Sunday, February 11, 2007

Day Five - Worldwide Climate Problem/Solution

Alarmist:
You may choose your role to be of someone who is an alarmist in the area of Global Climate Change. Alarmists wish to alarm individuals that something is imminent and dangerous. They feel action needs to be taken immediately on a problem or warn the problem could be severely escalated, harmful or even deadly.





Some of the top climate scientists are worried about harsh climate changes. They think that there is global warming throughout Earth, which is an average increase in the Earth's temperature. These scientists have come to conclusion that people do things to cause this global warming. Certain gasses emitted into the air that cause the climate to heat up are known as greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere. These gases are needed to keep the climate warm, but if too many greenhouse gases are released into the air it could heat up the Earth too much. Some scientists and people believe that if we don't act on this problem now, the climate will heat up drastically throughout the next 100 years, disturbing sea-levels, human health, crops, and weather everywhere. People want the government to take costly actions now to lower the amount of gas emitted into the atmosphere to prevent future damage. Reduction in the amount of pollution will save money. Less pollution means people spending less money on gas for their cars, or other greenhouse gas emitting things. Volcanoes let off halide acid, which damages the ozone layer. The ozone layer protects the Earth from direct sunlight, without the ozone layer the Earth would be destroyed by the sun. Burning coal and oil put twice as much CO2 into the air than at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The climate is heating up, the ozone layer is being destroyed and people need to take action now.


Problem:
A major problem causing the environment to warm up is greenhouse gases being emitted into the air. Greenhouse gases are gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, hydroflourocarbons, nitrous oxide, and methane. These gases are harmful to the Earth's atmosphere, and they increase the heat of the Earth's climate. This is a problem because if the climate is heated up too much ocean levels will rise. It will disrupt human health and ecosystems.


Evidence:
Evidence can be found on the U.S. Climate Report at http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads/ch5.pdf. It shows that the amount of atmospheric CO2 (carbon dioxide) and other greenhouse gases has dramatically increased over the last decade. The report predicts that CO2 emissions will increase 33.6% from the year 2000 to the year 2020. Scientists use weather balloons that float high in the air to track information about the weather. These balloons have recorded increase temperatures. Scientists from the National Climatic Data Center state that the temperature of Earth is consistently heating up at a rate of 5.4 to 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit per century. The temperatures are increasing because of the increased amounts of greenhouse gases emitted into the air that were recorded in the Climate Report from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads/ch5.pdf. These gases trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the climate.


Contributing Factors:
Greenhouses gases are commonly emitted into the air. Daily procedures let off these gases into the atmosphere. The mining of coal, decomposing of landfills, and manure management contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases. These are things people do everyday in the world. Mining needs to be done, but it let's off methane into the air. Landfills and manure also give off methane. Gasoline and diesel fuels are pollutants when let off into the air. These gases are used in cars and trucks, which are needed daily. Many of these common needs must be done, but they contribute to the destruction of the Earth's atmosphere.


Solution:
A solution to this problem is to find more efficient, less polluting forms of technology to do these common procedures. People could cut back on uses of gas emitting products. They could also by advanced, environment helping vehicles such as solar cars. Getting the information about greenhouse gases and the damage it can cause out to people will also start to solve this problem. If people are informed, they may start taking action by cutting back on pollution.

2 comments:

MaraWritesFerFun said...

Dear Sally-
the fact that you researched so much and had a lot of information is great. the contributing factors and evidence is all relevant. but, the one issue is that your problem really isN't a problem. it relates to global warming obiviously, but you should get specific to what a real, direct problem to humans is. if you can keep asking yourself why your problem is a problem, it isn't. EXAMPLe: WHY are greenhouse gases bad? ->they heat up the planet. so the REAL problem is the heating of the planet. but now, WHY is the heating of the planet bad??? ->there are many reasons it's bad. ecosystems die, the sea levels will rise or flood, etc.etc. . ...THEN< if you ask why THOSE things are bad, you can only say "Because they are." therefore, the problem cannot be asked why it is bad anymore. See what I'm saying? so make your problem more specific so people can make a direct connection in their heads that it is a BAD thing. (greenhouse gases and global warming are too general of problems.)** good job and goodluck! -> mara =)

Tim Rothenberger Eng. 10 said...

Great Job on this assignment. I enjoyed the fact that you show that you did a lot of research and provided a lot of information. I like how you gave an explanation about the climate change and your views about it before you did the problem solution part. You did a great job giving information and examples and I liked how you gave credit to the people that provided you with the information. I also liked how you were thorough with you Problem and your solution to your problem. Keep up the good work.