Using climate change as a teaching tool

Climate change, like many other controversial issues, is an ideal pedagogical tool for encouraging a number of desirable out-comes in environmental education. It serves as an excellent con-text for teaching the science of complex systems, or chaos, as well as a wide variety of more traditional content. Chaos is a powerful paradigm for building understanding of how the world works. It also empowers students to take individual action on large, seemingly insurmountable problems. Climate change can help make learning relevant; it is the ideal arena for debating the merits and application of the precautionary princi-ple, and for giving students the opportunity to find their own voice in a key public dialog of our time. This process develops a host of desirable learning goals, including problem solving and conflict resolution. Teaching climate change is also challenging