Lesson Plan 110105

Objectives:

1. Provide basic background information on the causes ofglobal climate disruption (global warming).

2. Create awareness of governmental and economic reasonsfor downplaying the causes of global climate disruption.

3. Create awareness of specific, recent circumstances in whichthe U.S. Government and industry have collaborated todiscredit science supporting the causes and effects of globalclimate disruption.

4. Generate critical thinking about ways in which citizens,corporations and government can work together to changethe causes of global climate disruption.

Materials/Sources:

1. “Global Warming Cover-Up” “Six Things” Page.2. “Global Warming Cover-Up” News & Views Page.3. “Global Warming Cover-Up” Notable Quotes Page.4. “Global Warming Cover-Up” Classroom Comic5. Computers connected to the Internet/world wide web.

Methods:1. Distribute “Global Warming Cover-Up” Questions & Answers

page to students. Have them spend 15 minutes reading andreviewing the information provided.

2. After students have read the Questions & Answers page,hand out the “Global Warming Cover-Up” News ReportPage and the Classroom Comic.

3. HOMEWORK: Using the web resources on the ClassroomComics page and other searches, students will conductonline research about how climate disruption is alreadyaffecting large ecosystems, and how continued atmosphericcarbon buildup will lead to greater disruptions.

4. NEXT CLASS PERIOD: Student-led discussion.A. Before you start the discussion, ask for a show of

hands to the following questions:- “How many of you think global warming is being

deliberately ignored by many in our government and bymany large companies?”

- “How many of you think the global warming problemis overstated and that there is not enough information toforce changes in how we live?”

B. Choose two students--one each that raised theirhands to the questions--to lead a discussion within the class.Ask them to discuss these questions:

1. If global climate disruption is not a problem, whywould so many scientists create the global warming scenarioand write so many papers about it? What would be theirmotivation?

2. Who stands to gain most by downplaying thepotential problems of global climate disruption?

3. What motivation would an elected official have fordismissing the scientific evidence and the opinions of themajority of the scientific community about global warming?

4. Why do you think our government has not taken a

more active part in reducing the burning of fossil fuel?5. Who do you think is most responsible for our lack

of concern about global climate disruption: industry, thegovernment, or ourselves? (Why?)

B. After the discussion, ask students for theirimpressions of the Rustle the Leaf Classroom Comic. Askwhat they think of the punchline. Ask why they think wewould rather ignore global warming than force ourselvesand our government to change.

Background Information for Teachers:

The Great Global Warming Cover-UpSince taking office in 2001, the Bush Administration has executed a systematic,clearly-defined plan to allow business interests to determine U.S. environmentalpolicy. Although it is typical for each administration to appoint people topositions that are consistent with its own views, the Bush Administration hastaken such appointments to a new, low level--populating agencies chargedwith protecting the environment with people who do not believe in basicenvironmental protections. Following is an excerpt from the UK’s newspaper“The Independent,” in which the Bush Administration’s objectives for challengingand dismantling environmental protections are reported.Bush Sets Out Plan to Dismantle 30 Years ofEnvironmental Lawsby Geoffrey Lean in Washington, for The Independent [UK], 12/05/2004George Bush's new administration, and its supporters controlling Congress,are setting out to dismantle three decades of US environmental protection.In little over a month since his re-election, they have announced that they willcomprehensively rewrite three of the country's most important environmentallaws, open up vast new areas for oil and gas drilling, and reshape the officialEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA).They say that the election gave them a mandate for the measures—which,ironically, will overturn a legislative system originally established by theRepublican Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford—even though MrBush went out of his way to avoid emphasizing his environmental plans duringhis campaign."The election was a validation of the philosophy and the agenda," said MikeLeavitt, the Bush-appointed head of the EPA. He points out that over a thirdof the agency's staff will become eligible for retirement over the President'sfour-year term, enabling him to fill it with people lenient to polluters...© Copyright 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd

Source: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1205-02.htm

Other Troubling News...In the Summer of 2005, it was widely reported that the Bush Administrationhad specifically edited scientific reports on global warming to make theproblem seem less severe and to convey the idea that science is widelydivided on the issue.During the same period, documents from the U.S. Department of Justicewere made public, in which there was proof that the Bush Administration wassubmitting its environmental policy plans to employees of ExxonMobil forguidance.These news reports are documented in the content of this lesson plan.

NOTE: Although it is the normal practice of GO NATUR’L STUDIOS, LLC. to avoid politically-driven lessoncontent, the sheer power of the Bush Administration’s alliances with big oil companies compels us to speakout. This lesson, instead of adding to or citing the readily-available, overwhelmingly detailed informationabout global climate disruption, seeks to point out one of the key reasons that U.S. citizens have largelyignored the issue.

The Global Warming Cover-Up(Target: Grades 9-12)

On Monday, October 6th, 1997, then-President Clinton and Vice PresidentGore hosted the "White HouseConference on Climate Change: TheChallenge of Global Warming" atGeorgetown University. Among thosespeaking at the conference was Dr.John P. Holdren, Visiting DistinguishedScientist at The Woods Hole ResearchCenter. Dr. Holdren, then head ofPCAST (The President's Committee ofAdvisors on Science and Technology)was also one of seven prominentscientists invited to the White House todiscuss issues of climate changescience with the President and VicePresident. Dr. Holdren's statement,made at that meeting, appears below.

I think, Mr. President, Mr. VicePresident, there are at least six reasonswhy most people underrate theseriousness of the climate disruptionproblem.

I think the first reason thatpeople tend to underrate this problemis that human well-being is a lot moredependent on climate than most peoplethink. As you heard today, we're talkingabout the productivity of farms andforests and fisheries. We're talkingabout the frequency and intensity offloods and droughts and heat waves.We're talking about the geographicpattern of disease. We're talking aboutsea level r ise and associateddestruction of coastal property. Andwe're talking about the potential forpolitical tension and conflict over theconsequences and over who'sresponsible and who should pay.

The second reasonpeople tend to underrate this problemis that climate disruption is a lot further

along than most people think. As we'veseen, atmospheric carbon dioxide isalready higher than it's been in the last160,000 years. The global surfacetemperature, which is expected to lagbehind increasing carbon dioxideconcentration, is higher than it's beenin the last thousand years.

The third reason that manypeople are more complacent than theyshould be is that the climate implicationsof future growth in population and futuregrowth in energy consumption are a lotbigger than most people think. We'regoing to have in the year 2050, barringnear disaster, something like 9 billionpeople compared to less than 6 billiontoday. We're going to have energy useunder "business as usual" that will bethree times higher than today's andCO2 emissions that are 2 to 2H timestoday's worldwide.

The fourth reason is thatscientific uncertainties are not groundsfor complacency, in spite of what manypeople may think. There areuncertainties about many of the detailsof timing and magnitude and regionalvariation in the consequences of climatechange, but there is no uncertainty atall that humans have significantlyaltered the global atmosphericconcentrations of gases we know to becritical in controlling climate. And there'sa solid consensus among the scientistswho have studied these mattersseriously that the chances of significantimpacts on human well being fromclimate change over the next fewdecades are substantial.

The fifth reason that peopleunderrate the problem is that the timelags between cause and effect and

between effect and remedy are longerthan most people think. Those timelags and above all the several decadesthat it will take to substantially successfully transform the world's fossil fuel-dependent energy supply system meanthat doing nothing is a very dangerouscourse of action.

The world's energy-economicsystem is a lot like a supertanker, veryhard to steer and with very bad brakes,and we know from the science that hasbeen reviewed here today that thatsupertanker is heading for a reef. Eventhough we can't say exactly when we'regoing to get to the point where that reefrips the bottom out of the supertanker,it's a bad idea in these circumstancesto keep on a course of full speed ahead.

The last reason that peopletend to underrate this problem isbecause the fate of industrialized andless developed countries is a lot moreinterconnected than most people think.We all live on this planet, under oneatmosphere. We all live on the shoresof one global ocean. Our countries arelinked by flows of people, money, goods,ideas, images, drugs, and weapons. Ifwe in the industrialized countries areto enjoy a stable and sustainableprosperity, we are only going to be ableto manage that if we can achieve forthe rest of the world now less fortunatea stable and sustainable prosperity aswell. And the only way to do that isgoing to include addressing the dangerof global climate disruption in acooperative way.

Source: The Woods Hole Research Center web site.

http://www.whrc.org/resources/online_publications/essays/1997-10-UnderrateDisrupt.htm

Six Reasons - A Speech to President Clinton, 1997

Six Reasons People Underrate Climate DisruptionDr. John P. Holdren, Visiting Distinguished Scientist, The Woods Hole Research Center

“The Global Warming Cover-Up” News & Views

BUSH AIDE EDITED CLIMATE REPORTSBy Andrew C. RevkinNew York Times, June 8, 2005

A White House official who once led the oilindustry's fight against limits on greenhouse gaseshas repeatedly edited government climate reportsin ways that play down links between suchemissions and global warming, according tointernal documents.

In handwritten notes on drafts of severalreports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, PhilipA. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions ofclimate research that government scientists andtheir supervisors, including some senior Bushadministration officials, had already approved. Inmany cases, the changes appeared in the finalreports.

The dozens of changes, while sometimesas subtle as the insertion of the phrase ''significantand fundamental'' before the word ''uncertainties,''tend to produce an air of doubt about findings thatmost climate experts say are robust.

Mr. Cooney is chief of staff for the WhiteHouse Council on Environmental Quality, the officethat helps devise and promote administrationpolicies on environmental issues.

Before going to the White House in 2001,he was the ''climate team leader'' and a lobbyistat the American Petroleum Institute, the largesttrade group representing the interests of the oilindustry. A lawyer with a bachelor's degree ineconomics, he has no scientific training...(Report edited for space)©2005 The New York Times Company. The full story is availableat: http://foi.missouri.edu/whistleblowing/bushaideedited.html

THE POLITICS OF DENIALBy Bill Moyers, in a Speech to theSociety of Environmental JournalistsOctober 1, 2005

...President Bush has turned the agenciescharged with environmental protection over topeople who don't believe in it. To run the InteriorDepartment he chose a long-time defender ofpolluters who has opposed laws to safeguardwildlife, habitat, and public lands. To run the ForestService he chose a timber industry lobbyist. Tooversee our public lands he named a miningindustry lobbyist who believes public lands areunconstitutional. To run the Superfund he chosea woman who made a living advising corporatepolluters how to evade the Superfund. And in theWhite House office of environmental policy thePresident placed a lobbyist from the AmericanPetroleum Institute whose mission was to makesure the government's scientific reports on globalwarming didn't contradict the party line and theinterest of oil companies. Everywhere you look,the foxes own the chicken coop...

...Mark my words: if this gang has anythingto say about it, there will be no challengingjournalism to come from public television whilethey are around; no investigative reporting on theenvironment; no reporting at all on conflicts ofinterest between government and big business;no naming of names...(Edited for space)The full transcript of Bill Moyers’ speech is available at:http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1007-21.htm

HOW OIL GIANT INFLUENCED BUSHBy John Vidal, Environment EditorThe Guardian [UK], June 8, 2005

President's George Bush's decision not tosign the United States up to the Kyoto globalwarming treaty was partly a result of pressurefrom ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oilcompany, and other industries, according to USState Department papers seen by the Guardian.

The documents, which emerged as [BritishPrime Minister] Tony Blair visited the White Housefor discussions on climate change before nextmonth's G8 meeting, reinforce widely heldsuspicions of how close the company is to theadministration and its role in helping to formulateUS policy.

In briefing papers given before meetings tothe US under-secretary of state, Paula Dobriansky,between 2001 and 2004, the administration isfound thanking Exxon executives for the company's"active involvement" in helping to determine climatechange policy, and also seeking its advice on whatclimate change policies the company might findacceptable.

Other papers suggest that Ms. Dobrianskyshould sound out Exxon executives and otheranti-Kyoto business groups on potential alternativesto Kyoto...(Edited for space)The full article is available at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1501646,00.html

Questions About these Reports:1. Why would the White House condone the editing of scientific reports about global warming by a non-scientist?

2. How might White House interference in Public Broadcasting stories be damaging to U.S. citizens?

3. What role should large companies play in setting governmental policies about their specific areas of business?

“The Global Warming Cover-Up” Notable Quotes

"…the threat to our world comes not onlyfrom tyrants and their tanks. It can be more insidiousthough less visible. The danger of global warmingis as yet unseen, but real enough for us to makechanges and sacrifices, so that we do not live atthe expense of future generations." – MargaretThatcher British Prime Minister, 11.06.90

"Given the fact that the United Statesproduces approximately 25 percent of the totalgreenhouse gases emissions, the current situationdemands leadership from the United States, Weshould reward improvements in energy efficiency,encourage advances in energy technologies, andimprove land-use practices. Deploying the powerof a marketplace to pursue the least expensiveanswers is a unique and powerful Americanapproach to the threat of climate change." —U.S.Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

"We can't ignore mounting scientific evidenceon important issues such as climate change. Thescience may be provisional. All science isprovisional. But if you see a risk you have to takeprecautionary action just as you would in any otheraspect of business." —Sir John Browne, CEO, BPAmoco

"We have coastal erosion, droughts and inthe last decade we have experienced an unusuallyhigh level of tropical storms. Salt water intrusion[into soils] has affected our traditional food crops,and now we are seeing flooding of low-lying areas,"—Paani Laupepa, ministry of natural resources,Tuvalu, South Pacific, 10.01

"The climate system is being pushed hardenough that change will become obvious to theman in the street in the next decade." —Dr. JimHansen, NASA’s Goddard Institute

"Small island states will be really badlyaffected. A lot of them will be submerged – theMaldive islands, all those in the South Pacific andthe Caribbean islands," —Rajendra Pachauri,Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC)

"In the opinion of the panel, the warmingtrend in global-surface temperature observationsduring the past 20 years is undoubtedly real andis substantially greater than the average rate ofwarming during the 20th century. The disparitybetween surface and upper air trends in no wayinvalidates the conclusion that surface temperaturehas been rising. " – National Academy of Sciences,Nat ional Research Counci l , 01.14.00

"For fifteen years now, some smallpercentage of the world's scientists and diplomatsand activists has inhabited one of those strange

dreams where the dreamer desperately needs towarn someone about something bad and imminent;but somehow, no matter how hard he shouts, theother person in the dream—standing smiling,perhaps, with his back to an oncoming train—can'thear him. This group, this small percentage, knowsthat the world is about to change more profoundlythan at any time in the history of human civilization.And yet, so far, all they have achieved is to addanother line to the long list of human problems—people think about 'global warming' in the way theythink about 'violence on television' or 'growing tradedeficits', as a marginal concern to them, if a concernat all. Enlightened governments make smallishnoises and negotiate smallish treaties; enlightenedpeople look down on America for its blindpriggishness. Hardly anyone, however, has fearin their guts." —Author Bill McKibben, ThisOverheating World

"Global warming may be bad news for futuregenerations, but let's face it, most of us spend aslittle time worrying about it as we did about alQaeda before 9/11. Like the terrorists, though, theseemingly remote climate risk may hit home soonerand harder than we ever imagined. In fact, theprospect has become so real that the Pentagon'sstrategic planners are grappling with it. " —DavidStipp, Fortune Magazine; Feb. 9. 2004

"In light of new evidence and taking intoaccount the remaining uncertainties, most of theobserved warming over the last 50 years is likelyto have been due to the increase in greenhousegas concentrations." —IPCC Third AssessmentReport, 2001, written and reviewed by 960 of theworld’s scientists (123 lead authors, 516 contributingauthors, 21 review editors, 300 expert reviewers)and approved by the IPCC member governments.

"There is broad agreement within thescientific community that amplification of the Earth'snatural greenhouse effect by the buildup of variousgases introduced by human activity has thepotential to produce dramatic changes in climate.Only by taking action now can we ensure thatfuture generations will not be put at risk." —Statement by 49 Nobel Prize winners and 700members of the National Academy of Sciences,1990\

"A child born in a wealthy country is likelyto consume, waste, and pollute more in his lifetimethan 50 children born in developing nations. Ourenergy-burning lifestyles are pushing our planetto the point of no return. It is dawning on us at lastthat the life of our world is as vulnerable as thechildren we raise." —George Carey, Archbishopof Canterbury, UK

"Every generation faces a challenge. In the1930s, it was the creation of Social Security. Inthe 1960s, it was putting a man on the moon. Inthe 1980s, it was ending the Cold War. Ourgeneration's challenge will be addressing globalclimate change while sustaining a growing globaleconomy." —Eileen Clausen, Pew Center on GlobalClimate Change

"Global warming means a horrifying futurefor nature. World leaders must give top priority toreducing levels of carbon dioxide." —JenniferMorgan, World Wide Fund for Nature

"...This is a huge problem. If we don't dealwith this within just a few years, you will haveisland nations flooded; you will have the agriculturalbalance of most countries completely changed;you will have a dramatic increase in the numberof severe, unmanageable weather events...Andthe good news is that we can now deal with thisproblem—and strengthen our economic growth,not weaken it. " —William Jefferson Clinton, at theRussian Duma, June 2000

"The warming appears to be stressing theforests by speeding moisture loss and subjectingthem to more frequent insect attacks." —GordonJacoby, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, ontrees in northern and central Alaska

"If it were only a few degrees, that wouldbe serious, but we could adapt to it. But the dangeris the warming process might be unstable and runaway. We could end up like Venus, covered inclouds and with the surface temperature of 400degrees. It could be too late if we wait until thebad effects of warming become obvious. We needaction now to reduce emission of carbon dioxide."—Stephen Hawking, Physicist, on Larry King Live,Dec 25, 1999

"In the year 2065, on current trends, damagefrom climate change will exceed global GDP." —Andrew Dlugolecki, General InsuranceDevelopment

"We must move ahead boldly with cleanenergy technologies, and we should start preparingourselves for the rising sea levels, changing rainpatterns, and other impacts of global warming."—Klaus Topfer, United Nations EnvironmentProgram

"We're doing great, thank God. TheAmerican economy is flourishing. We're using morefossil fuels. We're putting more CO2 in the air. Thecoal plants are running at record levels. Businesshas never been better. We're doing great!" —FredPalmer, Western Fuels Association

Find out more about Global Warming by visiting:http://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/overviewhttp://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24328071.htmhttp://www.whrc.org/resources/online_publications/warming_earth/index.htmhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1464050,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1501646,00.htmlhttp://www.commondreams.org/views05/1007-21.htmhttp://www.creationcare.org/resources/climatehttp://www.clf.org/general/index.asp?id=377http://www.globalwarmingsolution.org/learn/index.html

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