Carbon Brief for current articles covering the latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy.
Gridwatch for live statistics showing UK energy production.
The Global Carbon Atlas to explore and visualize the most up-to-date data on carbon fluxes resulting from human activities and natural processes.
The Climate Action Tracker tracks international government climate action and measures it against the globally agreed Paris Agreement aim of “holding warming well below 2°C, and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.”
NOAA monthly reports on global climate/ extreme weather events.
Other sources of climate data:
Copernicusmaps and time-series of all sorts of climate data sources (CMIP5/6, reanalyses, regional climate models, etc.) for several variables. With the possibility of customizing the plots and exporting the data.
Empowering the next generation of climate critical thinkers
Over the past year, The Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) has been working with the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford and MEI (Maths, Education, Innovation) to provide free maths teaching and learning resources. Having targeted resources for different school subjects will help integrate the knowledge of climate change into the broader school curriculum.
This work follows new research published last year by the Royal Meteorological Society in partnership with Ipsos, showing an opportunity for better climate education in schools in Great Britain. Just over half of pupils in their final academic year (aged 15 to 16 years old) could recall being taught about climate change in the past year, with one in five (20%) believing that they either have never been taught about it or couldn’t recall when they were taught about it. This upcoming generation have signalled that they need (and evidence in the media that they want) to be better informed on how they can help be part of the solution of one of the most important challenges our planet will ever face, and scientists alone can’t fix the problem. It requires a whole range of skills and expertise, which is why it is important to look at existing opportunities to incorporate climate change in the current curriculum across all subjects. Learning maths can help raise critical thinkers, which is an essential tool for anyone interested in climate issues, whether they are producing the solutions or consuming the information.
Prof Sylvia Knight, Head of Education at the Royal Meteorological Society, said: “Maths is key to the climate literacy of school leavers – not just for those considering a career in meteorology. We are delighted that, through working with MEI and the University of Oxford, we can support teachers in demonstrating to their students the relevance of the numeracy and data literacy skills they have learned. Incorporating these resources into lesson plans can help inform the decisions students will have to make in their personal and professional lives about mitigating and adapting to climate change. It will also help with the skills they need for green jobs and their understanding of the messages they see in the media about climate change.”
The existing ’Maths for Planet Earth’ resources from the University of Oxford will now be housed alongside other weather and climate educational materials on the RMetS education website MetLink. All the questions in these resources have taken existing and previous GCSE and A-Level exam questions but adapted the context to a climate change theme. The same skills are needed to solve the example problems, enabling teachers to integrate climate change into the school curriculum beyond the usual subjects.
Sitting alongside these on MetLink is a set of new resources developed with MEI to engage young people with climate issues and show the relevance of maths to climate change and meteorology. The resources aim to empower students to understand information and data and to highlight how maths skills can be used to examine and evaluate issues and draw evidence-based conclusions. Different versions have been developed for Key Stage 3 and Core Maths lessons. The Core Maths versions are also suitable for the SQA’s Applications of Mathematics qualification. Each set of resources contains session notes, presentations, and printable sheets for students.
The Trees for Net Zero resources are designed to be delivered over one or two lessons, looking at the topic in depth using skills of estimation as well as interpreting and plotting data in context.
The Trees and Carbon Capture resources are standalone activities that can be delivered as part of a lesson, a filtered version of the Trees for Net Zero sets.
The dynamic Extreme Weather activities use Desmos tools to investigate connections between global warming and extreme cold weather by calculating probabilities. This activity can form part of a lesson.
The EVolution of Vehicle Sales resources explores vehicle registration data with links to proportional reasoning and estimation/modelling. These can be delivered as part of a lesson.
All resources embed the development of analysis and comparison techniques, as well as opportunities to make conjectures and present conclusions.
Monday 7th November – Bulletin now available – sorry for the slight delay.
We estimate that over 50,000 young people saw our daily bulletins from COP26, aimed at putting the negotiations and the media and social media messages from them into a relevant context.
We’re not able to do the same from COP27, but RMetS Chief Executive Liz Bentley will be there and will record one bulletin prior to the start of the event. It should be on our YouTube channel in time for school on the morning of Monday 7th November.
We are delighted to have worked with the Royal Geographical Society to produce more climate change teaching resources for A Level geography. These are based on the IPCC Working Group II (Impact, Adaptation and Vulnerability) and WGIII (Mitigation) reports.
Africa is one of the lowest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet key development sectors are already experiencing widespread losses and damages attributed to human-induced climate change.
Climate change has increased heat waves (high confidence) and drought (medium confidence) on land, and doubled the probability of marine heatwaves around most of Africa.
Heat waves on land, in lakes and in the ocean will increase considerably in magnitude and duration with increasing global warming.
Most African countries will enter unprecedented high temperature climates earlier in this century than generally wealthier, higher latitude countries, emphasising the urgency of adaptation measures in Africa.
Wildfire is a natural and essential part of many forest, woodland and grassland ecosystems, killing pests, releasing plant seeds to sprout, thinning out small trees and serving other functions essential for ecosystem health. Excessive wildfire, however, can kill people, the smoke can cause breathing illnesses, destroy homes and damage ecosystems.
Earlier this year, we asked climate change experts from a wide range of subject disciplines to look for opportunities to teach about climate change in the current English GCSE specifications and KS3 curriculum.
Over 100 people responded, and between them reviewed well over a hundred documents.
Teachers! Now we need your input – which of the suggestions they made would actually work in a secondary classroom? Do you have any more suggestions to add?
What are the easiest ways for teachers to show their students the relevance of the current curriculum to climate change?
If you think you have a few minutes to be able to help, by looking at the suggested opportunities in your subject area, please contact education@rmets.org and tell us which subjects you teach.
We plan to ask similar questions of young people, and to share the information we collect with a diverse range of other organisations as well as use it ourselves to improve the support we offer to teachers.
We also plan to extend the project to Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland.
We have created a set of resources designed to allow physics teachers to demonstrate how the core physics taught links to current climate change research and action. For each topic, an expert in the field has recorded a short film which could be shown at the end of the lesson or topic. For some topics, practical activities or worksheets are also included:
Adapting the National Grid
We have a large and growing proportion of our electricity from renewables, and the amount of electricity generated varies depending on the weather. In this film, Jade Kimpton from the National Grid shows how the flow of electricity in the National Grid is getting more complex.
Key words: renewable and non-renewable energy, greenhouse gasses, fossil fuels, gravitational potential and kinetic store of energy.
Clouds reflect the Sun’s light, cooling the planet, but they can also act a bit like greenhouse gases, warming the planet. In this film, Dan Grosvenor from the University of Leeds shows how different types of cloud have a different climate effect.
The Jet streams are bands of fast winds high in the atmosphere which are driven by pressure differences. Stormy weather follows the jet stream. In this film, Tim Woollings from the University of Oxford shows how, as the lower atmosphere gets warmer, we need to understand how the patterns of pressure and the jet stream change and what effect that will have on storms in the UK.
Cathie Wells from the University of Reading is helping aircraft conserve fuel which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by making use of high resolution forecasts of three dimensional wind speeds in the atmosphere.
Key Words: speed, distance, time, velocity, greenhouse gas
Contrails occur when water vapour from jet engines condenses – only when the temperature and humidity conditions of the air is right. Contrails act like greenhouse gases. Marc Stettler from Imperial College, London is interested in guiding aircraft to fly where conditions are right, reducing contrail formation.
Join experts from the worlds of education policy and climate science to explore the findings of a climate literacy survey conducted earlier this year on the Royal Meteorological Society’s behalf by Ipsos MORI as part of their Young Person’s Omnibus survey.
The questions asked in the survey were developed by the Royal Meteorological Society, in conjunction with many of their members, including authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, to ensure that they give a fair assessment of climate literacy. The questions will remain relevant in years to come as we hope to repeat the survey annually to assess the impact of interventions on climate change education in schools.
The ongoing results of the survey will inform the work of the Royal Meteorological Society, supporting teachers of all subjects to make use of the opportunities within the current curricula and exam specifications to teach climate change.
This free 50-minute virtual event will include an overview of the findings of the survey, panel discussion and Q&A.
The panel will include:
Prof Andrew Charlton-Perez, Head of School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences, University of Reading and Professor of Meteorology
Dr Sylvia Knight, Head of Education, Royal Meteorological Society
Dr Pippa Bailey, Head of Climate Change and Sustainability Practice, Ipsos MORI
Carl Ward, Chief Executive, City Learning Trust and Chair of the Foundation for Education Development
This is probably one of our favourite short explainer type videos that we use when delivering teacher CPD and when talking to students.
It uses the analogy of a dog and its owner to represent the relationship between weather and climate, and can be really helpful!
You can find classroom resources and further support materials for teachers in our Weather and Climate: a Teachers’ Guide chapter on weather and climate.
We have pulled together a set of Weather and Climate Change resources which could be used with a year 6 class after their SATs exams. Designed as a progressive set of engaging and interactive resources, they introduce skills and knowledge which will help prepare students for secondary school.
The resources can be used in independent lessons, or as part of a whole or half weather and climate themed day.
We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experienceBy clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies. More info
By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies. More info
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
