The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole, and everywhere in between. Globally, the mercury is already up more than 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius), and even more in sensitive polar regions. And the effects of rising temperatures aren’t waiting for some far-flung future. They’re happening right now. Signs are appearing all over, and some of them are surprising. The heat is not only melting glaciers and sea ice, it’s also shifting precipitation patterns and setting animals on the move.
Some impacts from increasing temperatures are already happening.
Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.
Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average.
Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.
Other effects could happen later this century, if warming continues.
Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59 centimeters) by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters).
Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
Floods and droughts will become more common. Rainfall in Ethiopia, where droughts are already common, could decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years.
Less fresh water will be available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues to melt at its current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people who rely on it for drinking water and electricity without a source of either.
Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
Ecosystems will change—some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct. Wildlife research scientist Martyn Obbard has found that since the mid-1980s, with less ice on which to live and fish for food, polar bears have gotten considerably skinnier. Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a similar pattern in Hudson Bay. He fears that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will as well.
Global warmingis the increase of the Earth’s temperature which causes the change in climate. All living creatures in our planet are affected by this great change. They say, we humans are a big contributor to global warming. But I say we humans can also be a great contributor to lessen and even stop global warming. How? There are plenty of things we can do to stop or lessen global warming. Let us not wait for governments to make an action to this problem, because we ourselves can help and can contribute simple actions that can help reduce global warming. Here are some of those:
1. Plant a tree.Trees and other plants absorb carbon dioxide (a major contributor to greenhouse effect and global warming) and in return gives off oxygen. A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime.
2. Reuse.As much as possible reuse what you can. Like shopping bags and other disposable products. Waste produces carbon dioxide and methane. It can also cause pollution to soil, air and water.
3. Reduce.Let us reduce our use of disposable products. Try those that are reusable . It will not only save energy in the production of a new product, but will also save you money. So next time you shop, try to bring your reusable bag or clothe bag instead of accepting disposable bags/plastic bags.
4. Recycle.If possible, try to recycle everything like paper, plastic, glass, cans, newspapers and even organic waste. Use recycling bins, composting etc. Make the most of scrap papers for notes, list, scrapbooks, telephone messages etc. Use paper thoroughly before recycling them.
5. Conserve Energy. - Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL). It uses less energy and gives less heat. It will not only save you money but can also get rid of billions of pounds of greenhouse gases. - Do not leave appliances in standby mode. TVs in standby mode still uses energy. Turn it off when not in use and unplug it. It saves energy and money. - Use less hot water. It requires a lot of energy in order to heat water. Keep your water heater insulated. - Cover pots while cooking. It also saves a lot of energy. - Drive less. If possible, when your destination is near try to walk or ride a bike. It gives you the exercise your body needs, you helped reduce carbon dioxide emission, and you save money for your fuel. - Share a ride. When going to school or going to work, you can try sharing a ride to your classmates and friends instead of using two or more cars. It saves fuel, energy and money.
6. Buy recycled products.Recycled papers are as good as new ones. Buying them will conserve trees and reduces energy required to make new papers.
7. Try using refills.Instead of buying a new cartridge for your printer if possible, refill it first. Make the most out of it. Also, instead of buying bottled water again and again, why not buy a tumbler or a reusable bottle so you can just refill it at home. It does not only save you a lot of money, but you helped reduce pollution and waste and saves energy.
8. Eat lesser meat.Don’t you know that large amounts of fuels are being used for delivering fertilizers for livestock’s feeds? And shipping that feeds to a livestock farm. After that you deliver the farm animals to the slaughter house then to the market and groceries. Also, choosing vegetarian foods reduces agricultural water consumption and land use. It gives us good health, way much cheaper than meat and helps our environment.
9. Help conserve and protect our forest.Since trees absorb carbon dioxide, without it, global warming will only get worst. Try to join organizations that help protect our environment and participate on their activities like tree planting, clean and green programs etc.
10. Sharing.Share information about the things you have learned in global warming and how to stop it. Encourage them to reduce, reuse and recycle. Enlighten as many people as you can and help them to do their part for our planet. Feel free to share this article.
Article From: Philippine Daily Inquirer, November 24, 2009 issue.
Greenland and Antarctica, ice sheets have lost trillions of tons of ice. Mountain glaciers in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa are shrinking faster than before.
And its not just the frozen parts of the world that have felt the heat in the dozen years leading up to next month’s climate summit in Copenhagen.
-The world’s oceans have risen by about an inch and a half.
-Droughts and wildfires have turned more severe worldwide from the American West to Australia to the Sahel desert of North Africa.
-Species now in trouble because of changing climate include not just the lumbering polar bear that has become a symbol of global warming, but also fragile butterflies, colorful frogs and entire stands of North American forests.
-Temperatures over the past 12 years are 0.4 of a degree warmer than the dozen years leading up to 1997.
-Even the gloomiest climate models back in the 1990s didn’t forecast results quite this bad so fast.
We’re in more trouble
“The latest science is telling us we are in more trouble than we thought,” said Janos Pasztor, climate adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
And here’s why: Since an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas pollution was signed in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, the level of carbon dioxide in the air has increased 6.5 percent.
Officials from across the world will convene in Copenhagen next month to seek a follow up pact, one that US President Barack Obama says “has immediate operational effect… an important step forward in the effort to rally the world around a solution.”
The last effort didn’t quite get the anticipated results.
From 1997 to 2008, world carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels have increased 31 percent; US emissions of this greenhouse gas rose 3.7 percent. Emissions from China, now the biggest producer of this pollution, have more than doubled in that time period.
When the US Senate balked at the 1997 accord and President George W. Bush withdrew from it, that meant that the top three carbon polluters - United States, China and India were not part of the pact’s emission reductions.
Developing countries were not covered by the Kyoto Protocol, and that will be a major issue in Copenhagen.
Happening sooner
And the effects of greenhouse gases are more powerful and happening sooner than predicted, scientists said.
“Back in 1997, the impacts (of climate change) were underestimated; the rate of change has been faster,” said Virginia Burkett, chief scientist for global change research at the US Geological Survey.
That last part alarms former Vice President Al Gore, who helped broker a last minute deal in Kyoto.
“By far the most serious differences that we’ve had is an acceleration of the crisis itself,” Gore said in an interview this month with The Associated Press.
In 1997, global warming was an issue for climate scientists, environmentalists, engineers, insurance analysts, risk managers, disaster professionals, commodity traders, nutritionists, ethicist and even psychologists are working on global warming.
We’ve come from a time in 1997 where this was some abstract problem is in everyone’s face,” said Andrew Weaver, a University of Victoria climate scientist.
The changes in the last 12 years that have the scientists most alarmed are happening in the Arctic with melting summer sea ice and around the world with the loss of key land-based ice masses.
It’s all happening far faster than predicted.
Loss of summer sea ice
Back in 1997, “nobody in their wildest expectations” would have forecast the dramatic sudden loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic that started about five years ago, Weaver said.
From 1993 to 1997, sea ice had shrank on average in the summer to about 2.7 million square miles. What’s been lost is the size of Alaska.
Antarctica had a slight increase in sea ice, mostly because of the cooling effect of the ozone hole, according to the British Antarctic Survey.
At the same time, large chunks of ice shelves – adding up to the size of Delaware – came off the Antarctic Peninsula.
While melting Arctic Ocean ice doesn’t raise sea levels, the melting of giant land based ice sheets and glaciers that drain into the seas do. Those are shrinking dramatically at both poles.
Measurements show that since 2000, Greenland has lost more than 1.5 trillion tons of ice, while Antarctica has lost about 1 trillion tons since 2002, according to two scientific studies published this fall.
In multiple reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, scientists didn’t anticipate ice sheet loss in Antarctica, Weaver said. And the rate of those losses is accelerating, so that Greenland’s ice sheets are melting twice as fast now as they were just seven years ago, increasing sea level rise.
Shrinking 3 times faster
Worldwide glaciers are shrinking three times faster than in the 1970s and the average glacier has lost 25 feet of ice since 1997, said Michael Zemp, a researcher at World Glacier Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich.
“Glaciers are a good climate indicator,” Zemp said. “What we see is an accelerated loss of ice.”
Also, permafrost-the frozen northern ground that oil pipelines are built upon and which traps the potent greenhouse gas methane-is thawing at an alarming rate, Burkett said.
Another new post-1997 impact of global warming has scientists very concerned.
The oceans are getting more acidic because more of the carbon dioxide in the air is being absorbed into the water. That causes acidification, an issue that didn’t even merit a name until the past few years.
More acidic water harms coral, oysters and plankton and ultimately threatens the ocean food chain, biologists say.
In 1997, “there was no interest in plants and animals” and how they are hampered by climate change, said StanfordUniversity biologist Terry Root.
Now, scientists are talking about which species can be saved from extinction and which are goners.
The polar bear became the first species put on the federal list of threatened species and the small rabbit-like American pika may be joining it.
Pine forests damaged
More than 37 million acres of Canadian and US pine forests have been damaged by beetles that don’t die in warmer winters.
And in the American West, the average number of acres burned per fire has more than doubled.
The Colorado River reservoir, major water suppliers for the US West, were nearly full in 1999. By 2007, however, half the water was gone after the region endured the worst multi year drought in 100 years of record-keeping.
Insurance losses and blackouts have soared and experts say global warming is partly to blame. The number of major US weather-related blackouts from 2004-2008 were more than seven times higher than from 1993-1997, said Evan Mills, a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
“The message on the science is that we know a lot more than we did in 1997 and it’s all negative,” said Eileen Claussen, president of the PewCenter on Global Climate Change. “Things are much worse than the models predicted.”
Don’t you know that it takes paper from a month to 4 months for it to decompose? Learning how to recycle paper is a great idea to help lessen waste in the environment. Though paper is biodegradable, it takes a lot of time for it to biodegrade in landfills. It is important to recycle paper beacuse for every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. It reduces the need for new landfills and incinerators. Also, it conserves resources and saves energy.
Recycling paper does not only help our environment, it also helps us make money out of it. Recycling paper is an excellent way to make handcrafts and unique items that can be a source of income at a very low cost of capital. You can create a wide range of useful items for your home, as well as lovely items that would serve as a gift. You can also make personalized stationary, greeting cards and art paper through recycled paper.
How do we recycle paper? Check out this video I found in youtube below and find out how.
On the 22nd day of April, we will be celebrating Earth Day 2009.
Earth Day is the time for us to celebrate the wonders of mother Earth. Earth day is a day to promote environmental awareness. It is for us to remember the beauty of nature. It is also the time where in we should learn how to value that wonders and beauty of our environment and protect it from ourselves. Yes! from us! Some of us still might not know it but we humans contribute a big part in destroying our very own planet.
Earth Day is not just the 22nd day of April; everyday should be treated as Earth Day. We should always remember that the Earth and the many things living on it should be protected and conserved. Mother Nature provided us many things just for us to live and survive. It’s about time we give back that favor to our planet.
Join us in our campaign and help us find solutions to make our surroundings cleaner and greener! Be a part of the many events and activities that will be held around the globe to protect and save Mother Earth!
