[SustainableTompkins] MOTE announcement re: Global Change Project

[Marian Brown]

From: /Alicia Reynolds <reynolds at museumoftheearth.org>/
To: /undisclosed-recipients:;/
Subject: /Museum of the Earth Lunches Global Change Project/
Date: /Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:40:33 -0500/

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Museum of the Earth Launches Global Change Project

/Release of long-awaited IPCC Climate Change Report out Friday

/*Ithaca, NY-- As climate change, an important part of global change, is 
increasingly becoming an imperative issue for business leaders, 
politicians, scientists and the public at-large alike, the 
Paleontological Research Institution’s Museum of the Earth launches its 
Global Change Project (GCP) with various elements throughout 2007.

Coincidentally, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 
will release its fourth assessment on climate change this Friday in 
Paris. The past three assessments (released 1990, 1995, and 2001) have 
asserted that human activities are driving global climate change; the 
fourth assessment is expected to make this assertion even more strongly.

The goal of the Museum of the Earth’s Global Change Project, consisting 
of a new museum exhibit, comprehensive web site, lecture series, and new 
educational programming, is to collect and synthesize available 
information on global change and present it in a straightforward, 
unbiased, easily-accessed format for educators, students, and members of 
the public. The IPCC’s assessment will help to inform PRI’s programming 
and content around the project.

“The Museum of the Earth is all about the history of Earth systems and 
how they work,” said Rob Ross, Director of Education at PRI. “At PRI, we 
think one of the most important things we can do is increase public 
awareness about the remarkable rate of today’s human-induced Earth 
system change.”

The web site, scheduled to go live on March 1 (* 
www.priweb.org/globalchange.html 
<http://www.priweb.org/globalchange.html>*), will focus on climate 
change and biodiversity loss, and will explain how these elements of our 
environment have changed through time, how they are changing now, what 
the future might look like, and how humans are affecting these changes. 
The site will include a section for educators, providing activities, 
materials and resources available for different age levels on the topic 
of global change.

The exhibit is scheduled to open to the public on Earth Day, April 22, 
as part of the Museum's annual Earth Day celebrations, and will be 
interactive, encouraging visitors to learn about climate change and how 
different forms of energy, e.g. coal, wind, and solar, affect the 
environment.

###

*Contact: Amy Naim, PRI/Museum of the Earth: 607.273.6623 ext. 26 or 
naim at museumoftheearth.org
*

--
Alicia Reynolds
Assistant Director of Museum Operations
Museum of the Earth at the Paleontological Research Institution
1259 Trumansburg Road, Ithaca, NY 14850

Ph: (607) 273-6623 ext. 13
Fax: (607) 273-6620
Email: reynolds at museumoftheearth.org

Now on Exhibit!
sLowlife: Take a sensory journey into the secret life of plants.
Presented by the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research.
© Chicago Botanic Garden
Through April 1st.

Visit us on the Web at: www.museumoftheearth.org and at www.priweb.org
Museum of the Earth is part of Ithaca's Discovery Trail. Learn more at www.discoverytrail.net