Chaneykd's Blog

Global Warming – Health and Disease

There are health related issues with the process of global warming. As the world sees an increase in climates throughout, the spread of disease will only increase.  As areas such as North America see an increase in average temperatures, areas that were once temperate could see more tropical weather.  With this heat and moisture comes the threat of disease.  Many diseases have been eradicated over the years in the northern hemisphere.  These diseases like malaria, dengue and yellow fever are carried by insects which in turn transmit the disease to humans.  As the temperatures rise globally these diseases could start to pop up in the northern hemisphere.  As these diseases spread to the north and to other parts of the world that have eradicated them pandemics will break out.  This will cause a great effect on the entire world, possibly even causing a stop on everyday life.  Global warming, if dealt with quickly, does not have to end human lives.  The world must fight global warming now to insure a bright future.

For more information:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/06/20/tech/main512920.shtml

Global Warming – Who doesn’t agree?

Global warming not only has a large base of supporters who believe it is a problem for the entire globe, but also has a group of people who discredit the data shown about its effects.  There seems to be a split in the scientific research on global warming, while much of the research shows that a problem is evident, other scientists counter the data in an attempt to disprove it.  For example, there are records that show the temperature of the globe increasing steadily over the past century.  Those who are opposed to global warming say that this increase in temperature is part of a natural cycle of the earth warming, and that humans do not have a significant enough role in carbon emissions.  For the most part, the society and governments as are working together to fight climate change.  It has been shown though, that some businesses and groups that affiliate with the carbon emission industry lean towards discrediting global warming so that ultimately they can keep their current processes intact.  All in all, we humans need to push the importance of reducing carbon emissions to help fight global warming.  As the population of supporters of this cause increases, those governments and industries that sway agains this needed fight will have to end up doing something to meet the demand of the global population.

for more information:

http://www.globalissues.org/article/710/global-warming-spin-and-media

Global Warming – Economics

Global warming not only effects the environment, but also the economy as well.  As the use of carbon based products increases with industrialization of developing countries the overall supply of oil is depleted.  Oil is a large part of the economy, whether it is being traded or sold for transit use, oil has a large market.  It is not known what the exact amount of oil left in the world is, but it is known that once the oil is gone, it will be gone indefinitely.  Recently oil feilds have seen their peak oil production rates, which will never be met again.  With this the price of oil is raises as the demand increases and the supply lowers.  From this I recommend that the world as a whole work together to invest the time and money into alternative sources of energy.  There are already many different forms of alternative energies available, but with little investment backing the funding and research to increase productivity.  The world needs to ween themselves off of the dependency of oil to decrease carbon emissions and to save the economy.

for more information:

http://thejakartaglobe.com/business/quit-oil-before-oil-quits-iea-warns/321914

Global Warming – Polar Bears

As well as humans, animals feel the effects of global warming too.  The melting of the polar ice caps has caused a problem with the eating habits of the polar bear.  Polar bears depend heavily upon ice to feed upon seal.  The seals come up out of the water and through breathing holes in the ice.  This is wear the polar bears wait for a seal, and then eat the seal.  As size of the ice caps decrease it becomes harder for the entire population of polar bears to locate the seal.  With this the eating habits of the polar bears are greatly effected causing a decrease in the entire polar bear population.

For more information about polar bears and the melting ice caps.

Global Warming – What is being done? (politics)

As of right now there are many things being done to get the knowledge of global warming to the public.  It is a great need for the entire population to understand the reasons behind and the effects of global warming.  In the political spotlight, global warming receives a decent amount of attention.  There has been different bills ran through the White House that have put a strong emphasis on climate change as a whole.  Many U.S. cities have created a goal of reducing carbon emissions.  The state of California has become a leader in the fight to lower the already high carbon emissions.  On August 31, 2006 the California Global Warming Solutions Act. was decided upon by both political parties of California.  The bill was passed into legislation on September 27, 2006 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  As the importance of Global Warming is spread throughout different State and local government policies the world as a whole will find the same importance as well.

Global Warming – Things to do in prevention

There are many things people can do as a whole to help slow the process of global warming.  Many are simple lifestyle changes that over time could really make a difference in the effects of global warming in the future.  Some of these range from being energy sensitive and not wasting electricity to using public transportation rather than driving your car.  Many of these lifestyle changes are not hard to deal with but rather were previously never a part of most people’s lives.  Over time as these different lifestyle changes in energy use are implemented a change in the would be seen.  When the population of the world sees that these issues are important then the global leaders will have to stand up and address the real problems with global as the population demands.  Here are some simple yet effective ways to reduce energy use and slow global warming.

http://globalwarming-facts.info/50-tips.html

Global Warming – Undisputed Truths

With global warming comes the gradual melting of the ice caps and glaciers.  All over the world large area that were once covered with a glacier are now mainly if not completely bare.  In Alaska the rate of which glaciers are melting has doubled since previously thought.  Below is photographic proof of the Portage Glacier near Anchorage, Alaska that is now almost completely gone.

The first being photographed in 1950 and second in 2002.

As more and more glacier melt the water that is melted off will have to go somewhere.  This will in turn cause a shift in the natural level of the sea.  As the levels of the sea rise areas of the globe will begin to go underwater, unless some steps are made now to prevent this from happening.

For more information on Glaciers in other parts of the world and the one in Alaska:

http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/glaciers.html

Global Warming – Extreme Weather

As global warming progresses the effects of weather will become more and more apparent over the years.  As a trend with global warming, an increase in extreme weather can be seen. For example, instead of having two or three small sized hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico every summer there may be many violent and extreme hurricanes.  In 2004 and 2005 the Atlantic saw some of its most amounts of tropical storms and hurricanes in one season.  In 2005 the most significant of the hurricanes was Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed much of Louisiana’s New Orleans as it was put under water.  In other parts of the world an more extreme weather can be found more often.  Just recently over the past two months or so the Philippines has been hit by over three typhoons.  With the rain brought by the typhoon the Philippines has seen record rainfalls and flooding in much of the country.  As global warming progresses it only seem likely for these acts of extreme weather to become that of the normal, causing a huge blow to any human civilization.

For more information on hurricanes and weather trends in the Atlantic:

http://www.pewclimate.org/hurricanes.cfm

For more information on the Philippines:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/10/30/philippines-typoon-mirinae-all-saints.html

Global Warming – Snowpack

Snowpack is very important to the entire world as we know it.  Whether you live in the mountains of Colorado or the great plaines of North Dakota, people see the effect of global warming as snowpacks melt quicker than usual.  Snowpack is the snow and ice that is built up mainly in high climate areas.  Throughout the cold winters and into the spring snowpack are built up with millions of gallons of water in the form of snow and ice.  As global warming has sunk in many areas of large amounts of snowpack are being depleted.  Rather than snow falling it rains and thus causing the direct runoff of the snowpack.  Instead of gradually melting and running through streams over time and into the spring and summer months, snowpacks are now melting to soon.  This causes a large problem to the agriculture of the area that depend off of the snowpack water.  On the western side of the United States many rivers are running dry in the summer because the usual snowpack from the mountains are no longer providing the amount of water needed.  This lack of water in the summer month’s has large impact on the agriculture economy as a whole.  With less production rates and lower yields farmer are required to raise prices of their crop, which in turn is put back on the consumer.  If the issues with global warming are dealt with now these problems such as the depletion of snowpack may not be a problem in the foreseeable future.

More Info on Snowpack and Global Warming:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013101868.html

Global Warming – Scientifically Speaking

There are many complex factors that can be analyzed and shown to correlate with global warming.  To better understand the what happens in global warming here is a diagram of how the Earth heats itself.

This depicts how solar radiation passes through the atmosphere and is mostly absorbed into the earth.  Then some Infrared radiation is reemitted through out the earth back to the atmosphere.  This is where a crucial step goes bad with the process of global warming.  At this point when the infrared radiation reaches the atmosphere which contains the greenhouse gases mainly that being CO2, water vapor, and O3 (ozone).  The carbon dioxide traps some of the infrared radiation and spreads it back through the earth.  This warming the earth even more.  Over the past century the world as a whole has burned many fossil fuels that release the by-product of carbons into the atmosphere.  As more and more levels of carbon dioxide are added to the atmosphere more infrared light is trapped.  This over time has warmed the earth quicker than that of a natural cycle of warming.