Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 08/26/2013 - 07:22
Forums
Arctic Sunlight and Microbial Interactions

Hi Mr. T, I was reading your journals and watching the video and I was wondering if during your trip you and your team have found any information that can help stop the release of carbon? Were you mostly just looking to study and understand the process or were you interested in finding a solution?

-Julia Lee

Tue, 08/27/2013 - 06:02

Anonymous

Julia -
Good question. Our work was all about trying to understand the processes of how carbon moves across the landscape, from thawing permafrost to either to the air, the water, or sediment. This is the basic science, which we have to understand if we are ever going to find a solution. The interesting thing about finding a solution is that it depends not just on the science of the situation, but also on politics and economics. This is the framework we're going to use for every topic we study in Envi Sci class this year - what's the basic science of the situation, and what are the political and economic implications of taking action or of doing nothing?
- Mr. T

Wed, 08/28/2013 - 07:14

Anonymous

Hey Mr. T!
It looks and sounds like you've had an amazing experience! It's interesting, and also very concerning that the permafrost is melting releasing all of this carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Have you and your team figured out any sorts of solutions as to fixing it? Also when the carbon dioxide releases how warm do you predict New Jersey to be?
Alissa Sikorski

Mon, 09/02/2013 - 13:39

Anonymous

Alissa
-
I'm not making any predictions! There are lots of thoughts on future warming - we'll look at what different experts say and hopefully you can decide what you think the future holds. Also, solutions are very complicated - it's hard to find one that might work that everyone is willing to try. We'll learn about what some of the possible solutions are and which ones might be better and what some of the challenges will be.
- Mr. T

Mon, 09/02/2013 - 14:54

Anonymous

Hi Mr. Taterka, my name is Dylan McDevitt. My question is: Has your team been able to find any solution to the problem, but couldn't consider the solution because of political/economic factors?

Wed, 09/04/2013 - 08:41

Anonymous

Dylan -
Politics and economics are always a main consideration in implementing solutions. This will be an ongoing theme this year. See you in class.
- Mr. T