Wednesday, September 15, 2010

WORLD CLOCKS and SHIFTING BASELINES

Poodwaddle World Clock
Have you ever come across internet world clocks? They are both interesting and scary. On a world scale they highlight statistics about people with a temporal context not in terms of centuries or decades but changes occuring from moment to moment.
A few that may be of interest to you are:
World Clock click here
Worldometer click here
Breathing Earth click here

Teachers using AUSMEPA educational resources (click here) might find these novel devices useful to demonstrate how it is that we know that our oceans are coming under increasing pressure. More people, more activities of people and the resulting increases in pollution that affect us all.

Additionally there is an opportunity to talk about how the ocean has changed from our grandparents and our parents time to the world in our eyes today -- also known as shifting baselines. To view a slideshow from the that demonstrates shifting baselines in relation to fish numbers in the sea click here. Although this slideshow was made in the North America we Aussies are entitled to be proud that the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary signage in the slide show is from Ricketts Point in Beaumaris, Victoria.

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