Lesson video

Hi, everybody.

I'm Mrs. Lomas and I'm a primary school teacher that loves geography.

So I'm very excited to be sharing your geography lesson with you today.

So I hope you're all ready to do your best listening and your hardest work.

And let's find out what we're doing today, shall we? So today we're going to be looking at protecting our rainforests.

And we have some keywords in today's lesson, climate, carbon dioxide, and water cycle.

Let's do my turn.

Your turn.

Ready? Climate.

Carbon dioxide.

Water cycle.

Well done.

Let's find out what those words mean.

Climate is an average of weather conditions.

For example, rain, sun, wind in a place taken over a long period of time, usually 30 years or more.

Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere that traps heat.

The continuous movement of water on above and below Earth's surface is known as the water cycle.

Today's lesson is fit into two parts.

Why do rainforests matter and taking action for our rainforests.

So let's have a look at why do rainforests matter.

Rainforests are important for life on Earth in many different ways.

They provide a habitat for millions of plant and animal species, sources of food, homes and livelihoods for people.

Can you suggest any other reasons why rainforests are important? Pause the video, have a class discussion and then come back and we'll have a look together.

How did you get on? Rainforests help to regulate the climate.

Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide.

Why is this important? I want you to pause the video, have a class discussion, and then come back.

How did you get on? And what do you think happens to this carbon store when trees are cut down or burned? Pause the video, have a class discussion and then come back.

How did you get on? Did you talk about the greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases? Let's have a look, shall we? Greenhouse gases are gases in Earth's atmosphere that trap heat.

Human activities are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere.

This is making the planet warm faster than it would naturally and this is causing the Earth's climate to change.

And if we have a look at the little animation on screen says the greenhouse effect.

And then the sunlight reaches the Earth.

Some energy is reflected back into space and some is absorbed and reradiated as heat.

Most of the heat is absorbed by greenhouse gases and then radiated in all directions warming the Earth.

So if there are more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, more heat is going to be trapped in the atmosphere and radiated back to Earth, making the Earth warmer.

So if the rainforests are a good carbon store, they collect all the carbon and they hold it there then is gonna lessen the greenhouse effect, isn't it? However, if we chop down the rainforest there's going to be less trees to contain some of that carbon dioxide.

And also sometimes when we get rid of the trees, we burn them which releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

So not only are you taking away a way of storing the carbon dioxide and stopping it from being in the atmosphere, you're actually releasing more carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

Okay.

So true or false? Deforestation contributes to climate change.

I then want you to justify your answer choosing either A or B.

A, climate change is only caused by the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, or B, when the rainforest is cut down or burned much of the carbon stored in trees is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

So true or false? And then justify your answer with A or B.

Pause the video, have a go and then come back and we'll check the answer.

How did you get on? If you said that deforestation contributes to climate change is true because, B, when the rainforest is cut down or burned much of the carbon stored in trees is released back into the atmosphere's carbon dioxide, you would be correct.

Well done.

Why else are rainforests important? Well, rainforests play a role in the water cycle.

They can affect rainfall patterns and they control how much water is held in and runs off the soil.

And do we remember the water cycle? We've got this little diagram here, haven't we? Water falls is precipitation.

So rain, sleet, snow, hail.

Water collects in lakes and rivers.

Rivers and groundwater drain into the sea and water also collects in the ground.

And then the water is in the sea where the water evaporates and then the water condenses and forms clouds.

And then we start the cycle again, don't we? So rainforests do play a role in the water cycle.

Often when it rains, if it falls into a tree or a plant or a bush, you'll notice, won't you? The leaves will hold on some of the water, don't they? 'Cause sometimes after it rains and you go walking along under some trees you can still get dripped on even if it's not been raining.

That's called leaf drip.

So it stops all the rain from hitting the ground all the precipitation all at the same time which allows the water to actually infiltrate into the soil and then less will be soil runoff, okay? And also the tree roots of trees also hold the soil together and reduce erosion.

So if you take the trees, if you deforest, if you cut down the trees you are removing the roots, aren't you as well? And therefore the soil won't be held together.

And so if it gets windy or it rains a lot of that soil will be washed away.

And we know, don't we, on the top of the soil is where all the nutrients are, aren't they? And that's what helps plants grow.

So if you wash all that away, it gets very hard for plants to grow and eventually they won't grow, and it could even turn into a desert, okay? Sometimes.

So rainforests are a really important part in the water cycle.

Rainforests aren't just a source of food.

Many medicines come from the plants and many of these are from tropical rainforests.

70% of plants used in the treatment of cancer come from tropical regions.

Many more medicines could be made from rainforest plants that are yet to be discovered.

So we really do need our rainforests, don't we, to keep us healthy because of our medicines.

Rainforests provide us with many other products that we use every day.

Tropical wood is used for building and making furniture.

Tree fibres are used to make baskets and cord and a mushroom has been discovered in Ecuador's tropical rainforest that can consume a type of plastic called polyurethane.

That was a difficult word to say, (laughs).

But that means that quite often plastics can't be broken down, can they? They have to just be recycled, and not all plastics can be recycled.

But this mushroom can consume, it can break down in use the plastic of polyurethane, (laughs).

I'll get there in the end.

So that would really reduce a lot of plastic waste, wouldn't it? But it's only just been discovered.

So if they chop down that part of the rainforest where that mushroom grows we might never have discovered that mushroom.

So who knows what else is in the rainforest that we haven't discovered yet? Okay, I want you to give a reason why the Amazon rainforest is important.

So I want you to turn to your talk partner and tell them one reason why the Amazon rainforest is important.

And then your talk partner is going to give you another reason why the Amazon rainforest is important.

You can't say the same one as your partner, okay? Pause the video, have a go and then come back.

How did you get on? Hopefully you mentioned that we get lots of food from the rainforest.

Lots of people live there, lots of animals live there, lots of plants live there.

We get lots of medicines and we get lots of other products like wood for furniture.

And also it's a carbon store, isn't it? So it helps against climate change and the greenhouse effect and it also is an important part of the water cycle.

So well done if you said any of those.

Deforestation is the complete removal of trees.

For example, trees might be cut down or burned.

An area of tropical rainforest, the size of 11 football pitches is lost every minute.

What are the causes of deforestation? Let's have a look, shall we? The Amazon rainforest is being lost for different reasons.

Logging, cattle ranching, plantations and wildfires.

So logging, obviously, you're chopping down the trees for the wood, cattle ranching, you're cutting down the trees to make space for your cattle.

Plantations, again, cutting down the wild rainforest and replanting with one type of tree.

And wildfires can come through and burn a large area of the forest.

Also, hydroelectric dams, mining, urban development and climate change.

So hydroelectric dams you can see there the first picture top left, that dam is taking up and the reservoir behind it's taking up a huge amount of space, isn't it? And they would've had to cleared all the rainforest that was around the river to do that.

And again, for mining, there aren't any trees.

So if you go across from that dam picture, so top right.

Can you see any trees in that picture? No, unfortunately they chop them all down so that they can dig up the ground for mining.

And urban development, so might be building a new road, new houses, new shops.

Again, chopping down all the trees and clearing the land.

And then obviously climate change is also killing off a lot of trees.

So can you name one of the causes of deforestation? I want you to pause the video and then turn to your talk partner and tell them one cause of deforestation.

And then your talk partner is going to tell you a different cause of deforestation.

Pause the video, have a go, and then come back.

How did you get on? Hopefully you mentioned one of these, logging, cattle ranching, hydroelectric power, mining, plantations, wild flowers, urban development or climate change.

Well done if you did.

We can use a consequence wheel to think through the possible impacts of an event or an issue.

For example, if we start at the bottom, if you get up late you miss the bus, you are late for school.

I want you to have a go of using a consequence wheel to think through the possible impacts of an event or an issue.

So shall we say, what would happen if you forgot your packed lunch? Okay, I want you to have a go as a class.

What would be the impacts on a consequence wheel if you forgot your packed lunch? Okay, pause the video, have a go and then come back.

How did you get on? I hope nobody realised they'd actually had forgotten their packed lunch today.

So your first task for today you're going to use a consequence wheel to think through the possible impacts of deforestation on the Amazon rainforest.

Write any direct impacts of deforestation in the inner rings of circles.

One impact per circle.

Then consider what the consequences of these impacts might be.

Write these impacts in the outer rings of circles.

One impact per circle.

The impacts may be positive or negative.

So let's have a look.

So there's deforestation.

So to the left you may think, maybe animals lose their habitats which means that maybe an animal goes extinct, which means that maybe some plants go extinct for they helped to disperse the seeds or helped with the pollen and fertilising the plants.

Okay, so have a think about everything you've learned about the rainforest and what the impacts of deforestation might be.

When you've had to go, come back, and we'll have a look together at what I've had go at.

Okay, how did you get on? So here's one I thought of.

So let's go clockwise from top left.

Well, obviously we move out from deforestation to the top left strand.

So we've got Indigenous peoples have to leave their homes in the rainforest.

They aren't able to live their traditional lifestyles and loss of important knowledge about the rainforest.

And then moving around to plants and animals lose their habitats.

Some species go extinct.

Other species that depend on these species are affected.

Moving down.

Cut down trees releases carbon dioxide.

This contributes to climate change and more frequent extreme weather events like flooding or wildfires.

And then last one, Brazil nut trees cut down.

Fewer Brazil nuts to collect in the rainforest.

Some people lose their jobs.

How did you get on? You might have had very similar ones to mine or you might have had completely different ones.

If you got a bit stuck and couldn't think of enough, now's your time to add in any bits of information you were missing.

So we've looked at why rainforests matter.

Now let's have a look at taking action for our rainforests.

So, it is thought that about 17% of the Amazon rainforest has already been lost.

That's an area roughly the size of France.

40% of the Amazon rainforest could have been lost by 2050.

And if you have a look at that picture there, the satellite image, and can you see, the dark green is the rainforest and then the lighter greens and browns that's actually where it's been cut down.

And that would've used to have been dark green, that would've used in all rainforest.

So how does this make you feel? I want you to pause the video, have a class discussion, and then come back.

How did you get on? Sometimes big issues such as deforestation can make us feel worried, overwhelmed, angry, or scared.

Sometimes it's difficult to know how things can be made better, but lots of people around the world are taking action together to help protect our rainforests.

And you, if you want, can be one of those people.

So true or false.

Nobody is taking action to protect the world's rainforests.

And then I want you to justify your answer using A, there are lots of ways, individuals, communities and countries are taking action, or B, it's too late to take action to protect the rainforests.

So true or false, and then justify your answer with A or B.

Pause the video, have a go, and then come back to check your answer.

How did you get on? If you said it was false? Because A, there are lots of ways individuals, communities and communities are taking action.

You would be correct.

Well done.

One way people are taking action is by making their voices heard by those in powerful positions.

This is called campaigning.

Some people take part in demonstrations like you can see in the photograph there.

Some people write letters, some people organise petitions.

You can meet with government representatives or you can make leaflets to raise awareness.

Nemonte Nenquimo, an Indigenous woman from Ecuador took action against the Ecuadorian government.

Together with others, she successfully protected 202,000 hectares of Indigenous people's land and the Amazon rainforest from being cleared to extract oil.

Isn't that amazing? One person managed to make such a big difference.

Indigenous peoples have lived sustainably with the rain with the Amazon rainforest for thousands of years.

They're often called the guardians of the rainforest.

Indigenous knowledge is extremely important in protecting the Amazon rainforest.

So let's select one answer.

Which of these are ways of campaigning? A, writing letters, B, meeting with government representatives, C, organising petitions, or D, all of the above.

So that means you can choose A, B and C if you pick D.

Okay, pause the video, have a go and then come back to check your answer.

How did you get on? If you said D, all of the above, you would be correct.

Well done.

So in 2021, more than 100 world leaders committed to reverse and end deforestation by 2030.

Countries in the European Union have agreed a new law which means that any companies selling or exporting rainforest products such as coffee and coke and cocoa will have to come from land that is deforestation free.

Many people are making lifestyle changes to help protect the rainforest, such as eating less meat, choosing rainforest products that are responsibly sourced using less paper, reusing paper and recycling it and taking action against climate change.

So if you're eating less meat then less forest is going to be cleared for cattle ranches.

If you're choosing rainforest products that are responsibly sourced, that means quite often that either a tree is replanted or it's done in a more sustainable way than chopping down lots of trees.

And it often helps the Indigenous people as well.

Using less paper, reusing paper and recycling it, means that less trees are chopped down.

How do you think people can take action against climate change? I want you to pause the video, have a class discussion, and then come back.

How did you get on? Did you come up with some good ideas you could do in school as well? So which two of the following are actions people can make to help protect rainforests? A, eating more meat.

B, campaigning for governments to take more action.

C, choosing responsibly sourced rainforest products or D, driving cars as much as possible.

So which two are actions people can make to help protect rainforests? So pause the video, collect your answers and come back and check.

How did you get on? If you'd said B, campaigning for governments to take more action, and C, choosing responsibly sourced rainforest products, you would be correct.

Well done.

So your second task for today, I want you to think about ways in which people are taking action for the world's rainforests, write a short summary of the action that is being taken on a paper leaf.

Draw a tree trunk and branches and attach your paper leaves to create a positive action tree.

Have a go, come back and we'll have a look at some ideas, okay? How did you get on? So some ideas I had.

A new temperate rainforest is being planted near Totnes, a town in Devon in the southwest of England.

One way people are taking action is by choosing rainforest products that are responsibly sourced.

This means they have been produced in ways that are better for rainforests and the people producing them.

Many people are taking action by eating less meat and dairy.

This helps to reduce the amount of rainforest being cleared for cattle.

Drones have been designed to help with reforestation.

The drones work out the best places to plant trees and then shoot pods containing seeds and nutrients into the soil.

That one's really cool, isn't it? Okay, so well done for today.

Let's have a look at a summary of our lesson on protecting our rainforests.

Rainforests regulate the Earth's climate and are important for life on Earth in many different ways.

Rainforests face a variety of threats.

There are different causes of deforestation such as cattle ranching and wildfires.

Many people are taking action to protect rainforests in different ways.

Well done, everybody.

I hope you enjoyed today's lesson and it's filled you with lots of ideas on how you can help protect our rainforests as well.

Because whilst it might be quite worrying and sad about what is happening, we always have to remember that we can do something about it, okay? Don't forget to take the exit quiz just to double check.

Do you need to recap anything before completing the unit? And I will see you for another lesson, another time.

Bye.