So here's some pretty photography from moi to make your day nice and Earthy.
Boots are my cousins.
And if ya wanna get really fancy with the posts, here's that essay I was talking about. (I got an A on this.)
Global Warming: Both Sides of the Story
In this day and age, one cannot pass a radio or television without hearing about the global crisis at hand. The entire world is falling into recession, and everywhere, people are battling about the ongoing crisis of global warming. Many books are being written about the issue, and many people are changing their lifestyles to help the Earth. People are eating organic foods, buying hybrid cars, using energy efficient technology in their homes, including solar power and compact fluorescent light bulbs, and recycling anything that can be recycled. Also, many people believe that human air pollution is the main cause of the Earth’s increase in temperature (www.sciencedaily.com). This, however, is not true. It has been scientifically proven that not only are humans partly responsible, but other large contributers are volcanos, carbon dioxide, sun activity, and continental drift. Global warming, or climate change, although it is happening, is a natural cycle that the Earth goes through every few decades. (www.dailymail.co.uk.)
Global warming is an increase in the Earth’s average, atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect (www.dictionary.com). The cause of global warming, however, can be traced back to the greenhouse effect. The name, greenhouse effect, is derived from the similarity to a greenhouse, with glass walls. When the sun enters the glass, the glass walls slow the escape of heat (Gille 383.) The major concern is human activity, such as burning fossil fuels, electricity, and industrial tasks, and whether or not it is causing climate change. Scientists say that global warming could change rainfall patterns, shifts in plant and animal population, melt the polar ice caps, and increase the severity and patterns of storms.
President Barack Obama has a plan for this environmental crisis. Obama has announced that his “new energy economy will build millions of jobs.” Economists are skeptical that Obama can pull the US out of recession and fix global warming, but Obama has decided on “a new energy economy that will build millions of jobs.” Environmental scholars, however, claim that such changes would be expensive. Joseph Romm, former acting assistant secretary of energy, says, “It is going to require massive investments.” Wesley Warren, director of programs for natural resources defense council, claims, “By re-powering our nation with clean energy, we will create millions of jobs that can’t be sent overseas. By harnessing the energy of the sun and wind, we can refuel our nation and end our addiction to oil,” (www.cnn.com).
Global warming is a change that the Earth has been undergoing since 1880, and shows no signs of decreasing or slowing down. Since 1880, the Earth’s average temperature has increase 1.4ยบ fahrenheit, and the last two decades were the hottest in 400 years. Everywhere, ice is melting, and in Montana’s National Glacier Park, there are only twenty-seven glaciers left, and there were 150 in 1910 (www.nationalgeographic.com). Ice thickness is decreasing, and tundra availability will decrease 20% due to global warming. The arctic is important for migratory birds. Not only that, but the ringed seals, which are important prey to polar bears, are being trapped in collapsed ice caves with their young because of climate change. Not only that, but some of the world’s most interesting animals, such as the walrus, fox, collared lemmings, arctic and tundra hares, muskoxen, mmarwhals, and whales, are at risk of extinction (www.gdrc.org).
Because of global warming, some people are having health problems as well. In Europe, in 2003, over 70,000 lives were claimed due to an extreme heat wave. Also in Europe, during a two-week heat wave period, 15,000 people died. In 1995, there were 739 deaths due to heat waves, and 140 people died in August, 2006, in the US under similar circumstances. Not only are people dying, but global warming has increased the number of asthmatics on an international scale, in the last several decades. Rising temperatures cause smog, and the more smog there is, the more threatening the air is toward asthmatics. There has also been an uprising in malnutrition due to droughts, floods, and food and water shortages.
Rising temperatures have caused loss in several major food staples, including wheat, corn and barley. The amount lost is not large compared to the global production of cereal crops, but the change in climate has definitely begun to take its toll on the production of food staples (www.independent.co.uk). “Most people tend to think of climate change as something that will impact the future but this study shows that warming over the past several decades has already had real effects on global food supply,” says Christopher Field of the Carnegie Institution in Stanford, California. Also on the issue: “Though the impacts are relatively small compared to the technological yield gains over the same period, the results demonstrate that negative impacts of climate crops on crop yields at the global scale has already been occurring,” conveys Dr. David Lobell of America’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. (www.independent.co.uk).
In 2006, Al Gore debuted a movie that stunned audiences worldwide. His message: Humans are causing global warming. According to Gore, we have just ten years to avert a global crisis that will bring disastrous events, such as outrageous heat waves, a dramatic rise in sea level, and severely high amounts of animal extinction. The majority of scientists believe these facts to be true. The movie stated several past experiences of rise in temperature, including the number of higher category hurricanes doubling in the past two years (as of 2006). In his movie, Gore confirmed that fact that loss of shelf ice off of Greenland and Antarctica could lead to a twenty foot rise in sea level, which, factitiously, would submerge the World Trade Center Memorial. Also, he stated that, if the people of the world continue on their current course, there would be recurring and more intense heat waves, a rise in the number of wildfires and droughts, and face many other consequences, including over one million extinctions by the year 2050, and the Arctic Ocean to be free of ice by 2050. It almost seems as though the government and other organizations are trying to blame humans for global warming. In 1995, IPCC’s (Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change) second assessment report showed the 1,500 year cycle, with temperatures warmer than today in the Medieval Warming and temperatures colder than today. Then, in 2001, IPCC released a new report in which the climate history was different in a drastic way. The graph showed moderately anchored temperatures, that got significantly warmer in and around 1910. “For the last twenty to thirty years, we believe that greenhouse gases have been the dominant influence on recent climate change,” claims Robert Callahan, who is a climatologisy at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center located in Greenbelt, Maryland.
However, the Earth is in no danger. He even admitted to the fact that he was lying. “In the United States of America, unfortunately, we still live in a bubble of unreality. And the category five denial is an enormous obstacle to any discussion of solutions. Nobody is interested in solutions if they don’t think that there is a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis,” he claims. Basically, Al Gore, in the latter statement, just admitted that he had stretched the truth in his movie. Not only that, but his facts and figures have also been proven wrong by several sources. He claims that the last fourteen years have been the hottest on record (www.climatecrisis.com). Yet according to the book, Unstoppable, by S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery, climate change is a cycle that occurs every 1,500 years. The book mentions the warming and cooling from as early as 200 BC on. From the years, 200 B.C. to A.D. 600, the Earth went through the a period of heat that lasted through the Roman Empire, which thrived during warmer times. This period of warm was then ended during the Dark Ages. Then, from around 900 to 1300. Then, the Earth experienced the Little Ice Age, which lasted from 1300 to 1850. Currently, the Earth is in its first half of its current state, known as Modern Warming, which began in 1850 (Singer, Avery 18). Experts say that global warming is a natural event, and that not all effects are bad. Climate change is part of a cycle of warming and cooling, that has been going on ever 1,500 years. The past cold periods have killed at least twice as many more people as have the warm periods (www.dailymail.co,uk). Research also suggests that carbon dioxide, the “supposed greenhouse gas causing global warming,” is not the cause of global warming, and that rising temperatures may being increase carbon dioxide amounts, and not the other way around. On the other hand, a multitude of people still believe that carbon dioxide being sent into the atmosphere is the cause of global warming (www.sciencedaily.com).
There is historical evidence of global warming being natural, for example, records of inundations on the Nile, almost 5,000 years ago, during a warm period. The most recent increase in temperature has been between 1850 and 1940, and scientists are speculating that is is not cause by man-made greenhouse gases. In the worlds current state, storms and droughts are smaller and less severe, and coral reefs, trees, and birds, have all adapted well. Also, there has been a significantly small rise in sea level (www.sciencedaily.com). There is art reflected off of climate change, as well. During the warm period, pictures are often sunny and warm. During the colder times, pictures have been painted viewing clouds and a much colder looking environment (www.sciencedaily.com).
According to NASA, they have been noticing that the amount of solar radiation released by the sun has increased .5% ,since 1970s, each decade, and has been increasing since the 19th century. “This trend is important, because, if sustained over many decades, it could cause significant climate change,” states Richard Wilson, who is a researcher associated with NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York. About every eleven years, the sun goes through a period of boosted magnetic and sunspot activity known as solar maximum, followed by a less active period known as the solar minimum. Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) is the radiant energy given to Earth by the sun, outside the atmosphere. TSI is a big factor that determine Earth’s climate (www.sciencedaily.com).
The two arguments over global warming have been going on for many years. Movies are being made, books are being written, and, in the end, whether the Earth is dramatically heating up or not, The stories are both completely different. On one side of the issue, scientists believe that left and right humans are causing global warming. According to them, humans only have a limited amount of years before they face catastrophic events, such as an increase in storm severity and frequency. On the other hand, scientists believe that global warming is a natural cycle that the Earth goes through every few years. Even so, everybody is making changes to their business and lifestyle. People are recycling now, and are more inclined to ride their bike instead of driving to a place close by. Major car companies are manufacturing hybrid and electric cars, which are incredibly popular.
The Earth has been around for billions of years. It will be around for billions of years after we are gone. Why is it that when the Earth goes up a few degrees, everybody points their fingers at each other, blaming the world, and not even bothering to stop and think whether or not the incident was natural, and, as soon as movies start coming out, people are frantic with worry, even though they didn’t even bother checking with other sources to see if the information was true. There is no need to become radical about saving the entire planet in ten years. The Earth can take care of itself, and humans can take care of the Earth. They balance each other out.
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