In this weeks module, we discuss the global carbon cycle, its effect on the global climate system, and the input that humans have on carbon emissions in the atmosphere.  It is stated and proven in the module that “human activities are alternating the carbon cycle to a significant degree.”  In the media, the blame for these carbon emissions is primarily focused on automobiles and power plants, however, airlines are stated as “the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.”  Little to no regulations are being implemented for the airline industry and it needs to be brought to attention for the advancement in the fight against human-induced carbon emissions.

The article I have chosen to blog about is titled “Deal on Aviation Emissions Sets Can’t-Miss Goals” by The New York Times.  The article thoroughly analyzes the lack of regulations for cutting carbon emissions in the the airline industry and how governments are handling the process in what seems like a “secrecy” or “closed door” demeanor.  Recently, an agreement has been implemented to place new efficiency standards to all new commercial jets delivered after 2028, as well as existing jets produced from 2023.  This is nearly a decade from now and many leading companies are set to achieve far lower admissions than what the standard even calls for.  In my opinion, the government is not pushing these companies hard enough to lower their admissions and is definitely not implementing it soon enough.  I am hoping that stronger restrictions will be implemented in the near future and the “business as usual” antic will finally come to an end.

Mouawad, Jad. “Deal on Aviation Emissions Sets Can’t-Miss Goals.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Feb. 2016. Web. 16 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/business/energy-environment/a-hollow-agreement-on-aviation-emissions.html?_r=0>.

The article “Rising Seas Slowed by Increasing Water on Land” talks about an innovation in one of NASA’s satellites, in which water storage on land is now able to be identified and quantified. This issue is directly related to the rate of sea level rise. With ice sheets and glaciers being melt in the past few years, the Earth has soaked about 3.2 trillion tons of water in soils. A consequence of that is the decrease of rising sea level in about 20%. It is said that the amount of water that has been soaked by Earth is equal to the volume of Lake Huron, which is the world’s seventh largest lake. This new innovation in NASA’s satellite also allows scientists to observe global patterns of changes in land water storage. It was possible to notice from this analysis that regions that are typically considered more wet, such as regions close to the equator, are getting even more wet, and dry regions are getting even more dry. These patterns are consistent with previous observations made by scientists of changing precipitation in oceans and land.

Scientists always believed that there was a big dependency of people on groundwater for irrigation and consumption. With that in mind, they thought that this would lead to a consequence of water being transferred from land to the ocean. With this new discovery in NASA’s satellite, scientists are now able to better understand variations in sea level change. It will also help in making long-term projections of sea level rise, which will help society as a whole get better prepared for further consequences.

Reference: http://climate.nasa.gov/news/2398/

In this article from The Guardian, Robin McKie discusses how water shortages will lead to the next global crisis. He discusses last year’s drought in Sao Paulo and the impact that it had on residents, starting with the story of how residents are drilling through basement floors to attempt to reach water reservoirs. Officials in Sao Paulo announced one week prior to the writing of the article that rationing of water supplies would likely be implemented soon, with limits on water access being as infrequent as two days per week. In August of 2015, the severity of the drought was deemed critical. This allowed for the suspension of agricultural and industrial permits that let companies draw water directly from local supplies. The water level in the two main reservoirs is below 20% of capacity, whereas it usually lies around 60% of capacity at the same time. Per The Guardian, similar situations are also occurring in the area extending from Pakistan through India and northern Bangladesh, Northern Africa, and the southwestern United States. Droughts like this leading to rationing of water and supplies, food shortages, increased temperature and many more issues. And because 99% of the earths water is inaccessible groundwater, unless a new way to access groundwater is developed, these widespread droughts will continue to occur.

As we have learned about the effects of climate change, Kiera Mulvaney reports for the Discovery news concerning the Arctic sea ice extent hitting new lows this past January as a consequence of warmer temperatures. On the article “Arctic Warms, Antarctic Ice Shelves Weaken” its reported a lost of 402,000 square miles of the Arctic sea ice extent compared to the average for the month (1981-2010) and a 35,000 square miles loss compared to the last recorded satellite era in January 2011. The temperature change in the Arctic, a shocking increase of 13 degrees F, is mainly attributed to Arctic Oscillation which allowed warmer air to the North.

Although the Arctic Oscillation was a natural phenomenon, researchers say that there is an average decline of 3.2% per decade of the ice extent in the Arctic. Just like the Arctic ice extent, the Antarctic sea ice extent has been also below average. A rare occurrence for the Antarctic sea as it tends to increase it’s ice extent.

Several theories have been studied to explain the phenomenon, from arguments attributing the changes in wind or water circulation patterns, to theory explaining the freshening of sea surface due to the melting glaciers and ice shelves around the Antarctic. Most importantly, researchers have found that a loss of about 13% of the total ice shelf area would be the maximum safe loss that would not affect the dynamics of the ice sheet behind them. As explained by Dr Johannes Fürst, co-author of the study, a higher loss of the ice shelf area will result in elevated sea-level rise.

Mulvaney, Kieran. “Arctic Warms, Antarctic Ice Shelves Weaken.” Discovery News. N.p., 09 Feb. 2016. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.

Roads are popping up all around the world, but the most recent highway planned for the arctic circle is bringing a lot of attention to the small villages it will affect. Permanent roads cause a tricky task for the people making the roads because of the ice and permafrost in the region. The frozen ground known as permafrost can cause roads to buckle when it melts and we all know that is becoming more relevant in the past decade. This new road is going to be 85 miles long and will be built in Canada’s Northwest Territories. According to the article published in New York Times, the road will cost about 216 million dollars and will require eight bridges and over 177 million cubic feet of material be moved. The road construction will also be difficult because the road can only be built during the winter months when the lakes are frozen, and will allow for trucks to drive over the lakes to bring supplies to builders.

The article relates to what we have been talking about in class because in the past few weeks we have been talking about how the warming in the poles has caused ice to melt. A lot of roads that are already in place have started to buckle because the permafrost is melting causing the road to sink and become distorted. Upon further research, I found that in the arctic the 30-100 cm of permafrost thaws and freezes each year and the area below that remains frozen year all year. The thawing and freezing of the ground will cause for a lot of unforeseen problems for builders who are going to be working on the project. It will be interesting to see the success of the road construction and what this will mean for future roads being installed in the arctic area.

Research:

Kujawinski, Peter. “The Road to the Top of the World.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 2016. Web. 14 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/travel/canada-tuk-northwest-territory.html>.

“Arctic Change – Land: Permafrost.” Arctic Change – Land: Permafrost. Web. 14 Feb. 2016. <http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/land-permafrost.shtml>.

On Tuesday, February 9th, the conservative-led Supreme Court ruled that enforcement of the policies laid out in President Obama’s Clean Power Plan should be halted until the “legality” of this legislature could be determined. [1] The Plan, which was established in accord with the agreements made at the Paris Climate Talks, aims to cut the carbon dioxide emissions of existing power plants by one third by the year 2030. While states are not required to meet the regulations laid out until 2022, they were expected to present their plans for doing so to the EPA by this September. However, this forestalling of the Plan will set this process back indefinitely, and the U.S. will continue to make no efforts to nationally lower our greenhouse gas emissions. The arguments made against the Plan are based on the economic strain that the initiative will put on states whose economies depend largely on fossil fuel-generated power, and on the utility companies there in. To me, however, these arguments are still less substantial than the impact we are having on climate. There should be no misconceptions on the difficulty reducing carbon emissions will pose – it is not going to be an easy process, and everyone knows this, but the longer we delay the inevitably necessary, the more potential warming we generate, and the greater the impacts that will result from climate change.

Since this decision was made, one of the most outspokenly conservative Justices on the Supreme Court who supported the effort to stall any progress on climate change, Antonin Scalia, has died. His position must be filled by a presidential nomination that is approved by the Senate, and President Obama seems very much inclined to making the appointment, contrary to the Republican Senator’s wishes that he wait for the next President to make the appointment. [2] This leaves the fate of the Clean Power Plan in a very tenuous state, although the Court’s decision to stall it will continue to be upheld. The President may attempt to appoint a moderate Justice that has a better chance of being approved than a liberal, but it is very unclear what effect this would have on the Plan. The President could also go for broke and appoint a liberal Justice who will likely support the Plan, but it would not be unheard of or surprising for the Republican-dominated Senate to stall this process as well, leaving the Supreme Court with an even 8 Justices until the next President comes in to office. Only time will tell if things will get better or worse for the Clean Power Plan, but those of us who study the climate system are desperately hoping for the better, and fast.

Sources:

1. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/02/09/us/politics/ap-us-supreme-court-clean-air-lawsuits.html
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/us/politics/battle-begins-over-naming-next-justice.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=span-abc-region&region=span-abc-region&WT.nav=span-abc-region&_r=0

The general circulation model doesn’t account for the heating caused by greenhouse gasses. It assumes that other factors will cause the planet to heat up over a longer period of time and are easier to trace.

Aside from new shipping lanes opening up through the arctic circle numerous species will become less stable as the arctic warms more. Polar bears can already be observed to have less fat than is typical from a few years ago.http://www.greenfacts.org/en/arctic-climate-change/l-3/5-arctic-animals.htm The surface area that makes up Greenland will decrease and as it worsens the sea level will rise more. As the sea rises,eventually some small remote islands are going to wind up underwater.

It is rational to assume there is a gap in the life expectancy between those who are rich and those who are poor, but currently in the United States, the gap in life expectancy is simply disparaging. Although people with more money have easier access to healthcare and medical treatment, those in other developed countries have nowhere near the difference in lifespan between social classes that the U.S. does as a country. The question of what sets us apart is a provocative question. One could argue that the financial system of social security plays a part by being a positive feedback loop; those without much money can’t afford to see the payouts that those who live longer (i.e. the wealthier) can receive. Another thought is the problem of smoking and prescription drug habits that are much more commonplace in lower income communities. It could also be suggested that the stress levels are also a positive feedback loop that perpetuates the poverty of those with the lowest income as they have to work many more hours and go through much more financial and physical stress to make ends meet. It’s easy to see how these things can factor into the proportionally shorter lifespan of the poorer classes of America. The pressing problem is that the gap is widening despite major advances in technology and medicine and only those with money are able to reap the benefits of these societal advancements.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/health/disparity-in-life-spans-of-the-rich-and-the-poor-is-growing.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

James Hansen, a scientist that worked for NASA, and along with sixteen other researchers, have released a new study drawing a scenario of potential rapid sea level rise and powerful storm systems. One of the final conclusions of the report is that the two degrees Celsius global warming is certainly hazardous. The sign concerning quickening ice loss from some fragments of the planet’s ice sheets could lead to an irreversible situation that could be as short as ten years. This study suggests that sea level rises be around one meter by 2100. That is, if the ocean remains accumulating heat and increasing melting ice shelves of Antarctica and Greenland, a point will be reached at which it is impossible to avoid large scale ice sheets collapse with sea level rise of at least several meters, as I discussed in my blog 2.

Based on this climate model suggests that major ice loss will change the flow of the oceans, as big volumes of cold, fresh water pour into the seas. That would decrease the salinity of the ocean and both poles, that could eventually block the ocean’s overturning circulation. That would also warm the tropics more but lead to colder poles, leading to a large contrast in temperatures between middle latitudes and the poles. Then, that situation would lead to dominant storms. The conclusion is that sea level rise is the biggest impact of human made climate change, according to the report.

References:

• Mooney, C. (2015, July 20). The world’s most famous climate scientist just outlined an alarming scenario for our planet’s future. Retrieved February 09, 2016, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/20/the-worlds-most-famous-climate-scientist-just-outlined-an-alarming-scenario-for-our-planets-future/

• Revkin, A. (2015, July 23). Whiplash Warning When Climate Science is Publicized Before Peer Review and Publication. Retrieved February 09, 2016, from http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/whiplash-warning-when-climate-science-is-publicized-before-peer-review-and-publication/?rref=collection/timestopic/Hansen, James E.

One of the most relevant feedback mechanisms to climate change is the Ice-Albedo feedback mechanism.  A recent article in the New York Times details the changing temperatures at the north and south poles, and how the drastic nature of those changes has significant impacts on flooding and global climate.

In terms of feedback mechanisms, the Ice-Albedo mechanism fits this pattern because of the lack of and declining amount of ice in these regions.  In part due to climate change and the warming of the planet, ice has begun to melt.  With less ice, there are less surfaces to reflect the sun’s heat, and fewer sources of global cooling.

According to the New York Times article, the North Pole saw an average temperature in December of 2015 that was 20 Degrees Celsius warmer than usual.  With such a drastic temperature change in December, it is not surprising that glaciers and ice are melting at increasingly alarming rates.  As a result of this melting, the Ice-Albedo feedback mechanism is not able to cool the planet or to reflect the sun’s heat.

Article Source: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/30/in-wild-winter-warm-arctic-storm-chills-u-s-forecast-as-flooding-threatens-levees/

The article from “The Washington Post” talks about the United States being the biggest responsible for global warming nowadays, and how the country will suffer the most from this issue that has been discussed a lot in the past few years. The United States has produced around 27% of the total carbon dioxide emissions of the world from 1850 – 2011. It is important to notice that no other country was close to that percentage for this period of time. On the other hand, China has passed the United States as the biggest producer of carbon dioxide emission of the world taken in consideration only the last decade. Still, the United States is on the top of this ranking. The article then explains how the earth would get its revenge on the United States.

West Antarctica has been one of the biggest victims with global warming increasing in the past few years. If this trend continues, West Antarctica could collapse entirely, which would increase the sea level by a lot. With that being said, it has being determined by scientists that the United States would receive more sea level than any other country in the world. This happens because of gravity, and therefore areas that are farther away from Antarctica, like the United States, would suffer more than areas closer to Antarctica. It is expected that the United States would get about 25% – 27% more sea level rise than the global average. About 12 million Americans live on land that would theoretically be under water in the future based on that. Therefore, the United States should start planning in advance to protect its people and nation.

Reference: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/01/22/the-u-s-has-contributed-more-to-global-warming-than-any-other-country-heres-how-the-earth-will-get-its-revenge/

The article “Are drought conditions in the American Southwest here to stay?” by Ben Thompson reports yet another disaster caused by climate change. Based on the study Running dry: The U.S. Southwest’s drift into a drier climate state published in Geophysical Research Letters, research shows that the American Southwest is now a much drier climate system compared to the decades before.

Andreas Prein, the leader of the study and a research fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), explains how the research data taken from 1979 to 2014 shows decreasing trends of precipitations in most of the western regions of the country, while the Atlantic coast and Northeast shows increasing precipitations and intensity.The study collected data of daily sea pressure, atmospheric water depth, and wind speeds for over 35 years predict the trends to worsen over the next few decades. Environmentalist  fear that even with stronger storms in some regions of the country, there will not be enough water to provide to the western regions.

Contrary to popular belief, the drought that certain regions are currently facing in central and western states of the United States are not temporary but the new standards. Results showed an ongoing trend of temperatures increasing and grounds become drier which only will only accelerate the drought conditions.

German scientists succeeded in creating hydrogen plasma in their fusion reactor known as a stellarator this past Wednesday. The device is truly staggering in its cost, and its power. Taking 19 years and around 1.2 billion euro, the stellarator consists of 425 tons of superconducting magnet coils that form a vacuum tube to suspend the plasma, which is created by heating hydrogen gas to 80 million degrees Celsius. [1] For a point of reference, the center of the sun is only around 10 million °C. [2] The reactor is made to run the experiment for up to a half hour, but as this was the first trial with hydrogen the operators wanted to avoid any unnecessary risk by running it for longer than a second or two. [3] This is truly a milestone for fusion technology because creating and maintaining hydrogen plasma is the first step in fusing two nuclei because they have thus been stripped of their electrons and may collide to form a helium nucleus, yielding large amounts of energy. [4] However, there remains a long road of scientific progress ahead before we can sustainably run fusion reactions and harness the resulting energy, and there is the problem of the low abundance of elemental hydrogen on earth. That being said, if we can master these challenges we will be able to meet all of our energy needs in a sustainable way by harnessing the same power as the sun.

Sources:

1. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/nuclear-fusion-hit-a-massive-milestone-in-germany?trk_source=homepage-lede%3Futm_source%3Dvicenewsfb
2. http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/ask/7-How-hot-is-the-Sun-
3. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/02/03/world/europe/ap-eu-nuclear-fusion.html?_r=0
4. http://www.planete-energies.com/en/medias/close/about-nuclear-fusion

Between 1998 and 2014, scientists noted a marked decrease in the rate at which the average temperature was increasing. Originally, this period was attributed to an increase in the heat being absorbed by the deep oceans and weak solar activity. Recently, scientists have determined that up to one-third of this hiatus of warming can be attributed to volcanic activity and aerosols. Volcanoes release aerosol particles that collect above the rain clouds in between the stratosphere and troposphere layers of the atmosphere. These lead to an increase in the albedo of the earth, leading to an estimated .05 to .12 degree Celsius decrease in the average temperature. This is particularly noticeable in the polar regions, where the stratosphere extends as low as six miles above the earths surface. Typically this area is discounted when scientists are testing for aerosols due to volcanic activity because the cloud cover interferes with the measurements.

Because of this decrease in temperature, scientists are speculating that the models used to inform senators and congressmen about policy decisions are actually incorrect. It is wholly possible that the atmosphere is significantly more delicate and responsive to carbon dioxide emissions than is currently believed, and should the models be updated to account for this finding, climate policy could change again in the near future.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2906874/Volcanoes-cooling-Earth-Aerosols-small-eruptions-reduced-global-temperatures-tropical-rainfall.html

Feedback mechanisms, we learned in Module 3, can accentuate and dampen change and they are incredibly important to our climate system. This article published in the New York Times brings to light exactly how impactful feedback loops can be especially in the Arctic. Scientists who have traveled to the northern rim of Alaska’s Brooks Range every year for the last 30 years, found last May to be the historic of them all. Scientists explain “the artic is warming faster than anywhere else in the world as seawater replaces sea ice, painting the Arctic Ocean blue and fueling a dangerous feedback loop” (Urban, Deegan, 2016).

The biologist that study the Arctic every May explain much like Module 3 did that white sea ice reflects the sun’s energy back into space through the albedo effect. As ice melts however, the dark Arctic seawater now absorbs the heat and as a results warms the earth’s temperature. The problem with the past spring that they observed was that snow melted two weeks earlier than it ever has in the past and the lakes thawed 10 days earlier. Thunderstorms were among the strangest observation for these scientists who explain that this type of storm used to be rare in the Arctic but now they are frequent. Lightning sparks fires and releases carbon from the permafrost.

We have learned in the last three Modules that there a lot of controversy surrounding climate change. This article explains an unknown. These scientists added nutrients to an Arctic stream to mimic what happens when the tundra thaws and what they found was a rare moss and new set of insects. The scientists explain “the surprises [with the addition of nutrients] pose serious risks because we can’t prepare for what we don’t know, we can no longer be satisfied to watch and document these changes, we must predict and prevent them” (Urban, Deegan, 2016). They bring about such a true statement, a scary one, but true.

Reference:

Urban, Mark, Deegan, Linda. T-Shirt Weather in the Arctic. New York Times. 5 February 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/06/opinion/t-shirt-weather-in-the-arctic.html

Similar in pervasiveness to the Zika virus that has posed a new threat to us and is steadily increasing in prevalence, avian influenza is becoming a more notable danger. Much of the transmission can be assumed to be caused by the huge amount of chicken consumption of the world. Since it is in such a huge global demand, there are major issues with how easily one chicken can travel across the world carrying with it all of the bacteria and viruses it has acquired to spread with other birds or for humans to contract. This is a growing concern given that the global demand for chickens has quadrupled since 1970 according to the article. It has already been demonstrated in mega proportions that the bird flu has the capability to kill several hundred thousand people and these pandemics occurred before the demand skyrocketed. Another variable in the equation I found interesting was how easily poultry viruses can spread and mutate in the presence of humans because in much of china, people prefer to buy their chickens live in filthy marketplaces before taking them home to their families. The final and most interesting part of the situation that might explain some of the newly adapted spreading is due to the increased time spent between bird species around the Bering Strait because of the climate change. The increased overlap in migration periods means there is a much greater possibility for viruses to get spread among different birds before returning back home.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/opinion/sunday/what-you-get-when-you-mix-chickens-china-and-climate-change.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0

Feedback mechanisms seem to exist as the equal and opposite reaction to this planet’s absorption of solar radiation. The ocean being blue and absorbing more light energy as heat than the white polar ice makes sense given what I learned in physics class where I was asked a question about what color should the sail on a solar powered sailing ship in space be to go faster. http://climate.nasa.gov/nasa_role/science/ I answered black because how should I know how to make a theoretical spaceship? Turns out the answer was white because it would reflect the light more and make this space ship go faster.

Some people think that the sun’s activity level has changed and that’s what’s leading to global warming. While it’s true that sunspot cycles do contribute, they don’t happen nearly often enough, (only eleven years at a time) to be the biggest or most likely explanation for the planet getting warmer. When the increase in temperature corresponds to when humans first started burning fossil fuels and the fact that as our sun gets older, it will get less active and eventually die. https://www.aip.org/history/climate/solar.htm

Global concentrations of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere exceeded 400 parts per million in average per month last spring breaking a new absolute record and achieving a meaningful concentration level set by important scientists and policy makers. But carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas that broke records last year; methane and nitrous oxide also reached major levels that show how concentrations are increasing with rising rates.

If greenhouse gas emissions keep escalating at this pace that could eventually lead to catastrophic consequences. If carbon dioxide levels reach 560 parts per million, that is double their preindustrial levels, the feedback loop would cause water vapor and clouds to increase atmospheric warming to a rate three times what gases can do by themselves. So going back to my last week blog were I talked about global warming and how the temperatures are rising at a really high pace, we would be contributing even more to climate change.

For this reason, seventeen notable New York City hotels have committed to getting greener. The hotels enrolled to this program have pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions from their buildings by thirty percent or more in the next ten years, helping significantly to cut down New York City’s overall emissions.I could experience that in a hotel in Lebanon, NH, a couple of weeks ago. The hotel, that had recently made a green commitment, incorporates eco-friendly materials and recycling practices in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

References:

• Fleur, N. (2015, November 10). Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Levels Hit Record, Report Says. Retrieved February 01, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/science/atmospheric-greenhouse-gas-levels-hit-record-report-says.html?_r=0
• Fleur, N. (2015, November 10). Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Levels Hit Record, Report Says. Retrieved February 01, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/science/atmospheric-greenhouse-gas-levels-hit-record-report-says.html?_r=0

Climate Change brings varied impacts to people in different places, most often for the worse – but sometimes for the better.  A recent article outlines an example of the detrimental effects of climate change to many individuals ways of life in Bolivia.  The country’s second-largest lake has dried up, and therefore dramatically altered the life of those who relied upon its existence.

Thousands of residents have had to leave the area and find a new way to earn a living, and there is little hope that the lake – which is twice the size of Los Angeles – will be able to replenish.  This is an example of how climate change has and will continue to destroy lives and harm the planet.  There are, however, a few positive aspects of a changing climate.

Perhaps paramount among these are the opportunities that accompany changing energy policy.  California has had a policy in place, which they recently extended, to allow households with solar panels to sell excess energy to the grid.  This is a wonderful economic opportunity that makes using solar power more affordable and realistic for average families.

While, on the whole, the effects of climate change are incredibly detrimental to human and other life, there are ways to make these changes have positive impacts, such as repurposing and energy innovation.

sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/world/americas/a-lake-in-bolivia-evaporates-and-with-it-a-way-of-life.html?ref=topics

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/29/business/energy-environment/california-narrowly-votes-to-retain-system-that-pays-solar-users-for-excess-power.html?ref=topics

Over the past week, we have been able to understand how climate change continuous to affect our earth. While it was very interesting to see our own temperature record here at State College, it is also intriguing to learn how the climate change is affecting other parts of the world. In the article “Argentina Scrambles to Fight Biggest Plague of Locusts in 60 Years” by Jonathan Gilbert, it is explained how climate change has reached the country and has affected the farmers.

While there is little research on the topic, Diego Quiroga, the agriculture agency’s chief of vegetative protection, has warned his country about climate change effects and spoke the United Nations agency about the disaster. Mr. Quiroga warned the UN that climate change would affect Argentina, as well as other countries in Africa, as it will worsen the locust plagues. On the other hand, Paola Carrizo, a professor of agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires, argues that there is no prove that climate change is directly connected to the plague. Ms. Carrizo believes the plague has been caused due to the insufficient pest control by Senasa (the government’s agricultural inspection agency).

Similarly to my blog post last week, when Bolivians blame their government for the evaporation of their second largest lake, the citizens of Argentina have blame the former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Many argue that Fernández continued to disregard the warnings and as a consequence Argentina faces the worst plague explosion in the last 60 years that Mr. Quiroga deems impossible to eradicate. It is very disappointing to see that there seems to be a theme of governments around the world disregarding environmental issues.

Gilbert, Jonathan. “Argentina Scrambles to Fight Biggest Plague of Locusts in 60 Years.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2016. Web. 31 Jan. 2016.

The article I chose is from the National Geographic and it talks about the sea level rise. It starts by describing the reasons for the rise of sea level in the past few years. The burning of fossil fuels as well as other human and natural activities are the main causes for the rise of sea level, since it makes the Earth’s surface temperature increase. With the increase in Earth’s temperature, water is expanding even more than usual due to thermal expansion theory. Besides that, the melting of glaciers, polar ice caps, Greenland, and West Antarctica are constantly helping the rise of sea level. With that being said, coastal habitats are suffering devastating effects with the increase in sea level. Another consequence that is important to be mentioned is the fact that the higher the sea level is, the higher a storm in the coast will be. Therefore, cities like Miami and San Francisco have a higher chance of being hit by heavier storms. In general, the rise of the sea level is an issue that the world should start thinking about it as soon as possible, even if the process requires years to happen. Consequences can be serious to coastal cities and islands around the world, which would force people to abandon their homes and relocate to somewhere else.

Reference: http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-sea-level-rise/

Climate change is always spoken about in terms of the future; most will not feel its effects for decades to come. For that reason the majority of the world lacks a sense of urgency in its efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. We are currently losing landlocked ice due to the warming of the Polar Regions and the subsequent sea level rise is already being observed in low-lying countries such as Bangladesh. The article Borrowed Time on Disappearing Land by Gardiner Harris of the New York Times [1] outlines the struggle of Jahanara Khatun, an impoverished farmer who lives in the Ganges Delta of Bangladesh. The land here sits only a few feet above sea level if at all, and the people living there are already witnessing the encroaching tides. To make matters worse large parts of the country are actually subsiding even lower as they pump the aquifers to supply their drinking water. The citizens such as Ms. Khatun struggle to survive on a daily basis in a place where the soil is being sewn with salt by the rising sea, living in mud and bamboo huts in a place known to experience cylcones that are predicted to become more intense as global warming continues. They are exceptionally vulnerable to the effects of climate change and yet Bangladesh as a nation is responsible for only .3% of the worlds increase in greenhouse gases.¹ This is a typical case of environmental injustice that recurs around the world as a result of anthropogenic climate change: those who have contributed the least will suffer its impacts most. We often forget that many people on the world struggle to survive every day, but let this serve as a reminder that those are the people most in need of rapid action on climate change, and we as a nation have a great moral responsibility to catalyze that action.

In this article, David Goldstein discusses the impact of oil prices on the environment. Goldstein mentions that while low oil prices will reduce the attention given to policies pushing clean energy, they also make policies promoting dirty energy less financially viable. For instance, the Keystone XL pipeline, a project designed to send tar sands from the Arctic south to Houston, Texas, stops being financially viable with the price of oil near $30 a barrel. However, with the price of oil anywhere north of $70, the Keystone XL becomes financially viable.

Further, with the price of oil this low, fracking becomes less financially viable. Fracking releases hundreds of dangerous chemicals into drinking water. Other drilling projects have been cancelled. According to this article and this article, Chevron indefinitely shelved its offshore Arctic drilling project due to falling oil prices. And since oil prices are predicted to stay low for possibly up to a decade, this significantly impacts the viability of similar projects, like the Imperial Oil project that has yet to be cancelled.

The article then states that since consumers were okay with paying $120 a barrel, it would be fair to charge producers $80 a barrel to produce oil. This money could be used to eliminate the national debt, and since the producers do not earn that money, it allows for clean energy initiatives to continue to grow.