We are hosting a bloggers challenge to raise money for teacher-submitted projects in schools.

The projects have to do with sustainability, and include the following topics:

1. student research on recycling programs in Texas
2. indoor gardening programs in San Jose, CA
3. maintaining a student newspaper in Los Angeles, CA
   (Journalism has had a rough time in that city, and we need to help sustain different media voices)

4. support a course in sustainable development and conservation in Chicago, IL
5. Community Action on Global Challenges in Providence, RI
6. Modeling groundwater flow and aquifers in New York, NY
7. alternative energy projects in North Carolina

Visit the challenge page for more details on projects and to contribute.

- Ralph Hyre

Purpose
To develop an understanding of our planet as a system by designing a very-long-duration space mission in which the life-support system is patterned after that of earth.

Context

This lesson was developed by Dr. Penny Firth, a scientist, and Mr. Bradley Smith, Director of the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program of the Department of Defense, as part of a set of interdisciplinary Science NetLinks lessons aimed at improved understanding of environmental phenomena and events. Some of the lessons integrate topics that cross biological, ecological, and physical concepts. Others involve elements of economics, history, anthropology, and art. Each lesson is framed by plain-language background information for the teacher and includes a selection of instructional tips and activities in the boxes.

One of the really nice things about living on earth is all of the stuff we don't have to worry about. We don't have to worry about running out of oxygen. There is always plenty of water somewhere on the planet. And where the soils and climate are right, we can find or grow ample food for ourselves. In short, the earth functions as a massive life-support system for over six billion humans as well as the trillions of other life forms that share the planet with us. Click on the Earth Observatory site for a spectacular image of earth. The "blue marble" picture is the most detailed true-color image of the planet to date.

How does our planetary life-support system work? There is no real mystery to the broad outlines of the story (although scientists continue to refine our understanding of various bits): the requirements for human life are provided by organisms and their interactions with the non-living environment. Energy from the sun powers the food webs and the water cycle and all parts of the system are interconnected. Outputs from one part of the system are inputs for another part. This linked output-input setup is often called feedback, and feedback is what keeps the system from careening out of bounds like a soccer ball. For earth, out of bounds might mean runaway global climate change (such as ice ages), or catastrophic loss of important species leading to the collapse of vital ecosystems, or wildly unusual extreme weather patterns and the consequent loss of life and property.

This lesson is entitled Spaceship Earth to reinforce the idea that our planet is — in reality — like a spaceship hurtling through space on a long-duration mission. There is no resupply from outside sources. Recycling is as much a part of the natural order of things as is the sunrise everyday. Pollution occurs when there are outputs that cannot be used as inputs for something else. Pollution is harmful and can be downright dangerous. The connections between parts of the natural system are imperative to its normal operation. By actively thinking through what it takes to keep people alive on a spaceship, the students will come to understand more fully what it takes to keep people alive on this planet.

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