Every once in a while my daughter lets me post something she’s written. Lately she’s been thinking about getting a PhD. in environmental engineering and another in Archaeology so she can take the knowledge of past environmental disasters and apply it to our modern emergency.
For those of you who don’t know about my kiddo, she’s currently 11 years old and a junior at a local high school. She likes her privacy, so I won’t tell you any more than that- other than to say that she’s quite happy with her life and please don’t recommend any books because she’s probably already read them!
Duck under the fold to find out what’s in store…
In Under a Green Sky, Peter Ward chronicles the discovery of the cause of most ancient mass extinctions and explains what effects this cause may have on our world today. Originally, most scientists thought that impact by a meteor was the cause of all mass extinctions. The root of this belief was evidence of extraterrestrial impact in the form of helium isotopes most commonly found in space and other debris characteristic of impact. However, one problem with that hypothesis was that the clear signs of asteroid impact in the Cretaceous rock strata were not present in strata from other eras.
According to Ward, chemical markers left by extinct species indicated that there were large amounts of hydrogen sulfide in the water and atmosphere near the extinction borders. There were also indicators of low oxygen content and warmer water. The hypothesis developed from this data was that large amounts of carbon dioxide had been released into the air, causing warming, glacial melting, and a disruption of the conveyor currents that maintain oxygen levels in the modern ocean. The ocean then began to stratify and bottom-dwelling organisms, robbed of oxygen, died out. Ward says that bacteria that did not require oxygen and produced hydrogen sulfide as a waste product (these bacteria are still present in a few areas today) thrived and produced amounts of this gas that were large enough to kill many land animals after the gas bubbled to the surface.
Today, humans introduce unnaturally high amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Ward says that melting of the polar ice caps has already begun because of the increase in temperature resulting from the rise in greenhouse gases. If carbon dioxide release is not stopped soon, the conveyor currents will be disrupted, the ice caps will melt over a period of a few hundred years, and the patterns of climate will be drastically altered. According to Ward, this will cause another mass extinction.
I recommend Under a Green Sky to anyone who is interested in the past or the environmental movement. The author’s enthralling writing style and the anecdotes accompanying the discoveries complement the scientific information that anchors the book. For the first time, there is proof that the increase in carbon dioxide levels will have (and has had) a severe impact. I came away from the book determined to find ways to reduce my carbon footprint and to work towards the goal of greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
Great book- and probably one you could get from the Powell’s link right here on the Booman Tribune!
(I couldn’t underline the title in HTML.)
I need to go check on my parents, but I’ll be back in an hour or so.
Thanks!
Sounds like a great book. I’ll have to check it out!
I’m almost through reading Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything which is a great (and often funny!) read. I bring it up because it too spends a good deal of time outlining just how rare these periods of relative climatic stability are in the earth’s history, and how volatile they can turn out to be.
Here’s the Powell’s link for Under a Green Sky, and in case anyone is interested in going for two, here’s A Short History of Nearly Everything.
FWIW, to underline in html you can just use the <u> tag. So to underline this text you would enter: <u>this text</u>
Thanks for the HTML. I’ll use it on the next one.
your 11 year old is pretty smart.
She reads this site. :^)
The true mark of genius. 😉
I’m glad she’s doing so well.
Your daughter sounds like a real jewel. Wanna trade?
Heh. She’s not what you call low-maintenance.
Got a college fund set up? She starts next year…
Unlike your daughter, I’m a bit slow on the uptake and it wasn’t till I read this comment that it sunk in that she is 11, a junior in high school and heading to college. That is so impressive (as is her writing) and, I’m sure, just a bit scary … for both of you.
Someday I’ll write about that, but it has been a most unusual journey.
I want to have a virtual graduation party when she’s done next spring (2009).
Some things stand out, like she’ll be done with her undergrad degree before she gets her driver’s license.
I be looking forward to reading it. And I hope she’ll continue to contribute diaries here as well.
Heh. I have a sixteen year old online gamer extraordinaire. Have to pry the kid off the computer, but he can type faster than I can read. And he can run across the warehouse, jump over the shipping crate, do a back flip, and shoot you between the eyes using only two fingers and a mouse.
I can do that only if there’s coffee at the end.
from somebody (another senior moment)
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Great explanation of why we got where we are.
That was an excellent find! She saw it this last weekend and is working her way down the reading list on Annie’s site. Your ideas meshed perfectly.
Great input from the Tehanu-girl.
It must be a thrill, as well as a bit scary to raise an extraordinarily talented young person.
I hope she will be a regular contributor to the site in due time. She certainly has that capacity.
Is environment the current main interest, or is she also conversant as to primary politics?
Primary politics? You don’t know the half of it! She was an Edwards supporter but recently switched to Obama for practicality, and because the basis for progressivism is the feeling that we’re all in it together. If he can gather enough diverse groups to foster that feeling than she thinks he’ll be able to do more progressive policies than with Clinton. Interestingly enough, identity politics didn’t factor into it one bit- just policy.
That’s fabulous!
My daughter is currently the managing editor of her school paper (she’s a senior) and has tasked one of the ‘staff’ to write about Obama’s ability to energized the young ones. I’m looking forward to reading the article.
Now that’s really cool. Your daughter sounds so confident, perceptive, and smart. I couldn’t imagine being in charge of a newsroom at that age!
She is also editor-in-chief of the school magazine.
As she said last fall: “I have cornered the media market at school”. The content is quite political (and she is definitely exited to be able to vote this year).
That’s amazing. Is she planning a career in political journalism? We could use some folks like her on our side!
She is certainly on ‘our side’ (her little brother too).
Main interest for college seems to be international relations and Arabic, but she enjoys writing and may keep that up.