Tag Archives: Climate change

It’s Virtually Science Literacy Week!

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Science Literacy Week will be celebrated this September 20 to 26 with climate as the theme. We can help you become a citizen climate scientist with a workshop on capturing the McGill Observatory’s historical weather logs with DRAW, the Data Rescue: Archives and Weather Project.

You can also learn The Art of Explaining Science to Non-Specialists, or how to turn your research into a business, with From Science to Startup: A Beginner’s Guide to Entrepreneurship as a Researcher.

If you are looking for something relaxing this semester, McGill Visual Arts Collection invites you to a Science Literacy Week edition of their on-going De-Stress + Sketch series.

Our Science Literacy Week guide also has lots of virtual exhibits and links promoting resources and materials at McGill Library and beyond, including the wonderful Ocean School from the National Film Board of Canada.

Join us as we help spread the wonders of science Canada-wide!

Bill Nye Inspires and Educates Rutgers’ Class of 2015

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I recently had the pleasure of traveling down to Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ to watch my brother’s graduation.

While I am extremely proud of all his accomplishments another draw was that Bill Nye was slated to be the 2015 commencement speaker. As a childhood fan I certainly wasn’t going to miss this opportunity!

Nye imparted some excellent words of wisdom on the audience, while also tying in his views on climate change and racism. He urged the graduates to take climate change seriously, and expressed his hope that they would rise to the challenge of solving this crucial issue. Along with this wish, Nye also pointed out that in order to solve the problem of climate change the class of 2015 would have to put aside preconceived notions of race. We are all members of the human species, worthy of respect, and capable of making world changing discoveries said Nye.

Nye’s speech was inspiring as well as educational, and an excellent reminder that we are all responsible for building one another up for the good of the world.

To read Nye’s remarks in full click on the link below!

http://time.com/3882613/bill-nye-graduation-speech-rutgers-university/

Climate change and its impacts on human lives

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For those who are interested in exploring how much people’s lives have been affected by global warming, I would recommend  this source where you could find Dr. Mauro and his team’s research findings over the past few years.

Dr. Mauro was also the filmmaker of Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, the first Inuktitut-language film on people’ experience of adapting into global warming.

Image from Microsoft Images

Climate change permits sailing through the Arctic

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Three international sailors made history by being the first crew to successfully cross the M’Clure Strait in Canada’s Arctic Ocean after 90 days at sea.  The M’Clure Strait has always been entirely covered by ice.  This small crew departed from Newfoundland and is crossing the Arctic to record the melting of polar ice and increase awareness of climate change.

Visit “A Passage through Ice” for more information about this expedition.

Image from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Melting in the Arctic

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Throughout the year, the U.S. National Snow & Ice Data Center in Colorado provides scientific analysis and daily image updates of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.  This research center has recently been in the news due to their reporting that the Arctic sea ice has been melting more quickly this summer, which has resulted in flooding and damage to structures.  Their website provides interesting FAQs about sea ice and our climate, such as “What is causing Arctic sea ice decline?”

Photo courtesy of: Patrick Kelley (U.S. Coast Guard) and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Climate change and the Great Lakes

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“Earlier this month, researchers at the University of Duluth revealed that the temperature of Lake Superior – the coldest and deepest of the bodies of water that make up the Great Lakes – is sitting at about 20°C, the warmest it’s been in a century.”

We have all heard that rising temperatures have the potential to impact almost everything. For example, if water levels decrease, loads of shipping vessels would need to be decreased too and shipping costs would increase accordingly. And if levels shrink to the point that the Great lakes were no longer connected, shipping might discontinue.

Rising temperatures also lead to the growth of toxic algal in Lake Erie, which increases pollution for people living in that region.

If you are interested in keeping track of this topic, you could set up an email alert in a database, such as SCOPUS. Search by the topic, and then click “Set alert” from the top menu of the search results page. You will be able to receive the updates weekly in your email.

Adapted from Climate change and the Great Lakes