Dear Friends:
Exciting news, especially for teachers and those of you with kids: As most of you know, the Story Time From Space Program posts videos of astronauts reading children’s books from the International Space Station (ISS). On Monday (Sept. 21), the program will be hosting its first-ever LIVE reading from the ISS, along with discussion and commentary. The book being read will be Willow the Water Bear by Houston Kidd, and the discussion panel will include astronauts Alvin Drew and Bjarni Tryggvason, Story Time founder Patricia Tribe, author Kidd, a scientist specializing in tardigrade research, and me. Details:
- Date/Time for Live from ISS Event: Monday, Sept. 21, 11:30am Eastern time (10:30 central, 9:30 mountain, 8:30 Pacific).
- To join in the live event, use either of the following two links:
youtu.be/Sff4YbecHEM
Other news: Venus, Global Warming
Life on Venus?? The possibility of life on Venus has suddenly appeared in the news. To make sense of this, you need only remember a few key points:- On its surface, Venus’s incredibly strong greenhouse effect (which offers proof that global warming is real) makes it so hot that life seems almost impossible to imagine.
- However, high in the clouds, temperatures are low enough for droplets of acid-laced liquid water to form, which has long made scientists wonder if life might somehow exist in the clouds.
- The recent discovery is of a gas called phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere. Based on what is currently known about chemistry on Venus, the presence of this gas (at the inferred concentration) does not make sense unless it has a biological origin. That is why it is being called a possible sign of life.
- The key words above are “currently” and “possible,” for two major reasons: First, the detection of the gas needs to be confirmed with additional observations. Second, even though we don’t currently know of a nonbiological way to produce the gas on Venus at the inferred concentration, there’s a lot we still don’t know about Venus’s geology and chemistry. If I had to bet, I’d bet that we’ll find a non-biological explanation for the detection.
- Still, the possibility is exciting to contemplate, especially because we are talking about our nearest neighbor planet. We can easily imagine, for example, a future mission to Venus dropping a balloon into the atmosphere, where it could search for life in the clouds.
- To learn more: See this great article by the Planetary Society’s Casey Dreier.
- And for a fun view of how to interpret discoveries like this, see this cartoon by Randall Munroe.
Wildfires, Hurricanes, and Global Warming: As we suffer through devastating wildfires and hurricanes, some people are still debating whether there is a connection to global warming. You can listen to the debates, or you can think for yourself as follows:
- For the wildfires: It is certainly true that poor forest management, particularly decades of past fire suppression, is playing a major role in the fires. But ask yourself this: All else being equal (including the reality of past forest management), would you expect the hotter and drier conditions caused by global warming to increase, decrease, or have no effect on the frequency and/or severity of the fires?
- For the hurricanes: Hurricanes are natural phenomena that have occurred through Earth’s history, with or without humans around. But ask yourself this: Given that heat and energy drive storms, and that global warming is adding more heat and energy to Earth’s climate system, would you expect global warming to increase, decrease, or have no effect on the frequency and/or severity of extreme storms?
The answers to both questions above are so obviously “increase” that you can get them right even if you’ve never studied science. In other words, the science is absolutely clear. So for anyone out there who might still think this is some type of liberal vs. conservative issue, I’ll share with you 2 quotes (and fyi, about the latter, I have a letter to the editor in today’s New York Times.)
Please, please get on-board with helping to solve this real and major threat to the future of our civilization. You can learn more with my Global Warming Primer or the video of my most recent “Global Warming Demystified” talk (from just last month). I also again urge you to support the carbon “tax and dividend” plans being advocated by groups including Students for Climate Dividends, the Citizen’s Climate Lobby, and the Republican-led Climate Leadership Council. Most importantly, don’t forget to cast a vote for a better future in this year’s elections!
Best,
Jeff