Future Earth Advancing Civic Understanding of the Anthropocene

About this book

Earth now is dominated by both biogeophysical and anthropogenic processes, as represented in these two images from a simulation of aerosols. Dust (red) from the Sahara sweeps west across the Atlantic Ocean. Sea salt (blue) rises into the atmosphere from winds over the North Atlantic and from a tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean. Organic and black carbon (green) from biomass burning is notable over the Amazon and Southeast Asia. Plumes of sulfate (white) from fossil fuel burning are particularly prominent over northeastern North America and East Asia. If present trends of dust emissions and fossil fuel burning continues in what we call the Anthropocene epoch, then we could experience high atmospheric CO₂ levels leading to unusual warming rarely experienced in Earth's history. Future Earth focuses on human influences on land, ocean, and the atmosphere, to determine if human activities are operating within or beyond the safe zones of our planet's biological, chemical, and physical systems.

Volume highlights include:
- Assessment of civic understanding of Earth and its future
- Understanding the role of undergraduate geoscience research and community-driven research on the Anthropocene
- Effective communication of science to a broader audience that would include the public, the K-12 science community, or populations underrepresented in the sciences
- Public outreach on climate education, geoscience alliance, and scientific reasoning

Future Earth is a valuable practical guide for scientists from all disciplines including geoscientists, museum curators, science educators, and public policy makers.

Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface  Patrick Hamilton
Chapter 1.           Welcome to the Anthropocene                                  Patrick Hamilton
Chapter 2.           The Anthropocene and the Framework for K-12 Science Education                                   Fred N. Finley
Chapter 3.           Teacher Professional Development in the Anthropocene                                  Devarati Bhattacharya, Gillian Roehrig, Anne Kern, and Mindy Howard
Chapter 4.           Climate Literacy and Scientific Reasoning                                  Shiyu Liu, Keisha Varma, and Gillian Roehrig
Chapter 5.           Evaluation and Assessment of Civic Understanding of Planet Earth                                  Julie C. Libarkin
Chapter 6.           Community-Driven Research in the Anthropocene                                  Rajul Pandya
Chapter 7.           Geoscience Alliance:  Building Capacity to Use Science for Sovereignty in Native Communities  Nievita Bueno Watts, Wendy Smythe, Emily Geraghty Ward,   Diana Dalbotten, Vanessa Green, Merv Tano, and Antony Berthelote
Chapter 8.           New Voices:  The Role of Undergraduate Geoscience Research in Supporting Alternative Perspectives on the Anthropocene                                  Diana Dalbotten, Rebecca Haaker-Santos, and Suzanne Zurn-Birkhimer
Chapter 9.           Shaping the Public Dialogue on Climate Change                                  William Spitzer
Chapter 10.         Opportunities for Communicating Ocean Acidification to Visitors at Informal Science Education Institutions                                  Douglas Meyer and Bill Mott
Chapter 11.         City-wide Collaborations for Urban Climate Education  Steven Snyder, Rita Mukherjee Hoffstadt, Lauren B. Allen, Kevin Crowley, Daniel Bader, and Radley Horton
Chapter 12.         On Bridging the Journalism/Science Divide                                  Bud Ward

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