“ WHAT WE’VE DUG UP FROM THE EARTH AND BURNED HAS CHANGED THE OTHER ELEMENTS. BURNING TOO MUCH COAL, OIL, AND NATURAL GAS HAS DUMPED TOXIC GASES INTO THE ATMOSPHERE AND ALTERED THE CLIMATE.” —JAMES BALOG, THE HUMAN ELEMENT
AT THE END OF THE LESSON, STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
1. EXPLAIN HOW THE HUMAN USE OF COAL HAS ALTERED THE EARTH AND HOW THOSE CHANGES ARE AFFECTING HUMANS.
2. USE VISUAL EVIDENCE AND SCIENTIFIC DATA TO ARTICULATE HOW DIFFERENT FUELS ARE CURRENTLY USED IN OUR ECONOMY.
3 EXPLORE THE WAYS IN WHICH RENEWABLE ENERGIES ARE EMERGING TO CHANGE OUR RELIANCE ON AND CONSUMPTION OF FOSSIL FUELS.
2. USE VISUAL EVIDENCE AND SCIENTIFIC DATA TO ARTICULATE HOW DIFFERENT FUELS ARE CURRENTLY USED IN OUR ECONOMY.
3 EXPLORE THE WAYS IN WHICH RENEWABLE ENERGIES ARE EMERGING TO CHANGE OUR RELIANCE ON AND CONSUMPTION OF FOSSIL FUELS.
CLIMATE CHANGEMAKER:
Read aloud this introduction to Barbara Freese, author of Coal: A Human History:
Barbara Freese reveals the complexity of the social and economic challenges we face as we confront how burning fossil fuels causes climate change. As the power source of the original steam engines, electricity, and other fossil fuel mining technologies, coal is firmly embedded in the development of our modern world, and cannot easily be replaced. Freese’s scholarship shows that, while it is clear we need to drastically reduce our burning of fossil fuels in order to slow or reverse the effects of climate change, the economic and human costs of how we do it must be considered.
Barbara Freese reveals the complexity of the social and economic challenges we face as we confront how burning fossil fuels causes climate change. As the power source of the original steam engines, electricity, and other fossil fuel mining technologies, coal is firmly embedded in the development of our modern world, and cannot easily be replaced. Freese’s scholarship shows that, while it is clear we need to drastically reduce our burning of fossil fuels in order to slow or reverse the effects of climate change, the economic and human costs of how we do it must be considered.
AGREE DISAGREE ASSIGNMENT:
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WATCH THE FILM CHAPTER “EARTH”
VIDEO PASSWORD: THEedu |
EXPLORE THE EFFECTS OF HUMANS’ USE OF COAL:
“ THERE HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN AT LEAST TWO INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS. THE FIRST ONE WAS FUELED BY STEAM, WHICH WAS FUELED BY COAL. THE SECOND ONE WAS DRIVEN BY ELECTRICITY, AND ELECTRICITY AND COAL WENT HANDIN-HAND. WITHIN A COUPLE OF YEARS AFTER INVENTING THE LIGHT BULB, THOMAS EDISON WAS BUILDING A COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT, AND WHEN ELECTRICITY GREW IN THIS NATION IT ALLOWED US TO USE ALL KINDS OF NEWER, MORE MODERN TECHNOLOGIES. IT REALLY CHANGED OUR LIVES, AND THAT VERY MUCH DEPENDED—NOT ENTIRELY, BUT ALMOST ENTIRELY—ON COAL.”
—BARBARA FREESE, IN AN INTERVIEW FOR THE HUMAN ELEMENT
There are three major pollutants affecting our earth and contributing to our warming climate: the burning and use of coal, oil and natural gas. Oil and gas, like coal, are the organic remains of ancient animals and plants rotting and decomposing deep inside the earth. The United States gets 80 percent of its total energy from fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), 9 percent from nuclear energy, and 11 percent from renewable sources. We depend on those fuels to heat our homes, run our vehicles, power industry and manufacturing, and provide our nation with electricity.
Coal Quick Facts:
1. Coal is the dirtiest fuel source in the world. For every gram of carbon burnt, coal produces nearly four grams of CO2.
2. Coal plants are responsible for 42 percent of U.S. mercury emissions and much of today’s atmospheric warming.
3. In the United States today, burning coal satisfies roughly 30 percent of total electricity demand (down from almost half the supply at its peak in the mid-20th century).
4. Burning natural gas emits about half the CO2 of coal, but drilling, fracking, and burning natural gas releases methane—a greenhouse gas roughly 34 times stronger than CO2 in terms of trapping heat to the earth, which is a leading cause of climate change.
5. Coal is among the least expensive fossil fuels to convert from its geological state to fuel that can be used for energy.
6. Approximately 100,000 Americans are directly employed in coal mining and/or the function of coal power plants, with an estimated 10 times that number indirectly employed by coal, either as contractors who transport or store coal, or as people who support the economies of towns created around coal mines or power plants.
Coal Quick Facts:
1. Coal is the dirtiest fuel source in the world. For every gram of carbon burnt, coal produces nearly four grams of CO2.
2. Coal plants are responsible for 42 percent of U.S. mercury emissions and much of today’s atmospheric warming.
3. In the United States today, burning coal satisfies roughly 30 percent of total electricity demand (down from almost half the supply at its peak in the mid-20th century).
4. Burning natural gas emits about half the CO2 of coal, but drilling, fracking, and burning natural gas releases methane—a greenhouse gas roughly 34 times stronger than CO2 in terms of trapping heat to the earth, which is a leading cause of climate change.
5. Coal is among the least expensive fossil fuels to convert from its geological state to fuel that can be used for energy.
6. Approximately 100,000 Americans are directly employed in coal mining and/or the function of coal power plants, with an estimated 10 times that number indirectly employed by coal, either as contractors who transport or store coal, or as people who support the economies of towns created around coal mines or power plants.
GATHER FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT COAL:
Where does it come from? How is it used? Impacts on climate change? What is it's relationship to the U.S. economy? Use Research APPENDIX ONE and TWO below to conduct this research.
HEADLINES AND VISUAL EVIDENCE ASSIGNMENT:
On Google Classroom you will create a presentation based on your research and understanding of coal. Proceeded there now!