· filling up thin shell of atmosphere with pollution
· What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know It's what we know for sure that just ain't so-Mark Twain (assumption: the earth is so big that we cannot have any impact on it's environment)
· The most venerable part of the earth's ecological system is the atmosphere because it is so thin. It is thin enough that we are able to change its composition. The sun's radiation comes in the form of light waves and some of the energy (heat that warms the earth) is radiated back into space by the in the form of infrared waves and some of this heat is trapped by the atmosphere wish is good to keep the earth within livable temperatures, but the problem now is that with all the pollution that thickens the atmosphere more of the escaping infra red is trapped.
· Very little of the land of the earth is south of the equator, and most of the vegetation is north of the equator. When the Northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, the leaves come out in the spring and breath in carbon dioxide and the amount goes down. But when the Southern hemisphere is tilted more towards the sun and our fall and winter comes and the leaves fall again, the amount of Co2 goes up again. This is why the amount of Co2 in the atmosphere goes up and down each year.
· Glaciers retreat every single year. There is a very particular problem in the Himalayas because 40% of the people on earth get their drinking water from its glaciers and in the next half a country they will face a very serious problem because of this melting.
· This is not a cyclical phenomenon and it is not just another medieval warming period. There were some medieval warming periods but there heat then does not even come close to compare with what is produced now. When there is more carbon dioxide, the temperature gets warmer because more heat is trapped because of the green house gases (CO2). The levels of Co2 today are about twice as much as any warming period in the last 640,000 years. The temperature trend may look like it goes down in some cases but it is clear that overall it is going up. Infect if you look at the ten hottest years on record you will see that they have occurred in the last 14 years and the hottest of all was 2005.
· One year the temperature was so high that it killed thousands of people in Europe, made the temperature in India up to 50 degrees Celsius, 200 cities and towns in the west of the United States and many of the ones in the east set all time records for hottest day consecutively. The temperature increase is taking place all over the world including in the oceans. When the oceans get warmer, storms become stronger. In 2004 where we had a lot of hurricanes around the world, we also set all time records for tornados (1,717) and typhoons (10 from 7). Science textbooks had to be rewritten because they say that it is impossible to have a hurricane in the south Atlantic but we did that same year in Brazil. When Hurricane Catherina hit Florida, it was a category one and killed a lot of people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage. Before it hit New Orland it went over warmer waters and picked up more energy to become more powerful.
· Global warming not only increases precipitation world wide but it also relocates the precipitation. Global warming not only evaporates water out of the ocean but it also sucks moisture out of the soil.
· 35 Years ago we could drive on the tundra of Alaska 225 days of the year and now it is bellow 75 days a year. This is because the spring comes earlier and the fall comes later and the temperatures just keep on going up. Because of this houses have collapsed or had to be am banded, truck have gotten stuck, and pipe lines have taken damage. Starting in the 1970 the thickness of the Arctic ice cap and its amount dropped by 40% in 40 years. There are scientific studies that are showing that in the next 50 to 70 years it will be completely gone by summer time. When the sun's rays hit the ice caps, more than 90% of it bounces back into space like a mirror, but when it hits the ocean more than 90% of it is absorbed. When the surrounding water gets warmer, it speeds up the melting of the ice. This is not good for creatures like polar bears, and for the first time, polar bears have actually been found that drowned swimming long distances to find some ice.
· This is also concerns us because the earth's heat is distributing its heat from the equator to the poles and it does that with the ocean and wind currents. The world annual temperature is about 58 degrees F. and if it increases by 1 degree at the equator, it will increase 12 at the poles. If the North Pole melts, it will mix in with the clod salt water than the loop that keeps Europe at a mild temperature, ocean conveyer, will seas to work because the cold water will not go back down south at the rate of 5 billion gallons/second because it will not dense and heavy anymore. This will surly bring Europe to an ice age in less than ten years as it did the last time when the ice caps in central North America around Canada did when they melted.
· Global warming also affects the seasons. For example 25 years ago chicks would hatch on June the 3rd just the time the caterpillars came out, and because of global warming the caterpillars peeked 2 weeks earlier and ever though the chicks have tried to catch up they couldn’t, so they are in trouble. Other problems are such as pine beetles that have more time to eat the tree because of fewer days of frost. 14 million of ackers of trees that have been killed by barn beetles. There are cities that have been founded as Nairobi because there are no mosquitoes but now because of warming the mosquitoes are climbing to these higher altitudes. More diseases are appearing, reappearing, and expanding like those who have been controlled because of their source's increase like rats, snail, etc... Coral reefs end up not good to support the fish that depend on then because of this very same issue, global warming. Overall the species lost is occurring at 1000 times greater than the natural rate.
· Land based ice is different from sea based ice. One can compare sea based ice to an ice cube that is sitting on top of a glass of water because when it melts it does not raise the water level, but as for land based ice it is like ice cubes stacked one on top of the other on top of the water level were as when it melts it actually does raise the water level. If just the west of the South Pole were to melt, the sea level worldwide would go up 20 feet. Greenland, a stack of ice almost the same size, would also raise the level of the water almost 20 feet. There are pools forming in the South Pole and in Greenland, and the scientist thought that when that ice fell into the water it would just refreeze but what they found out is that it just keeps sinking in to create Moulins all the way to the bottom. Scientist have predicted that if either west Antarctica or Greenland or half of both were to melt than the maps of the world would have to be redrawn because a lot of the land in the world would flood.
· There are three major factors that keep us using up the earth and polluting. The first is population, and it is predicted that by 2050 the population will be over 9.5 billion which is not far as we can see. People need more energy, food, water, and places were to live. Not only do we cut forest but we burn them. Almost 30% of the Co2 that goes up into the atmosphere each year comes from forest burning. Not only does this lessen the trees to breath in Co2 and breath out oxygen, but it sends green house gases to the atmosphere and thickens it. The second factor is the technological advancement. It was one thing to have old bad hobbits that are hard to change with old technology, but new technology the consequences are unpredictable. This can be seen in war by using the nuclear bomb, and in shovels which have become huge (poclain), and in irrigation where we have completely dried out some rivers without thinking about the consequences. The Unites states is responsible being the one that produces the most Co2 in the world and produces a greater amount than more than half of the countries combined, so we rilly got to think about our actions. The third and final factor is this very thing; people do not respond to this problem that is getting bigger faster each time and that is increasing gradually. People have to pause and do something about the problem, and there are many things to be done about this big worldwide problem. We need to use more efficient electricity, other end-use efficiency, passenger vehicle efficiency, other transport efficiency, renewable, and CCS &supply efficiency. They will bring us bellow our 1970 energy use.
