PERSPECTIVE (Climate)
Always Now | Climate | The Good Life | Gratitude | Healthy Life | Soul Mates | Twin Flames | Vaccine | Velcro
Always Now | Climate | The Good Life | Gratitude | Healthy Life | Soul Mates | Twin Flames | Vaccine | Velcro
Planet Earth & Our Climate
Please Handle With Care
CLIMATE CHANGE & POTENTIAL EFFECTS
We are borrowing the future from our children, and that we must be good stewarts of the environment today in order to return it whole.
Data: Man-made Earth orbiting technology has captured data about climatic changes that enable scientists to see the whole picture. The data shows on a global level that carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases have risen, trapping heat within our atmosphere and causing the greenhouse effect. Data has shown that in levels have risen faster now than any other time in history.
NASA has statistics measuring the vital signs of the plant1. Measurement data taken on: Arctic Sea Ice Minimums, Carbon Dioxide, Sea Level, Global temperature.
Global warming and ozone depletion is only part of the problem. Everything in the world is a balance – humans, who are at the top of the food-chain have no “natural predators.” As a result of our success in survival thus far, human population growth is exploding exponentially. The combination of population growth, medical care and technology has created a way for humans to beat mother-nature, allowing survival in unprecedented numbers.
Population Growth Factor: It took humanity all of existence to reach 1 billion people in the 1800s. There after, doubling of the population is shorter due to the exponential factor2:
We are borrowing the future from our children, and that we must be good stewarts of the environment today in order to return it whole.
Data: Man-made Earth orbiting technology has captured data about climatic changes that enable scientists to see the whole picture. The data shows on a global level that carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases have risen, trapping heat within our atmosphere and causing the greenhouse effect. Data has shown that in levels have risen faster now than any other time in history.
NASA has statistics measuring the vital signs of the plant1. Measurement data taken on: Arctic Sea Ice Minimums, Carbon Dioxide, Sea Level, Global temperature.
- Arctic Sea Ice Minimum is declining at 11.2% per decade (In 2007, Arctic Summer sea has reached their lowest extent ever recorded).
- Carbon Dioxide levels are rising at 389 parts per million (CO2 are at their highest in 650,000 years.
- Sea Levels are increasing 57 mm since 1993 (Global average sea level has risen 4-8 inches over the last decade)
- Global Temperatures at increasing 1.5 degrees F since 1880 (The last decade was the warmest in recorded history)
- Land Ice loss is decreasing at 24 cubic miles per year (doubles between 1996 and 2005)
Global warming and ozone depletion is only part of the problem. Everything in the world is a balance – humans, who are at the top of the food-chain have no “natural predators.” As a result of our success in survival thus far, human population growth is exploding exponentially. The combination of population growth, medical care and technology has created a way for humans to beat mother-nature, allowing survival in unprecedented numbers.
Population Growth Factor: It took humanity all of existence to reach 1 billion people in the 1800s. There after, doubling of the population is shorter due to the exponential factor2:
|
YEAR
1930 1960 Today 2050 |
Human Population
2 billion 3 billion 5 - 7 billion 8 billion |
If we keep this up, the human race will essentially be eating ourselves out of house and home! We will not have enough resources to sustain our current level of consumption.
Cause and effect: It seems to me that nature has an incredible way of maintaining equilibrium – homeostasis, if you will. The life cycle, for instance, allows the Earth’s and all of her inhabitants to maintain ecological equilibrium.
One effect of global warming could result in the melting of polar ice caps, in turn, causing sea levels to rise3. As the glacial fresh waters melt into the oceans, more water surface area is exposed, causing rainfall and snow in the Arctic regions. Additionally, glacial melting is adding fresh water in the ocean system, changing the salinity of ocean waters.
Fresh water is lighter and less dense than salt water, making it more buoyant while it floats on the surface of our oceans. This may impact the movement of ocean currents (“ocean conveyor belt”) as surface waters need to sink in order to drive the ocean’s circulation patterns. Ocean currents provide “temperature control” for the Earth – providing heat to some parts of the world and cool to others.
The consequence of this change may affect weather (parts of Europe and North America, for instance, may see a drop of temperature between 5 to 10°C (9 to 18°F), which doesn’t sound like much, but was the cause of the last ice age about 20,000 years ago.
Another factor with regard to the melting of polar ice is the release of heat-trapping methane and other gases that are trapped underneath these huge glaciers4. Recently, scientists have learned that the microbial habitat trapped under the ice may be released in large quantities. After plants and animals die, bacteria decompose this former life. Methane gases are the product of decomposition. If and when the gases are released due to the ice cap melt, our problem of global warming will be exasperated.
Plankton, the bottom of the food change for our marine creatures, may not be as plentiful since the usual transport of plankton to marine life all over the world is carried by our ocean’s conveyor system. Many of the fish and ocean mammals follow the ocean currents to feed on the plankton that it carries. As such, this may have an effect to higher life forms in the oceans. NASA reports that short-term weather events (such as El Nino) have a dramatic effect on plankton’s distribution in the Pacific Oceans, disrupting the marine food chain. At current, it is not known how changes in ocean circulation will affect the animals in the water5.
1 Global Climate Change, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology http://climate.nasa.gov/
2 Mader, Sylvia, Biology, 10th Edition, New York: McGraw Hill 2010. pages 822-835.
3 Ruth Netting, (April 2010) A Chilling Possibility. Science @ NASA. Retrieved from: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/05mar_arctic/
4 Witze, Alexandra (March 16, 2010). Methane May Be Building Under Antarctic Ice . Science News, Retrieved from: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/antarctic-methane-lakes/
5 The Roles of Ocean in Climate Change. Science @ NASA Retrieved from: https://login.secureserver.net/index.php?app=wbe&logout=1&session_end=1&timeout_id=
One may think, "I'm just one individual among the billions of peopple on Earth. What can I possibly do to make a difference?"
...and then I revert back to something really wise that I heard once: We are borrowing the future from our children, and that we must be good stewarts of the environment today in order to return it whole.
The usual "green" action steps are the following:
It only takes one person to start a cause: person beginning a neighborhood recycle group, or "plant a tree" campaign, or even getting everyone to agree to turn off lights for one hour once a week at a certain time. We need to be able to "see" our ability to change the world by changing the trajectory of our actions. Take a neighborhood of say 50 homes who agree to plant a tree - and multiply that by the neighborhoods within a 10 mile radius and all of a sudden, we've got exponential growth of trees in that one area.
On a larger more global scale, programs and education for women in less developed countries would make an impact on population growth, creating a higher standard of living. Corporate compliance to environmental laws and standards can greatly reduce negative impacts of commercialism. Everyone ought to be educated about what is happening to our planet. This is not a matter of national security, but a matter of global security: without safe-gaurds we are all in danger.
We've got to start small and begin to think of ways to domino the positive (reverse) effect of climate change, global warming. What we do does matter - individually and collectively. We just need to 'give a hoot' be creative and run with it... (rev 11/2010)
Cause and effect: It seems to me that nature has an incredible way of maintaining equilibrium – homeostasis, if you will. The life cycle, for instance, allows the Earth’s and all of her inhabitants to maintain ecological equilibrium.
One effect of global warming could result in the melting of polar ice caps, in turn, causing sea levels to rise3. As the glacial fresh waters melt into the oceans, more water surface area is exposed, causing rainfall and snow in the Arctic regions. Additionally, glacial melting is adding fresh water in the ocean system, changing the salinity of ocean waters.
Fresh water is lighter and less dense than salt water, making it more buoyant while it floats on the surface of our oceans. This may impact the movement of ocean currents (“ocean conveyor belt”) as surface waters need to sink in order to drive the ocean’s circulation patterns. Ocean currents provide “temperature control” for the Earth – providing heat to some parts of the world and cool to others.
The consequence of this change may affect weather (parts of Europe and North America, for instance, may see a drop of temperature between 5 to 10°C (9 to 18°F), which doesn’t sound like much, but was the cause of the last ice age about 20,000 years ago.
Another factor with regard to the melting of polar ice is the release of heat-trapping methane and other gases that are trapped underneath these huge glaciers4. Recently, scientists have learned that the microbial habitat trapped under the ice may be released in large quantities. After plants and animals die, bacteria decompose this former life. Methane gases are the product of decomposition. If and when the gases are released due to the ice cap melt, our problem of global warming will be exasperated.
Plankton, the bottom of the food change for our marine creatures, may not be as plentiful since the usual transport of plankton to marine life all over the world is carried by our ocean’s conveyor system. Many of the fish and ocean mammals follow the ocean currents to feed on the plankton that it carries. As such, this may have an effect to higher life forms in the oceans. NASA reports that short-term weather events (such as El Nino) have a dramatic effect on plankton’s distribution in the Pacific Oceans, disrupting the marine food chain. At current, it is not known how changes in ocean circulation will affect the animals in the water5.
1 Global Climate Change, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology http://climate.nasa.gov/
2 Mader, Sylvia, Biology, 10th Edition, New York: McGraw Hill 2010. pages 822-835.
3 Ruth Netting, (April 2010) A Chilling Possibility. Science @ NASA. Retrieved from: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/05mar_arctic/
4 Witze, Alexandra (March 16, 2010). Methane May Be Building Under Antarctic Ice . Science News, Retrieved from: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/antarctic-methane-lakes/
5 The Roles of Ocean in Climate Change. Science @ NASA Retrieved from: https://login.secureserver.net/index.php?app=wbe&logout=1&session_end=1&timeout_id=
One may think, "I'm just one individual among the billions of peopple on Earth. What can I possibly do to make a difference?"
...and then I revert back to something really wise that I heard once: We are borrowing the future from our children, and that we must be good stewarts of the environment today in order to return it whole.
The usual "green" action steps are the following:
- reduce, reuse, recycle: including buying items 2nd hand, if possible.
- save electricity: turning off the lights means not spending a resource we aren't actually using
- bike, bus, walk: biking and walk completely eliminates pollutants. Carpooling and busing when we absolutely need to get somewhere farther than we are able to walk or bike can eliminate air pollution and burning of resources.
- plant trees: growing producers and allowing them to make use of photosynthesis may help to reduce CO2, increasing oxygen in the air.
- Solar energy: the sun's energy is shining brightly on us anyway, why not harness this power rather than spending energy to "dig up" fossils fuels...
- Energy efficient appliances: cahnging our lifestyle to machines that consume less energy means less waste.
- Eat Less meat: Better for one's health, better for the environment (it takes a significant amount of resources to farm and grow an naimal for consumption).
It only takes one person to start a cause: person beginning a neighborhood recycle group, or "plant a tree" campaign, or even getting everyone to agree to turn off lights for one hour once a week at a certain time. We need to be able to "see" our ability to change the world by changing the trajectory of our actions. Take a neighborhood of say 50 homes who agree to plant a tree - and multiply that by the neighborhoods within a 10 mile radius and all of a sudden, we've got exponential growth of trees in that one area.
On a larger more global scale, programs and education for women in less developed countries would make an impact on population growth, creating a higher standard of living. Corporate compliance to environmental laws and standards can greatly reduce negative impacts of commercialism. Everyone ought to be educated about what is happening to our planet. This is not a matter of national security, but a matter of global security: without safe-gaurds we are all in danger.
We've got to start small and begin to think of ways to domino the positive (reverse) effect of climate change, global warming. What we do does matter - individually and collectively. We just need to 'give a hoot' be creative and run with it... (rev 11/2010)
