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New Climate Change Exhibit Opens at Birch Aquarium
Jessica Crawford | May 14, 2007
Disappearing glaciers. Melting polar ice. Extreme weather events. Vanishing coral reefs.
Many scientists believe climate change is rapidly
altering our planet. Learn how it will impact your
life at Birch Aquarium at Scripps’s newest exhibit,
Feeling the Heat: The Climate Challenge,
opening May 19.
Feeling the Heat, the first exhibit of its kind in San Diego County, presents the scientific facts about climate change, highlighting Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s half-century of global leadership in climate research.
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| One item in the "Feeling the Heat" exhibit shows the changes in climate over the past 650,000 years. |
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“The exhibit is opening at a time when the world is talking about global warming,” Aquarium Executive Director Nigella Hillgarth said. “It is our responsibility as the public center for Scripps to provide our visitors the chance to learn the science of climate change.”
Through interactive activities for all ages, visitors will discover what is driving dramatic environmental changes around the globe and learn ways to reduce their carbon footprint. They can magnify microscopic fossils to learn how scientists track temperature across centuries, test their knowledge of whether everyday activities impact the planet’s temperature and deliver the climate report of the future in the California 2050 Newsroom.
Throughout the exhibit, visitors will learn how Scripps Oceanography has remained a world leader in climate research since the 1950s, when late Scripps scientist Charles David Keeling began his pioneering measurements of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The data, popularly known as the “Keeling Curve,” document the dramatic rise of greenhouse gases over the last 50 years. The graph is one of the iconic images featured in Vice President Al Gore’s Academy Award-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Dozens of Scripps scientists offered their expertise for Feeling the Heat, and their research is featured prominently throughout the exhibit. For example, visitors will explore the work of V. Ramanathan and Kim Prather, who study the global effects of aerosols, tiny airborne particles such as dust. And they will learn how Jeff Severinghaus uses ice in Antarctica to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere throughout the centuries.
Richard Somerville and Tim Barnett, Scripps scientists who have participated in the prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, served as major scientific advisors for the exhibit.
“Climate science is an important focus of research
at Scripps Oceanography,” said Debbie Zmarzly, a project scientist at the aquarium. “Our
scientists will continue to be on the cutting-edge
of research into the causes of global change and its
impacts in California and around the world.”
Feeling the Heat: The Climate Challenge
will be up for at least two years. Birch Aquarium
at Scripps is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. UCSD
students, faculty and staff with identification receive
a discounted admission fee.
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