Climate Scientists Dig Deep Into Greenland's Ice

Discuss and Share

Additional Resources

To study the history of climate change, scientists from 14 nations gathered in the far north end of Greenland to drill into the 1.6-mile core of solid ice.

The goal of the North Greenland Eemian ice drilling project, or NEEM, is to study the information locked inside layers of ice like atmospheric composition, temperature, mean ocean temperature and dust.

Researchers are looking at the Eemian time period, about 130,000 years ago, when the earth was actually five degrees warmer than it is today. Its a representation of what a warmer earth might look like years from now.

Climatologist and Climate Central correspondent Heidi Cullen looks at the way scientists are looking at the past to study the future of climate change.

Quotes

"One of the things that we see in the ice cores is a strong correlation between carbon dioxide levels and temperatures. So, at times of warm temperatures, carbon dioxide is high. At times of cold temperatures, carbon dioxide is low, which, you know, reinforces what science has been showing recently, that carbon dioxide does cause warming." - Vasili Petrenko, University of Colorado scientist

"The Greenland ice sheet contains enough ice to raise the global sea level by 23 feet, a worst-case scenario associated with global warming. Satellite data from the NASA GRACE mission show that Greenland's reservoir of ice has plummeted in recent years, about 340 billion tons of ice melt in 2007 alone, about the same as San Francisco Bay draining completely every week for a year." - Heidi Cullen, Climate Central correspondent

Warm Up Questions

1. What is climate change?

2. What causes climate change?

Discussion Questions

1. What are some other ways that scientists study climate change? What signs do they look for?

2. Are you worried about global warming? Do you think that it is important for researchers to study how much warmer the earth is getting? Why?

3. What impact do you think you and the way you live have on global climate change? Are there things you could be doing differently? Explain.

4. Does this report make you want to study climate change? What kinds of classes would you need to take to do that?

Comments

Posted:
12/ 3/09 at
04:48 PM

John Epperson : I watched a video by Vasili Petrenko in which he states he studied CO2 in the ice in Greenland. He states that the deeper he went he found less CO2 while at the surface he found more CO2. His rationale was that the deeper ice was older because their was less CO2 concentration. "Bad Science". You do not assign age according to CO2 concentration. You determine age first then see if their is a correlation between between the age- the depth- and the CO2 concentration. In addition, any real scientist knows their is no absolute when it comes to cause and effect. To be frank, CO2 which is a gas should be expected to be at lower concentrations the deeper you go because it diffuses out of the substrate (ice). It seems this is another guy fueling climate change for notoriety and a paycheck.

Post a Comment:

This is a teacher community that thrives on your thoughts, suggestions and comments. We would love to have a free ranging discussion in this space about the resources and how we can all encourage young people to think about current events and the world around them.

So, dive in. Tell other teachers what you like about this video, what you wish was different and what you hope to accomplish.

Especially helpful? Come back after using the video and let us know how it worked!

To ensure a productive and civil discourse, we pre-moderate comments, so it might take a little time for your comment to appear.

Thanks for waiting.

Posted:
12/ 3/09 at
04:48 PM

John Epperson : I watched a video by Vasili Petrenko in which he states he studied CO2 in the ice in Greenland. He states that the deeper he went he found less CO2 while at the surface he found more CO2. His rationale was that the deeper ice was older because their was less CO2 concentration. "Bad Science". You do not assign age according to CO2 concentration. You determine age first then see if their is a correlation between between the age- the depth- and the CO2 concentration. In addition, any real scientist knows their is no absolute when it comes to cause and effect. To be frank, CO2 which is a gas should be expected to be at lower concentrations the deeper you go because it diffuses out of the substrate (ice). It seems this is another guy fueling climate change for notoriety and a paycheck.