GALACTIC ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Why come in this way Anita asked again You’re lucky we even heard you Why not come in the front The man slid his glance away Didn’t want them to see I’m late again he said Then he clapped his hands suddenly as if he were shooing chickens Off with you now scoot Aren’t you supposed to be in front listening to that He broke off You mean the greenhouse lady Benson asked His voice sounded suspicious to Anita Tif fany Isn’t she your boss Her The man gave a hoarse laugh Oh no not her She’s very inexperienced Good luck with her Really Then he shooed them out again Suddenly remembering Mr Fazmel’s potential for fury Benson and Anita slunk out of the back room and through the massive greenhouse They walked through rows of tomatoes with vines strung up ten feet above their heads green iceberg lettuces glis tening with dew and a long wide table filled with trays containing hundreds of small just-sprouted vegetables of all sorts By the time they reached the entrance Tiffany was already well into her lecture She stood beside a whiteboard wearing a T-shirt and baggy khaki pants both smudged with dirt and she waved a marker 4
THE CONFOUNDING CASE OF THE CLIMATE CRISIS 5
GALACTIC ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Benson and Anita slipped into the back of the group and this greenhouse allows us to grow veg etables even in the middle of winter Tiffany said As long as we have sun water and some good soil the eggplants peppers tomatoes and everything else we grow in here can do just as well as they would in some warm garden Aahhh and I see that a couple of our friends have found out just how well our toma toes grow Anita gasped and turned as red as the toma toes oozing down her face and pants as all the class turned to stare Two of Anita and Benson’s classmates started giggling and Mr Fazmel who was gaunt and balding clenched his teeth But Tiffany just laughed and said You Young man Do you know why it’s so warm here in the greenhouse Ummm doesn’t the sunlight come inside and then warm up all the plants suggested Benson Yes that’s a part of it Most plants really grow best in warm temperatures with a healthy supply of water And to your tomato-splashed friend Why do you think the air warms up in here Tiffany asked gesturing at Anita Anita thought for a few seconds As she was thinking she gazed up at the large panes of glass that formed the roof of the indoor heated vegetable 6
THE CONFOUNDING CASE OF THE CLIMATE CRISIS garden Well I bet that glass has something to do with it Does it trap the heat somehow Very good thinking young lady exclaimed Tiffany You have the key idea The glass of the greenhouse helps to trap the warmth of the sun in two ways With markers she drew a cartoon greenhouse on the whiteboard and added some green plants in side Then she took a yellow marker and drew a big circle for the sun When the sun’s rays enter the greenhouse they are in a form called shortwave ra diation Tiffany used a red marker to draw a squiggly arrow from the sun into the greenhouse The plants in the greenhouse absorb a lot of that light which along with water helps them grow The sun’s light is warm and heats the plants and the soil around them In turn that makes the air near the ground heat up And what happens to hot air It rises said Rahesh from the front of the class Tiffany nodded That’s right hot air rises The hot air heated by the sun rises in the greenhouse to be replaced by cooler air that sinks down from above But the greenhouse traps the hot air and doesn’t let it escape so soon the entire greenhouse is warmer than the outside because of this circulation of hot air called convection Tiffany drew a red arrow in a 7
