When cholera killed hundreds living in coastal towns and epidemics were linked with sea travel, newspaper cartoons at the turn of the century depicted the disease as a ferocious sea monster poised to attack fishermen resting on the docks. Today, the disease is still a scourge that claims hundreds of thousands of lives in developing countries every year.
Alex Steffen, keynote speaker at the IEEE Professional Communication Society conference at the University of Cincinnati, says small steps can result in big changes, and we need to better educate the public on scientific findings that demonstrate the need for action.
NASA launches the Beautiful Earth project to inspire and educate students, teachers and the public with images and videos of Earth from space, to the backdrop of music by Kenji Williams.
The first step in making sense of the processes and events that impact the Earth is to observe and analyze them. The next step is to share those observations and analyses with your peers in the context of a shared infrastructure. Today, however, there are dozens of such shared infrastructures, each with its own set of policies, terms and protocols. How can all this information be shared?
Dr. Alberto Moreira, president of the IEEE Geosciences and Remote Sensing Society, has a dynamic vision for remote sensing that is now, he says, in its golden age. In this far-ranging interview, he talks about the early days of remote sensing, the field’s contributions to GEOSS, and humanity’s responsibilities to Earth.
Mr. Arjun Thapan is Special Senior Advisor to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) President for Infrastructure and Water. ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. In this opinion essay, he discusses Asia’s impending water crisis, exacerbated not just by the environmental consequences of economic and population growth, but now also by climate change.
Judith A. Curry, Ph.D. is professor and chairperson of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests include remote sensing, climate of the polar regions, atmospheric modeling, and air/sea interactions. The Op-Ed posted here addresses her views on what has become a global controversy about climate science. Her stated aim is to stimulate constructive debate by this essay about the critical scientific research on climate, and about the roles and responsibilities of scientists. Comments are welcome on this and every Earthzine article.
The 2009 Student Essay Competition Sustainability through Earth Observation and Engineering is pleased to announce the winners:
First Place $500 to David Tshimba, Uganda Martyrs University, Kampala, Uganda for
ÛÏBy Trying to Solve a Problem, Human Beings Have Now Created a New IssueÛ
Second Place $250 to Sulaiman Tejan Jalloh, Institute of Advanced Management and Technology, Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa for
Third Place $150 to Benjamin-Axel Mugema, Uganda Martyrs University, Kampala, Uganda for
Janet Rochester is a senior member of the IEEE leadership and president of the Society on Social Implications of Technology. In this interview she shines a spotlight on the range of SSIT members’ interests, and on her own intellectual considerations and concerns.
For over 25 years, Dr. Larry Wiedman has led teams of high school and college students in documenting changes in the land and sea environments of Andros Island in the Bahamas. They are particularly interested in studying coral reefs but are intent on not influencing the very changes they are trying to study. Dr. Wiedman is a professor in the biology department at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dr. David Mullins, Earthzine‘s Associate Editor for Education, interviewed Dr. Wiedman about the project and his thoughts about educating future generations of Earth observers.
