Trip of a lifetime. Costa Rica: Is there such thing as climate change???? um.......................................

Well day 2 of our adventure at La Selva. I still can not believe that I am actually here in Costa Rica. I am so lucky to be on such a great team. All of us get along without any problems. I expected it to be so rainy that I could not see but shocking it was not. It did rain off and on. The most amazing thing was the canopy of the jungle that is like a natural umbrella. We ate breakfast this morning in the cafeteria. They had the best tasting cheese LOVED it!!!!!
We started out our morning with a lecture from Steve Gaines, he is the department head of the University of California Santa Barbara. He is also a marine biologist and has traveled the world. His wife was also a biology teacher for over 25 years. Wonderful couple. He gave the most amazing lecture on climate change. I have to admit I was unsure whether or not it existed but after listening to Steve I am more convinced that it is happening. I know there is an issue whether it exist or not but there are alot of misconceptions mainly with terminology and correct definitions. Most people confuse climate change with weather. It is two different things completely. Weather most likely changes from year to year. Climate is the long term average of weather pattern. The first misconception terminology of climate change. This is the misconception that will influence people the most. I promise I am not thinking political and I am not starting a POLITICAL debate. I think of Sean Hannity at this point because he is consistently talking about weather during a season when there an is an odd huge snow storm and automatically assumes and tells his audience that climate change does not exist because of the storm. He thinks he is informed enough to assume it is the weather pattern cycle that continues throughout the years. For example, we are experiencing the same pattern of storms and drought during the 40's and 50's. Michele Malkins a news commentator on his show shares his view and blogs often without truly understanding the simple terminology of weather and climate change.
Steve informed us that last summer was the hottest summer on record. He talked about Keeling the first scientist that researched the climate in 1950. His main interest was in carbon dioxide and how the different environments and biomes. He is the first person to explained the high precision measurements of carbon dioxide in the air. He found that from 1960-2010 there has been a progressive increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This was the first published study of the affects of climate and the level of carbon dioxide. There is another main misconception regarding climate change. There is a link to the increase temperature and increased CO2. The misconception is that the increase in the CO2 cause the increase in temperatures. Instead the increase temperature will cause the increase in the CO2. The CO2 will get trapped and will be release due to the increase in the temperature,

This is Steve giving our lecture on climate change. Very good teacher and you can understand why he is a dean at Santa Barbara.

Another picture of Steve lecturing on climate change.

That afternoon we went on a vegetative protocol with our guide Johanna. It is a long term vegetative survey and seed assessment as a long term reforestation monitoring. There is a problem with percent the natural CO2 that comes from the plants due to destruction of the rain forest. So this is an effort to control this problem and continue to have a great diversity of plants for the natural CO2 needed for the plants on earth.

This Robin a teacher at Ocean Springs High School. I really enjoy working with her on this adventure. She LOVES plants and was having a great time doing this transect of this area in this dense jungle. Personally I could have cared less. I hate plants except for looking at them.