The 2014 science fiction movie Interstellar foreshadowed our future. The scientifically accurate film, featuring researchers from Harvard and MIT as well as renowned physics professor Kip Thorne, was created to address audiences to entertainingly depict the real-life scenario that could occur within a few years, when global warming takes place. its toll, food becomes scarce and the environment becomes habitable. Whether it’s through interstellar travel to a habitable planet or creating a solution to the plague that has devastated all remaining food sources on Earth, in the movie universe it was up to NASA to find a viable solution to change our ways. and save the human race from the planet we destroyed.
Like its role in Interstellar, NASA is responsible for doing important work for our planet as a world leader on climate issues. When people think of NASA, they usually think of everything outside of Earth, and not necessarily what’s on Earth, probably because NASA stands for “National Aeronautics and Space Administration.” So you may be surprised to learn that NASA has conducted 17 space missions for the purpose of collecting climate data. It has more than two dozen satellites that orbit the Earth observing and measuring climate change variables, in order to use the data collected to carry out climate modeling and prediction. It’s working on projects to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions that warm our planets, like making flying more efficient using less fuel. NASA scientists are also considered climate experts as they continue to explore environmental factors such as Earth’s solar activity, sea level rise, atmospheric temperature, ocean temperature, the ozone layer, and air pollution. .
Don’t let Earth turn into Venus
NASA uses extraterrestrial research to combat terrestrial problems. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, they sent Mariner-series probes to planets once thought to be similar to Earth, including uninhabitable Venus. After sending probes to our closest planetary neighbor, scientists discovered that Venus was the victim of a massive greenhouse effect that was responsible for making it the hottest planet in our solar system, due to Venus having about 300 times more carbon dioxide in its atmosphere and dangerously high surface temperatures. If this sounds familiar to you, it is because our human activities are creating these same effects on our own planet. According to NASA’s climate website, the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere continues to rise at an alarming rate and has increased by 58 percent since the beginning of the industrial age. NASA’s ongoing temperature analysis also shows our rising surface temperatures and demonstrates that the average global temperature on Earth has risen by at least 1.1 degrees Celsius since 1880. While that doesn’t sound like much, it may do much more damage than we can. To imagine. In fact, it was only a temperature drop of one or two degrees that started the little ice age.
“There would be no substantive climate science without space agencies looking to the sky,” says the dean of the Reichman University School of Sustainability, Professor Yoav Yair. The reason is, according to Yair, because in a visionary way, NASA and other space agencies have been learning about space and other planets for a while now: they provide continuous data spanning several decades that can be used to carefully monitor trends. and the changes that occur in the Earth’s systems. This includes monitoring gas concentrations, the size and depth of the polar ice caps, sea level, the health of rainforests, forest fires, etc. He believes that the tools we have in space are indispensable for monitoring the health of our planet and for better ascertaining and characterizing the environmental problems we face today (such as fluctuations in the Antarctic ice sheets and fires in the Amazon).
This NASA role suffers from the same problem as climate change: it is not easily communicated to people. It is a problem when we talk about climate change, because how can we save the world if we don’t know what is happening? These days, in this media-dependent world, it can be extremely difficult to stay informed and extremely easy to be misinformed. NASA’s newly appointed chief science officer, Dr. Katherine Calvin, is aware of this problem and intends to change it. Calvin, who recently spoke at the 50th Annual Science and Environment Conference in Tel Aviv, voiced in the past its mission to communicate environmental issues along with space exploration. She has emphasized her desire to change the preconceived notion that NASA is solely a platform for exploring what lies beyond our Earth and to enable people to think of NASA as a leading voice in climate and climate science. space exploration. “When people listen to NASA, I want them to think about climate science along with planetary science,” she said. “NASA is already a world leader in climate, so I’m just communicating that science and connecting it with other agencies, with the public.” According to Calvin, the most important step in saving ourselves and the environment from the harmful effects we cause is learning about them.
NASA doesn’t just do research, it also makes knowledge more accessible. NASA provides important (and very entertaining) information on this topic for free on its Global Climate Change: Planet Vital Signs website (https://climate.nasa.gov). All the facts in this article have been found there. The website includes a variety of ways to learn about what is happening environmentally in our world. From current news to interactive features, this website is very interesting as it uses NASA scientific technology to give the public access to features like Earth Now, whichis a participatory visualization of real-time data from NASA’s Earth-orbiting satellites and the data they collect on climate change. The website also includes an immersive 3D visualization of the Earth, a climate time machine that allows people to see how much our climate has fluctuated over time, and a global ice viewer that shows how global warming has caused the disappearance of ice over the years. Includes “Earth Minute” videos intended to educate in just over 60 seconds, a beautiful earth gallery that showcases the magnificence of where we live to influence the protection of our Earth and natural features, “Earth 360” that shows the parts of the Earth that people have never seen before, a variety of quizzes and more. Most importantly, however, the website educates the public on what climate change is wearing, before and after images, causes, effects, and solutions.
According to Yair, another great way for the future of this generation to learn about Earth’s climate issues is through social media. One of the NASA Twitter accounts, [email protected]can be a quick and easy way to educate yourself on this topic, providing its followers with a continual influx of news and updates on the Earth’s climate and environment.
Make people well informed
We can assume that youThe more people know about something, the more it will be on their minds. The more you keep it in mind, the more you can implement it in your daily life. We can hope that if everyone knew the reality of global climate, it would be much easier to do something about it. It all starts with individuals, like Katherine Calvin. They are the environmental communicators who have the function of teaching other individuals, either through movies or through websites such as NASA. The public just needs to know that information is everywhere and easily accessible. The more people in the know, the more involved in community efforts, and the more we can do.