Learn about environmental issues, their effect on your community and actions for your involvement.

Reconnect with your environmentSP19371

Check out these websitesto learn more:

http://co2now.org/www.globalcarbonproject.org/

science/sfi.htmwww.oar.noaa.gov/climate/

t_observing.htmlwww.seagrant.psu.edu/extension/

climatechange.htm

Collect articles about climate change with an international, national,state and local focus. Compare whatyou read about climate change withwhat you hear about climatechange. Make sure toreference the science ofclimate change. Is climatechange a serious problemwe should address? Do youwant to convince others tostop producing CO2 and othergreenhouse gases? Send yourthoughts to axm40@psu.edu.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Earth Action Education Director Pat Lupo, OSB, gives Fort LeBoeufstudents the opportunity to share what they learned about humanimpact on oceans and aquatic ecosystems.

Filling the atmosphere withtoo much carbon dioxide is ahuge experiment, and we’re inthe test tube.

By burning fossil fuels thatwere trapped underground formillions of years, humans haverapidly created an excess of thisgreenhouse gas in the wake ofthe Industrial Revolution.

Ocean and forests suck someof this carbon dioxide (CO2) outof the air.

That’s a scientific fact. In ad-dition to soil, these carbon sinksplay an important role in main-taining proper levels of CO2 inthe earth’s atmosphere by ab-sorbing more carbon dioxidethan they emit.

Thequestionis:Cantheykeeppace with all the extra human-produced CO2?

When Inez Fung joined a cli-mate-modeling team at NASA’sGoddardInstituteforSpaceStud-ies at Columbia University, shebegan earnestly thinking aboutthe earth’s carbon cycle. It wasobvious to her that the earth’sability to absorb CO2 is vital foranalyzing climate change.

Fung’s commitment and worktoaccountforeverygramofheat-trapping carbon dioxide on theplanet earned her recognitionas one of Scientific American’s50 most influential scientistsin 2005. Currently she is the di-rector of the Berkeley Instituteof the Environment at the Uni-versity of California-Berkeley.Her childhood love of math, hertraining in mathematics at MIT,her work at NASA and her pas-sion for tackling big problemsmake her a perfect choice.

While Charles Keeling andother scientists clearly showedthat CO2 concentration is ris-ing and causing the planet towarm, Fung’s research gives usa better understanding of thecurrent and future role playedby carbon sinks. Any decreasein their capacity to absorb CO2could dramatically increase thespeedandintensityofglobalcli-mate change.

Using her detailed data analy-sis, Fung built a large-scale com-putermodeltorepresenttheCO2sourcesandsinksandwhereandwhen they vary. More recently,Fung has coupled her carbon-

cycle model onto existing large-scale computer climate modelsto project how land and oceancarbonsinksarelikely tochangeas the average global tempera-tures rises.

Untilnow,earth’sland,vegeta-tion and oceans have soaked uproughly half of all the CO2 fromfossil fuels. But one of Fung’smajor findings is that droughtshave already diminished theland’s ability to take up CO2 andwill continue to do so on a globalscale. Observational data sup-ports her research.

Her model also projects thatthe tropics are likely to becomehotter and drier in the summer,causing plants to slow their CO2intake to avoid water loss. Atmo-

spheric measurements over thepast decade have already con-firmed this effect. Fung worriesthatincreasingregionaldroughtswill further hasten warmingtrends because her researchshows that soil moisture is a keyvariable.

In 2013 a new satellite, the Or-bitingCarbonObservatory(OCO-2), is expected to launch, givingFung volumes of data on atmo-spheric levels of CO2. She will gofrom drawing upon roughly 100observations every two weeks toa million. And because the OCOcan read CO2 levels of the en-tire atmospheric column, it willeliminatetheneedtoguessaboutvariations at different altitudes.

Fung’s colleagues are paying

close attention to her analysis,and her work is widely cited. Itis hoped that policymakers andregular citizens will use the in-formation to take action beforethe carbon sinks become satu-rated with all the extra CO2 weareproducing.Usinglessoil,coaland gas and replacing them withrenewablesourcesofenergythatdon’t produce CO2 will certainlyhelp.

To extend today’s learning,teacherscanfindlessonsatwww.goerie.com/nie.

A N N A M C C A R T N E Y, acommunications and educationspecialist for Pennsylvania SeaGrant, can be reached by e-mail ataxm40@psu.edu.

Model behaviorInfluential scientist pinpoints climate-change dataso we can understand problems and find solutionsBy ANNA MCCARTNEYContributing writer

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/National Academy of Sciences

Clilmate scientist Inez Fung’s job is to try to predict the future of theearth’s climate. Her tools are mathematical equations and models,and superfast computers. Like any good scientist, she is always askingnew questions and searching for new puzzles to solve so she can helpus better understand and respond to the changes.

What: Visit the TREC between Jan. 15 and March 25 and receive achance to win a guided tour of the Presque Isle Lighthouse on May29.Cost: No fees; participants must be age 16 and up to enter.When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. dailyFor more information, contact: Stacey Marendt at 217-9638

What: Outside the Window pre-school program; kids ages 3-5 withan accompanying adult can explore the natural world with books,crafts and outdoor activities.When: 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on the following days: Feb. 12 and 18:Groundhogs; March 12 and 25: Animals Wake Up; April 9: Frogs; May14: Plant a GardenWhere: At the Tom Ridge Environmental Center and other PresqueIsle locations (dress for outdoor activities)Cost: $3 per child per class, registration requiredFor more information, contact: the Park Office at 833-7424

Learn More

2010Hottest year on record, globally, in a tie with 2005. It was

also the wettest year ever recorded — think Pakistan,Australia, Tennessee, and California and their epic floods.

34Consecutive years that global temperatures have

been above the average for the 20th century.

14Consecutive years that temperatures in the

U.S. have been above the long-term average.

9Number of the 10 warmestyears on record since 2000.

58.12Average planet surface temperature

last year, in degrees Fahrenheit

57Average planet surface, in degreesFahrenheit, during the 20th century.

1976The last year that global averagetemperatures were below normal.

SOURCE: NASA and NOAA

By the nuMBers

This page brought to you by:

▀Carbon dioxide is producednaturally but human activityhas greatly increased theamount of this greenhouse gassince the Industrial Revolution.

▀Vehicles alone produce almostone-fourth of the CO2 releasedinto the air.

▀Scientists are seeing evidenceof climate extremes that havenever been seen before.

▀Arctic sea ice has thinned andmountain glaciers have shrunk.Four-fifths of the glaciers inMontana’s Glacier NationalPark have disappeared in thepast 100 years and if warmingcontinues, they could alldisappear in the park by 2030.

▀The loss of land ice and thewarming of oceans havecaused a slow but steady risein sea levels.

▀The number of days with frosthas decreased over mostareas of the earth.

▀The 20th century was thewarmest in the past 1,000years. And 9 of the 10 warmestyears in the last 150 haveoccurred since 1990.

▀Droughts are more severe insome areas.

▀Some trees are budding earlierin the spring and some plantsare growing in places that wereonce too cold for them.

▀The carbon dioxide content ofthe earth’s oceans has beenincreasing since 1750, and iscurrently increasing about 2billion tons per year. This hasincreased ocean acidity byabout 30 percent.

Fast FaCts

How does an underwaterstruggleforsurvivaloffthe“WildCoast” of South Africa relate tostudentsfromFortLeBoeufMid-dle School?

The Earth Action Youth Train-ingDayattheTomRidgeEnviron-mental Center involved studentsingrades6-8inactivitiestobringhomethemessagethathumanac-tivity impacts the survival of theentire aquatic ecosystem.

The day began with an intro-duction and viewing of the “WildOcean”ontheBigGreenScreen.Students then attended a varietyof workshops that helped themexplore aquatic organisms andtheir interaction within an eco-system.

“Myfavoritepartofthedaywasplaying the predator/prey game.I learned about the animal food

chain and how herbivores aretypically on the bottom with car-nivores and top carnivores ontop,” said Samanthalyn Weryha.

When students were asked toshare what we can do to protecttheaquaticecosystem,SkylarFoxand Jacob Burkley both agreedit’s important to get friends andfamiliestogethertopickuptrashon the beach so it does not makeitswaytothewater.RachaelWil-son suggests you use recyclablecontainers.

The all-day event was madepossible with a grant from thePennsylvania Department ofEnvironmental Protection’sCoastal Resources ManagementProgram.

A N N A M C C A R T N E Y, acommunications and educationspecialist for Pennsylvania SeaGrant, can be reached by e-mail ataxm40@psu.edu.

Students acquire skillsto save our ecosystemBy ANNA MCCARTNEYContributing writer

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | 3D