Positives

• This reading will support learners in developing their scientific literacy as they read a technical text with domain-specific vocabulary, multiple units of measurement, and a concise tone.
• The article encourages students to analyze a climate solution's initial costs and investment compared to the eventual financial and environmental benefits after implementation.
• The article includes an excellent visual of global shipping routes, robust data, evidence, and citations to support the stated claims.

Additional Prerequisites

• Learners should be familiar with gigaton, the unit used to measure carbon emissions.
• Learners should understand fuel efficiency, operating costs, and international commerce.
• Use this interactive table of solutions to show students the rankings of solutions by scenario on the Drawdown website and make it easier to understand the relative impact of ocean shipping efficiency.

Differentiation

• The information in this article provides the opportunity for interdisciplinary study in engineering and economics by quantifying the different models' economic costs, benefits, and environmental results of increasing ocean shipping efficiency.
• To investigate other climate solutions related to transportation, check out the articles on efficient trucks and hybrid cars.
• Consider having students discuss any potential social and economic barriers to increased ocean shipping efficiency (such as longer shipping times and substantial capital investment) and talk critically about the viability of this solution.
• As an extension, students could investigate the fuel use and efficiency of shipping items via airlines and discuss which products and companies use those shipping methods.