Essay and Discussion Questions from Climate & Energy

Climate Change High School Questions

Help students understand how climate change poses an extraordinary threat to the planet and its inhabitants through these essay and discussion questions.

Introduction

  1. In what ways have human activities contributed to climate change as evidenced by increasing average global temperatures? What types of activities contribute most directly and are seen in historic records?
  2. What are some of the consequences of climate change? How can humans help mitigate climate change?
  3. Why are scientists so concerned with what they are observing in Greenland? What is the enhanced Greenhouse Effect? How does climate change create an unhealthy melting cycle in Greenland? What will happen if climate change continues to worsen (with average global temperatures rising more than 2.0℃)?
  4. Why does addressing climate cause challenges at the international level?

Policy

  1. When looking at greenhouse emissions, why is it important to consider both annual and cumulative emissions?
  2. How can measuring greenhouse gas emissions help guide policy decisions about climate change?
  3. How should the responsibility for combating climate change be divided up among countries?
  4. What are the benefits of letting each country decide its own Nationally Defined Contribution (NDC)? What are the limitations of this approach? Why do you think negotiators chose this approach, rather than negotiating each country’s responsibility as they did in the Kyoto Protocol?
  5. Each country has access to the same information about climate - why do you think their NDCs differ so greatly?
  6. What do you think the impact of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement was? How can countries be persuaded to stay in the agreement in the future?
  7. Do you think the Paris Agreement is sufficient to address climate change? If not, what further action is needed?

Effects

  1. In what ways will climate change affect life? In what ways will it affect the lives of people around the world?
  2. What are some examples of ways in which climate change will affect people around the world unequally? What are the effects of this inequality?
  3. How does climate change contribute to water scarcity?
  4. In what ways will water scarcity affect your life? In what ways will it affect the lives of people around the world?

Actions

  1. Why is it important to consider how advancements in AI might impact the future of climate change? What are some important aspects for policymakers to consider about AI in relation to climate change?
  2. Do you think it is worth investing in AI as a means of fighting climate change? Why or why not?
  3. Do you think the future potential of AI might overshadow the need to address climate change in the short term?
  4. What are some ways that the Inflation Reduction Act seeks to fight climate change?
  5. What are some ways that countries can incentivize/disincentivize behaviors related to climate change?
  6. Should the world focus efforts on mitigation, adaptation, or geoengineering? Why?
  7. Should developing countries like China and India continue industrializing, even though their carbon emissions are increasing as a result?