonMobil has used
  to create public confusion about the issue. I recommend stopping the
  film at the point where one of the commentators notes that the problem
  is "systemic". After that quote, the filmmaker advocates boycotting
  Exxon and switching to biofuels for personal vehicles, recommendations
  that go against that important structural point. (Plus I would not
  want to advocate biofuels for many reasons.)
  
  

General Readings:

2007 Human Development Report. In addition to the entire report that focuses on climate change, this site has lots of graphics, interactive tools for viewing individual country contributions to climate change, and under the Media Resources tab, a useful powerpoint presentation. Highly recommended: http://hdr.undp.org/en/

• Assessment of IPCC Working Group (pdf)
  
  
• UN Report on Global Warming (pdf)
  
  
• Gore, Al. Think Progress. NYU Law 9/18/06 (pdf)
  
  
• Hansen, James . "How Can We Avert Dangerous Climate Change?" April 2007 (pdf)
  
  
• Hansen, James . "The Threat to the Planet". New York Review of Books- Vol 53, No. 12. July 13, 2006. (pdf)
  
  
• Hansen, James . "Diffusing the Global Warming Bomb." Scientific American. March 2004. (pdf)
  
  
• Hertzgaard, M. Vanity Fair. While Washington Slept. 2006.
  http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/05/warming200605
  
  
• Kolbert, Elizabeth . Field Notes from a Catastrophe.
  
  
• McKibben, Bill . "The Coming Meltdown." New York Review of Books. Vol 51, No. 1 Jan 12, 2006. (pdf)
  
  
• McKibben, Bill. Suckers' Bets for the New Century: The US After Katrina. Earth First! November/ December 2005. (pdf)
  

Student Resources

Inconvenient Truth- 10 Things You Can Do to Help the Climate Crisis: A Guide for Students (pdf)

Eco-tips for tenants, an article from the Sydney Morning Herald by Kelsey Munro (doc)

Hoosier Environmental Council website: http://www.hecweb.org/ProgramsandInitatives/Clean_Energy_Household_Guide.htm

Energy Star website:
http://hes.lbl.gov/hes/makingithappen/mih.html