Focus the Nation

For my Focus the Nation event, I attended the showing of An Inconvenient Truth. I learned that since 1880, the hottest ten years on record, have occurred in the past fourteen years. That number alone should concern everyone, especially Americans, to raise awareness of the climate crisis we are in. I was aware that the United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, however; I did not know why. I found out that it was because they did not think that it was 'fair' for developing countries to have an abundance of emission allowances (because they are developing) whereas, the U.S. would have had to cut back on emissions. They thought that this would be detrimental to the economy and encourage China to become a threat to our ‘superpower-dom’. Overall, I just got a better sense of what global warming looks like, and the effects it can have on our immediate future. It was nice to see the visual representation of what is happening, what will happen and what the effects are.

Because I am an earth and space concentration, there are so many things that I can and will do with my students to 'Focus the Nation.' I will certainly teach them about global warming, ozone depletion and the difference between the two. They will know what causes both of them such as burning fossil fuels, CFC’s and other pollution. They will understand what consumption means, how resources deplete and advantages to alternative renewable energy sources. I will do this in the form of calculating their carbon footprint (for high school or for middle school) watching films like An Inconvenient Truth or a field trip to a place the Sandy River Recycling Association. At SRRA where they manage recyclable wastes for most of Franklin county. Lessons will include interactive ozone depleting activities and comparisons of different types of energy.