Pre-Class Preparation Pre-Class Preparation
Objectives
Class images
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Earth Systems Science- Mission to Planet Earth and the EOS Program (From the Applied
Information Sciences Branch, NASA) |
Class Discussion
Discussion summary prepared by: Ryan Schmitt, Kathryn Schoel, Josh Sierren, and Lisa BoeckmanGroup Unit Summary
This unit discusses an article by Charles Kennel, Pierre Morel, and Gregory Williams from 1997 called "Keeping Watch on the Earth: an Integrated Global Observing Strategy. This article discusses the need for an international system to collect environmental data in order to evaluate future environmental situations.
The authors use a historical perspective into what we know about the environment and what we as a human race need to do in order to realize what the future holds. As far as the environment is concerned historically, we today as a society have the ability to quantify what effect we have had on earth. The authors speak of the first pictures of earth from space as the key to humans realizing that our actions tie into a complete environmental system with effects running throughout this system.
A good point that the authors include is that it is important for us to not only look back but also to look forward at what future problems may arrive. By attempting to detect to what extent our society is harming the environment in the future we can ensure that we are able to live in a sustainable society.
With an integrated global observing strategy scientists would be able to observe more variables that are necessary elements in the attempt to predict environmental conditions. One of the main points of this article was to stress the need for additional data to be collected on a global scale. Through combining data from disciplines such as oceanography, geography, meteorology, and atmospheric chemistry, scientists would be able to obtain the best results to analyze.
There are four major challenges in global environmental sciences that are important for practical and societal benefits.
They are:
1) Stratospheric ozone depletion and increase in UV radiation
2) Prediction of climate fluctuations on time scales
3) Climate change over decades and centuries
4) Changes in land cover and in terrestrial and marine ecosystems
Regarding challenge #1, the biggest setback is that there is no international agreement to monitor ozone from space to prevent any further surprises. When speaking of surprises the authors are referring to the finding of the hole in the ozone over Antartica when it was originally found. A monitoring system from space would allow society to set better standards and restrictions for the environmental policies that governments make.
In reference to challenge #2, it would be beneficial if scientists and meteorologists were able to predict the weather for a year at a time. Once again it would be important for this endeavor to monitor more variables that are currently monitored on a limited basis. Sensors would be needed in places such as ocean platforms, on land, is geostationary orbit, and also on spacecraft that are orbiting the earth. The authors spoke of this topic as a highly maturing field with high relevance economically across society.
The authors wrote of challenge # 3 as a different and more difficult challenge. It is of high importance because of the necessity of keeping earth habitable since it is the only planer known to contain life. Once again this requires intensive observation over an long period of time in which observations will need to include every major earth system.
The observation of changes in land cover and in terrestrial and marine ecosystems appears to be the least developed of the challenges listed above. There is not currently much observation of the behavior of living things and ecosystems. The majority of the work in this area has consisted of the monitoring of CO2 due to its importance in global warming. This previous work is insufficient to the meet the needs of data required to understand what influences our natural ecosystems.
Presently the largest monitoring system in place is the World Weather Watch. Currently it is the most mature international effort underway but has the drawback of only tracking meteorology factors. In order to make accurate predictions, all the earth science disciplines need to combine data together for scientists to analyze.
In conclusion, an international system to collect environmental data is needed for the overall benefit of earth. To establish this system there are a couple tough obstacles that need to be overcome as well for this to happen.
1) Gaining the governments and the publics commitment
2) Overcoming the controversy surrounded by the observations and the issues they pertain to. (As in day to day activities that humans conduct that they don't want to change)
Dialog Summary
In unit 2-12, students were asked to respond to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" theory. Most seemed to agree that the mantra is anoutdated cliche that is not wisely adhered to at the present time. We need to be aware of the consequences our actions have on the environment. Most students said they felt that people were more likely to respond to problems that visibly affect a broad segment of the population than problems that are less easy to see or the effects may be delayed until the future. One example given was industry waste being pumped into the water supply, and the student supposed that people wouldn't sit back and see how much water they would have to drink until they died. This is true because the problem is and obvious one with an obvious solution-clean up the water supply. The example does not apply to environmental contaminants that are not as easy to see and understand by the majority of the population. Another example supposed that if a wrench was dropped into a car engine and it made a noise, people would stop and see what was wrong instead of trying to drive it until it broke. This is true for some of the population, but those with less money might try to get by until the car was no longer driveable. Money is an undeniable factor in environmental problems. Humans feel obligated to try and control their environment through technology, when perhaps we should be concentrating our efforts more on prevention of future problems and slowing down the current rate of environmental contamination. More research of alternative energy "solutions" is required to see if they actually help the problems facing the earth. Another good point was that not everything that is "broke" can be fixed.
Websites and Links
The Earth Science division of NASA tries to find ways to solve environmental problems.
The Social Crises and Environmental Problems website predicts a futuristic dark age similar to the collapse of the roman empire if we don't change our evil ways.
The loss of biodiversity site describes the interconnectedness and diversity of forests. It also talks about the impacts of deforestation on the environmnet and society. Online discussion available.
Post-Class Activities
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NASA's Mission to Planet Earth |
| Keeping Watch on the Earth: an Integrated Global Observing Strategy, from Consequences magazine |
| Earth Observatory |