EIA Predicts A Grim Future for Carbon Emissions

Picture: Show the past and predicted future world carbon dioxide emmissions from 1990 to 2035 in billions of metric tons.

Summary: The EIA ( Energy Information Administration) recent prediction that the worlds carbon emmission to rise 40% by the year 2035.
If this prediction is correct the EIA says that the world should expect dramatic climate change and widespread dustbowlification due to carbons impact on our atmosphere. The climate change; scientists say, will cause the polar ice caps to melt and cause a multi foot ocean level increase. This will also cause incresed acidic levels in saltwater which would lead to a massive loss of fish. The seafood loss would greatly threaten the extinction of many land bound organisms as well. Scientists say that the global warming will also lead to much more powerful hurricanes and eventually another ice age. The EIA also stated that the expected increased carbon out will come mainly from the burning of coal, and mainly from areas such as China and India.

Opinion/Reflection: Global Warming has been made so obvious to us throught this and a countless number of other activist reports. Despite this it still seems to me that everyone either doesn't believe that what they are being told will actually happen or feel to insignificant to do anything about it. I personally feel very strongly about this issue and think that it should be a top priority to stop. I've seen a countless number on telivision documentaries depicting disasters due to this in the future. I'm still such a young person and have so much more life to look forward to on this planet and I DON'T want Global Warming to make things worse as time passes by.

Questions:

1: Make some suggestions on how we could reduce carbon emmission and explain them.

2: Do you think that our government and other governments around the world are doing enough to prevent global warming? Explain.

3: Do you really belive that Global Warming could lead to a second ice age? Explain.

What happens to our trash?

What happens to our trash?

A researcher named Carlo Ratti conducted an experiment to see what happened to our trash after we threw it away. He attached trackers to 3000 pieces of trash and followed them with a computer wherever they went. Amazingly some pieces of trash were recorded traveling over 4000 miles. Ratti says that he wonders how we can make the system more efficient in general.
Making our public trash and recycling systems more efficient is very important to me. There is no reason that a single piece of trash has to be transported 4000 miles. I see that as a waste of energy that could better be spent elsewhere. Imagine that we didn't have a public trash system at all. Whenever you wanted to throw something out, you would have to drive it to a landfill yourself. Now would you want to have to drive it 4000 miles before you could get rid of a single piece of trash. Now, we do have a public trash system, so maybe you don't have to drive a bunch of junk 4000 miles, but in reality, someone is. That seems to me like a lot of wasted time and energy.

Questions:
1: How could we make the system more efficient?
2: Do you think it is important to improve our trash and recycling systems? why? or why not?
3: What effect (positive or negative) do you think making our public trash and recycling systems would have on the environment? Explain.

Converting rainforest to cropland in Africa reduces rainfal

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0919-west_africa_rainfall.html

This article is about how when people in Africa cut down their rain forests, it makes less rain fall in the area. When the trees are cut down, it makes the air hotter. This makes it so less rain clouds can form and half as much rain is dropped. The African rain forests survive off of barely any water to begin with and when you decrease that, many of the rain forests will start to disappear.

I feel that deforestation is a terrible thing to begin with, but when deforestation makes it so less trees can live to begin with, it just wont work. We are killing ourselves by clearing all of this land, and after we reach a certain point, we won't be able to undo this because not enough rain will fall for trees to survive anyway.

A good idea is to make the cuts in a fishtail pattern. This does less damage to the environment and won't make it rain any less. the ideal solution would to just stop this all together, but that wont happen. So if this is second best, we better start soon.

Questions:

1) Do you think there is a way to stop deforestation? If yes, what?

2) Why do you think people still do this even though they know its killing the environment?

3) If you had to live there, and farming was your only job, would you be wary of the environment when trying to earn a living?

Dust bowls, water shortages, and toxins drive people from their homes

Article Found Here

Picture: To the left, we see the affects a dust bowl can have on what was a once fully functioning farm.

Summary: Although many other environmental events are more commonly related to the fleeing of refugees, one thing many people forget about are the ever-expanding deserts, falling water tables, toxic waste and radiation are also forcing people from their native lands.

The Sahara Desert is just one example of desert's expanding in every directions. The Sahara is forcing many to flee towards the Mediterranean Sea. Even worse, the desert is also forcing farmers in Nigeria into one of the last farmable areas, which just so happens to be very small. A surprising statistic says that,"A 2006 U.N. conference on desertification in Tunisia projected that by 2020, up to 60 million people could migrate from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa and Europe."

Africa is not the only area affected by this startling trend, though. People from all over the world, including Mexico, Brazil and Iran, are also being forced to fled. One of the most affected areas, though, is China. This country is expected to suffer from a dust bowl of the same magnitude that occurred in the United States, although instead of 2 million Americans being affected, 10 million Chinese citizens will be forced from their homes.

On top of this massive problem, there seems to also be a case of water depletion all around the world. Some villages in India have even been abandoned due to a lack of water! And on top of that, toxic and nuclear waste is everywhere, posing serious health risks to those who live around it.

These problems are making refugees migrate to North American and Europe, adding to the immigration problem. With all of these problems, the article finally finishes with asking a simple question. Why are we focusing on keeping immigrants out rather than fixing the problem that is driving them across the border?

Opinion/Reflection: I find this entire article very worrying! First of all, I feel really bad for those who are forced from their homes due to no fault of their own. They aren't the ones not taking proper care of their nuclear and toxic waste, and I wish I knew a way to at least help these people in some way. I'm also surprised that these kinds of events are not reported as much as they deserve to be. I know that I probably wouldn't have heard about this situation if it wasn't for this article.

Questions: 1.) Why do you think these dust bowls aren't reported as much in the news?

2.) How would you react if you were forced from your home one day due to toxic waste?

3.) How do you think we could help those that are affected by the water shortage?

Endangered Short-Tailed Albatross Killed as Bycatch on Fishing Boat

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/09/endangered-short-tailed-albatross-killed-as-bycatch-by-fishing-boat.php?campaign=th_rss

Picture: This is a picture of a short-tailed albatross, a species of bird living off the Northwest coast, which has been hunted to near extinct levels due to the feather trade, and they are still extremely endangered.

Summary: A recent report revealed that a short tailed albatross was accidentally killed as bycatch by a longline fishing boat off the coast of Oregon in April. Longline fishing boats are notorious for being a danger to seabirds such as the albatross, and even though the feather trade is the cause of the near-extinction, the boats are definitely slowing the recovery of the species. The recent killing has led to meetings between National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, associated with the Endangered Species Act. 

Many seabirds are killed every year due to fishing accidents, such as swallowing the hooks or being pulled underwater and drowning. A posssible preventative measure could be taken to scare the birds away, but it is not always used as it is not required.

The reason that the killing of one albtross is a big deal because only a fraction of bird killings are noticed by fishermen and even fewer are reported, so this could only be the tip of the iceberg. The birds currently only reside on four islands, after being thought extinct for some time until ten breeding pairs were found on one of the islands. Hopefully measures will be taken to stop fishing accidents and the birds will be able to recover from endangerment in peace.

Opinion/reflection: It upset me very much to hear that these birds were having problems with being accidentally killed by fishing boats, especially after being hunted to near extinction. I think it is horrible that fishermen aren't taking better care to prevent bird killings and to notice and report the ones that do happen. The fishermen and the organizations that belong to the Endangered Species Act should definitely pay more attention to things like this, or the birds could go extinct again. If the birds were to go extinct, it could mess up many ecosystems, because they mainly eat squid, and if the birds were gone, the squid would multiply in numbers, possibly overeating the fish in the area and so on. If one ecosystem is affected, many others could be also, and effects could even be felt by us because the whole biosphere is connected in some way.

Questions

1. Why don't fishermen use "bird scare" lines to prevent bird killings?

2. How could we be affected by the endangerment of the short-tailed albatross?

3. Why aren't more people concerned with  protecting endangered species?

4. What are some things we can do to help?