Climate change doesn't need to be a political matter, though it seemingly becomes one. Data collected from leading scientific institutions from all over the world points to climate change on planet earth, that has already begun to effect our ecosystems. When you can watch Antarctic ice shelves melt and fall off live on the internet, it makes you wonder what is up for debate. Yes, drastic climate change has happened on this planet before (e.g. in the time of the dinosaurs), but there is no doubt that industry and deforestation has caused CO2 levels to rise in the atmosphere.
What do you think about this? Climate change is something we can't really feel or see (at least right here right now in MI), but that doesn't hold true for others all over the globe.
Check out some climate change stories (here)
On October 24, people around the world are taking a stand for a safer global climate.
People are taking what action they can to help! "Leading global warming author Bill McKibben's 350.org is asking activists who want to highlight the need to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million - the highest level that scientists tell us is safe - to participate in an International Day of Climate Action. All you have to do is make a statement, whether you're at a rally with a digital camera or at home with your friends and a cell phone, incorporating the number '350' in a very visible way," (Whit Jones, PowerShift 2009, University of Michigan).
Check out Bill McKibben's 350.org
Check out these cool and calm NASA scientists explaining some aspects of climate change:
Sam Schulman
ReplyDeletePost #6
Discussion 003
Global warming has become a very popular topic to discuss. Prominent politicians such as Ale Gore have spread the concept to citizens all over the world, but yet it seems that few people recognize this overwhelming global problem.
Scientifically it is proven that the water temperature is rising, therefore ice caps are melting, and the water level is rising. Theories such as Venice in the near future being destroyed by rising water levels have circulated, but seem to have cultivated little concern.
This rise in temperature is due to CO2 emissions that although are natural in the sense of how our economy and production works, can also easily be removed. Simple things such as carpooling or taking public transporation can drastically decrease these emissions.
One of the biggest problems with the approach of global warming education is that its on such a large scale. While watching the video posted on the blog, I was overwhelmed with the images of large glaciers falling to the sea and overhead shots of plates shifting. Realistically, in order to get people’s attention, politicians, etc. need to educate in relation to citizen’s home habitats. For instance, ctitiznes in the state of Michigan have a attachment to the great lakes, by threatening the purity and levels of their beloved lakes, people may be more apt to make changes in their everyday life.
Stephany Schafer
ReplyDeleteADP 3
Weekly response 4
The rising sea levels are a constant concern. People around the world should be concerned about the melting of glaciers and ice sheets in the north. There will be dire consequences if things are not changed to prevent such occurances.
Not only are the ice sheets a major resource of fresh water, but also as they melt they are being wasted. Combined with the salt of the seawater the ice sheets become useless and that is a major waste of one of the few resources we have left. There should be far more people concerned about this.
After all if the ice melts all the people who have costal property will now own underwater housing. Those living on sea level land will have to move, that will cost them far more money than it would to try and reduce carbon levels, which may even save them money. Whole landscapes and cities would disappear underwater. Buildings will sink and landslides will become ever more prevalent. Riverbanks are eroding and even more soil and nitrogen is being dumped into the oceans. This is helping to cause some of the dead zones in the ocean and is killing off the wildlife.
Kyla Suchy
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement: Week 7
I have always been very skeptical of the claims of global warning. Throughout high school I scoffed at the oversensitive and overdramatic girls crying about the polar bears and penguins. I agreed that polar bears and penguins were cute, however I did not join in their misery for I considered myself a practical thinker who does not get caught up in emotional ploys of tree huggers. I did agree that the Earth was heating up, that fact was undeniable, but I would not believe that it is heating up at such an alarming rate as some scientists said it was. My reasoning was that the Earth goes through cycles of heating and cooling. For example, the glaciers of the ice age melted on their own accord, not because the T-Rex drove a Hummer. Another factor was my mother often recounted the environmental fears of her youth: the world was going into another ice age and David Hasselhof was going to fall into the Pacific with the rest of California. I reasoned that this was a cycle just like any other natural cycle.
My views have changed some since high school. I do acknowledge global warming. I still believe it is part of the Earth’s cycles, however consumers are speeding up this process way too quickly. I know a lot more now because of classes like this as well as better educational resources such as the NASA video. It was really refreshing to watch the NASA video because the speakers were not overdramatic and was not trying to scare me into living in a cave in fear of the environmental apocalypse. They were very calm and did a good job explaining things. I am very practical; therefore if someone is getting too emotional about something, I typically just stop paying attention to his or her message.
One thing that interested me in the video is the fact that when water heats up, it expands. I only thought that melting glaciers contributed to the rising sea levels. This fact makes complete sense and it worries me to factor that in to what I already know about what rising sea levels can do to ecosystems. One thing I am pretty unfamiliar with however, is CO2 levels in the atmosphere. I know that large levels of CO2 is bad, but I have no idea what level we are at right now, and how that affects the planet in the future.
My dad works for Ford, so we often talk about what Ford is trying to do for its vehicles’ CO2 emissions. One major thing that sticks out in my memory is he was very upset that Obama denounced automakers for making little progress in how many miles per gallon their cars get. When cars were invented they may have been able to get 15 miles per gallon, but they only went 5 or so miles per hour. In a car nowadays you can get much more than 15 miles per gallon if you putt around at 5mph, however you would not even dream of taking a Model-T anywhere near highway speeds. In conclusion, I think that we are actually heading in the right direction (however slowly that might be.) I do not see global warming as “doom and gloom”, I see it as an opportunity to get some really brilliant minds together to figure this out as a global community. This is our planet and I believe we are going to save it.
Alexis Newton
ReplyDeleteWeekly Statement #10
Backtracking a bit to the topic of “Climate Change”
When watching the NASA video about climate change, I actually thought that it was a very good way to present information about global warming and the glaciers melting to contribute to the rise of the sea level. One reason why I liked this version, and why I felt that this version was more effective than others that I have seen in the past, is that it really was a calm and straight to the point video to watch. Other forms of videos trying to relay the same messages have been extremely powerful and make global warming seem like a giant, horrible situation. Many people while watching videos like the latter would try to relate the video to their seemingly unchanging lifestyles and seemingly unchanging environments, and they would fail to do so. By introducing the topic of climate change in a realistic and calm manner, people can relate more and realize that maybe the climate is changing, and someday it may affect the way they live.
There were a few things that I felt this video could have improved on, the main one being that the video still doesn’t relate to people as much as it could. If the video is being shown to people along the coast of a country, there are ways to present the information to make it seem more relevant to them, as opposed to a person living in the central part of a continent, who would experience different effects from global warming.
Another critique is that it may seem boring to some people. When watching it, it does feel like a science documentary, rather than a really important piece of information that many people need to know about, and that is entertaining to learn about.
There really are many different ways in which the distribution of global warming information can happen, and I feel that the knowledge of the target audience, and the reaction you are trying to cause, are the main things to consider.
Weekly Statement 13
ReplyDeleteI think that more and more people are becoming aware of climate change every day. It is obviously something that is of great importance for our generation. We have created a mess for ourselves and it will take the entire planet and population to fix it. I think that awareness is the most important step right now. People need to be aware of their lifestyles and how that is directly affecting our climate.
I think that companies like Google, producing new technology to keep people aware of the levels of energy they are using with their “PowerMeter.” People need to see something that will physically show them or tell them how much energy they are using in order to change. I think that the cause of their energy uses will not hit most people until they see how much they are really using. I think that artists play a big role in showing these facts to people. Artists and designers need to make art or products that will clearly tell people how much energy they are using and how their lifestyles affect our climate. Artists like Alfio Bonanno and Christophe Cornubert and their “CO2 Cube” are taking advantage of their creativity and skill to make people aware of the realities of their habits and lifestyles. I think that people do not really know how much damage they are causing or how much energy they are using unless they see those numbers put into something visual and dimensional. I think that the shear size of this “CO2 Cube” will have a great affect on many people because of its size.
Most of these inventions and artworks are well known to people who are already aware of the issue. I think that the role of artists is to make the issue spread and to make sure that everyone is aware of the problems. The problems are a good point to start but people also need to know how to change and what solutions they can make. I think that representing both the problems together with the solutions would be the best way to get more people involved. People will be more likely to change when they see how they can directly make a change and a difference by changing.
Weekly Statement #11
ReplyDeleteColder ocean water helps reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, scientists know this, and have ideas about how to help create a man made way to fix this. Decreasing the incoming long wave radiation is reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, how can we help? Well a few obvious ways are riding our bikes instead of driving cars (DUH), or polluting less (another DUH moment), but people do not want to change their everyday lives they have tried so hard to create so there’s more ideas. There are dead parts in the ocean, or places where life and green plants do not grow because of a lack of minerals such as iron. Ideas being thrown around to help this is to add iron to these parts of the ocean so they can create green matter, and absorb the CO2 and carry it to the bottom of the ocean and out of the atmosphere. The only problem with this is their idea consists of taking old metal materials and just throwing them into the ocean, which a lot of people have a problem with. People do not physically feel the effects of CO2 overload in their everyday lives so most people do not have knowledge or care about it’s long term effects because it is not in their face. One idea to make it obvious just how abundant it is in our lives it to create a substance that would turn the CO2 a color, say yellow, and every time we turn on a light when we walk into a room the room would be full of this yellow gas, so that we can no longer ignore it. I think these ideas are very interesting, but do not really see them actually being put into effect because of all the political debate they would get. I think that the only real way that people will do something about the effects of the rise of CO2 however, is it if is in their face like the yellow gas, otherwise it’s just another “notion”, people with think someone is making up instead of scientific data that no one can really feel or touch.