Environment Diary #1
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posted by Mr. Enns at
8:38 PM
Geography 12
Heritage Christian School's Geography 12 Blog
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PLASTIC BAGS FLY INTO ENVIRONMENTAL STORM
resource: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/14/fsummit.climate.plasticbags/
“In recent months, environmental campaigners have been focusing their ire on the once guiltless plastic bag, publicly declaring it the nemesis of all that is green and good. It has also become a powerful symbol of how neglectful and profligate modern society has become. Campaigns to rid the streets of the supermarket bag are thriving. Only this week in the UK all 33 London boroughs gave their backing to a Parliamentary Bill which seeks to make law an outright ban on free throwaway plastic bags. The move comes after Modbury, a small town in Devon, UK gained much publicity when it banned plastic bags back in May 2007. Cities far and wide are beginning to implement a ban. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh banned plastic bags in 2002 and in March this year San Francisco followed suit. For the last five years, the Republic of Ireland has imposed a nationwide tax of 15 cents on all supermarket shopping bags and in 2008 the Australia government will start a similar program.”
Who: Environmental Campaigners against plastic bags
What: The environmental campaigners are trying to pass a bill against plastic bags, and ban them from stores. They want to rid the streets of supermarket bags, and keep the environment a healthier place.
Where: Started in Modbury, and moved to London, Dhaka, Bangladesh, San Francisco, and Ireland.
When: November 16th 2007
Why: the plastic bag is an unnecessary resource we use everyday. It is hazardous to the environment, and people are beginning to realize something needs to be done for “all that is green and good”.
How: A bill is being passed, along with campaigners protesting against the plastic bag.
To get rid of an unnecessary hazard to the environment is something that I would be willing to protest against. The issue stands to weather or not the parliament will accept a ruling against the plastic bags. It is a very common resource that is used, and produced every single day by the millions. Yet when thrown into the environment it can be considered very hazardous to animals, water systems, growth etc... because it is not biodegradable so it is constantly adding bad chemicals to the environment. I think that it is a smart idea to pass a bill that bans plastic bags. Who knows, maybe one day the entire world will be willing to take up this law, and no longer use plastic bags. It will save the environment from further destruction, and it is something that people can easily substitute for bags that are not made of plastic. Overall what they are protesting should be taken seriously, and put to action everywhere across the world to save the environment..
-Candace Tripke
Acidifying Oceans
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/38419
Summary:
Who: Oceans being Acidified
What: The ocean has been absorbing the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Over the past two centuries scientists estimate that the ocean has absorbed 40% of the carbon dioxide we've emitted. But the ocean’s absorption of the carbon dioxide comes at a high price because in water, carbon dioxide turns into carbonic acid. This acid is making life very difficult for the ocean’s shelled creatures because the acid is dissolving their shells. In 2300 the pH of the global ocean is expected to change from 8.0 to 7.0, the bordering line between alkalinity and acidity. "We do not know with certainty what the consequences will be," says Ken Caldeira, "But we are now adding carbon so fast that, chances are, the disturbance to the ocean will be even more extreme."
Where: The Oceans
When: October 16, 2008
Why: It is a byproduct of the ocean’s performance as a regulator of the planets geochemistry. As the carbon dioxide we emit rises in the atmosphere, the ocean takes care of the excess. But the Ocean’s absorption comes at a price because in water, carbon dioxide turns into carbonic acid.
How: This issue will eventually be solved when rain falling on the land slowly weathers rock into acid-buffering compounds, which will wash into rivers that empty into the seas.
My Opinion: I think more awareness should be raised on this issue of the acidifying oceans. More people need to know the affect that they are having on the environment. I think we all need to do everything that we can to lower our carbon dioxide emissions. Whether it be burning less fossil fuels, less deforestation or planting more trees, we need to do something to lower the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. In the end, this will have a huge affect on us; we would lose not only our huge ocean-based industries, but also one of our large sources of water. We need to do something about it.
-Ashleigh Miller
"Coral Reefs"
http://www.globalissues.org/article/173/coral-reefs
“One type of ecosystem that perhaps is neglected more than any other is perhaps also the richest in biodiversity -- the Coral Reefs. Reefs are useful to the environment and to people in a number of ways. However, all around the world, much of the world's marine biodiversity face threats from human and activities as well as natural. It is feared that very soon, many reefs could die off.”
Summary:
Who: The Coral Reefs
What: Coral reefs are dying all around the world. It is said that 20% of the world's coral reefs have been effectively destroyed and show no immediate prospects of recovery. Already 95% of Jamaica’s reefs are either dying or are already dead.
When: December 28th, 2004
Where: All across the world
Why: All around the world, much of the world's marine biodiversity face threats from activities and events such as coastal development, overfishing, inland pollution, and global climate change. But the major emerging threat to coral reefs in the last decade has been coral bleaching and mortality associated with global climate change. It is believed that almost all species of corals were affected by high sea surface temperatures during 1998 which led to global coral bleaching and mortality.
How: If climate change is not stopped, coral bleaching is set to steadily increase in frequency and intensity all over the world until it occurs annually by 2030 - 2070. This would devastate coral reefs globally to such an extent that they could be eliminated from most areas of the world by 2100.
My Opinion: What a devastating thought to think about. What would become of the oceans if all of the coral reefs were destroyed? Well we better start thinking about that because if we don’t get our act together and fight global warming, there’s a very high possibility that the coral reefs will no longer exist in a short period of time. If this happens, it could take hundreds of years to recover. This would cause billions of dollars in lost revenue from tourism and fishing industries. Not to mention that many species of fish and other under water life would suffer greatly due to the loss of these fragile ecosystems.
~Lauren Kennelly
Rebekah McMurphy
Geography 12
US NAVY PLANS FOR LOUD SONAR RAISES FEAR FOR WHALES :
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/08/0815_wirenavyboom.html
(written by : Brad Knickerbocker)
Who: The US Navy and the survival of orcas, whales and other marine animals.
What: The Navy's Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System uses underwater microphones to listen for submarines. They use 18 speakers the size of cars to get an echo back from subs over large areas of water. The navy doesn’t think much damage would be done to the creatures, but Marsh Green, president of the Ocean Mammal Institute and animal behavior specialist says "There is a significant body of research showing that whales avoid underwater sounds starting at 110 to 120 decibels. And that the sonar sound field around the transmitting ship will be 180 decibels up to one kilometer (0.6 miles) away and 150 to 160 decibels up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) away," Marsh Green also added that many marine animals will be exposed to LFA sonar levels capable of causing stranding and, possibly, lung hemorrhaging over large areas of the ocean.
When: Going on since around 2006 and 2007, and continues.
Where: Mostly the waters of the San Juan Islands]
Why: The Navy's growing frustration over environmental and other regulations that officials say are hampering their efforts to protect national security. They say that hundreds of men could die from a submarine crash, because of the weaponry that will be carried in even deeper waters for security. But environmentalists don’t think it’s just by coincidence that in several cases, groups of whales and dolphins have run ashore and died in the vicinity of naval maneuvers involving sonar. And that sixteen whales beached themselves in the Bahamas last summer, shortly after the Navy conducted active sonar exercises in the vicinity. Volunteers pushed most of the whales back into the ocean, but seven died; apparently victims of sound pressure that caused cranial hemorrhaging
How: The National Marine Fisheries Service (responsible for protecting endangered species at sea) is considering the Navy's request to deploy the new sonar system, and the agency is expected to issue its ruling soon. Meanwhile, environmentalists and opponents in Congress and in some coastal states (including California and Maine) are fighting the request.
My Opinion: I personally don’t know what to think about the whole situation. I feel for the danger of the orcas and whales that could die, and that are already endangered. But I understand the need for the marines, and the Navy ships to be safe. I would rather have some marine animals die then hundreds of men on a ship. I hope they can find a new way to communicate that will be just as efficient or more efficient and won’t harm the animals underwater.
Jesse Ord
Geography 12
Oct 17
Mongolian gold rush destroying nomadic rivers and way of life!
A mining boom in Mongolia is threatening to devastate the country's rivers and is forcing nomadic herders to abandon their land and traditional way of life, local activists warn.
As mining companies scramble to extract Mongolia's vast deposits of gold and other minerals, government regulations—including laws stipulating that mining not be done next to rivers—are being violated or even ignored, environmentalists claim extraction methods, such as dredging, river diversion, and the use of high-pressure water cannons to dismantle hillsides, have damaged rural landscapes along rivers such as the Onggi, which supports 60,000 nomadic herders and one million head of livestock.
Rivers now run dry in some areas, making it more difficult to find water for thirsty animals, according to nomadic herders. They say using the alternative water source—groundwater potentially contaminated by mercury and other mining pollution—is alarming as well.
"Our way of life is threatened," said Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, a Mongolian nomadic herder and National Geographic Emerging Explorer.
Who: Stefan Lovgren
What: new types of mining methods are ruining mongolian rivers and turning the nomadic people away from their traditions
Where: along the Onggi River, Mongolia
When: October 17 2008
Why: new drilling and panning methods are threatening the traditional ways of life.
How: Nothing as of yet. I would assume the govourment will step in and stop this.
My Opinion: I think that the price of gold is not worth the price on the 60,000 herders in the area and I think that the mining companies should ensure the continuation of the nomadic way of life before they continue to mine.
Rising Temperatures May Dry Up Bogs, Causing Carbon Release
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/science/14obpeat.html?_r=1&ref=environment&oref=slogin
"It’s increasingly clear that the effects of climate change will be felt — or are already being felt — in all corners of the globe, in all kinds of ecosystems.
Even, it appears, in peat bogs. A study in Nature Geoscience suggests that northern bogs may lose a significant portion of their peat as global temperatures rise. Organic matter in the peat will decompose, releasing carbon into the atmosphere.
Ordinarily peat bogs are a huge carbon sink. They consist of marsh grasses, trees and other organic matter that, because of the wet, oxygen-starved conditions, don’t decay much. What’s more, peat generally begets more peat: because it holds so much water and blocks drainage, as it accumulates the water table rises, reducing decay even further.
This water table-peat interaction is what scientists call a positive feedback loop. Takeshi Ise of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and colleagues looked at what would happen to this process when environmental conditions change.
Using data from bogs in northern Manitoba, the researchers simulated the effects of warming by seven degrees Fahrenheit. They found that higher temperatures would in effect reverse the feedback loop: the water table would drop, causing more peat to dry and decompose.
Over hundreds of years, their simulation suggests, 40 percent of organic carbon could be lost from bogs where the peat layer is shallow, while in deep bogs, the losses would be as much as 86 percent."
Who:Researchers and Takeshi Ise of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
What:Bogs around the world are losing a huge portion of peat as temperatures rise. From this, organic matter decomposing and releases dangerous amounts of carbon into our atmosphere.
Where:Northern Manitoba and bogs around the world.
When:Now and within the next few hundred years.
Why:It is happening because of Global Warming increasing global temperatures.
How:Bogs are a carbon sink so when they heat up, more carbon is released. In order to resolve this problem, we need to find a way to stop Global Warming.
My Opinion:As you can see, the affects of Global Warming are more than most people think and are dangerously fast in spreading around. As an entire world, we need to figure out a way to resolve our problems with Global Warming to cut down on the amount of carbon being released. Up to 86% of stored carbon could be released into earth's atmosphere, proving toxic for all humans and animals. In order to survive, the human race must find a way to resolve this and fast.
Caleb Ward
Geography 12
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/science/14road.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Thinking Anew About a Migratory Barrier: Roads
By JIM ROBBINS
Published: October 13, 2008
SALTESE, Mont. — Dr. Chris Servheen spends a lot of time mulling a serious scientific question: why didn’t the grizzly bear cross the road?
Dr. Chris Servheen, top, of the Fish and Wildlife Service is studying using highway underpasses as crossings.
The future of the bear may depend on the answer.
The mountains in and around Glacier National Park teem with bears. A recently concluded five-year census found 765 grizzlies in northwestern Montana, more than three times the number of bears as when it was listed as a threatened species in 1975. To the south lies a swath of federally protected wilderness much larger than Yellowstone, where the habitat is good, and there are no known grizzlies. They were wiped out 50 years ago to protect sheep.
One of the main reasons they have not returned is Interstate 90.
To arrive from the north, a bear would have to climb over a nearly three-foot high concrete Jersey barrier, cross two lanes of road, braving 75- to 80-mile-an hour traffic, climb a higher Jersey barrier, cross two more lanes of traffic and climb yet another barrier.
“It’s the most critical wildlife corridor in the country,” said Dr. Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, of the linkage between the two habitats.
As traffic grows beyond 3,000 vehicles a day, crossing a road becomes extremely difficult. The 13 miles of Interstate 90 here, where grizzly bears would most likely cross, has 8,000 to 10,000 vehicles a day, and so is impermeable much of the time. And it is not just bears — wolves, wolverine and a host of other species roam here.
In recent years scientists have come to understand the marked changes brought by the roads that crisscross the landscape.
Some experts believe that habitat fragmentation, the slicing and dicing of large landscapes into small pieces with roads, homes and other development, is the biggest of all environmental problems. “By far,” said Dr. Michael Soulé, a retired biologist and founder of the Society for Conservation Biology. “It’s bigger than climate change. While the serious effects from climate change are 30 years away, there’s nothing left to save then if we don’t deal with fragmentation. And the spearhead of fragmentation are roads.”
Fragmentation cuts off wildlife from critical habitat, including food, security or others of their species for reproduction and genetic diversity. Eventually they disappear.
There are some four million miles of roads affecting 20 percent of the country, and in the last 10 years the new field of road ecology has emerged to study the many impacts of roads, and how to mitigate the damage.
“Roads are the largest human artifact on the planet,” said Dr. Richard T. T. Forman, a professor of landscape ecology at Harvard, who brought road ecology from Europe to the United States. He is the editor of the definitive text on the field, “Road Ecology: Science and Solutions” (Island Press, 2003).
One of the first projects in this country to ameliorate the effect of roads was on Florida’s Alligator Alley on I-75. A series of 24 underpasses restored water flow to the Everglades and allowed wildlife to safely migrate. The changes reduced the mortality of Florida panthers — of which there were only around 50 — from 4 per year to 1.5.
Now, the number of ecologically sensitive road designs built or under way in the country is in the hundreds. In Amherst, Mass., salamanders emerge from hibernation in the mud on the first rainy night of April. “They come up and go screaming across the street to their breeding pond and have an orgy,” Dr. Forman said.
So many were being killed that locals stopped traffic on the night they emerged to let them cross safely. In 1987 engineers placed a tunnel under the road, with two fences to funnel the amphibians to the crossing.
The gold standard for wildlife-friendly roads is in Banff National Park in the mountains of western Canada. The country’s major highway, Trans-Canada 1, passes through the park, and with 25,000 vehicles per day, wildlife vehicle collisions were very frequent.
There are 24 crossings (all but two underpasses) and they have reduced collisions with ungulates by 96 percent and all large mammals by 80 percent.
In the last few years the concept has become an integral part of roads, helped by a 2005 federal transportation bill that mandated green road design. “You name it, there’s something being done, even with insects,” said Dr. Patricia Cramer, a research biologist at Utah State University who surveyed hundreds of domestic projects.
Such mitigation is especially critical for 21 protected species for which highway mortality is a major factor in survival, including the lynx and the desert tortoise.
Ending direct mortality, though, is only one aspect of road-caused fragmentation.
The jury is still out on how well restored connectivity works to keep a diverse gene pool and maintain long-term viability. A study in California, along the 16-lane Santa Monica Freeway (one of the busiest in the country, with 150,000 vehicle trips per day), found that bobcats and coyotes used existing underpasses — not designed for wildlife — to get to the other side. The highway, however, crowded home ranges together; the newcomers were fiercely challenged and did not stay long enough to breed.
The importance of preventing or undoing fragmentation has led to a swarm of environmental groups taking on connectivity — preserving the ability of wildlife to move — as an issue. Dr. Soulé, for example, is a founder of the Wildlands Project, an effort to protect corridors on large landscapes.
One reason the issue has gotten attention is that it involves human safety. One million to two million wildlife-vehicle collisions occur each year, costing insurance companies more than $1 billion. Some 200 people are killed.
The increasing impermeability of roads comes as the climate changes and the need to cross roads become more crucial.
Vegetation communities here are projected to migrate north, which means grizzlies will need to be able to follow. “Shrub fields where berries are is a good example,” Dr. Servheen said. “If dry weather wipes them out, the bears need to go elsewhere.”
The problem is they might not be able to follow. “We’ve boxed them in” with roads, he said.
Roads have ecological impacts besides fragmenting habitat. Warm asphalt and rain that washes to the shoulder nourish roadside grass, and along with salt used to de-ice roads, the grass attracts deer and other wildlife. As deer get clobbered, they in turn attract predators and scavengers, like bald eagles, which then get hit by cars.
But the downside of mitigating road impact, said Trisha White, the director of the Habitat and Highways Campaign for Defenders of Wildlife, is thinking that it heals all wounds. “The biggest danger is thinking that we can put in new roads with crossings and things will be just fine,” she said. “There are so many more impacts. Nothing could be more incorrect.”
Still, crossings do help. Dr. Servheen has set up heat- and motion-sensitive cameras under two highway bridges here where bears could cross under I-90, but they have not yet captured grizzlies using these crossings. But, he is hoping that somehow bears will move south.
“Another population will make the species more resilient to change,” he said. “Whether it’s a reduction in genetics or climate change, it will help with survival.”
Summary:
Who: Grizzly Bears and other animals
What: The Grizzly Bear migratory patterns have been destroyed thanks to roads going through north-western Montana.
When: Published: October 13, 2008
Where: North-West Montana.
Why: The bears are trapped in a small unprotected area and just across the highway is a reserve larger than Yellowstone. This being said nothing has been done to help the bears. Instead the bears have to deal with high Jersey barriers and four lanes of 75 – 80 mile per hour traffic.
How: This issue would be easily solved by placing more overpasses and tunnels so that the bears can move south.
I feel that this is an issue that could quickly be dealt with and should be dealt with. It would take only a small amount of resources to do fix this problem for good. Instead money is wasted as people have to pay for collisions and the loss of an endangered species.
Endangered San Bernardino Kangaroo Rat Hops Closer to Extinction: Habitat Slashed by Feds
http://www.enn.com/press_releases/2685
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Friday finalized a dramatic reduction in habitat designated as critical for the survival of the charismatic and declining San Bernardino kangaroo rat. The proposal would designate a total of only 7,779 acres of habitat, a 76-percent reduction from the current designation of 33,295 acres.
“The Bush administration has escalated its relentless attack on endangered species in its waning days,”� said Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Discarding over three-quarters of the San Bernardino kangaroo rat’s habitat will accelerate this charming little animal’s slide to extinction. The science simply does not support this absurd designation.”
Who: Endangered San Bernardino Kangaroo Rat
What: The Bush administration is cutting 3 quarters of the Kangaroo Rats habitat acres of land.
When: October 20, 2008 10:18 AM
Where: San Bernardino, California
Why: This species is endangered because of the reduction of there land habitat.
How: If they don't give the acres of land back for the rat it will slide to extinction.
In my opinion the bush administration is finally doing something smart. With the economic problems going on in the states, saving some money that is only going to some stupid rats is wise. What I don't agree with would be if the money that is saved from cutting the habitat for this animal is used on frivolous things that I believe would be wrong. But if they are using it toward to help them in this troubled time and the people of the united states country then i must agree with it.
-------- Amber Axenty
Andrei Eremia
Geography 12
NASA STUDY FINDS RISING ARCTIC STORM ACTIVITY SWAYS SEA ICE, CLIMATE
Resource:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/2008/2008100627645.html
A new NASA study shows that the rising frequency and intensity of arctic storms over the last half century, attributed to progressively warmer waters, directly provoked acceleration of the rate of arctic sea ice drift, long considered by scientists as a bellwether of climate change.
NASA researcher Sirpa Hakkinen of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and colleagues from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass., and the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia, set out to confirm a long-standing theory derived from model results that a warming climate would cause an increase in storminess. Their observational approach enabled them to not only link climate to storminess, but to also connect increasing trends in arctic storminess and the movement of arctic ice -- the frozen ocean water that floats on the Arctic's surface. Results from their study as well as what they could mean for future climate change appeared this month in the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters.
"Gradually warming waters have driven storm tracks -- the ocean paths in the Atlantic and Pacific along which most cyclones travel -- northward. We speculate that sea ice serves as the 'middleman' in a scenario where increased storm activity yields increased stirring winds that will speed up the Arctic's transition into a body of turbulently mixing warm and cool layers with greater potential for deep convection that will alter climate further," said Hakkinen. "What I find truly intriguing about confirming the link between the rise in storminess and increased sea ice drift is the possibility that new sinks for carbon dioxide may emerge from this relationship that could function as negative feedback for global warming."
Hakkinen and colleagues analyzed 56 years of storm track data from earlier studies and annual data on atmospheric wind stress, an established indicator of storm activity, that is generated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The data confirmed an accelerating trend in storm activity in the Arctic from 1950 to 2006. Acknowledging ice as a harbinger of climate change, they next analyzed ice drift data collected during the same 56-year period from drifting stations and after 1979 from drifting buoys positioned around the Arctic that measured surface air temperature and sea level pressure.
The team found that the pace of sea ice movement along the Arctic Ocean's Transpolar Drift Stream from Siberia to the Atlantic Ocean accelerated in both summer and winter during the 55-year period. The accelerating pace of sea ice drift coincided with an increase in wind stress. Because the surface wind is known to be the "driving force" behind the movement of sea ice, they concluded that the increase in arctic storminess and the sea ice drift speeds are linked. The finding could reinforce the critical role changes in the Arctic Ocean play in global ocean circulation and climate change.
"Ice is a very simple medium. It really is highly responsive to atmospheric forcing, a great test bed for studies like ours. Sea ice is a bellwether of climate change," said Hakkinen. "Several analyses of sea level pressures suggest increased storm activity, but some of these reports are contradictory. We used a different approach to get to the bottom of this by looking at changes in wind stress and sea ice drift rather than sea level pressure as others had done. We identified a new trend -- an increase in the magnitude of surface wind stresses over the 56-year period that tells us that storm activity and sea ice movement are connected through a cause-and-effect relationship. We didn't have solid proof until now. This relationship holds major importance for the stability of the Arctic Ocean, and the mixing of warmer and cooler layers of its water."
Progressively stronger storms over the Transpolar Drift Stream forced sea ice to drift increasingly faster in a matter of hours after the onset of storms. After analyzing past data from ground-based stations based in northern Alaska, on the mobile Fletcher's Ice Island, and in North Pole area's formerly claimed by then-Soviet Union, and others scattered across the Arctic by the International Arctic Buoy Program, Hakkinen and colleagues reported an increase over 56 years in maximum summer sea ice speeds from about 20 centimeters per second to more than 60 centimeters per second, and wintertime speeds from about 15 centimeters per second to about 50 centimeters per second.
The moving sea ice forces the ocean to move which sets off significantly more mixing of the upper layers of the ocean than would occur without the "push" from the ice. The increased mixing of the ocean layer forces a greater degree of ocean convection, and instability that offers negative feedback to climate warming. Globally, oceans absorb about 30 percent of the carbon dioxide carried by the atmosphere. According to the new findings by Hakkinen and her colleagues, the Arctic's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide could climb.
Hakkinen believes the study's approach also holds relevance for testing scientific computer models. "Twentieth century model simulations of storm activity and carbon dioxide scenario simulations from the last half century will be a test for climate change prediction models to see if they produce results in line with ours," she said.
"Although it remains to be seen how this may ultimately play out in the future, the likelihood this increasing trend and link between storminess and ice drift could expand the Arctic's role as a sink for extracting fossil fuel-generated carbon dioxide from the air is simply fascinating," said Hakkinen. "If it unfolds in the way we suppose, this scenario could, of course, affect the whole climate system and its evolution."
Summary:
Who: NASA researcher Sirpa Hakkinen of Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and colleagues from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass., and the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia
What: A new NASA study shows that the rising frequency and intensity of arctic storms over the last half century, attributed to progressively warmer waters, directly provoked acceleration of the rate of arctic sea ice drift, long considered by scientists as a bellwether of climate change.
Where: The Arctic.
When: October 6, 2008
Why: Because of global warming.
How: The moving sea ice forces the ocean to move which sets off significantly more mixing of the upper layers of the ocean than would occur without the "push" from the ice. The increased mixing of the ocean layer forces a greater degree of ocean convection, and instability that offers negative feedback to climate warming. Globally, oceans absorb about 30 percent of the carbon dioxide carried by the atmosphere. According to the new findings by Hakkinen and her colleagues, the Arctic's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide could climb.
WILDERNESS COMMITTEE PLANS LEGISLATURE PROTEST
Article:
"Victoria -- Environmentalists are turning to cyberspace to help organize a large protest set for this Saturday morning.
The Wilderness Committee says 1,300 people have logged onto Facebook or sent e-mails confirming they will attend the march through downtown Victoria to the steps of the legislature.
Organizers hope as many as 3,000 protesters will turn up for the "Rally for Ancient Forests and B.C. Jobs," making it the largest environmental demonstration in B.C. since 1993."
Who:Evironmentalists
What: A group of environmentalists looking for help in the online world to protest on the steps of the legislative. Largest protest of it's kind since 1993.
When: 21st October 2008
Where: Downtown Victoria
Why: The group will be protesting for the rights of Ancient BC forests as well as Jobs in British Columbia.
How: By gathering together 1,800 environmentalists and another 1,300who have by email (facebook) said they will be attending.
My Thoughts:
I fully agree with the ideas of the environmentalists and their protest. I believe that we as Canadians can and should use our voices to tell the government what we feel we need. For example, the field trip our class went on is a prime example of a forest that must be protected and this is the kind of stuff these environmentalists are aiming towards. I believe that events such as the one in the article should recieve more attention and should be taken quite seriously.
-Werstuik
by Staff Writers
Los Angeles (AFP) Mar 15, 2006
Up to one million liters (267,000 gallons) of oil have leaked from a damaged pipeline in Alaska's North Slope, the worst spill in the region's history, authorities said Tuesday.
The leak, apparently caused by metal corrosion, was detected March 2 in the United States' largest oil field in Prudhoe Bay, which lies about 1,040 kilometers (650 miles) north of Alaska's biggest city, Anchorage.
In its latest report on the incident, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation estimated that 760,000 to one million liters (201,000 to 267,000 gallons) of oil have spilled into 0.8 hectare (1.93 acres) of tundra and frozen lake surface.
who- Staff writers of Los Angeles
what- Oil Spill
Where- In Alaska
when- Mar 15, 2006
why- caused by metal corrosion.
how- leaked from a damaged pipeline in Alaska's North Slope.
"Hurricane Rita"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Rita
october 21, 2007
Who: 23 people and a bus with 45 nursing home evacuees from Brighton Gardens
What: On the morning of 23 people were killed when a bus carrying 45 nursing home evacuees from Brighton Gardens erupted into flames and exploded. Many of the passengers were mobility-impaired making escape difficult or impossible.
Where: Bellaire, Texas Interstate on 45 in Wilmer, southeast of Dallas.
When: September 23, 2007
How: The fire started in the brake system, and the passengers' therapeutic oxygen tanks may have caused the bus to explode because of the winds from Hurricane Rita.
'HURRICANE RITA'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Rita
Hurricane Rita
Who: 23 people and a bus with 45 nursing home evacuees from Brighton Gardens
What: On the morning of 23 people were killed when a bus carrying 45 nursing home evacuees from Brighton Gardens erupted into flames and exploded. Many of the passengers were mobility-impaired making escape difficult or impossible.
Where: Bellaire, Texas Interstate on 45 in Wilmer, southeast of Dallas.
When: September 23, 2007
How: The fire started in the brake system, and the passengers' therapeutic oxygen tanks may have caused the bus to explode because of the winds from Hurricane Rita.
chankim
NASA DATA SHOW ARCTIC SAW FASTEST AUGUST SEA ICE RETREAT ON RECORD
resource:http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/2008/2008092627616.html
when:September 26, 2008
where:ARCTIC
what:that for a four-week period in August 2008, sea ice melted faster during that period than ever before.
why: that reduced cloud cover in 2007 allowed more sunlight to reach Earth, contributing to a measureable amount of sea ice melt at the surface. Reduced cloud cover also contributed to warmer ocean surface temperatures that led to melting of the ice from below.
how:need more than just one winter of cooling for the ice to recover to the average extent observed since the measurements began. But the trend is going the other way. A warming Arctic causes the surface water to get warmer, which delays the onset of freeze up in the winter and leads to a shorter period of ice growth. Without the chance to thicken, sea ice becomes thinner and more vulnerable to continued melt."
Acid rain has lingering impact on Canadian lakes: study
Last Updated: Thursday, November 27, 2008 | 2:32 PM ET
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/11/27/calcium-lakes.html
Who: Water Fleas and acidity in Canadian Lakes
What: Scientists are testing the lakes for acid and calcium levels, as well as water flea fossils.
When: November 27, 2008
Where: Lakes all over North America. Especially in the Canadian Shield.
Why: They are doing it to avoid the butterfly effect. You see, if they didn’t take care of the fleas, then the animals that eat the fleas will die. If acid rain lowers the calcium and all the fleas die it’ll effect the ecosystem.
How: They are conducing tests, raising awareness, planning future tests to fix the problem.
My Opinion: I think what they are doing is smart. Just because if the butterfly effect takes action, then who knows how many animals will die, and with that, what if it eventually starts killing off humans because we don’t have any meat. I think all people should read this article, so they can be aware.
-Maegan Knorr
Jamie Fielder
Arctic polar bears going hungry
Published: Tuesday, January 06, 2009
www.globaltv.com/globaltv/national/science/story.html?id=1147427
Polar bears in the western Arctic are finding it increasingly difficult to find food during the critical spring period, a recent study suggests.
Seth Cherry, a PhD candidate working with University of Alberta scientist Andrew Derocher, came to the conclusion after comparing blood samples taken from polar bears in 1985-86 and comparing them to samples taken two decades later when sea ice cover was near or at record lows.
By measuring the ratio of urea to creatinine -- waste materials found in bears that are byproducts of metabolism -- scientists can tell whether an animal is fasting.
Mature males will often fast in the spring when they are spending almost all their energy searching for females. So it was not surprising to find that some of these animals were not eating for considerable periods of time.
The blood samples, however, showed a sharp increase 20 years later in the number of bears that were fasting.
What's more, they were doing it for longer periods of time. It didn't matter how old the bear was or whether it was male or female -- nearly a third of the bears sampled were going without food longer than they normally would.
University of Alberta and Environment Canada scientists did the study, which was recently published in the journal Polar Biology.
Sea ice in the Arctic has been thinning. Records for low ice cover were set in 2005 -- and again in 2007, when the Northwest Passage was ice-free for the first time in recorded human history.
In the Beaufort Sea, the spring meltdown in the Arctic began an average 13 days earlier between 2000 and 2005 than it did throughout the 1980s.
Canadian Wildlife Service scientist Ian Stirling was the one who collected the blood samples back in 1985-86. He and other scientists have suggested that this early thaw and rapid meltdown in the Arctic will make polar bears, narwhal and hooded seals particularly vulnerable because their life cycles are so closely tied to the ice. Without ice as a platform to hunt seals, polar bears are deprived of ringed seals, the mainstay of their diet.
Ringed seals could also be vulnerable because they need stable ice cover to nurse their pups in spring.
As the ice has been thinning in the western Arctic, polar bears have been drowning, observations of cannibalism have been increasing and bears in Alaska that used to have dens on the ice are now shifting to dens on land. The sighting of nine polar bears swimming 20 to 100 kilometers offshore in the Chukchi Sea last August seemed to add an exclamation point to the prospect that the polar bears in the Beaufort are in trouble.
If so, then a report issued by the U.S. Geological Survey a little more than a year ago is right on target.
A blue-ribbon panel of experts under contract with the survey predicted that two-thirds of the world's polar bears -- including all of those in Alaska and most of Canada's western Arctic -- will be gone by 2050. The only ones remaining, the panel warned, will be those animals inhabiting the High Arctic regions of Canada and western Greenland.
Summery
Who: The Arctic Polar Bears
What: Sea ice in the Arctic has been thinning. Without ice as a platform to hunt seals, polar bears are deprived of ringed seals, the mainstay of their diet. Polar Bears have been taking abnormally long time periods of fasting and draining all there energy looking for a mate or for food and more and more are drowning in the thin ice.
When: For the last 10 years
Why: The ice has been thinning because of global warming; this is causing the polar caps to retreat not giving the bears enough ice to find a mate and primarily to find food that they can actually acquire. The climate is killing them off and it is getting harder and harder to even find a partner because they are so scares in such a broad region.
How: This issue can be solved by stopping global warming, what issue cant be resolved by stopping global warming. Also we should take a couple and breed them to keep the population up and there instincts will kick in when they are release back. We could possibly even see hoe polar bears would fair living in Antarctica.
Summery: I think we should do something because the polar bears are becoming instinct and if this happens then the food chain will be messed up not to mention I like polar bears.
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