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Fighting Climate Injustices through Stories and Ice Cores

Climate Literacy Exchange, 2025

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Resources for this slide deck

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Dr. Gita Dunhill

Marine Geologist

CSU, East Bay

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Nancy Wright

TOSA, Hayward Unified School District

Science Educator, Alameda County Office of Education

Gita Dunhill

Marine Geologist,

CSU East Bay

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Outline of Presentation

  1. Pictures and Data tell stories
    1. Gallery Walk - activity
    2. Graphs

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  • Where do the data come from?
    • Instruments
    • Ice Cores - activity

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  • Connect picture to ice core
    • Journal

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  • How is this a social Issue?

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Gallery Walk:

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Walk around and look at the pictures. Stop at a poster that interests you. At that poster discuss:

  • What do you notice?
  • What do you think you know?
  • What story this image is telling?
  • How you think this connects to science?

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Cumulative CO2 Emissions

What does cumulative mean?

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What do you notice or conclude from this map?

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Does this tell us anything about responsibility?

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Countries most in peril from climate change

  • What similarities are we learning from this graph that we learned in the other?
  • What additional information is this graph showing us?
  • What are you still wondering about?

← Less vulnerable to climate change More vulnerable →

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What would make you want to know more?

What would propel you to act?

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Data for last 800,000 years ago?

What patterns do you notice?

Are there any outliers?

What story do these data tell us about past and present climate?

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How do we know what we know about climate change?

Actual Measurements

“Other” Measurements - Proxies

Only ~100 years

100,000’s of years

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Much of what we know about climate change and greenhouse gases is from ice cores

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Ice cores are atmospheric time machines

  • Both temperatures and atmospheric chemistry

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  • Greenland ice sheet is 9,000 feet thick, layer upon layer of preserved ice

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Where are ice cores drilled?

Antarctic Ice Cores

(1,000,000 year record)

Greenland Ice Cores

(125,000 year record)

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First, you have to get there

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Navigate by flags

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Then you drill, and drill, and drill

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Ice Core Recovery

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From field to lab

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Ice Core Lab

National Ice Core Lab in Denver, CO

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Snow accumulates to become ice - Temperature Proxy

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Air gets trapped in the spaces between ice crystals - Atmospheric Chemistry Proxy

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Volcanic Ash Layer

A one-meter long section of ice core with a dark ash layer.

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Ice Cores from Greenland

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What do ice core scientists DO?: Mini Ice Core Activity �

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Searching for Observations

  1. Make some general observations of your ice core
  2. List 5 things you observed
  3. Share your observations with your group

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Capture Your Observations

2. As a group, create an ice core log, starting with a diagram.

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Label different sections

      • By date
      • Identify anything you think might be important about the layers
      • What does each layer tell you?

2022

2021

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Create a Ice Core Log

2022

1. Draw your layers

2. Write year on each layer starting with 2022

3. Make observations for each layer

4. Write explanation for each layer (tips on next slide).

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Trends to help your explanations

2022

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Let’s revisit this!

Ice Cores tell this story

What’s missing?

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Another Part of the Story

Source: https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-refugees-red-cross-2651129063.html Location: Philippines

Wildfire in Yakutia, Russia.

A woman tries to cool off with water from a hydrant in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles

  • Pick a photograph

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  • Place the photograph in an appropriate year on your ice core model

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  • How has this added to the story of the ice cores?

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  • Write down a couple sentences about the story of that year.

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Cumulative CO2 Emissions

Who is causing the problem and who is being affected?

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Is this a social justice issue, why or why not?

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Science Issue

Social Justice Issue

Sea level since 1995

Woman standing in front of home on the island of Kiribati

Wildfires in Russia

Changes in precipitation

Droughts in Africa and a widening of the desert region

Warming for year 2100

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Scientist

Be a Solutionary: There are Many Ways to Help

Activist

You

https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/08/world/world-climate-change/index.html

Vanessa Nakate

Copyright ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP or licensors

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What can you do?

How can you tell the story?

GN

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Discussion prompt

  • Why might providing data and real life stories help students understand the impacts of climate change and how can you make space for both?
  • How might including individual stories motivate students to exercise their agency?
  • How does the idea of being a solutionary and providing space for students to thinks through this prioritize justice?

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Thank you!