How to incorporate climate change into high-school physics - Nature.com
How to incorporate climate change into high-school physics | Nature Reviews Physics
High-school students are all too aware of climate change, but often aren’t taught how their physics lessons can help them understand the problem and its solutions. Melissa Lord shares tips on how to bridge the gap.
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The author is a regional representative for the Ogden Trust, a charity promoting physics in schools in England.
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Lord, M. How to incorporate climate change into high-school physics. Nat Rev Phys (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00660-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-023-00660-6
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”