By: ScienceDaily (oct. 5, 2010) This article is about the increase amount of freshwater in our oceans. This is due to Global Warming, more evaporation, and precipitation. Reasearches have learned that 18% more water fed in oceans in 2006 than 1994. Thats a annual rise of 1.5%. The ice caps are melting faster because of increased temperatures. Evaporation and precipitation cycles have increased because of greenhouse gas-fueled higher temperatures. This accelerated cycle can be very dangerous and cause monsterous storms in areas. The increased amount of rainfall might sound good but its not. The increased rainfall is falling in places that dont need it like the artic. Places like desserts are not seeing any more rainfall and starting to dry out.
This article reminded me alot of what we are doing in class lately. We have been doing many melting and freezing point labs. The increase amount of waterlfow is because of hotter temperatures and evaporation. In class we were able to change a solid to a liquid by increasing the temperature surrounding it. The increase water is a example of our lab. The Ice caps are reaching their melting points and beginning to fall apart.
This article was very surprising to me and opened my eyes. I knew that our climate problem was bad but not this bad. When I first started to read this i thought increased rainfall was good but it turns out not to be. The things humans do are starting to impact our environment. I believe that we should stop using so many gases so we can slow down the precipitation and evaporation cycles. If our waters continues to increase we could see very horrible impacts.
What do you think could be some of the long term impacts the increased waterflow could have?
Do you believe the amount of water flowing in the oceans will slow down?
What could we do to help this water problem?
I think that this is a huge deal. I had no idea this was happening and it is really dissapointing to me that we are allowing this. I think that we should take measures to try and reverse this effect a little and try to stop global warming. Many people show little concern for global warming because they aren't educated about it and don't know what it is really about. I think we need to educate more people so they will do more to help.
ReplyDeleteThis also reminded me of the freezing and melting point labs, because we changined our substances so quickly. It must be much harder to make something happen like this for the entire Earth and yet we managed to do just that. I'm also doing a research project on oceans and this is valuable information that I can use.
I think some of the longterm effects that could happen is the wiping out of a lot of species that live near the melting ice caps and the flooding of costal regions. While looking at some graphs some predict China to be under water completely by 2100. This is nervracking and completely possible unless we take drastic measures.
Discussions about global warming/human-caused climate change never fail to make me worry about our future. The idea that human activities are starting to have real long-term effects on the environment is a constant reminder of imminent disaster. The way I see it, we humans are being faced with a choice; we can either change our ways (stop polluting the environment) and embrace the natural cycles of the earth or we can continue with what we are doing until we destroy ourselves and the earth rights itself without us.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading the book Dune by Frank Herbert, and this science fiction story is surprisingly relevant to the issue of climate change. In it, the main character struggles to survive on the desert planet Arrakis where water is more valuable than gold. Meanwhile, bands of "Fremen" wanderers roam the desert seeking to use climate change to their benefit by starting up a water cycle on Arrakis. This idea of working for our planet instead of against it is something that we should put into play, or else our earth might end up dry and lifeless just like Arrakis.
I think it is ironic how the human species has become so advanced that they are moving into a period of self destruction. If we have the power as one animal species to change an entire planet like this, then why can't we seem to change it back? I understand that it may seem like an extremely liberal idea, but something needs to be done. I am the kind of person that will say, "if it aint broke don't fix it," but people really need to realize what it is that is broken. People will say that it is just a natural cycle of nature, for the planet to heat, but even if it is, and all that data is wrong, then you can still do things to help the environment. People seem to be too lazy. I once saw a movie called "The Day After Tomorrow," and in that movie, a man tries to show people the possible effects of global warming, but they do not agree to put forth the effort. As a result of this, basically an end-of-the-world scenario takes place. The Earth basically goes into a man-made ice age. I am afraid that it will take too long for people to realize this mistake. Here is the url for the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/
ReplyDeleteThis has been going on for a while but this article really got to me. I never really paid attention to all the scientists and news stories about global warming because i didn't think it was even happening. I thought it was just all a big misunderastanding but now looking at the facts, I see that it is a big deal. I mean 18% more water in oceans in just 12 years? That is too much considering it should barely go up at all.
ReplyDeleteThis reminded me of the movie 2012. In the movie, the world gets flooded by rising ocean water and this reminded me of the ice caps melting. If all the ice caps melt, then there will be more ocean water bringing the water closer in shore. This could cause parts of many countries to be underwater and could be a big problem for people living in those parts.
I do not think that the amount of water flowing in will slow down. It has been rising every year and as humans and our technology become more advanced, it will only get worse. They are saying the global warming is cause by an overload of carbon in the atmosphere and the only way to stop this is by lowering the amount of coal burned. Only after we achieve that goal will the ice caps stop melting.