Five Short Similes for

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Five Short Similes for Teaching Children about
Climate Change
Steven McNulty, Ph.D. USDA Forest
Service Raleigh, North Carolina steve_mcnulty_at_ncsu
.edu
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Background
Everything should be made as simple as possible,
but not simpler Albert Einstein
One way to simplify a complex processes, event or
condition is to use a simile
Similes are basically just short stories that
relate one thing (e.g., object, event, place,
person) to another thing. In this lecture, we
will relate something complex (i.e. climate
change and climate change impacts) to something
simple to make it easier to understand and
remember
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Lecture Objective
To use a five short similes to help explain a few
of the key components of climate change, and
climate change impacts on ecosystems
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Five Similes for this Lecture

• The (REALLY) Big Blanket
• Steves Hill Slope Stairs Project
• A Clint Eastwood Movie
• My Brothers Car
• Last Great Act of Defiance
• Not classroom suitable

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Simile 1 The (REALLY) Big Blanket Factory
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Think of the burning fossil fuels like making
billions of blankets to go up into the sky
Source Climate Change Impacts on the US, NAST,
2000
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Once the blankets are made, the are transported
up into the sky (think atmospheric FEDEX)
Source Climate Change Impacts on the US, NAST,
2000
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The more blankets, the more the heat trapped
underneath (just like on your bed)
Source Climate Change Impacts on the US, NAST,
2000
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How warm would you be if you doubled the number
of blankets on your bed and crawled underneath
them?
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But thats only half the story.
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Simile 2 Steves Hill Slope Stairs Project
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Top of Hill (Future climate)?
Variability v. Change as Illustrated by Steves
hill slope stairs project
Change
Variability
Bottom of Hill (current climate)?
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Climate change will be highly variable over space
and time!
Source Climate Change Impacts on the US, NAST,
2001
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IPCC world CC map
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Simile 3 A Clint Eastwood Movie
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Scene 1 The Good (at least in the short-term)
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Change in Forest Productivity from 1982 to 1999
Nemani et al., Science June 6th 2003
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The increase in growing season length over the
last 50 years averaged for eight stations in
Alaska having the longest and most consistent
temperature records.
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Spring bud-burst dates for Aspen in Edmonton
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Sweetgum
Iverson et. al GTR NE265
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Loblolly pine
Iverson et. al GTR NE265
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Scene 2 The Bad
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Sugar maple
Iverson et. al GTR NE265
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Scene 3 The Ugly
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Percent of the continental USA with a much above
normal proportion of total annual precipitation
from 1-day extreme events (more than 2 inches or
50.8mm)
BW 7
Karl et al. 1996
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Areas of Soil Erosion By 2030 On UNF
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Large scale (gt 400 ac) Wildfires and Air
Temperature
From Westerling et al. 2005
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BLEACHING OF CORAL REEFS BY OCEAN TEMPS gt 85deg F
(29 deg C)
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Locations of Coral Reef Bleaching
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Simile 4 My Brothers Car
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A car should have its oil changed every 3000
miles. If you wait until 5000 miles its probably
still OK. If you wait until 30,000 there will
probably be some damage done to the cars engine,
but it can probably be fixed even though it will
be expensive. If you wait until 100,000 miles,
the car will probably be broken and very, very
expensive to fix, or it may not be fixable at
all.
Global warming is the same way, the longer we
wait, the More expensive it will be to fix (if at
all).
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Simile 5 The Last Great Act of
Defiance (Actions that can reduce global warming)
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130 years of CO2 emissions
Censored!
Our children
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RECYCLE!!!
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Tell your parents what you learned!!

• There is still some wrong information that is
  being
• passed around about climate change and its
  impacts.
• You can help to educate your parents with the
  truth
• about climate change.

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94 Efficient furnaces and water heaters
Compact Fluorescents 100W of light for 23W
Low E Argon windows
Refrigerators 1979 Model 1440 KWh/yr 2002
Model - 480 KWh/yr
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This is what Europeans are encouraged to drive,
the new Mercedes built Smart-car
This is what Americans drive
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Thank you for your indulgence!