Jeff Muhs' Energy Predictions

The Nature of Things 2011 lecture series kicked off
last week with Jeff Muhs, (left) director of the
Energy Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University.

During the lecture, Jeff shared his predictions for the "energy future", and we thought you would appreciate reading them!

Jeff Muhs' Energy Predictions
Presented at The Nature of Things Lecture on 2/16/11

#1 Liquid fuels derived from renewable and unconventional sources will be the bridge to electricity in surface transportation over the next few decades.

#2 Surface transportation will be transformed by electricity when its value propositions as an energy carrier are fully realized.

#3 Wireless technology will enable significant improvements in the mobility of people and goods just as it did the mobility of information in recent decades.

#4 Because of inherent advantages, algae energy systems will gain a foothold over the next decade.

#5 In buildings, “manual, binary and reactive” energy systems will give way to those that are “automated, continually-adjustable, and intuitive”.

#6 Though hidden behind the quest for better solar cells, use of sunlight in buildings will continue as our most valuable and cost-effective use of solar energy.

#7 Increasingly, outsiders to the federal system – universities and small businesses – will be the providers of game-changing energy innovation.

These predictions are based upon the type of innovative work that the Jeff, as a USTAR professor, oversees at the Energy Dynamics Laboratory. To learn more about the focus of the EDL's work, and why Jeff's predictions are what they are, listen to the podcast of his Nature of Things lecture!

Listen to Jeff Muhs' Nature of Things Lecture

What do you think??

Climate Goals: Local Perspective Needed!

• As we gear up for the keynote lecture of The Nature of Things series, there is no better time to consider active legislation efforts regarding climate change. Next Wednesday, Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, will speak to us about the EDF’s ambitious efforts toward a bright future.
  
  Until then, this article provides a list of goals that the EDF has formulated in preparation for this year's round of climate and energy legislation. At a national level, they are prolonging efforts to enact further regulations that would limit emissions, as well as defending the Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate our air quality.
  
  Unfortunately, these are formidable challenges indeed. As we know, the fight to stop climate change, clean up our air, and implement effective alternative energy technologies on a large scale is rife with obstacles. And these issues aren't just vague entities that float around in the ether of federal legislative debate; actions must be taken on every scale, from the federal domain to the state level, right on down to the individual. This brings us to another of the EDF's goals, which involves finding messages that truly spark concern and participation among the public.
  
  So, as a respirating resident of our blue earth and red state (referring to geology, of course):
• What do you think are the most effective messages to present to both fellow citizens and policy makers?
• At what level do you think new regulations will be most effective? Surely, the big polluters will avoid cutting emissions unless faced with some serious action at the federal level, but state, local, and personal actions are also important.
• How will Utah be affected?
  
  Don't worry, you're not being graded; just join the conversation!

From Kindergarten to Carbon Clouds: Time to Reinvent Energy

Some people call me a hippie. It might be the fact that I’m an Environmental Studies major, or that I never leave the apartment without my reusable coffee mug, or that I haven’t trimmed my hair since 2009. Or that I get internships like this one, where I write blog posts about things like alternative energy and being a hippie.

But I think the heart of my identity is just the fact that I've figured out that as I get older, the world isn't getting quite as awesome as I thought it would. In 1996, my kindergarten teacher told us how to reduce, reuse and recycle, and to turn out the lights when we left a room. I did as I was told and trusted that the adults would take care of the rest.

But as I grew older, I craved the 'great outdoors' and fresh air that I'd read about, I helped preserve with every milk carton my little hands recycled, and yet I was greeted with expanses of red pine, and smog reminiscent of something that would seep out of a Stephen King novel. I felt let down, and asked a question: "What on Earth have we been doing for fifteen years?" My research on that one has produced little beyond evidence of increased dependency on carbon-based fuel, so, instead, I pose another question: "What can we do now?"

Which brings me to the aforementioned job description. As the intern for The Nature of Things 2011 lecture series, the theme of which is Reinventing Energy, I am going beyond personal usage of stainless steel mugs and dealing with UTA to getting all of you involved. Because it can't just be me that's noticed that things can change. For years now, we've been hearing about emerging renewable energy technologies, seeing windmill prototypes, and puzzling over diagrams of how photovoltaic cells work. The solutions are out there, and to use a hippie term, that's pretty rad! Now we need to quickly make the transition from talk to reality. Fifteen years is enough for me.

This year’s speakers have some answers. The series will open up with Jeff Muhs, director of USU’s Energy Dynamics Lab, who will discuss how to transform our energy system without delay. Fred Krupp, our keynote speaker, will talk about the unfair market challenges faced by clean energy, and how to fix that. Jonathan Hoekstra acknowledges the challenges of establishing clean energy infrastructure, and will teach us how to deal with it. And finally, a community panel of energy leaders will bring a local perspective to it all.

The way our energy is produced affects every single one of us. We breathe carbon emissions. We fall in love with landscapes that succumb to drills. And now we know that things can change. Join me over the next several weeks as the Utah Museum of Natural History presents some people who are making “reinventing energy” a reality. Bring your questions, tell your friends, and talk about it, because learning is the first step. Come to the lectures as a way to commit to creating a future that will not disappoint kindergarteners sitting in classrooms right now. You don’t need to be a hippie, just someone who's sick of waiting.

You can view the complete schedule for The Nature of Things 2011 on the Museum’s website and Facebook page. I invite you to follow this blog to join the conversation.

Carba, Wha?? The Intern Speaks

This post was written by Daisy A.Rocha, Nature of Things Intern at the Utah Museum of Natural History.

So, I’m the intern. For those of you who have never been one, it’s kinda like being a coffee girl on a movie set…only having no idea what movie is being shot…or what coffee is. In other words, it is a perpetual state of confusion.
Yet, it is a quick-as-you-can-learn on your feet, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, that’s for sure. Every day I accomplish things that if you would asked me a week ago were possible, I would have laughed and shook my head. Like what? Well like when my boss asked me to prepare an interview for Dr. Brian McPherson, an “international leader” on Carbon Sequestration, on the topic of what else, Carbon Sequestration. An interview about what? Carbon Se-ques-tra-tion. Oh that.
Now I’m a pretty smart girl, I like to nose a Britannica just as much as the next egghead. But how was I to quickly create questions for an expert about something I had never heard of and could barely pronounce? Hmmm…what is a lowly intern to do? Hit the books of course, 2010 style…Google it baby!

Here’s what I gleaned in a tiny little nutshell: Carbon Sequestration, specifically Carbon Capture and Storage, is a technology. This technology captures nasty, yucky, man-made CO2 from X source (think coal plants) and redirects it. The idea is to get it away from our fragile atmosphere and pump it into an alternate location. Some forms of Carbon Sequestration suggest injecting the excessive CO2 into flora, soil and/or the ocean. Which is bit unsettling to me but then I think, “How is pumping it into the atmosphere any better?!”
There are also other forms of Carbon Capture out there, like Dr. McPherson’s specialty, ones that propose pumping it thousands of feet underground into tightly sealed receptacles for long-term storage. From what I gather, this is not meant to be a permanent solution to climate change, not a “silver bullet”, but rather a temporary mitigation, more to provide an immediate band-aid like relief to the gaping wound of global warming.

As I read on, I discovered that Carbon Sequestration is not just something scientists in white coats are sitting around a table theorizing about, but it is actually happening, this very moment, here, in Utah.
Dr. McPherson has received a $67 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to spearhead a multi-state project testing the feasibility of the geologic sequestration of CO2. McPherson is the Principal Investigator of the Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration and the partnership is one of only seven nationwide DOE funded inquires. In fact, in a Salt Lake Tribune opinion editorial, McPherson described how his project is the largest single-injection storage project in the U.S. Set in a site near Price, Utah the research injects one million tons of liquid CO2 per year and uses sophisticated monitoring to determine the safety of the technology.
All this to mitigate human impact on climate change, to provide some kind of sustainable development for the future. Yet McPherson himself says that it is not entirely a technological issue, but a political and market-driven one too. How we deploy various technologies will depend on consumer behavior and citizen choice. Really? I have a say?
As a young adult, with yet unborn children before me and days of running barefoot in the grass and climbing trees behind me, I realized that I do have some power in that decision. The future of many so many technologies and solutions lies within my purchasing and voting choices…I’m suddenly more sincerely motivated to learn about Carbon Sequestration at Dr. McPherson’s lecture…that and all the other alternatives I can’t pronounce. The earth that my children and grandchildren will know is being chosen today, by us, one new idea at a time.

Helen Thayer at Nature of Things 2010

This week, UMNH kicks-off the Nature of Things 2010 lecture series.

This year's theme is "Report from the Frontlines" and presents six speakers in five events, each with a unique perspective on their efforts toward building a more sustainable future. The speakers are all controversial in one way or another , and will not all necessarily agree with one another! The Museum is honored, through support from our sponsors and partners, to facilitate complex discussion and community dialogue around some of the most critical issues facing our society.

The series kicks-off tonight with global trekker, Helen Thayer. We asked Helen a few questions as she prepared for her trip to Salt Lake City.

JF: How much time have you spent in Utah and what are your impressions of our land?
HT: As a spokesperson for the CORDURA® brand, I have traveled to Utah several times to speak to community organizations and attend the Outdoor Retailer show. Though I have never had the opportunity to trek Utah, I find it to be a beautiful state and look forward to spending more time here.

JF: Ah, you need to spend some time in Utah wilderness! How did you end up as a ‘global trekker’?
HT: I began climbing mountains when I was nine years old and my global trekking evolved as a natural way to satisfy my desire to learn more about remote people and places.

JF: Your lecture kicks-off of the Nature of Things lecture series, which, this year, has the theme of “Report from the Frontlines". How do your adventures contribute to the series?
HT: My job is to make people aware of the remote corners of the world, the indigenous cultures that inhabit them and how it all fits into the big picture environmental awareness and the need for greater intercultural respect. It is only when we can respect each other and the world around us that we can all come together to make a better world for all the citizens across the globe.

JF: Polar Dream is the story of your first trek. Have you returned to the North Pole? Have you noticed any changes?
HT: I returned four years after my solo walk to the magnetic North Pole, this time with my husband to celebrate our 30th year of marriage. During my second trek I discovered changes in the ice thickness. Since then we have explored the Arctic regions extensively, and every year we have noticed changes not only to the ice and permafrost but also to the flora in general.

JF: What will people expect at this lecture?
HT: Attendees can expect to hear stories from my many journeys and expeditions across the world. I also hope to inspire individuals to set goals, plan for success and always use persistence in reaching those goals.

JF: You will be presenting at the Salt Lake Center for Science Education, a newly-formed charter school that focuses on science education, with an emphasis on outdoor experiences. What does science education represent to you?
HT: Speaking to a targeted group of students is a wonderful opportunity to reach an audience who can understand the importance of taking care of the environment, each other and most importantly giving back to the world around them.

JF: What prompted you to develop Adventure Classroom?
HT: My desire to share my expeditions with others led me to take the four corners of the world to K-12 kids though my Adventure Classroom program. Discovering nature in its untouched form, as well as ways to protect our environment, helped me make the realization that through my worldwide expeditions I could create educational programs to inspire students to find ways to help preserve a world they will inherit. Further, the program is aimed at encouraging kids to be confident and believe in themselves.

JF: You are known as an inspirational speaker, sharing adventures in which "going back is not an option". How do your audiences relate to your adventures?
HT: My experiences show that age is no barrier to our dreams and goals. It’s never too late to make this world or ourselves a better place.

JF: Can you tell us about some recent adventures?
HT: We have just returned from Africa after living for an extended period of time with the Maasai tribe. There we learned their ancient lifestyle by living amongst the people. In February we will return to Africa to live with the Bushmen - a culture even more ancient than the Maasai and threatened by extinction.
_______________________________

You can read more about Helen Thayer's Nature of Things lecture at www.umnh.utah.edu/nature

You can read more about Helen and see some of her photographs at www.helenthayer.com

New curator, really old dinosaur!

Randall B. Irmis joined the Utah Museum of Natural History as curator of paleontology at the beginning of this year with a freshly-minted doctorate! This week, his identification of a new dinosaur species, Tawa hallae, was published in the journal Science. This discovery was made by a team that includes scientists from the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, the State University of New York in Stony brook, and the University of Texas.

I talked with Randy earlier this week about his work and how a paleontologist discovers something new that is also over 200 million years old!

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JF: What are the big questions for you in your research at this point?
RBI: Well, most of my work has focused on the early Mesozoic Era (250-180 million years ago), and particularly during the Late Triassic (235-201 m.y.a.). For my Ph.D. dissertation, I investigated the origin and rise of early dinosaurs. I’m particularly interested in why dinosaurs became so successful, whereas other contemporaneous groups fell by the wayside. I also want to know how terrestrial ecosystems during this time responded to global climate change, similar to changes we are seeing today.

JF: Tell us about the new species of dinosaur that is part of your research publication?
RBI: This week we announced the publication of a new species of early carnivorous dinosaur called Tawa hallae, discovered in northern New Mexico at a place called Ghost Ranch. “Tawa” is the Hopi name for the Pueblo sun god, and is a reference to the rich Native American heritage in the area where the fossils were discovered, as well as to New Mexico itself, whose state symbol is a Puebloan representation of the sun. The species name “hallae” is for Ruth Hall, the woman who founded the paleontology museum at Ghost Ranch.

Tawa was found in rocks called the Chinle Formation, and is approximately 213 million years old. This places it in a time period called the Late Triassic, when all the continents were together as a super continent called Pangaea. During this time, North America was near the equator and had a warm and seasonal climate.

JF: What makes Tawa special to science?
RBI: The fossils are really complete and well-preserved; we have pretty much every bone in the body. The new species fills a gap in the evolutionary tree between the earliest carnivorous dinosaurs Herrerasaurus and Eoraptor (from Argentina), and later Triassic carnivorous dinosaurs like Coelophysis (also found at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico).

Using data from Tawa and other species, we were able to determine that the first dinosaurs evolved in South America, and then spread across Pangaea. In fact, the three species of carnivorous dinosaurs we find at Ghost Ranch each represent separate emigration events from the southern continents. This indicates that early dinosaurs were able to freely move across Pangaea without interference from physical barriers such as mountain ranges.

What’s really interesting is that some other dinosaur groups, namely ornithischians and sauropodomorphs, never made it to North America during the Triassic. This got us wondering – why didn’t these two groups arrive in North America when it is clear that early dinosaurs could freely move around? We think it has to do with climate – areas near the equator during the Triassic weren’t hospitable to the ornithischian and sauropodomorph dinosaurs, but the carnivorous dinosaurs could tolerate it.

JF: What drew you to conducting fieldwork in Ghost Ranch?
RBI: Ghost Ranch is world famous for the discovery of many skeletons of the Triassic dinosaur Coelophysis bauri, in addition to other lesser-known paleontological discoveries in the Late Triassic rocks there. It has always been a mecca for Triassic paleontologists. In fact, some of the very first Triassic vertebrate fossils to be described from the western U.S. were discovered in the vicinity of Ghost Ranch in the 1870s.

All of us on the research team had been to Ghost Ranch as paleontological tourists, but our field research there really was a result of serendipitous events starting in 2004. During the fall of that year, Sterling Nesbitt and I attended the Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Denver, Colorado. At that meeting, Alex Downs from the Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology, showed us some early dinosaur bones from a new site, called the Hayden Quarry, that he was excavating at Ghost Ranch. We got excited, because they looked to be a new species.

We agreed to work with Alex on scientifically describing the new material, and the next spring we went to Ghost Ranch to do this work. When we got there, we were amazed at how many early dinosaur specimens had been excavated from the site – it was a treasure trove! Sterling and I spent only an afternoon at the site and we discovered half a dozen dinosaur bones. This was unprecedented for Triassic rocks in North America. No one else had ever found a site of this age where early dinosaur specimens were so numerous. So, we resolved to return the next summer, to begin large scale excavations.

During our first season of excavation, we were fortunate to discover several nearly complete skeletons, which ultimately gave us a complete picture of this new species. It has taken three years of lab work to remove these bones from the rock that encases them.

JF: What does it mean to be classified as “a new species”?
RBI: As paleontologists, we typically only have bones to look at when trying to distinguish different species. We look for anatomical characters on the bones – bumps, ridges, depressions, and other small features – that tell us if a specimen is distinct or not. If a fossil specimen has a unique character or unique combination of anatomical characters preserved on the bones, these tells us it is a new species not known to science.

But we have to be careful – we compare the bones to all other known species first to make sure that some other species don’t already have these anatomical characters on the bones. This requires a lot of time and effort – particularly visiting museums across the world to look at their fossil collections.

JF: That sounds like fun work! How do you work with artists to come up with a rendering of what the dinosaur may have looked like?
RBI: A good paleoartist has an excellent knowledge of anatomy, and there is a constant dialogue between the artist and scientists as work progresses. We provide images of the bones, our skeletal reconstruction, notes on anatomy, things like that to the artist to give them an idea of what the skeleton looked like.

The artist then uses their knowledge of anatomy of living relatives of the dinosaur -- like, birds, for example -- to flesh out the skeleton and bring the animal to life. As the artist works, they’ll provide sketches and preliminary renderings that us as scientists can comment on and make suggestions. Jorge Gonzalez was our paleoartist, and he did an amazing job!

JF: How do you know that this is what this species looked like?
RBI: Some of it we know based on the skeleton, whereas other parts are scientifically informed inferences. For example, the general body and head shape is clear from the complete skeletons we have. But we don’t know for sure what color Tawa was, or what it was covered in. You’ll notice that Jorge’s reconstruction of Tawa is covered in a downy plumage of “protofeathers.”

Although we only have the bones of Tawa, we know from fantastic discoveries of fossils with soft tissue preservation from China that a wide variety of dinosaurs had these protofeathers. So, we thought it was a reasonable inference that Tawa would have had a similar covering.

Color really is up to the artist – but even here we can make some guesses. For example, carnivores today generally aren’t a garish bright color, because they don’t want their potential prey to spot them prematurely. So it’s a reasonable guess that as a carnivore, Tawa also had a subdued color scheme.

JF: How can the public see the fossils?
RBI: We’ll have original fossils of Tawa, along with fossils of other creatures from the same time, on display in the Utah Museum of Natural History lobby for the next few months – so I encourage you all to come down and see them! I’ll also be doing a special presentation in the museum from Noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 12th.

JF: You participate in several Scientist in the Spotlight events like this at the Museum. What will people see when they come Saturday?
RBI: I’ll have a variety of original dinosaur fossils available for people to see up close. We also demonstrate how specimens are removed in the lab from their rocky tombs, and show what it’s like to excavate dinosaurs in the field.

JF: How does this new research, and your work in general, contribute to the overall work of the Museum and the University of Utah?
RBI: UMNH has a long tradition of dinosaur research, and is currently one of the only museums in the world to have an active research program in all three periods of the Age of Dinosaurs. In recent years, we’ve been particularly strong in studying the latter two geologic periods of the Age of Dinosaurs, the Jurassic and Cretaceous. My research gives us expertise and active research in the Triassic, at the beginning of the dinosaur age.

JF: What are you working on next?
RBI: I have a variety of Triassic and early dinosaur research projects in the works right now. Several of these should be published in the coming year. Look for a major announcement about the earliest relatives of dinosaurs in early 2010! I’m also involved in the long-term Kaiparowits Basin Project, which aims to understand terrestrial ecosystems from the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, during the Late Cretaceous (80-70 m.y.a.) in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument of southern Utah. We have discovered a variety of new dinosaur species, some of which we hope will be announced in the next year.

JF: One last question: How did you end up as a paleontologist, anyway?
RBI: I always wanted to be a paleontologist since my childhood love affair with dinosaurs. As I got older, my interests broadened to geology and evolutionary biology, but I never lost sight of the goal of becoming a paleontologist. In college, I majored in Geology with an emphasis in Paleontology, and got involved in several undergraduate research projects. This propelled me into the field, and I was lucky enough to be accepted into the Ph.D. program at University of California, Berkeley. The rest, as they say, is history!

To see photos and the paleoartist's rendition of Tawa hallae, visit umnh.utah.edu/dinos

Follow up with Scott Sampson

Last month, we spoke with Scott just prior to his visit to Utah to launch his new book Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life.

I followed up with Scott to see how the launch of his book and his new blog are going:

JF: How did your lecture in Salt Lake City go month?
SS: It was a terrific experience for me! It was certainly fitting that my book tour was launched in Utah, given my involvement with dinosaur paleontology there over the past decade. And it was particularly heart-warming to be surrounded by friends and long-time supporters of paleontology, including numerous volunteers who have put in long hours in the field and the lab. I had a great time, in particular, interacting with all those kids who are getting even more hooked on dinosaurs from watching [Jim Henson's] Dinosaur Train. The question & answer period was fun and surprising, and, as usual, the kids asked the best questions!

JF: What has the initial response to the book been?
SS: Although we are still in the early days (the formal release date of the book was last week, November 30th), Dinosaur Odyssey has had some extremely positive reviews. An author never knows how a book is going to be received, so it feels great to see one’s writing described with words like “engaging”. I am particularly excited that so many readers are picking up not only on the web of life approach, which aims to make diverse connections, but also on the fact that we humans still have a lot to learn from dinosaurs.

JF: Tell us about the blog that you have just launched?
SS: I launched The Whirlpool of Life on Tuesday, November 24, the sesquicentennial anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Posts will encompass a wide range of topics, spanning paleontology, evolution, ecology, education, sustainability, philosophy, and psychology. The thread that I will use to weave these topics together is science education in general, and nature literacy more specifically.

JF: How is the work of Darwin relevant today, 150-years later?
SS: Darwin triggered an intellectual revolution, with effects that have cascaded through science and society. Yet, one hundred and fifty years later, a portion of Darwin’s legacy, the foundational concept of common descent through deep time, remains virtually untapped outside academia. In particular, this concept has not been communicated in such a way as to shift our relationship with nature.

JF: When did Charles Darwin first enter your consciousness?
SS: As I recall, Darwin first entered my consciousness as a 14 year-old student in ninth grade biology class. But this introduction was anything but inspiring, and it really wasn’t until my undergraduate years at the University of British Columbia that I truly began to plumb the depths of evolutionary thinking.

JF: As a paleontologist, what contribution do you feel museum collections make to science and culture?
SS: Museums are the storehouses of living and ancient life. Fossil collections are used by researchers to conduct science. Some of the greatest “aha!” moments in paleontology occur in the bowels of museums when one is surrounded by the bones of ancient creatures.

Of course, museums also spark the imaginations of non-scientists too, and this is another of their crucial roles. Now it is time for natural history museums to enter the 21st century and define their place in helping the general public connect more deeply with the natural world.

Natural history museums were founded by people with a true love of nature, people who understood the plants and animals of their region, people who were naturalists. Today there are all too few naturalists around. Indeed the skill of knowing one’s place and communicating it to others might be regarded as a disappearing art. Yet this skill is more needed now than ever before. Natural history museums need to go back to their roots and foster a world of naturalists!

JF: What attracted you to paleontology as a field of study?
SS: I was the classic 5 year-old with a fascination for dinosaurs. Without any exaggeration, paleontology was one of the first words I learned how to spell. For me, one of the most attractive aspects of paleontology is that it requires mental time travel to places from the distant past. Imagining those worlds excited me as a youngster, and that excitement is still there today.


JF: With a book and a blog both geared for people like me (not a professional scientist) and involvement in popular, almost mass media television shows, you seem to have moved beyond a life of traditional academic work. Can you tell us about that, ahem, evolution?
SS: In short, I felt that the pressing issues facing us today required that I move beyond the narrow domain of paleontology research and education within a university. My underlying contention is that the current sustainability crisis is not merely an external crisis of the environment. More fundamentally, it is an internal crisis of worldview rooted in a dysfunctional relationship between humans and nonhuman nature. Thus, any meaningful resolution to the eco-crisis will require not only more and “greener” technologies, but also a fundamental shift in awareness and understanding, particularly within industrialized nations.

Since worldviews are built upon a lifetime of experience, it’s highly doubtful that the necessary transformation will occur solely among adults. Rather we must rethink, indeed reinvent, education, placing less emphasis on upward mobility and more on living well; less on generating consumers and more on serving communities, including communities of nature. Surprisingly, perhaps, I am convinced that the concept of evolution has a pivotal role to play in this gargantuan effort of “schooling for sustainability”.

JF: Tell us more about “schooling for sustainability”....
SS: Schooling for sustainability should be rooted in three intertwined elements, each of which informs the other two:

• new metaphors that augment the dominant “life-as-machine” and “web of life examples, enabling us to perceive reality in new and instructive ways;
  
• the Great Story encompassing the evolution of cosmos, life, and culture, which provides a universal origin myth and anchors us in the deep time evolution of life on Earth; and
• a strong emphasis on place.

Together, this trio of elements—metaphor, story, and place—have the power to transform education and help trigger a change in the dominant worldview, thereby serving as a springboard to a sustainable future.

JF: How can public education organizations — like natural history museums and public television — play a role in “schooling for sustainability”
SS: I see two fundamental roles for natural history museums and other natural science institutions in this redefinition of education. First, museums of natural history—home to both extensive collections and scientific expertise--are better positioned than perhaps any other institutions to communicate the nature of place and reconnect people to their local environs. Second, museums can communicate the Great Story, linking the origin of the universe, of life, and of humanity into a single story, and related that story back to their home regions. In particular, great potential exists for museums to help school teachers access the information and resources necessary for them to feel comfortable teaching these big ideas to their students.

However, both of these efforts will require that museum get beyond their four walls and guide visitors in direct experiences with nature. Television, on the other hand, is currently much more a part of the problem than the solution. To turn this situation around, public television in particular has potential to generate even more programming that helps viewers reconnect with the natural settings around their homes. And television too needs to do a much better job of communicating the Great Story at age-appropriate levels.

JF: One last question: Since the Museum's blog is a community exchange of ideas and books, what book is on your nightstand these days??
SS: I am currently reading a marvelous, though frighting, book by Lester Brown called, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (Norton, 2009). If ever there was a succinct description of our current ecological predicament, together with necessary steps that must be taken, this is it. Highly recommended!