Is It Weather or Is It Climate Change? Answers to Your Questions about Extreme Weather

Written by Rachel Salt

Firefly Books

978-0-2281-0462-9 

64 pp.

Ages 12+

March 2024

 

With much in the media about climate change and extreme weather events that include droughts, floods, heatwaves, and fires, it's not surprising that young people may be confused about what is real and what is not. Because much of the information about climate change and extreme weather can be tainted with rhetoric, opinion, and even conspiracy, sorting the facts from the misinformation can be challenging. Environmental biologist Rachel Salt sifts through all the info out there and organizes it into an accurate STEM book that both clarifies and elaborates.

From Is It Weather or Is It Climate Change? by Rachel Salt

First, Rachel Salt introduces the concept of climate change and provides evidence for its existence, both historically and in current times. She then looks at extreme weather before taking a global tour of some events that provide evidence of climate change. These highlights begin with the wildfires, heatwaves, and rain (who knew there were things called atmospheric rivers?) in British Columbia. Also included are droughts in Mexico; winter storms in Texas; heatwaves and flooding in Germany; floods and droughts in Ethiopia; the melting glaciers and snowfields of the Third Pole, an extensive system of mountain ranges in Asia; and wildfires in Australia. In addition to these weather events, Rachel Salt addresses how they are impacting human life and what people are doing to adapt and even mitigate the impacts.

From Is It Weather or Is It Climate Change? by Rachel Salt

Is It Weather or Is It Climate Change? could be a rather depressing or distressing book but Rachel Salt consistently reminds young readers that there are people around the world taking action to fight climate change. She provides examples of adaptation that include Indigenous-led resistance to fossil-fuel projects, growing climate-resistant plants, replacing power sources with those without carbon emissions, and protecting and restoring wetlands.

While all the information is valuable and intrinsic to telling the big picture, several asides certainly caught my attention. One is the gender imbalance of climate change and climate-sensitive health impacts, both addressed in the exposé on Ethiopia but sadly applicable globally. Also, teachers will undoubtedly find an info box titled "Beware of Climate Lies" worthwhile for lessons in misinformation and fake news. Another relates to the "Confidence Meter" by which scientists measure how confident they are that climate change is influencing extreme weather, and demonstrates the complexity of discerning what extreme weather event constitutes evidence of climate change. Inclusion of all these help complete the story of climate change and extreme weather.

From Is It Weather or Is It Climate Change? by Rachel Salt

Is It Weather or Is It Climate Change? is best suited for a teen (or adult) audience as it is a comprehensive book of non-fiction that lays out everything from types of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons) to the methods used to measure climate change (such as ice cores, marine sediment, ocean acidification and temperature records). The text is extensive and well-balanced with photographs, information boxes, graphs, and maps, and completed with important features of non-fiction books such as a glossary, an index, and a list of additional resources.

 

This will be a fabulous book for teaching climate change, media literacy, and weather events. Whether a teaching resource for educators of social studies, geography or science, or a reference for students, Is It Weather or Is It Climate Change? will answer questions, spark enquiry, and perhaps inspire action. With accurate knowledge such as this, good change can happen.

Out of the Ice: How Climate Change is Revealing the Past

Written by Claire Eamer

Illustrated by Drew Shannon

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-731-6

32 pp.

Ages 8-12

September 2018

In another life, I did research on the historical record trapped in peatlands in Alberta. Most people would be fascinated to learn that deep within the plant material there are records of volcanic eruptions from thousands of years ago, deforestation and agriculture in the surrounding areas, and more.  Claire Eamer, prolific writer of non-fiction including Inside Your Insides: A Guide to the Microbes That Call You Home (Kids Can Press, 2016) and What a Waste! Where Does Garbage Go? (Annick Press, 2017), brings similar information from the past as it is trapped in frozen water from glaciers, permafrost, and more, now being revealed with the global warming of the Earth's air, ground and water.

Starting with explanations about global warming and how the Earth acts as a greenhouse, Claire Eamer then focuses on specific circumstances under which clues from the past become revealed. There is the 4300 year old stick with a bit of feather and sinew found in ice patches in the Yukon alongside 2400 year old caribou dung, revealing the first organic evidence of the hunting atlatl, a stick used to throw darts. There are more archaeological clues from Norway, spurred on by the Yukon finds, of large groups of people using scaring sticks to funnel herds of reindeer for easy hunting. In 1999, the mummified body of Kwädąy Dän Ts'ìnchį, meaning "long-ago person found", was discovered at the edge of a melting glacier in BC, providing evidence of his age, food eaten, and clothing worn, as well as his ancestry through DNA. The famous Iceman, Ötzi, found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991, is also discussed, as are the Scythians in the permafrost of the Altai Mountains of Asia, the Incan children of Llullaillaco, sacrificed to the gods and buried high in the Andes, and the cave-lion cubs and mammoths discovered in Siberia and Russia.

From Out of the Ice: How Climate Change is Revealing the Past by Claire Eamer, illus. by Drew Shannon

 All these discoveries further our understanding of the people and animals who inhabited these areas, hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of years ago. With contemporary testing and advances, like radiocarbon dating, and biochemical and DNA analyses, more and more can be learned about them and their world, which Claire Eamer recognizes is our world too.

 "The past is us." (pg. 29)

Drew Shannon, a Toronto illustrator, provides realistic depictions of how these people and animals might have lived, giving context to the circumstances of the artifacts and bodies recovered. A photograph for each story is usually provided but Drew Shannon's illustrations help the reader see beyond the science and into the lives of those left behind and now being exposed. Coupled with information boxes, a glossary, a timeline and references for further study, Out of the Ice: How Climate Change is Revealing the Past becomes a well-organized and informative read that still draws the reader in with its compelling stories of lives lived before, useful for teaching the science of climate change or history and archaeology.

From Out of the Ice: How Climate Change is Revealing the Past by Claire Eamer, illus. by Drew Shannon