A Song of Our Warming Planet: Using Music to Communicate Critical Concepts in Climate Science

A SONG OF OUR

WARMING PLANET

Using music to communicate critical concepts in climate science

Sco! St. George Daniel Crawford

Todd Reubold

American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting | Connecting Geoscience with the Arts | December 15, 2014

GEOG1403GARDENBIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE

GLOBAL

CLIMATECHANGE

1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 200056

56.5

57

57.5

58

58.5

59

Source: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Global temperature records are commonly represented as time series.

°F

If you really want to communicate with someone, it’s best not to show a graph, but to express something artistically.

“ ”Commander Chris Hadfield

November 12, 2014

Daniel Crawford University of Minnesota

However, sometimes converting a simple graph into some different form of information can deliver the message far be!er, and more effectively, than dots on a page.

“ ”Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy

July 18, 2013

GEOG1403GARDENBIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE

GLOBAL

Parts of the planet have warmed more rapidly than others since the 1880s.

°CSource: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

cello

viola

violin II

violin I

Planetary Bands, Warming World Daniel Crawford

1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 200056

56.5

57

57.5

58

58.5

59

Source: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Any geophysical time series can be expressed as music.

°F

How could anything be more scientific and mathematical than music?

“ ”Commander Chris Hadfield

November 12, 2014