This document outlines a critical inquiry framework for analyzing systems that impact climate change. It discusses teaching students to critically examine key systems like energy, transportation, agriculture, economics and politics. Examples of classroom activities are provided to inspire change, such as redesigning a school/community, examining food consumption, keeping a consumption diary, and participating in a mock court case on climate change. The goal is to teach students how language, rhetoric and narratives shape these systems and drive either action or inaction on climate change.

1. A Critical Inquiry
Framework for
Analyzing Systems
Impacting Climate
Change
Richard Beach, University of Minnesota
Digital handout:
http://tinyw.in/a3mo

5. Paris goal: Limit to 2.0 C.
increase

7. 6 Months: 12-14 inches of
rainfall

8. Lack of snowpack in the West

9. Trump: No drought in
California
 “We’re going to solve your water
problem. You have a water problem
that is so insane. It is so ridiculous
where they’re taking the water and
shoving it out to sea” (USA Today,
June 1, 2016).

10. Artic melting: 1982 to 2012

11. South Beach, Miami today

12. South Beach, Miami: 12 foot
sea-level rise

13. Need for radical, systemic
change
 Naomi Klein: “Either
we embrace radical
change ourselves or
radical changes will be
visited upon our physical
world…The status quo is
no longer an option.”

14. Change in beliefs and
behaviors
 From scientific evidence ?????
 From shared social participation in
communities and organizations
◦ Provides hope beyond despair
◦ Inspires imagined options
 Use of drama or games

15. Teaching for change
 Diana Liverman: I give examples of how
individuals change laws, campaign for low
carbon public transport and organize to
elect officials who protect the environment.
And I have students who lead campus
“green” organizations – such as the
“Compost Cats” that recycle campus,
community and even turn waste into
compost — give guest lectures.

16. Critical analysis of systems
 Energy
 Transportation/Urban-building design
 Agriculture
 Economic
 Political

17. Critical analysis of systems
 Object: “What drives a system?”
 Tools: “Use of language, rhetoric,
and/or narratives to achieve this
object?”
◦ Language use: “war on coal”
◦ Rhetoric: Change audience beliefs
◦ Narratives: Imagined alternatives
 Norms: “What rules do people follow
to achieve this object?”: drama/games

18. Narrative tools: Change
 False binary thinking (Shaw & Nerlich)
◦ Cost-benefit analysis
◦ Pristine nature vs. economic growth
◦ Either-or neo-liberal balance sheet
◦ Narrative of heroes fighting to protect
nature or protect fossil future status quo:
“War on Coal”
 Need for alternative imaginaries

19. Students’ civic engagment
 Report cards: Community efforts
 Petitions: Oregon students federal
lawsuit
 Position statements: Portland Schools
 White papers
 Consumer praise/complaints
 Divestment proposals

20. Energy systems

21. Clean energy
 Object
 Tools
 Norms

23. Challenges:
 Lack of subsidies and funding
 Continued use of coal and oil
 Wind and solar energy are diffuse
 Need massive energy transmission
grids for people in remote areas

24. Power Up game

25. Transportation/urban/building
design
 Object: Reduce traffic and building
energy use
 Tools: Driverless cars/mass transit
◦ Cut parking need and lots
◦ Plant more tree
 Redesign buildings to cut energy use
 Norms: Value walking and green
space

28. Activity: Redesign
school/community
 Green School
Initiativehttp://www.greenschools.net
 Energy saving strategies and policies
 Community lobbying: Report Card

29. Agricultural
 Object: Reduce energy use (30% of
emissions from agriculture)
 Tools: Reduce meat production,
mono-crops, water use, fertilizers,
food waste
 Norms: Value sustainable agriculture

30. Carbon removal from soil
 Tilling,
deforestation,
wetlands
destruction
 Toxic fertilizers and
pesticides
 Stripped 136 billion
tons or 50%-70%
of carbon from soil
 soil carbon
sequestration

31. Release of methane gas

32. Release of methane gas
 One molecule of methane: warms
earth 30 times more than molecule of
CO2
 Melting permafrost
 Leaking with fracking
 Microbes
◦ Wetlands/rice paddies: Heavy rain
◦ Cows

33. Activity: Food consumption
 Cafeteria food options
 Grocery store choices
 Interview farmers: sustainability
practices

34. Economic
 Object: Reduce needless consumption
impacting energy use
 Tools: Purchase clean/green products
◦ Electric cars
◦ Solar panels
 Norms: Transformation of consumer
capitalism
◦ Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything
◦ http://thefilm.thischangeseverything.org.
◦ StoryofStuff.org

35. Reflect on consumption
 Breanne Fahs: Students collect trash
that they created over a two-day
period that they must then carry
around in a bag. Students then wrote
a paper describing the kinds of trash
they collected, changes in their
lifestyle and consumption associated
with producing less trash, and
potential impacts on climate change
through reduced consumption.

36. Media: Corporate economics
 ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox: devoted
only 146 minutes to climate change in
2015
 New York Times, The Guardian, Los
Angeles Times vs. Wall Street Journal
and USA Today
 Activity: Students analyze reports:
◦ “false equivalency”: need for “both sides”

37. Activity: Consumption diary
 Record consumption practices
 Influence of advertising on choices
 Influence of social media
◦ Need to consume content
◦ Supporting advertisers

38. Political
 Object: Resist federal government
gutting of clean energy development
 Tools: Support local clean energy
initiatives and policies creating jobs
 Norms: Value transformation to a
clean energy economy

40. Koch funding of Senate races

41. “Dark-Money” Fossil Fuel
Cabinet
 Marc Short, “Senior Advisor”: Freedom Partners,
the Koch Industries political-donors group,
 Michael McKenna, Energy Department, MWR
Strategies, client of Koch Companies Public
Sector
 Michael Catanzaro, Energy Department, CGCN
Group, client of Koch Industries and Devon
Energy Corporation, a fracking firm
 Myron Ebell, E.P.A. transition, Competitive
Enterprise Institute, funded by Exxon-Mobil and
Koch Industries.
 David Schnare, E.P.A. transition, Energy and
Environment Legal Institute, funding from coal
companies, “harassment” (Union of Concerned
Scientists) of climate scientist Michael Mann

42. Trump withdrawal from Paris
climate change agreement
 1): Cancel agreement itself
◦ But still obligated through 2019
 2): Executive order: Withdraw from
the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) within one year
◦ U. S. no longer obligated to make
payments to the U.N. Green Climate Fund
◦ Other countries also withdraw

43. Activity: Mock court case
 Study Our Children’s Trust Oregon
lawsuit in Federal Courts (see
handout)
 Student suitors: Suing U.S.
government
 Fossil fuel/political groups
 Witnesses effected by climate change
 Judges who make a decision

44. BBC Climate Challenge

45. One player’s experience
 This game starts with the player assuming
the role of the President of the European
Nations, and the task at hand is to stop
climate change by the year 2100.
 I was constantly voted out of office,
because I would tend to lean towards the
climate change side of things, which most
people were not very happy with.
 Trying to find a balance between what the
people want and what the Earth needs was
so difficult that I would only make it past a
few turns

46. Further resources
 Digital handout
http://tinyw.i
n/a3mo
 Book website
http://tinyw.i
n/8hLS