TABLE OF CONTENTS Video Summary Related Content Video
TABLE OF CONTENTS Video Summary & Related Content Video Review Before Viewing While Viewing Talk Prompts After Viewing The Story Activity #1: Addressing your carbon footprint Activity #2: Denying the Deniers Sources CREDITS News in Review is produced by CBC NEWS and curio. ca GUIDE Writer/Editor: Sean Dolan Additional editing: Michaël Elbaz VIDEO Host: Michael Serapio Senior Producer: Jordanna Lake Packaging Producer: Marie-Hélène Savard Associate Producer: Francine Laprotte Supervising Manager: Laraine Bone Visit www. curio. ca/newsinreview for an archive of all previous News In Review seasons. As a companion resource, go to www. cbc. ca/news for additional articles. CBC authorizes reproduction of material contained in this guide for educational purposes. Please identify source. News In Review is distributed by: curio. ca | CBC Media Solutions © 2018 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 3 4 5 6 8 12 15 18 20 23
EXTREME WEATHER 2018: Is This Climate Change? Video duration – 18: 23 Climate on this planet is always changing. Over hundreds of thousands of years there have been heating and cooling events, with at least five ice ages. Since the 19 th century scientists believe that the rapid heating of the earth is a result of man-made climate change. The summer of 2018 saw extremely hot temperatures across the northern hemisphere. From deadly heat waves across Asia, Europe and Great Britain to killer humidity in eastern North America and extremely dry conditions in the normally wet west. Is this the new normal? And can these conditions be attributed to climate change? RELATED CONTENT • • • Canada to decrease carbon tax, angering activists Climate Change: Worst-Case Scenario Forest Fires and Climate Change collection News in Review, Feb 2016 – Climate Challenge: World Leaders Turn up the Heat in Paris News in Review, Dec 2015 – Global Warming: Canada's Melting Glaciers When Climate Change Hits Home curio. ca/newsinreview /3
VIDEO REVIEW curio. ca/newsinreview /4
BEFORE VIEWING The University of Alberta’s Mike Flannigan commented on two successive, record breaking wildfire seasons in British Columbia with the following observation: “This is the new reality — some people like to say this is the new normal, but that implies a plateau. It could get worse and worse. ” In 2017, 1. 22 million hectares of B. C. forest went up in smoke. In 2018, 1. 33 million hectares burned. The culprit according to many experts: CLIMATE CHANGE. 1. Why does Flannigan feel the need to point out the difference between the expressions “new reality” and “new normal”? 2. The past 19 years have included the 18 warmest on record, according to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. While most scientists are wary of linking the wildfires in B. C. directly to climate change, others are proclaiming, “Isn’t it obvious? !? ” What do you think? Should scientists be more confident in linking extreme weather events to the warming of the planet? Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview /5
WHILE VIEWING 1. According to Environment Canada’s senior climatologist Dave Phillips, heat waves like the ones seen in 2018 will become the norm in the coming decades. TRUE or FALSE? 2. According to Mike Hulme of the University of Cambridge, Great Britain’s summer of 2018 was: a) On track to be the coldest on record b) On track to be the hottest since the turn of the millennium c) On track to be the hottest in 350 years d) On track to be the wettest ever 3. How much time did residents of Greece’s east coast have to evacuate after they first spotted smoke from wildfires? a) 20 minutes b) 2 hours c) 20 hours d) 2 days 4. The 2018 wildfire season in British Columbia is: a) The worst on record b) the second worst on record Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? c) the third worst on record curio. ca/newsinreview /6
5. Smoke from the B. C. fires: a) Drifted all the way to the Maritimes b) hut down beaches in the Okanagan c) Caused air quality warnings in Vancouver d) All of the above 6. More than 14 000 firefighters took part in the battle to extinguish the Mendocino Complex fire. TRUE or FALSE? 7. While President Trump blamed bad environmental laws for diverting water that could be used to fight the wildfires in California, Cal Fire said they had plenty of water and that climate change was the real reason for the emergence of annual forest fires. TRUE or FALSE? 8. Canada will probably experience a cold winter caused by an El Niño weather pattern in 20182019. TRUE or FALSE? Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview /7
TALK PROMPTS NEW curio. ca/newsinreview /8
TALK PROMPT #1 Consider pausing the video and giving students the opportunity to talk to a partner for a few minutes or use these questions as part of a class discussion. Pause the video after Katie Simpson signs off from her first report, @ 00: 00 – 03: 47 1. How hot was the summer of 2018 for the people of Great Britain? 2. What problems surfaced as a result of the heat? Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview /9
TALK PROMPT #2 Pause the video after Katie Simpson signs off from her second report, @ 03: 48 – 06: 36 1. Describe the experience of tourist Mati Jaakob Makinen. 2. What grisly discovery did Red Cross workers make in the aftermath of the fire on the east coast of Greece? TALK PROMPT #3 Pause the video after Ian Hanomansing’s interview with meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe, @ 06: 37 – 11: 34 1. What contributed to the prevalence of wildfires in Ontario? 2. Why does Wagstaffe believe that extreme weather is becoming part of our new environmental reality? Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview / 10
TALK PROMPT #4 Play the video until the end, @ 11: 35 – 18: 23 1. Describe the effects of fires in B. C. and California on the people living there. 2. How have people’s lives changed? 3. What was President Trump’s take on the California wildfires? 4. What did Cal Fire think of his perspective? 5. What is the likely weather pattern headed for Canada in the winter of 2018 -2019? Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview / 11
AFTER VIEWING Global Forest Watch Fires (GFW Fires) is an online platform for monitoring and responding to forest and land fires using near real-time information. 1. View their World Fires map at: https: //fires. globalforestwatch. org/map 2. In the Fire Report box, use the Country Report menu to select Canada. Click on Generate to see the current wildfires affecting our country. 3. On the Fire Report for Canada page, scroll down to Fire Alert Count (Jan. 1, 2012 – Present). Have fire seasons been getting worse since 2012? 4. Scroll down to Fire History: Fire Season Progression: a) What can you learn by the national data provided in the chart? b) Use the Region: Canada menu on the right to select your province. What does the data tell you about the fire situation in your province since 2012. Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview / 12
c) Check out the other provinces in this section. Which provinces seems to be experiencing the most challenges with wildfires? 5. Go back to the original GFW Fires map: https: //fires. globalforestwatch. org/map a) Click and drag the map to see wildfire activity around the world. Please note that it may take several seconds for the active fires data to load. b) Where are most of the wildfires currently happening? Why do you think wildfires are emerging in these places? Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview / 13
It's a global heat wave that we’re seeing. We're seeing temperatures being broken in places that you just don't expect it, in Japan and both Koreas, north of the Arctic Circle. Death Valley, California, had the warmest temperature of any place on this planet in recorded history in July, with four days where the temperature was above 53. – Dave Phillips, Senior Climatologist, Environment Canada
THE STORY The stories are startling: • Spring rains bring the worst flooding in 35 years to the people of New Brunswick, causing over $80 million in property damage. • Record breaking heat stretches across Central Canada resulting in 93 deaths in Quebec. • 42 summer wildfires rip through parts of Northern Ontario, with 19 of them listed as “out of control. ” • Two consecutive years of enormous summer wildfires in B. C. lead to smoke so heavy that air quality warnings are triggered across the province, with residual smoke traveling via the jet stream all the way across Canada. What the experts say It seems the collective news cycles of the major media Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? outlets across Canada are dominated by extreme weather stories. More often than not, climate experts are reluctant to link extreme weather to climate change, mostly because they believe they need more long-term curio. ca/newsinreview / 15
data to make such a claim credible. While theoretically the link is easy to make (global warming leads to the heating of oceans and lakes, which leads to more water vapour and a renewed cycle of warming) scientists are not quite on board the “climate change/extreme weather” ship yet. However, with each passing year, the guard is coming down and the experts are saying climate change is the main reason for severe weather events. Global implications Extreme weather isn’t just a Canadian phenomenon. The summer of 2018 saw record-breaking temperatures in Britain, deadly wildfires in Greece (that killed 91 people) and drought conditions in much of Europe. There were even wildfires in parts of Sweden that are far enough north to be considered part of the Arctic Circle. Meanwhile 65 people died after a heat wave hit Japan, with another 25 000 admitted to hospital with heat related illnesses. Not meeting our goals The correlation between extreme weather and climate Red Cross workers in Greece Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview / 16
change can no longer be ignored. While almost every nation on Earth vowed to work together to keep warming to 1. 5°C above preindustrialized levels in the Paris Climate Agreement, scientists worry that almost no nation is on track to meet this goal. Left unchecked, temperatures could continue rising and, if the planet goes to 2°C above pre-industrialized levels, weather patterns will become devastating and deadly. Changing too slowly This is why some environmentalists are sounding the alarm and proclaiming, “Look! When have you seen a wildfire/hurricane/flood like that!? We need to change our behaviour before we pollute ourselves out of a planet!” While steps are being taken to address the problem of climate change, many worry that the pace of change is just too slow. In the meantime, extreme weather will become a major part of our new reality. Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? TO CONSIDER 1. What evidence is there that extreme weather events and climate change go hand-inhand? 2. What was the goal set at the Paris Climate Conference? How is the world doing in terms of meeting this goal? curio. ca/newsinreview / 17
ACTIVITY # 1: Addressing your carbon footprint Climate change strategist Laura Zizzo cautions world leaders to work hard at honouring their Paris Climate Conference pledge and focus on reducing carbon emissions, saying, “We have to work hard to avoid the unimaginable and manage the inevitable. ” Her comment concedes that we have already brought a level of warming to the planet that cannot be reversed. However, and this is the main point she is making, we need to avoid waiting for others to clean up their act before we clean up our own act because, if we don’t make a commitment to reducing emissions, the warming trend will destroy everything that we have built as a collective civilization. This applies on both a national and individual level. YOUR TASK 1. a) Sit down with your parent or guardian and calculate your carbon footprint. Go to the Carbon Zero website — www. carbonzero. ca/calculate — input the data and see what you come up with. Feel free to use another carbon calculator if you prefer. If your parent or guardian is unavailable to complete this, conduct some online research to determine average household utility costs and transportation expenses. Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview / 18
b) Print, take a picture or find a way to record your carbon footprint calculation. 1. Develop a strategy to reduce your carbon footprint. One strategy might be to purchase carbon offsets. Another might be to minimize the amount of fossil fuels you consume. Be creative and come up with five ways you could help to reduce the production of greenhouse gases. 2. Share your discoveries with your classmates in a class discussion. 3. Submit your carbon footprint calculation and reduction strategy to your teacher. Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview / 19
ACTIVITY #2 : Denying the deniers In a leaked memo obtained by website Carbon Brief, the BBC came under fire for being soft on climate change sceptics like Nigel Lawson. Chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Lawson appeared on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today program and claimed that global temperatures have not risen over the past decade. In fact, the past 19 years have included the 18 warmest on record. The interviewer did not challenge Lawson, an omission that represented a breach in the BBC’s own broadcast standards. The Lawson incident and a few other climate change stories prompted Fran Unsworth, the director of news and current affairs for the network, to issue a four-page briefing note to staff cautioning against creating a “false balance” in coverage of the topic. Unsworth says in the note, “Manmade climate change Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? exists: If science proves it, we should report it…. To achieve impartiality, you do not need to include outright deniers of climate change in BBC coverage, in the same way you would not have someone denying that Manchester United won 2 -0 last Saturday. ” In other words, curio. ca/newsinreview / 20
there is no need to interview someone like Lawson while covering a climate change story since most of his positions have been proven scientifically false by a myriad of experts. In a sense, interviewing someone who claims to be a climate change denier has become ridiculous. Unsworth’s briefing note came on the heels of close to 60 environmentalists who rallied to inform the Guardian newspaper that they would no longer debate the issue of climate change with contrarians invited to refute this global fact. In their declaration to the newspaper, they said, “We will no longer debate those who deny that human-caused climate change is real. There are plenty of Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? vital debates to be had around climate chaos and what to do about it; this is simply no longer one of them. We urge broadcasters to move on, as we are doing. ” Climate change scientists feel the deniers are distracting people from the vital work of mitigating carbon production and adapting to a world with higher global temperatures. curio. ca/newsinreview / 21
Media Literacy Activity – Denying the deniers Write a 200 -400 word reflection paper answering the following question: What is the danger involved in giving deniers equal billing with scientists when covering climate change in the media? Consult online sources using some of these search words: • • climate change mitigation climate change adaptation climate change deniers Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview / 22
SOURCES Carrington, Damian. (September 7, 2018). BBC admits ‘we get climate change coverage wrong too often. ’ The Guardian. Retrieved from: www. theguardian. com/environment/2018/sep/07/bbc-we-get-climate-change -coverage-wrong-too-often Cockburn, Harry. (September 7, 2018). U. S. ‘roadblocking’ climate change negotiations amid warnings the world is failing to hit emissions targets. The Independent. Retrieved from: www. independent. co. uk/environment/us-climate-change-paris-agreement-emissions-targets-global-warminglatest-a 8527351. html Flanagan, Ryan. (July 31, 2018). Forest fires will become more widespread and destructive, expert warns. CTV News. Retrieved from: www. ctvnews. ca/canada/forest-fires-will-become-more-widespread-and-destructiveexpert-warns-1. 4034546 Mc. Carthy, Shawn. (September 7, 2018). A summer of fire, heat and flood puts a focus on adapting to climate change. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from: www. theglobeandmail. com/politics/article-a-summer-of-fireheat-and-flood-puts-a-focus-on-adapting-to-climate/ Extreme Weather 2018: Is this Climate Change? curio. ca/newsinreview / 23
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