Snippets from Session 4 – Batch 2
🌏The final session in this series for the batch was focused on making the participants aware of the current global climate crisis emanating mainly from the global warming. ☀
🕸The session started with a review of the previous sessions where we had covered about biodiversity, ecosystems, their role, interconnections in nature, and human impact on environment. We then quickly moved to see what participants already know about global warming and climate change. Here participants shared what they feel (or have heard) is meant by global warming. We then shared a few examples of extreme weather events and how they might be connected to global warming. We looked at how 2024 was the hottest year on record. This took us to the reasons for global warming and the greenhouse gases and why they are so called.
Participants were explained about the Greenhouse Effect thereafter and we undertook a small experiment wherein we used an infrared thermometer to check the temperature of a metal piece kept out in the sun and another similar metal piece kept in a car that was parked in sun. The participants noted a temperature difference of about 18 degrees F in both the cases, thus showcasing that greenhouses gases similarly work to form an envelope to trap the heat thereby making the Earth warmer and contributing to climate change.🌏🌱
After the break, we looked at how global warming and climate crisis are directly connected to the crisis that nature is facing. We relooked at how the Emperor Penguins chicks perished due to early melting of snow in 2022. And how this could be attributed to rising temperatures around the globe, more so in the polar regions.⛄
So we understood greenhouse effect, but how do we know if the global warming is actually happening. To clear that doubt we chose an activity wherein participants were given some pairs of photographs of different glaciers. The photographs showed the glacier as it appeared in 1900s and how it appears now in 2000s. In their groups, the participants arranged the pair of glacier photos and saw how the ice has melted from the glaciers now and how some vegetation (a sign of warmer climates) has also started growing nearby!!🌏
Then we moved on to a video to see how our world is changing due to the effect of global warming and climate change. We looked at several short videos and thought provoking photographs. Each photograph had an engaging story and showed how we are moving from crisis to crisis due to the climate change. Be it the rising temperatures leading to health challenges, agriculture yield challenges, livelihood challenges, and cultural challenges, or the extreme weather events like extreme wildfires, alternating floods and droughts with rising frequency, loss of biodiversity like corals due to rising temperatures in oceans, or dying of dolphins due to rising temperatures.🐬🐬
The session ended with a reflecting group activity on whether global warming is happening for real and how they know it, and how could they contribute to stopping global warming. Many ideas from participants ranged from using lesser vehicles, walking or bicycling more, using lesser ACs and lesser electricity, to even using eco-friendly products.
It will be great if participants and their parents could think of ways in which they could contribute positively to this challenge.🌳
The final session concluded with a cotton bag distribution to imbibe changes and group photos. Students will be offered digital certificates. To find out who received the certificates in the second batch of UNLESS, click here.
