1 00:00:00,241 --> 00:00:02,824 (techno music) 2 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:12,210 - [Paul Kelly] Welcome to the second day 3 00:00:12,210 --> 00:00:15,150 of Darwin Festival 2023. 4 00:00:15,150 --> 00:00:17,100 Our speaker this morning is Steve Young. 5 00:00:17,100 --> 00:00:17,970 He's a professor 6 00:00:17,970 --> 00:00:22,230 of Geography and Sustainability at Salem State. 7 00:00:22,230 --> 00:00:26,490 Steve got his bachelor's at Yale University, 8 00:00:26,490 --> 00:00:29,520 a masters from University of Vermont, 9 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:32,910 and his PhD in geography from Clark University. 10 00:00:32,910 --> 00:00:36,723 He does field work in both New England and China. 11 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:41,310 Among his many interests is the use of satellite imaging 12 00:00:41,310 --> 00:00:44,223 to analyze climate change and deforestation. 13 00:00:45,420 --> 00:00:48,360 In addition to his academic research, 14 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:51,570 Dr. Young does outreach to the general public, 15 00:00:51,570 --> 00:00:55,620 including a long-running art photography exhibition entitled 16 00:00:55,620 --> 00:00:57,300 Macro or Micro, 17 00:00:57,300 --> 00:00:59,970 which has been on display at the Museum of Science, 18 00:00:59,970 --> 00:01:01,593 and in Tehran, Iran. 19 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:06,960 Today's talk is titled Impacts of Climate Change. 20 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:08,760 They Have Only Just Begun. 21 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:11,060 Please welcome my old friend, Dr. Steve Young. 22 00:01:12,329 --> 00:01:14,246 - [Stephen Young] Okay. 23 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:23,000 Okay, I need to turn on my various microphones 24 00:01:23,070 --> 00:01:24,303 so people can hear me. 25 00:01:27,390 --> 00:01:31,350 And thank you Paul Kelly for that introduction. 26 00:01:31,350 --> 00:01:33,570 Paul and I, years ago, 27 00:01:33,570 --> 00:01:36,870 we team taught biogeography, 28 00:01:36,870 --> 00:01:41,130 and that Macro Micro exhibit is one that I do with Paul. 29 00:01:41,130 --> 00:01:43,680 Paul does microscopic imaging, 30 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:45,720 things that are like, the width of your hair. 31 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:47,910 And I do satellite imaging of things that are like, 32 00:01:47,910 --> 00:01:52,320 a hundred kilometers in size, and we put 'em up on the wall, 33 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:53,880 and it's hard to tell 34 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:57,750 which is which because the earth cracks, 35 00:01:57,750 --> 00:02:00,120 and the earth does things at different scale, 36 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:01,470 and you have nothing for scale. 37 00:02:01,470 --> 00:02:03,840 And anyways, it's a very interesting thing. 38 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:08,310 So I have a strong affinity to the biology department. 39 00:02:08,310 --> 00:02:11,580 I have a master's degree in forest ecology, 40 00:02:11,580 --> 00:02:15,990 and in geography, I've learned how to look at the world 41 00:02:15,990 --> 00:02:17,940 from a spatial perspective. 42 00:02:17,940 --> 00:02:21,840 And so I've been able to marry my biological background 43 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:24,843 with my geographic studies. 44 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:29,970 I wanna thank the Biology Department, 45 00:02:29,970 --> 00:02:32,313 the Geography and Sustainability Department, 46 00:02:33,510 --> 00:02:35,460 the Earth Day's Planning Committee, 47 00:02:35,460 --> 00:02:37,020 and the Charles Albert Reid Trust 48 00:02:37,020 --> 00:02:38,310 for sponsoring this talk today. 49 00:02:38,310 --> 00:02:39,240 Very appreciative. 50 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:41,850 There's a lot of people who do a lot of work 51 00:02:41,850 --> 00:02:43,750 in the background to make this happen. 52 00:02:44,970 --> 00:02:46,500 So, alright, that was a preview 53 00:02:46,500 --> 00:02:48,030 of the talk because we ran through it 54 00:02:48,030 --> 00:02:50,480 to make sure it worked, and I left it at the end. 55 00:02:51,330 --> 00:02:54,660 I do wanna make a shoutout to people that are online. 56 00:02:54,660 --> 00:02:56,340 Thank you for joining us today, 57 00:02:56,340 --> 00:02:58,650 and for all of you here today. 58 00:02:58,650 --> 00:03:00,100 So I'm gonna talk about 59 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:08,940 Climate Change: The Impacts Have Only Just Begun. 60 00:03:08,940 --> 00:03:12,773 And so in this talk today, 61 00:03:14,070 --> 00:03:17,040 I'm gonna talk about the science 62 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:19,650 of why our climate's changing, 63 00:03:19,650 --> 00:03:22,830 what to expect in our world as it warms, 64 00:03:22,830 --> 00:03:24,660 changes happening in New England, 65 00:03:24,660 --> 00:03:28,290 and then how Salem State University's engaged 66 00:03:28,290 --> 00:03:30,453 with solutions to our issue. 67 00:03:32,370 --> 00:03:36,063 So science, right? Most of you are in biology. 68 00:03:37,290 --> 00:03:40,110 What is science? It's about answering questions. 69 00:03:40,110 --> 00:03:44,220 It's a methodology in which we understand our world, 70 00:03:44,220 --> 00:03:46,350 and it's based on observations. 71 00:03:46,350 --> 00:03:48,810 We go out, we gather data, 72 00:03:48,810 --> 00:03:50,610 and then we look at those observations, 73 00:03:50,610 --> 00:03:51,540 and we try to come up 74 00:03:51,540 --> 00:03:54,630 with some sort of answer to what's happening. 75 00:03:54,630 --> 00:03:57,270 And then we do lots of experiments to see if that, 76 00:03:57,270 --> 00:04:00,000 in fact, is right, and we kinda refine. 77 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,370 Science is always refining itself. 78 00:04:02,370 --> 00:04:04,590 It's transparent. There's nothing hidden. 79 00:04:04,590 --> 00:04:07,200 There's no secret recipe. 80 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:12,200 It's very open to everybody, our data, our methods. 81 00:04:13,500 --> 00:04:18,240 So one question is, is our climate changing? 82 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:20,250 And so we've got all kinds of instruments 83 00:04:20,250 --> 00:04:22,440 out there collecting data. 84 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:25,560 We collect lots of data in our atmosphere 85 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:29,130 about temperature, wind, moisture. 86 00:04:29,130 --> 00:04:32,490 And then, humans are pretty ingenious. 87 00:04:32,490 --> 00:04:35,730 This is a really cool temperature measuring device, 88 00:04:35,730 --> 00:04:38,280 and making observations in the ocean. 89 00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:42,750 And what it does is it drops down to about a thousand meters 90 00:04:42,750 --> 00:04:44,700 below the surface and hangs out 91 00:04:44,700 --> 00:04:46,920 for many days collecting data, 92 00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:48,930 then it drops down further, 93 00:04:48,930 --> 00:04:52,020 and then it creates a profile coming back up, pops up, 94 00:04:52,020 --> 00:04:53,730 sends its data to a satellite. 95 00:04:53,730 --> 00:04:57,480 That satellite sends that data to a receiving station. 96 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,780 And then we're able to get a good glimpse 97 00:05:00,780 --> 00:05:03,450 of what the temperature's like inside the ocean. 98 00:05:03,450 --> 00:05:05,220 And we've got hundreds and hundreds of these 99 00:05:05,220 --> 00:05:09,183 around the world bringing in that kind of observations. 100 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:13,740 So one of the conclusions 101 00:05:13,740 --> 00:05:16,470 of those observations that we've been doing 102 00:05:16,470 --> 00:05:18,480 for quite a long time 103 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:23,010 is very clearly recently, the world has started to warm up. 104 00:05:23,010 --> 00:05:27,183 And I'm gonna focus on this graph a little bit. 105 00:05:28,290 --> 00:05:31,470 This graph, it's titled as, 106 00:05:31,470 --> 00:05:35,520 Global Average Temperature Change from 1850 to 2021. 107 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:37,800 And each one of those red dots 108 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:41,100 represents how far that year varied 109 00:05:41,100 --> 00:05:42,900 from a long-term average. 110 00:05:42,900 --> 00:05:44,490 It's called an anomaly, right? 111 00:05:44,490 --> 00:05:48,780 An anomaly is something that is different than the norm. 112 00:05:48,780 --> 00:05:49,620 And in this case, 113 00:05:49,620 --> 00:05:54,060 we took 1850 to 1900, we added up the annual temperature, 114 00:05:54,060 --> 00:05:55,800 global annual temperature for all those years. 115 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:58,290 And divided by 51, and got a long-term average, 116 00:05:58,290 --> 00:06:00,990 then we compared each year to that long-term average. 117 00:06:00,990 --> 00:06:04,200 And those red dots are how each year varied 118 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:06,150 from that long-term average. 119 00:06:06,150 --> 00:06:11,150 And what we see very clearly is between 1960 and 1980, 120 00:06:11,626 --> 00:06:15,930 the long-term trend bent upwards. 121 00:06:15,930 --> 00:06:18,510 It's been relatively flat. 122 00:06:18,510 --> 00:06:20,430 And each year it goes up and down, up and down, up and down. 123 00:06:20,430 --> 00:06:21,720 Cause the earth is a complex system. 124 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:23,700 It's not a linear change, 125 00:06:23,700 --> 00:06:25,833 but you can see that long-term change. 126 00:06:26,670 --> 00:06:27,960 And also in science, 127 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:30,360 we don't rely on just one dataset. 128 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:32,910 We often look at multiple data sets. 129 00:06:32,910 --> 00:06:35,130 And so these multiple data sets 130 00:06:35,130 --> 00:06:38,070 of different ways of measuring the data, 131 00:06:38,070 --> 00:06:41,853 collecting the data, also that change has happened. 132 00:06:43,380 --> 00:06:45,030 And if we go back in time, 133 00:06:45,030 --> 00:06:48,050 there's ways that we can figure out the temperature 134 00:06:48,050 --> 00:06:49,620 in the past. 135 00:06:49,620 --> 00:06:52,710 And one reason we look at that past data 136 00:06:52,710 --> 00:06:56,460 is what's happening today, normal, not so normal. 137 00:06:56,460 --> 00:06:58,380 And what we can see from these data sets, 138 00:06:58,380 --> 00:07:01,860 the most recent temperature, which we've measured 139 00:07:01,860 --> 00:07:03,840 with actual thermometers in the ocean. 140 00:07:03,840 --> 00:07:06,210 And the atmosphere is that red line at the end. 141 00:07:06,210 --> 00:07:08,820 And it is a distinctive change, 142 00:07:08,820 --> 00:07:10,803 which we are experiencing now. 143 00:07:14,010 --> 00:07:18,060 So the reason why the world is the temperature that it is, 144 00:07:18,060 --> 00:07:19,440 it's actually a pretty simple equation. 145 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:22,980 It's how much solar radiation we get from the sun compared 146 00:07:22,980 --> 00:07:26,520 to how much pressure radiation we send back to space. 147 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:30,260 Everybody, even ice cubes, radiate energy. 148 00:07:30,260 --> 00:07:32,940 As long as you've got some energy, you radiate it. 149 00:07:32,940 --> 00:07:35,790 The sun radiates a tremendous amount of energy to Earth, 150 00:07:35,790 --> 00:07:37,590 Earth then sends it back to space. 151 00:07:37,590 --> 00:07:38,423 And when the amount 152 00:07:38,423 --> 00:07:39,720 of energy leaving earth equals the amount 153 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:42,750 of energy coming in, temperature stays the same. 154 00:07:42,750 --> 00:07:46,050 If more leaves than comes in, then it gets colder, 155 00:07:46,050 --> 00:07:48,780 more comes in than leaves, it gets warmer. 156 00:07:48,780 --> 00:07:50,940 And that's what's happening today. 157 00:07:50,940 --> 00:07:53,400 We're continuing to get the same amount 158 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:54,900 of incoming solar radiation, 159 00:07:54,900 --> 00:07:58,353 but we're slowing down the energy of the earth leaving. 160 00:08:01,020 --> 00:08:02,310 We get energy from the sun. 161 00:08:02,310 --> 00:08:03,143 And so I want you 162 00:08:03,143 --> 00:08:05,820 to see the yellow line is an actual measurement. 163 00:08:05,820 --> 00:08:06,960 We have great measurements 164 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:09,540 of how much energy the sun is putting out. 165 00:08:09,540 --> 00:08:13,530 And the red line, which goes to the vertical column 166 00:08:13,530 --> 00:08:15,840 on the right is temperature. 167 00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:18,540 And we can see there often is a correlation 168 00:08:18,540 --> 00:08:21,270 between incoming sun energy and temperature, 169 00:08:21,270 --> 00:08:24,840 which we see in the early 1900s. 170 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:28,950 But since about 1960, 1970, 171 00:08:28,950 --> 00:08:30,570 solar radiation has slightly declined 172 00:08:30,570 --> 00:08:31,590 and temperatures increased. 173 00:08:31,590 --> 00:08:34,830 So the issue is not we're not getting any more energy 174 00:08:34,830 --> 00:08:35,820 from the sun. 175 00:08:35,820 --> 00:08:37,953 We're not warming up because of that. 176 00:08:39,570 --> 00:08:41,910 What's happening is we've changed the chemistry 177 00:08:41,910 --> 00:08:43,590 of our atmosphere. 178 00:08:43,590 --> 00:08:45,000 We've put these gases up 179 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,430 in our atmosphere that let the sunlight in, 180 00:08:47,430 --> 00:08:50,520 but they stop the earth's energy from leaving. 181 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:54,030 And the more of those molecules we put in the atmosphere, 182 00:08:54,030 --> 00:08:56,010 the slower energy leaves the earth's system 183 00:08:56,010 --> 00:08:57,540 because it's absorbing that energy 184 00:08:57,540 --> 00:08:59,390 and sending some of it back to Earth. 185 00:09:00,540 --> 00:09:02,220 And the more of those gases we have, 186 00:09:02,220 --> 00:09:04,803 the less energy leaves the system. 187 00:09:05,970 --> 00:09:09,453 So what's happening on Earth is like this example 188 00:09:09,453 --> 00:09:11,340 of a bathtub. 189 00:09:11,340 --> 00:09:13,470 As long as the amount of water coming 190 00:09:13,470 --> 00:09:15,390 into the bathtub is equal to the amount 191 00:09:15,390 --> 00:09:17,280 of water leaving the bathtub, 192 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:20,820 that little ducky is gonna stay at the same level. 193 00:09:20,820 --> 00:09:25,320 But what we've done is we've squeezed that drain pipe. 194 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:27,461 By putting those gases in our atmosphere, 195 00:09:27,461 --> 00:09:29,850 we're slowing the amount 196 00:09:29,850 --> 00:09:31,800 of energy that can leave the system. 197 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:34,380 And so just like that bathtub, 198 00:09:34,380 --> 00:09:37,380 the earth is slowly filling up with heat. 199 00:09:37,380 --> 00:09:39,360 Our oceans are getting warmer, 200 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:41,700 our groundwater is getting warmer. 201 00:09:41,700 --> 00:09:44,703 Our soil is getting warmer. 202 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:48,990 And on the growth scale, we can do that. 203 00:09:48,990 --> 00:09:49,823 We can measure. 204 00:09:49,823 --> 00:09:50,880 We have satellites that can measure 205 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:52,470 how much energy's leaving the earth, 206 00:09:52,470 --> 00:09:54,720 and how much energy's coming in from the sun. 207 00:09:56,070 --> 00:09:58,020 One thing we're doing in science is we quantify it. 208 00:09:58,020 --> 00:09:58,980 We've quantified, actually, 209 00:09:58,980 --> 00:10:01,683 how much extra energy is being saved on Earth. 210 00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:06,180 Where is that energy being stored? 211 00:10:06,180 --> 00:10:08,250 Most of it's in the ocean, 212 00:10:08,250 --> 00:10:11,340 and that's one reason why we really don't feel it. 213 00:10:11,340 --> 00:10:15,510 We don't live in the ocean. Over 90% of that energy. 214 00:10:15,510 --> 00:10:18,000 The oceans act like a battery 215 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,543 storing that excess energy that our system's creating. 216 00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:28,410 Understanding the past, right? 217 00:10:28,410 --> 00:10:29,820 I showed a little bit earlier, 218 00:10:29,820 --> 00:10:31,230 having a little bit of understanding 219 00:10:31,230 --> 00:10:35,370 of how things changed in the past gives us a perspective 220 00:10:35,370 --> 00:10:38,010 of how things are changing in today's world. 221 00:10:38,010 --> 00:10:41,970 So one of the cool things that scientists do 222 00:10:41,970 --> 00:10:46,770 is they get these things called climate proxies, right? 223 00:10:46,770 --> 00:10:49,710 We didn't have thermometers back 800,000 years ago 224 00:10:49,710 --> 00:10:51,510 to measure the air temperature. 225 00:10:51,510 --> 00:10:53,220 So we use things in nature 226 00:10:53,220 --> 00:10:56,370 that help us find out about temperature and other things. 227 00:10:56,370 --> 00:11:01,083 And ice cores, like in Antarctica and Greenland, 228 00:11:03,453 --> 00:11:05,250 actually, we can look at the molecules, 229 00:11:05,250 --> 00:11:08,580 and tell what the temperature was like, and also parts 230 00:11:08,580 --> 00:11:11,330 of gases from the atmosphere were captured in that ice. 231 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:17,940 This one goes back 400,000 years, 232 00:11:17,940 --> 00:11:20,460 some of 'em go back 800,000 years. 233 00:11:20,460 --> 00:11:25,460 And what I want you to notice is this is a classic way that 234 00:11:25,911 --> 00:11:28,511 we look at data to see if there's any relationships. 235 00:11:29,370 --> 00:11:32,310 We're looking at carbon dioxide concentrations 236 00:11:32,310 --> 00:11:34,650 in the atmosphere and temperature. 237 00:11:34,650 --> 00:11:38,040 And on the right hand side is the temperature, 238 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:40,350 which is the purple line. 239 00:11:40,350 --> 00:11:43,170 And on the left hand column, we're looking at concentration 240 00:11:43,170 --> 00:11:44,313 of carbon dioxide. 241 00:11:46,050 --> 00:11:48,150 You should be able to see that there's a very, 242 00:11:48,150 --> 00:11:52,702 very close relationship between those two carbon dioxide, 243 00:11:52,702 --> 00:11:54,450 and temperature. 244 00:11:54,450 --> 00:11:56,160 In fact, a mono carbon dioxide 245 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:57,570 in our atmosphere has often been referred 246 00:11:57,570 --> 00:12:00,453 to as the thermostat of Vostok temperature. 247 00:12:03,090 --> 00:12:05,580 Here's another diagram showing that relationship. 248 00:12:05,580 --> 00:12:07,833 This one goes back 800,000 years. 249 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:13,110 And I want you to see the star 250 00:12:13,110 --> 00:12:15,060 up at the top right hand corner, 251 00:12:15,060 --> 00:12:17,280 that's the concentration of carbon dioxide 252 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:18,960 in our atmosphere now. 253 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:20,490 It's nowhere as near 254 00:12:20,490 --> 00:12:23,280 where it's been for the past 800,000 years. 255 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:24,930 And so that is one 256 00:12:24,930 --> 00:12:28,710 of the reasons why our climate's changing so significantly. 257 00:12:28,710 --> 00:12:33,710 Why it has that upward bent, right? 258 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:34,923 This is measurement. 259 00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:36,713 A person thought, 260 00:12:36,713 --> 00:12:39,720 "Hey, it'd be cool to measure gases in the atmosphere, 261 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:41,790 and I'm gonna get a grant to go out to Hawaii 262 00:12:41,790 --> 00:12:45,420 and put this thing up on an island volcano 263 00:12:45,420 --> 00:12:48,060 because there's not a lot of humans or industry around," 264 00:12:48,060 --> 00:12:49,980 and started collecting carbon dioxide as one 265 00:12:49,980 --> 00:12:50,930 of those chemicals. 266 00:12:53,670 --> 00:12:57,060 In fact, we are increasing those greenhouse gases, right? 267 00:12:57,060 --> 00:12:58,833 Size is all about observations. 268 00:13:02,130 --> 00:13:03,480 Here is an interesting graph. 269 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:04,710 This is the total amount 270 00:13:04,710 --> 00:13:06,390 of carbon dioxide that we're putting in the atmosphere. 271 00:13:06,390 --> 00:13:09,420 See that little dip at the top right there? 272 00:13:09,420 --> 00:13:12,300 That was COVID, right? Everything shut down. 273 00:13:12,300 --> 00:13:14,490 We stopped driving around and stuff, 274 00:13:14,490 --> 00:13:16,623 but it only made a small dent. 275 00:13:18,531 --> 00:13:22,990 Our way of life is very carbon related. 276 00:13:24,012 --> 00:13:26,673 And we need to shift that. 277 00:13:27,570 --> 00:13:31,020 Methane, just got this graphed the other day. 278 00:13:31,020 --> 00:13:33,210 Methane is another greenhouse gas. 279 00:13:33,210 --> 00:13:36,360 We were told natural gas was gonna be the link 280 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:40,110 to the future, and it turns out that we're releasing a lot 281 00:13:40,110 --> 00:13:41,260 to the atmosphere also. 282 00:13:44,940 --> 00:13:48,840 So one thing about science is we can marvel 283 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:52,530 into the future and there's a group of scientists, 284 00:13:52,530 --> 00:13:56,760 the IPCC, that look at all the data that's going out there, 285 00:13:56,760 --> 00:14:00,019 and they try to figure out what's our future gonna be like. 286 00:14:00,019 --> 00:14:01,770 And they have said based 287 00:14:01,770 --> 00:14:04,830 on science that we should really try 288 00:14:04,830 --> 00:14:06,150 to keep the earth's temperature 289 00:14:06,150 --> 00:14:08,850 from not rising more than one and a half degrees. 290 00:14:08,850 --> 00:14:11,253 Because we've looked in the past, 291 00:14:12,420 --> 00:14:16,230 anything of that magnitude is gonna bring about a fair bit 292 00:14:16,230 --> 00:14:20,133 of change, like melting the glaciers and things like that. 293 00:14:24,900 --> 00:14:27,210 The carbon dioxide is driving the temperature change. 294 00:14:27,210 --> 00:14:29,681 So we need to stop putting that in the atmosphere. 295 00:14:29,681 --> 00:14:33,780 A lot of towns and our university has made a goal 296 00:14:33,780 --> 00:14:36,393 of 2050: become carbon neutral. 297 00:14:37,740 --> 00:14:40,260 Well, we've got momentum going in one direction. 298 00:14:40,260 --> 00:14:42,960 We really need to change as a society, 299 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:45,804 and change fairly quickly to get down 300 00:14:45,804 --> 00:14:48,993 to not putting so much carbon in the atmosphere. 301 00:14:50,850 --> 00:14:52,170 All right. 302 00:14:52,170 --> 00:14:53,520 That's the end of most of the graphs. 303 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:54,600 There's a couple more to come, 304 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:59,583 but so what can we expect in our warming world? 305 00:15:00,870 --> 00:15:02,460 We know, right? 306 00:15:02,460 --> 00:15:05,130 We know the relationship between these greenhouse gases 307 00:15:05,130 --> 00:15:06,330 and Earth's temperature. 308 00:15:08,910 --> 00:15:10,230 So here's some observations, 309 00:15:10,230 --> 00:15:11,610 which have been happening. 310 00:15:11,610 --> 00:15:15,900 Up at the top, we see it's, well, the base years, 311 00:15:15,900 --> 00:15:18,480 it's 1951 to 1980. 312 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:20,730 Often when we're studying climate, 313 00:15:20,730 --> 00:15:22,170 we'll take like a 30 year period 314 00:15:22,170 --> 00:15:25,653 as kind of our measuring rod, our standard. 315 00:15:26,550 --> 00:15:28,650 And then we took decades after that 316 00:15:28,650 --> 00:15:30,780 to look at how temperature was changing 317 00:15:30,780 --> 00:15:32,640 in the northern hemisphere. 318 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:37,640 And you can see we kept the same base period. 319 00:15:37,740 --> 00:15:40,983 And what's been happening is we are shifting clearly 320 00:15:40,983 --> 00:15:42,333 into a warmer world. 321 00:15:43,590 --> 00:15:48,273 It's not a fluke thing that this winter's been pretty warm. 322 00:15:49,350 --> 00:15:51,450 And also, there is wild weather. 323 00:15:51,450 --> 00:15:56,400 Just because we broke records of cold about a week ago, 324 00:15:56,400 --> 00:15:58,350 doesn't mean that we're not warming up. 325 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:03,473 All right. 326 00:16:06,090 --> 00:16:09,000 If you wanna understand what's gonna happen in the future, 327 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:11,670 this is an important graph to understand. 328 00:16:11,670 --> 00:16:15,210 This is how much moisture the atmosphere can hold. 329 00:16:15,210 --> 00:16:20,210 And so when the atmosphere warms from 20 degrees 330 00:16:22,260 --> 00:16:25,470 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, you can see 331 00:16:25,470 --> 00:16:28,683 it doesn't increase the water availability. 332 00:16:29,610 --> 00:16:32,280 The bottom of this graph is temperature 333 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:34,440 going from cold temperatures on the left 334 00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:36,630 to warm temperatures on the right, 335 00:16:36,630 --> 00:16:38,970 the scale on the left, 336 00:16:38,970 --> 00:16:42,600 how much water the atmosphere can potentially hold. 337 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:43,470 What's the room, 338 00:16:43,470 --> 00:16:48,240 what's the capacity for moisture going from 0 up to 60. 339 00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:53,240 And you can see that 20 degree change from 20 to 40, 340 00:16:53,250 --> 00:16:55,140 not a lot of capacity changes, 341 00:16:55,140 --> 00:16:59,463 but from 80 to 100, it increases dramatically. 342 00:17:01,331 --> 00:17:05,550 This past year, we've had tremendous amount of floods, 343 00:17:05,550 --> 00:17:08,250 and we've had tremendous amount of droughts. 344 00:17:08,250 --> 00:17:10,950 And it's all driven because a warming world 345 00:17:10,950 --> 00:17:12,993 lets the atmosphere hold more moisture. 346 00:17:16,740 --> 00:17:18,960 So now the relationship. 347 00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:21,600 Greenhouse gases are pushing the temperature up. 348 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:23,850 The temperature's making the atmosphere be able 349 00:17:23,850 --> 00:17:25,353 to hold more moisture. 350 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,840 A warmer atmosphere increases evaporation. 351 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:32,760 There's more energy in the air, 352 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:36,510 so it goes into evaporating water molecules, 353 00:17:36,510 --> 00:17:37,740 and it can hold more moisture. 354 00:17:37,740 --> 00:17:40,440 So it takes longer for that moisture to leave the air. 355 00:17:41,790 --> 00:17:42,933 So we get droughts. 356 00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:45,600 I'm sure many of you are aware, 357 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:48,120 the southwest United States is drying up, 358 00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:49,920 and it's been drying up for a while. 359 00:17:50,790 --> 00:17:52,650 Lake Mead, Lake Powell, 360 00:17:52,650 --> 00:17:55,440 major reservoirs for water for the southwest, 361 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:59,755 and also electricity production is decreasing dramatically, 362 00:17:59,755 --> 00:18:00,588 right? 363 00:18:00,588 --> 00:18:04,230 They found bodies that had been put in oil barrels 364 00:18:04,230 --> 00:18:06,090 and stuff that were sitting on the bottom 365 00:18:06,090 --> 00:18:08,935 of the lake have become above water now. 366 00:18:08,935 --> 00:18:13,935 China last year had historic droughts, 367 00:18:14,220 --> 00:18:16,833 and they've got a long recorded history. 368 00:18:18,450 --> 00:18:21,990 Major lakes dried up, rivers dried up, 369 00:18:21,990 --> 00:18:25,530 and the reservoirs dried up so much that they had 370 00:18:25,530 --> 00:18:27,060 to cut back on electrical production. 371 00:18:27,060 --> 00:18:28,743 And they had rolling blackouts, 372 00:18:30,180 --> 00:18:32,370 as did other parts of the world. 373 00:18:32,370 --> 00:18:35,790 Europe, all of a sudden these sunken ships 374 00:18:35,790 --> 00:18:39,600 that were downed in World War II were appearing 375 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:42,900 out of the river because the river is almost dried up. 376 00:18:42,900 --> 00:18:44,553 Navigation had to stop. 377 00:18:46,830 --> 00:18:48,480 We had a drought, right? 378 00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:51,660 We live in a really humid part of the world, 379 00:18:51,660 --> 00:18:54,333 and we had a pretty punishing drought. 380 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:57,180 What's happening is, 381 00:18:57,180 --> 00:18:58,920 and I'll talk a little bit more about this in a minute, 382 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:03,390 but our winters are warming the fastest, 383 00:19:03,390 --> 00:19:04,260 and our summers, 384 00:19:04,260 --> 00:19:08,040 and most of the precipitation, now added precipitation comes 385 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:09,420 in the wintertime. 386 00:19:09,420 --> 00:19:11,280 The summer precipitation stays kind of the same, 387 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:12,750 but it's getting warmer. 388 00:19:12,750 --> 00:19:14,850 So there's more evaporation going on. 389 00:19:14,850 --> 00:19:18,570 And so we've had a number of droughts recently, 390 00:19:18,570 --> 00:19:21,393 a higher frequency than we usually have. 391 00:19:22,650 --> 00:19:27,420 Also by warming, it means when it rains, 392 00:19:27,420 --> 00:19:29,370 it can now hold a lot more water 393 00:19:29,370 --> 00:19:30,630 than it ever could hold before. 394 00:19:30,630 --> 00:19:34,290 So when it rains, it dumps a lot of water on us. 395 00:19:34,290 --> 00:19:39,167 And so we've seen last summer, we saw incredible floods, 396 00:19:40,860 --> 00:19:42,540 Death Valley. 397 00:19:42,540 --> 00:19:45,843 In one day, it had almost a year's worth of rain. 398 00:19:48,870 --> 00:19:50,073 Hurricane Ian. 399 00:19:51,030 --> 00:19:56,030 So a 1 in 1000 years storm means that it's likely 400 00:19:56,340 --> 00:19:57,870 in a thousand years you might get this kind 401 00:19:57,870 --> 00:19:58,703 of storm, right? 402 00:19:58,703 --> 00:20:00,240 It's not very likely. 403 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,493 We're seeing more and more of these. 404 00:20:03,930 --> 00:20:08,430 Pakistan, unbelievable amount of monsoon rains coming in, 405 00:20:08,430 --> 00:20:12,903 and this river just flooded so many communities. 406 00:20:14,610 --> 00:20:17,370 China, there was a city 407 00:20:17,370 --> 00:20:21,270 where they had a new subway system, 10 years old. 408 00:20:21,270 --> 00:20:22,380 And so much water came in, 409 00:20:22,380 --> 00:20:24,660 people drowned in the subway cars. 410 00:20:24,660 --> 00:20:27,810 It was never designed, never imagined, 411 00:20:27,810 --> 00:20:30,160 that there would be so much flooding to happen. 412 00:20:31,110 --> 00:20:34,230 New Zealand, Auckland the other day got a summer's worth 413 00:20:34,230 --> 00:20:35,613 of rain in one day. 414 00:20:39,180 --> 00:20:43,350 Jiachang Tu was a master student here a few years ago, 415 00:20:43,350 --> 00:20:44,580 and now she's getting her PhD, 416 00:20:44,580 --> 00:20:46,200 and we're working on this paper 417 00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:47,613 about looking at Shanghai. 418 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,303 And when this started about two years ago, 419 00:20:52,530 --> 00:20:56,670 she and others proposed doing a 1 in 1000 year flood survey. 420 00:20:56,670 --> 00:20:57,655 And I thought, 421 00:20:57,655 --> 00:21:00,630 "That's crazy, that's not gonna happen to Shanghai." 422 00:21:00,630 --> 00:21:01,837 Now I feel like, 423 00:21:01,837 --> 00:21:06,837 "Wow, things have really changed because we are seeing more 424 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,147 and more of those floods." 425 00:21:19,710 --> 00:21:21,460 Okay, just wanna make sure my time. 426 00:21:22,770 --> 00:21:26,040 So the pandemic happens, 427 00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:28,770 and two of my sons come home from college, 428 00:21:28,770 --> 00:21:31,800 and they're working on their college class at home. 429 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:34,230 And I say, "Hey, had this great idea. 430 00:21:34,230 --> 00:21:36,750 Let's gather data. 431 00:21:36,750 --> 00:21:40,230 Let's look at weather and climate in New England." 432 00:21:40,230 --> 00:21:41,317 And one of my sons says, 433 00:21:41,317 --> 00:21:44,220 "Yeah, no, I'm going to play video games, thank you." 434 00:21:44,220 --> 00:21:47,040 And my other son said, "Okay, I'll do it." 435 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:52,040 And so we looked at temperature data for all the states 436 00:21:53,010 --> 00:21:57,090 in New England from 1900 to 2020. 437 00:21:57,090 --> 00:21:59,340 And we were so astonished by what we found, 438 00:21:59,340 --> 00:22:01,920 we decided to publish it. 439 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:05,130 And it got accepted and published. 440 00:22:05,130 --> 00:22:08,070 And so here are the little pinpoints 441 00:22:08,070 --> 00:22:10,320 of the different weather stations 442 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:14,497 where we collected data from 1900 to 2020. 443 00:22:17,183 --> 00:22:20,190 These were one of our results. 444 00:22:20,190 --> 00:22:25,190 The orange line is decadal temperature in New England. 445 00:22:26,100 --> 00:22:29,820 So we average data, not yearly, but by decade. 446 00:22:29,820 --> 00:22:32,340 Get a more general sense of what's happening. 447 00:22:32,340 --> 00:22:36,270 And so each dot represents the average change 448 00:22:36,270 --> 00:22:38,523 in temperature for that decade. 449 00:22:39,930 --> 00:22:44,930 And so the blue line is the change in global temperature, 450 00:22:45,330 --> 00:22:46,890 what's happening around the world. 451 00:22:46,890 --> 00:22:48,630 The orange line, what's happening in New England. 452 00:22:48,630 --> 00:22:50,040 And those bars that go up 453 00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:52,230 and down are what we call error bars. 454 00:22:52,230 --> 00:22:53,827 Scientists, we always say, 455 00:22:53,827 --> 00:22:56,013 "Well, this is our area of uncertainty. 456 00:22:56,970 --> 00:22:59,460 When those areas of uncertainty do not cross 457 00:22:59,460 --> 00:23:00,600 between those two lines, 458 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,610 it means there's a significant difference 459 00:23:02,610 --> 00:23:04,143 between those two trends. 460 00:23:05,130 --> 00:23:06,750 And what this graph says, 461 00:23:06,750 --> 00:23:10,320 New England is warming significantly faster than the rest 462 00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:11,153 of the world. 463 00:23:14,550 --> 00:23:17,430 And right, there's no snow, it's February. 464 00:23:17,430 --> 00:23:21,210 Often the bummer about the Darwin Festival is it's 465 00:23:21,210 --> 00:23:23,820 in February, and sometimes snow happens, 466 00:23:23,820 --> 00:23:25,470 and things get canceled. 467 00:23:25,470 --> 00:23:27,873 Not even close this year. 468 00:23:32,340 --> 00:23:37,170 And one big finding was winters are warming much faster, 469 00:23:37,170 --> 00:23:38,430 and that's what's happening in the world 470 00:23:38,430 --> 00:23:39,720 are the colder places are warming 471 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:41,283 faster than the warmer places. 472 00:23:44,610 --> 00:23:49,610 3.2 degrees Celsius is almost 6 degrees Fahrenheit. 473 00:23:49,620 --> 00:23:52,140 Our winters have warmed up quite a bit. 474 00:23:52,140 --> 00:23:57,000 Yeah, precipitation now comes a lot more as rain 475 00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:58,450 than as snow than it used to. 476 00:23:59,610 --> 00:24:01,560 We should actually have had a fair bit of snow this year, 477 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:02,733 but it came as rain. 478 00:24:04,770 --> 00:24:06,900 And that's my son. 479 00:24:06,900 --> 00:24:08,640 And after we published it, actually, 480 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:10,680 the Boston Globe picked up on the article, 481 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:12,390 and published it. 482 00:24:12,390 --> 00:24:17,390 So if your parents ever suggest doing some data analysis 483 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,523 or something, you know, you should say yes. 484 00:24:22,860 --> 00:24:23,730 Another article that I did 485 00:24:23,730 --> 00:24:26,670 with a graduate student was we looked at snow cover 486 00:24:26,670 --> 00:24:29,580 and temperature in North America. 487 00:24:29,580 --> 00:24:31,020 When light hits snow, 488 00:24:31,020 --> 00:24:33,330 it reflects and doesn't pass much energy off. 489 00:24:33,330 --> 00:24:34,980 When there's no snow, 490 00:24:34,980 --> 00:24:38,040 the light doesn't reflect as much and the energy stays here. 491 00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:42,090 And that's one reason why New England's warming faster 492 00:24:42,090 --> 00:24:45,573 than other parts. 493 00:24:46,620 --> 00:24:51,620 Also just off our coast, the Gulf of Maine is one 494 00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:55,200 of the fastest warming bodies on Earth. 495 00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:56,190 And one reason is 496 00:24:56,190 --> 00:24:59,250 the Gulf Stream is pushing a little bit further up, 497 00:24:59,250 --> 00:25:01,350 and it's pushing that warm water 498 00:25:01,350 --> 00:25:03,180 into the Gulf of Maine, 499 00:25:03,180 --> 00:25:07,023 which is also making New England warm. 500 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:13,237 Yeah, last semester a student asked me, 501 00:25:13,237 --> 00:25:17,340 "Why all of a sudden scientists interested 502 00:25:17,340 --> 00:25:18,450 in climate change?" 503 00:25:18,450 --> 00:25:20,450 We've been interested in it a long time, 504 00:25:21,360 --> 00:25:23,340 and right, the first paper was published back 505 00:25:23,340 --> 00:25:28,040 in 1896 projecting how the world is gonna warm 506 00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:29,910 to carbon dioxide. 507 00:25:29,910 --> 00:25:33,420 Even the fossil fuel industry's scientists 508 00:25:33,420 --> 00:25:38,420 in the 70s published and predicted what was gonna happen. 509 00:25:38,460 --> 00:25:40,440 And unfortunately, 510 00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,320 the fossil fuel companies used that information 511 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:46,800 to raise their platforms cause of sea level rise 512 00:25:46,800 --> 00:25:50,220 to invest in arctic oil because it's gonna warm up 513 00:25:50,220 --> 00:25:51,053 in the arctic. 514 00:25:52,500 --> 00:25:53,523 Tip on my shoulder. 515 00:25:55,020 --> 00:25:58,740 So biology, we did a lot of things that climate change 516 00:25:58,740 --> 00:26:00,210 in New England touches upon. 517 00:26:00,210 --> 00:26:02,340 But in biology we're starting 518 00:26:02,340 --> 00:26:04,773 to experience kind of ecosystem disruption, 519 00:26:05,670 --> 00:26:10,080 land ecosystems, marine ecosystems, 520 00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:11,700 marine ecosystems especially cause remember, 521 00:26:11,700 --> 00:26:14,133 that's where a lot of the heat's being stored. 522 00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:18,690 Also, not just the warming temperature, 523 00:26:18,690 --> 00:26:22,890 but the drastic change in weather, the floods and droughts. 524 00:26:22,890 --> 00:26:26,703 It's hard to survive through such extremes. 525 00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,320 Species are on the move, are migrating. 526 00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:34,770 Long Island Sound used to have lots of lobsters. 527 00:26:34,770 --> 00:26:36,660 Now they have hardly a single lobster. 528 00:26:36,660 --> 00:26:38,853 They've all migrated up to colder waters. 529 00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:43,920 Same thing happening on the land, health issues. 530 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:45,780 If you're in biology, in the health profession, 531 00:26:45,780 --> 00:26:49,740 you're gonna see a lot of new things, stressors, 532 00:26:49,740 --> 00:26:53,730 because of the climate, because of the heat, 533 00:26:53,730 --> 00:26:55,590 because of new diseases that are coming 534 00:26:55,590 --> 00:26:58,380 into the area that we're not accustomed to seeing. 535 00:26:58,380 --> 00:27:00,870 And also being aware of certain people 536 00:27:00,870 --> 00:27:03,420 in our population that are more vulnerable 537 00:27:03,420 --> 00:27:04,253 to climate change, 538 00:27:04,253 --> 00:27:06,480 that don't have good healthcare insurance, 539 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:11,010 that don't have access to air conditioners and the like, 540 00:27:11,010 --> 00:27:14,583 increased pests and diseases, disruption. 541 00:27:15,851 --> 00:27:19,350 So, that's where we are. 542 00:27:19,350 --> 00:27:22,710 We know that our world is changing, becoming warmer, 543 00:27:22,710 --> 00:27:25,440 and there are these different weather events 544 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:26,273 that are happening, 545 00:27:26,273 --> 00:27:30,840 and we know we've gotta reduce our carbon footprint. 546 00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:35,130 And so one of the things I love about Salem State 547 00:27:35,130 --> 00:27:37,023 is we are very involved, 548 00:27:38,525 --> 00:27:39,840 and we've made a pledge for 2050 549 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:41,850 to reduce our carbon emissions. 550 00:27:41,850 --> 00:27:46,850 And so Salem State is fostering sustainability 551 00:27:46,980 --> 00:27:49,950 in our facilities, in our culture, 552 00:27:49,950 --> 00:27:51,213 and in our education. 553 00:27:52,050 --> 00:27:55,470 Facilities-wise, we've got solar panels 554 00:27:55,470 --> 00:27:57,633 on a lot of the buildings on campus. 555 00:27:59,340 --> 00:28:01,200 Not only that, our library, 556 00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:02,940 we've got geothermal energy, 557 00:28:02,940 --> 00:28:05,940 where we're taking energy from inside the earth 558 00:28:05,940 --> 00:28:07,743 to help heat and cool the library. 559 00:28:11,700 --> 00:28:16,700 Our university has won awards for de-carbonization plans. 560 00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,110 And with Project Bold, 561 00:28:19,110 --> 00:28:22,080 where we're gonna reimagine North Campus, 562 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:25,590 we're also gonna include a lot of de-carbonization. 563 00:28:25,590 --> 00:28:29,400 In fact, Salem State is one of the leading institutions 564 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,823 in moving forward towards de-carbonization. 565 00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:35,130 Changing the culture, 566 00:28:35,130 --> 00:28:37,680 trying to change the culture on campus, 567 00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:39,626 EV charging stations on campus, 568 00:28:39,626 --> 00:28:44,626 bike share program on campus, planting pollinator gardens, 569 00:28:45,810 --> 00:28:50,810 having recycling and reused tables in the dorms, right? 570 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:55,140 We used to not know what to do with those possessions. 571 00:28:55,140 --> 00:28:56,610 We didn't want anymore that were still good. 572 00:28:56,610 --> 00:28:59,730 We often threw 'em away. Now we share them. 573 00:28:59,730 --> 00:29:03,273 So the culture on campus is changing in a sustainable way. 574 00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:07,080 Education, there's a lot of education that goes on 575 00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:09,330 on campus about sustainability. 576 00:29:09,330 --> 00:29:12,000 In my department, we often teach about how 577 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:16,050 to use geospatial technologies such as GIS 578 00:29:16,050 --> 00:29:18,300 and remote sensing and drones 579 00:29:18,300 --> 00:29:21,453 to gather data observations about what's happening. 580 00:29:23,374 --> 00:29:25,083 Activism also. 581 00:29:26,550 --> 00:29:28,203 I'm gonna tell you a brief story. 582 00:29:29,730 --> 00:29:32,463 Must be now eight years ago or so. 583 00:29:34,110 --> 00:29:37,980 Meservey was president, and the students were trying 584 00:29:37,980 --> 00:29:38,850 to push Salem state 585 00:29:38,850 --> 00:29:43,850 to divest our endowment from fossil fuels. 586 00:29:44,250 --> 00:29:47,340 And an hour before the Board of Trustees meeting, 587 00:29:47,340 --> 00:29:48,890 when they were gonna decide it, 588 00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:52,560 President Meservey came and saw Noel Hilly 589 00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:55,380 and myself and said, cause we were pushing this, 590 00:29:55,380 --> 00:29:58,200 so the Board of Trustees are not gonna divest, 591 00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:00,633 it's too much of a thing to do. 592 00:30:01,830 --> 00:30:04,560 So many students showed up 593 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:06,240 to that Board of Trustees meeting. 594 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:08,190 The room was filled with students. 595 00:30:08,190 --> 00:30:11,970 They changed their mind and they divested from fossil fuels. 596 00:30:11,970 --> 00:30:14,370 And Professor Healy got us into a pool 597 00:30:14,370 --> 00:30:16,110 with a number of other universities, 598 00:30:16,110 --> 00:30:17,730 about 10 other universities, 599 00:30:17,730 --> 00:30:19,260 and there was $59,000 600 00:30:19,260 --> 00:30:23,100 to share whatever university divested from fossil fuels. 601 00:30:23,100 --> 00:30:25,410 And Salem state was the only one. 602 00:30:25,410 --> 00:30:27,780 And so we got this fund, 603 00:30:27,780 --> 00:30:32,100 and then Professor Healy insisted that the fund go 100% 604 00:30:32,100 --> 00:30:33,690 towards scholarships. 605 00:30:33,690 --> 00:30:36,990 And so we've established two climate change scholarships 606 00:30:36,990 --> 00:30:40,620 for a thousand dollars each every year 607 00:30:40,620 --> 00:30:44,250 from that money we won because the students demanded 608 00:30:44,250 --> 00:30:47,700 that the university divest from fossil fuels. 609 00:30:47,700 --> 00:30:48,540 And I'll tell you, that's one 610 00:30:48,540 --> 00:30:50,820 of the most powerful moments I've experienced 611 00:30:50,820 --> 00:30:53,520 at Salem State, seeing the collective voice 612 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:55,533 of the students. 613 00:31:01,665 --> 00:31:04,083 We do a lot of work from out in the community. 614 00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:08,280 My department's got this exhibition about taking action 615 00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:12,600 with mapping where we show sea level rise effects 616 00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:14,460 on the North shore. 617 00:31:14,460 --> 00:31:17,493 We document sea level rise. 618 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:23,600 My colleague Marcos Luna focuses on climate and equity, 619 00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,420 and there's a lot of climate justice work going on. 620 00:31:27,420 --> 00:31:29,850 In fact, my student, who I'm gonna call up here in a minute, 621 00:31:29,850 --> 00:31:34,620 Danny, Danny and I are gonna go in a few weeks to Honduras. 622 00:31:34,620 --> 00:31:37,950 There's a coffee cooperative, and they want 623 00:31:37,950 --> 00:31:41,190 to reforest the areas that have been destroyed, 624 00:31:41,190 --> 00:31:43,890 and they want to get carbon offset money, 625 00:31:43,890 --> 00:31:48,180 but they've got no way to verify how their plants grow. 626 00:31:48,180 --> 00:31:49,080 So we're gonna go down there 627 00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:50,580 and teach them how to fly a drone 628 00:31:50,580 --> 00:31:54,180 so that the farmers themselves can verify the trees 629 00:31:54,180 --> 00:31:57,630 that are growing and get carbon offset money instead 630 00:31:57,630 --> 00:32:00,663 of that carbon offset money going to other groups. 631 00:32:02,580 --> 00:32:07,580 So our future world is arriving now, our climate. 632 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:10,983 Yeah, climate's been stable for a long time. 633 00:32:11,922 --> 00:32:16,290 We've created an incredible civilization based 634 00:32:16,290 --> 00:32:17,550 on that stability of climate. 635 00:32:17,550 --> 00:32:21,480 And now we live in a time of instability. 636 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,180 And so we need to change. We need to change. 637 00:32:24,180 --> 00:32:27,183 It's not the end. We need to change how we interact. 638 00:32:28,350 --> 00:32:31,800 The type of economy that we have that worked really well 639 00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:35,250 in a stable economy is not gonna work 640 00:32:35,250 --> 00:32:36,720 in an instable economy. 641 00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:37,860 So we've gotta change our ways, 642 00:32:37,860 --> 00:32:39,838 we've gotta change our culture. 643 00:32:39,838 --> 00:32:40,680 Gotta change our economic system. 644 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:44,550 For example, the fossil fuel industries like ExxonMobil 645 00:32:44,550 --> 00:32:46,800 made a record profit last year, 646 00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:50,040 and it's their product that is changing the climate. 647 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:53,703 And that's how off our economic system is right now. 648 00:32:54,660 --> 00:32:57,390 But we know what to do in the future, 649 00:32:57,390 --> 00:33:02,390 and how to change our facilities, our culture, 650 00:33:02,610 --> 00:33:03,573 our education. 651 00:33:06,750 --> 00:33:11,750 So this type of conversation is gonna continue this spring. 652 00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:14,340 Every spring we have a week where there is 653 00:33:14,340 --> 00:33:16,230 we call it Earth Days week, 654 00:33:16,230 --> 00:33:21,230 where we educate and celebrate about our environment. 655 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,590 So there's three things I hope you got from today. 656 00:33:28,590 --> 00:33:30,920 One, a little bit more of an understanding 657 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:32,853 of the science of climate change, 658 00:33:33,810 --> 00:33:36,330 A little bit of feeling of the urgency, right? 659 00:33:36,330 --> 00:33:38,820 There is urgency that we change things, right? 660 00:33:38,820 --> 00:33:41,190 The hotter the air gets, the more moisture we're gonna see 661 00:33:41,190 --> 00:33:43,113 these droughts and these floods. 662 00:33:44,340 --> 00:33:46,410 Obviously not everybody's gonna be involved 663 00:33:46,410 --> 00:33:49,500 in climate change stuff in their life, but being aware 664 00:33:49,500 --> 00:33:51,240 of climate change. 665 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:52,860 And there's little things in your life 666 00:33:52,860 --> 00:33:55,200 where you can make a difference. 667 00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:57,660 Whether it's what you choose to eat, 668 00:33:57,660 --> 00:34:00,393 whether it's what you choose to vote for, 669 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,800 coming from an educated standpoint to try to change things. 670 00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:06,480 We can all do that. 671 00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:10,200 Some of us will continue into education and stuff. 672 00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:14,010 And finally, I hope you feel some pride about Salem state. 673 00:34:14,010 --> 00:34:16,950 We really are one of the leading institutions 674 00:34:16,950 --> 00:34:20,880 in New England on trying to change 675 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:23,070 to a more sustainable way of life. 676 00:34:23,070 --> 00:34:26,490 And now I wanna invite my student, 677 00:34:26,490 --> 00:34:28,473 Danny Szottfried, 678 00:34:31,230 --> 00:34:35,280 to show a video that he put together. 679 00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:39,933 And I'm super proud of students at Salem State. 680 00:34:41,466 --> 00:34:42,299 - [Danny Szottfried] All right, 681 00:34:42,299 --> 00:34:44,910 so today we're gonna show you a quick video that me 682 00:34:44,910 --> 00:34:47,400 and another classmate, Becca, made. 683 00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:49,080 It was back in 2021. 684 00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:51,750 It was right after we both took 685 00:34:51,750 --> 00:34:54,090 the geography department's drones class 686 00:34:54,090 --> 00:34:55,590 with Professor Young. 687 00:34:55,590 --> 00:34:59,310 And he approached us as the class was wrapping up. 688 00:34:59,310 --> 00:35:03,390 He had a little extra grant money from a flash grant 689 00:35:03,390 --> 00:35:07,080 from the Center for Research and Creative Activities. 690 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:09,570 And they were doing some research 691 00:35:09,570 --> 00:35:12,030 in the Great Marsh out in Essex. 692 00:35:12,030 --> 00:35:15,010 And we had the opportunity to fly the area, 693 00:35:15,010 --> 00:35:18,300 collect a lot of above ground imagery, 694 00:35:18,300 --> 00:35:21,300 and we put this little PSA together 695 00:35:21,300 --> 00:35:25,293 to kind of inform people what exactly is happening. 696 00:35:27,284 --> 00:35:30,951 (lighthearted guitar music) 697 00:35:40,230 --> 00:35:43,080 - [Narrator] Known for its stunning views and vast wildlife, 698 00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:45,810 the Great Marsh is one of the most important ecosystems 699 00:35:45,810 --> 00:35:47,160 in New England. 700 00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:50,250 This area covers over 25,000 acres of land 701 00:35:50,250 --> 00:35:54,028 in the North shore, with half of it being salt marshes. 702 00:35:54,028 --> 00:35:59,028 (lighthearted guitar music continues) 703 00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:02,040 The Great Marsh provides the perfect habitat for plenty 704 00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:03,180 of plants and animals, 705 00:36:03,180 --> 00:36:07,373 including 300 species of birds that call this area home. 706 00:36:07,373 --> 00:36:11,873 (lighthearted guitar music continues) 707 00:36:14,670 --> 00:36:17,220 The marsh is an important resting and feeding ground 708 00:36:17,220 --> 00:36:20,520 for thousands of migratory birds that visit every year, 709 00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:22,410 and is utilized as a nursery ground 710 00:36:22,410 --> 00:36:24,483 for many different aquatic species. 711 00:36:27,060 --> 00:36:31,260 Coyotes, raccoons, deer, and other mammals can be spotted, 712 00:36:31,260 --> 00:36:34,060 lurking through the marsh in search of food and shelter. 713 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:39,510 While the Great Marsh is important to the environment, 714 00:36:39,510 --> 00:36:43,560 it is also very beneficial to humans in many different ways. 715 00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:46,800 Salt marshes help protect the shoreline from erosion, 716 00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:48,210 and improve water quality 717 00:36:48,210 --> 00:36:51,420 by filtering excess nutrients from any runoff. 718 00:36:51,420 --> 00:36:53,700 It acts as a buffer against heavy wave action 719 00:36:53,700 --> 00:36:56,670 and storm surges between the ocean and the mainland. 720 00:36:56,670 --> 00:36:58,620 They also decrease flooding during storms 721 00:36:58,620 --> 00:37:02,013 by reducing the flow of flood water and absorbing the rain. 722 00:37:02,989 --> 00:37:07,489 (lighthearted guitar music continues) 723 00:37:13,980 --> 00:37:16,260 The Great Marsh also benefits local cities 724 00:37:16,260 --> 00:37:18,870 and towns in Massachusetts economically. 725 00:37:18,870 --> 00:37:21,720 Hundreds of tourists visit this area each year 726 00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:23,610 for outdoor recreational activities 727 00:37:23,610 --> 00:37:26,370 such as bird watching, nature photography, 728 00:37:26,370 --> 00:37:30,030 hiking, hunting, fishing, and boating. 729 00:37:30,030 --> 00:37:31,950 About 95% of the land 730 00:37:31,950 --> 00:37:34,530 in the Great Marsh is used for recreational activities 731 00:37:34,530 --> 00:37:36,060 and tourism. 732 00:37:36,060 --> 00:37:38,850 The shellfish industry is huge in Massachusetts, 733 00:37:38,850 --> 00:37:41,800 and the Great Marsh provides ideal conditions for clamming. 734 00:37:45,210 --> 00:37:47,490 Unfortunately, the habitat and benefits 735 00:37:47,490 --> 00:37:49,200 of the Great Marsh may be at risk 736 00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:52,290 as our planet undergoes climate change. 737 00:37:52,290 --> 00:37:55,530 As more carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere, 738 00:37:55,530 --> 00:37:58,740 the surface temperature of the earth rises more and more. 739 00:37:58,740 --> 00:38:01,470 Since 1880, the average global temperature 740 00:38:01,470 --> 00:38:04,710 on Earth has increased slightly over 1 degree Celsius, 741 00:38:04,710 --> 00:38:06,810 or about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. 742 00:38:06,810 --> 00:38:09,450 Although it does not seem like much, this increase 743 00:38:09,450 --> 00:38:12,180 in surface temperature causes devastating impacts, 744 00:38:12,180 --> 00:38:14,673 especially on ecosystems such as the Great Marsh. 745 00:38:15,540 --> 00:38:18,240 Sea level is currently rising due to the expansion 746 00:38:18,240 --> 00:38:20,493 of sea water as it warms up. 747 00:38:20,493 --> 00:38:24,330 (lighthearted guitar music continues) 748 00:38:24,330 --> 00:38:27,780 Today, we are already seeing the impact sea level rise has 749 00:38:27,780 --> 00:38:29,280 on the Great Marsh. 750 00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:32,100 The sea level rise affecting salt marsh's model, 751 00:38:32,100 --> 00:38:35,520 done by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, 752 00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:37,650 found that the current rate of sea level rise 753 00:38:37,650 --> 00:38:40,710 will cause areas that are typically irregularly flooded 754 00:38:40,710 --> 00:38:42,811 to become regularly flooded. 755 00:38:42,811 --> 00:38:45,990 (lighthearted guitar music continues) 756 00:38:45,990 --> 00:38:48,570 This clip was taken during a King's Tide 757 00:38:48,570 --> 00:38:51,270 at a Salt Marsh in Essex, Massachusetts. 758 00:38:51,270 --> 00:38:53,490 This allows us to see what the tides will look like 759 00:38:53,490 --> 00:38:54,453 in the near future. 760 00:38:56,640 --> 00:38:58,410 As you can see, the tide goes up 761 00:38:58,410 --> 00:38:59,820 against the only access road 762 00:38:59,820 --> 00:39:02,430 to the Essex County Greenbelt's headquarters. 763 00:39:02,430 --> 00:39:04,980 Erosion and flooding has also been a major issue, 764 00:39:04,980 --> 00:39:07,353 and will continue to get worse as time goes on. 765 00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:13,080 A possible increase in storm intensity 766 00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:15,870 from warming sea surface temperatures combined 767 00:39:15,870 --> 00:39:18,240 with the already existent sea level rise 768 00:39:18,240 --> 00:39:20,340 could cause areas not typically flooded 769 00:39:20,340 --> 00:39:22,893 to be completely flooded for short periods of time. 770 00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:27,030 As climate change progresses, 771 00:39:27,030 --> 00:39:28,920 winters in New England have shortened, 772 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:30,600 and are becoming warmer. 773 00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:33,330 Shorter and warmer winters increase the probability 774 00:39:33,330 --> 00:39:37,260 of invasive species and pests entering the Great Marsh only 775 00:39:37,260 --> 00:39:40,293 to cause devastation among the marsh's ecosystem. 776 00:39:41,670 --> 00:39:44,700 Other impacts of climate change include extreme drought, 777 00:39:44,700 --> 00:39:47,460 especially in the western part of the United States. 778 00:39:47,460 --> 00:39:51,150 Currently, people are battling large wildfires out west, 779 00:39:51,150 --> 00:39:53,910 and as the jet stream carries the smoke from those wildfires 780 00:39:53,910 --> 00:39:56,430 across the U.S., we get a gloomy haze 781 00:39:56,430 --> 00:39:58,590 in the northeast as shown here 782 00:39:58,590 --> 00:40:01,710 at the Corbit Salt Marsh in Essex, Massachusetts. 783 00:40:01,710 --> 00:40:04,590 Although this haze is not directly impacting the salt marsh 784 00:40:04,590 --> 00:40:07,290 as much as sea level rise does, it is concerning 785 00:40:07,290 --> 00:40:10,350 to see that a climate change induced wildfire, 786 00:40:10,350 --> 00:40:13,050 burning hundreds of miles away, can cause smoke 787 00:40:13,050 --> 00:40:15,480 to fill the air at one of our most precious ecosystems 788 00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:16,860 in New England. 789 00:40:16,860 --> 00:40:18,900 As wildfires become more frequent, 790 00:40:18,900 --> 00:40:22,710 it may be necessary for us to see the impact air quality has 791 00:40:22,710 --> 00:40:24,046 on our Great Marsh. 792 00:40:24,046 --> 00:40:27,930 (lighthearted guitar music continues) 793 00:40:27,930 --> 00:40:29,797 The question raised here is, 794 00:40:29,797 --> 00:40:32,637 "How will these impacts on the Great Marsh affect us?" 795 00:40:33,810 --> 00:40:36,870 As sea level rise causes irregularly flooded areas 796 00:40:36,870 --> 00:40:40,590 to be covered with water, infrastructure such as roads, 797 00:40:40,590 --> 00:40:42,990 buildings, and sidewalks located near a marsh 798 00:40:42,990 --> 00:40:44,490 will be at risk. 799 00:40:44,490 --> 00:40:48,330 A large storm event, or even an irregularly large tide, 800 00:40:48,330 --> 00:40:51,690 could cause erosion near important infrastructure. 801 00:40:51,690 --> 00:40:53,400 Damages could cause a homeowner 802 00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:55,320 or local town thousands of dollars 803 00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:57,033 as sea level rise progresses. 804 00:40:57,870 --> 00:41:00,180 With the loss of habitat from climate change, 805 00:41:00,180 --> 00:41:03,120 the shellfish industry, and other fishery industries, 806 00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:05,463 will be heavily impacted in the North shore. 807 00:41:06,660 --> 00:41:09,720 There is also a possibility that tourism will decrease 808 00:41:09,720 --> 00:41:12,360 as climate change affects the marsh. 809 00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:14,943 This could ultimately impact the local economy. 810 00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:20,010 Plenty of organizations, including the National Oceanic 811 00:41:20,010 --> 00:41:21,990 and Atmospheric Administration, 812 00:41:21,990 --> 00:41:24,780 Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, 813 00:41:24,780 --> 00:41:26,280 and Land Trust Organizations 814 00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:28,470 such as the Essex County Greenbelt 815 00:41:28,470 --> 00:41:31,710 and the Trustees work hard to conserve, protect, 816 00:41:31,710 --> 00:41:33,783 and restore the Great Marsh system. 817 00:41:35,370 --> 00:41:38,160 Currently, the Geography and Sustainability Department 818 00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:39,870 at Salem State University 819 00:41:39,870 --> 00:41:43,860 is using advanced geospatial technologies such as drones, 820 00:41:43,860 --> 00:41:47,460 satellite imagery, and geographic information systems 821 00:41:47,460 --> 00:41:49,140 to map marsh ecosystems, 822 00:41:49,140 --> 00:41:52,873 and monitor and model changes caused by climate change. 823 00:41:52,873 --> 00:41:57,373 (lighthearted guitar music continues) 824 00:42:38,340 --> 00:42:39,450 - [Stephen Young] All right, thank you Danny. 825 00:42:39,450 --> 00:42:44,310 That was great, and an example 826 00:42:44,310 --> 00:42:47,463 of why I'm so proud of our students. 827 00:42:49,170 --> 00:42:53,520 So I hope I left you with, as I said, 828 00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:56,553 a little bit more understanding of climate change, 829 00:42:58,110 --> 00:43:02,127 some sense of urgency and pride in ways that it's solved. 830 00:43:02,127 --> 00:43:04,830 And I want to thank you for coming out 831 00:43:04,830 --> 00:43:07,980 and listening and if there's any questions, 832 00:43:07,980 --> 00:43:09,000 I am open for that. 833 00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:12,283 I don't know if there's online questions coming in. 834 00:43:15,876 --> 00:43:20,876 Oh. (faintly speaking) 835 00:43:24,162 --> 00:43:25,588 Yes. 836 00:43:25,588 --> 00:43:26,999 (audience member faintly speaking) 837 00:43:26,999 --> 00:43:27,832 - [Audience member 1] The use 838 00:43:27,832 --> 00:43:32,010 of fossil fuels are also anti-nuclear powered. 839 00:43:32,010 --> 00:43:33,240 What do you think of this? 840 00:43:33,240 --> 00:43:36,990 - [Stephen Young] Yeah, there's a lot of trade-offs 841 00:43:36,990 --> 00:43:38,760 that we have to think about. 842 00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:43,380 And so are the detrimental effects 843 00:43:43,380 --> 00:43:48,380 of nuclear power worse than a warming world? 844 00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:50,740 Yeah, I don't have the answer to that. 845 00:43:52,890 --> 00:43:55,353 We've got some hard choices that we have to make. 846 00:43:58,334 --> 00:44:02,584 (audience member faintly speaking) 847 00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:29,760 So must be like eight years ago or so, 848 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:32,460 my sons went off to summer, 849 00:44:32,460 --> 00:44:34,560 it's kind of like wilderness camp, 850 00:44:34,560 --> 00:44:37,410 and they hike and canoe and stuff up in Vermont 851 00:44:37,410 --> 00:44:42,240 where there is no Lyme disease and they come back, 852 00:44:42,240 --> 00:44:45,267 and they've got this rash and an itch and stuff, 853 00:44:45,267 --> 00:44:48,480 and it's unlikely that Lyme's disease is the problem 854 00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:49,650 because they're up in Vermont 855 00:44:49,650 --> 00:44:52,080 where Lyme's disease does not exist. 856 00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:55,290 And after a lot of torturous time, 857 00:44:55,290 --> 00:44:58,320 they eventually were diagnosed with Lyme's disease. 858 00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:00,360 So as Professor Hayes points out, 859 00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:05,043 with our warming world, especially with the warming winters, 860 00:45:05,043 --> 00:45:08,373 life is always trying to expand its range. 861 00:45:09,210 --> 00:45:13,200 And so these ticks and mosquitoes 862 00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:15,540 and other pests are gonna expand. 863 00:45:15,540 --> 00:45:17,403 They are expanding into our range. 864 00:45:20,675 --> 00:45:23,130 Lyme's disease is now up throughout New Hampshire, 865 00:45:23,130 --> 00:45:26,910 and Vermont, and into Maine as are other new diseases. 866 00:45:26,910 --> 00:45:29,700 And so in the health field, that's another thing. 867 00:45:29,700 --> 00:45:32,250 We actually went out west when they had Lyme's disease, 868 00:45:32,250 --> 00:45:33,780 and the western doctors, health people 869 00:45:33,780 --> 00:45:35,880 had no idea what Lyme disease was. 870 00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:38,520 So for those of you that are getting into health profession, 871 00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:40,320 there are gonna be some new vectors, 872 00:45:41,269 --> 00:45:43,440 new diseases that you're unaware of 873 00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:46,470 and need to become aware of them as they move 874 00:45:46,470 --> 00:45:48,183 into our environment. 875 00:45:55,941 --> 00:46:00,191 (audience member faintly speaking) 876 00:46:02,430 --> 00:46:03,873 It was nice. 877 00:46:04,981 --> 00:46:09,231 (audience member faintly speaking) 878 00:46:11,700 --> 00:46:13,249 Yes, it is. 879 00:46:13,249 --> 00:46:15,660 (audience member faintly speaking) 880 00:46:15,660 --> 00:46:17,970 We are, so that's a great point, 881 00:46:17,970 --> 00:46:21,030 is water vapor itself, is a greenhouse gas? 882 00:46:21,030 --> 00:46:24,090 If you've ever been camping and it's a clear sky, 883 00:46:24,090 --> 00:46:26,040 it's generally gonna get cold at night. 884 00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:26,873 You're camping, 885 00:46:26,873 --> 00:46:29,370 and it's cloudy cause there's all that moisture up there. 886 00:46:29,370 --> 00:46:31,920 It tends to be a warmer night unless some air mass moves 887 00:46:31,920 --> 00:46:35,820 in because the water maintains the heat. 888 00:46:35,820 --> 00:46:39,840 And so we have documented that our atmosphere 889 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:43,680 since the mid 70s has had more water vapor 890 00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:46,500 in it than long-term averages. 891 00:46:46,500 --> 00:46:48,821 And the issue about water vapor is 892 00:46:48,821 --> 00:46:52,200 it lives for a short time in the atmosphere 893 00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:54,990 where carbon dioxide can live up there for a thousand years. 894 00:46:54,990 --> 00:46:57,120 Methane can live up there for decades, 895 00:46:57,120 --> 00:46:58,860 water vapor can come and go. 896 00:46:58,860 --> 00:47:02,400 So if the climate does start to cool, 897 00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:05,963 then the water vapor will come out. 898 00:47:05,963 --> 00:47:10,213 (audience member faintly speaking) 899 00:47:20,250 --> 00:47:23,883 Yeah, I was wondering that myself, 900 00:47:25,410 --> 00:47:30,410 but Vermont was one of the states warming the fastest. 901 00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:33,979 And I didn't bore you. 902 00:47:33,979 --> 00:47:37,383 Originally, I had every state's graph in there, 903 00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:40,230 but someone told me I should cut back 904 00:47:40,230 --> 00:47:41,310 on my graphs a little bit. 905 00:47:41,310 --> 00:47:43,140 So I didn't show all those graphs. 906 00:47:43,140 --> 00:47:45,750 But the data also, right, 907 00:47:45,750 --> 00:47:48,513 each state had like, eight data points. 908 00:47:49,770 --> 00:47:54,770 Because we needed data that was verifiable all the way back 909 00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:56,820 to 1900. 910 00:47:56,820 --> 00:48:00,180 So I'm wondering if with more finer data, 911 00:48:00,180 --> 00:48:02,850 we'll see the coastal area warming up more than inland. 912 00:48:02,850 --> 00:48:07,823 But the data, we couldn't tell. Yeah. Yeah. 913 00:48:09,827 --> 00:48:11,910 (Audience member faintly speaking) 914 00:48:11,910 --> 00:48:12,743 Alan. 915 00:48:15,750 --> 00:48:16,583 - [Alan] Hey Stephen. 916 00:48:16,583 --> 00:48:17,682 - [Steve Young] Hi. 917 00:48:17,682 --> 00:48:21,099 (Alan faintly speaking) 918 00:48:32,530 --> 00:48:36,613 (Ms. Gallagher faintly speaking) 919 00:48:45,330 --> 00:48:49,230 So we had the geothermal, it had some issues. 920 00:48:49,230 --> 00:48:53,655 It is running, but not as optimally as it would be. 921 00:48:53,655 --> 00:48:56,610 One reason is we're early adopter. 922 00:48:56,610 --> 00:48:57,870 Someone has to be an early adopter. 923 00:48:57,870 --> 00:49:00,780 Someone has to move forward. 924 00:49:00,780 --> 00:49:04,590 And so we can expect some things like that, 925 00:49:04,590 --> 00:49:06,240 some hitches to happen like that. 926 00:49:10,496 --> 00:49:14,746 (audience member faintly speaking) 927 00:49:17,629 --> 00:49:18,462 Oh my gosh. 928 00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:31,053 Okay. Will do. 929 00:49:37,350 --> 00:49:38,183 So the question is, 930 00:49:38,183 --> 00:49:39,810 "Is there any evidence that we might be moving 931 00:49:39,810 --> 00:49:41,340 into a glacial period?" 932 00:49:41,340 --> 00:49:43,590 So I didn't go into this, but there's a number 933 00:49:43,590 --> 00:49:46,050 of things that happen that determine 934 00:49:46,050 --> 00:49:48,120 how much energy comes from the sun. 935 00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:50,550 And one of them is the Earth's orbit, 936 00:49:50,550 --> 00:49:52,620 actually, over 100,000 year changes 937 00:49:52,620 --> 00:49:54,660 from a circular to an elliptical. 938 00:49:54,660 --> 00:49:59,070 Also, the earth is actually wobbling every 44,000 years. 939 00:49:59,070 --> 00:50:02,460 It makes one wobble. So it's on a different time scale. 940 00:50:02,460 --> 00:50:05,820 So in the past, that changing orbit, 941 00:50:05,820 --> 00:50:08,820 and that changing wobble created various ice ages. 942 00:50:08,820 --> 00:50:10,140 There's been many ice age periods. 943 00:50:10,140 --> 00:50:12,780 In fact, when I showed you that carbon dioxide temperature, 944 00:50:12,780 --> 00:50:14,490 you probably noticed it went up, it went down, 945 00:50:14,490 --> 00:50:15,930 it went up, it went down. 946 00:50:15,930 --> 00:50:18,303 That was that change. 947 00:50:20,610 --> 00:50:24,450 And if we didn't put any greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, 948 00:50:24,450 --> 00:50:26,812 we would be heading slightly for a cooler time 949 00:50:26,812 --> 00:50:29,070 over a long period of time. 950 00:50:29,070 --> 00:50:30,840 But we've overwhelmed the system 951 00:50:30,840 --> 00:50:33,150 with greenhouse gases that we are not going 952 00:50:33,150 --> 00:50:37,233 towards a glacial period by any means. 953 00:50:42,540 --> 00:50:43,373 Yes. 954 00:50:44,250 --> 00:50:48,500 (audience member faintly speaking) 955 00:50:54,870 --> 00:50:59,070 Yeah, so all fossil fuels at some point 956 00:50:59,070 --> 00:51:04,070 in their life input toxicity into our environment. 957 00:51:04,170 --> 00:51:07,920 A lot of 'em at the source like coal mining 958 00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:11,880 and the like, sometimes in transportation, 959 00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:15,840 like the Exxon Valdez, sometimes in the use of it. 960 00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:19,530 And so there are toxic chemicals in gas. 961 00:51:19,530 --> 00:51:23,190 And so, right, we put a scent into it 962 00:51:23,190 --> 00:51:24,870 so we can tell when it's leaking. 963 00:51:24,870 --> 00:51:28,470 I'm sure most people here know the scent of natural gas. 964 00:51:28,470 --> 00:51:31,320 And so natural gas leaks, 965 00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:34,200 and it's got chemicals in it that have been shown not 966 00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:35,913 to be good for our health. 967 00:51:36,900 --> 00:51:39,900 It causes asthma in young children. 968 00:51:39,900 --> 00:51:43,170 And so now the science has showed us that health-wise, 969 00:51:43,170 --> 00:51:47,883 it's probably not a good idea to use gas stoves, 970 00:51:49,140 --> 00:51:52,800 fake fireplaces, things like that because 971 00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:54,513 of the long-term toxicity. 972 00:52:06,106 --> 00:52:10,356 (audience member faintly speaking) 973 00:52:16,948 --> 00:52:20,370 So the question is about in New England, 974 00:52:20,370 --> 00:52:23,790 we have a lot of coastal areas, and with sea level rise, 975 00:52:23,790 --> 00:52:26,043 are we gonna have to move inland? 976 00:52:29,940 --> 00:52:32,523 Some places, whether we want to or not, 977 00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:38,280 we will have to abandon and move inland, I would say. 978 00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:42,363 A lot of ecosystems have to abandon where they are and move. 979 00:52:43,470 --> 00:52:46,620 In a stable world, things kind of stay put, 980 00:52:46,620 --> 00:52:48,990 but in an unstable world, things move. 981 00:52:48,990 --> 00:52:53,430 And so one thing we need to do is the Great Marsh, 982 00:52:53,430 --> 00:52:58,110 and marsh land is very productive for the beginning 983 00:52:58,110 --> 00:53:00,510 of the food chain of our marine environment. 984 00:53:00,510 --> 00:53:04,140 And with rising sea level, they can't survive underwater. 985 00:53:04,140 --> 00:53:05,670 So they're gonna migrate. 986 00:53:05,670 --> 00:53:08,490 And so now we've got to plan 987 00:53:08,490 --> 00:53:11,370 and preserve areas where they can migrate to. 988 00:53:11,370 --> 00:53:15,960 And so it's not only humans that are migrating, 989 00:53:15,960 --> 00:53:18,450 but ecosystems are migrating also. 990 00:53:18,450 --> 00:53:21,840 And it's absolutely crazy that we're still building 991 00:53:21,840 --> 00:53:25,530 on coastal areas where sea level rise 992 00:53:25,530 --> 00:53:27,990 and storm activity is gonna happen. 993 00:53:27,990 --> 00:53:29,970 I didn't talk about it, but with more energy 994 00:53:29,970 --> 00:53:32,910 in our environment, we've got stronger storms. 995 00:53:32,910 --> 00:53:36,993 And so coastal areas are going to get more storm activity. 996 00:53:38,250 --> 00:53:40,860 I do know that some places are, like, in Revere, 997 00:53:40,860 --> 00:53:42,420 you start to see those new apartment buildings, 998 00:53:42,420 --> 00:53:44,190 they have the parking garage on the ground floor. 999 00:53:44,190 --> 00:53:46,710 That's smart. That's an adaptation. 1000 00:53:46,710 --> 00:53:50,767 It will last a little while as sea level rises, but yes. 1001 00:53:53,661 --> 00:53:57,911 (audience member faintly speaking) 1002 00:54:19,440 --> 00:54:22,890 So the question is how can we participate 1003 00:54:22,890 --> 00:54:25,593 in lowering the carbon emissions? 1004 00:54:27,750 --> 00:54:31,710 So first of all, being understanding climate change, 1005 00:54:31,710 --> 00:54:33,780 understanding the science of climate change, 1006 00:54:33,780 --> 00:54:34,683 what's happening. 1007 00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:40,290 And based on that science, we can come up with solutions. 1008 00:54:40,290 --> 00:54:44,910 And so some of us will have a lot of opportunity, 1009 00:54:44,910 --> 00:54:47,790 and people who are in political science may move on 1010 00:54:47,790 --> 00:54:49,470 and work in the state house. 1011 00:54:49,470 --> 00:54:54,090 And so in whatever capacity you can make a difference. 1012 00:54:54,090 --> 00:54:57,870 Some people will not be in any kind of job, 1013 00:54:57,870 --> 00:55:02,870 but they may vote, and just do an educated vote. 1014 00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:06,720 Choice of what to eat, choice of what car to buy. 1015 00:55:06,720 --> 00:55:08,373 Just educated things. 1016 00:55:09,210 --> 00:55:12,810 And one thing is we can't individually feel guilty. Right? 1017 00:55:12,810 --> 00:55:16,500 It's not your fault that what's happening, it's society's. 1018 00:55:16,500 --> 00:55:18,450 What's happening broadly in society. 1019 00:55:18,450 --> 00:55:21,394 And so we'll try to change society how we can. 1020 00:55:21,394 --> 00:55:24,720 It might just be raising children that are much more aware 1021 00:55:24,720 --> 00:55:25,720 of what's happening. 1022 00:55:26,610 --> 00:55:27,960 Some of us will be activists. 1023 00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:30,690 You can't feel guilty that you're not being an activist, 1024 00:55:30,690 --> 00:55:34,230 but just do whatever you can in your life 1025 00:55:34,230 --> 00:55:36,693 when you come across those opportunities. 1026 00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:47,633 Sure. 1027 00:55:59,484 --> 00:56:03,734 (audience member faintly speaking) 1028 00:56:07,020 --> 00:56:11,023 Thank you for making me live my anxiety. (laughs) 1029 00:56:15,231 --> 00:56:19,320 I really do try to appreciate what's happening today. 1030 00:56:20,460 --> 00:56:23,070 You know, the beauty of our world and stuff. 1031 00:56:23,070 --> 00:56:24,780 But I will tell you this past summer, 1032 00:56:24,780 --> 00:56:27,247 for the first time I felt like, 1033 00:56:27,247 --> 00:56:29,010 "Oh my God, I'm living 1034 00:56:29,010 --> 00:56:32,310 in the world that was predicted 30 years ago." 1035 00:56:32,310 --> 00:56:37,310 And 30 years ago, it was almost science fiction. 1036 00:56:37,770 --> 00:56:42,420 Unbelievable, and so realizing that we're living 1037 00:56:42,420 --> 00:56:43,653 in the world, 1038 00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:49,740 the climate you all grew up in will not happen again. 1039 00:56:49,740 --> 00:56:53,070 The climate that we're having right now won't happen again. 1040 00:56:53,070 --> 00:56:57,360 So that is anxiety producing in the uncertainty and stuff. 1041 00:56:57,360 --> 00:57:00,720 But okay, that's the situation. 1042 00:57:00,720 --> 00:57:02,880 And what can I do today? 1043 00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:06,630 And I try not to feel like it's all my fault, 1044 00:57:06,630 --> 00:57:08,700 it's all my responsibility, 1045 00:57:08,700 --> 00:57:12,420 and where I can do things, I'll do it. 1046 00:57:12,420 --> 00:57:17,420 And I've been part of different environmental organizations 1047 00:57:17,940 --> 00:57:19,470 and stuff, and I decided education was 1048 00:57:19,470 --> 00:57:21,900 where I can do the best. 1049 00:57:21,900 --> 00:57:23,400 And so that's how I do it, 1050 00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:26,160 but still can't get rid of that anxiety. 1051 00:57:26,160 --> 00:57:30,390 But maybe that motivates me to realize the urgency 1052 00:57:30,390 --> 00:57:34,173 and do stuff, but I do try to not let it overwhelm me. 1053 00:57:35,700 --> 00:57:39,420 And I don't think it should, society's issue. 1054 00:57:39,420 --> 00:57:42,810 That answer your question? Yeah. Yeah. 1055 00:57:42,810 --> 00:57:44,223 That's a great question. 1056 00:57:50,280 --> 00:57:52,143 And thanks to Danny also. 1057 00:57:54,270 --> 00:57:55,377 Thanks Danny, that was great. 1058 00:57:55,377 --> 00:57:56,627 - [Danny] Yeah. 1059 00:57:57,678 --> 00:58:00,510 - [Stephen Young] And goodbye to my online group. 1060 00:58:00,510 --> 00:58:04,863 Hope that you had a good class, lecture. Bye.