Using a town meeting format, students will form lobbying groups and debate the topic of Global Warming. Students will work in teams to research the proposal and develop logical arguments.  They will use a variety of resources found on a videodisc, information gathered from printed text, and information obtained from the internet to design multimedia presentations for the class.  In delivering their positions and rebuttals, students must learn to speak on their feet. Students will find a list of relevant internet resources located in the Global Warming Links.

Introduction:

     All forms of energy on Earth are derived from the sun and exist in many different forms.  Fossil fuels are no exception.  Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas.  They were formed from plants during the last 600 million years.
     Vast deposits of fossil fuels were left relatively untouched until the Industrial Revolution, which began in the late 1700’s.  Industrialization used coal-driven machinery to do work instead of people and animals and created an enormous increase in the production of many goods.  Ever since, the world economy has been reliant on fossil fuels.
     As fossil fuels are consumed, carbon from many million years ago is being re-released as vast quantities of carbon dioxide. If we continue to use fossil fuels at the current rate, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the middle of the 21^st century is expected to be twice that as before the Industrial Revolution. 
     Because of increasing levels of green house gasses in the atmosphere, many scientists are concerned about increased warming of the Earth’s surface. The effects and severity of Global Warming are widely debated and are largely unpredictable. It is generally agreed, however, that the effects will go beyond an increase in surface temperature.  Weather patterns could be drastically altered, changing regional climates; water from melting ice caps could cause sea levels to rise, flooding coastal regions; and many ecosystems could be disturbed, causing the extinction of many species of plants and animals.

Proposal:

     Fossil fuel use shall be taxed according to the amount of CO2 released. All revenue from such taxes shall be used to mitigate the global effects of greenhouse warming.

Use the Global Warming Links provided to help you in the research process.