Newtown High School Classes

Debate Global Warming

By Nancy K. Crevier

“Gore” or “Against?”

Following a showing of the documentary An Inconvenient Truth and as a culmination of environmental studies, each of Trent Harrison’s ninth grade students in his Earth Science classes at Newtown High School had the opportunity to decide if people are the root cause of global warming — “Gore” — or if climate changes that have made recent headlines are merely part of a natural cycle — “Against.”

“The kids chose which group to be in,” said Mr Harrison. “Some picked the side opposite of what they really believe in order to learn more and get more information,” he said. In evaluating websites and learning to take a critical stance based on their research, the two groups did their best to determine if the global warming issue is a political issue or something more.

Following a week of intensive research and teamwork, the two sides squared off for a debate on Friday, June 15, during their regular class times.

Tory Deakin gave the opening remarks for the “Against” team during one class Friday morning, while Tom Mascher offered opening remarks for the “Gore” side of global warming.

“I looked at the thickening of the atmosphere and if there are really gases that are affecting the earth,” said Tory. His teammate Chris Segovia offered the information that science shows that the sun is “actually getting hotter and causing the melting of the ice caps. People cause some damage, but I don’t think that they are the reason for global warming.”

Using graphs to defend their stances, and with Mr Harrison moderating the back and forth banter of the debate, the two groups vigorously defended their positions with rebuttal upon rebuttal.

On the “Gore” side, Shawn Kurcku noted that carbon dioxide and temperatures have been rising more rapidly in recent years, over a smaller span of time. “The ten warmest years since 1860 have been since 1980,” added a teammate, hoping to prove the human impact on global warming.

Members of each team continued to research, using their laptops, as the discussion heated up, seeking to further substantiate each of their rebuttals.

Kayla Buckley said that she felt that her research for the “Gore” side offered plenty of evidence that people cause global warming. “When the population increases, it puts stress on the environment,” said Kayla. “The climate change has affected animals all over the world. The rising seas levels affect the seals and storks in other parts of the world have been hurt by droughts. I think we need to make changes. I think that because of watching [An Inconvenient Truth] I will try to make more choices that make less of an impact [on the environment],” Kayla said.

The debate raged back and forth for the entire period, and Mr Harrison was pleased with the enthusiasm the class showed for the assignment. “It is something they can connect to their own worlds, so they are excited about it,” he said.

When the dust had settled and everyone had put in their two cents’ worth, the side that came out on top was the natural cycle side. “In three out of four of my classes, the natural cycle side won,” said Mr Harrison.

Powerful arguments against global warming being a human-induced problem included data about the sun’s increased solar activity, gasses from volcanoes, and that the earth was actually much warmer from 540 to 1 million years ago.

“It was hard for the ‘Gore’ side,” explained Mr Harrison, “because they were trying to find evidence to support a projection. The other side had more scientific evidence in the way of data going further back in geologic time that allowed them to cast doubt in the mind of the ‘Gore’ side.”

As a vehicle for students to interpret websites, trends in temperature and climate data, and to apply all of what they had learned in Integrated Earth Science throughout the past year, the issue of global warming was a big success, Mr Harrison felt. “I am looking forward to next year’s debate as more and more research into the cause and effect of global warming become available to the scientific community,” he said.