Climate Change- All Classes

Dear Glenns Students-   It is not coincidental that all M&E classes right now from the sophomores to the seniors are studying climate change.  In Foundations, we are looking at the natural astronomical and geological forcings on our climate, that tend to produce changes with periods from centuries to millennia.  Milankovitch cycles, plate tectonic changes, and solar output are well known drivers of large-scale, slow climatic change.  In M&E I, we are looking at how Earth's atmosphere moves, what it is made of, how the interaction between the oceans and the atmosphere create a dynamic fluid envelope for life and the overall organization of Earth's biomes.  Finally in Oceanography, we are studying global ocean circulation which acts as the Earth's heat pump, moving warm air from the tropics and redistributing it to the poles, ventilating the deep ocean and delivering oxygen to the benthos and nutrients to the surface.  Current global warming and rapid glacial melt could threaten to stabilize the water column around the zones of deep and bottom water formation, capping the water column with stable, fresh water.  This potential negative feedback could lead to rapid global cooling according to some researchers.
       Let's see what scientists are talking about with a couple of interesting readings to put our learning into a larger context.  The first article is very concerning as we have a lot of unknowns about what is actually happening out in the extremes of the environment, the poles, and little money being allocated to study the areas where we have so many big questions.  The second article has been around for a while now, but is a very interesting analysis of Global Ocean Conveyor Belt shutdown, how it could occur and what it might mean.  Many folks consider climate change to be some far off, future generational potential- what if we are living it right now in fast forward?  Some things to think about.  


Ready or not - quick climate changes worry scientists most

Abrupt Climate Change should we be worried?

Aerosols

Dear Sophomores- In our study of climate change, we need to look at how Earth's geologic activity and plate tectonics can affect the changing temperatures we experience.  Aerosols are of great importance to our global radiation budget, acting like a curtain blocking incoming radiation by scattering light and reflecting and refracting it back into space.  Please read the article below, and then we are going to graph some Optical depth data and look at how much volcanic activity can affect the aerosol concentration in the atmosphere.

NASA Earth Observatory- Aerosols

Learning about Earth's atmosphere

Dear Juniors- In our study of the Earth's atmosphere, I want you to appreciate how your chemistry learning is applied in the real world.  As we study the dynamics of the atmosphere, we need to understand the complex chemistry of the gases involved and how their specific properties determine how they affect us down here on Earth.  Nitrogen gas, N2, is a nice, stable fairly inert gas that makes up 78% of the gas in the air, where methane, CH4, makes up only 0.00017% of the air we breathe, but has a massive impact on Earth's temperature.  Further, it is easy to forget that water, H2O, is a gas as well as a liquid, and that water vapor is one of the most potent greenhouse gases, holding a lot of heat into the Earth's atmospheric envelope.  Beyond just the chemical properties of these gases are the interactions between them and with incoming solar radiation, which can be observed in the complicated chemistry of stratospheric ozone which we will look at shortly.  Wow, chemistry is really important and cool too!


please read these pages-  Reading Assignment on Atmospheric Composition

Atmospheric motions study guide

Oxygen Isotopes and Climate- Paleoclimatology

Dear Seniors- Please read the article at the Earth Observatory
Paleoclimatology: the Oxygen Balance
as part of our Marine Sediment learning.  Due Monday 11/18

Keystone Pipeline

Keystone Pipeline article- Harvard Magazine 
Keystone Pipeline in Texas Please read these articles

Dear Sophomores- The two most immediate and controversial environmental issues in America today are the issue of fracking and the Keystone Pipeline.  While we are studying geology and resource extraction, I think it is really important for us to pause and seriously consider these two issues, become knowledgeable and discuss.  In the last presidential election, the Keystone Pipeline came up as an important "litmus test" for President Obama by environmentalists, and I am sure that it will come up again.  The truth is we cannot have a cheap, plentiful supply of oil and gas without causing tremendous harm to our environment and our atmosphere.  At the end of the day, we either have to accept these realities or make a wholesale shift to green technologies that will either run on a different energy source altogether, or will make super high efficiency advances to reduce the petrol used.  In this exercise, I want us to learn about these issues, discuss them and you decide how you feel about this issue.   Is it worth it to fire up your Mustang V-8, or are you willing to drive an Urbee that gets 200 mpg and looks like a rolling jelly bean?

Yale 360 Phosphorus Article   Please read this article for your "Peak Phosphorus" assignment.

Dear Juniors- As we learn about anthropogenic eutrophication, it is really important that we understand the driving forces behind this pollution and the sources of the nutrients that are accumulating in the Chesapeake Bay.  Ultimately it is everyday human activities that are causing the problem of nutrient pollution, things like: eating, farming, driving cars, growing a garden or lawn, and even going to the bathroom.  This is why this problem is so widespread and so insidious, you have to eat, you have to move, to have to live!  Phosphorous and nitrogen are part of our lives.  Personally, I think the solution is to live more carefully and more aware of what we are doing and how we are doing it, so that we make as small an impact as possible.  For example, gardening with very limited inputs of fertilizer, or using cover crops to fix nitrogen, not a product from a bag.  Trying to purchase products that are phosphate free, or choosing organic products that were hopefully made fertile with compost and not 10-10-10.  Other things we can do as a society, is to demand clean water technologies, to demand that industry not dump waste into our rivers and bay, and to push for cleaner industry and cars.  Yes, these things cost more money, but in the end, isn't a clean, healthy environment worth it?

MES II Excel Practice

Miss Colden's Flounder data

The Ocean is Broken

As we sit in our classrooms, dry and safe on land, it is hard to imagine what the ocean is like, especially if you have never been out to sea.  I wish that I could take a field trip to the Gulf Stream so you could  experience the bluest blue you could ever see, and the feeling of total isolation from land.  It is hard to understate how much we take the oceans for granted.  Earth's oceans moderate our climate, they literally create a homeostasis through the slow churn of deep ocean currents moving heat around the planet, downwelling cold, briny polar water and upwelling later as nutrient rich soup at the equator.  This process in turn fuels the productivity from the tiniest plankton to mighty blue whales and the majestic albatross that wander endlessly over the ocean expanse.  It is magic, and it is messed up.  Read the attached article by a long distance sailor who has traversed the Pacific many times.  How would you feel if you walked outside and did not see or hear any birds or squirrels, saw rubbish everywhere and drove to school continually swerving to miss piles of trash and debris in the road?  It is easy to forget the ocean, being a landlubber, when you are vaguely aware of its existence. let's try to heighten our awareness of all of our globe this year.

Mr. Hudson's Excel data sheet

Quinlan's Student Athlete Survey
For my senior project, I am studying the quality of academic performance between different types of student-athletes. If you are a student-athlete, please take this survey to contribute to my data. Thanks!

A New Year!

I get philosophical about life twice a year, around January 1st and September 1st, as these are the starts of the new year for teachers and students.  This year I have been thinking a lot about my goals for the school year, as I hope you have done as well.  As a teacher, I don't have to worry about grades like you guys, I worry about learning and having fun doing it.  In our classes we are really fortunate to be able to work with graduate students from Virginia Institute of Marine Science in the NSF funded GK-12 program.  At our recent summer institute, I got to see all of the students graduate research in Marine Science and it got me so inspired and excited to DO science!  So, my goal for this school year is to spend a lot of time DOING and being scientific.  We are going to be observing, hypothesizing, measuring, analyzing, and drawing conclusions about all kinds of questions every chance we get.  Science should be the class where you get excited to come to school, should be where you get to be creative and free, and that is my goal for my classroom this year.  I hope you guys will join me in this mission and we will have a great, fulfilling year!

Why I hate palm oil-
I always enjoy thinking about the tropics, especially during a rainy/snowy cold January.  So our Junior Estuarine Ecology Class is studying tropical estuarine ecosystems and mangroves in specific.  We have been learning about mangrove adaptations, the important ecosystem services that they perform and also how they are threatened by human activities.  One of the most important lessons we can learn as students of environmental and marine science is how we as humans affect the environment we live in.  In our quest to achieve a sustainable society, where resources will be available for future generations, it is important to consider where resources come from and what trade-offs are made to access those resources.
     In the case of mangroves, this ecosystem is globally threatened by a plethora of human activities: shrimp farming, palm oil farming, development of the shoreline, wood harvesting for charcoal and furniture, and the list goes on.  We know very well the benefits of mangroves and the rain forests they protect, so why do these activities continue?
     The simple answer is that people continue to make lots of money from the destruction of these habitats as we as consumers blithely purchase products from these tropical locations.  In our class, we are examining where these products can be found, do we ourselves purchase them and how do we as consumers communicate our preferences to the corporations responsible for the devastation of such important habitat and the animals who once lived there. Aren't we as consumers largely responsible for the extinction of species in these threatened ecosystems?  That is the debate we are having in our class.  For my part, I do not knowingly purchase any products that have palm oil in them, which basically includes 98% of all prefab baked goods in stores and anything where fats have to stay solid at room temperature.  Also, it's really not good for you!
    In our study of these environmental issues, we are also searching for alternatives to the practices that cause problems, as well as identifying current solutions like forest stewardship council ratings and responsible palm oil practices, although these are hard to find and not always reputable.  Overall our goal is to gain an understanding of how these ecosystems work, the animals and ecology in them, and the threats to their future.  In it, we identify our role in this global ecosystem and try to ask ourselves how our actions can resonate from our space here in Virginia across the globe to Paradise Lost- Borneo.