image by wildxplorer

The Climate Change exhibit at the Museum of Natural History is currently on display and I encourage everyone who can make the trip to see it to do so. A few weeks ago, I went to learn as much as I could about it. It was very informative, with plenty of interactive exhibits and two short movies.

The exhibit is straight forward and scientific. It clearly presents the evidence supporting the existence of climate change, going into great depth on how the rate at which we are burning fossil fuels has thrown off the balance of the carbon cycle. The carbon cycle is pretty amazing, a checks and balance system between several reservoirs of carbon: the atmosphere, the land (plants and soil), sedimentary rock, the ocean and fossil fuel reserves. Through burning fossil fuels (essentially, burning history) we are releasing a greater proportion of CO2 into the atmosphere that has to be absorbed by the other reservoirs.  The perspective represented in the exhibit doesn’t place blame on humans, but does put the pressure on us to figure out clean ways to generate energy.

The first room of the exhibit shows the historical context for understanding climate change.  There’s a graph, against 2 long walls showing the upward clime of atmospheric CO2 from 1600 till the present, expressed with a red, neon line against a backdrop of images from western civilization’s great technological advances.  As we have evolved, the amount of atmospheric CO2 in ppm—parts per million—has kept pace. Burning fossil fuels for the last 400 years has caused a higher concentration of CO2 molecules in our atmosphere, not seen for at least 800,000 years. 

I was shocked, then hopeful, when I read a few brief sentences about Europeans who in the 16th century had exhausted their main source of fuel, wood, and started mining for coal. Many were hesitant to make the switch from wood to coal because it was dirty and because craftspeople saw that it burned differently than wood and so altered the way in which they had to technically produce their goods, such as bricks and glassware.  But they adjusted in order to continue to build their economies and thrive.  When I read that at the exhibit I was so surprised, after all Europeans at this time had weathered recurring waves of the Black Death, the last major bout in London ending in 1666.  This population was no stranger to suffering and death, so why the hesitation to change? 

The center of the exhibit shows the multitude of effects that climate change is having on the atmosphere, land, sea, and polar ice caps.  Also, there are several examples of how some societies are adapting to changes such as flooding and drought. To adjust to flooding, Tokyo has built a system of tunnels to handle overflowing rivers, floating homes are being built in the Netherlands, and rural Bangladeshis are building floating garden beds on top of bamboo rafts that stay afloat during heavy Monsoons. 

There’s an interactive wall called “making a difference” which shows all kinds of actions an individual can take to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. Viewers are invited to push a button in support of an action they are committing to do.  These actions fall into categories such as getting around, eating and drinking, and raising awareness. One critique I have is that the raising awareness category is vague and uninspired, when this is the most important category in terms of getting each of us to actually be proactive in changing our habits and getting involved in taking action.

The last room shows several wall displays of renewable energy technologies that are in the process of replacing outdated conventional energy means. We have to start with the technology that we have right now, even though it’s expensive. The technology doesn’t have to be perfect, because over time, as we implement solar, wind, geothermal, improved nuclear, and wave energy, more will be learned and advances made.

Back in the very first room, there’s a miniature model of the first steam engine that was invented, called the Newcomen engine. This first one was very inefficient but was improved tremendously fifty years later. Just like the Newcomen engine, we have renewable energy technologies available that may not yet be perfected, but we have to implement them first in order to get the ball rolling.

Developing a new energy plan is the most important culture shift that we have to focus on. Today, we have the opportunity to embrace change. According to the exhibit:

Though there’s no single approach that will dramatically reduce emissions, we can meet this challenge through a combination of actions…If we continue “business as usual” and do not reduce CO2 emissions worldwide, growing global populations, economies and energy demands will push emissions to new highs…On this course changes to Earth’s climate would be dangerous. If we reduce annual global CO2 emissions to where they were in 2000 by the middle of this century, we can prevent Earth from warming more than 2.0°C (3.6°F) above preindustrial temperatures…On this course changes to Earth’s climate would be manageable.

And I bet that we could do better than manageable, if we really put our brains and energies into it, maybe we could bring the level of CO2 down dramatically.

Resources Toolkit
I encourage you to look at these sites below for current plans for clean energy:

• The Solutions are Waiting: An interactive video about the effects of climate change and new energy solutions that emphasizes behavior change as one solution to get us back on track! It shows how multiple forms of energy are required to shift our energy dependence away from fossil fuels. 
• Pickens Plan: Founder and chairman of BP capital Management, Pickens has a plan to build wind turbines throughout the Midwest in order to free up natural gas as fuel for light truck transport.
• The Hot Spot: article on reasons why people don’t do more about global warming
• Into a Warming World: A review on the 2009 edition of State of the World
• Why Clean tech Investors Haven’t Panicked: article on how forward thinking cleantech investors will move the American economy forward
• UN Climate Change Conference: Going on now, from Dec 1-12, 2008
• 3TIER: a forecasting company that maps out which renewable energy source is best for particular parts of the world based on unique weather patterns and climate conditions.
• 1Sky: Tell Obama we need clean energy, not clean coal.