Category: Global Systems Science

Staying current for Chapter 6 Articles from 2002–2008 Stay current index page for Chapter 6 { Ecosystem Change Contents } 2008 Fall. Delta Blues. By Barry Yeoman, OnEarth. Excerpt: On this brisk, cloudless day, Tom Zuckerman and I are driving to his duck-hunting club on Rindge Tract, one of the low-slung rural islands that form the nucleus […]

Staying current for Chapter 5 { Ecosystem Change Contents } 2024-02-15. After Shutting Down, These Golf Courses Went Wild. [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/15/climate/golf-courses-conservation-nature.html] By Cara Buckley, The New York Times. Excerpt: Most defunct golf courses get paved over, but a number are getting transformed into ecological life rafts for wildlife, plants — and people…. 2023-11-06. Gently Down the Stream: […]

Staying current for Chapter 4 { Ecosystem Change Contents } See also: GSS Climate Change chapter 8, Losing Biodiversity chapters 5 (Soil, the Living Skin of the Earth), 7 (One Global Ocean), and 8 (Champions of a Sustainable World). 2023-09-13. Earth ‘well outside safe operating space for humanity’, scientists find. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/earth-well-outside-safe-operating-space-for-humanity-scientists-find] By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. Excerpt: …planetary […]

Staying current for Chapter 3 { Ecosystem Change Contents } 2023-08-10. Cultural water and Indigenous water science. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi0658] By Erin O’Donnell et al, Science. Excerpt: Water management failings in [Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin] MDB, which is home to more than 40 First Nations who have lived sustainably with water for tens of thousands of years through […]

Staying current for Chapter 2 { Ecosystem Change Contents } SEE ALSO…Losing Biodiversity Chapter 5: Soil, the Living Skin of the Earth  Chapter 7: One Global Ocean  Chapter 8: Champions of a Sustainable World 2021-06-04. [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/06/rise-and-fall-world-s-largest-lake] – The rise and fall of the world’s largest lake. By Sid Perkins. Science Magazine. Excerpt: When continental plates smashed […]

Staying current for Chapter 1 See Non-chronological resources for this chapter { Ecosystem Change Contents } 2023-08-10. Wandering Seeds. [https://www.science.org/content/article/indigenous-people-shaped-australias-curious-geography-plants] By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science. Excerpt: On shady, densely wooded riverbanks in eastern Australia, the black bean tree is easily missed. It can reach 12 stories tall, but Castanospermum australe mostly blends in with its rainforest peers. …each seed […]

Chapter 7 { Ecosystem Change Contents } The citizens of the United States use more energy and resources per person than do people in other countries. What can we do to reduce our individual and collective impact on earth’s global system? On the pages that follow, we have described some actions taken by students to […]

Chapter 6 { Ecosystem Change Contents } In an influential essay entitled, “Essay on the Principle of Population,” Thomas Malthus noted that the growth of population and what he thought should be the inevitable tidal wave of people that would eventually inhabit the Earth, hadn’t occurred and that somehow the human population must be kept […]

Chapter 5 { Ecosystem Change Contents } I. The Carbon Dioxide Cycle When we enjoy the beauty of a tree we probably aren’t thinking of this marvelous structure as a carbon-based system that transforms sunlight and gases into food. A single cell in a tree leaf is a tiny system that uses light energy plus […]

Chapter 4 { Ecosystem Change Contents } Dr. Steven Schneider, climatologist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has been very vocal in alerting the public to the impending dangers of global climate change. In an interview for the TV documentary, “Race to Save the Planet,” he shares his sense of urgency…. “Fifteen thousand years […]