Kathy Gorski's List: Climate change

This is a place for educators of polar science to share and discuss ideas, resources, strategies, concerns & successes that will engage students and advance scientific literacy about the polar regions of our planet.

New-ish site from National Geographic, it’s a source of current news rather than an educator resource. But teachers need these too.

From The National Acadamies: "This 28-page booklet is based on Ecological Impacts of Climate Change (2009), a report by an independent panel of experts convened by the National Research Council. It explains general themes about the ecological consequences of climate change and identifies examples of ecological changes across the United States. "

"The hominin fossil record documents a history of critical evolutionary events that have ultimately shaped and defined what it means to be human, including the origins of bipedalism; the emergence of our genus Homo; the first use of stone tools"

You can read final publication free online, and even request a download of the prepublication pdf (might be some typos in it)

"By using our extensive international networks to develop a range of perspectives we will help to increase the understanding of climate change issues, leading to consensus building about climate actions and solutions. Our Climate Change programme will help:
achieve understanding of the case for tackling climate change now
mobilise public pressure for progress on international agreements
establish relationships and networks which lead to action"

Tools on Policy, Science & the Search for Solutions

The R/V Knorr sets sail from the capital city of the Azores, Porta Delgada, on June 10, 2010 with researcher Lloyd Keigwin, his science team, the crew of the R/V Knorr and three teachers from Massachusetts. This research cruise will take them all the way across the North Atlantic back to R/V/ Knorr’s homeport at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) over the course of three weeks.

One thing about WHOI - their work is of such good quality, that the blog will be useful far beyond the life the expedition!

The WB Climate Change Portal is intended to provide quick and readily accessible climate and climate-related data to policy makers and development practitioners.

The site also includes a mapping visualization tool (webGIS) that displays key climate variables and climate-related data.

"This Albedo Project began as part of a high school class unit on climate change. It's grown, and the data, and subsequent access, needs a more global home!"

"A hypertext history of how scientists came to (partly) understand what people are doing to cause climate change."

An online issue of Park Science Magazine, a publication of the U.S. National Parks Service. The Spring 2011 issue is dedicated to Climate Change and your Climate Stewards colleague Joe Witte is one of the authors of two of the articles: "Audience segmentation as a tool for communicating climate change: Understanding the differences and bridging the divides" and "NPS climate change talking points"

"Scientists at George Mason University's Center for Ocean-Land-Atmospheric Studies are working on more accurate climate predictions that will help us plan for the future"

Carbon counter shows the metric tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Good summary.

Article from "Time" January 24, 2012

"The following news article, Ocean Acid Threatens Food Chain, reveals some current ocean acidification research as it relates to little-known, but highly significant creatures, the Pteropods. They are tiny, exquisite, and are critical at the base of the food web. As we study the impact of ocean acidification on their delicate shells, we learn more about the potential broader implications of changing ocean chemistry."

"Welcome to the National Center for Science Education’s climate change education initiative. Long respected for its work in defending and supporting the teaching of evolution in the public schools, in 2012 NCSE launched this new initiative to defend and support the teaching of climate change. This section of the website includes the four main sections of the climate change education resources here."

Climate scientists have long argued that ancient air trapped in Antarctic ice is the smoking gun that links carbon dioxide to global warming. Over the past 800,000 years or so the planet has gone through a series of ice ages interspersed with relatively warm periods (during which glaciers retreat back toward the poles) — and inevitably, these warm interludes happen when there’s more CO2 in the atmosphere

"A carbon footprint is an estimate of the climate change impact of activity – such as making a product, living a lifestyle or running a company."