getting ready

It is exactly one week before I am at the Gerace Research Station on the island of San Salvador, Bahamas. I am running around getting my equipment ready to go. I have borrowed Tom’s laptop, Michael B’s mask and fins and have had quite the adventure locating a wetsuit. Remember the 74-degree water? I’ve been told it will get chilly when I am in it for long periods of time, so I have scoured the Bay Area for one. Well, whenever in doubt try Telegraph Ave! There is a fantastic Dive Shop there with a wonderful owner. He was so excited about what I will be doing with Earthwatch that he is renting me the wetsuit for next to nothing.

Next on my list was to try to answer the questions that came up in my science classes.” Won’t the airplane ride to the Bahamas contribute a lot of CO2 to the atmosphere? And how can you do that if you are going to help research about Global Warming’s effects on the coral reefs? Wouldn’t it be better for the planet if you just stayed home?”

Never fear your science teacher is here! I discovered that by flying from San Francisco to San Salvador I would contribute 3 tons of CO2 to our atmosphere. YIKES! ( You can calculate your own carbon footprint by going online and searching carbon footprint calculator.) How do I "undo" that big of an "environmental oops"? I have just completed exhaustive research on carbon offsets. Carbon offsets allow me to donate money to different organizations that are doing things to reverse the process of CO2 build up such as planting trees, investing in solar energy, or other forms of renewable energy. I will be doing this before I leave next Friday. As far as the planet being better if I stay home, doing research allows us to collect data, which cannot be gathered sitting at home. The Bahamian Reef Survey has been going on for 17 years and continues to generate not only current data but also a lot of information about change over time.When we talked about climate change one of the most important observations you made was about the increase in the speed of the change over time! Without current research we would have nothing to compare to.