Additional Resources for Climate: Our Changing World

Hi! This webpage has five additional educators’ resources to supplement the book Climate: Our Changing World (Albert Whitman, 2023), a non-fiction text intended for middle grades youths. You can purchase the book through the publisher directly or most other online retailers.

Although the book itself is protected under standard copyright law, the content on this webpage is fair game! Feel free to use, reproduce, alter, or distribute the resources on this webpage as you see fit. Although if you’re going to share resources between teachers/schools, I’d love to be attributed, and I’d love to hear about how you’re using my book in your classroom! These tools are meant to supplement teaching the text or provide extra opportunities to particularly engaged readers. The five resources here are the Diagram of An Action, A Classroom Experiment, Starter Discussion Questions and Project Ideas, Topics and People I Couldn’t Cover in the Book, and Further Reading and a Selected Bibliography. If you want additional resources, have specific questions about anything in the book, or would like me to speak to your class, I’m more than happy to help! Contact me at andysimawrites@gmail.com.

There are also my personal acknowledgments at the end of this page, thanking the people who helped me make this book a reality.

Illustrations by Jenny Miriam, for *Climate: Our Changing World*.

Diagram of an Action

I originally included this section in the appendix of the book as a way for readers to get an idea of what taking action with themselves or their club might look like. It’s a brief example of a simple action that students could conceivably set about pursuing within their own school, though the model applies to much larger actions as well. It was cut due to space limitations, but I’m glad that I get to include it here, anyway!

It is never too late to start fighting climate change! Whether you’re reading this book in 2023 or in 2053, there is always something you can do. We may not know what the world will look like in the future, but we know climate change will be with us for a long. Never give up hope, though.

Actions are usually divided into individual actions and collective actions. Individual actions are personal changes to your own life. The best individual actions are using less electricity, using less water, using less gasoline for cars, and eating less meat. But to fix climate change, we need more than just individual actions.

Collective actions are working with groups of people to make changes to society. People working together is the most powerful force out there. Getting lots of people to do individual actions together can be a kind of collective action, but more effective collective actions are things like citizen science, changing the government, or influencing businesses. Most of the examples in this book are collective actions.

The best way to start a collective action is to organize around a specific goal. You should make a plan to attain that goal and take concrete actions towards it. For a small club, like one at school, it is usually easiest to start with one goal and work towards it over time. The kind of club you make and the tactics you use to reach that goal depends on the size of your goal, too. Small-scale goals would be starting a community garden at your school, getting your town hall to install solar panels on community buildings. Medium goals would be getting your state to declare a nearby forest a protected area or fundraising to protect land. A large goal would be getting your country to stop new fossil fuel projects.

These are all solid, concrete goals, but they are very different sizes. It may be best to start with smaller goals and work towards bigger goals over time as you learn more about leading people and making change.

Start by choosing a goal you care about. Maybe your school uses single-use styrofoam trays at lunch, and you want them to switch to reusable trays instead, since the plastic trays pollute water with toxic chemicals. You might start by showing your friends the problem and getting them to work with you. With your group of friends, you can talk to a teacher about starting a club at school.

With your club, you can meet during recess, lunch, or after school to plan how you will get the school to use reusable trays. You could start by talking to your school’s head of the cafeteria. Your club could meet with them and explain why it would be good for the Earth if your school got rid of styrofoam trays. That person might say, “You’re right. We’ll use reusable trays,” or “I’ll talk to the superintendent.” But they may also say something like, “Sorry, I can’t do that; we don’t have a dishwasher for reusable trays.” Sometimes people may agree with you but there are barriers to them helping you.

From there, you can escalate your actions. Maybe your school board, the superintendent and other adults who run the school district, has public meetings. Your club could go to one of those public meetings and speak to the school board about the styrofoam trays. You could have several students give speeches as to why reusable trays are better, and other students can sit in the back of the meeting and hold signs that say something like “Styrofoam is out; Reusable is in!”

Politely confronting the school board and asking them to use reusable trays can send a powerful message; it shows that you care and know what you’re talking about. After hearing your speeches, the school board may decide that they will install a new dishwasher and buy new reusable trays to replace the styrofoam ones.

Congratulations! You’ve succeeded in making your school more sustainable. There are dozens of other actions your club could focus on after that. But if the school board fails to help you, don’t give up hope. Regroup, brainstorm, and make your actions bigger instead. You could get more students and adults to come to school board meetings with you. Or you could go to your county or state’s education department and ask them to fund reusable tray programs in schools. You could, alternatively, raise funds with your group to buy your school a new washing machine and reusable trays.

If you seem to hit a roadblock, and nothing seems to work or the people in power aren’t listening, there are always more creative solutions, too. Non-violent direct actions are solutions that people can take without having to get approval from someone else (such as a principal or school board). Direct actions don’t always need money or power, either. You could, for example, “boycott” the styrofoam trays by encouraging your friends and other students to bring their own plates or trays to and from school. Or you could “protest” the styrofoam in creative, non-violent ways, such as creating sculptures out of used styrofoam trays (yuck! That’s one way to send a message!). If people aren’t using styrofoam trays, or aren’t using them as they’re supposed to be used, then the school won’t want to buy as many.

However, it’s important to remember that not everyone can participate in direct actions, even if they really care about the cause. This could be due to physical, emotional, or financial differences; remember that they can still support your cause in other ways. It’s also important to keep in mind that some of these direct actions may upset teachers, adults, and other students, or even get you in trouble. And that’s even if you know you’re doing the right thing! As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease; those that make trouble get the most attention. But getting this kind of attention with direct action typically means walking a fine line between breaking rules, and may not be the best option, or even a good option, for every problem. This is true of any cause, not just styrofoam trays. The key is to be creative, work as a team, know your own boundaries, and find what is right for your goal.

This is just one example of an action that you can take to fight climate change. Making an effective action is about finding a concrete goal, getting people together, and taking real steps towards fixing the problem. This book has many examples of actions you can take in your own community or country, but the possibilities are endless.

Try brainstorming, by yourself and with others, your own sustainable action. Think about a problem in your community that is damaging the environment. Think bigger than your own home, and look for problems that have real-world impacts. These are problems that might affect a forest, or a neighborhood, or hundreds of people. The problems could be bigger than that, too. Think about ways you can get people involved, and what they would do. Maybe you can write letters to the government or go to city hall meetings. Or maybe you host events at school where you tell more people about the problem you’re trying to fix. The right action depends on the problem itself. But once you have a plan, make it real.

Starting with your school is a great way to get experience fighting climate change, but it doesn’t have to be the only place you fight climate change. There are plenty of existing environmental groups you could join, too. In a world with more problems than just climate change, there are an infinite number of ways to make a difference, no matter how small.

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A Classroom Experiment

Much like the Diagram of an Action, I had originally included this experiment as part of the book, too. It could be done in a classroom setting relatively easily, and it’s a great way to get kids to see the greenhouse effect hands-on.

Other possible classroom experiments include growing a garden with different watering methods, watching a tree for the entire school year, collecting water or soil samples from different places in your school/town, and more. See more possible examples with experiments from NASA here.

The greenhouse effect can be replicated on a small scale with materials most people have at home. By using a chemical reaction between vinegar and baking soda that produces carbon dioxide inside of a glass jar, you can create a space with higher carbon dioxide levels than outside the jar.

To perform the experiment, you will need:

Two glass or plastic containers (like mason jars, or 2-liter soda bottles)
Something to cover the containers with (like a screw-top lid or plastic film and rubber bands)
Two sealed thermometers (one per container), or one contactless infrared thermometer
A source of heat (preferably a lamp or sunny windowsill)
Household vinegar
Baking soda
A notebook and pencil or computer for recording temperatures and making observations

You will have two containers/jars. One is the container with normal conditions, called the control container. The other container is the one that will have increased carbon dioxide, called the variable container. The variable is what’s different than normal; it’s what you want to understand more about. The goal of this experiment is to see how higher levels of carbon dioxide change temperature. Before you start this experiment for yourself, make a hypothesis (making an educated guess): do you think temperatures will be higher in the control jar or the variable jar at the end of the experiment?

To begin the experiment, start by placing a thermometer in both containers. Close the containers. Record the temperature on the thermometer, or use the contactless infrared thermometer to read the temperature in the containers. Now, place both jars near a heat source. Measure the temperature on the thermometers in the jars after a few minutes. Next, place a quarter cup of vinegar into the bottom of each jar and seal the lids. Measure their temperatures again after a few minutes. Finally, place one tablespoon of baking soda into only the variable jar. Baking soda and vinegar produce carbon dioxide when they mix. Make sure to seal the lid very quickly so that the carbon dioxide is trapped in the jar. Once the reaction has completed and the vinegar and baking soda have stopped foaming, keep the jars near the heat source and wait. Measure their temperatures every two minutes for ten to twenty minutes.

What were your results? How did the temperatures of the containers change over time as your performed your experiment? Do your results match your hypothesis? Why or why not?

At the end, you should hopefully find that the jar with extra carbon dioxide (the variable jar) has increased in temperature more than the jar without extra carbon dioxide (the control jar). This is a basic experiment demonstrating the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide is better at trapping heat than other atmospheric gases, so higher levels of carbon dioxide in a container or in the atmosphere will cause temperatures to increase. If your results didn’t match this conclusion, try the experiment again, with a different heat source, different containers, or in a different location.

You can still repeat this experiment several times to replicate the results (an important step in science), or try the experiment with many jars at once. Perhaps you set up four control jars and four variable jars, and measure them all at the same time. You can also try other variations, such as adding the baking soda first and then the vinegar, adding different quantities of baking soda and vinegar, or even try other ways to get carbon dioxide into the container, such as breathing into it. You could also run this experiment over many days and with plants, taking the temperatures of several sealed containers with plants in them. Since plants take carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen through photosynthesis, an experiment with plants might tell you a little bit about how much carbon dioxide the plants remove.

Share your findings with friends, family, classmates, and teachers at school. Help other people understand the greenhouse effect and why carbon dioxide matters. When people understand a problem, they are more likely to feel strongly about it and work to change it. An important step in fighting climate change is getting people to believe that there is not just a real problem, but also that there are real solutions.

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Starter Discussion Questions and Project Ideas

As a naturalist and interpreter, I try to come to education from a perspective focused on sparking discussion and increasing interest in a topic. Although the text of Climate: Our Changing World is heavy with information and numbers, I believe that it’s still just as important to have students develop their own ideas and conclusions based on the world around them. Here are eleven questions, discussion starters, and project ideas that I think might help students engage with the text in this way.

Resources I used to develop these questions include best practices from the Beetles Project and the interpretive principles of Freeman Tilden and the National Park Service.

Actions to Take. The goal of this book is to get kids excited and interested in actions they can participate in within their own community. What are actions you can take right now? Are they individual actions or collective actions? What is one action you would want to start a club for? If you could focus on any one environmental problem and put your energy into action for that, what would it be? How would you do it? Write a plan with possible steps.
Favorite Facts. When you read this book/this section/this chapter, how does it make you feel? What is one fact or idea that stuck out to you, and why? How does that fact/idea make you feel? What’s something from your own life that this fact/idea reminds you of? Why is this fact important to climate change as a whole?
Important Problems. Of all the problems facing the world today, from deforestation to pollution to climate change as a whole, which one feels the most important to you? Why? What is something you individually could do about that problem right now, and what is an action you could take collectively towards that problem?
Special Places. Do you have a favorite park, forest, field, river, mountain, or other natural space? Whether it’s nearby or far away, what makes it special to you? How would it feel to lose a place like that? Have you ever lost a place that was special to you? What are some of the issues outlined in this book that your special place might face in the future? What could you do to make sure your special place exists for future generations?
Comparing Futures. Imagine two separate futures. One future is how you think the world will look in fifty (or one hundred, or ten) years; consider everything you’ve learned in this book when imagining this future. How will climate change have altered the world? What will your town, state, or country look like? Now imagine another future for how you want the world to look in ten, fifty, or a hundred years. Are there differences in these two futures? Why? What can you do to help the world look more like the future you want to see?
Dig Deeper. Pick your favorite topic from this book, or the topic that feels most important. Learn more about that topic, either by picking a specific location where that topic is prominent or by picking a topic that is similar to learn more about. For example, you might want to learn more about deforestation, so you could learn more about deforestation specifically in the pacific northwest of the United States, or you could learn about reforestation efforts in other parts of the world. Compare and contrast different problems from the book. How are their causes and outcomes similar or different? How are their solutions similar or different?
Past and Future, Near and Far. This book focuses on climate change at a global level, and then uses specific examples to illustrate worldwide problems. Think about climate change in your own town; are there ways you’re seeing the effects of climate change already? Talk to adults in your life about climate change; parents, guardians, grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, neighbors, teachers, and others. How have they seen the world and nature change in their own lifetimes? In their own communities? What are ways you can prepare your own family and your own town for climate change? Try practicing these conversations about climate change with your friends and family, and explore others’ experiences with climate change.
Self-Care and Climate Anxieties. When thinking about climate change and the future of our planet, sometimes it can feel hopeless and like there’s nothing that we can do. The future is more uncertain than ever, and it’s important to acknowledge that this can be very scary. It’s also important to remember to take care of yourself, too, and that every little step forward is one more step than you had yesterday. Even if it’s just as small as getting out of bed. What is something that you do to get yourself motivated for an activity that seems frightening or a task that feels impossible? When is a time in your life when you’ve had to do something really difficult? What skills did you use to accomplish this? How did you feel before and after? When is a time you’ve failed at something, or lost something really important to you? How did you manage those feelings? What advice would you give to someone who’s just starting to learn about climate change, especially if they’re feeling scared?
Future Leaders. As young people, you are going to have to live with the consequences of climate change more than anyone else alive today. While generations of leaders before us have made decisions that lead to where we are today, your generations are the ones who will make decisions about how to live in this uncertain world, and what the future will look like. Were you ever given a chore or a job that you didn’t like, even though it was really important? Is there a time in your life when had to stand up for what you believe is right, even if no one else would? What do you want to be when you grow up? How could you work with climate solutions in this role, or how might climate change affect your future decisions? If you were the president of your country for one day, one month, one year, what changes would you make? How can you become a leader in your own community? What kind of a world do you want for your children, or your children’s children? What are you willing to do for the future? What is worth saving to you, and how can we save it together?
Multimedia and Sharing with Others. Think about other ways that you can share information about climate change beyond just the written word. Are there other media formats that you enjoy (audiobooks, tv shows, photographs, YouTube videos, video games, paintings, songs, raps, board games, puppets, sculptures, etc.) that you could use to share information about climate change? Explore how other people have used multimedia to communicate about climate change in our world. Pick some favorites, and try making some examples of your own.
Try some Citizen Science. Think of other science experiments you could try at home, like growing a tree, counting species at a nearby park, or testing water in your community. Watch a tree for an entire year, and see how it changes, compare soil in different parts of your town, or participate in a bird count. Sometimes the experiments you run can help scientists collect more data for even larger experiments; this is called citizen science. With an adult, explore other resources about climate experiments and citizen science projects online. Perform one of these experiments and share the results with your class.

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Topics and People I Couldn’t Cover In This Book

There was a lot I wanted to talk about for this book because climate change is a huge topic. It is perhaps the biggest problem to ever face our species, and it would be impossible to include everything in one short book. Here’s a short list of other topics and people I wanted to highlight but didn’t have the space to. Students could use these as a jumping-off point for independent study projects, group assignments, or more.

Scientists

Eunice Foote (1819-1888)
Norman Borlaug (1914-2009)
Paul Crutzen (1933-2021)
Jane Goodall (1934-Present)

Conservationists

John Muir (1838-1914)
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998)
Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997)
Chico Mendes (1944-1988)

Activists

John James Audubon (1785-1851)
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
David Attenborough (1926-present)
Al Gore (1948-present)
Bill McKibben (1960-present)
Majora Carter (1966-present)
Berta Cáceres (1971-2016)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989-present)
Varshini Prakash (1993-present)
Jamie Margolin (2001-present)
Greta Thunberg (2003-present)

Organizations

350.org
Audubon Society
Center for Biological Diversity
Climate Defiance
Climate Emergency Fund
Conservation International
Evergreen Collective
Fridays for Future
Green Belt Movement
Honor the Earth
Inside Climate News
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Meatless Mondays
Namati
Natural Resources Defense Council
Nature Conservancy
Overshoot Day
Sierra Club
Sunrise Movement
Union of Concerned Scientists
United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC)
Zero Hour

Topics

Environmental Racism/Environmental Justice
Overfishing and Bycatch
The American Dust Bowl as a Climate Crisis
Deep-sea Trawling
Pollution from Marine Fishing
The Last Passenger Pigeon and Overexploitation
The Spotted Owl Vs. Logging
Climate Anxiety
Greta Thunberg, Climate Youth, and the World Stage
Melting Permafrost
Costa Rica’s Reforestation and Ecotourism
Prehistoric Mass Extinctions
Fast Fashion
Climate Refugees and Climate Migration
Hydroelectric Power, Dams, and Choosing to Flood Towns
Nuclear Energy
Microreactors and Local Electric Grids
Mining and Mineral Extraction
Off-Shore Oil Extraction
Native Land Rights and Fossil Fuels/Mining
Native Land Rights and Public Spaces
Standing Rock’s Pipeline Protests, Stop Line 3, and How To Blow Up a Pipeline
Cape Town and Day Zero
Flint, Michigan
California’s Drought and the Rio Grande River
India’s Punjab Region Groundwater Depletion
Invasive Species
Human Population Growth and Potential Futures
Hurricanes and Severe Storms
Climate Modeling and Scientific Uncertainty
The Ozone Hole and What We Did About It
London’s Smog Moths and Natural Selection
The Impact of Electronics Production and Electronics Recycling
Leaded Gasoline
Why Cities Are Both Good and Bad For the Environment
The Tragedy of the Commons
The Confusing Nature of Water Vapor as a Sort-of Greenhouse Gas
Crises in the Distribution of Resources
Global Military Forces and Climate Change
Corporate Misinformation about Climate Change
Relationships Between Post-Industrial America and The Developing World
Differences Between Local and Global Sustainability
More about Groundwater, Water Rights, and International Water Usage
More About the Anthropocene as a Human Era
More about Citizen Science and How Students Can Become Scientists
More about How Students Can Lead Actions
The Pros and Cons of Nonviolent Direct Action
Other Methods of Sustainable Agriculture
More About Circular Economies
More About Wildfires and Controlled Burns

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Acknowledgments and Thanks

I’d like to thank my editor, Sue Tarsky for all the feedback and advice on this book. Jenny Miriam, for the excellent illustrations. And Gillian King-Cargile, for putting me in contact with Albert-Whitman in the first place and, more importantly, being a great friend and mentor. And now, in no particular order: Gillen Wood, for teaching me about the Anthropocene. Becky Schwartz, for the bathtub model of energy balance. Herb Anderson, for getting me to pursue a degree in environmental science. Shakil Kashem, for maps. Svea Bylsma, for always being a listening ear and a discerning teacher. Ms. McKenna, for supporting my writing projects both in and out of class. Rob Kanter, Jodi Byrd, Ted Sanders, Lori Newcomb, s.g. Maldonado-Velez, Amanda Bales, Zachariah McVicker, Katherine Gaffney, Stephen Davenport, Amy Hassinger, and Patrick Woyna for helping me hone my writing. Mr. M, for helping me get through high school. Mrs. Keigher and Mrs. Blatchley, for science olympiad. And every other teacher who helped me at Lisle, from kindergarten to graduation.

Of course Cheyenne Wendell, for helping me make the time to complete this project and supporting me, even when I did not want supporting. Meg and David Sima, for being amazing and supportive parents, I literally wouldn’t be here without you. Nick Sima, for being the best sibling and stalwart friend. Grandma Alice, for taking me to Anderson’s Bookshop and letting me pick out all the books (and Anderson’s and Miss Kathleen for being my favorite bookstore, and hosting my first proper book signing). Grandpa Wurster, for being an English teacher and lifelong reader, and Jane, for the New England wit and wisdom. Grannie Annie, for the love of reading and jars of sprinkles. Steph Lawrence/Sima (still not used to it, sorry) for being the first person I saw to buy my book, and Sue Wurster for being the first to get it in the mail. Kenny Smallhorn, the Shahnzkis+, the SECS tubbed/Murphy’s gang, the bonfire squad/cast of The Moth, the rest of the John Wayne Glass Collectors, Pablo and our bus stories, and all my other family and friends that I have unfortunately neglected to/can’t name here because it would take too long, for supporting me through times good and bad. And Melanie Rohla, for championing Saelac Bergmann and more besides.

Last but not least, Randy Hahn, who also gets the dedication in this book for inadvertently kicking off the series of events that got me here at all. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

Dreams do come true. I can’t wait to take the next step, and now I can because of all of you. Thank you.

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