Pick only one of the following two concepts. Post a discussion under this Topic to either fully explain the concept or to describe how you would teach this concept to your own students:

(1)Albedo acts as a positive feedback loop in the climate system where the increased loss of albedo continues to increase temperature which causes an increased loss in albedo and increased temperatures or an increase in albedo causes a decrease in temperature which causes an increase in albedo, etc. Population dynamics show that there are natural population controls that act as negative feedback loops. If the population of deer in a forest increases, the food available decreases causing a drop in the population. Design a way to explain feedback loops to your students and the dangers of feedback loops in global warming (small changes can create large, long term consequences) – giving us a limited amount of time to act to prevent those larger consequences.

(2)Explain the difference between proxies and direct temperature measurements. Isotopes are part of proxy measurements, but not all proxies use isotopes. Give examples of each.

Dont forget to respond to someone else's discussion posting