Chemistry AMAAmerican Chemical Society AMA:
Hi! I’m Peter Mahaffy, Chem Professor and co-director of the King’s Centre for Visualization in Science. I’m here to discuss the crucial role for chemistry in addressing climate change challenges. I co-direct the King’s Centre for Visualization in Science and am professor of chemistry at the King’s University in Edmonton, Canada. I’m the past-chair of the International Union of Pure & Applied
Chemistry’s (IUPAC) Committee on Chemistry Education and served on the American Chemical Society Presidential Climate Science Working group.
Climate change is a defining challenge of the 21st Century – we’ve got to tackle this with all the scientific tools and imagination we have! Key stakeholders are in our chemistry classrooms right now, so both chemistry education and public awareness have important roles to play. In recent work on the planetary boundary framework that defines a safe operating space for humanity, climate change has been identified (Steffen, Rockström, et al, Science Feb 13, 2015) as one of only two core planetary boundaries with the potential on its own to drive the earth system into a new state, should the boundary be substantially and persistently exceeded. Much of the science underlying earth’s climate relies heavily on measurements and insights from the molecular sciences - so there are compelling reasons for the profession of chemistry to contribute to public understanding of the basic science and the challenges. Sustainable and green chemistry have crucial roles to play in working toward solutions. Did (or do) you experience these connections in the chemistry courses you took?
Check out three resources as you explore how fundamental understanding of chemistry relates to climate change challenges and solutions.
Explainingclimatechange.com - An IUPAC legacy project for the International Year of Chemistry to provide a set of critically reviewed, interactive, web-based learning tools to help students, teachers, science professionals and the general public make sense of the underlying science of climate change.
Visualizing the Chemistry of Climate Change (
http://www.vc3chem.com and
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/sc500415k) - A recent project from our group in collaboration with colleagues at Purdue University and the American Chemical Society to create resources for learning general chemistry through the rich context of climate science.
ACS Climate Science Toolkit introduces the science of climate change to chemists.
I will be back at 11 am ET. Please AMA about the role for chemistry in addressing climate change challenges and in contributing green & sustainable chemistry solutions. I’m also very interested in discussing how chemistry education can empower the next generation of scientists and citizens to address these issues, and make chemistry more motivating and interesting at the same time. I’m delighted to be joined today by a group of 3rd and 4th year undergraduate chemistry students who have been studying green chemistry, and by Dr. Jerry Bell, who chaired the talented ACS Presidential Climate Science Working Group that created the ACS toolkit. Ask away!
^^I posted a link to the above. It's a good q and a session.