The Grave Concern With Global Climate

My personal read is that the stance taken by many who insist that humans can't possibly have any impact on global climate is that it's just so much whistling past the graveyard.

A group of folks in the opposing camp approach the graveyard, push open the creaky gate and head right in in a quest for clues.

As we learn through LiveScience, gravestones are being used to provide a surprising source of insight into the rate at which things may be changing.

It is called the Graveyard Project and it's being spearheaded by the EarthTrek Global Citizen Science Program. An outreach initiative of the Geological Society of America, EarthTrek actively seeks the participation of everyday folks around the world to help gather information and participate in scientific studies.

With the Graveyard Project, the focus is on gravestones, and in particular, those made from marble and limestone. Granite, another very commonly used rock type for memorial statuary, is extremely stable chemically speaking. Limestone (a sedimentary rock) and marble (a metamorphic rock that started out as limestone), however, are made from the shells of marine creatures: mostly calcium carbonate, which is more vulnerable to chemical erosion from year after year of rainfall. As pollutants go into the air (in particular, oxides of carbon, sulfur and nitrogen) and interact with water, they form acids. More pollution leads to increasing acidification, which in turn leads to Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother's epitaph becoming harder to read as the years tick by.

The project is all about gathering information describing the rate of chemical decay in the stones from graveyards around the world to discern whether there is a pattern of more rapid erosion that is linked to changes in global climate and atmospheric chemistry. Comparing adjacent stones that were installed during different decades, or even different centuries, offers a measurable sense for rates of decay, and some of these stones in long-settled communities are hundreds of years old.

You can read more about the project and even sign on to lend a hand at the EarthTrek Web site.

Photo courtesy of RATAEDL, via Flickr