Atmospheric Carbon: Can We Offset the Increase?
Joceline Boucher, Corning School of Ocean Studies, Maine Maritime Academy
This activity has been selected for inclusion in the CLEAN collection.
This activity has been extensively reviewed for inclusion in the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network's collection of educational resources. For information the process and the collection, see http://cleanet.org/clean/about/selected_by_CLEAN.
This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Collection
Resources in this top level collection a) must have scored Exemplary or Very Good in all five review categories, and must also rate as "Exemplary" in at least three of the five categories. The five categories included in the peer review process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.
- First Publication: May 22, 2013
- Reviewed: January 16, 2015 -- Reviewed by the On the Cutting Edge Activity Review Process
- Reviewed: July 6, 2016 -- Reviewed by the CLEAN Review Process
Summary
This activity lets students discover first hand how the big issues in climate change -- here, the increase in atmospheric CO2 and the utility of carbon offsets -- can be understood through measurement, application of simple concepts, and "back of the envelope" estimates. It also provides students both personal and global context for understanding the magnitude of current greenhouse gas emissions.
Context
Audience
I use the activity in the classroom with a non-majors, Chemistry In Context course, and for homework in an elective course, Changing Oceans, intended for marine science and marine biology majors. The activity would be ideally suited to an environmental chemistry course or a science-based course in climate change.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
Students need a rudimentary knowledge of chemistry (mole concept; ideal gas law) to do this activity.
How the activity is situated in the course
The activity serves as a "prequel" to a unit on ocean acidification, and could be used to introduce carbon sequestration or the concept of carbon footprints. It could also be used after a unit on greenhouse gases.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
This activity builds familiarity with climate change vocabulary and enables students to demonstrate, from simple calculations, that other sinks beside the atmosphere must exist for anthropogenic carbon emissions.
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
- Problem solving
- Analysis of graphs
- Reflection on societal concerns
Other skills goals for this activity
This activity will help to build numeracy skills.
Description and Teaching Materials
The activity can be done in small, in-class groups, following a unit on greenhouse gases and the enhanced greenhouse effect. It might also be assigned for homework prior to a unit on ocean acidification.
- Student Worksheet for Atmospheric Carbon Activity (Microsoft Word 130kB May18 13)
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Answer Key for Atmospheric Carbon Activity
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Teaching Notes and Tips
Most students will have forgotten the formula for the volume of a sphere, but usually one or two will remember and can be encouraged to share.
Because my students are mostly from Maine, the worksheet uses this location as an example where reforestation could occur. It's not a very good example, since Maine is already about 90% forested. Instructors may wish to substitute another place in this part of the exercise. Nowak et al. (2013; see link below) provide carbon uptake estimates for urban tree planting; the IPCC report (link below) provides uptake ranges for boreal, temperate, and tropical forests.
After the activity, I like to show a website offering carbon offsets through tree planting (find these by searching for "buy carbon offset".)
Besides showing that reforestation cannot offset anthropogenic emissions of CO2, the activity could also prompt a class discussion on the climatic feedbacks associated with tree planting and changes in land cover (see Caldeira et al. link below).
Assessment
I usually grade this activity as check/check-plus/check-minus.
References and Resources
Caldeira, K., Gibbard, S., Bala, G., Wickett, M. E., & Phillips, T. J. (2005, December). Will growing forests make the global warming problem better or worse?. In
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts (Vol. 1, p. 03). Online:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005AGUFM.B31D..03C
Nowak, D. J., Greenfield, E. J., Hoehn, R. E., & Lapoint, E. (2013). Carbon storage and sequestration by trees in urban and community areas of the United States.
Environmental Pollution,
178, 229-236. Online:
http://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2013/nrs_2013_nowak_001.pdf
Watson, R. T. (2000). Land use, land-use change, and forestry: a special report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press. Online: http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/land_use/index.php?idp=151
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Answer Key for Atmospheric Carbon Activity -- private instructor-only file
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