Video: Hot Topic: Earth

+ View now
Dr. Charles Miller:
A couple things we're going to talk about… it's kind of a hot topic. Hot topic. Hot topic.

Annie Richardson:
NASA plays an important role in our understanding of the Earth's system.

Climate Day is an event that we decided to have to take advantage of the public's interest in global climate change.

Richard Shope:
So one of the sources of methane is, uh, the digestive gasses of cattle. Everyone's heard in the news, we're in a period of global warming, an intense period of climate change.
There's a lot of fear, a lot of misunderstanding, and there's a lot of desire to understand. So it's a way to help the next generation realize that they're going to have to solve these problems as well. The approach I like to take is to get kids up and out of their seats and act out the science story. It's a powerful way to integrate what you already know, and to critique your concepts, then we can see what the ideas are, and then talk about them.

Student:
I think I learned a lot from that, about how the climate works, and what we're doing to help the environment, and in what ways we can improve our are living more sustainable.

Annie Richardson:
I want the students to have fun. I want them to walk away from this event and say, "Wow! Man, I learned this, or I learned that, and I had fun doing it."

Josh Willis:
I think this is a great idea. I mean, uh, educating our young people is one of the most important parts of addressing climate change, so I'm happy to see it.

Right, so this is like the planet, OK? The planet is 70% ocean, right? And what happens when the ocean of the planet heats up is that the water is soaking up all of the heat.

JoBea Holt:
For one water bottle, one pound of CO2 goes into the atmosphere. I want them to walk away encouraged and empowered to go home and do one thing to start.
Because once you do one thing it gets you thinking about what you did, and then, is there one more thing to do?

Student:
I have a big back yard, so I'm can start planting trees, and all that stuff, so… I kind of excited now.

Student:
Changing your lightbulb to fluorescence, that'll save…pull one hundred pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and it'll save $30. That surprised me.

Student:
I want to major in business, so maybe this can help me be environmentally friendly, and make more people want to be part of my business, so could take this into effect.

Charles Miller:
It's really, really challenging to explain in very basic terms the kind of things we're trying to do. It's not just a single bond, the oxygen atoms make double bonds…
If you can explain why we need to have, for instance, a satellite measuring CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere…if you can explain that to a group of high school students, then you can explain it to just about any one.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology