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Hosted by Science Learning Institute and Ames Research Center

Featuring students and scientists from NASA Ames Research Center, Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, and Lithos Carbon

4.21.23

Foothill College Earth Day Event

Terra Vitali

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  • 1:00 – 1:15pm Introductions

  • 1:15 – 2:30pm Replenishing Vitality to Earth: Academia, Government and Business

  • 2:30 – 2:40pm break

  • 2:40 – 3:00pm Breakout discussion groups

  • 3:00 – 4:00pm Student Presentations & Opportunities to get Involved

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Makkin Mak Muwekma Wolwoolum, 'Akkoy Mak-Warep, Manne Mak Hiswi! 

       We Are Muwekma Ohlone, Welcome To Our Land, Where We Are Born! 

Foothill College respectfully acknowledges that our campus occupies one small part of the ancestral lands of The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area, also known as the Verona Band of Alameda County. The Tribe is comprised of all of the 11 lineages aboriginal to the San Francisco Bay region who trace their ancestry through the Missions San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Jose. Our campus is located within the Ramaytush Ohlone-speaking tribal ethnohistoric territory, which based upon the unratified federal treaties of 1851-1852, includes the unceded ancestral lands of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area. Foothill recognizes the neighboring Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of Santa Cruz County, Confederated Villages of Lisjan, Indian Canyon, and other Ohlone tribal entities, families, and descendants.  These communities continue to fight for the recognition of their sovereignty and to maintain traditional relationships with their land. We fully recognize, support, and advocate for the sovereign rights of all California’s tribal communities and nations. We acknowledge and give our respect to the Indigenous peoples connected to and who have lived on this land past, present and future. 

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Science Learning Institute at Foothill College

Advancing diversity and equity in STEM

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  • Building community among STEM students at Foothill
  • Supporting students from underrepresented groups to succeed in STEM
  • Supporting students to participate in their first internship
  • Connecting STEM students with resources both at Foothill and outside

Science Learning Institute

SLI Instagram - follow us!

SLI newsletter - join!

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Introduction by

Robert Cormia/Foothill College

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Introduction by

Gabrielle Thompson/intern, NASA Ames Research Center

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Introduction by

Wenonah Vercoutere/NASA Ames Research Center

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Vision

Exploring the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all.

Mission

NASA explores the unknown in air and space,

innovates for the benefit of humanity,

and inspires the world through discovery.

NASA Vision and Mission Statements

2022 Strategic Plan

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We focus our tools for exploration on our own planet to monitor and track changes -

And to observe the effectiveness

of our actions addressing social issues and mitigate climate change

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Replenishing Vitality to Earth: Academia, Government and Business

  • 1:15 – 1:30pm Intro to Carbon Sequestration - Robert Cormia, Foothill College

  • 1:301:45pm Carbon Capture for Thriving Farms - Mary Yap, Lithos Carbon

  • 1:452:00pm Application of GIS to addressing climate change and achieving climate justice - Allison Meezan, Foothill College

  • 2:00 – 2:15pm Life on and beyond Earth - Graham Lau, Blue Marble Space Institute of Science

  • 2:152:30pm Climate justice and social change - Cynthia Kaufman, De Anza College

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Introduction to Carbon Sequestration

Robert Cormia/Foothill College

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NASA - Earth Day

Carbon Capture

April 21, 2023

Robert D. Cormia

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What’s the problem - why carbon capture?

250 years of carbon emissions

Changed earth’s GHG / radiative balance

Heat absorbed into the ocean

Emissions reduction not fast enough

Pump CO2 out of the air, slow emissions

Technical DAC takes too much energy

We can put earth to work to help reduce CO2

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250 years of carbon emissions

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Carbon emissions and atmospheric carbon dioxide (ppm)

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Ocean Heat Uptake (OHU)

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Understanding the GHG - earth system as an oscillation

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Leaving a stable limit cycle (earth system trajectory)

https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1810141115

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GHG Emission Scenarios

https://www.vox.com/2015/5/15/8612113/truth-climate-change

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Carbon Emissions Pathways and Negative Emissions

Negative emissions counteract fossil fuel and land use change by drawing down atmospheric carbon dioxide, similar to the notion of credits and debits in accounting. Sustained negative emissions would both reduce the climate warming of human activities, as well as begin to reverse the impact of legacy emissions. Negative emissions factor into emerging strategies by IPCC to achieve climate targets, i.e. 2 degrees C, or the recent more ambitious 1.5 degrees C.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06022018/carbon-capture-storage-geoengineering-no-silver-bullet-global-warming-eu-science-academy

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Negative Emission Technologies

The National Academies of Science (NAS) A Research Agenda. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) techniques that aim to remove and sequester excess carbon from the atmosphere have been identified as an important part of the portfolio of responses to climate change. Available in print and e-book.

https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25259/negative-emissions-technologies-and-reliable-sequestration-a-research-agenda

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How Negative Emissions�Can Slow Climate Change

https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-10-ways-negative-emissions-could-slow-climate-change

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Carbon farming - regenerative agriculture

750 billion tons of carbon in the atmosphere

1,500 billion tons of carbon in the soil

Through “land use” ~ 500 billion tons of carbon vented to the atmosphere

By cutting down trees, overgrazing grasslands, and agriculture - we would have initiated climate change (signal is seen in the paleoclimate record)

Soils can capture and sequester ~ 2.5 - 5 billion tons of CO2 per year

Reforestation, afforestation, and regenerative agriculture

Reinvigorating earth is the key to reversing climate change

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Let’s make earth great again!

Restore forests

Build stronger grasslands

Restore wetlands and blue carbon

Bring ocean productivity back

Earth’s carbon pump is huge!

Strengthen ecosystem services

Terra Vitali!

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Application of GIS to Addressing Earth Climate Change and Climate Justice

K. Allison Meezan/ Foothill College

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Using GIS to monitor and quantify the impacts of our changing climate

  • Tools for monitoring our climate
  • Tools for quantifying impacts on people
  • Climate change is a social justice issue

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What is GIS?

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Tools for monitoring our climate

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Climate change is a social justice issue

NASA Earth Data tool

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Climate change is a social justice issue

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Climate change is a social justice issue

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Questions? 

Allison Lenkeit Meezan

Professor of Geography & Geospatial Technology

Foothill College

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Internships at NASA Ames

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  • Many, many programs!
  • Descriptions have been consolidated on Gateway website

https://intern.nasa.gov/

  • Due date for applications twice a year
    • Fall application deadline is May 27. Fall session begins August 28.
  • Typically full-time for 10 – 12 weeks
  • Remote and in-person options

Internships

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NASA Student Opportunities

How to get involved at NASA both formally and also through non-traditional pathways

Sharing how NASA’s TOPS Initiative will transform how students engage with science

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Find out more about NASA Internships with Gabrielle!

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Find out more about internships this summer through SLI!

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Gabrielle Thompson

B.S. in Biochemistry

Foothill Alum

NASA Intern

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Remote Sensing

Detecting reflected or emitted energy that is recorded and then analyzed by scientists

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NASA Ames Scanning Electron Microscope

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Left: Samples from Mars cast in resin for imaging in the SEM

Right: Grasshopper wing imaged in the SEM

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Rock samples imaged under the SEM

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Get Involved at NASA!

  • Citizen Science Projects
  • Internships & Pathways Programs
  • Try the Open Science EarthData Remote Sensing Tutorials
  • Explore NASA’s Open Science GeneLabs

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Thank You!

Feel free to reach out!

(replace the AT with an @)

nanoporedata58 AT gmail.com

CREDITS: This presentation template was created by Slidesgo, including icons by Flaticon, and infographics & images by Freepik

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Opportunities to get Involved

Wenonah Vercoutere/NASA Ames Research Center

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Apr 13, 2023

Palmdale California

Impact of Recent Rain in California - Poppy fields as seen from space

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https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/new-nasa-earth-system-observatory-to-help-address-mitigate-climate-change

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

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