To accompany feature “Climate change sets people on the move”

SCIENCE

Before Reading:

1.  What have you heard about climate change? What are its hallmark impacts?  

2.  Do you know of any ways that people have been impacted by climate change so far?           

During Reading:

1.  How did Hurricane Maria impact Puerto Rico in September 2017, according to the story?   

2.  What important decision did Yolimar Garayalde Figueroa make as a result of the hurricane? How was her decision connected to climate change?  

3.  How did the changes that started with the Industrial Revolution affect Earth’s climate?

4.  How much has the average temperature on Earth changed since 1850?   

5.  What are three examples of effects that climate change is having around the world?

6.  What does the term adaptation refer to, when talking about climate change? What is an example of one way that people and other animals have tried to adapt to climate change?     

7.  What major decision did the residents of Shishmaref, an island in Alaska, make in 2016? Why? 

8.  What change driven by climate change could leave tens of millions of people, or more, homeless in the coming decades? 

9.  Which people are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to the story? Why?   

10.  According to Valerie Mueller’s research in Bangladesh, which effects of climate change are most likely to cause people there to migrate? Why?

After Reading:

1.  What are some ways that climate change might affect people and animals where you live? What effects are already noticeable near you?

2.  If climate change were making it very difficult to continue living where you do, what might make it difficult for you and your family to just move somewhere else? Where could you (realistically) go? What challenges might you face?