“Cooling off a Warming Planet” by Shammin, Petersen, & Suter Page 1
by
Md R. Shammin, John E. Petersen, and Jordan F. Suter*
Environmental Studies
Oberlin College, Oberlin OH
NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN SCIENCE
Scenario
Senator Fahey put down his glasses and called his administrative assistant to ask Justin Short, his in-house expert on
climate change science and policy, to see him asap. While waiting, he glanced again at the summary sentences of the
latest report from NASA:
“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which
life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2
will
need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm… An initial 350 ppm CO2
target
may be achievable by phasing out coal use except where CO2
is captured and adopting agricultural
and forestry practices that
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