This video provides evidence of hurricanes causing more precipitation and becoming stronger, slower, and larger than in the past.
The video includes footage of Katharine Hayhoe discussing these events and providing examples from hurricanes that have hit the Gulf Coast.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students may be surprised to learn that 93% of the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed by the oceans, which may help them make the connection between higher ocean temperatures and stronger hurricanes.
The information is presented in a very logical and easy-to-follow manner.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have a basic understanding of the greenhouse effect.
Students should understand that heat is a form of energy.
Differentiation
Social studies and economics classes could discuss the human and environmental costs of more powerful and/or longer-lived storms and compare those with the costs of addressing climate change, taking into account the additional loss of life (which cannot be measured financially) that may occur from more extreme storms.
Biology and/or chemistry classes could use this resource as a hook for lessons about the flow of energy through ecosystems, the increasing capacity of the atmosphere to hold more water vapor at higher temperatures, the effects of heat on chemical reactions and on the density of liquid water, and the reduction in dissolved oxygen available in the oceans as they warm.
This resource explores options for contingency planning to avert storm surges and extreme weather events. Climate change has increased ocean temperatures, and this fuels extreme storm occurrence. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
English Language Arts
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
11-12.SL.3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, perspective, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
Science
ESS2: Earth's Systems
HS.ESS2.2 Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
HS.ESS2.4 Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
6.ESS3.5 Ask clarifying questions based on evidence about the factors that have caused climate change over the past century.
