Global Carbon Cycle, Greenhouse Effect &
Rising Temperatures
AIHEC Tribal Colleges Collaborative Course Development Project:
Introduction to Climate Change from an Indigenous Perspective
Prepared by: Teresa Newberry & Katherine Mitchell
Date:
September 2011
GREENHOUSE EFFECT & THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE
YOUR NAME 2
TOPIC OVERVIEW
Climate change is a result of changes in atmospheric chemistry. The altered chemistry is
affecting the radiative transfer energy balance of the atmosphere and earth surface.
Although students often have exposure to climate change impacts, for example the
media attention to polar bears, they usually do not understand the underlying processes
of climate change. This module explains the greenhouse effect and introduces simple
concepts of radiation transfer. It introduces the greenhouse gases, and how water vapor
and clouds are also part of the greenhouse effect.
The carbon cycle is central to understanding climate change science since human
perturbation of the global carbon cycle is the reason our climate is undergoing such rapid
change. The carbon cycle is also an important concept in teaching students that the
earth functions as a system, a unified and connected system in which energy and
materials flow between land, water and air. Students will be introduced to the bio-geochemical cycling of carbon. The growing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is
the primary cause of global warming. It is important that students understand that CO2
in the atmosphere is naturally abundant, and that they can visualize the entire carbon
cycle. This module has introductory material on carbon cycling on land, in the ocean, and
in the atmosphere. Human disturbance of the carbon cycle and the sources of carbon
influx are covered as well as natural sinks for atmospheric carbon. Students have the
opportunity to examine their individual carbon footprint, understand their impact on the
carbon cycle and explore ways to reduce their carbon footprint.
Learning about changes in atmospheric CO2 and global temperature presents a good
opportunity for students to work with data and simple data visualization. This module
introduces students to two very important datasets: measurement of atmospheric CO2
using towers at Mauna Loa since the 1950’s and proxy measurement of atmospheric CO2
using ice-core datasets at Antarctica since about 400,000 years ago. This module
emphasizes that temperature increase in the last 200 years is a scientific fact and comes
from measurements. Long-term temperature datasets using proxy data are introduced.
Modeling future climate scenarios using Coupled General Circulation models and
negative and positive feedback loops is introduced.
Introduction to Climate Change from an Indigenous Perspective
GREENHOUSE EFFECT & THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE
YOUR NAME 3
1. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Course Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this module, the student will be able to:
Student development
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Describe the seriousness of climate change as an issue on Native lands and feel
empowered to assume responsibility and act.
Communicate scientific issues to their community with confidence and depth of
knowledge and actively serve in educational and leadership roles.
Understanding Climate Science and Climate Change
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Explain how future climate changes are predicted, both globally and for their own
region or tribal lands, and how scientists make predictions about future climate
scenarios.
Describe changes in climate through time, and be able to distinguish between long
term geologic-scale climate change and recent human-caused climate change.
Describe the global carbon cycle and the role of CO2 in creating ‘a greenhouse effect’
including the recent (100 year) changes in the composition of the atmosphere and
its role in global warming.
Ways of Knowing: Traditional Knowledge and Scientific Research Skills
 Describe various approaches to collecting and analyzing data, including field data
collection, visual data analysis, and using data to understand trends or discover
underlying issues.
Topic Learning Objectives
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Goal 1. Students understand that the earth is warming because of changes in atmospheric
chemistry
o Objective 1. Students will be able to describe the greenhouse effect using simple
energy/radiation terminology
o Objective 2. Students will be able to explain that the greenhouse effect is
natural and keeps our planet within a ‘livable’ temperature range.
Introduction to Climate Change from an Indigenous Perspective
GREENHOUSE EFFECT & THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE
YOUR NAME 4
o Objective 3. Students will be able to list the main greenhouse gases and their
degree of increase in the atmosphere.
o Objective 4. Students will be able to list negative and positive feedback loops
and give examples of factors which will increase or decrease the rate of climate
change in the future such as cloud cover and type of ground cover.
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Goal 2. Teach students the basics of the global carbon cycle on land and in oceans.
Introduce the concept of ‘cycling’ and the physical connection of the atmosphere and the
biosphere. Introduce and reinforce the idea that the earth functions as a unified global
system.
o Objective 1. Students will be to describe the basic chemistry of carbon and how
it moves and transforms throughout the earth’s biosphere, lithosphere,
atmosphere and hydrosphere.
o Objective 2. Students will be able to draw and label a simple diagram of carbon
cycling in plants and soils, and in the oceans.
o Objective 3. Students will be able to distinguish carbon fluxes from carbon
storage. They should be able to label this properly in the diagram.
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Goal 3. Introduce increasing atmospheric CO2 due to human activities (in order to set the
context for future class topics on global warming, fossil fuels etc.)
o Objective 1. Students will be able to describe two human activities that increase
CO2 in the atmosphere
o Objective 2. Students will be able to describe recent trends in carbon sources
and sinks.
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Goal 4. Introduction to and interpretation of climate data and datasets
o Objective 1. Students will be able to interpret temperature and other data graphs
including units of measurement, time period and trends.
o Objective 2. Students will be able to explain a ‘proxy record’ and give examples of
proxy records including the ice cores from Vostok in Antarctica.
o Objective 3. Students will be able to describe the increase in quantitative terms the
measured increase in global temperature in the past 200 years.
2. SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTOR MATERIALS
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NASAs online introduction to C. Good quick synopsis for Instructor review.
o http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CarbonCycle/
The Earth System, Kump et al.
Introduction to Climate Change from an Indigenous Perspective
GREENHOUSE EFFECT & THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE
YOUR NAME 5
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o Pgs 149-173. More detailed chemistry than we are teaching.
Climate Change. Mathez.
o Pgs 57 – 73. Good overview, still some chemistry, but helpful.
Two Power Points (at website) with good slides that you may want to use as handouts or
integrate into your lecture:
o 3 good slides oncarboncycle.ppt 3PPt slides. Graphics on humans and C cycle
o Myneni lecture on carbon with goodgraphics.ppt 12 PPt slides. Lecture by wellknown scientist at BU that has some good graphics slides.
Website - http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/usinventoryreport. This is the US
EPA greenhouse gas inventory website
US EPA Intro to Greenhsoue Gas Emissions.pdf. The EPA overview on greenhouse gases in
the US, emission sources, trends, etc.
Wewbsite - http://www.ipcc.ch/. This is the main page for the IPCC
IPCC-synthesis_2008.pdf. Synthesis document of the entire IPCC report from 2007
Climate101_overview_Jan09.pdf. Overview from the PEW Climate Change Center. Good
for background and may be also OK for students.
o Climate101_science_Jan09. Climate change science explanation from the PEW
Climate Change Center
3. LECTURES IN POWERPOINT
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Greenhouse Effect, Carbon Cycle and Rising Temperatures.ppt .
lecture.
67 PPt slides. Main
o Note: “Student Handout_1_Greenhouse Effect” should be handed out during
lecture and gone over in class.
o Note: “Student Handout_2_Introduction to carbon cycling.doc” should be handed
out during lecture and gone over in class.
o Note: “Student Handout_3_increasing atmospheric CO2.doc” should be handed out
during lecture and gone over in class.
o Note: “Student Handout_4_Rising Temperatures. doc” should be handed out
during lecture and gone over in class
4. STUDENT LEARNING MATERIALS
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Student handout #1 greenhouse effect.doc. In-class discussion of the graphic, then out of
class assignment to read and answer questions.
Introduction to Climate Change from an Indigenous Perspective
GREENHOUSE EFFECT & THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE
YOUR NAME 6
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Student Handout #2 - introduction to carbon cycling. doc
o This should be handed out during lecture and used in class
Student Handout #3-increasing atmospheric CO2.doc
Student Handout #4 on rising temperature.doc. Data on global temperature increase in last
200 years. Students should understand how to read an ‘anomaly’ temperature scale.
Reading in Dire Predictions:
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“What are the important greenhouse gases, and where do they come from?” (Pages 26-27) and “Carbon-cycle feedbacks:
Nature’s response to CO2” (Pages 94-97)
“Feedback loops compound the greenhouse effect” (Pages 24-25), “Greenhouse gases on the rise” (Pages 32-33) “Couldn’t the
increase in atmospheric CO2 be the result of natural cycles?” (Pages 34-35), and It’s getting hotter down here” (Pages36-37)
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Student Activity:
o Carbon Footprint Quiz and Discussion
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Student assignment: reading article on tropical forests as carbon sink.
o This will help students with the concept that C is taken up and stored by plants. It
also is important regarding possible policy to ‘pay’ developing nations to store
carbon in their forests (REDD).
Student assignment on carbon cycling.doc.
o This is just a brief idea for an assignment. Students search You-tube for carbon
cycling videos.
Climate101_overview_Jan09.pdf. Overview from the PEW Climate Change Center. Good
for background. Could assign the first 3 or 4 pages to students as reading in greenhouse
effects and rising temperature.
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5. MULTIMEDIA COMPONENT
You-tube: search for carbon cycling videos. There are many – students can search ‘carbon
cycle’, ‘carbon cycling’, ‘global carbon’ etc. Some are very educational.
6. EVALUATION
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Carbon cycle and Greenhouse Effect quiz
Student short essay idea
Introduction to Climate Change from an Indigenous Perspective
GREENHOUSE EFFECT & THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE
YOUR NAME 7
o Respond to this statement: “The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has had
periods of increasing and periods of decreasing across the last 400,000 years.
We can see that in the Vostok ice core. So, what’s the big deal that CO2 is
increasing now?.”
o Answer: 1) look at Mauna Loa ppm and understand that atmospheric CO2 has
NEVER been this high in the last 400,000 years. Be able to cite actual ppm. 2)
The rapid rate of CO2 increase has never been seen before.
Introduction to Climate Change from an Indigenous Perspective