·
Help them understand that outlier views are just
that - outliers (minority)
·
Also that we take action to protect against
uncertain threats, like fire insurance.
Uncertainty by itself is not a compelling reason to avoid action.
·
Could ignore global warming altogether and focus
on other things
o Economic
savings that go with conservation
o Growth
potential in new green industries
o Freedom
from foreign oil
·
Conservative, individualistic, members of service organizations, don't like government
regulations
My recommended case study: people (farmers, fishermen, oyster farmer, ski lodge owners, etc)
Hatfield Visitors (2) Say:
- 2 of 2 would interact, but only 1 would learn about an animal and create a story
- Would share anonymously, but "maybe" with audio or video
- Would use video, photos, clip art, data charts and diagrams, and personal stories
- 1 said there should be interesting personal stories that are not too scientific
- 1 said his position could change if the information came from someone without the need to get a research grant or a political axe to grind. Also get away from the "sky is falling" kind of presentation
Birch Aquarium exhibit- the science behind the exhibit. (This should be narrated so people can watch instead of reading)
Minutes 30-37 of Big Energy Gamble by PBS- Economic and business benefits of renewable energy (solar panels).
(maybe) Minute 20 of Big Energy Gamble by PBS explains how hydrocarbons make CO2
Local impacts:
Wildfire
Virtually all future climate scenarios predict increases in wildfire in western North America, especially east of the Cascades, due to higher summer temperatures and earlier spring snowmelt. Fire frequency and intensity have already increased in the past 50 years, and most notably the past 15 years in the shrub steppe and forested regions of the West. The area burned by fire regionally is projected to double by the 2040s and triple by the 2080s. The probability that more than two million acres will burn in a given year is projected to increase from 5% (observed) to 33% by the 2080s. USFS and CIG researchers have linked these trends to climate changes. Drought and hotter temperatures have also led to an increase in outbreaks of insects, such as the mountain pine beetle, increasing the risk of fire. (Littell et al., 2009)(Source: http://www.fws.gov/pacific/Climatechange/changepnw.html)
07:05 – speed of melt astonishing – happening fastest on
west coast of Alaska – explains glaciers, movement, calving, 40 years temp has
risen 4 degrees Far
Case study: Dungeness crab (Ocean warming)
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2008/05/warmer_ocean_water_means_less.html
Hypoxia:
Low-oxygen zones where sea life is threatened or can't survive are growing as the oceans are heated by global warming, a new study says.
Oxygen-depleted zones in the central and eastern equatorial Atlantic and equatorial Pacific oceans appear to have expanded over the past 50 years, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
Low-oxygen zones in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas also have been studied in recent years, raising concerns about the threat to sea life.
Continued expansion of the zones could have dramatic consequences for sea life and coastal economies, said the team led by Lothar Stramma of the University of Kiel in Germany.
A similar study published in the national journal Science in February by an Oregon State University team found that the "dead zones" that have suffocated marine life off the Oregon coast in recent summers are unlike anything recorded over the past 50 years and could be driven by stronger winds that might reflect global warming trends.
In summer 2006, undersea video cameras revealed marine graveyards full of dead crabs, starfish and other sea life, OSU researchers found.
The latest finding on low-oxygen, or "hypoxic," conditions, was not surprising, Stramma said, because computer climate models have predicted a decline in dissolved oxygen in the oceans under warmer conditions. Warmer water cann't absorb as much oxygen as colder water, said co-author Gregory Johnson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle.
"So why should we care?" Bograd said. "Most marine species have minimum oxygen thresholds that they need for survival. As oxygen decreases, these animals will suffer and/or be compelled to move to other areas. Over time, the optimal area for various species will be compressed."
Bograd's findings are reported in a paper to be published in Geophysical Research Letters.
"We are not able to say definitively what has caused the oxygen declines off California," he said. But waters from the eastern tropical Pacific, a reduced-oxygen area studied by Stramma, flow into the region, "so their results and ours are consistent."
Other processes also could be at work off California, he said.
The general pattern is for the colder ocean waters in the north and south to absorb oxygen, cool and sink below the surface to then flow toward the equator, Johnson said.
Along the way, organic matter drifts down into the deeper water and its decay uses up some of the oxygen. The oxygen balance depends on this movement and the amount of oxygen reaching the warmer waters, Johnson said. "That means that eventually, at the end of the line, there will be less oxygen."
In cold surface water, oxygen levels can reach as high as 300 to 400 micromols per kilogram, Johnson said. A mol of a gas such as oxygen occupies a volume of just under 6 gallons and a micromol is one-thousandth of that. A kilogram of water is the amount that would weigh 2.2 pounds.
Dissolved oxygen varies widely in the oceans, and sea life becomes stressed when it reaches between 60 and 120 micromols per kilogram.
The researchers found concentrations as low as 10 in parts of the eastern Pacific and the northern Indian Ocean and larger areas in the Atlantic and Pacific were below 150. Stramma's team noted declines in affected areas ranging from 0.09 to 0.34 per year over the last half century.
-- The Associated Press
Case study: Dungeness crab (Ocean warming)
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2008/05/warmer_ocean_water_means_less.html
Hypoxia:
Low-oxygen zones where sea life is threatened or can't survive are growing as the oceans are heated by global warming, a new study says.
Oxygen-depleted zones in the central and eastern equatorial Atlantic and equatorial Pacific oceans appear to have expanded over the past 50 years, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
Low-oxygen zones in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas also have been studied in recent years, raising concerns about the threat to sea life.
Continued expansion of the zones could have dramatic consequences for sea life and coastal economies, said the team led by Lothar Stramma of the University of Kiel in Germany.
A similar study published in the national journal Science in February by an Oregon State University team found that the "dead zones" that have suffocated marine life off the Oregon coast in recent summers are unlike anything recorded over the past 50 years and could be driven by stronger winds that might reflect global warming trends.
In summer 2006, undersea video cameras revealed marine graveyards full of dead crabs, starfish and other sea life, OSU researchers found.
The latest finding on low-oxygen, or "hypoxic," conditions, was not surprising, Stramma said, because computer climate models have predicted a decline in dissolved oxygen in the oceans under warmer conditions. Warmer water cann't absorb as much oxygen as colder water, said co-author Gregory Johnson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle.
"So why should we care?" Bograd said. "Most marine species have minimum oxygen thresholds that they need for survival. As oxygen decreases, these animals will suffer and/or be compelled to move to other areas. Over time, the optimal area for various species will be compressed."
Bograd's findings are reported in a paper to be published in Geophysical Research Letters.
"We are not able to say definitively what has caused the oxygen declines off California," he said. But waters from the eastern tropical Pacific, a reduced-oxygen area studied by Stramma, flow into the region, "so their results and ours are consistent."
Other processes also could be at work off California, he said.
The general pattern is for the colder ocean waters in the north and south to absorb oxygen, cool and sink below the surface to then flow toward the equator, Johnson said.
Along the way, organic matter drifts down into the deeper water and its decay uses up some of the oxygen. The oxygen balance depends on this movement and the amount of oxygen reaching the warmer waters, Johnson said. "That means that eventually, at the end of the line, there will be less oxygen."
In cold surface water, oxygen levels can reach as high as 300 to 400 micromols per kilogram, Johnson said. A mol of a gas such as oxygen occupies a volume of just under 6 gallons and a micromol is one-thousandth of that. A kilogram of water is the amount that would weigh 2.2 pounds.
Dissolved oxygen varies widely in the oceans, and sea life becomes stressed when it reaches between 60 and 120 micromols per kilogram.
The researchers found concentrations as low as 10 in parts of the eastern Pacific and the northern Indian Ocean and larger areas in the Atlantic and Pacific were below 150. Stramma's team noted declines in affected areas ranging from 0.09 to 0.34 per year over the last half century.
-- The Associated Press
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