Teacher to study global warming in Arctic
Manhattan Beach Middle School science teacher James Locke will study the effects of global warming first-hand this summer in the Arctic Circle. Photo by Andrea Ruse
by Andrea Ruse
High up in the tundra that circles the Arctic, roughly 20 percent of the earth’s carbon is locked into a frozen permafrost layer that is thawing at an alarming rate.
The layer cuts through Churchill, a town situated on the Hudson Bay Lowlands of Canada’s northern edge, where subzero temperatures can drop 60 degrees in an hour and signs warn residents to watch out for polar bears on their rooftops.
A 15-foot layer of permafrost covers a vast peatlands at Churchill, the top two feet of which have been melting for at least the past decade that Dr. Peter Kershaw of the University of Alberta has been studying it.
Here, global warming is more than just a catch phrase. It is dramatically visible.
“If permafrost thaws all around the Arctic, there is a tremendous potential and shattering concern that more carbon stored in the bank becomes available, amplifying warming,” Kershaw said. “Everybody’s finding it is disappearing around the world.”
In June, Manhattan Beach Middle School seventh-grade teacher James Locke will join Kershaw and a team of nine other volunteers in Churchill to continue research that will establish baseline permafrost data to be used for future comparisons.
Northrop Grumman will sponsor Locke’s participation in the trip through Earthwatch Institute, an organization that, for a fee, places applicants with researchers working on environmental issues around the world. Earthwatch sends a fresh batch of volunteers to Kershaw every few months to help continue his research.
“Wherever you fall on the debate on global warming, there has been a shown increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” Locke said. “Maybe that’s due to a natural warming cycle. Maybe that’s due to human behavior. Either way, if the permafrost melts more, more greenhouse gases will be released.”
A major goal of the fellowship is for teachers upon return to spread global environmental awareness in the classroom.
“You meet other teachers just as excited as you are,” Locke said. “You come back with a wealth of material you had no expectation of getting to bring back to the community and the students.”
Locke grew up on a farm in Virginia, with dreams of becoming a marine biologist and later, an actor. In 1989, he received his B.S. in Biology from Sydney College in Virginia. He received his Master’s degree in Science Education from Columbia University in New York in 1993 and began teaching at a Bronx high school. In 2000, he moved to Manhattan Beach and started teaching sixth and seventh grade science at MBMS, where he developed a forensic science elective course. Three years ago, he was selected by Northrop Grumman to be on a team of teachers invited to conduct science experiments in a zero-gravity airplane flight. Earlier this year, Locke applied for the fellowship for the Arctic trip and last month was chosen to go to “the polar bear capital of the world.”
“I was never a researcher,” Locke said. “I was a teacher. This will give me insight so that I can better inform my students about scientific research.”
Not-so-positive feedback
Think of permafrost as a mass grave for animals, plants, bacteria and other creatures whose dead “bodies” have been trapped in varying states of decay during dramatic temperature drops.
Over thousands of years, layers of organic material have built up in packed snow, ranging depths of several feet to a mile in some parts of the Arctic, according to Kershaw, who has been researching permafrost in Canada since 1973.
Kershaw, like many scientists around the world, is concerned that permafrost thawing is not only a symptom of global warming, but could actually amplify the heating of the earth’s atmosphere.
“The amount of carbon in permafrost is more than double that in the atmosphere,” Kershaw said. “As the organic matter thaws, bacteria attack it. One of the byproducts is carbon dioxide going to the atmosphere. If the thaw deepens annually or disappears entirely, that’s a lot of carbon dioxide locked in the permafrost that can go into the atmosphere.”
Thus, a positive feedback system is created where warming causes the permafrost to thaw, causing the release of greenhouse gases, causing the earth to heat up more, causing more thawing.
At Churchill, the greenhouse gas methane — which accounts for 25 percent of the earth’s warming and ultimately breaks down into carbon dioxide — is the dominant gas released, according to Kershaw. He said that over a period of 15 years, methane is 23 times as strong a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide, although it remains in the atmosphere for much less time.
While Locke is eager to take his first crack at field research, he stressed the importance of maintaining his scientific open mindedness.
“Maybe research projects like this will say there are fluctuations, but the earth is able to absorb them,” he said. “Or maybe they will show we are doing damage. To quantify it in this way gives real data to look at, not just worry and speculation. I think that’s where the real value comes in.”
Locke’s students are supportive of his mission.
“They are really excited for me,” he said. “I will get to bring so much personal experience that’s alive instead of something from the book. If a student can connect with that info, it becomes more relevant and they will retain it better.”
Over the course of Locke’s students’ lives, Kershaw has witnessed the gradual depletion of the Arctic’s permafrost layer.
“There have been so many changes in such a short time,” Kershaw said. “In the ‘70s, we never would have predicted that permafrost would disappear at the rate it has. What I’m trying to do is take a snap shot of the last decade of what this looks like. Fifty years from now, someone can look at my data and see what the temperature was and how the permafrost is gone, which is what I predict will happen.”
Perhaps years from now, one of Locke’s student’s will be that researcher.