Rob Talks Climate Change at a NH High School

At the beginning of this month, I had the honor of being invited to Spaulding High School in Rochester, NH to talk to four classes of students about how NASA studies climate change with satellites, ground stations, aircraft, field missions and computer models. It was nice to talk about my passion of science (and my day job) for a change (as I'm usually lecturing about my books). Today's blog shares the links to short videos that explain how earth's climate has been warming (much faster than normal because of human incited pollution) and the effects of it.

HOW IT HAPPENED:  One of our new neighbors is a teacher there, and after some conversations she coordinated with the earth science teachers to have me present at the high school. Initially, I thought it would be one class, and one hour, but with class schedules, it turned out to be 4 different classes, and 4 lectures, about 45 minutes each.

Below are the summaries of the videos I presented and talked about if you're curious.

(Photo: Spaulding High School on the day of my presentations. Credit: R.G.)

Global Warming from 1880 to 2022 

Earth's average surface temperature in 2022 tied with 2015 as the fifth warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA. Continuing the planet's long-term warming trend, global temperatures in 2022 were 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.89 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA's baseline period (1951-1980), scientists from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York reported. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwRTw_7NNJs

2) Arctic Sea Ice Melting Over the Years | 2000-2022 

Time-lapse A time-lapse showing the change in arctic sea ice over time. Since the late 1900s, Arctic sea ice has thinned, and less sea ice has persisted in the Arctic over multiple melt seasons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvEhfYZbiKM

3) 2023 Ozone Hole Update 

The 2023 Antarctic ozone hole reached its maximum size at 10 million square miles, or 26 million square kilometers, on Sept. 21, which ranks as the 16th largest since 1979, according to annual satellite and balloon-based measurements made by NASA and NOAA. During the peak of the ozone depletion season from Sept. 7 to Oct. 13, the hole averaged 8.9 million square miles (23.1 million square kilometers), approximately the size of North America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4syiC55sDBo

4) Rising Tides: Understanding Sea Level Rise Rising Tides: Understanding Sea Level Rise

Rising Tides: Understanding Sea Level Rise Rising Tides: Understanding Sea Level RiseAs human activity warms our planet, the ocean absorbs over 90 percent of the excess heat. This increases water volume and melts ice sheets and glaciers, contributing to sea level rise. Watch the video to learn how much global sea level is rising each year, what that looks like in everyday terms, and why it matters. Rising Tides: Understanding Sea Level Rise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXzfOpZSmk8

and I ended with my favorite topic, tropical cyclones: 

 5) 27 named storms: Arlene to Zeta - from 2005, which was really the kick-off in my assessment of the increased tropical cyclone activity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjwNuJf2luM