Category: Investigations
CC5.2. Sampling Carbon Dioxide
{ Climate Change Contents } { All GSS Books } Discuss question 5.4 with your teammates and write down your prediction. Then determine whether or not you were right by first taking gas samples and then testing the samples to determine which has a greater concentration of carbon dioxide. Question 5.4. Which source do you […]
CC5.1. An Interview with Pieter Tans
{ Climate Change Contents } { All GSS Books } This page features an interview with Pieter Tans, senior scientist at the Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado. Watch the Greeting from Pieter Tans and listen to any or all of the questions by clicking […]
CC5. How is Carbon Dioxide Measured?
Chapter 5 { Climate Change Contents } For at least the past million years, hot lava has flowed from cracks in the Pacific Ocean bottom and slowly built the Hawaiian islands. The largest is the island of Hawaii, which is primarily composed of two volcanoes: Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. If it is measured from […]
CC4.3. Caption Writers
{ Climate Change Contents } { All GSS Books } A B These four images are related to consequences of climate change. Write a caption for each image to explain how it is related to the prediction that Earth is warming. C D
CC4.2. A Look at the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project
{ Climate Change Contents } { All GSS Books } Analyze the article below, by Professor Richard Muller of University of California Berkeley, in terms of the question posed on the Worksheet for this Investigation. You may do this one of several ways: print out the worksheet and write on it, or create your own equivalent worksheet […]
CC4.1. How has the debate changed over decades?
{ Climate Change Contents } { All GSS Books } The first point Jim Hansen made to Congress back in 1988 was, “the globe is heating up.” Let’s look closely at the scientific process in action by examining how the debate around this question has changed since then. Has the scientific community come to consensus […]
CC4. What Is Global Warming?
Chapter 4 { Climate Change Contents } The worldwide drought of 1988, accompanied by tremendous forest fires, floods, and a super hurricane, caught people’s attention. It was in the midst of that hot summer that James Hansen, a reputable NASA scientist, testified before Congress that he was “99% confident” the globe was heating up. Later, […]
CC2.3. Why Do Some Molecules Absorb Infrared Energy?
{ Climate Change Contents } { All GSS Books } Carbon dioxide gas allows visible light to pass through but will absorb infrared energy. Why is that? The answer involves a concept called resonance. If you are pushing a child on a swing, in order to get the child to swing as high as possible, you […]
CC2.1. Two Prisms
{ Climate Change Contents } { All GSS Books } If you can borrow two prisms, you might try splitting a beam of light into its different colors, then combining the light again into a single beam—just as Isaac Newton did more than 300 years ago. Use the Sun or an electric light bulb for […]
CC2. What’s So Special About Carbon Dioxide?
Chapter 2 { Climate Change Contents } How does carbon dioxide trap heat? In short, the atmosphere allows the Sun’s visible light energy to pass through it unhindered and heat the ground. When the warmed land masses and seas cool, they radiate their energy back toward space in the form of infrared rays. Carbon dioxide […]