Teaching Climate History: There is No Planet B

182 Pages·2021·6.26 MB·english

by  Alan J. Singer

Teaching Climate History
Welcome to the Anthropocene. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution,
human-caused climate change has impacted the globe with the burning
of fossil fuels. The debate in classrooms and the political realm should not
be whether climate change is happening or how much it places human
civilization at risk but over how societies and individuals should respond. This
interdisciplinary book offers an in-depth examination of the history of the
Earth’s climate and how historians and citizens can infuence contemporary
climate debate and activism.
The author explains climate history and climate science and makes this
important subject matter accessible to a general audience. Chapter topics
include examining the Earth’s geological past, the impact of climate on human
evolution, the impact of climate on earlier civilizations, climate activism, and
the need for international cooperation. Presenting climate history, human
history, and climate science in a readable format and featuring resources for
students, this book is meant for use by teachers in high school elective or an
introductory college course setting.
Alan J. Singer is a teacher educator at Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY,
a former New York City high school teacher, and a life-long political activist
starting with the anti-war and Civil Rights movements of the 1960s.

Teaching Climate History
There is No Planet B
Alan J. Singer
First published 2022
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Alan J. Singer
The right of Alan J. Singer to be identifed as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identifcation and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Singer, Alan J., author.
Title: Teaching climate history : there is no Planet B / Alan J. Singer.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2021031615 (print) | LCCN 2021031616
(ebook) | ISBN 9781032061344 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781032061320 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003200864
(ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Climatology—History—Study and teaching. |
Climatic changes—History—Study and teaching. | Nature—
Effect of human beings on—Study and teaching. | Human
ecology—Study and teaching.
Classifcation: LCC QC855 .S56 2022 (print) | LCC QC855
(ebook) | DDC 551.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021031615
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021031616
ISBN: 978-1-032-06134-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-06132-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-20086-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003200864
Typeset in Galliard
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction viii
Climate Vocabulary x
1 “Our House Is on Fire” 1
2 Responsibility of the Historian as Public Intellectual 6
3 Tipping Points 13
4 Great Climate Migration 20
5 Earth’s Past Climates 24
6 Climate Change and Human Evolution 30
7 Extreme Heat 36
8 Four Billion Years of Climate History 42
9 Mass Extinctions 49
10 “Clocking” Climate Change 55
11 Disease Carried by Mosquitoes or Hidden in the Ice 60
12 Climate Change Deniers and Minimizers 64
13 A Short Cold Snap of About 500 Years 73
vi Contents
14 Power of Ice 81
15 Climate Repercussions 86
16 Water Scarcity, Water’s Vengeance 90
17 Technology Debate 99
18 Saving the Amazon Rainforest 106
19 Capitalism vs. the Climate 112
20 Climate Activism 124
Appendix I: Annotated Bibliography 141
Appendix II: Resources for Teaching About Climate Change 145
References 149
Index 163
Acknowledgments
I am deeply indebted to authors Elizabeth Kolbert, Eugene Linden, Brian
Fagan, Jared Diamond, and Naomi Klein, whose books shaped my ideas. Their
work should be widely read; consider this book their introduction to new audi-
ences. Some of the lesson materials were originally developed by teachers and
Hofstra alumni Dean Bacigalupo, Kristen Bradle, and Jessica Hermann for an
article in the New York and New Jersey Councils for the Social Studies journal
Teaching Social Studies (V. 20/N. 2). Bradle, Hermann, and Bacigalupo cre-
ated “Integrating Climate History into the Global History Curriculum” as a
resource to assist educators who are teaching the high school Global History
and Geography curriculum.
I want to thank colleague Brett Bennington, chair of the Hofstra Univer-
sity Department of Geology, Environment, and Sustainability, whose video
presentation on Greta Thunberg’s No One is Too Small to Make a Difference
(Penguin 2019) clearly explains the causes and implication of the greenhouse
effect, students in my “Why Study History?” classes who held me to a rigorous
academic standard and insisted that I support claims with evidence and present
them in ways that are accessible to an audience of non-specialists, and students
in my graduate seminars who debated climate change history and assisted with
editing the text, including Dennis Belen-Morales, Tara Burk, Tom Clancy,
Alexa Corben, Christopher Cucinotta, Alexis Farina, Emma Farrell, Thomas
Ferrante, Karla Freire, Barney Giannone, Madison Hamada, Sarah John-
son, Robert Kleiman, Douglas Lensing, Crystal Ortiz, Christina Paccadolmi,
D aniel Petschauer, Anthony Richard, Michael Scott, Brandon Swartz, Eliza-
beth Tyree, and Debra Willetts. Science buddies including Arthur Camins,
Amy Catalano, and Janice Koch pointed me in the right direction on key
topics. As always I was aided and supported by Hofstra colleagues Dean Baci-
galupo, Janice Chopyk, Sean Fanelli, Andrea Libresco, David Morris, Pablo
Muriel, Eustace Thompson, and Stacy Zalewski and my life partner Felicia
Hirata. Any errors are my own.
This book is dedicated to young people around the world fghting for cli-
mate awareness and to reverse climate change. I pledge to donate any author’s
earnings to their cause.
Introduction
Companion website: Documents and activities for teaching about
c limate change are posted on my website (https://alansinger.net).
Check the drop-down menu for Teaching Climate History.
There is an African American spiritual of resistance, “O Mary Don’t You
Weep,” that dates back to slavery days. In a verse that references the Judeo-
Christian biblical book of Genesis (6:5), the Hebrew God regrets having cre-
ated humanity because of its “wickedness” and decides to send food waters
that will “wipe from the face of the earth the human race” and all species
of animals, birds, and “creatures that move along the ground.” God then
relented a bit and instructed Noah, a “righteous man,” to build an ark so his
family and a male and female representatives of each species could survive to
repopulate the planet.
After the food receded (9:9–17), God told Noah, at least according to
the song, that fre, not foodwaters, would be used if God decided to destroy
humankind again. African American author James Baldwin made the phrase
“The Fire Next Time” the title of a 1963 collection of essays on race in
America (New York: Dial). As those living through the third decade of the 21st
century already know, the Earth and humankind now face both fre and food
waters as a result of global warming–induced climate change.
In January 2021, Copernicus, the European Climate Change Service,
announced that 2020 tied 2016 as the warmest year at least since 1880
when accurate modern temperature record keeping began. September, Octo-
ber, and November 2020 each set records for high average temperature.
The previous six years, 2015 through 2020, were the six warmest years on
record, and the decade 2011–2020 was the warmest decade. During 2020,
the largest “temperature deviation from the 1981–2010 average” was in
the Earth’s Arctic region, including northern Siberia. CO concentration
2
in the atmosphere continued to rise in 2020 despite the global economic
downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (https://climate.copernicus.
Introduction ix
eu/2020-warmest-year-record-europe-globally-2020-ties-2016-warmest-
year-recorded).
This book began as a series of lessons in an introductory class “Why Study
History” at Hofstra University. In response to concerns about global climate
change, my section was an in-depth examination of the history of the Earth’s
climate and how historians and citizens can infuence contemporary climate
debate and activism.
At Hofstra University, I teach in both the History Department and the
School of Education. During the course of the semester, I realized with
urgency that our class and curriculum can be taught, should be taught, in both
high school and college. For this book, I adapted mini-lectures so they can
be the basis for classes on both levels. At the end of every chapter, there are
ideas for teaching and additional material is posted on my website (https://
alansinger.net). There is news about climate change almost every day. Chapters
focus on broader historical and contemporary issues, while teaching docu-
ments are largely drawn from current events while I was writing the book.
The debate in classrooms and the political realm should not be whether
climate change is happening or how much it places human civilization at risk
but over how societies and individuals should respond. Climate change is real,
and it is threatening. In this book, I see myself as a translator who explains
climate history and climate science (climatology) so it is accessible to a general
audience. My audience is primarily teachers who have the daunting task of pre-
paring their students to be climate activists, but the chapters in this book, the
Teaching Documents and questions, and the online activities and edited mate-
rial are designed so they can be introduced into secondary school and college
classrooms. This book is a snapshot in time; new evidence and new proposals
are constantly emerging. For engaged readers, it should be a starting point in
the study of climate history. As a climate activist, I hope the book also fnds
its way to the general public. If you think it is of value, please recommend it.
I try not to be too technical in my writing, but my students recommended
I include some vocabulary at the start.