ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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I was part of the team that produced "Greenhouse Earth"  in 1992, a 
joint venture between ASTC and The Franklin Institute.   It traveled 
around and now is owned by the Rochester Museum of Science.   The 
American Museum of Natural History also produced a Global Warming 
exhibit at the same time.  I'm sure someone there would also be a great 
source of info for anyone doing a new exhibit.

Here's my personal take on Global Warming 13 years later.  At the time, 
to us getting access to the research being done for the exhibit, (my 
role was helping to create individual hands on exhibits) it was clear 
that the science was real that global warming was real.   To put it in 
a nutshell, if you are adding heat trapping gases to the atmosphere, 
guess what?  They trap heat.  And given that every single ecosystem on 
this planet is presently adapted to a particular heat range, we are 
talking about major ecosystem losses, extinctions especially of the 
most highly adapted species.

Why is Global warming still being actively ignored?  I have a personal 
theory: Individual economic interests trumping what is good for the 
society as a whole.   We are gutless if we don't talk about what is 
good for all of us.  One of the things we are up against is that 25 % 
of our economy is directly related to our vehicles.
Another is that 60% of our electricity in the USA is burning coal.  
There's a lot of money at stake for ignoring global warming.   Go to 
http://www.balancedenergy.org/abec/
  to see the propaganda website of coal sellers.   This is what we are 
up against, yet it is, I submit, the responsibility of Science Centers 
to cover these issues.    It's not enough in this age to have just 
great hands on interactives creating scientists.  We need to cover 
issues central to the quality of our lives.

  For the sake of profits, we are still having car manufacturers 
producing ridiculously horsepowered vehicles.  For instance, in the 
past couple of weeks the new Dodge Charger came out with an advertised 
420 HP.  That's in response to Ford having a best seller with the new 
Mustang.  Chevy just started advertising the new Impala with 340 HP.  
Why does this matter?  HP is just  the ability to burn oil faster.
Knowing what we know about how precious oil now is and how it is 
causing global warming, allowing this to continue is stupid suicide, 
both economically and environmentally.  I just recently read that here 
in North America we are presently  burning 10 calories of oil for every 
single calorie of food we get to our tables.  For all intents and 
purposes, the way we are structured now, oil is our food.  We do indeed 
need massive change if we are going to avoid collapse.  We have to take 
a stand for what is good for our society as a whole .  It is the 
responsibility of all of us to now burn the least amount of oil 
possible.  And it is the responsibility of science and technology 
centers to talk about it.

Here's a Global warming particular we learned while doing the exhibit, 
that I haven't heard much about since:
Throughout geological history the ocean level has gone up and down.   
The tidal wetlands of the world have migrated with it, going further 
out when the ocean was down and coming further inland when it came up.  
  It was down an estimated 300 ft.  during the last ice age.

So we are talking about a 1 meter sea level rise by 2050 or so (What's 
the latest estimate?  That was the estimate in 1992)  Doesn't sound 
like much, does it?   Well, what unique about the age that we live in 
is that all over this planet Human Beings live right at the edge of the 
tidal wetlands and will do anything that they can to keep the tides 
from encroaching on their precious land.   This means building seawalls 
and the like and who can blame them?  With that fact and a 1 meter sea 
level rise, the estimate is that we lose 70 to 80% of the tidal 
wetlands of the earth.   Can you spell environmental disaster?
Please recheck the data before putting it in your new exhibits.  I'm 
presenting from what I learned 13 years ago and I'm sure there is 
improvement in the data. (We, as exhibit producers always have to be 
the most  thorough of reporters.   It's death to an exhibit that 
doesn't get it's facts right.)
A good hands on device on this is a shore diorama with a variable sea 
level showing tidal wetland migration.   Put images behind it of human 
intervention to make the point that the wetlands won't be allowed to 
migrate.

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