Module VII

How is Earth's climate connected to its geological, biological and cultural systems?

EXPLAIN: The Earth naturally stores carbon in variety of ways. These include the oceans and vegetation. I was surprised to learn that the oceans could actually store more carbon than the atmosphere. Plants, of course, use carbon for photosynthesis and store the element in their tissues. Usually, when plants and animals die they release carbon, but coal and other fossil fuels are caches of organisms that didn't release their carbon upon death. In the short term that's been useful for humans, but with consequences to climate change we never imagined.

I do have to wonder at some of the suggestions for catching carbon in the TD Carbon Cycle Diagram. It seems to me that spreading iron on the oceans' surfaces to encourage plankton to eat CO2 doesn't seem wise and would have a small payoff since the plankton can't consume that much. Wouldn't the iron just pollute the oceans as well? And couldn't that trapped CO2 raise the acidity level of the oceans even higher? That is the same concern I have with injecting CO2 into the deep ocean. We don't know much about the deep oceans so we probably don't want to go messing with it.

EXTEND: I have lived in Alaska since 1985 and in that time have seen plenty of evidence of climate change firsthand. If one travels to Exit Glacier, it is possible to see the Park Service signs labeling how far the glacier used to stretch. In recent years it has retreated at a much faster rate. You used to be able to almost touch the glacier from the restricted area, but now it's quite a way's away. There also used to be some beautiful blue glacial pools that have dried up.

Spring also seems to come quicker. It used to be that break-up would occur in April. This year it seems to have started in February. We typically have multiple break-ups because the weather is warmer than it used to be. There are different insects, such as grasshoppers, and extreme weather we rarely used to experience. I've seen more thunderstorms in the last five years than I can count and I heard reports of a tornado a year or two ago.

EVALUATE: There are definite benefits of "shining two lights on the same path" when it comes to studying carbon-based industrialization and the TD videos do a great job demonstrating that. Western scientists can use the knowledge of Native Alaskans and Canada's First Peoples to supplement their research because the Natives live in an area year round and acquire much more information than a scientist can with their limited field time.

For example, in the TD video Inuit Observations of Climate Change, women are able to tell researchers about the state of animals that year as compared to prior years because it is the women who are doing the butchering. On the same token, the men tell scientists the sea ice used to be solid in February, but now is still broken at that time of year. The Natives have also had to adapt their hunting strategies because of weather changes. One man commented that when he reported thunderstorms in Sachs Harbor, he was told that wasn't possible because it was too cold there. When I was little, I remember only one or two thunderstorms in the Anchorage area. Now we have them every year. They also mentioned in the video that there are different insects present in Sachs Harbor. I was floored last year to find grasshoppers in my yard. I have never seen grasshoppers in Southcentral Alaska. The climate is definitely changing.

Image from Heritage & History.