Changes in Chimborazo

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Climate Change
Geology
Earth Science
Earth Systems
Nature of Science
Edward Hessler

Ecuador's 6268-meter-high (20564.3 feet) volcano Chimborazo was almost first climbed on June 2, 1802. A team including the German geographer Alexander von Humboldt was forced to turn back about 400 m from the top of a mountain thought then to be the highest in the world.

Science's Tim Appenzeller notes that "Not long after his descent from the mountain, (Humboldt) sketched a spectacular diagram that used the slopes of Chimborazo to depict a concept that had crystallized during his climb: that climate is an organizing principle of life, shaping the distinct communities of plants and animals found at different altitudes and latitudes." ... This "idea born on Chimborazo--that the physical environment shapes life's grand patterns--is giving scientists an intellectual framework for understanding a phenomenon Humboldt himself could not have anticipated: how human-driven climate change is transforming life."

The work of three Minnesota scientists is discussed in Appenzeller's review. Jeff La Frenierre who teaches at Gustavus Adolphus College has been studying "how climate change is affecting its glaciers, stream flow, and groundwater. He is astonished at how fast the ice is succumbing."  doing research on Chimborazo's slopes for a decade." With hydrologist G.-H. Crystal Ng of the University of Minnesota they are doing "a kind of watershed accounting." Automated stream gauges measure water entering and leaving.

It turns out "that some of the meltwater from Chimborazo's glaciers doesn't drain directly into streams but instead percolates down into the porous volcanic rock at the base of the ice. The water then circulates underground.' LaFrenierre and Ng are trying to quantify this. What is happening is that downstream users are now losing water which is important to crops, e.g., potatoes.

Another question botanists/ecologists are studying is whether plants have migrated upward. Appenzeller provides a masterful summary of the messy problems in analyzing these data, e.g., Humboldt (like Darwin and other early naturalists) was not a systematic collector although he used a barometer to measure altitude at places he collected plants. (Imagine carrying a glass barometer while climbing a mountain for the first time.) Based on Humboldt's original records there has been a "startling transformation. "It was," Appenzeller notes, "eye-catching evidence that climate change has upended the world Humboldt mapped." Plants "had moved upslope by an average of more than 500 meters since 1802."


Later, another team did another analysis, this time based on records from the mountain where Humboldt collected most of his plant data. Appenzeller tells us that Humboldt "mapped (plant) data from another vocanic mountain, Antisana, onto Chimborazo because, well, Chimborazo was more famous." The broadscale pattern holds but some of the details have changed. The second group of botanists used data from Antisana and compared it with data they collected there. Appenzeller quotes University of Minnesota botanist Daniel Stanton who works with LaFrenierre and Ng: "I'll continue to believe the patterns, but not the precise numbers. Whether it's 300 meters (984.252 feet) or 500 meters (1640.42 feet), we're still taking about substantial change."

This is another story, as is the entire essay, of how scientists do their work in seeking reliable evidence.

Appenzeller's review of current work on Chimborazo (and Antisana) as well as of Humboldt's exploration may be read here. It includes a link to a short video (~5 minutes) of how this mountain is changing. At the top of Appenzeller's story is a partial diagram of Humboldt's famous Tableau Physique (some full images; not an eye test!), in which "he mapped vegetation onto fanciful versions of the volcanoes Chimorazo and Cotopaxi."

But read the article, too. It is a treat.

And if you are interested in learning more about Humboldt, Andrea Wolf has written an acclaimed biography.


  

Coldstream Pauses Touring to Work on the Green Costs of Worldwide Concerts

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Climate Change

Sustainability

Edward Hessler

LiveNation reported that in November 2017, the rock band Coldplay completed their "A Head Full of Dreams Tour." Not only was it the "most successful worldwide outing of their career...it topped out as the third highest grossing global tour of all time (more than $500 million in ticket sales)."  We often don't think of the other totals, e.g., this tour included "114 shows in 76 cities and 31 countries, with two legs in Latin America, two in Europe, two in North America, one in Australia, and one in Asia."

According to the November 21, 2019 NBC News, "the British band announced that they won't tour until they can find a way to make their concerts more environmentally friendly....They will play two shows in Jordan, which they will broadcast to the world via YouTube instead of touring their new album."

The band's goal "is to find a way to make their concerts a net positive for the environment, but (front man Chris) Martin said the hardest part of going green (carbon neutral and plastic free) is the environmental impact of air travel." 

The NBC report described the work of two groups, Reverb and the Green Touring Network, which specialize in greening tours. Some bands have changed their lighting to LEDs and also purchasing carbon offsets. The Network, according to the NBC report, "says audience travel accounts for one-third of a tour's carbon footprint, and venues account for another third.

The BBC also reported on this story and includes a video of Coldplay front man, Chris Martin describing the band's initiative, a pie chart on the carbon footprint of a tour and further discussion of the environmental impacts of staging a world tour.

"Everyday Life" was just released and you can see two videos, Sunrise and Sunset, at the Coldplay website. Other options for viewing/listening are included, too. You can, for example, download a copy of the Everyday Life booklet.

Friday Poem

Environmental & Science Education
Poetry
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

Today's poem--a visit to a dental hygienist--is by Paul Hostovsky. 

It is pain free and is likely to make you think of visits like this.

Some Hope for Coral Reefs

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Climate Change
Endangered Species
Earth Systems
Earth Science
Edward Hessler

There is hope for coral reefs, well some. Maybe 30% might be alive by mid-century. To put this in perspective, half of the planet's coral reefs are already gone. The causes include climate change, of course, but also fishing, dredging, pollution, and habitat change due to development.

In a feature report in the science journal Nature, Amber Dance takes us on a tour of how scientists and conservationists are testing a variety of strategies to assist schools until the climate stabilizes. This includes breeding experiments, growing and replanting, "genetically manipulating corals to tolerate climate change, adding beneficial microbes to reefs, "finding the reefs that have the best natural chances of survival and helping them to stay alive.

Dance takes us to the Mote Marine Laboratory (Florida) where a large reef restoration project is underway. It makes use of "artificial, ocean-based nurseries" where corals are raised and then planted. Recovery begins to occur in about a year and "eventually, the planted chunks will fuse into larger corals." There are differences in growth as well as techniques for fast-growing branching corals and "mound and boulder corals" which grow on the order of "a couple of millimeters per year."

Another approach is assisting reproduction of Elkhorn coral (Acropora plmata). Sperm and eggs are collected and paired up, the embryos placed in a nursery, "a floating pool in the sea that is protected from predators. A few days later, larvae settled on 3D-printed, starfish-shaped structures. When the corals reach about fingernail size, divers will wedge these substrates into the crevices of needy reefs."
This has been tried "in reefs off Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, the Dominican Repurblic, Bonaire, Australia, Palau and Guam." The problem is cost.

Dance reports on a survey of reefs and reef health in the Great Barrier reef neighborhood. "Almost 450 reefs" were found "that had ben affected very little by recent warming events and had retained more than 10% coral cover--the minimum at which the reef can build more skeleton than it's likely to lose (but still well below the area's coral cover in decades past)."

How do reefs manage to survive heat?  Some live in naturally warm waters and are adapted to this temperature regime, others live in locations protected by cold currents, while others "are served by currents that provide a constant plankton buffet."  The challenge is to protect them.

While coral reefs have suffered in the past--"corals are part of a lineage that is more than 400 million years old. They've endured global water temperatures that have swung between 10 and 32C, and carbone dioxide levels up to quadruple those of today. But they've never before had to endure such rapid warming." (emphasis added)

However there is a hard reality and this is the temperature change.  Even if "limiting global warming to 1.5C above the 1990 levels, the target of the 2018 Paris agreement, 70-90% of reefs would be lost." This "target is looking more and more unrealistic. If the climate warms by 2C...losses of greater than 99%" are projected.

The essay includes an infographic--map and text--of reefs with a high chance of surviving warming conditions. It shows the so-called '50 Reefs' project, 'Super Reefs,' existing marine protected areas and coral reefs. The hope is that nations will create new Marine Protected Areas for these regions.

In this short video (2m09s) one restoration approach is shown. The aim is to "replenish damaged reefs using coral larvae bred in the lab."

Rush Hour

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Miscellaneous
Edward Hessler

The rush hour...the morning rush hour has become a celebration of farm life at the Caenhill Countryside Centre and it is viewed by thousands daily.

Chris Franklin, "who took over the family farm with his wife about five years ago, uses the center to teach young people about animals and the countryside." Here is how he begins. "Hope you're having a good morning or goodnight, and here we are with rush hour... as ducks, chickens, roosters, and goats march onto the yard. "Hello Cici, Gilbert, Salt and Pepper [...] can't forget Smudge. Hello Kenny."

 Here are a few clips and information.

 

Science Selects Favorite Photographs for 2019 from the Journal/Website

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

The journal Science has selected their favorite photographs found in either the journal or on the website during 2019. Each comes with a brief description of the photograph.

There are fewer than I expected.

Climate Tipping Points

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Climate Change

Earth Science

Climate Change

Edward Hessler

The heat is on but there are new lines of evidence that abrupt and irreversible shifts in the Earth system --loss of the Amazon rainforest or the West Antarctic ice sheet -- are more likely than has been thought. The worst scenario is that a global cascade of these tipping points could lead to a much less habitable, 'hothouse' climate state.

In this report in the journal Nature seven climate scientists take a look at the evidence for tipping points, explore the effects and urge a response, not just any old response but an emergency response.  The idea of tipping points was introduced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2001 but such large-scale, interconnected shifts--a domino effect--were likely to occur when global warming was greater than 5C.

The map, Raising the Alarm, shows the 9 tipping points and their connectivity. For evidence, effects and actions read the full report (about 10 minutes).

I leap forward to the actions suggested: now is the time to act. (my emphasis), we are already in an emergency. They write,

"We argue that the intervention time left to prevent tipping could already have shrunk towards zero, whereas the reaction time to achieve net zero emissions is 30 years at best. Hence we might already have lost control of whether tipping happens.  A saving grace is that the rate at which damage accumulates from tipping — and hence the risk posed — could still be under our control to some extent." (My emphasis).

The Journal Nature Selects Science Images for 2019.

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Nature
Edward Hessler

Science as seen in images for 2019.

These were selected by the journal Nature's photographic team.

Nature's 10

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Nature of Science
History of Science
Children
Edward Hessler

Nature has selected its annual list of ten people who mattered in science this year. Their contributions range from discovery to bringing attention to crucial issues or even notoriety for their actions.

The profiles give you an idea of what they have done but if you don't read them all be sure to read the very last one. It was a pleasure to find this person on the annual list.

Nature also includes name of people worth watching in 2020.

Nature always adds the time it would take to read a recommendation. This one says 22 minutes--a long time--but I hope you have the time to give it a scan.

How Old is Your Dog?

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Biological Evolution

Edward Hessler

There is a standard formula for converting a pooch's age to a human's age. Say your dog is X years old. You multiply that age, X by 7. However there is a new and better way to calculate dog years to human years, one that has some science behind it.

According to an article in Science by Virginia Morell, " The work is based on a relatively new concept in aging research: that chemical modifications to a person’s DNA (known as DNA methylation due to disease, poor lifestyle, etc.) over a lifetime create what is known as an epigenetic clock. (material added)

"Other species also undergo DNA methylation as they age. ... To find out how those clocks differ from the human version, geneticist Trey Ideker of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues started with dogs. Even though man’s best friends diverged from humans early in mammalian evolution, they’re a good group for comparison because they live in the same environments and many receive similar healthcare and hospital treatments. 

"They scanned DNA methylation patterns in the genomes of 104 dogs, ranging from 4 weeks to 16 years of age. Their analysis revealed that dogs (at least Labrador retrievers) and humans do have similar age-related methylation of certain genomic regions with high mutation rates; those similarities were most apparent when the scientists looked at young dogs and young humans or old dogs and old humans. Most importantly, they found that certain groups of genes involved in development are similarly methylated during aging in both species. That suggests at least some aspects of aging are a continuation of development rather than a distinct process."

Morell includes the new calculator in her essay (It uses natural logarithms--ln and it may have been a while since you did, certainly since I did. The Internet can do this calculation--number to ln--if you ask).

Matt Kaeberlein, a biogerantolgist, at the University of Washington, noted that the research is "a beautiful demonstration of the conserved features of the epigenetic age clocks shared by dogs." I like the way this idea of conserved features is put in Herron and Freeman--Evolutionary Analysis, 5th edition, 2014: "the trait and its molecular machinery are broadly similar among organisms that are distantly related, we can infer that they wee likely present in their common ancestor." 

The Kaeberlein lab has a Dog Aging Project (scroll down to read about it and also find a link. The link is included in Morell's essay. It is open to all breeds.) The lab is interested in differences in life span, why some dogs develop diseases earlier/later and others live disease-free lives.

Using the new calculator, Morell found that their Scotch Collie, "Buckaroo," is considerably younger than previously thought, some 25 years, "a spry 73 at that."

Climate Models Got it Right

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Climate Change

Models

Nature of Science

Edward Hessler

Among the favorite arguments of climate change skeptics/deniers is that the models are problematic when it comes to understanding future changes in the Earth's climate. The skeptics, at least as far as I know, have never tested the models, choosing instead to "cherry-pick" data.

Finally, a group of climate scientists have tested the models. Zeke Hausfather, Henri F. Drake, Tristan Abbott and Gavin A. Schmidt undertook "a thorough evaluation of the performance of various climate models published between the early 1970s and the late 2000s.

In plain English, this is what they found. "We find that (physics-based) climate models published over the past five decades were generally quite accurate in predicting global warming in the years after publication, particularly when accounting for differences between modeled and actual changes in atmospheric CO2 and other climate drivers." (my addition)

Writing for Scientific American, Earth and Environment News, Chelsea Harvey draws attention "to a critically important, but sometimes overlooked point about the way climate models work. The amount of warming they predict is a direct consequence of the greenhouse gas emissions they assume for the future. And accurately predicting carbon emissions is notoriously difficult—it depends on many human factors, including population growth, economic shifts and changes in the energy landscape. (My emphasis)

"The study suggests that many of the models criticized in the past were accurately simulating the relationship between temperatures and greenhouse gases after all—it’s just that their assumptions about future carbon emissions didn’t match up with the emissions that were actually produced in the following years."

As Gavin Schmidt, one of the co-authors of the paper, said, "Gosh, maybe we know something about climate after all!"

Yep, they do. 

Madrid

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Climate Change
Edward Hessler

After 16 days of meetings and negotiations, the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) summit in Madrid ended with little to show.  It was a conference of great expectations and few accomplishments.

The main agenda item was to add final details to Article 6 of the Paris climate treaty on international carbon trading. This is the most technical article and one certain to be contentious since it asks nations to do things they would otherwise prefer not to do. This section is about accounting rules. The topic was postponed until 2020.

The BBC has selected some quotes from leaders, experts and activists. Getting to yes. Is it possible in the future?

Sierra's Greenest Colleges of 2019

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Campus Sustainability
Edward Hessler

This is the 13th-year that Sierra has "ranked colleges according to which ones offer the best sustainability-focused courses, eco-friendly cafeteria provisions, and carbon-neutral land and energy polices, as well as the most opportunities to engage with the environmental movement."

A Canadian university topped this year's ranking: Thompson Rivers University *, British Columbia. A list of the top 20 schools with a short description of what each is doing may be found here.

The full rankings of all 282 schools may be found here which includes an infographic/interactive map. Minnesota, for example, has six schools on the list; three of them are in the top 100 schools. There is a bar at the top which you can scroll to find how they rank on six categories: curriculum, food & dining, energy, waste, research, and transportation.

*Lyn Baldwin, a plant ecologist in the Thompson Rivers University Biology Department, keeps wonderful journals. They are illustrated with lovely watercolors. Several years worth of them may be viewed at her home page (click on journals). She also is the author of a very helpful booklet, Documenting the Moment, on journal keeping, also on the journal page.  And here is an ERIC summary of her publication on using art in an introductory biology laboratory.

River Life: The Minnesota

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Water & Watersheds
Nature

Edward Hessler

To paddle a river, beginning to end, is to know that river in a much different way than paddling parts of it.

Darby Nelson's recent book (with Dan Hickman), is about paddling the Minnesota River from west to east with his paddling partner for life, Geri. The journey was the completion of a childhood dream. Nelson spent part of his childhood on its banks in Morton and has been smitten ever since.  Sadly, as Geri notes, it is his last book about water and being on it. 

So where do you start, dip the paddle in a river and paddle on? This turned out to be not as simple as it sounds. It is no spoiler alert to tell you that it begins in South Dakota but where does Nelson begin and why. I'm not about to spoil his description of the search and the decision.

His insight about where rivers begin is one I appreciate. The very beginning of "a river," he writes, "is less specific a place, a single geographic place, so much as it is a quiet beginning of myriad contributors that give and sustain the life of a river." 

So for some five years he and Geri paddled its length (335 miles) and he tells us about this journey in For Love of a River: The Minnesota (Beaver's Pond Press. Edina). The book is Nelson's biography of this oft-overlooked river. He writes about the river's sweeping panorama, its stones, the history with big ice that shaped it, its rich soils, the river as a land of lakes, the people, the bleak, wretched and cruel war (Dakota vs. US), and the transformation of its vegetation.

Nelson also includes portraits of six magnificent river advocates whose contributions to bettering the river are in service to something greater than themselves. They could see the possibilities in this river and then have done something (many things) to work toward them, achieving many things along the way.  They did this work, in part, for love of this surprising river.

The Nelson's also include another way of knowing this river through measurements, reporting Secchi disc readings along the way.  Secchi readings are a quick way of measuring turbidity (cleanliness). You can decide on how soupy the river is or isn't.

Forest Elephants of Dzonga-Ndoki National Park

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Behavior
Biodiversity
Edward Hessler

This short (~4 m) New Yorker film is more than four years old.

In it forest elephant researcher Andrea Turkalo describes some aspects of the lives, behavior of a diminishing population in Dzonga-Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic. The link includes an essay about her published in the magazine, May 11. 2015. The essay has much more information about the threat of poachers to this group of elephants.

Turkalo is a member of the Elephant Listening Project at Cornell University.

Friday Poem

Environmental & Science Education
Poetry
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

I know that this is not the season for roses but this reminder of late summer's roses in early winter seems a good thing.

The poem is by Willa Cather.

Another Casualty of Climate Change

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Climate Change
Biodiversity
Nature
Edward Hessler


"It may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organized creatures."--Charles Darwin on Earthworms

Darwin's last book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits (aka Earthworms, Worms) was published in 1861. He had been collecting data on earthworms for years--perhaps it us fairer to say that his "research group" had been, for this is a publication in which his children played a role in making observations and collecting data. 

In a New York Public Library blog on Darwin's last manuscript, Jeremy Mcgrew notes one experiment in which "Darwin measured the rate of burial by using his famous 'worm stone' which was a stationary stone whose slow submersion was tracked and charted by Darwin and his son Horace."

The book sold very well and was also the subject of humor.

In a just published paper in the journal Science led by Dr. Helen Phillips, at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (Leipzig University), a "global dataset of sampled earthworm communities from 6928 sites in 57 countries...climate variables were found to be more important in shaping earthworm communities than soil properties or habitat cover. These findings suggest that climate change may have serious implications for earthworm communities and for the functions they provide." 

The study involved 141 scientists from 35 countries among whom, as Deanne Morrison points out in the University of Minnesota (UM) on-line publication, Inquiry: Exploring the Impact of University Research, includes Adrian Wackett, a graduate student in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate (SWAC) in the UM's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS). Wackett collected samples in the arctic and boreal areas of Sweden and Finland.

In her essay, Morrison tells us what's at stake. The short answer is much more than we realize. She writes,

'"It has long been thought, said Wackett, that earthworm distributions are governed by where soils are most fertile; e.g., with suitable acidity, texture, and availability of calcium, nitrogen, and other essential nutrients. But he wasn’t shocked that these properties turned out to be of comparably less importance.

'“I’ve seen some invasive earthworms living at acidities close to vinegar,” he said. “I view earthworms as regulating and enriching soils more than vice versa.” (My emphasis)

"For example, earthworms make excellent “bioreactors for nutrient recycling,” Wackett said. In their guts, they catalyze the decomposition of plant litter and unlock vital nutrients trapped in the soil matrix, then excrete those nutrients back into the soil. This turns “raw,” inaccessible elements like phosphorus, nitrogen, and calcium into plant-available forms that nourish plant and animal life above ground. This recycling system is particularly vital in tropical ecosystems, where many soils are nutrient-poor.

"But in high-latitude places like northern Minnesota, when earthworms eat leaf litter and move nutrients deeper into the soil, it can have adverse effects. Many native forest plants, like lady slippers and ferns, evolved with shallow roots to mine nutrients from the litter layers that accumulate in formerly glaciated forests without earthworms. When feeding by invasive earthworms thins these litter layers, many native forest plants are starved of nutrients, while native tree saplings are left unprotected against browsing by hungry deer. Eventually, this combination wipes out the entire forest understory, creating openings for invasive species like buckthorn."

Ecosystems respond differently to changing climate. In the tropics for example, dry conditions could result in loss of native earthworms with changes in those ecosystems. In northern latitudes, much like has occurred in northern Minnesota, invasive earthworms, could spread as those areas get warmer, reducing and then inhibiting the build-up of forest floor litter.

In the News: PISA and Estonia

Environmental & Science Education
STEM
Education
Edward Hessler

PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) measures 15-year-olds' ability to use their reading, mathematics, and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life situations and challenges. It is administered by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).

The 2018 results have been released and here I focus on one nation's performance: Estonia. Compared to other European countries it is tops in reading, maths, and science and also the highest placed European country overall when aggregate scores are compared. Here are some of the details from EER News, Estonia Public Broadcasting.

The 2018 results--we love races way too much when it comes to education--can be seen there with the scores of all participating nations, including the United States, ranked by reading scores. The east still dominates (the top four places are held by China and Singapore). There is a study summary in 5-bullets.

I'd never heard anything about Estonian education until yesterday when I watched a BBC video titled Why Do Estonian Children Start School at Seven?  I was informed today that this video is no longer available at this location but was told to try later. So please try. It is a lovely and important video on early childhood education. I just found it on Facebook and while the screen is smaller it provides a good idea of how Estonian educators think about young children and their learning. It is about 2 minutes long and worth several minutes more.

I also add a much longer video on Estonian education. With visuals in the background an Estonian professor (Tallinn University) does a very nice job of describing the entire system. It is longer than I usually post (~18 minutes). This video, shorter (~3 minutes) shows children in a variety of grade levels and how multimedia are used.  And finally, I can't resist this playful video--Why Estonians are So Smart. I think it will make you smile while also providing information on Estonian schools.

I needed a geography refresher. Here is the Wiki entry on Estonia with a map.

World Scientists Call for Climate Emergency

Environmental and Science Education

STEM

Climate Change

Sustainability

Nature

Edward Hessler


--When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.--John Muir

A BioScience Viewpoint titled "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency" was published on November 5, 2019 by William Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas Newsome, Phoebe Barnard, William Moomaw and 11,258 scientist signatories from 153 countries. They represent the Alliance of World Scientists.

The authors begin by noting that "Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to 'tell it like it is.' On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators presented below we declare ... clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency."

The authors call attention to a fact about most public discussions of climate change. They are "based on global surface temperature only." That measure alone is not enough to "capture the breadth of human activities" as well as the dangers to the planet.  The authors present a series of vital signs of climate change over the last 40 years (15 graphs) that can affect Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions" and graphs of "actual climatic impacts (14 graphs)."  The graphs are based on "relevant data sets that ..." have been "systematically collected for at least the last 5 years, and updated at least annually." graphically "over.

The authors list "six critical and interrelated steps (in no particular order) that governments, businesses, and the rest of us can taken to lessen the worst effects of climate change."

Energy. This includes energy efficiency, conservation and replacing fossil fuels with low-carbon renewables.

Short-Lived Pollutants. These include methane, soot (black carbon), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

Nature. Protection and restoration of the planet's ecosystems.

Food. I use a well known phrase of Michael Pollen to characterize the recommendation. "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

Economy. The curtailment of "excessive extraction of materials and overexploitation of ecosystems--a shift in emphasis on GDP growth to sustainable development.

Population. Stabilization and gradual reduction of the number of humans.

The paper is short, readable and the graphs are generally reasonable-- can certainly be grasped without knowing the full details. One of the things I like about this paper is the emphasis on how interconnected the natural world is.

Why One Teacher Quit After 12 Years

Environmental & Science Education
Education
Edward Hessler

When I read this Facebook post by Jessica Gantz, a 12-year veteran of a Kindergarten classroom at Stone Spring Elementary School, Harrisburg, VA, I realized I'd heard these sentiments and thoughts from other teachers but not said as completely. Ms. Gantz quit but not for the reasons you might think although it is not uncommon. It is one of the reasons often mentioned on why teachers starting out leave the profession.

Gantz left for five reasons. Here is a taste of each. You can read her complete Facebook entry (It is not to be missed.) in which she further explains. It is clear that she is a thoughtful and caring teacher...committed to her work with young children.

1. The old excuse "the kids have changed". No. No friggin way. Kids are kids. PARENTING has changed. SOCIETY has changed. The kids are just the innocent victims of that.

2.  In the midst of all of this... our response is we need to be "21st Century" schools. 1 to 1 student to technology. Oh. Okay. So forget the basics of relationship building and hands on learning. Kids already can't read social cues and conduct themselves appropriately in social settings... let's toss more devices at them because it looks good on our website.

3. And since our technology approach doesn't seem to be working, teachers must need more training. So take away two planning periods a week. And render that time utterly worthless when it comes to ADDING to the quality of the instruction.

4. Instead of holding parents accountable... and making them true partners, we've adopted a customer service mindset. ... Well, here's the thing... I can't teach your child if he's not in school. I was cussed out by parents who wanted to attend field trips but missed the THREE notes that went home--and when they did attend a trip, sat on their phone the entire time. I've had parents stand me up multiple times on Conference Days.... I've had parents tell me that I'm not allowed to tell their child 'no'....

5. My mental and physical health was in jeopardy every.single.day. Knowing that your kids need and deserve more than they're getting. Sitting in one meeting after another, begging for 
more support, only to be told 'don't lose sleep over them'...  

An Extinction Event

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Bioldiversity

Extinction

Edward Hessler

I previously posted on the death of George on new year's day, the last known snail (Achatinella apexfulva) of its kind, in Kailua, the Hawaiian Islands, The snail was 14-years-old.

Ed Yong, who writes on science for The Atlantic fills in many of the details on the death of this snail in another superb essay about the threats to Hawaiian snails, some of the scientists involved, care/maintenance of native species and events in the lives of the research team, which at times strike me as hospice care.

George had been cared for by David Sischo and his team all those years. Since 2012, the six of them have been trying to save native snails since 2012. During a visit, Sischo called Yong's attention to six cabinets in which there are 35 species. "Each one is already extinct in the wild, or about to be."

The Hawaiian Islands are a great place to study evolution. It is not known exactly when snails arrived on the island but since then, according to a publication for science educators titled "Evolution in Hawaii: A Supplement to 'Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science" (National Academy Press 2004), "the descendents of the original colonists have undergone what evolutionary biologists call an adaptive radiation. New species have evolved and have occupied a wide range of ecological niches."

The numbers in these adaptive radiations in Hawaii are astonishing, e.g., snails (750), birds (56 species of Honeycreepers of which only 18 survive today), crickets (240); and Drosophila (fruit flies), 800, the most in the world.

Yong writes about the last years of the Rabbs' fringe-limbed tree frog." Mark Mandala, the executive director of the Amphibian Foundation who cared for him until he died in 2016--his son named him "Toughie." Yong provides a link to a recording of Toughie. "He was calling for a mate, and there wasn't a mate for him on the entire planet."

George's remains are in a glass vial stored in "a cupboard morbidly labeled death cabinet."

The last known survivor of a species is called an "endling," a term, Yong points out "of soft beauty, heartbreaking solitude, and chilling finality."