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!!!!Climate change?

The comments below are from people who have been asked the question: ‘What does climate change mean to you?’. Cut out the cards and sort them into groups that make sense to you. These could be groups depending on: • whether you agree with what is said or not, • whether what is said is true - or not, • whether you already know this or it is something new to you, • or any of your own ideas. There are blank spaces to add your own ideas.

We can all do our bit to slow down climate change.

Some people will be more affected by climate change

than others.

Climate change means more floods in this

country.

Many species of animals and plants will become extinct because of climate change.

Climate change is caused by other countries like China and

the USA burning too much fossil fuel. There’s nothing we

can do anyway.

It’s all a con - climate change isn’t really happening! It’s just an excuse for the government

to raise taxes on petrol!

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!Climate change?

The scientists will solve this problem. We should not

worry too much - life is too short!

Climate change won’t really affect me - but I’m glad I

won’t be around in the year 2114 when the effects

become noticeable.

Food will get more expensive because farmers will not be able to predict the weather.

Climate change won’t really affect us in the UK - except the winters might get a bit warmer and the summers a

bit drier.

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!Internet searches

Climate change - everyone has an opinion but what do we really know? And what can be backed up by evidence? One way to find something out is to look on the internet - but how can you be sure you will find anything useful? !1 Construct better searches Go for simple search terms and use up to 4 words. Do not bother with words like ‘the’ or ‘a’. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!2 Don’t always pick the top reference Sometimes the most popular references are not the most useful. Look over a number of pages before you pick the one you want. Sometimes a search will take you to a page that might link to other useful pages. Online encyclopaedias like wikipedia are particularly useful in this way. !3 Add more terms Notice that the more terms you add the smaller the number of pages found. This can help to narrow down your results and bring more relevant ones to the top. !4 Give up! If you are getting no useful results don’t be frightened to start again with a new search term. If you can’t see anything useful within about three pages its probably better to start again. !5 Keep records! There’s no point in finding useful information and then loosing it again! Many browsers have a bookmark feature which lets you find a page again by clicking on a link. In Safari on MacOS the key is ⌘ and D Or you could keep notes in a text file. Have a column for the URL (copy this from the address bar) and add notes in the next row of the table. Do not just copy and paste lots of pages - you will never have time to read them all!

Search term

Finds pages containing

For example...

climate the word ‘climate’ Nearly a billion pages with many of the top references about what weather you can expect on your holiday in far flung places!

climate change

the words ‘climate’ AND ‘change’

Over a billion pages now but many of the top ones do seem to be about climate change. Of course, when you get there you may not trust what you see!

climate OR change

either ‘climate’ OR ‘change’

Over a billion pages - but one of the top ones is about how to develop online petitions!

URL Notes

practicalaction.org/food-and-agriculture

Useful information about Practical Action projects all over the world. There’s some great stuff on climate change here!

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!

Gathering information from textbooks or the internet is not always easy. Don’t just copy and paste lots of text and pictures into a folder! One way to organise your information as you collect it is to keep a journal. This shows the headings a journal might have. Use it to build your own learning journal about climate change and its effects.

!

Learning log

Source

Where did I find this out?

Does it seem a reliable source?

What evidence makes me think this is true?

!What did I find out?

This was new ...

!!!!

This was surprising ...

This I understand ...

!!!

This I need to find out more about ...

What will I do next?

People who could help!!!!Possible sources of more information

Anything that does not fit in the boxes above

!!

Name: ………………………………………..….……..!

Class: …………………………………………………..!

Date: ……………………………………………..……

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!

Climate change is a complex topic. You are now experts on climate change and how it affects people across the planet. How can you convince others the harm it is doing and that they need to take action.

In your groups, identify different groups of people who can make a real difference to reducing climate change. Then decide what you think you need to tell them about that will make them change their behaviour. This will be different depending on which group you choose. Then tell them exactly what action you want them to take to reduce climate change. Think about:

• Which groups of people can make a real difference in reducing climate change?

• Who will your campaign focus on? • How will you reach them? • What will you tell them to make them want to take action? • What action do you want them to take? !When you have agreed add them to the diagram below !!!!

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................

Name: ………………………………………..….……..!

Class: …………………………………………………..!

Date: ……………………………………………..……

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!Spreading the word!

Prepare a document that will support your campaign about global warming. Make sure it fits in with the targets you have identified in your pentagon diagram. The examples below might give you some ideas.

!A comic strip for children at primary school explaining about how fumes from cars, lorries and buses contribute to global warming. The comic would encourage them to walk to school instead of being brought by car.

!!

A briefing document for a campaign group who want to convince the local council to adopt a low-carbon policyto

reduce their energy usage at work e.g. printing less, recycling batteries, not using air-conditioning.

!!A leaflet to hand out to shoppers at a local shopping mall. The leaflet explains what causes global warming and how people can change things they can do (particularly when shopping!) to help reduce the problem.

!Making a change As well as trying to influence others can you make a change in your own life and environment? If you want to, write down an action that you will take in the box below.

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GLOBAL WARMING

April 2014

THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S ICE MOUNTAINS

A study by the Inter Governmental Research Group on the impact of global warming and

climate change on the ice stores at the North and South polar regions.

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CAN DO

How our climate will affect your shopping

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My Climate Change Action:

!!!

Signed ………………………………. Date ………………

Name: ………………………………………..….……..!

Class: …………………………………………………..!

Date: ……………………………………………..……

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!Name: ………………………………………..….……..!

Class: …………………………………………………..!

Date: ……………………………………………..……

Watch the video clip from IFAD about farming in Bangladesh and climate change.

youtube.com/embed/auFoBr1Paqs?rel=0

!Now see how many questions you can answer.

!1. How much land will be submerged as a result of

sea level rise in Bangladesh?

.....................................................................................................................................

2. How many people will this affect?

.....................................................................................................................................

3. Give two problems which the farmers of Bangladesh have to face because of climate change.

.....................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................

4. What is the name for the fine particles of rock carried in a river that make it look brown and muddy?

....................................................................................................................................

5. Sluices on the coastal dams prevent seawater flowing into the rivers. Why is this important?

.....................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................

6. What is the main crop grown in this area?

.....................................................................................................................................

7. A new variety of rice has been developed that has two benefits. What are these?

.....................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................

8. Suggest two ways the government and scientists are helping to protect the farmers in this area from the effects of climate change.

.....................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................................................................................

Food alert!

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!Salted seedlings

Deepak has a problem - the sea keeps getting into his fields. The salt in the seawater damages the plants. As sea levels rise the problem can only get worse.

One solution may be to find crops that can survive a dose of seawater. Deepak could then grow these.

!Plan an investigation Plan and carry out an investigation into the effect of seawater on seed germination and growth. To help you to start planing your investigation here are a few thoughts from other scientists working in the area.

Can we find a way to assess how well the seeds germinate - not just if they do or not? Even after

flooding the farmers can get some crops.

We could wet some seeds with seawater and see if they

germinate?

How will we know the seeds we use are alive? If they don’t germinate it might be that they

are dead anyway?

How much salt should we use? Is a little OK but a lot will kill the seeds? And what’s the

best way to measure how much salt we add?

I know seawater is about 3.5% salt in water.

How will we analyse our results? Maybe draw a graph

or chart?

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!

Here are some of the ways in which scientists and engineers have worked with people to develop technologies that help with the effects of flooding.

!Floating gardens Floating gardens allow people to grow food on rafts that float when the floods arrive. They do not require large building projects like dams and flood barriers. The floating gardens give them somewhere to grow plants during the wet season that can then be planted out when the dry season comes.

!Floating gardens in Bangladesh are made from rafts of water hyacinth. These plants grow very rapidly in the wet season and are normally seen as weeds!

A mat of bamboo canes holds the water hyacinth plants together. Soil and fertiliser are added on top and then the seeds are planted in small balls of fertiliser directly into the rafts. The seeds germinate and the plants develop into healthy seedlings with a good supply of water. As the water levels fall in the dry season the rafts settle on the ground allowing the farmers to transplant the plants or to leave then where they are to grow.

!!!Dams and dykes Dams can be built to protect the land from seawater flooding. They prevent seawater from flowing upstream to damage fields in low-lying land in Bangladesh. The farmers can plant their seedlings and know that they will not be washed away.

But dams and dykes need large government investment. This takes time and is beyond the means of many poor farmers. The dykes also need maintenance and must be high enough to cope with not just this year’s flooding but also the rising sea levels, due to climate change, that will come in the next 20 years. They also do not protect against flood waters coming down from the rivers draining water from the higher ground.

Flooding and floating

Floating gardens Practical Action

2

Although floating gardens have been successful for many people there are some who cannot make use of this farming technique. Some of the landless poor do not have access to areas where the gardens could be set up. Even when areas of water are available they can be some distance away from the household. Another difficulty that can arise is that the raw materials to make the raft may not be available. Gardens are relatively inexpensive to make requiring a small investment in fertiliser and seeds as well as the labour needed to construct them. Other materials such as the aquatic weed for the base of the raft can be obtained locally at no cost. The base of the raft is often made from water hyacinth, which is a common weed in many parts of the world where it clogs up water systems and damages the ecosystems and aquaculture within ponds. It is better to use mature water hyacinth as green water hyacinth will decompose too quickly and the raft will not survive the growing season. If water hyacinth is not available other materials can be used such as paddy straw, nalkhagra – a freshwater wetland tree, and any available organic materials such as azola, coconut straw, bamboo, and old rope. There is no fixed size of raft. Commonly, the rafts are around 8m long and 2m wide and are around 0.6 to 1m deep. The size of the raft can be made to suit the circumstances of the user. If there is a lack of space or if raw materials are in short supply then the rafts can be made smaller. Creating a floating garden The first step to making a floating raft is to collect the water hyacinth. Floating water hyacinth is overlaid with bamboo poles of appropriate length to the size of the raft being constructed and this mass of plant matter is taken to one bank to be worked on. Additional water hyacinth is collected with stick hooks and placed onto the bamboo layer and the thickness of the raft is built up. It is then woven into a buoyant raft. Once the raft’s basic structure has been created the bamboo poles can be pulled out. After around 7 to 10 days more water hyacinth is added to top up the existing structure then a mulch can be added on to the water hyacinth base. Soil, compost and cow dung are added to cover the base of the raft to a depth of around 25cm. The compost is made up from azola, a good nitrogen fixing plant, and other readily available organic matter. Seeds can then be sown. The technique used to improve the seeds’

Figure 4: The floating garden with its earth layer. Photo credit: Practical Action Bangladesh.

Figure 3: The garden begins to take shape. Photo credit: Practical Action Bangladesh.

Floating gardens Practical Action

2

Although floating gardens have been successful for many people there are some who cannot make use of this farming technique. Some of the landless poor do not have access to areas where the gardens could be set up. Even when areas of water are available they can be some distance away from the household. Another difficulty that can arise is that the raw materials to make the raft may not be available. Gardens are relatively inexpensive to make requiring a small investment in fertiliser and seeds as well as the labour needed to construct them. Other materials such as the aquatic weed for the base of the raft can be obtained locally at no cost. The base of the raft is often made from water hyacinth, which is a common weed in many parts of the world where it clogs up water systems and damages the ecosystems and aquaculture within ponds. It is better to use mature water hyacinth as green water hyacinth will decompose too quickly and the raft will not survive the growing season. If water hyacinth is not available other materials can be used such as paddy straw, nalkhagra – a freshwater wetland tree, and any available organic materials such as azola, coconut straw, bamboo, and old rope. There is no fixed size of raft. Commonly, the rafts are around 8m long and 2m wide and are around 0.6 to 1m deep. The size of the raft can be made to suit the circumstances of the user. If there is a lack of space or if raw materials are in short supply then the rafts can be made smaller. Creating a floating garden The first step to making a floating raft is to collect the water hyacinth. Floating water hyacinth is overlaid with bamboo poles of appropriate length to the size of the raft being constructed and this mass of plant matter is taken to one bank to be worked on. Additional water hyacinth is collected with stick hooks and placed onto the bamboo layer and the thickness of the raft is built up. It is then woven into a buoyant raft. Once the raft’s basic structure has been created the bamboo poles can be pulled out. After around 7 to 10 days more water hyacinth is added to top up the existing structure then a mulch can be added on to the water hyacinth base. Soil, compost and cow dung are added to cover the base of the raft to a depth of around 25cm. The compost is made up from azola, a good nitrogen fixing plant, and other readily available organic matter. Seeds can then be sown. The technique used to improve the seeds’

Figure 4: The floating garden with its earth layer. Photo credit: Practical Action Bangladesh.

Figure 3: The garden begins to take shape. Photo credit: Practical Action Bangladesh.

Weaving bamboo and hyacinth to make a raft

Covering the raft with soil, compost and cow dung

Dyke in Bangladesh

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!

Questions !1. Which flood defence system costs the most to build?

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

2. Which system protects against incoming seawater from high sea levels?

.........................................................................................................................................!

......................................................................................................................................... !

3. Which system would be easier to build quickly?

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

4. You are an advisor to the Bangladeshi government on flooding. Which technologies would you suggest they could encourage farmers to use?

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

5. You work for an international development organisation that helps people in coastal areas cope with the effects of climate change. Which technologies would you suggest farmers in these regions use and why?

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

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Flooding and floating

Name: ………………………………………..….……..!

Class: …………………………………………………..!

Date: ……………………………………………..……

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!Bidding for research

Science and Technology can be used to address problems faced by farmers around the world. Often only a relatively small amount of research and investment is needed to develop solutions.

Here are some problems faced by farmers which could be solved by further scientific research.

!Which one would you choose to work on?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Making your bid !Prepare a poster to show:

• the research you think needs to be done (what do you want to find out?)

• how you will do this research (how will you find out?) • what data will you be able to collect and how long will it take? • how the results from the research will be applied to improve

people’s ability to cope with climate change

Our land gets flooded by sea water more and more often. Even after the waters have

receded our crops just don’t seem to grow well. But my neighbour seems to have much more luck - his

crops grow much better. We think its something to do with the type of rice he grows (he uses seeds from his father’s farm). Can we find rice varieties that

can cope with flooding?

We’ve tried micro-irrigation but the water never seems to get to the end of the distribution

pipes. It comes out very quickly near the reservoir but barely dribbles out at the far end. Do we just

need more reservoirs and shorter pipes? Would fatter pipes help? Or different sized holes near the

reservoir? Or should we just give up with micro-irrigation altogether?

We get heavy downpours of rain that seems to run straight over the surface of the

ground into the rivers and cause floods downstream. A few days later and we’re almost as dry as before the rains came! We’re looking at ridges of soil in our fields to hold the water there until it can sink into the ground

a bit. But how tall do these ridges need to be? How wide? And how quickly will the water get through

the soil?

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!

The diagram shows a potometer. This is a piece of equipment that shows how quickly water evaporates from a leafy twig.

!1. Put the potometer and leafy twig

underwater.

2. Cut the twig so that it fits tightly into the rubber tube at the top of the potometer.

3. Lift the twig out of the water and fix it upright. Dry the wet leaves gently with a paper towel. The water should stay in the capillary tubing - if it dribbles out there is a leak between the twig and the rubber tubing so start again.

4. The water column in the capillary tubing should move slowly towards the leafy twig. To push the end back towards the bottom, dip the open end in a beaker of water and squeeze gently on the rubber tubing. This pushes the air out of the capillary. Release the pressure on the tubing and fresh water will be sucked into the capillary. !

The water column in the capillary tubing is sucked into the twig as water evaporates from the leaves. The faster water transpires from the leaf the quicker the end of the water column will move.

!What’s the real problem? !What do people who grow the crops think is the real problem? No water - of course! But what conditions make plants wilt most quickly and so need more water to grow? Here are some ideas you could test.

The potometer

It’s the wind. When the wind blows - even if its a cool wind - I can almost see my crops

wilting!

Heat! The plants always suffer when the temperature rises - particularly

during the midday sun.

We are growing the wrong crops! With climate

change we should change to new types of plants. Not all plants have the same rate

of water loss you know. But which plants lose less water in hot, dry

conditions?

More leaves mean more water is needed. If we had crops

that could still make food with fewer leaves we would need less water. Or

leaves that are smaller? Or leaves that are waxy?

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!Water and healthy plants

The table below shows the yield from tomato plants grown in a dry area. Some were irrigated and had enough water all of the time but in some cases the irrigation failed.

!!!!!!!!Table 1: Yield of tomato plants given different amounts of water.

!1. What percentage increase in tomato yield does good irrigation provide?

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

2. If you have a limited amount of water (so the plant will wilt at some point) when is the best time to irrigate the plant? Give a reason for your answer.

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

3. The amount of water needed by different plants varies. Suggest some plants that need very little water - this is a chance for you to use any background knowledge you have to come up with some predictions.

Watering regime Eventual yield of fruit / kg

Never allowed to wilt 20.4

Allowed to wilt once before fruit formed 18.3

Allowed to wilt once after fruit formed 17.5

Allowed to wilt often 14.8

Plants which can cope with dry

areasReasons why I think these might work well

!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!

Name: ………………………………………..….……..!

Class: …………………………………………………..!

Date: ……………………………………………..……

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!

Micro-irrigation uses small pipes to distribute small amounts of water directly to the plants. Rainwater is collected and then poured into a large container held on a wooden stage about 1 metre above the ground to feed the pipes.The photograph here shows a micro-irrigation scheme in Kenya.

In traditional open-channel irrigation the water flows along channels near the fields. The photograph here shows concrete channels running alongside fields near Guilin in China. Water can then be pumped out of the channels into the fields when needed. Sometimes the channels are not made of concrete so the water can just leak into the soil in the fields without any need for pumps. !

Questions 1. Give two advantages of a micro-irrigation system over the open channel

system for areas that are very dry.

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

2. Why is the water reservoir in the micro-irrigation system lifted above the ground?

.........................................................................................................................................!

.........................................................................................................................................!

3. The water entering the pipes of the micro-irrigation system is filtered. Why?

.........................................................................................................................................!

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Irrigation techniques

Name: ………………………………………..….……..!

Class: …………………………………………………..!

Date: ……………………………………………..……