Growing Environmental Activists: Developing Environmental Agency and Engagement Through Children’s Fiction.

We explore how story has the potential to encourage environmental engagement and a sense of agency provided that critical discussion takes place. We illuminate this with reference to the philosophies of John Macmurray on personal agency and social relations; of John Dewey on the primacy of experience for philosophy; and of Paul Ricoeur on hermeneutics, dialogue, dialectics and narrative. We view the use of fiction for environmental understanding as hermeneutic, a form of conceptualising place which interprets experience and perception. The four writers for young people discussed are Ernest Thompson Seton, Kenneth Grahame, Michelle Paver and Philip Pullman. We develop the concept of critical dialogue, and link this to Crick's demand for active democratic citizenship. We illustrate the educational potential for environmental discussions based on literature leading to deeper understanding of place and environment, encouraging the belief in young people that they can be and become agents for change. We develop from Zimbardo the key concept of heroic resister to encourage young people to overcome peer pressure. We conclude with a call to develop a greater awareness of the potential of fiction for learning, and for writers to produce more focused stories engaging with environmental responsibility and activism

Chemistry: The essential spark for engagement

Living in a socially deprived area can be tough. At least, that’s what several recent reports looking at the secondary school experience of teenagers in this demographic have indicated. it is recognised that the UK economy needs a highly skilled workforce and, in the North West, we have a large employer base of biochemical and chemical companies (see www. chemicalsnorthwest. org.uk), so we need school pupils from all backgrounds to be scientifically literate. Those who grow up in a socially deprived group are less likely to pursue careers involving science than the general population

Research Focus: Nurturing socio-economically challenged learners' curiosity in chemistry

It is understood that ‘active learning’, in which students participate in their own learning, is effective in developing understanding (Michael & Modell, 2003). Students are likely to engage well in lessons that require participation and that challenge them to develop their understanding through hands-on experience (Koballa & Glynn, 2007). Learning outcomes are enhanced when enjoyment is high. This has been a cornerstone of Liverpool John Moores University’s programme of interventions delivered for the Royal Society of Chemistry project, Chemistry for All (CfA)

Modeling the Miocene Climatic Optimum: Ocean Circulation

Ocean circulation is investigated using the Community Climate System Model 3 (CCSM3) forced with early to middle Miocene (∼20–14 Ma) topography, bathymetry, vegetation and modern CO2. Significant bottom water formation is modeled in the Weddell Sea along with intermediate North Component Water formation in the North Atlantic. This is attributed primarily to stronger- and weaker-than-modern convective preconditioning in the Weddell and Labrador Seas, respectively. Global meridional overturning and gyre circulation is weaker in the Miocene due to weaker midlatitude westerlies in the southern hemisphere, caused by lowering of the meridional surface temperature gradient, in addition to regional influences on convection. Subsurface temperatures in the Miocene are significantly higher in the far North Atlantic, Greenland-Norwegian Seas and Arctic basin compared to the present. Ocean heat transport is symmetrical about the equator and resembles that simulated for late Cretaceous and early Cenozoic climates, suggesting the northern hemisphere dominated ocean heat transport active today developed after the middle Miocene. Simulated deep water warming in the Miocene is more than an order of magnitude lower than indicated by proxies. This discrepancy is not reconciled by higher CO2 due to the persistence of sea-ice at sites of deep water formation. This suggests that either the CCSM3 is insufficiently sensitive to Miocene boundary conditions, greater greenhouse forcing existed than is currently reconstructed, or that proxy records of warming are exaggerated. Given the diversity of global Miocene proxy records and their near-unanimous estimate of a significantly warmer Earth, the first two options are more likely

Circum-Arctic mantle structure and long-wavelength topography since the Jurassic

The circum-Arctic is one of the most tectonically complex regions of the world, shaped by a history of ocean basin opening and closure since the Early Jurassic. The region is characterized by contemporaneous large-scale Cenozoic exhumation extending from Alaska to the Atlantic, but its driving force is unknown. We show that the mantle flow associated with subducted slabs of the South Anuyi, Mongol-Okhotsk, and Panthalassa oceans have imparted long-wavelength deflection on overriding plates. We identify the Jurassic-Cretaceous South Anuyi slab under present-day Greenland in seismic tomography and numerical mantle flow models. Under North America, we propose the “Farallon” slab results from Andean-style ocean-continent convergence around ~30°N and from a combination of ocean-continent and intraoceanic subduction north of 50°N. We compute circum-Arctic dynamic topography through time from subduction-driven convection models and find that slabs have imparted on average <1–16 m/Myr of dynamic subsidence across the region from at least 170 Ma to ~50 Ma. With the exception of Siberia, the main phase of circum-Arctic dynamic subsidence has been followed either by slowed subsidence or by uplift of <1–6 m/Myr on average to present day. Comparing these results to geological inferences suggest that subduction-driven dynamic topography can account for rapid Middle to Late Jurassic subsidence in the Slave Craton and North Slope (respectively, <15 and 21 m/Myr, between 170 and 130 Ma) and for dynamic subsidence (<7 m/Myr, ~170–50 Ma) followed by dynamic uplift (<6 m/Myr since 50 Ma) of the Barents Sea region. Combining detailed kinematic reconstructions with geodynamic modeling and key geological observations constitutes a powerful tool to investigate the origin of vertical motion in remote regions

Oceanic plateau subduction beneath North America and its geological and geophysical implications

We use two independent approaches, inverse models of mantle convection and plate reconstructions, to predict the temporal and spatial association of the Laramide events to subduction of oceanic plateaus. Inverse convection models, consistent with vertical motions in western US, recover two prominent anomalies on the Farallon plate during the Late Cretaceous that coincide with paleogeographically restored Shatsky and Hess conjugate plateaus when they collided with North America. The distributed deformation of the Laramide orogeny closely tracked the passage of the Shatsky conjugate massif, suggesting that subduction of this plateau dominated the distinctive geology of the western United States. Subduction of the Hess conjugate corresponds to termination of a Latest Cretaceous arc magmatism and intense crustal shortening in Early Paleogene in northwest Mexico. At present, conjugates of the Shatsky and Hess plateaus are located beneath the east coast of North America, and we predict that +4% seismic anomalies in P and S velocities are associated with the remnant plateaus with sharp lateral boundaries detectable by the USArray seismic experiment. Flat subduction of the Shatsky conjugate caused drastic subsidence/uplift and tilt of the Colorado Plateau (CP). From the inverse convection calculations, we find that with the arrival of the flat slab, dynamic subsidence starts at the southwestern CP and reaches a maximum at ~86 Ma. Two stages of uplift follow the removal of the Farallon slab: one in Latest Cretaceous and the other in Eocene with a cumulative uplift of ~1.2 km. The southwestern plateau reaches a high dynamic topography in the Eocene which is sustained to the present. Both the descent of the slab and buoyant upwelling may have contributed to late Cenozoic plateau uplift. The CP tilts downward to the NE before the Oligocene, caused by NE trending subduction of the Farallon slab. The NE tilt diminishes and switches to a SW tilt during the Miocene when buoyant mantle upwellings occur

A Suite of Early Eocene (~55 Ma) Climate Model Boundary Conditions

We describe a set of early Eocene (~ 55 Ma) climate model boundary conditions constructed in a self-consistent reference frame and incorporating recent data and methodologies. Given the growing need for uniform experimental design within the Eocene climate modelling community and the challenges faced in simulating the prominent features of Eocene climate, we make publicly available our data sets of Eocene topography, bathymetry, tidal dissipation, vegetation, aerosol distributions and river runoff. Major improvements in our boundary conditions over previous efforts include the implementation of the ANTscape palaeotopography of Antarctica, more accurate representations of the Drake Passage and Tasman Gateway, as well as an approximation of sub grid cell topographic variability. Our boundary conditions also include for the first time modelled estimates of Eocene aerosol distributions and tidal dissipation, both consistent with our palaeotopography and palaeobathymetry. The resolution of our data sets is unprecedented and will facilitate high resolution climate simulations. In light of the inherent uncertainties involved in reconstructing global boundary conditions for past time periods these data sets should be considered as one interpretation of the available data and users are encouraged to modify them according to their needs and interpretations. This paper marks the beginning of a process for reconstructing a set of accurate, open-access Eocene boundary conditions for use in climate models

Intraspecific Trait Variability in Andropogon gerardii, a Dominant Grass Species in the US Great Plains

The climatic conditions in the North American Great Plains are highly variable, characteristic of an inter-continental climate. Antecedent climate history has impacted the flora of Great Plains grasslands, resulting in high species richness as well as dominance by only a few grass species, such as Andropogon gerardii. While the productivity of A. gerardii is well described, the individual physiological, and morphological characteristics that confer species dominance over wide spatial gradients are not clearly understood. We performed a literature search to assess intra-specific trait variability of A. gerardii from as many locations as possible. Ultimately, only 13 locations in the Great Plains have reported common plant functional traits (PFTs) for this species. To best represent site-specific climate conditions, plant functional trait data (8 PFTs) were collected from literature reporting ambient growing conditions, and excluded experimental manipulations. For most PFTs, we found insufficient data to fully quantify the range of variation across the geographical extent of A. gerardii dominance. This is surprising given that we focused on the most abundant grass in one of the most well-studied regions globally. Furthermore, trait data collected from our literature search showed a high degree of variability, but no strong relationships were observed between mean trait values and climate predictors. Our review of the literature on A. gerardii suggests a role for trait variability as a mechanism enabling the dominance of this species across large regions such as the Great Plains of North America