Teaching about Climate Change and Sustainability in the Physics Classroom: Ideas from the American Journal of Physics

Physics students should be able to give a clear and correct summary of the mechanism of human-induced climate change and the evidence that it is occurring. Teaching physics students about climate science is not simply preaching to the choir; our goal is to teach the choir to be preachers. Our physics majors, and even students who enroll in only a single physics course, should all understand the basics of climate science. Recognizing the importance of teaching about climate change, the American Journal of Physics and The Physics Teacher both created special collections on this topic, with AJP's papers on this topic publishing in the September 2023 issue and TPT's extending from September 2023 through January 2024. This talk shares the ideas of many of our authors, including analytic calculations of the greenhouse effect that can be presented on a blackboard, experimental sequences that allow students to develop their own understanding of the key concepts, and new courses and course sequences that explore topics such as carbon footprinting and sustainable building design.