Highly visual climate science demos
June 21, 2012 1:24 PM
Is there a demonstration of an aspect of climate science that could be performed for a television show, and which would be highly visually interesting?
The host of a popular science television program is interested in showing a demonstration of some aspect of climate change science. Whatever the demo is, it must have a high level of visual interest.
I have a few ideas about phenomena that could be demonstrated. For instance:
* The absorption of infrared light by various gases and gas mixtures (air, air with extra CO2, pure CO2, pure methane, etc)
* Changes in albedo, as with melting sea ice
* Burning samples of coal, oil, and gas to demonstrate CO2 production
* Demonstrations of renewable energy technology and/or energy storage technology
* Demonstration of geothermal heating and cooling
Do you know of any demos that have already been done? Ideally, it should be possible to carry out in a television studio using relatively inexpensive or commonly available equipment. Alternatively, do you have any ideas for demos that could plausibly be carried out under these conditions?
This seems like a good opportunity to teach some of the fundamentals of climate science to interested members of the general public, so any suggestions would be much appreciated.
The host of a popular science television program is interested in showing a demonstration of some aspect of climate change science. Whatever the demo is, it must have a high level of visual interest.
I have a few ideas about phenomena that could be demonstrated. For instance:
* The absorption of infrared light by various gases and gas mixtures (air, air with extra CO2, pure CO2, pure methane, etc)
* Changes in albedo, as with melting sea ice
* Burning samples of coal, oil, and gas to demonstrate CO2 production
* Demonstrations of renewable energy technology and/or energy storage technology
* Demonstration of geothermal heating and cooling
Do you know of any demos that have already been done? Ideally, it should be possible to carry out in a television studio using relatively inexpensive or commonly available equipment. Alternatively, do you have any ideas for demos that could plausibly be carried out under these conditions?
This seems like a good opportunity to teach some of the fundamentals of climate science to interested members of the general public, so any suggestions would be much appreciated.
I can't find the video, but we had a Five-Minute Lectures video on demonstrating why people should care about the idea of "parts per million" in the atmosphere. It was basically a dropper of colored liquid into a clear beaker of water.
posted by Madamina at 1:38 PM on June 21, 2012
posted by Madamina at 1:38 PM on June 21, 2012
Richard Dawkins did something along these lines for a TV show (maybe some kind of self-contained miniseries?) but I can't find them again among all the debate dreck he's involved in.
posted by Evilspork at 12:02 PM on June 22, 2012
posted by Evilspork at 12:02 PM on June 22, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Julius+Sumner+Miller
posted by sindark at 1:26 PM on June 21, 2012