What are Saharan dust clouds? Every year during the summer, large amounts of dust are lifted off of the Saharan Desert in northern Africa and float west over the Atlantic Ocean and into the Caribbean, eastern US, and Europe (image below). According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), dust clouds are caused by storm systems […]
Content warning: This film contains explicit language. Rated PG-13 Spoiler warning: This webpage provides mild plot spoilers. Interstellar is a science fiction epic released by Paramount Pictures in the United States, and Warner Bros. Pictures internationally in 2014. The film stars Matthew McConaughey as Joseph Cooper, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, alongside Anne Hathaway as […]
Metronome’s Climate Clock (image above) is a public art installation displaying the time left until it is too late to reverse the effects of global warming at our current rate of emissions. In September 2020, Metronome’s digital clock in Manhattan, New York, USA began to count down 7 years, 103 days, 15 hours, 40 minutes, […]
Where is Spanish spoken? Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world with over 360 million native speakers. The vast majority of Spanish speakers live in Central and South America (map below). Spanish is the official language in 21 countries including Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Cuba, Guatemala, […]
Land Acknowledgement This Climate Literacy Resource is being developed at Smith College in the town currently known as Northampton, Massachusetts. Below we offer the land acknowledgment of the college. Such land acknowledgments are important because they credit the people who belong to the land: We acknowledge that this campus is built within the ancestral homelands […]
Introduction to Climate in Human History Climate events have played a major role in shaping the course of human history. Numerous examples of such events are listed below, and their impacts on human history are explored in this learning resource. The drop-down menus below contain links to in-site webpages developed by the Smith College Climate […]
What is an atmospheric river? An atmospheric river is a large band of moisture in the atmosphere, usually thousands of miles/kilometers long and hundreds of miles/kilometers wide. Atmospheric rivers transport substantial quantities of water vapor, which later precipitates as rain or snow (image below). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), atmospheric rivers […]
Land Acknowledgement This Climate Literacy Resource is being developed at Smith College in the town currently known as Northampton, Massachusetts. Below we offer the land acknowledgment of the college. Such land acknowledgments are important because they credit the people who belong to the land: We acknowledge that this campus is built within the ancestral homelands […]
Abbreviations: BCE = Before Common Era CE = Common Era c. = circa (approximately) Introduction to Climate in Human History Climate events have played a major role in shaping the course of human history. Numerous examples of such events are listed below, and their impacts on human history are explored in this teaching resource. Prehistory: […]
The primary goal of this climate literacy resource is to help and encourage grades 6-12 (middle to high school) teachers to incorporate information about climate change in classrooms outside STEM disciplines. This resource was inspired in part by The Teacher Friendly GuideTM to Climate Change, a publication by the Paleontological Research Institution, whose focus is […]