Particulate matter | Earth Hazards | meriSTEM
Channel: meriSTEM Education
Date: 2021-08-25

Emeritus Professor Will Steffen from the Australian National University (anu.edu.au) describes how particulate matter in our atmosphere effects our environment. This as part of a series on how humans effect our climate. 

Will Steffen has a long history in international global change research, serving from 1998 to 2004 as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), based in Stockholm, Sweden, and before that as Executive Officer of IGBP's Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems project.

Will was the Inaugural Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, from 2008-2012.  Prior to that, he was Director of the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society. From 2004 to 2011 he served as science adviser to the Australian Government Department of Climate Change. He is currently a Climate Councillor with the Climate Institute, and from 2011 to 2013 was a Climate Commissioner on the Australian Government's Climate Commission; Chair of the Antarctic Science Advisory Committee, Co-Director of the Canberra Urban and Regional Futures (CURF) initiative and Member of the ACT Climate Change Council.

Steffen's interests span a broad range within the fields of sustainability and Earth System science, with an emphasis on the science of climate change, approaches to climate change adaptation in land systems, incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis; and the history and future of the relationship between humans and the rest of nature.

This clip has been created by the Research School of Earth Sciences (rses.anu.edu.au). These resources are part of a comprehensive program, curriculum matched to the unit 'The changing Earth - the cause and impact of Earth hazards.' 

This video touches on the following curriculum descriptors: 

Human activities, particularly land-clearing and fossil fuel consumption, produce gases (including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons) and particulate materials that change the composition of the atmosphere and climatic conditions (for example, the enhanced greenhouse effect) (ACSES105)

For practice questions after each video, register an account to access our free senior science courses at https://courses.meristem.anu.edu.au. Teachers can access free lesson plans and in-class activities by joining our teacher community via https://meristem.weblogs.anu.edu.au/index.php/new-to-meristem/teacher-registration.

This video is part of meriSTEM Australian senior science educational resources (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Email the team (contact.meristem@anu.edu.au) for further information, course access and curriculum links.