Adorable Girl Tests Global Warming Hypothesis
Future Skepchick Linda (whose proud dad sent me this link) tested the hypothesis that increased levels of CO2 will lead to warming. See her method and results:
About the author
Rebecca leads a team of skeptical female activists at Skepchick.org and appears on the weekly Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast. She travels around the world delivering entertaining talks on science, atheism, feminism, and skepticism. There is currently an asteroid orbiting the sun with her name on it. You can follow her every fascinating move on Twitter: @rebeccawatson.
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14 Comments
tonicblue
10.24.2010
Just think where we would be as a species in 20 years time if this was the norm
Peregrine
10.24.2010
Anthony Watts just got the shit kicked out of him by a little girl.
Sean
10.24.2010
Little Linda is very lucky to have parents with time enough to spend on projects like this.
My niece is 7 years old, and I’ve tried to think of ways of countering the nonsense she’ll inevitably encounter at her religious school.
As a start, I’ve purchased her a membership at the California Academy of Sciences.
And I was heartened when she asked for a telescope for her birthday.
Any suggestions on books with fun science experiments for little kids, age 7-9?
-S
halincoh
10.24.2010
It’s impossible to not smile when watching this; great parenting combined with a charming, very intelligent young girl equals a bright and encouraging future.
Rebel 16
10.24.2010
I wish the methods had been explained a little more clearly. It sounded like the CO2 balloon was 100% CO2. We’re not really going to care any more long before our atmospheric CO2 levels reach 100%. It would be interesting to see this repeated with several balloons starting with standard atmospheric composition and working up in increasing CO2 percentages. The temperature differences may not be as dramatic, but any temperature increase between balloons would underline the importance of reducing CO2 pollution.
nleck
10.25.2010
Rebel 16, you need to remember that the atmosphere extends some 100km up ( 75% of density in the first 11km), given that a ~2c increase was achieved in a 20cm balloon I would suggest the same effect would be achievable in a 11km column of air at lower concentrations of CO2. Thou such an experiment maybe past the resources of a 9 year old
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth
Supertec
10.25.2010
Wow. I’m going to suggest this to my 10-year-old’s school, because 1) it’s a really cool way of getting kids to understand the scientific method, and the reality of global warming, and 2) I’m too lazy to get around to doing it myself.
Good on Linda and her parents.
Peregrine
10.25.2010
We all know the greenhouse effect is caused by the concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, which allow some of the heat to escape into space, while some heat is reflected back to the ground. Well, I learned last night, and some of you may already be aware of this, but that’s actually the trimmed down, over-simplified for public consumption version.
I found an article last night that had a throw-away line about CO2 emitting heat. That didn’t seem right, so I started looking around, and it turns out it’s true. CO2 emits heat. And that reminded me of this video.
What’s really happening is that CO2 absorbs IR, holds onto it for a little while, and eventually re-emits it. So it’s not so much of a reflecting, as it is a scattering. A CO2 molecule will absorb infrared photons, and re-emit it in a new direction, where it can potentially be re-absorbed and re-emitted by another CO2 molecule. Inside that little balloon is a scattering of infrared energy. So this little experiment is more demonstrative of the greenhouse effect than I’d initially realized.
halincoh
10.25.2010
People, she’s NINE. You’re missing the point.
As SGT Hulka said to Psycho in Stripes, ” lighten up, Frances.”
Bjornar
10.25.2010
Lovely.
genignored
10.25.2010
Awesome Experiment!
SuperTec, it might be worthwhile to suggest graphing the temperature, rather than instantaneous measures, to show that not only is the temperature higher, but the rate of temperature change is greater.
should be working
10.25.2010
A smart girl. It looks like the parents didn’t help too much except the video work and hanging the ballons high on the line. The science in the video is at a 9 y.o. level.
Well done Linda!
Dale Husband
10.27.2010
Anthony Watts just got the shit kicked out of him by a little girl.
That little bastard should be kicked by a thousand little girls, and boys. See this:
http://circleh.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/idiocy-on-watts-up-with-that/
Peregrine
10.27.2010
@Dale Husband: A while back I got into a debate on Facebook with a friend of mine about climate change, and I basically called him out and asked him to cite his sources. He posted a ton of links; mostly NASA just for the raw data, but also Chris Monckton’s organization, (what a piece of work he turned out to be) and Watts Up With That. First I’d heard of it, actually.
I checked it out on and off for maybe 2 or 3 weeks, and every time, I couldn’t even make it off the first page without finding at least 3 articles with science so bad it hurt.
I had to delete it from my browser history. I think it says a lot that I’d rather be caught watching porn than reading Watts Up With That.
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