Climate Change Causes Heated Battles For Science Teachers

by admin

Prior to taking Mr. Visco’s high school science class, Keith Hogan did not believe humans had had any hand in climate change.

“I thought the media had just picked that up and blown it out of proportion,” he said.

Hogan remembers the day the “lightbulb went off,” about four years ago. He’d always been into cars and would get defensive if someone tried to pin climate change on vehicle emissions. But when Mr. Visco pointed out that the methane spewing from livestock was actually a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, Hogan opened up and began to reconsider, and then accept, the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change.

“Keith was like George Bush in disguise,” recalled Chris Visco, who is now retired. “It’s funny how things progressed with him.”

Imparting the science of climate change is not always so easy. Many of Hogan’s conservative classmates at Sachem High School in Long Island, N.Y. avoided taking Mr. Visco’s class, aware that they’d hear views that conflicted with their own. And around the country — from Washington State to Oklahoma — pressure and pushback from skeptical students, teachers and administrators pose challenges.

In 2008, Louisiana voted to allow public school teachers to teach both creationism and the views of climate change skeptics. Last May, a school board in Las Alamitos, Calif., voted unanimously to require environmental science teachers cover “multiple perspectives” on climate change. That decision was later rescinded. » Read more: Climate Change Causes Heated Battles For Science Teachers

Posted in Climate Change Science

Nasa ‘climate change’ test chamber to simulate Venus’ toxic conditions

by admin

A new space chamber that can withstand the same toxic conditions on Venus has been constructed by Nasa, in a new series of climate change experiments.

In the first of its kind, the American space agency has built the 12-tonne “Extreme Environment Test Chamber” to simulate the burning temperatures and intense pressure experience on the planet’s surface.

Scientists hope the new state-of-the-art chemical chamber, which includes two “Sapphire glass windows”, will recreate the toxic, probe-destroying atmosphere of Earth’s closest neighbouring planet.

In turn, they hope it will lead to better understanding of climate change on Earth based on experiments of a planet baked of its water and suffocated by greenhouse gases and sulphuric clouds.

Researchers also hope to ultimately be able to design a rover capable of lasting exponentially longer than previous surface missions.

The chamber, based at Nasa’s Glenn Research Centre, in Cleveland, Ohio can withstand temperatures up to 1000F (537C) and atmospheric pressure 92 times higher than that on Earth. » Read more: Nasa ‘climate change’ test chamber to simulate Venus’ toxic conditions

Posted in Earth Climate Change

China issues grim warning on effects of climate change

by admin

China will face food and drinking water shortages in the coming decades because of global warming, an official report warns.

The country, which emits a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases, is heading for famines, floods and droughts as rising temperatures cause havoc with its weather.

The Chinese climate change report predicts crops will be down 20% by 2050. It says the country – population 1.4 billion – must take measures to deal with the crisis.

Global warming will threaten the prosperity of what will be the bigggest economy in the world.

“China faces extremely grim ecological and environmental conditions under the impact of continued global warming and changes to China’s regional environment.” says the 710-page report.

That will have a big knock-on effect on how China is able to feed itself. Global warming fed by greenhouse gases from industry, transport and shifting land-use poses a long-term threat to China’s prosperity, health and food output, says the report.

Under different scenarios of greenhouse gas levels and their effects, by the end of this century China’s average atmospheric temperature will have risen by between 2.5 degrees and 4.6 degrees Celsius above the average for 1961-1990. » Read more: China issues grim warning on effects of climate change

Posted in Climate Change Report