Sustainability Freshman Inquiry

Jan. 18, 2011

Jeff FletcherSee also: Daily Log Page

Logistics• Any questions about Carbon Footprint Reports?

– http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx • registration

– http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/ – http://library.pdx.edu/dofd/resources.php?category=72

• Extra Credit Opportunities– MLK service day – how did it go?– Food Justice Conference in Eugene Feb 19-21

• Shared housing and transportation– 2nd annual PSU Earth Day Festival Planning

• Thursday, January 20th, 1:00pm in SMITH 338

• Read Kolbert Chapters 5, 6, and 7 for next Tuesday– Reading notes

• Movie Night this Thursday Jan 20 at 7:30, Ondine lobby • Mentor session today:

– footprint peer reviews• use assignment handout when reviewing

– TED Talk: James Balog: Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss

Field notes Chapter 3 (Glaciers)

• Swiss Camp, Greenland– Konrad Steffen research group– Above arctic circle

• Acceleration of Greenland Ice– 13 inches a day in 1996; 20 inches a day 2001– A Positive Feedback

• “acceleration of Greenland ice sheet suggests yet another feedback mechanism: once an ice sheet begins to melt, it starts to flow faster, which means it also thins out faster, encouraging further melt” p. 54

• “Particularly alarming, Corell said, were the most recent data from Greenland, which showed the ice sheet melting much faster ‘than we thought possible even a decade ago.’” p. 63

– “The rate of ice loss increased by 250 per cent between the periods April 2002 to April 2004 and May 2004 to April 2006”

– I. Velicogna & J. Wahr, Nature, Vol. 443 (2006), 329-331.

Chapter 3 (continued)

• Freshwater ice from snow fall, on land– Unlike melting sea ice, changes sea level– Greenland Ice = 23 ft rise in sea level– Sea level timeline

• Pacific NW Glaciers– Research at PSU– Some comparisons (slide 11, 16, 21)

• What models have been introduced in readings?– What animal models: what computer/mathematical

models

Key Ideas About Systems

• What makes a system?– Elements and Relations– order vs. disorder– system vs. environment

• Systems States and Dynamics– Equilibria, Stability

• Positive and Negative Feedbacks

– Non-linear dynamics• Chaos Theory, Catastrophe Theory

– Emergence– Structure

• Open vs. Closed• Matter, Energy, Information

Systems can be in different states

• For instance, temperature or composition of atmospheric system

• How systems change states over time is called dynamics

• Equilibria – Stable vs. Unstable– Static vs. Dynamic– Positive and Negative Feedbacks (aphids)

• Exponential growth example of + feedback• Homeostasis example of - feedback