Climate Change Education Across the Curricula, Across the GlobeLesson Plan: Climate Refugees and Environmental Migration

As a high school or undergraduate Social Sciences, Humanities, or Environmental Sciences teacher, you can use this set of computer-based tools to help you in teaching about topics such as Social and Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Human Migration, Climate Refugees/Environmental Migrants, and Climate Justice.

This lesson plan enables students to learn about human migration caused by climate change, and the term “climate refugees” and its growing significance. The activity provides insights into geographic locations whose existence is threatened by climate change, and communities that are fleeing their homes, resulting in large-scale migration.
Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to integrate the teaching of a climate science topic with a core topic in Social Sciences.

About Lesson Plan

Grade Level	High School, Undergraduate
Discipline	Social Sciences, Humanities, Environmental Sciences
Topic(s) in Discipline	• Climate Change and Human Migration • Climate Refugees • Climate Justice
Climate Topic	• Policies, Politics, and Environmental Governance • Climate Refugees; Climate Justice
Location	Many. Includes Alaska, Pacific and Indian Ocean islands, Bangladesh, Sudan, Syria, USA, India
Languages	English
Access	Online
Approximate Time Required	120 min

Contents

Reading (15 – 20 min)

A reading that discusses climate change-related human migration and the term “climate refugees” by describing how climate change is accelerating migration from various parts of Bangladesh to the capital, Dhaka.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/dec/01/dhaka-city-climate-refugees-reality

Classroom/ Laboratory activity (~90 min)

A storymap and an associated activity worksheet to learn about countries and cities that are becoming uninhabitable because of the effects of climate change, and communities that are being forced to leave their homes and migrate to new locations.

Storymap:
http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2017/climate-migrants/index.html

Associated activity:
http://www.thehumanimprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Climate-Migrant-Worksheet.pdf

Step-by-Step User Guide

Questions/Assignments

Learning Outcomes

Additional Resources

Credits

Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.

1. Introduce the topic through a reading	• Introduce the topic of refugees and human migration. • Introduce the terms, “environmental migration” and “climate refugees”. • Discuss the reasons for climate change-related human displacement and the impending climate-refugee crisis by reading an article from The Guardian, • “Dhaka: the city where climate refugees are already a reality” • This article will help you provide an actual example of the climate-refugee crisis by describing how climate change in Bangladesh is causing large-scale migration of residents from different parts of the country to the capital, Dhaka. Students can also learn about how cities such as Dhaka may struggle to support the large number of incoming environmental migrants. • Link: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/dec/01/dhaka-city-climate-refugees-reality
2. Conduct a classroom/laboratory activity	• Now, explore the topic in more detail through mapmaking and visualization techniques by using the storymap tool, “Climate Migrants”, and an associated activity worksheet, “Climate Migrants”. • In this activity, students will learn about several regions and communities affected by climate change. Students will understand and discuss the various climate change-related problems such as inundation, erosion, drought and desertification, conflict, and the strain on resources caused by the resulting human migration. • A wide range of geographic locations including Alaska, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, and Syria are provided as examples. • Access esri’s storymap visualization tool “Climate Migrants” at http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2017/climate-migrants/index.html. • Download the activity sheet “Climate Migrants”, from The Human Imprint. • Facilitate a detailed exploration and discussion of the responses to the questions in the worksheet, with the help of the storymap tool.

Use the tools and the concepts learned so far to discuss and determine answers to the following questions:

• What are the reasons for human migration?
• What are the climate change-related problems that threaten the existence of some regions in the world?
• What are the challenges faced by climate refugees/environmental migrants?
• What are the measures/policies that governments can adopt to tackle the challenges of climate-related human migration?

The tools in this lesson plan will enable students to:

• identify climate change-related threats to the existence of some regions in the world
• describe the problem of environmental migration and the term, “climate refugee”
• discuss the challenges faced by climate refugees
• enumerate the problems caused by large-scale human migration
• propose policies to handle the challenges posed by climate change-related migration

1	Reading, “Dhaka: The city where climate refugees are already a reality”	The Guardian
2	Classroom/Laboratory Activity	esri; The Human Imprint
3	Additional Resources	Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility
4	Images	https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/dec/01/dhaka-city-climate-refugees-reality The Korail area of Dhaka. Photograph: Poppy McPherson https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/ Data source: Coastal tide gauge records. Credit: CSIRO

All the teaching tools and images in our collated list are owned by the corresponding creators/authors/organizations as listed on their websites. Please view the individual copyright and ownership details for each tool by following the individual links provided. We have selected and analyzed the tools that align with the overall objective of our project and have provided the corresponding links. We do not claim ownership of or responsibility/liability for any of the listed tools.