ESTB01 2024 Environmental Agency Past Paper PDF

The Ultimate Perspective of the Outer Operating Environment ESTBO1 2024 – ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017) 31 Exaggerated Space and Time What is it that characterizes the perfect scientist for Voltaire?: - no to whales, tel...

The Ultimate Perspective of the Outer Operating Environment ESTBO1 2024 – ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017) 31 Exaggerated Space and Time What is it that characterizes the perfect scientist for Voltaire?: - no to whales, teleology, politics - yes, to an expanded sense of scale - yes to greater inclusion (ecosystem heuristic) - yes to incremental steps (ecosystem heuristic) - yes to emergent patterns - GAVIN SCHMIDT MacLellan 2006 MACLELLAN (C) 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019)  Is this really possible? The PERFECT SCIENTIST! JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019)  SCIENCE AS PROCESS → Tansley ‘The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms’ (1935) Rejected notion of a complex, highly integrated community organized along organismic lines. Clement's concept implied that "the universe is also an organism, the solar system, and the sugar molecule... are all organized wholes". The idea of a FOREST organism is kinda cool, and a living planet is even more out there but … these are vacuous assertions. MACLELLAN 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019  SCIENCE AS PROCESS → Tansley The ideal we strive for is the ‘The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms’ (1935) elimination of unnecessary metaphors Rejected notion of a complex, highly (Gaia theory) to integrated community organized alongexplain nature. organismic Rather a scientist lines. Clement's concept implied needs that systematic "the universe ‘tools is or also an organism, the solar system, and the processes’ to incrementally sugar molecule... are all organized wholes". The idea of a FOREST examine organism iscomplex systems (see kinda cool, Gavin and a living planet is even moreSchmidt). out there but … these are vacuous assertions. MACLELLAN 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019  Tansley ‘Ecosystems' came in various kinds and sizes: – multitudinous physical systems of the universe – range from the universe as a whole down to the atom. Not isolated, included as parts of larger systems, overlap, interlock and interact with one another “Isolation of these systems is partly artificiali, but is the only possible way in which we can proceed and produce positive knowledge.” i see Reductionism MACLELLAN 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019  What’s hidden from us (due to familiarity) is that we live on a planet. But that’s absolutely essential information if we are to understand ‘climate,’ and the role we may A theory of climate change is impossible without a greatly play in affecting it. expanded conception of space and time. 1) that our atmospheric system has changed over extended scales; and oddly … 2) that we can imagine and now measure … other climatic systems. JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019)  We forget sometimes but … we live on a planet. and events that occur at a planetary scale (spatial and temporal), are of direct relevance to ourselves. JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019) Milankovitch Cycles: 100 kyr cycle Eccentricity (Elliptical); 41 kyr cycle - Obliquity (tilt); 21kyr/26kyr cycle - Precession (wobble cycle). The forcing imposed or taken away from the earth climate system combined with the amount of land surface in the northern hemisphere and distance from the sun of the earth orbit regulate the long term natural cycles that regulate climate on earth. http://ossfoundation.us/projects/environment/global- warming/myths/images/milankovitch-cycles/milankovich_lg.gif/view JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017)  http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ctl/about1.html JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017)  Caesar, L., Rahmstorf, S., Robinson, A., Feulner, G., & Saba, V. (2018). Observed fingerprint of a weakening Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation. Nature, 556(7700), 191–196. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586- 018-0006-5 Thornalley, D. J. R., Oppo, D. W., Ortega, P., Robson, J. I., Brierley, C. M., Davis, R., … Keigwin, L. D. (2018). Anomalously weak Labrador Sea convection and Atlantic overturning during the past 150 years. Nature, 556(7700), 227–230. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0007-4 Planetary Thresholds  In the 1960s and 1970s, observations of Mars and Venus showed that planets that seemed much like the Earth could have … very different atmospheres. The greenhouse effect had made Venus a furnace, while lack of atmosphere had locked Mars in a deep freeze. https://history.aip.org/climate/Venus.htm JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019) Could study of these strange atmospheres provide, by comparison, insights into the Earth's weather and climate? In this vein, Harry Wexler, head of the U.S. Weather Bureau, instigated a "Project on Planetary Atmospheres" in 1948. Several leading scientists joined the interdisciplinary effort. But the other planets were so unlike the Earth, and information about their atmospheres so minimal, that the scientists could reach no general conclusions about climate. The project was canceled in 1952. VENUS GREENHOUSE EFFECT? https://history.aip.org/climate/Ven us.htm 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019) 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 https://history.aip.org/climate/Venus.htm JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019) 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019)  MacLellan and Mitchell 2016 Knowledge of planets isn’t irrelevant to the environmental community, it’s just in the background. The full implications of such hidden knowledge are never fully acknowledged given our limited attention span, and our inherent biases but … It informs how we understand life on our own planet.. JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, MACLELLAN 2017, (C) 2017 2018 2019) 2019 2020  Analogous response of temperate terrestrial exoplanets and Earth’s climate dynamics to greenhouse gas supplement Humanity is close to characterizing the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets due to the advent of JWST. These astronomical observations motivate us to understand exoplanetary atmospheres to constrain habitability. We study the influence greenhouse gas supplement has on the atmosphere of TRAPPIST-1e, an Earth-like exoplanet, and Earth itself by analyzing ExoCAM and CMIP6 model simulations. We find an analogous relationship between CO2 supplement and amplified warming at non-irradiated regions (night side and polar)—such spatial heterogeneity results in significant global circulation changes. Hochman, A., et al (2023). Analogous response of temperate terrestrial exoplanets and Earth’s climate dynamics to greenhouse gas supplement. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 11123.  Implications Knowing that a planet ‘OUT THERE’ might hold some exotic form of life is interesting … but ultimately who cares? We aren’t going to be texting them anytime soon. Was it Voltaire’s point that life exists elsewhere in the universe? – Not likely, his positon had more to do with expanding our own horizons through scientific discourse. Opening our minds to possibilities other than those prepared for us by modern entertainment-centric culture. What does this mean for us today though? – Accepting possibilities beyond the familiar and beyond a perspective of privilege (Idols of the Mind) – Employing scientific methods to explore those possibilities inevitably leads us in some very fascinating directions that have implications for our relationship with the environment. – So … connecting the dots on extinction. If other animals go extinct, and we are an animal …. JIMacLellan -- ESTB01H3F (Copyright 2015, 2016, 2017, 51 2018)