Why start a blog?
Good question! (I’m glad I asked). I’m an oceanographer, writer, educator and advocate. In the course of my work and while living my life, I often come across interesting topics that I’d like to see made accessible to a broad audience. Science that is so interesting and exciting, it shouldn’t just be kept for the scientists. Critical ideas and issues that should be distributed, discussed, debated and occasionally, debunked. A blog is the perfect platform for this and a scientist/writer is just the person to think she can do it.
For the most part, I’ll focus on the science, policy, and social and personal aspects of climate and environmental change. I’ll also include interviews with people involved in this work. This blog will feature some of the research I am doing for a science fiction novel, possibly a series, which focuses on the oceans and climate. Those topics include: human evolution, the development of marine adaptations in mammals (i.e. whales, seals, etc.), hydrothermal vents, and bioluminescence. (So far! Great material for science “fiction”, eh?) I’m open to suggestions regarding topics, potential interviewees, articles, ideas, etc. And I am happy to consider guest bloggers on related subjects. A few paragraphs will do.
I will post new material on the 1st Tuesday of the month. When there’s a lot of interesting news (when isn’t there?) AND I have the time, I’ll add another post on the 3rd Tuesday, as well. You can also subscribe, so you get every post!
About me:
As a passionate educator and advocate, I’ve taught and spoken about the environment in many different settings including: classrooms, coral reefs, salt marshes, forests, in print, on the air, online, and in the urban jungles of New York City. In 2006, I co-taught a course for high school students at Brandeis University titled “Sources and Resources: Jewish Values, Humanity and the Environment.” To earn my daily bread – and make the world a better place – I work as a science consultant focusing on the role of black carbon (“soot”) in the melting of the glaciers and snowpack of the Arctic and the Himalayas.
My academic background includes the Bronx High School of Science (Class of 1987), a B.S. in biology from the University at Buffalo, and a M.S. in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island. My somewhat meandering career path has wandered through two stints with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and work for several environmental groups: the Environmental Defense Fund, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), the Public Research Interest Group (PIRG), and the Clean Air Task Force. Silver Spring, MD is the place I call home, along with my husband Alexander (“Sasha”) and our two children, Rafi (“I’m five and a half”) and Dvora (22 months). I’m passionate at food gardening, and convert more flower beds and patches of lawn to veggies every year.
I am also available for freelance science writing. Please contact: bravebluewords at gmail dot com.
Brave Blue Words by Danielle Meitiv is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
You are a natural for 1Sky. http://www.1sky.org. But I could be a little biased! Thanks for making me aware of the CO2 widget, I’ll be sharing it!
How much co2 and other greenhouse gasses did Krakatoa eject 1883. For me to understand, it would be useful to compare it to our daily output. Did the ash from that eruption acidify the oceans?
Curious, Pelagian7
Hi Pelagian7
Thanks for your comment and question.
Leavitt (1982) estimated annual CO2 emissions for the period of 1800 to 1969 (including Krakatoa in 1883) to be 1.5 · 10 (−11) moles CO2 yr−1. This input is well below man’s current CO2 production of 4–5 · 10 (−14) moles CO2 yr−1. T.M.Gerlach (1991, AGU) estimated that annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions exceed annual volcanic CO2 emissions by at least 150 times.
Volcanic eruptions have the net effect of cooling the planet.
When Krakatoa erupted in 1883, it ejected CO2 into the atmosphere along with a lot of ash. The ash reflected the sun’s incoming radiation, cooling the planet so much that 1883 was known as “the year without a summer” – in Europe! [Correction: It was the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Mt. Tambora in 1815 that resulted in the "year without a summer" in Europe.] The cooling effect of eruptions is so significant that without the influence of such eruptions as El Chichon (1982) and Mt. Pinatubo (1991), current greenhouse warming would be even greater.Re-ocean acidification: the amount of CO2 was far less than current emissions and easily absorbed into the oceans without any measurable acidifying effect.
Thanks again for asking!
Leavitt, 1982. Annual volcanic carbon dioxide emission: An estimate from eruption chronologies. Environmental geology, 4(1):15-21, DOI: 10.1007/BF02380495, http://www.springerlink.com/content/631t022372116213/