Climate is Connected

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



* geology
* biology
* culture

**climate is connected

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

I stand at the bus stop waiting for 3 busloads of elementary children to arrive. This morning we are hardly protected from the fierce blowing windstorm as a kindergartner explains seriously to me that …”If you feel the wind really strong like this coming at the airport (gesturing as from the S.E.), there’s going to be bad weather.” This indeed is true in Juneau. A young child has internalized this. So imagine what an elder living on the land knows over time.

Particularly in this Module, my mind has been stretched. I am more right brained than left, more easily taking in art, music, language than science. However, I must admit I am somewhat interested, confused, questioning, learning about earth geophysics. I really have lived my life without knowing the science about earth’s creation, elements (ah, all elements are made by stars’ pressure and heat, becoming supernovas , sending energy out..)carbon…I am attracted by reading, but only latch on and will remember things with affects I know of. True of students as well, most likely, unless one lives in the virtual world of ideas and facts.

TD Periodic Table of the elements is pretty cool.

What interests me most is that:

· CO2 in upper layers of permafrost = organic and mineral; microbes live in freezing soil in water films even in dead of winter COLD

· Soil respiration = bacteria decomposing organic matter, producing gasses; BECOMING MORE ACTIVE AS THE NORTH WARMS UP; more warmth = more microbes = more energy = more heat and so the earth warms = positive feedback loop.

So the arctic is changing. Alaskans have to adapt: NATIVE WAYS OF KNOWING:

• Climate Change Project at Sachs Harbor
• La'ona DeWilde ("the rock") Koyukon Huslia having respect for the land, water, wind which has spirit; kill but give thanks; her career being all about the environment, mutual care, teaching villages GPS data taking and water sampling so they can plan and change according to scientific findings
• Rosemarie Kuptana born in an igloo on Canada's Banks Island learning to hunt, trap, fish
• UAF Atlas Program on Seward Peninsula mapping vegetation/biodiversity; where Arctic is home, not just a site for field studies
• Arctic Climate Modeling Program
• Videos: Wales -- elders having "patience, perseverance, courage to teach."
• Luther whaling captain knowing weather signs and changes/cloud patterns and foretellings

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What are great online resources that will help students understand the long story of our universe and planet's creation?

What creation stories from different cultures could be told alongside for enrichment?

• MYTHS!

What was Earth's earliest atmosphere like?

• TITAN!
  

What other atmospheric variables and processes influence climate?

• carbon cycle

http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/hew06_vid_foodweb/ This coral reef TD is EXCELLENT: There are, miraculously, coral reefs off of Francis and Drake Islands (also covered with ancient clam-related fossils) in Glacier Bay, left from a warmer climatic period millions of years ago).

“So, over millions of years Earth has moved its carbon around using various biological, chemical and geological processes. And as a result, Earth's climate has fluctuated many times over eons from cold to hot to cold, over and again, more or less gradually, as numerous climate variables interacted over the eons.

The Sun's increasing energy output, Earth's changing orbital distance, speed of rotation, tilt, plate tectonics, land-to-ocean ratio, volcanoes, wildfires and even meteorites all play roles in the climate dynamics on this little planet.” (Module VII, Clay Good)

Capturing CO2 from man-made trees with synthetic leaves is hopeful, amazing, creative, sculptural.

Where do we put it – store it? Great diagram and explanation inTD

What evidence of climate change exists where I am near Glacier Bay/Icy Strait?

Living and working as a Park Service Naturalist and Natural History Association book seller aboard ships in Glacier Bay for 9 seasons, and living/traveling in Glacier Bay on our own boats from 1977 to the present, we have seen extreme climate and nature changes

What scientific and cultural resources can you use to describe local changes?

· Being in the period just after the end of Little Ice Age, ending just 250 years ago, learned from Tlingit legends told, sung, and written. (See Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve historical library at Glacier Bay, near Gustavus.)

· Isostatic rebound, after glaciers left land and have receded from Icy Strait at Pt. Gustavus/Pt. Carolus, moving back over 65 miles in just 250 years, uncovering ancient interstadial wood, and morphing from bare scraped striated rock to forested soil in my lifetime, visibly historical – the most recent historical revegetation showing plant succession before your very eyes. (see work by Fields, Glacier Bay)

· My house is 3 feet higher than when we built it in 1977, as the earth is rising 1.5 inches per year in Gustavus, the 2^nd highest land uplift outside of Hudson’s Bay. We “old-timers” still have boardwalks out from our doorways, as all was mud and water, and many roads could be kayaked down every October just 30 years ago. We all only had rubber boots. Boreal toads covered all land, and plugged roads jumping north to the mountains each fall. Now there are virtually no toads. Sandhill cranes stop by the thousands every April and Sept. to rest on their path, in boggy meadows that dry up every year. How long will the cranes continue to stop?

· Land in Gustavus has gone from alder – willow – cottonwoods - pine – spruce - hemlock as the land rises and dries out.

· The Natural History of Gustavus by Greg Streveler of Gustavus

· Juneau’s Discovery Foundation inservice on Hoonah land’s history

· Landmark Tree Program recognizing and mapping old-growth trees throughout S.E. Alaska

RESOURCES:

· First Alaskans statewide magazine of native business, culture and lifestyle

· The Wales Kingikmiut School video is EXCELLENT, full of interviews on climate change by elders. We could do the same in Gustavus/Hoonah/Elfin Cove/Pelican with elders, asking about weather, oceans, land rebound, rivers and salmon changes, elders’ stories.

How could I involve students in authentic scientific research

• LIFE, NOVA, HISTORY CHANNEL

How could I integrate western scientific knowledge and traditional Native knowledge with students?

· Snow, a book by Ruth Kirk: “Natural history writer Ruth Kirk explores how animals and people survive in the snow; of glaciers, continental ice sheets, blizzards, and avalanches; and of the awesome hazards of Arctic and Antarctic explorations.” (Amazon.com)

All of these resources are excellent for”shining two lights on the same path.” (Clay Good)