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Learning Goal: We are investigating the importance of international cooperation in addressing global issues and evaluating the effectiveness of actions by Canada and Canadians.

Task: Each student will create a Google Slides presentation that answers the questions listed.

Mark: A rubric will be posted and used for your final mark.

Important: This project will form a large part of your final Social Studies mark. Please ask questions as you work through this project to ensure you are on track.

Good Luck!

Due:

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1. Why is it important for Canada to participate in the Paris Agreement with countries around the world?

2. Why does the well being of the world's environment depend on international cooperation?

3. How does the Canada's involvement in the Paris Agreement help people around the world?

4. What else can we do?

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PLEASE DO NOT TYPE, CHANGE OR ADD ANYTHING ON THIS PADLET. 

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PLEASE DO NOT TYPE, CHANGE OR ADD ANYTHING ON THIS PADLET. 

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THANK YOU

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Climate Change and Paris Climate Agreement

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Climate Change and Paris Climate Agreement

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united nations framework convention on climate change

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- answer all questions listed
- Google Slides
- independent project
- identify and locate on a map at least 5 countries and regions which are participating in the Paris Agreement. Use longitude and latitude to locate countries
- pictures, maps
- videos (if needed)
- facts

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Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye | National Geographic

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The Lazy Person's Guide to Saving the World

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End extreme poverty. Fight inequality and injustice. Fix climate change. Whoa. The Sustainable Development Goals are important, world-changing objectives that will require cooperation among governments, international organizations and world leaders. It seems impossible that the average person can make an impact. Should you just give up? No! Change starts with you.

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Climate change is already happening and is already affecting Canadians and people around the world. More importantly, climate change will be greater in the future, and this poses additional challenges. Climate change can affect the food we eat. It can affect plant and animal habitats.

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enregistrement et publication des traités

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Ceci est la page d'accueil de la Collection des traités des Nations Unies.

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Climate change describes a change in the average conditions in a region over a long period of time.

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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The rate of change since the mid-20th century is unprecedented over millennia.

Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era - and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth's orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO2 has increased since the Industrial Revolution. (Credit: Luthi, D., et al.. 2008; Etheridge, D.M., et al. 2010; Vostok ice core data/J.R. Petit et al.; NOAA Mauna Loa CO2 record.) Find out more about ice cores (external site).

The current warming trend is different because it is clearly the result of human activities since the mid-1800s, and is proceeding at a rate not seen over many recent millennia. It is undeniable that human activities have produced the atmospheric gases that have trapped more of the Sun's energy in the Earth system. This extra energy has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land, and widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.

Do scientists agree on climate change?

Yes, the vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists - 97 percent - agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change.

detailed answer

Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies have helped scientists see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate all over the world. These data, collected over many years, reveal the signs and patterns of a changing climate.

Scientists demonstrated the heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases in the mid-19th century. Many of the science instruments NASA uses to study our climate focus on how these gases affect the movement of infrared radiation through the atmosphere. From the measured impacts of increases in these gases, there is no question that increased greenhouse gas levels warm Earth in response.

"Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal."

- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth's climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly 10 times faster than the average rate of warming after an ice age. Carbon dioxide from human activities is increasing about 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.

References

References
Header image shows clouds imitating mountains as the sun sets after midnight as seen from Denali's backcountry Unit 13 on June 14, 2019. Credit: NPS/Emily Mesner

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Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?

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Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. How do we know it's happening? Here's the evidence.

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History of Climate Change

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BBC News environment correspondent Richard Black traces key milestones, scientific discoveries, technical innovations and political action.

1712 - British ironmonger Thomas Newcomen invents the first widely used steam engine, paving the way for the Industrial Revolution and industrial scale use of coal.

1800 - World population reaches one billion.

1824 - French physicist Joseph Fourier describes the Earth's natural "greenhouse effect". He writes: "The temperature [of the Earth] can be augmented by the interposition of the atmosphere, because heat in the state of light finds less resistance in penetrating the air, than in re-passing into the air when converted into non-luminous heat."

1861 - Irish physicist John Tyndall shows that water vapour and certain other gases create the greenhouse effect. "This aqueous vapour is a blanket more necessary to the vegetable life of England than clothing is to man," he concludes. More than a century later, he is honoured by having a prominent UK climate research organisation - the Tyndall Centre - named after him.

1886 - Karl Benz unveils the Motorwagen, often regarded as the first true automobile.

1896 - Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius concludes that industrial-age coal burning will enhance the natural greenhouse effect. He suggests this might be beneficial for future generations. His conclusions on the likely size of the "man-made greenhouse" are in the same ballpark - a few degrees Celsius for a doubling of CO2 - as modern-day climate models.

1900 - Another Swede, Knut Angstrom, discovers that even at the tiny concentrations found in the atmosphere, CO2 strongly absorbs parts of the infrared spectrum. Although he does not realise the significance, Angstrom has shown that a trace gas can produce greenhouse warming.

1927 - Carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and industry reach one billion tonnes per year.

1930 - Human population reaches two billion.

1938 - Using records from 147 weather stations around the world, British engineer Guy Callendar shows that temperatures had risen over the previous century. He also shows that CO2 concentrations had increased over the same period, and suggests this caused the warming. The "Callendar effect" is widely dismissed by meteorologists.

1955 - Using a new generation of equipment including early computers, US researcher Gilbert Plass analyses in detail the infrared absorption of various gases. He concludes that doubling CO2 concentrations would increase temperatures by 3-4C.

1957 - US oceanographer Roger Revelle and chemist Hans Suess show that seawater will not absorb all the additional CO2 entering the atmosphere, as many had assumed. Revelle writes: "Human beings are now carrying out a large scale geophysical experiment..."

1958 - Using equipment he had developed himself, Charles David (Dave) Keeling begins systematic measurements of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa in Hawaii and in Antarctica. Within four years, the project - which continues today - provides the first unequivocal proof that CO2 concentrations are rising.

Change in future is likely to be more fundamental and more widespread than anything we have known hitherto
Margaret Thatcher, Former UK Prime Minister

1960 - Human population reaches three billion.

1965 - A US President's Advisory Committee panel warns that the greenhouse effect is a matter of "real concern".

1972 - First UN environment conference, in Stockholm. Climate change hardly registers on the agenda, which centres on issues such as chemical pollution, atomic bomb testing and whaling. The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) is formed as a result.

1975 - Human population reaches four billion.

1975 - US scientist Wallace Broecker puts the term "global warming" into the public domain in the title of a scientific paper.

1987 - Human population reaches five billion

1987 - Montreal Protocol agreed, restricting chemicals that damage the ozone layer. Although not established with climate change in mind, it has had a greater impact on greenhouse gas emissions than the Kyoto Protocol.

1988 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) formed to collate and assess evidence on climate change.

1989 - UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - possessor of a chemistry degree - warns in a speech to the UN that "We are seeing a vast increase in the amount of carbon dioxide reaching the atmosphere... The result is that change in future is likely to be more fundamental and more widespread than anything we have known hitherto." She calls for a global treaty on climate change.

1989 - Carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and industry reach six billion tonnes per year.

1990 - IPCC produces First Assessment Report. It concludes that temperatures have risen by 0.3-0.6C over the last century, that humanity's emissions are adding to the atmosphere's natural complement of greenhouse gases, and that the addition would be expected to result in warming.

1992 - At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, governments agree the United Framework Convention on Climate Change. Its key objective is "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system". Developed countries agree to return their emissions to 1990 levels.

1995 - IPCC Second Assessment Report concludes that the balance of evidence suggests "a discernible human influence" on the Earth's climate. This has been called the first definitive statement that humans are responsible for climate change.

1997 - Kyoto Protocol agreed. Developed nations pledge to reduce emissions by an average of 5% by the period 2008-12, with wide variations on targets for individual countries. US Senate immediately declares it will not ratify the treaty.

1998 - Strong El Nino conditions combine with global warming to produce the warmest year on record. The average global temperature reached 0.52C above the mean for the period 1961-90 (a commonly used baseline).

1998 - Publication of the controversial "hockey stick" graph indicating that modern-day temperature rise in the northern hemisphere is unusual compared with the last 1,000 years. The work would later be the subject of two enquiries instigated by the US Congress.

1999 - Human population reaches six billion.

2001 - President George W Bush removes the US from the Kyoto process.

2001 - IPCC Third Assessment Report finds "new and stronger evidence" that humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases are the main cause of the warming seen in the second half of the 20th Century.

2005 - The Kyoto Protocol becomes international law for those countries still inside it.

2005 - UK Prime Minister Tony Blair selects climate change as a priority for his terms as chair of the G8 and president of the EU.

2006 - The Stern Review concludes that climate change could damage global GDP by up to 20% if left unchecked - but curbing it would cost about 1% of global GDP.

2006 - Carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and industry reach eight billion tonnes per year.

2007 - The IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report concludes it is more than 90% likely that humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases are responsible for modern-day climate change.

2007 - The IPCC and former US vice-president Al Gore receive the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change".

2007 - At UN negotiations in Bali, governments agree the two-year "Bali roadmap" aimed at hammering out a new global treaty by the end of 2009.

2008 - Half a century after beginning observations at Mauna Loa, the Keeling project shows that CO2 concentrations have risen from 315 parts per million (ppm) in 1958 to 380ppm in 2008.

2008 - Two months before taking office, incoming US president Barack Obama pledges to "engage vigorously" with the rest of the world on climate change.

2009 - China overtakes the US as the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter - although the US remains well ahead on a per-capita basis.

2009 - Computer hackers download a huge tranche of emails from a server at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit and release some on the internet, leading to the "ClimateGate" affair.

2009 - 192 governments convene for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen with expectations of a new global agreement high; but they leave only with a controversial political declaration, the Copenhagen Accord.

2010 - Developed countries begin contributing to a $30bn, three-year deal on "Fast Start Finance" to help them "green" their economies and adapt to climate impacts.

2010 - A series of reviews into "ClimateGate" and the IPCC ask for more openness, but clear scientists of malpractice.

2010 - The UN summit in Mexico does not collapse, as had been feared, but ends with agreements on a number of issues.

2011 - A new analysis of the Earth's temperature record by scientists concerned over the "ClimateGate" allegations proves the planet's land surface really has warmed over the last century.

2011 - Human population reaches seven billion.

2011 - Data shows concentrations of greenhouse gases are rising faster than in previous years.

2012 - Arctic sea ice reaches a minimum extent of 3.41 million sq km (1.32 million sq mi), a record for the lowest summer cover since satellite measurements began in 1979.

2013 - The Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaii reports that the daily mean concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time since measurements began in 1958.

2013 - The first part of the IPCC's fifth assessment report says scientists are 95% certain that humans are the "dominant cause" of global warming since the 1950s.

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BBC News environment correspondent Richard Black traces key milestones, scientific discoveries, technical innovations and political action. 1712 - British ironmonger Thomas Newcomen invents the first widely used steam engine, paving the way for the Industrial Revolution and industrial scale use of coal. 1800 - World population reaches one billion.

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The COP21 climate conference brought together scores of countries and tens of thousands of people to answer one pressing question: How can we keep global temperatures from rising too high? After two weeks of debate, they left with an ambitious deal to put the world on a serious carbon diet, and on April 22 about 160 countries are expected to finally sign it. Here's how it happened and what Canada promised to do

About 160 countries are expected to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change in New York Friday in a symbolic triumph for a landmark deal that once seemed unlikely but now appears on track to enter into force years ahead of schedule. Under the agreement, countries set their own targets for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, with a goal of keeping global warming below two degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial times (and an aspirational goal of 1.5 degrees). The targets are not legally binding but countries must update them every five years. But first, nations like Canada must formally approve it domestically.

When was it? Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 in Paris.

What's a COP? It stands for "conference of the parties." This was the 21st such UN climate-change meeting since 1995.

What happens there? The COP meetings are where member states take stock of their climate-change strategies, and sometimes set new targets to curb their greenhouse-gas emissions.

Who was there? Delegates from 195 countries and some 40,000 people went to Paris for the summit.

Curbing emissions: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to the Paris summit with the same emissions targets set by his predecessor, Stephen Harper: a 30-per-cent reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2030.

Beating the heat: Environment Minister Catherine McKenna was among the delegates pressing for a more ambitious goal in curbing global temperature increases: Preventing a rise of more than 1.5 degrees by 2100, rather than the two degrees sought after by other major powers at the summit. ( Here's Affan Chowdhry and Tu Thanh Ha's explanation of how that half-degree could make a big difference for the Earth's climate.)

The hard sell: Mr. Trudeau, eager to improve Canada's tarnished global reputation on the climate-change file, pressed developing countries such as India to sign on to the ambitious climate-change deal.

What's the damage? Developing nations at the summit, especially island states who worry climate change will destroy their communities with rising sea levels and unpredictable weather, wanted pledges of financial support for climate-related "loss and damage" in the agreement. Canada, backing the United States, sought to ensure that any loss-and-damage provisions would limit nations from launching tobacco-style lawsuits against one another.

Helping the developing world: On Nov. 27, Mr. Trudeau promised to put $2.65-billion into emissions-reduction projects for developing countries.

Cleaner technology: On the first day of COP21, Canada announced it had pledged $300-million to the Mission Innovation initiative for clean technology development.

The provinces: Many provincial premiers joined the Canadian delegation to Paris. At the summit's end, Ms. McKenna said the completed Paris Agreement would set the international framework for the federal government's climate deal with provinces. But when the federal government met with premiers months later in Vancouver to hammer out a consensus, they agreed only to a broad emissions-reduction strategy and not to the national minimum carbon price the Trudeau government was seeking.

Nov. 30: The conference officially opens with speeches from major world leaders. Mr. Trudeau promises "Canada will take on a new leadership role internationally" on climate change, but stops short of committing to a deadline for the national climate plan he promised to negotiate with premiers. Russia and Britain stress that agreements met in Paris should be legally binding, which the United States and China oppose.

Dec. 1: The leaders begin to leave Paris as the 195 countries' climate negotiators resume work on a draft text for the climate deal. Shortly before his departure, Mr. Obama says he'd accept a deal with some legally binding components, if not legally binding emissions targets. That puts him at odds with Senate Republicans, who have vowed to block the $3-billion (U.S.) Mr. Obama has promised for the UN Green Climate Fund. Ms. McKenna, the Environment Minister, says that it's more important to have big emitters like the United States and China sign on to a deal than to get a legally binding treaty.

Dec. 2: Global protests on climate issues continue as the summit winds down and negotiators dig into the issues. Here's an analysis by The Globe's Eric Reguly of the questions being asked at the talks.

Dec. 3: Carbon Tracker, a British financial think tank, releases a report at the summit saying that, if world powers succeed in their targets for preventing global temperature increases, the measures would make $2-trillion (U.S.) in fossil-fuel reserves uneconomical. Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore tells the summit that much of Canada's oil-sands reserves would be "stranded" by the climate-change measures, and investors should plan for the future accordingly.

Dec. 4: Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England and chair of the International Financial Stability Board, announces a task force to create a "one-stop shop" to help investors and policy makers make the transition to a less fossil-fuel-dependent economy. The organization, led by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, is tasked with creating voluntary financial risk disclosure guidelines.

Dec. 6: As the summit's first week concludes, Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna backs a more aggressive target: No temperature increases higher than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. That's the goal that island nations - fearing the day that rising sea levels will submerge their homelands - are championing, though the United States maintains a target of two degrees. Ms. McKenna is also appointed a facilitator at the Paris negotiations, a select group who lead informal discussions to smooth out disagreements about the final text of the deal.

Dec. 7: On the sidelines of the summit, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger joins his Ontario and Quebec counterparts to sign on to a cross-border carbon market among the provinces and California, and possibly more states to come.

Dec. 9: A draft released Wednesday leaves major issues unresolved, including the long-term goal of an eventual accord, and which countries should pay to help the most vulnerable nations cope with global warming. Ms. McKenna says the talks were hitting a rocky patch over the role of markets and "differentiation," the balance of climate-change obligations between the developing world and the developed nations that emits most of the world's greenhouse gases. Asked about her earlier support for a 1.5-degree global temperature target, she refused to say whether Canada would now base its own climate strategy on that goal, or what impact a more ambitious goal would have on oil-sands production.

Dec. 10: Sleep-deprived and increasingly tense, diplomats and climate negotiators struggled Thursday to narrow down the 29-page draft of the climate deal. At a morning plenary session, Ms. McKenna stresses that protecting human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples are "critically important" to the final draft.

Dec. 11: A final draft of the text is hammered out after the delegates work through the night. The new deal toughens up the language on global temperature goals, setting a two-degree target but a 1.5-degree aspirational goal, with countries pledging to significantly cut back on their emissions in the second half of the 21st century.

Dec. 12: "The Paris accord is accepted," French foreign minister Laurent Fabius announces at a Saturday night session. The Paris Agreement between 195 countries commits to a two-degree limit in global temperature increases, but makes the 1.5 degrees an aspirational (if not binding) goal. While considered legally "binding," the agreement doesn't impose specific emissions targets for participating countries.

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The Paris climate deal: What is Canada signing up for?

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The COP21 climate conference brought together scores of countries and tens of thousands of people to answer one pressing question: How can we keep global temperatures from rising too high? After two weeks of debate, they left with an ambitious deal to put the world on a serious carbon diet, and on April 22 about 160 countries are expected to finally sign it.