Smithsonian Education Conference Blog: Climate Change

Spreading the Green Word at SITES

At SITES, the Smithsonian's Traveling Exhibition Service, where I work as a writer/editor, we bring exhibitions to museums and venues all over the country. In fact, we've been packing and shipping art, science, and history exhibitions for more than 50 years. As a result, millions of people outside Washington, DC have been able to experience the amazing collections and research programs of the Smithsonian.  

Lately we've been working on ways to educate the public on green initiatives and climate change, and taking small but meaningful steps to try to reduce our own carbon footprint. For example we recently joined a group of Smithsonian colleagues and staff from 13 government agencies, including the White House Office of Science and Technology, NASA, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, to brainstorm about how to best collaborate and develop future exhibitions on this critical topic. Another example is our plan for one of our shows thats about to hit the road: Elvis at 21, Photographs by Albert Wertheimer. For this exhibition, we've opted to use vinyl lettering, which can be applied directly to the walls, instead of text panels. This means less material to fabricate, less to crate, and less to ship.

Taking Climate Change Personally

I teach at a junior high school in Missouri and attended a Smithsonian Day event as the Missouri Teacher of the Year in 2008. I subsequently won the Smithsonian’s 2009 Increase Award for innovation in teaching teachers how to use Smithsonian resources. When I think about global warming, my thoughts turn to Glacier National Park in Montana. Our entire family spent about a week in the park in 1986, when I was 15, and the highlight was hiking to Grinnell Glacier. We walked on the glacier, felt the river of icy water melting beneath it, and marveled at the views from the Continental Divide. We still look at the photographs and laugh about how much fun we had on that hike.

Fifteen years later, I returned to Glacier National Park to propose to my wife. We hiked the same trail I had as a teenager. But things had changed. When we reached the top, Grinnell Glacier was much different than I had remembered. It was now 2001 and global warming had started to take its toll. The ancient ice mass had become noticeably smaller, and we learned that it was continuing to melt at an accelerated rate. Grinnell Glacier is vanishing before our eyes.

Scientists had predicted the glaciers will vanish from Glacier National Park by 2030. Two years ago that estimate was revised to 2020. Think about it - Glacier National Park without glaciers. The average daily temperature in the park has increased two degrees each year. Glacier National Park is visibly showing the impact of global warming.

On the road in Wyoming: The Secretary’s travel journal (day two)

By G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Wednesday, July 15: Weather, 62 degrees and sunny at 7 a.m.

A picture-perfect day for venturing into the field. We head first to the grocery store to obtain provisions for lunch and plenty of water, something that will be much needed in the dry climate and the heat of the day. Scott explains that we will visit three sites where teams are working to investigate the PETM and its consequences from different perspectives. He and his colleagues consider this area ideal for their work since the deep sedimentary deposits of the basin capture the stratigraphic profile of the time leading up to the PETM, the PETM itself and the years following it. The rock strata in this large basin slope inward at the sides and are relatively horizontal in the center, but regional uplift in the last few million years has once again loosed the power of erosion, carving deep gullies and valleys that expose PETM rocks and allow the researchers to find the fossils and other evidence they seek. Adding to the favorable geologic circumstances, much of the land is under the management of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which has been helpful to the research teams, and it is transected by a network of dirt roads maintained by an energy company that operates the many oil jacks that remove oil from the mature oil field in the region.

Scott Wing points out the red and gray strata
visible in the distant hills.
(Photo by Wayne Clough)

The drive to the research sites from Worland is about 15 miles. They are located to take maximum advantage of the exposures of the beds deposited during the time of the PETM. The relevant stratigraphy begins with the underlying gray, brown and tan deposits known as the Fort Union Formation, which formed during the Paleocene Epoch just before the time of the PETM. This was a period of relatively stable carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and a warm, moderate climate that allowed temperate and subtropical plants to grow as far north as Wyoming. The Paleocene was a time of rapid evolution among mammals, probably because the dinosaurs had gone extinct at its beginning. Many of these early mammals did not survive the PETM or began to decline in diversity at that time.

On the road in Wyoming: The Secretary’s travel journal (day one)

By G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Tuesday, July 14. Worland, Wyoming.

It is reasonable to ask why the Secretary of the Smithsonian would make a visit to tiny Worland, Wyo. Worland is located in the northern central part of Wyoming, in the Bighorn Basin to the west of the Bighorn Mountains. Drive east and you come to the towns of Ten Sleep and Buffalo; go north and you find Basin and Greybull; head south and you will arrive at Thermopolis; and to the west are Meeteetse and Cody.  Worland, with a population of about 5,000, is the county seat of Washakie County, named for a great chief of the Shoshone Indians. Familiar western legends abound here: Butch Cassidy lived in Meeteetse, and his Hole in the Wall hideout is near Buffalo. Cody is named after Buffalo Bill Cody himself who had a large ranch in the vicinity. But I did not come to Worland because of the western lore, or even to indulge in the hunting, fishing and scenery that attract visitors. I am here to learn more about global climate change.