STAR WARS PLANET TATOOINE’S CLIMATE CHANGE

Science Graphic of the Week: Mapping Climate Change on Tatooine Over 110 Galactic Years

Nick Stockton, July 24, 2014 (Wired)

“Just because Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine is fictional doesn’t mean it’s immune to the effects of climate change…[I]n the past 110 Galactic Standard Years, Tatooine has turned from a sprawling, desert wasteland into an even hotter sprawling, desert wasteland. It comes from Tatooine’s first Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change, written by 23 droids (not really) and a human named [molecular biologist] David Ng…[Ng and other science writers] are using Tatooine as a device to teach real world science…

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"[Ng] based his report on the IPCC’s fifth assessment report…[that concludes climate change is] happening, and it’s being caused by our dependence on fossil fuels…Unlike fossil fuels on Earth, water vapor from Tatooine’s unregulated water-mining industry is most likely to blame for the planet’s temperature rise. Like carbon dioxide, water vapor is a greenhouse gas that stores and emits thermal energy…Luke’s aunt and uncle were moisture farmers…until they were shot by Imperial stormtroopers…” click here for more

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