Environment Diary #7
This is where you'll post Journal #7, due Jan 23.
posted by Mr. Enns at
9:57 AM
Geography 12
Heritage Christian School's Geography 12 Blog
Thursday, January 15, 2009
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15 Comments:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/eco_animals.html
whats gonna happen the the animals?!
who:Polar Bears,Seals ect.
what:Animals
where: Arctic
why:Global warming
------
Mammals, with the notable exceptions of whales and dolphins, are primarily terrestrial (land-dwelling) animals that inhabit diverse areas of the Earth. Mammalian responses to rising temperatures and other climate changes are also diverse. Many small mammals are coming out of hibernation and breeding earlier in the year than they did several decades ago, while others are expanding their ranges to higher altitudes. Some show trends toward larger body sizes, probably due to increasing food availability and higher temperatures. On the other hand, reproductive success in polar bears has declined due to melting Arctic sea ice.In 2004, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) summarized some of the effects of warming temperatures on animals and their habitats in polar regions, including parts of Alaska. Polar bears, seals, migratory birds, caribou and reindeer are all experiencing changes that could have dramatic effects on their species and the ecosystems they inhabit (ACIA, 2004).
For example, polar bears are dependent on sea ice to hunt seals and to move from one area to another. Polar bears are unlikely to survive as a species if there is an almost complete loss of summer sea-ice cover, which is projected to occur before the end of this century by some climate models. The seals that polar bears hunt are also unlikely to be able to adapt to an absence of summer sea ice, because they give birth to and nurse their pups on the ice and use it as a place for resting.
According to the ACIA, caribou and reindeer populations could decline because of their dependence on tundra for vegetation. As tundra vegetation zones continue to move northward with the changing climate, the caribou and reindeer could have a more difficult time finding food and raising their calves.
My Opinion:
I think we need to smarten up and try and figure out what we can do.
so many people are greedy and selfish and when the day comes that there are no more Polar Bears or any other animals, there gonna wounder what happend and why we didnt do anything.. and the people, who for YEARS have been trying to tell these people are gonna be hitting there heads!
We have to smarten up.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/529/global-dimming#Burningoffossilfuelsiscreatingtwoeffects
summary:
who: Global
what: Global dimming
where:everywhere
why:Fossil fuel use, as well as producing greenhouse gases, creates other by-products. These by-products are also pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide, soot, and ash. These pollutants however, also change the properties of clouds.
how:Clouds are formed when water droplets are seeded by air-borne particles, such as pollen. Polluted air results in clouds with larger number of droplets than unpolluted clouds. This then makes those clouds more reflective. More of the sun’s heat and energy is therefore reflected back into space.
This reduction of heat reaching the earth is known as Global Dimming.
My Opinion:
why would we stop one the biggest industries we're makin money here and what should we stop driving cars using airplanes..and just ride bikes or travel by horse back and trollies? All this global warming crap is supposed to happen.
ARTICLE: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=36704
Who: NASA observatory viewing volcano and earthquake activity.
What: A look at two of the natural hazards the earth is throwing at us and bit more knowledge of what volcanoes can do.
When: january 19th 2009
Where: coastal volcano, chaiten
Why: A simple look at the effects that volcanoes and earthquakes have, in this case a coastal region.
How:take pictures from space and observe them.
My Opinion: Although this is not so much a global problem as it (what they say it is) a natural harzard. The only real reason you would need to know about these two hazards would be if you lived near either of them or spend some time around them.
Andrei Eremia
http://www.globalissues.org/issue/188/genetically-engineered-food
Genetically Engineered Food
Who- Anup Shah
What- Genetically Engineered Food
When- Thursday, September 26, 2002
Where- Wherever food is produced.
Why- A lot of food that we eat today contains genetically modified ingredients and usually without our knowledge.
How- Profit-hungry corporations produce food that contains genetically modified ingredients.
My opinion- This is a very important issue because half the stuff we eat is filled with crap that some company decides to add to the food they make. None of these companies actually care about what they give to people to eat. All they care about is making money. There are too many problems caused by all the genetically modified ingredients. I think that the government should create some restrictions on how much companies can add their genetically modified ingredients to the food.
"Northern rockhopper penguins near extinction"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28696101/
"Lovelace, the rockhopper penguin that answers life's questions in the animated film "Happy Feet", probably would be just as stumped as the researchers who reported Friday that the population of his northern relatives has declined by 90 percent over the last 50 years.
The population of northern
rockhopper penguins once reached into the millions, but now the largest colonies are estimated at between 32,000 to 65,000 pairs on Gough Island, and 40,000 to 50,000 pairs on Tristan da Cunha Island, according to a study in the journal Bird Conservation International.
Those two South Atlantic islands, which are British overseas territories, account for more than 80 percent of the total species population. "Historically, we know that penguins were exploited by people, and that wild dogs and pigs probably had an impact on their numbers," Richard Cuthbert of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and lead author of the paper, said in a statement. "However, these factors cannot explain the staggering declines since the 1950s, when we have lost upwards of a million birds from Gough and Tristan." "The declines at Gough since the 1950s are equivalent to losing 100 birds every day for the last 50 years", he added.
"With more than half the world’s penguins facing varying degrees of extinction, it is imperative that we establish the exact reason why the Northern Rockhopper Penguin is sliding towards oblivion," he said. "Understanding what's driving the decline of this bird will help us understand more about other threatened species in the Southern Ocean." Possible factors, the researchers said, include climate change, shifts in marine ecosystems and overfishing. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds accused British government agencies of internal bickering that has delayed any action to protect the species.
"They are completely disinterested," RSPB staffer Sarah Sanders said of the government. "It's ridiculous and embarrassing. We are meant to be world leaders in biodiversity conservation and we can't even decide who is responsible for the overseas territories." Other penguin species had been considered in generally good health until recently. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service last December proposed listing the African penguin as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, and five others as threatened: the yellow-eyed penguin, the white-flippered penguin, the Fiordland crested penguin and the erect-crested penguin, all from New Zealand; as well as the Humboldt penguin of Chile and Peru"
Summary
Who: The rockhopper penguins
What: They are near extinction
When: Friday, January 16, 2009
Where: South Atlantic Islands
Why: No one knows the exact reason quite yet, but they are frantically searching for a reason.
How: The overall population of these penguins has dropped by nearly 90% over the last 50 years. Researchers do not know exactly what the cause of this drastic change but some possible factors could include climate change, shifts in marine ecosystem, and overfishing
My Opinion
Once again, there is another article about animals going extinct. When is it going to end? It seems as if everyday there is a new animal put on the extinct list. If this keeps up, within a few years there wont be anymore animals left. We all need to smarten up and stop being so lazy and actually do something about this all.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/15/climatechange-scienceofclimatechange
Wheat and Barley Could Save Planet from Climate Change
Food crops could be used to keep the Earth's temperatures down and slow global warming, say scientists. By growing plants that can reflect more of the sun's radiation back into space, parts of Europe and North America could be cooled by 1°C in the summer, the equivalent of stopping billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere over the next century.
Growing agricultural plants such as maize or barley already cools the climate because they reflect more sunlight back into space than natural vegetation. Different varieties of the same plant can vary in how much light they reflect, a property called albedo, so selecting for higher-albedo crops would enhance the cooling effect from agriculture.
Using the same climate models as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Andy Ridgewell led a team of scientists at the University of Bristol to calculate how different varieties of crops would affect global temperatures. "It would be an optimistic scenario that, farming everywhere, people were happy to plant a slightly different variety of crop."
The results, published today in the journal Current Biology, showed that, in the most optimistic scenario with all the world's crops replaced by the most reflective varieties, the world would cool by an average of 0.1C, equivalent to almost a fifth of the warming since the Industrial Revolution.
Over the next century, selecting more reflective crops could have a cooling effect equivalent to preventing 195bn tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
Ridgewell says that farmers should seriously consider selecting crop varieties based on their climate effects, in the same way that specific varieties are fine-tuned to optimise crop yield. "The same crops are grown in the same location – all we're talking about is planting a variety of wheat or maize that you already grow, a variety that has slightly increased reflectivity," he said,
"We're very mindful of the biofuel minefield and particularly the way food supply and poverty in large regions of the world is – you could not displace any food production. We're not even talking about changing from wheat to maize or rice to something else."
To encourage them to grow these reflective crops, farmers could be rewarded with carbon credits. Ridgewell calculated that, with current carbon prices, farmers could earn 23 euros per hectare for the CO2 they prevent from reaching the air.
He added that temperatures could fall even further with careful breeding of crops. "We see no reason why, in the future, 2°C might not be achievable but it might require a lot of selective breeding or genetic modification to get that impact." This means selecting plants that have waxier leaves or leaves arranged to reflect more sunlight.
Keith Allott, head of environment group WWF-UK's climate change programme, said: "Like it or not, we are already committed to significant levels of warming because of the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. Ideas such as this might have some value in helping to reduce some of the local impacts, but need to be evaluated extremely carefully to make sure there are no other adverse impacts on the local or regional environment. But we shouldn't kid ourselves – the only way to make sure that we keep global warming below very dangerous levels is to secure a very rapid reduction in carbon emissions by moving to clean energy and stopping deforestation."
Ridgewell said that, unlike other proposed geo-engineering schemes to cool the planet, such as dumping iron in the oceans or sending mirrors into space to reflect away sunlight, altering the crops grown by farmers was much simpler. "These would require whole new infrastructures at a cost of trillions of dollars," he said. "We came up with [the crops] idea thinking agriculture is already global-scale and coordinated, to some extent. In a way, you could just go with that and subvert the existing infrastructure to come up with a climate benefit."
Who:Scientists, food crops such as barley or maize will be the factors contributing to positively cooling the earth
What: Some of the food crops we have can keep Earth's temperatures down and therefore it can slow global warming!
Where: All the earth would be positively effected
Why:Some plants can reflect more of the sun's radiation back into space
When: Over the next century
My Opinion: It's great that we can use food crops as a source to stop global warning's advance upon the earth. If it can minimize the effects, our world will have a better chance at recuperating and making it through this hard time for the environment
Environmental Article Summary #7
Rebekah McMurphy
January 23rd, 2008
Geography 12
Switching Light Bulbs?
Consider Going Mercury Free!
http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/39160
Who:
Seattle startup Vu1 Corporation.
What:
To launch a new type of light bulb that functions like a TV tube, that is mercury free and energy conserving.
When:
Vu1product will hit the stores on ‘Earth Day’ 2009.
Where:
American market
Why:
Because these light bulbs are hugely conserving and are mercury-free. The bulb is unique and emits 40 lumens per watt, that’s the equivalent of a 65-watt incandescent bulb. The technology is amazingly environmentally friendly. This new light bulb also has an amazing life span, one bulb is estimated to last 6,000 hours.
How:
It’s an ultra energy-efficient flood light, which is like the way old TV tubes worked, the only difference is that it lights a room better. The light bulb also includes an integrated electron source which fires electrons attached to a phosphor-coated glass. The phosphor which acts upon contact, transforms the signals into bright light. The product that emerged from this three-way process is a 17-watt bulb for recessed light cans; the type of lights you use in kitchens and living rooms.
My Opinion:
I, myself think it’s always a good idea to get environmentally friendly things. There is some other competition out there for other environmentally friendly light bulbs, but Vu1 is so important because their lamps don’t use free floating gas inside the bulb to generate light. So the gas in a fluorescent and many other bulbs contains mercury and if the lamp breaks this gas is extremely hazardous for people's health and the environment. So it’s very good to be protected this way. The down fall with the Vu1 bulbs is that they are still quite expensive, but I think over time they will reduce the prices a bit (like they did with fluorescent lights). In my house we have lots of energy efficient light bulbs, but we still have normal bulbs as well. I still think saving starving children around the world should be a bigger priority than light bulb companies competing against one another to make the best energy efficient bulbs.
Source: http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-44534--search.htm
Who: Greg Pearce, and citizens of Kelowna
What: Foggy period in the city soon to be pushed away by wind
Where: Kelowna
When: Friday, January 23rd
Why: A high pressure system from the Oregon coast caused this foggy period this week in Kelowna to happen and because there is little wind to push the moisture around, the fog just settles in the valley.
How: Fogs will be pushed out by winds, and the temperatures will drop in the valley.
My Opinion:
I think it is cool to have different extremes of weather in our valley. From freezing temperatures, to blistering summers, to down pours of rain, and blankets of thick fog, Kelowna has its way of showing us the beauty of nature and the environment. I live in the city of Kelowna, and personally I think the fog is actually quite beautiful, but at the same time it is sometimes nice to have clear skies. The one think I do not look forward to is dropping temperatures in the valley. All together I love the different ranges of weather we have here in Kelowna; it is truly one of the most beautiful places on earth.
This comment has been removed by the author.
"All Antarctica seems to be warming, report says"
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/39156
Posted January 23, 2009 08:08 AM
Who: all of Antarctica
What: Global Warming
Where: Antarctica..
When: Friday, January 23rd, 2009
Why: Greenhouse gases from global industries on other continents are responsible.
How: Well, it would be kinda hard to fix this. But you would have to like, I don't know, close all industries. So that greenhouse gases weren't causing global warming.
My Opinion: You know, I think global warming is retarded. Yeah, its industries fault. But where would the world be without them? I don't think the world would even be here. Well, it would be. It just, wouldn't be as good as it is now.
Lighting the Way
http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/39160
Summary:
Who: Seattle startup Vu1 Corporation
What: They are planning to launch a new type of light bulb that functions like a TV tube. Contrary to what you'd think, the technology is amazingly environmentally friendly. It’s an ultra energy-efficient flood light and reminiscent of the way old TV tubes worked with the only difference being that the light bulb lights a room much better. The Electron Stimulated Luminescence bulb, ESL, is mercury-free and hugely energy conserving. The bulb emits 40 lumens per watt, the equivalent of a 65-watt incandescent bulb. The price tag is about the same as a 65-watt dimmable incandescent lamp and lower than the price of indoor LED. One bulb lasts an estimated 6,000 hours and heat generated by an ESL bulb is half that of an incandescent.
Where: Seattle, Vu1 Corporation
When: January 23, 2009 8:36 am
Why: Vu1 Corporation wanted to create a truly environmentally friendly bulb that didn’t cost nearly as much as the LED bulbs and was way more energy efficient. They created a bulb that, not only lit a room much better but was super energy efficient, was mercury free, way cheaper to purchase, lasted way longer and generated less heat. The main reason why this invention is so important is that the lamps don’t use free-floating gas inside the bulb to generate light. The gas in a fluorescent and many other bulbs contains mercury and if the lamp breaks, this gas is extremely hazardous for people's health and the environment. Thus they created a bulb that is not only better for the environment itself but the people in it as well.
How: This product is already available on the American market, ready to be sold to environmentally concerned customers and will be hitting the stores on Earth Day 2009
My Opinion:
This sounds like a great solution to the light bulb dilemma. I know particularly, with my family, we tried the LED bulbs that were supposed to save so much money and last so long but in fact, ours lasted half as long as the normal incandescent bulb and cost us way more to purchase. This sounds like a quick and easy solution and I hope it becomes available in Canadian markets soon.
-Ashleigh Miller
http://www.globalissues.org/article/180/carbon-sinks-forests-and-climate-change
Who: Scientists
What: Carbon sinks
Where: North America
When: Now
Why: To counter act global warming
How: Large forests of genetically enhanced trees.
My Opinion: The more trees the better. Even if they are genetically enhanced.
Jesse Ord
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: January 18th 2009
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.
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/39162
Global warming could suffocate the sea
Summary:
Who - fish
What - Fish could vanish from huge stretches of the ocean for tens of thousands of years unless we drastically reduce our carbon emissions.
When - January 26, 2009 09:50 AM
Where - The oceans
Why - because less oxygen dissolves in warmer water, affecting the amount of life the oceans can support.
How - To estimate just how much oxygen will be lost, the team used two existing scenarios of future fossil fuel burning published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: a worst case scenario in which we burn three quarters of the Earth's fossil fuel reserves over the coming century, and a mid-range scenario in which we burn only a quarter of reserves. In both cases it is assumed that burning then stops.
Under the worst-case scenario, average ocean oxygen levels will fall by up to 40%, and there will be a 20-fold expansion in the area of "dead zones", like those already discovered in the eastern Pacific and northern Indian Ocean, where there is too little oxygen for fish to survive. Even in the mid-range scenario, dead zones would expand by a factor of 3 or 4. Cold, deep waters will also be affected if warming stifles the currents that deliver oxygen to greater depths.
In my opinion: Fishy Fish fish...we need them for food, for pets, and for many others things that me as an innocent child would not even dream about. But fact as fact they are dying and not only they will die if the oxygen keeps decreasing in the oceans but a vast amount of other sea life. It will not only affect things in the oceans but outside as well because the sea life in the ocean feeds a lot of animals on the outside...the most popular of these animals ...HUMANS!!!! If it was actually possible and could make any difference at all I would blow all of my breath and oxygen that i have in my body into the nearest life if it would save even one fish....except if it meant that i had to die ..maybe not because lets face it i would at least like to think that my life is worth more than a little itty bitty fishes....at least i think it is...but maybe i'm just vain, c'mon carly simon just sing it to me wont cha
Jamie Fielder
Rare pink dolphin turns heads off Louisiana
Albino bottlenose is only the 14th spotted worldwide, says biologist
updated 4:51 p.m. PT, Wed., May 27, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30968120/
NEW ORLEANS - What's pink, has red eyes and leaps around a Louisiana shipping channel long enough for you to believe your eyes? A rare albino bottlenose dolphin.
Bottlenose dolphins are common in the lower Calcasieu Ship Channel, feeding in the deep water and riding on top of boats' waves. And when the pink one jumps amid four dark gray dolphins, it's easy to spot.
The albino is just the 14th reported worldwide, and the third in the Gulf of Mexico, according to biologist Dagmar Fertl of Plano, Texas.
It was first reported by Wesley Lockard of Rayville, La., as a small calf in June 2007. Lockard, 26, said he and family members were fishing when they were stunned by the sight. "Something comes up and you say, `Wow! Did I just ...?' Then he comes up again and you say, `Yeah! I just saw a pink dolphin!'" he said.
Now, the mammal is as much a part of the channel south of Lake Charles as boats and fishermen.
"We see him on a pretty regular basis," said Roddy Blackburn, crewman and relief captain of a boat that ferries pilots to ships.
But spotting the pink one, believed to be about 2 1/2 years old, does take time. Michael Harbison, a state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist, has seen it several times, but only when he wasn't looking for it. He spent two trips — one for 10 hours — trying to locate it but didn't see the dolphin.
Travels with four adults
The albino is usually seen with four adults, and probably splits time between the Gulf and the lower 10 miles of the ship channel, said Harbison. Typically, dolphins surface for a second or so to breathe, then dive for up to 10 minutes, moving a half-mile or more, he said.
Five days after the initial sighting was reported nearly two years ago, the dolphin was seen again.
For 90 minutes, fisherman Randy Smith watched the dolphin leap alongside an adult they assumed was its mother.
"It was unbelievable," said Smith, who was returning from a Gulf fishing trip with friends when he saw the dolphin.
Many people refer to the dolphin as a male, though its sex is unknown.
Biologist Mandy Tumlin of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries hopes more people will report sightings and give officials as much detail as possible. But they should stay at least 50 yards away and limit themselves to a half-hour of watching to keep the animals from getting too comfortable with people and boats, she said.
No specific studies are planned, but sightings will help the department track the animal.
"As rare as this is, we're trying to get as much as we can (about) this one individual," she said. "We definitely want to protect it and keep it safe."
Summery
Who: The albino bottlenose dolphin
What: Pink dolphin spotted off shore of Louisiana only the 14th seen worldwide, the third in the Gulf of Mexico.
When: Wednesday, may 27, 2009
Where: NEW ORLEANS, in the lower Calcasieu Ship Channel around Louisiana
Why: It was born in the Calcasieu Ship Channel with an albino gene.
How: Dolphins are friendly creators, not scared of humans and often spotted, this is a regular dolphin just born with a different gene.
I think it is very cool that there are albino dolphins. But I would prefer normal ones. Obviously it will get spotted because it is the easiest one to spot from a distance and it behaves like any normal dolphin.
Jamie Fielder(2009) E.D.A
Retrieved June 6th 2009 from msnbc:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30968120/
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