Air Problems Only Get Worse With Climate Change

August 20, 2014
By KATE GALBRAITH 
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/business/international/cities-air-problems-only-get-worse-with-climate-change.html?_r=0

The real definition of global warming is "a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by the increased levels of carbon dioxide, CFCs, and other pollutants.
As we know global warming is the biggest threat now in the 21 century. From 1880 until now there is a big change in global warming, the earth is getting warmer and warmer, north and south pole are slowly melting, that's why we have all the big floods.
As you can see in the graph below the global land ocean temperature is very rising, in 1900 it was very low, and when 2000 came the temperature you can see that the temperature is rising. The sea is also a big factor of climate change.

The threats form climate change are many: Extreme weather, big amounts of snow pack, altered ecosystems and rising of the seas. I am sure that humans have influenced the waring of the atmosphere and the changes in the ocean, also the reduction in snow and ice, and the sea level.

As you can see in the picture. Our planet is very hot, and it is getting even hotter. Here are some examples that can help us to save the world. ("Install solar panels, do not leave appliances, defrost old fridges and freezers regular, replace old single gazed windows with double- glazing, take a shower instead of a bath, use less water, recycle, reduce waste, plant a tree, switch to green power, don't waste fuel. For concision i know that everybody can do something about global warming and climate change, each day our planet is getting worse, and we need to stop that.

Increased carbon emissions through downloading games?

Console Games and Climate Change - Researchers Reveal Carbon Emissions of PlayStation®3 Game Distribution 

September 2, 2014

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/PressRelease/pressReleaseId-111832.html

http://www.is4ie.org/jie

A study conducted by Yale university disproved common belief that distribution by physical means, in this case of video games, has a greater carbon footprint than online distribution. In this study, researchers looked into the carbon emissions of gaming consoles, and came to unexpected findings, showing that more greenhouse gases were emitted through downloading a 8.8gb game (average size of a PS3 game downloaded in 2010) than purchasing it as a actual disc. This article also states that the greenhouse gas emissions are unlikely to go down in the area of large files such as video games, since although the internet and transfer of files through the internet will become more efficient, the size of video games will grow, due to constantly improving graphics and other aspects. The findings were part of Yale's Journal of Industrial Ecology which is a bimonthly peer reviewed journal which covers topics such as technological change, producer responsibility, and eco ecology.

Personally, I think that it is equally as intriguing and frightening how much this very short article says. To me, it is very shocking that even the things we thought were beneficial actually did more harm than their alternatives. This side of carbon emissions is very new to me, and I think amplifies how important it is for individuals to be aware of the impact little things they do in their everyday lives have on the environment. The most shocking part of this article to me is that it covers a topic I have never really considered, and also makes me think that perhaps we should reevaluate and rescale our approach towards striving to a cleaner and more eco friendly environment, since this article shows that we may not really know whether our "clean" alternatives provide any lowered carbon emissions. Although perhaps the difference in carbon footprint between physical purchases and downloads may not be very big, it still goes to show that we as a general public are quite unaware about certain aspects of our personal carbon footprints."The Internet will become more efficient with time", this excerpt from the article really made me feel very uneducated as to the overall effects of the internet and its current efficiency levels. Also, it perhaps is an indicator that more research should be put into carbon emissions through media and our online activities, since they obviously play such a big role in our daily lives. This article reinforces the idea that our approach towards lower carbon emissions should be small and step by step, and on a individual level. It also shows  that being knowledgeable about the changes we make is very significant in being efficient about the impact we have.

Saving the bananas!

Did you know that there are 400 different types of bananas? Well 40% of them are dessert bananas, known as the Cavendish... and those are the ones we see on the grocery store shelves, and that we all love to eat. Bananas vary in their shapes, size, texture, and flavor. Getting to the point of the article -- regardless of the banana's popularity around the world, with an estimated 400 million people depending on it for survival, bananas all over the world, including the Cavendish, could get wiped out and disappear from the shelves of our stores.
Tropical Race 4 (TR4), is one of the biggest worries regarding the end of the bananas. It is a soil-born fungus which causes "Panama disease", making the plant wilt (dried up, loss of water) and will eventually die. Another fungus, called Race 1(R1), also causes Panama disease. This fungus almost wiped out one popular type known as Gros Michael/Big Mike, back in the '50s. After that began, farmers promptly reacted by switching to the Cavendish banana, which we eat today.The only difference between R1 and TR4 is that the R1 mostly threatened only the Big Mike, while the TR4 has the potential to wipe out the Cavendish alongside many other forms of the berry (yes, a banana is a berry... fun fact: a strawberry is not considered a berry, while a banana is!)

Going back to the fungus attack -- it was found and is currently threatening all over Asia, Africa, Australia and the Middle East.
The article I read had a great way of phrasing what the actual issue is:
"Losing out on a banana split wouldn’t be great. If these diseases succeed at wiping out popular types of this fruit, however, many people who live in banana-growing regions might starve " (Stevens).
Scientists are currently trying to quickly react to the spreading disease by developing plants that oppose fungus. 
My personal thoughts about this article is that it was very valid and in fact an all around good article, including much background information about bananas and how they affect the daily lives of many humans around the world, as well as what it is that is going on in the world at the moment as bananas are starting to become potentially endangered. This probable effect and disease being spread around the world to our bananas is a big deal, and if it comes to effect our daily lives in the not-too-far future... I frankly won't be too surprised.
I am planning to keep up with this issue and see if anything seriously develops -- we can only hope for the best.

Pearce Stevens, Alison. "Saving the Banana." Student Science. Society For Science Org., 28 Aug. 2014. Web. 31 Aug. 2014.

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/saving-banana

Writing a Current Event Post

Be sure to read SCIENCE NEWS each week. (There are multiple sites to choose from)

When posting:  

• Choose a current article to write about in our ESS blog 
• Post by each DAY 2. 
• Be sure to include the title of the article, the author, the date it was written, and the link to the article. 
• Take notes as you read the article to be sure that you are paraphrasing and outlining the main ideas when writing your summary, not just copy-pasting. This will be checked. 
• Plagiarism will not be tolerated. If it's someone elses words, you need to use quotation marks and put the persons name at the end in parentheses who said it. 
• (You should include AT LEAST ONE quote/s in the article when writing your reflection to strengthen your arguments) 
• The minimum is 250 words for your blog post, but your goal is to improve your writing each time.
• When responding to a blog: 
• Read other classmates posts.
• Comment on at least two student blogs each week when you write your own post.
• Read a selection of your classmates’ postings. As you read their responses, note those to which you would like to respond with advice, questions, comments, and/or encouragement for improvement.
  Respond to two or more of your classmates postings in any of the following ways (By Next Day 1):
• Provide feedback
• Ask a question
• Share an insight - (A connection or thought)
• Offer an opinion
• Make a suggestion
• Note a similarity or difference to your posting

Return to your post in a few days to read the responses to your initial posting. Reflect on what you learned and/or any insights you gained, and how these comments improve your writing and scientific literacy about our environment and human societies. You do not have to write this, you are welcome to comment back on the feedback and questions you got from your peers.

Welcome!!!

Welcome to the collaboration spot of the Environmental Systems and Societies course! 

We have much to discover and learn. As we learn, our environmental values and perspectives will be challenged, developed and perhaps even refined.  

The main goal of this blog will be to build on our abilities to understand the world we live in, gain more knowledge of the major issues occurring in the news, the formation of policies and the development of solutions to these issues. 

All of you will be reading environmental news each week (in a 6 day rotation) and you each will post a short summary of one of the articles you read, state the environmental perspective of the article, as well as your thoughts of what you read every other week (by Day 2). 

You will also be responsible for commenting on at least one classmates blog post each rotation (by Day 1). 

I look forward to reading your posts and taking part with you on this journey of the two year course. 

Bankrupt Zoo

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-27055311

This article talks about the financial difficulties of a zoo in England. This is a zoo that has basically gone bankrupt and its up for sale. People are volunteering to work in this zoo just to help the animals out, they are willing to help the environment and make a change. The zoo has over 200 species of birds, and 90% of the total species are owned by people which put the species in the zoo because they also want to make a difference in the world. Contrary to this, there are people who are doing opposite of this, poaching and not preserving our environment. The reason why the zoo went bankrupt is because of lack of visitors, and lack of donations. People need to take another step, and donate different and strange animals so that it would attract people therefore creating publicity, therefore creating money. It's a chain that can be easily started with the willpower of people. Now that the zoo is bankrupt, it is advertised for sale, and currently its waiting for the highest bidder. The price they are expecting is from £300,000-£350,000.

Alternative approach in fighting poaching

The article talks about a drastic approach to fight poaching. In this case a town council has decided that in order to stop illegal fishing the entire fish population will simply be removed. After complaints were received by the council, an action had to follow. Due to there though not being enough resources such as patrol units or funds it was simply decided to hire a contractor in order to remove the fish population. More than 1t of fish were removed which took around 3 days, species affected were; carp, perch, roach, and rudd. Poaching is a general problem being faced by many countries around the world as food becomes more scare. As signs did not help in this case, a drastic choice was made, this though could have an impact on the ecosystem.

I think that this approach to fight poaching is a bit over the top. Poaching may be a problem but to remove the fish rather than fighting poaching is very drastic. As we learned so far every species plays a specific role in an ecosystem such as the Grey Wolf in Yellow stone. The effect which the removal of fish can have on the canal are unknown. Fish often have the role of controlling the plant population, with them being gone it could come to an increase in water plants which could result in the canal being blocked. Through this positive feedback even higher costs then setting up a patrol will be the result.

Link to article http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-27021354