http://globalwarming-facts.info/50-tips.html
This link has proven to be more useful than any I have seen thus far for contributing to stopping global warming. It offers tips that anyone can put to use towards minimal energy consumption, which in turn can reduce carbon emissions. I personally have adopted several of these steps, and while one person out of six million might not make that much of a difference, an example certainly can. After reading so many articles about how intimidating Global Warming is, I found it refreshing that this Maurizio Petrone put together a list of what the average Joe can do to help prevent further heating. The list also points out some main causes of global warming and how to avoid them, which I found useful for prompting further searches, if someone was interested in doing a little research of their own.
While so many people are working to find the causes of Global Warming, or trying to prove that it doesn't exist, it's good to know that someone is thinking of ways to contribute to a cleaner earth (And save a little money in the process) whether or not Global Warming is happening.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
A Ten Year Contradiction
For the past seven blogs I have argued that Global Warming does exist, and given facts to support this. However, recently I found a little gem by a journalist Timothy Ball, explaining that global temperatures have on average been decreasing for the last ten years. His article can be found here. http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming020507.htm
The article explains that there was a period of cooling that began in the 1600's known as the Little Ice Age. Global temperatures at this time were also cooler on average, and that several such small fluctuations have occurred in the past. These fluctuations, according to Ball, are the result of changes in the sun. At first I was very impressed with this article, until I tried to find further sources to validate his information. According to one of my previous blogs, the same source explaining earth's axil tilt also discussed the rise in temperature for not just one but several past decades. While it is true that within the last ten years, temperatures have gone down some half a degree, Farenheight, over the past fifty years, average temperatures have risen between two and three degrees, Celcius. In case anyone was unfamiliar, a difference in a Celcuis degree is around two and a third in Farenheight. Not only does Bell's article make a mountain out of a molehill, he also degrades the idea of a university. He does raise a good point about political corruption of ideas, but the hard data doesn't back up his claims well at all. The only example he gives that denies the possibility of a warming climate are the last ten years of temperature data from scattered weather stations.
I am willing to accept any sort of denial for such a grave view of where the earth is going, but if the most popular source of information against global warming are opinionated articles set more on downgrading people trying to protect the planet from our own mistakes than finding real data of their own.
It makes me wonder, what if Global Warming IS nothing but a giant hoax? Well, all we can be left with after trying to fix the planet is cleaner air, more fuel efficient vehicles and water that doesn't get entire third world countries sick with Cholera. The earth is the only place we have to live, and if there's even a tiny chance it's in danger, isn't that something worth worrying about?
The article explains that there was a period of cooling that began in the 1600's known as the Little Ice Age. Global temperatures at this time were also cooler on average, and that several such small fluctuations have occurred in the past. These fluctuations, according to Ball, are the result of changes in the sun. At first I was very impressed with this article, until I tried to find further sources to validate his information. According to one of my previous blogs, the same source explaining earth's axil tilt also discussed the rise in temperature for not just one but several past decades. While it is true that within the last ten years, temperatures have gone down some half a degree, Farenheight, over the past fifty years, average temperatures have risen between two and three degrees, Celcius. In case anyone was unfamiliar, a difference in a Celcuis degree is around two and a third in Farenheight. Not only does Bell's article make a mountain out of a molehill, he also degrades the idea of a university. He does raise a good point about political corruption of ideas, but the hard data doesn't back up his claims well at all. The only example he gives that denies the possibility of a warming climate are the last ten years of temperature data from scattered weather stations.
I am willing to accept any sort of denial for such a grave view of where the earth is going, but if the most popular source of information against global warming are opinionated articles set more on downgrading people trying to protect the planet from our own mistakes than finding real data of their own.
It makes me wonder, what if Global Warming IS nothing but a giant hoax? Well, all we can be left with after trying to fix the planet is cleaner air, more fuel efficient vehicles and water that doesn't get entire third world countries sick with Cholera. The earth is the only place we have to live, and if there's even a tiny chance it's in danger, isn't that something worth worrying about?
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
"The Day After Tomorrow"
I'm sure a lot of you have seen the movie The Day After Tomorrow, directed by Roland Emmerich with Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal on the cast. Normally I would never be one to bring fictional Hollywood rif-raf into a serious discussion, but what the movie outlines, a destabilization of the mid atlantic current, is actually an event that can happen if warming trends continue. I'm not sure about this destabilization causing such huge, random weather so quickly, but it certainly would affect global climate.
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/oceans.htm
This website explains in official terms what deep ocean currents are, and how they are driven by temperature and salinity. Cold water sinks, so does dense, salty water. Arctic waters are freezing cold, but Equatorial waters are very salty. Currents are driven up and down by surprisingly subtle shifts and balances between salt and temperature.
I believe because of rising temperatures, and falling salinity, a double headed wrench is about to be thrown straight into the middle of our climate stabilizing currents. As the earth warms up, ice melts. This causes the salinity of the water to drop near arctic areas, making these cold waters even less salty, so they will push the current faster. Also, as the earth warms up, more fresh water evaporates from equatorial areas, which in turn makes them more salty, and more dense. This could produce a cycle that can spiral out of control, more heat means more salty areas, and less ice means more freshwater areas. This could completely disrupt these currents, and I imagine the currents wouldn't transport heat nearly as effectively. In fact, if we lose these stabilizing currents, the earth could warm up even more quickly, becoming worse and worse until the only places even close to being comfortable to live in would be the remnants of Greenland or Antarctica.
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/oceans.htm
This website explains in official terms what deep ocean currents are, and how they are driven by temperature and salinity. Cold water sinks, so does dense, salty water. Arctic waters are freezing cold, but Equatorial waters are very salty. Currents are driven up and down by surprisingly subtle shifts and balances between salt and temperature.
I believe because of rising temperatures, and falling salinity, a double headed wrench is about to be thrown straight into the middle of our climate stabilizing currents. As the earth warms up, ice melts. This causes the salinity of the water to drop near arctic areas, making these cold waters even less salty, so they will push the current faster. Also, as the earth warms up, more fresh water evaporates from equatorial areas, which in turn makes them more salty, and more dense. This could produce a cycle that can spiral out of control, more heat means more salty areas, and less ice means more freshwater areas. This could completely disrupt these currents, and I imagine the currents wouldn't transport heat nearly as effectively. In fact, if we lose these stabilizing currents, the earth could warm up even more quickly, becoming worse and worse until the only places even close to being comfortable to live in would be the remnants of Greenland or Antarctica.
Where the Carbon Comes From
I've talked a lot about Greenhouse Gasses today, and in earlier posts, as the likely cause of Global Warming. However I've yet to post anything about where all the extra carbon is coming from other than mentioning "fossil fuels."
http://ceeb.uoregon.edu/Bridgham/pubpdfs/art_24.pdf
This study by John Pastor, Jeremy Solin, Scott D. Bridgham, Karen Updegraff, Cal Harth, Peter Weishampel and Bradley Dewey, explains that "dissolved organic carbon" is released from peatlands, or areas where dissolving dead plant matter which may someday become oil. According to my trusty Biology textbook, written by David Sadava and others, carbon is taken out of the atmosphere when plants intake CO2 and fix it into sugars, so they can make food for themselves. (Life: The Science of Biology. Page 1214-1216) When they break down this food, known as glucose, the Oxygen is released, but the carbon remains fixed within the plants. When they die, they still contain the carbon. overtime, huge areas of plant matter are covered up by sediment, baked in the earth, and this turns into oil. I looked at the numbers, and these fossil fuels account for over 60% of all carbon, ON EARTH. By burning it, we are releasing carbon in amazing amounts, and more burning means more CO2, which mean more reflective, hot, muggy, dangerous greenhouse gasses. Another thing I'd like to point out is that another 20-30% of the carbon is locked up in carbonate minerals and rocks, areas mined for other resources constantly.
At first I was surprised how quickly the earth was growing warmer. Now I'm almost angry. Not only is it looking more and more like the sheer speed of this climate change happening is our fault entirely, but still there are thousands upon thousands of people who refuse to believe it's happening at all, naturally or otherwise. While the article by Solin et Al. explains that the climate areas to be affected most by global warming will be arctic and subarctic areas, I am certain that the billions living in the temperate mid latitudes are going to miss their comfortable mild temperatures and centered climate. Summers will get hotter, winters will get wet and muggy, and eventually people will end up moving north. One of my earlier blogs mentioned that because of axil tilt, changes happen in climate regularly. However, a climate change happening in only centuries, not dozes of millenia, is certainly going to cause something drastic, and our kids will be around to live with it.
http://ceeb.uoregon.edu/Bridgham/pubpdfs/art_24.pdf
This study by John Pastor, Jeremy Solin, Scott D. Bridgham, Karen Updegraff, Cal Harth, Peter Weishampel and Bradley Dewey, explains that "dissolved organic carbon" is released from peatlands, or areas where dissolving dead plant matter which may someday become oil. According to my trusty Biology textbook, written by David Sadava and others, carbon is taken out of the atmosphere when plants intake CO2 and fix it into sugars, so they can make food for themselves. (Life: The Science of Biology. Page 1214-1216) When they break down this food, known as glucose, the Oxygen is released, but the carbon remains fixed within the plants. When they die, they still contain the carbon. overtime, huge areas of plant matter are covered up by sediment, baked in the earth, and this turns into oil. I looked at the numbers, and these fossil fuels account for over 60% of all carbon, ON EARTH. By burning it, we are releasing carbon in amazing amounts, and more burning means more CO2, which mean more reflective, hot, muggy, dangerous greenhouse gasses. Another thing I'd like to point out is that another 20-30% of the carbon is locked up in carbonate minerals and rocks, areas mined for other resources constantly.
At first I was surprised how quickly the earth was growing warmer. Now I'm almost angry. Not only is it looking more and more like the sheer speed of this climate change happening is our fault entirely, but still there are thousands upon thousands of people who refuse to believe it's happening at all, naturally or otherwise. While the article by Solin et Al. explains that the climate areas to be affected most by global warming will be arctic and subarctic areas, I am certain that the billions living in the temperate mid latitudes are going to miss their comfortable mild temperatures and centered climate. Summers will get hotter, winters will get wet and muggy, and eventually people will end up moving north. One of my earlier blogs mentioned that because of axil tilt, changes happen in climate regularly. However, a climate change happening in only centuries, not dozes of millenia, is certainly going to cause something drastic, and our kids will be around to live with it.
Global Warming in Laymens Terms
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/
I found this website while looking for a bit more evidence to support Global Warming as an actual occurrence. It was originally created by NASA, so that immediately struck me as important. On the main page it details what Global Warming is in such simple terms that a fourth grade student with minor understanding of what a climate is could easily make out what is going on.
Climate change has happened before, as one of my earlier posts mentioned, in the form of an ice age/heat wave cycle. This website points out that this time, it's happening much faster than it should be. Carbon taken out of an ecosystem is being unnaturally released when humans burn fossil fuels for energy. The sheer amount of excessive CO2 in the atmosphere is what's killing us. The article from NASA gave me a good reason to believe that Global Warming is real and actually happening, quickly. This terrifies me. I'm only one person among six or seven billion, and half the world doesn't even believe there's something wrong, and I'm sure there are a lot of stubborn people in power.
World Embassy, if you're somehow reading my humble blog, I'd like to point out that the Economic cost of not doing something now can and will cause hundreds of billions of dollars (possibly more) of irreversable damage in the future. Do you like your planet green? I do. I'd like it to stay that way.
I found this website while looking for a bit more evidence to support Global Warming as an actual occurrence. It was originally created by NASA, so that immediately struck me as important. On the main page it details what Global Warming is in such simple terms that a fourth grade student with minor understanding of what a climate is could easily make out what is going on.
Climate change has happened before, as one of my earlier posts mentioned, in the form of an ice age/heat wave cycle. This website points out that this time, it's happening much faster than it should be. Carbon taken out of an ecosystem is being unnaturally released when humans burn fossil fuels for energy. The sheer amount of excessive CO2 in the atmosphere is what's killing us. The article from NASA gave me a good reason to believe that Global Warming is real and actually happening, quickly. This terrifies me. I'm only one person among six or seven billion, and half the world doesn't even believe there's something wrong, and I'm sure there are a lot of stubborn people in power.
World Embassy, if you're somehow reading my humble blog, I'd like to point out that the Economic cost of not doing something now can and will cause hundreds of billions of dollars (possibly more) of irreversable damage in the future. Do you like your planet green? I do. I'd like it to stay that way.
Al Gore Said it First
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0902-our_changing_climate.htm
This video explains how Global Warming, driven by greenhouse gasses, can be powerful enough to shift global habitats as the temperature changes just a few degrees. The meteorologist made a good point in pointing out how species can adapt to a climate change, but in this case it may happen too quickly for the world to respond fast enough. The vast areas that would be left devoid of water because of excessive global warming are a testament to how bad this problem can get. The fact that this study predicts climate shift and entire climate zone's disappearances as early as 2100 makes me want to get up and do something now, because my children will be alive when that happens. I'd like it if they could someday visit the plains of Africa, rather than have nothing but old pictures of them.
As for the African species themselves, what happens if these midland species can adapt? Lions and zebras somehow moving north into the European plains could cause quite a few problems for the populous living there. They will most likely be wiped out by humans before causing any real agricultural problems, or safety hazards, but still, how heartless does that make us? The West Nile Virus, carried by mosquitos, would also become a huge problem, and not so easily stopped. if climate shift pushes zones further north, areas formerly too cool for these mosquitos to thrive would become warmer and muggy, perfect for reproduction. A lot of people would be sick with WNV, or Malaria. Insect spreading could become a huge problem in general, and once locusts make their way out of drier climates, there goes the United States profitable agriculture industry.
Unless we start doing something now, or at least find out how to live with it, this climate change and everything affected from it will become our children's problem. I'm not too cool with that.
This video explains how Global Warming, driven by greenhouse gasses, can be powerful enough to shift global habitats as the temperature changes just a few degrees. The meteorologist made a good point in pointing out how species can adapt to a climate change, but in this case it may happen too quickly for the world to respond fast enough. The vast areas that would be left devoid of water because of excessive global warming are a testament to how bad this problem can get. The fact that this study predicts climate shift and entire climate zone's disappearances as early as 2100 makes me want to get up and do something now, because my children will be alive when that happens. I'd like it if they could someday visit the plains of Africa, rather than have nothing but old pictures of them.
As for the African species themselves, what happens if these midland species can adapt? Lions and zebras somehow moving north into the European plains could cause quite a few problems for the populous living there. They will most likely be wiped out by humans before causing any real agricultural problems, or safety hazards, but still, how heartless does that make us? The West Nile Virus, carried by mosquitos, would also become a huge problem, and not so easily stopped. if climate shift pushes zones further north, areas formerly too cool for these mosquitos to thrive would become warmer and muggy, perfect for reproduction. A lot of people would be sick with WNV, or Malaria. Insect spreading could become a huge problem in general, and once locusts make their way out of drier climates, there goes the United States profitable agriculture industry.
Unless we start doing something now, or at least find out how to live with it, this climate change and everything affected from it will become our children's problem. I'm not too cool with that.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Migration Fixation
Coming up with new titles often result in bad puns, and I apologize for that. Today, on one of my Ecology class trips again, I saw one of the seasons last monarch butterflies making it's way south. I also noticed it was really cold outside. Since monarchs cant survive cold winters, it got me thinking, what if a warmer climate is tricking the butterflies into sticking around later in the season before heading to Mexico. Lo and behold, I found this article: http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603/0046-225X%282007%2936%5B1365%3AENISGO%5D2.0.CO%3B2 by Rebecca V. Batalden, Karen Oberhauser, A. Townsend Peterson. It's a study detailing the monarch butterfly migrations and the implications that climate change can have on these butterflies, as well as other migratory species attempting to escape the fickle cold.
Some of you may have noticed that winters up here in the North East are getting a little harsher. Slightly higher temperatures mean more humidity and thus a lot more snow/rain. Monarchs are killed if they are caught in a frost. The article details that monarch ranges are experiencing shifts as average temperatures get slightly warmer in the transition between summer, fall, and winter. The article also details that the milkweed plants monarch caterpillars feed on are shifting their ranges as well, and this could mean the monarchs end up migrating to the wrong place. Unless they adapt, the indirect results of a shifting climate can cause extinction of monarchs, as well as many migratory bird species that depend on eating them.
I'm not sure about all of you, but I like seeing decent sized orange flits all over my flower plants in my backyard in the summer. I hope they decide to keep their summer home here.
Some of you may have noticed that winters up here in the North East are getting a little harsher. Slightly higher temperatures mean more humidity and thus a lot more snow/rain. Monarchs are killed if they are caught in a frost. The article details that monarch ranges are experiencing shifts as average temperatures get slightly warmer in the transition between summer, fall, and winter. The article also details that the milkweed plants monarch caterpillars feed on are shifting their ranges as well, and this could mean the monarchs end up migrating to the wrong place. Unless they adapt, the indirect results of a shifting climate can cause extinction of monarchs, as well as many migratory bird species that depend on eating them.
I'm not sure about all of you, but I like seeing decent sized orange flits all over my flower plants in my backyard in the summer. I hope they decide to keep their summer home here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)