Tuesday September 30, 2008

Excitement spreads throughout the Churchill, Manitoba: PERMAFROST EXISTS!!!!

We found it down at 71 centimeters in the tundra. The ground was saturated and very, very, cold. Ms. Gill found herself standing in it and her teammate Doug, a teacher from the Bronx, did a handstand.

After a long day of tree coring that included lunch with black flies in our faces, it was a welcome ending to all our work in the field.

Back at the lab, we mounted core samples, entered data, and  cleaned the van (which was filled with tree parts from all the samples we took). Steve, our researcher, gave a rap up presentation of the work we had accomplished. A few jokes, last minute comments on the work we did and off we all went to blog.

Coming to  Churchill as part of the Earthwatch Live in the Field Fellowship has been a unique adventure. Certainly, if you asked me if I would ever come this far north, the answer would have been no. If you asked me what climate change meant for students in Brooklyn, New York, I could have given you a half dozen answers. But actually participating in research that is putting down the roots of changes taking place on our planet is amazing. 

What I try to impart to the students at P.S. 115 is that the world is a very large place and we are small pieces of it regardless of where we live. I will never again read about a scientific investigation without having a personal investment in the hours it took to make the hypothesis a reality.

I worked harder here physically than when I am teaching. The work is often tedious and boring.  The people who work on climate research don't make tons of money, they don't live in mansions but they live to prove their theories of why the world around them is changing.

As students who will one day take charge of the world, you need to take the lead in what a world where the seasons are longer or hotter, winter disappears, habitats of various species are shrinking or even disappearing , and animals who live just in the Jamaica Bay Salt Marsh become extinct. Does this matter? How will it effect you? 

               WHAT CAN WE DO IN OUR LITTLE CORNER TO PROTECT OUR WORLD?

SEE YOU ALL ON THURSDAY.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR THOUGHTS.

KEEP CHECKING THE BLOG.

MS. GILL