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Droughts, Floods, and Water Vapor - Oh My!
Provided by: The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) |Published on: May 20, 2021
Articles/Websites Grades 6-8, 9-12
Synopsis
- This article explains how warmer air in the atmosphere can hold more water vapor, causing droughts in some areas and more extreme precipitation in other areas.
- The resource includes several maps showing the future of precipitation changes in the United States as well as two NASA videos on the future of worsening droughts in the American West and projected changes in precipitation and temperature for the next century.
Subjects: Earth and Space Sciences
Authors: The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), Nick Bradford
Region: United States
Languages: English
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This article explains how rising greenhouse gas emissions will impact the water cycle by causing droughts and floods and creating more warming in the atmosphere.
- The graphics and videos help to explain complicated topics.
Prerequisites
- The link to the EPA's report is broken.
- Students should have a basic understanding of climate change and the water cycle.
- Teachers may want to go over essential vocabulary words like amplify, intensify, greenhouse gases, emissions, accelerated, mitigation, reference, and gaseous.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Students could research the types of mitigation efforts that would help to keep global warming in the 3°C climate scenario range.
- Social studies classes could discuss how the United States and other countries should prepare for changes in precipitation. Students could think of ways that certain regions might update their infrastructure, make changes to the agricultural industry, or relocate communities to adapt to frequent droughts or floods.
- Other resources on this topic include this interactive world map that shows how precipitation patterns could change, this text on water extremes, and this video on how climate change is causing hurricanes to become more extreme.
Scientist Notes
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
About the Partner Provider
National Environmental Education Foundation
The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) is the nation's leading organization in lifelong environmental learning, creating opportunities for people to experience and learn about the environment in ways that improve their lives and the health of the planet. NEEF is a non-partisan, non-advocacy organization working to make the environment more accessible, relatable, relevant, and connected to people's daily lives.
All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.
