Earth as a Unique System: Communicating the Precious Nature of our Planet to the Next Generation

A system is Complex association of: Objects Processes Matter Energy that operates together as a whole – the sum of many interacting parts

School as a System Input of Energy Sources: teacher effort, student effort, electricity, PTSA, custodians, sunlight, parent support Input of Material: copy paper, cafeteria “food”, teachers, students, backpacks Outputs: learning, graduation, salary, reputations, good and bad feelings Subsystems: teams, administration, departments, students, aids, classified staff

Earth as a System

Classroom Resources

Online Presentation where Earth’s System is a core part of this vital message from a leading scientist

Online Free Resource At the elementary school end of the educational spectrum, Earth is still a system

Earth as Oasis: New Look Boosted view that we need to protect the earth. Prior to environmental movement, dumping trash and industrial waste was accepted by the general population.

This image from Martian rover got little attention.

Major Earth Subsystems Atmosphere - realm of air Hydrosphere - realm of water Geosphere or Lithosphere - realm of solid earths Biosphere - realm of life-

Classroom Resource

These perspectives do not separate Earth systems. The real world integrates all systems together. Classroom Resources

Sources of Energy Input Solar Radiation (insolation)

Sources of Energy: Energy of Rotation Counter-clockwise motion (looking down at north pole) keeps oceans and atmosphere in motion.

Sources of Energy: meteor/asteroid impact

Sources of Energy: Earth’s volcanism

Sources of Energy: Earth’s diastrophism (mountain uplift from faulting and folding)

Sources of Energy: Fossil Fuel Burning/Nuclear Energy

Sources of Matter: Earth’s atmo- sphere

Sources of Matter: extraterrestrial sources & Earth

Earth is unique in our Solar System: Liquid Water Allows Chemical Reactions (perhaps Mars?)

But water on Mars is mostly frozen

Too Little Mass: Mars has very little atmosphere and mostly carbon dioxide Earth is unique in our Solar System: Mass of Earth Holds Right Atmosphere Composition

Earth is unique in our Solar System: Atmosphere stops lethal radiation Classroom Resource: ozone blocks UV radiation

Moon: tremendous diurnal fluctuations (-250F to +250 F) Venus: runaway greenhouse effect (864 F) Earth is unique in our Solar System: Atmosphere keeps temperature even

Earth is unique in our Solar System: Atmosphere has water in all three phases (classroom resource movie)

Phase changes vital in earth’s story … Helps take energy evaporated in lower latitudes and release that energy in colder (higher) latitudes

Earth is unique in our Solar System: Atmospheric pressure is perfect for us

Earth is unique in our Solar System: Atmospheric protects us from most (but not all) extraterrestrial objects

Earth is unique in our Solar System: Magnetosphere protects Earth

Northern & Southern Lights

If we lost our magnetosphere? Mars may have lost life and almost all of its atmosphere when the core solidified and it lost its magnetosphere. The atmosphere may have been stripped by the solar wind.

Gives us the Coriolis Effect (allowing atmosphere and oceans to spin and circulate) But not too harshly, like jupiter Earth is unique in our Solar System: Earth’s Spin is Just Right

Gives us Night & Day Earth is unique in our Solar System: Earth’s Spin is Just Right

Earth’s position away from gas giants may have saved us from breaking apart

The big question: is our biosphere unique? Are we Alone?

GAIA (James Lovelock) Earth behaves like an organism. Just like we self-regulate ourselves, so does Earth. Example: Faint Sun Hypothesis Example: Ozone layer produced by a positive feedback and then equilibrium Example: Oxygen buildup

Online Video Go to youtube.com and type in this title to watch interview with Lovelock about GAIA

GAIA : Faint Sun Hypothesis /Paradox

Gradual “storage” of carbon dioxide in limestone and dolomite has kept Earth’s temperature fairly stable

GAIA: Ozone buildup & equilibrium

GAIA: Increase in Oxygen with growth of Placental Mammals

GAIA: methane release stops Snowball Earth 700 million years ago, we were snowball earth – produced by positive feedback of ice reflecting sunlight, making even more ice, reflecting even more sunlight – as so on. Methane gas release from crystalline gas hydrates warmed Earth back up

Summary Earth has a unique system of atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere – as far as we know – something incredibly precious. As a teacher of geography, it is a gift to communicate this to the next generation.

Imagery seen in this presentation is courtesy of Ron Dorn and other ASU colleagues, students and colleagues in other geography departments, individual illustrations in scholarly journals such as Science and Nature, scholarly societies such as the Association of American Geographers, city,state governments, other countries government websites and U.S. government agencies such as NASA, USGS, NRCS, Library of Congress, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service USAID and NOAA.