All Time High

    Carbon Dioxide levels have reached an all time high. Carbon Dioxide are 400 parts per million, the highest ever possibly since the beginning of humanity. According to instruments in Hawaii at Mauna Loa Observatory Carbon dioxide levels reached heights of 401.6 parts per million three times this month. Last year levels did not reach these heights for another two months and will continue to stay at high levels until July. To put the figures into perspective, in 1958 the Carbon Dioxide levels were around 320 parts per million. Scientists are deeply concerned about the increase in temperature that this is likely to cause and the fear that efforts to slow down climate change are not very successful.
     It seems as if there is overwhelming evidence to support the theory of climate change so why is nothing being done to slow it down? The seas and temperatures are rising and the current rate of climate change is ten times faster than in history. Some scientists day CO2 levels could reach 600 parts per million by the end of the century. Although the idea of climate change is incredibly controversial the numbers show hard evidence that we should be worried about what is happening to the planet.  "The real message is that we are still moving in the wrong direction. The CO2 problem hasn't gone away. It continues to get worse every year."- Pieter Tans

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/20/us/climate-carbon-dioxide-record/

Malaria and Climate Change

 A recent study shows that the warming planet may increase the rate of malaria in Africa. In areas that are warming malaria has begun to climb to higher altitudes that are warmer as a result of the warming climate. This is threatening populations that once lived in malaria free locations and now have become a place where mosquitoes carrying a plasmodium can now survive.
   It is continually surprising to me how much climate can affect life all across the planet. A change in a few degrees can open a gateway for morbid disease. The populations of people that will be exposed to malaria have no history of resistance and will be especially vulnerable. The article predicts that a change in 1 degree Celsius will increase the amount of children affected each year by three million. The ways that a changing climate can destroy our earth and the people in it are limitless and we can make a difference.

Innovations

      There are many methods for reducing the speed of climate change that are being studied. Scientists have begun to look into taking preventative measures such as reflective mirrors in space, pouring cold water into oceans, and growing plankton  to absorb heat put off by carbon dioxide emissions. The idea behind these techniques is to essentially hold off more harmful effects of climate change until the global economy has cut down on the use of "dirty energy". Although these ideas seem all well and good, some are worried they could make matters worse.
        There are so many methods by which we can attempt to clean up the planet but the most effective is one which includes humans changing the behaviors which are so devastating to the climate.many if the methods suggested, such as planting large forests, may be effective over time but the climate is changing right now and if we do not act quickly enough we will lose beautiful parts of the planet and animals. I am curious as to how mirrors in space will affect other aspects of the solar system. What will the extra sun exposure do to surrounding planets, stars, the moon? The saddening part of this is that even with combined methods to prevent climate change it still may not be enough to counteract human produced contributions not to mention some of the methods are costly and could have side effects that are unknown, as of now. What we need desperately is a deeper motivation to use environmentally friendly energies and resources. Until then our planet will continue to try and compensate for our dirt.


http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/article/1438078/mirrors-space-ocean-plankton-no-easy-climate-change-fix-says

Change in Winds

     A National Geographic article published this week made an interesting observation about the "pause" of climate change. The author, Ben Jervey, examined a study by the Australian research council centre of excellence for climate system science. The study focused on the slightly slowing climate change since 2001. Although the Earth's surface has continued to warm, it has done so much more slowly than in previous years. The study suggests that this pause is due to the increase in wind speeds across the Pacific Ocean. The theory is that when strong winds cross the pacific they carry the warm surface water with them allowing cooler water to come to the surface to be warmed and the warmer water to be pulled into the depths and stored there.
    This is interesting for me because my main focus is the effect of climate change on the ocean. If this study proves to be true, there are major consequences on ocean life. Marine ecosystems are incredibly heat sensitive and a rise in temperature is positively correlated with a rise in the amount of coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is the result of a corals release of it's zooxanthellae (algal pigmentation) in unfavorable conditions. The coral becomes dormant and can no longer supply reef inhabitants with a food source or a colorful refuge.  The question is, how much can the ocean take? If the ocean is absorbing all of the heat, eventually, all the ecosystems will be affected negatively, not to mention the many populations around the world that rely heavily on the ocean for their food source and economy. The warmer the ocean becomes, the higher the oceans rise as ice caps melt. Even though the ocean might be taking the fall for human behavior, it has already directly affected societies in all areas of the globe. In this case, pause is only a synonym for redirection.



    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140211-global-warming-pause-trade-winds-pacific-science-climate/

Neglecting climate change

Summary: The article I read discussed climate change as a "neglected topic". The author initially points out the incredibly surprising fact that 77% of Americans believe that aliens have visited earth as opposed to a 44% who acknowledge a possible global climate change.  Since 1977 there has been an obvious change in the influence a persons political affiliation has on their belief or disbelief of climate change. The oceans are rising, carbon dioxide levels are at an all time high  and ice caps are melting. Kristof touches on the idea of preparation for destruction and how civilizations prepare heavily for things they do not know will occur . "In politics and the military, we routinely deal with uncertainty. We’re not sure that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, but we still invest in technologies and policies to reduce the risks. We can’t be sure that someone is going to hijack a plane, but we still screen passengers." To sum it up, he thinks the topic has been greatly neglected if not ignored .
Analysis:   All over the world we see evidences of complete disregard for the environment and the obviously changing climate. America is only one example of a nation that prefers to turn their head to  something uncomfortable and dangerous. I read an article by Freud a couple of weeks back which spoke about an idea called the "fetishist split".  The idea is that people tend to ignore or disregard things, no matter how pressing the matter, that make them uncomfortable or cause pain to hear about. It seems as if either people don't believe that our climate is changing or they choose not to acknowledge it, both of which are dangerous. In the article, Kristof observes the correlation between political affiliation and belief in climate change. I thought this was interesting because that suggests that belief in climate change is not only driven by facts but also by party. Republicans tend to dismiss the idea of climate change much more than democrats. The scary thought is that those people who are dismissing the idea may not understand exactly what they are dismissing but rather are doing so because this is what they assume to be a general "opinion" of their party of choice. All the while, our oceans are rising and CO2 levels are increasing and we like to assume that Mother Nature will correct it and we should just let the earth cycle or just ignore the changes completely and hope that no one criticizes us for it.  One reader, Daria, mentioned how the topic isn't "sexy" but we should be aware of what is going on in our climate. This is a direct reflection of the way social media portrays the happenings in the world every day. If it is not sexy it won't sell. Well, climate change is the farthest thing from sexy, it's absolutely ugly and I believe that the "ugliness" of it is a large contributor to the obvious neglect of the topic. No one wants to give thought to issues which are upsetting or disturbing or worse, something that could potentially be a morality issue. Ignore it and you won't be a part of it, right? You can't be considered part of the problem if you don't believe it's actually a problem. The question is, how long will it take for enough people to realize we are impacting our environment negatively and make a conscious effort to protect it? In my opinion, we are going to get an awfully rude awakening  and until that happens we will most likely continue in the same direction. Ignorance is bliss.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/kristof-neglected-topic-winner-climate-change.html

Climate Change

    This semester I will be focusing on the effect of climate change on marine ecosystems throughout the world. Marine ecosystems are sensitive to the slightest of changes in water composition, temperature, and sea levels. This topic interests me because I aim to work as an Environmental Biologist.