Dateiname: Newsletter_2008-03-25_14-36-18.txt Betreff: ESPERE Newsletter - March 2008 ESPERE Newsletter – March 2008 TOPICS 1) State of service 2) Climate change report 2007 3) Update ESPERE encyclopaedia 4) Support in fundraising 5) Internat. GIFT teacher workshop 6) E-Twinning 7) Recommended links Dear reader of the ESPERE newsletter, 1) State of service we apologize for not sending any newsletter for more than one year. If you should have received one while subscribing, it was not intended but sent automatically from the host server and it was older. Due to failing funding applications the ESPERE team cannot realise a regular service at the moment and continues to be based only on voluntary work. Nevertheless our websites still attracts about 7000 visitors daily and we would like to keep you informed also in the future. 2) Climate change report 2007 In spring and summer 2007 the new IPCC report Climate Change 2007 was published at www.ipcc.ch . It gives the most comprehensive overview of the present knowledge on our climate system, based on the work of hundreds of scientists in about 100 countries world-wide. You can find a very brief introduction in the ACCENT school magazine: http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/654.html The most condensed official summary is the so called “summary for policy makers”, available from http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg1.htm or from the IPCC front page in several languages. 3) Update ESPERE encyclopaedia The German branch of the ESPERE encyclopaedia www.espere.net has undergone a very basic update according to the new findings condensed in the 2007 IPCC report. For other language branches the state of knowledge is still the one of IPCC 2001. Since the newer results often confirm or only slightly modify older findings, it does not mean, that the older contents and the introductions to the climate system are wrong. But certainly we try to find support for updates in all language branches. 4) Support in fundraising Therefore, we would appreciate if you could help us in fundraising and inform us if you know about opportunities to get a project for an update and improvement of ESPERE funded in local, national or international projects, as outreach and dissemination part in EU projects or via foundations. Please contact Elmar Uherek ( euherek@espere.net ). We would like to offer to the many hundreds of schools and regular readers of our resources also in the future excellent and understandable information with newest scientific results. 5) GIFT teacher workshop The international GIFT teacher workshop is an event supported and organised by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). Every year in April about 60-70 teachers are invited to a special workshop within the EGU general assembly. They receive a travel grant and have the opportunity to meet with outstanding scientists, to listen to lectures, share experiences with other colleagues and to participate in hands on approaches. This years workshop will be on the “carbon cycle” in about two weeks (application phase finished). Material is available from the Internet: http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/GIFT/gift_symposia.html As a teacher you may consider to apply for next years workshop which will likely have a focus on Earth observation from space and space science. If you would like to be informed when the application phase for 2009 starts, please send an E-mail to Elmar Uherek ( euherek@espere.net ) 6) E-Twinning The European school partnership project E-Twinning http://www.etwinning.net/ is cooperating with ESPERE in Poland. On March 29th will be a joint ESPERE / E-Twinning conference in Warsaw. 7) Recommended links We would like to recommend to our readers the following websites ... in English: The BBC climate game – Experience the role of a government which tries to be successful in economy, climate protection and to keep popular at the same time! http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/ in German: The school project „Chat der Welten“ has been appreciated by teachers. It includes information on different climate zones, climate change and also lots of links and some teaching material http://www.chatderwelten.de in Spanish and English: What does atmospheric research mean? The “Milagro” campaign on megacities in Mexico was not only attended by scientists, but also by science communicators. They explained the work carried out to kids and non-scientist on the Milagro pages of “Windows to the Universe” http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/milagro/milagro_intro.sp.html If you know about valuable links which could be distributed via the ESPERE newsletter, we appreciate to receive a short note via E-mail ( info@espere.net - subject: ESPERE newsletter ) With our best wishes for a good spring time on the Northern Hemisphere and a good autumn time on the Southern Hemisphere The ESPERE team