Dealing with Change

My NASA Data • • • Pick a problem Resolve the problem Report the result

Earth as A System • What are the interconnected factors

Predicted precipitation changes

Annual mean precipitation change: 2071 to 2100 Relative to 1990 Source: IPCC, 2001

• • • Overall increase in precipitation Some areas (Arctic, Sahara, Antarctic) become wetter Other areas become drier

Carbon Cycling

Figure ES.15 The Carbon Cycle

Courtesy NASA Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/CarbonCycle/carbon_cycle4.html

There is actually very little of the total carbon cycling through the Earth system at any one point in time. Most of the carbon is stored in geologic deposits - carbonate rocks, petroleum, and coal - formed from the burial and compaction of dead organic matter on sea bottoms. The carbon in these deposits is normally released by rock weathering .

genomics.energy.gov/gallery/gtl/originals/428.jpg

What’s your carbon footprint?

• • • • • • • • Where do you live?

How many people live in your home?

What type of vehicle do you drive and how many kilometers per year?

How often do you fly? Are these short or long trips?

Do you heat your home with natural gas, heating oil, propane, or electric?

Do you eat red meat, just chicken or fish, or are you a vegetarian?

Do you eat mostly local foods and buy mostly local products, or do you prefer imported goods?

What types of recreation do you prefer?

Calculators….

• • • • http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions /ind_calculator.html

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/ http://atmospheres.gsfc.nasa.gov/iglo/ http://www.bp.com/

• • • • • • • • • • • • The System Issues Sell off the beach house!

Loss of ecosystems Goodbye coral reef rows (60% by 2050) Extinction (1.6C 9% to 31% of species go extinct) Floods and Droughts More air pollution War Famine (less water, less food) Pestilence and death Earth, wind and fire in N America Too wet and hot in Europe Polar meltdown

What are you to do, citizen of the earth?

A last thought… For in the end we will conserve what we love, We will love only what we understand, We will understand only what we are taught.

Be safe, be well….

Baba Diorum, 1968, Senegalese envrionmentalist

The Seven Revolutions • • Global Strategy Institute ( http://gsi.csis.org

) a part of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, conducted a study “to

identify and analyze the key policy challenges that policymakers, business figures, and other

leaders will face out to the year 2025.” SEVEN areas of change are expected to be the most revolutionary

The Seven Revolutions • • • • • • • Population Resource Management Technology Information Flows Economic Integration Conflict Governance

1. Population – 9.2 billion by 2050; greatest growth by those least able to cope with the increase – A generation gap by 2047 – Migration and Urbanization; 60% will live in cities

2. Resource Management • • • Food – production must increase Water – availability, quality, sanitation Energy – demand for hydrocarbon will not decrease

Carbon Sequestration http://www.meic.org/images/energy-images/carbon-sequestration/energy 4.jpg/image_view_fullscreen