Global Warming Can Cool Down Temperatures

by Dana Tricarico

An article written posted on Science Daily on November 17, 2010, discusses how the overall warming of Earth’s northern half could potentially make colder winters. This is due to the fact that, as sea-ice shrinks in the eastern Arctic, it could cause some regional heating in lower levels of air. According to a study recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, this could create huge abnormalities as far as atmospheric airstreams are concerned, which could, in turn, lead to an overall cooling of northern continents. According to Vladimir Petoukhov, the lead author of the study and climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, these changes could triple the probability of colder winters in Europe and Northern Asia (Science Daily).

This concept seems to make sense, however, I think it will take a significant amount of time to really determine this. Currently, researchers are using a computer model called ECHAM5, which focuses on the Barents-Kara Sea, where a reduction of ice was observed in the winter of 2005-2006. Using this, they were able to figure out that the air temperatures in that area ranged from warming to cooling, then back to warming, as the sea ice decreased (Science Daily). This helps support the viewpoint, however, it shows that temperatures are still fluctuating to the point where there is no concrete evidence yet. Temperatures in Siberia were 10 degrees below the normal level in the winter of 2005-2006, yet in the Eastern Arctic; temperatures were up to 14 degrees above normal temperature at the same time. Until temperatures become consistent in either rising or falling, claims cannot be made as to how sea ice melting will affect the planet (Science Daily).

This relates to our course, because the main topics we discussed, that earth science touches on, has to do with climate and weather. Earth science is also the study of earth, its functions and what affects it. This article’s topic, and this phenomena in general, is the function of earth- how temperature can entirely change the severity of certain seasons. This does not focus on the day-to-day weather; however, it does focus on the longtime probability of climate change and how this will later affect it.

Works Cited:

"Global Warming Could Cool down Northern Temperatures in Winter." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 17 Nov. 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. .

Biodiversity At Risk by Olivia Raymond

In an article from the website Science Daily "Extinctions Expected to Increase Strongly Over the Century" biodiversity is at an all time risk. Life scientists are predicting that within the 21^st-century the global decline in biodiversity is growing strong. There is a huge threat of extinctions, decline in abundance of species, and overall species distribution. Predicting future trends of biodiversity was considered to be too complex but life science specialists are now able to using the same methods as Climatologists. These predictions are not completely certain but if human and economic conditions do not change the possibility is greater. What is the major cause for this threat to our biodiversity? Simply answered it’s us, humans. Activities such as urbanization, air and water pollution and the abuse of our natural resources have negatively impacted the habitats of many species. The homes of animals and plants are being destroyed because humans are cutting down forests to make way for housing and industrial buildings, over fishing, and causing climate change through the pollution of air with green house gasses. Scientists say if we continue with these bad habits and processes the overall abundance of terrestrial species could diminish from 10 to 20% during the first half of the century. There are ways we can help save our plants and animals from a grim future. We can do so by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, stopping large-scale deforestation, create more animal reserves, enforce fishing regulations, and being more efficient in agriculture. Having biodiversity is important because it allows for variation between species and habitats as well as more resources. Without it there would be a disturbance in the synergy of our ecosystem. This topic relates to our class because Earth Science deals with understanding earth systems and processes and how humans impact those systems. Our plants and animals are at risk of extinction because of human’s ignorant behavior. Everyone has a responsibility to take care of our Earth and the future of all its inhabitants. We have to change our bad habits and begin to work for the better of our environment. The predictions made by the scientist’s show that the future abundance of our animals and their overall distribution are at great risk and the direct cause is poor human behavior. We can no longer continue our destructive habits. We have to begin to work to protect our resources and all Earth’s inhabitants.

"Extinctions Expected to Increase Strongly over the Century." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. .

Central Valley Aquifer Sarah Burns

Central Valley Aquifer in California

In Central Valley, California, there is a very important aquifer. “More than 250 different crops are grown in the Central Valley with an estimated value of $17 billion per year.” The aquifer is not only important to California but to the rest of the United States as well because it creates so many crops. The problem with the aquifer is that is depends on groundwater plumage and surface-water diversions and the population is quickly rising. If the population keeps growing the competition for water will increase as well. California is trying to monitor the situation by recording “(1) the present status of groundwater resources; (2) how these resources have changed over time; and (3) tools to assess system responses to stresses from future human uses and climate variability and change.” In Earth Science we studied both the amount of available fresh water on the Earth as well as the lack of water in warmer areas of the Earth such as California. The aquifer shows how Californians use their water. They use it in a productive way to gain crops for the people of California and other states. In class we also talked about runoff water and how it would normally go back into the ocean eventually. This plays into the problem with the depleting amount of available fresh water on the Earth. In other parts of the United States and other countries as well, runoff water is being diverted by the building of roads and houses causing it not to reach the oceans. If the water cannot reach the oceans then it cannot go through the cycle again, creating a depleting level of fresh water. The problem with the growing population is that they will bring more roads and houses to Central Valley, creating even less runoff water then there currently is, making it hard to grow the amount of crops the Aquifer normally does or causing the population to have less water than they normally would. I believe that California is making a wise move by monitoring the things that they are so that they can determine what to do if the water levels get to low or if the resources and climate are being drastically affected. The question I have however, is what will Californians do if the results are not positive? There will no agreeable way to solve it by all people. I just wonder what will be moved the Aquifer or the people.

DeLima Associates. Household Products Database - Health and Safety Information on Household Products. Web. 21 Nov. 2010. .

What is the universe made of?

Ever wonder what exactly the universe is made out of? Well in February of next year NASA is going to launch an experiment to try and answer this question. The article "A Costly Quest for the Dark Heart of the Cosmos" talks about NASA's new experiment 16 years in the making. According to astronomers there is more to the composition of the universe than just atoms and molecules,protons and electrons, stars and galaxies. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment costs 1.5 billion dollars and is suppose to discover what this "Dark Matter" is made up of. Scientists believe "knowing this information could be useful in ways nobody could dream". According to physics, anti-matter which annihilates ordinary matter upon contact, should have been created during the Big Bang. Discovering this antimatter could mean discovering an anti-star or anti-galaxy. The Spectrometer is an eight ton device made up of magnets, wires iron, aluminum silicon and electronics, and will be sent to the space station on the space shuttle Endeavour. This project is funded and spearheaded by Dr. Ting and his army of 600 scientists from 16 countries. This article caught my attention because I think anything about space is really interesting. If a break-through such as this is successful, it could effect the technology we use day in and day out. Because of the mysteriousness of the universe, I think it is important for mankind to know exactly what the universe involves. To think that there are millions of starts and other galaxies blows my mind in that anything could be out there. What I do wonder about though is how long it will take before we know the results and whether or not anything was found. I remember when NASA sent a robot to Mars it took years before anyone really heard about what was found. I feel like the government hides discoveries such as these from the public until they are "ready" to tell everyone. Besides that I think it is really interesting that there could be undiscovered particles out there that we could possibly use.

Mike Allen

Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/science/space/17dark.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

Melting glaciers increase sea level

Jessica Tedesco

The New York Times news article "As Glaciers Melt, Science Seeks Data on Rising Seas" articulates the serious danger associated with an increased sea level. According to scientists, the Antarctic and Greenland ice is rabidly melting which could inevitably increase the sea level as much as 6 feet. This increase would deteriorate coastlines around the world, especially in America and China. The massive flooding which normally takes place sporadically throughout in a century would likely occur every few years. The results of the melting include “faster erosion of beaches, barrier islands and marshes. It would contaminate fresh water supplies with salt.” Many scientists are encouraging an immediate plan of action by coastal cities to deal with the side effects of melting glaciers.
The article brings to light other problems debated today. The issue of melting glaciers adds evidence to the already controversial issue of global warming. The author of the article seems to believe in global warming, adding more evidence for the increasing temperature such as other extreme weather conditions and the deterioration of the ocean’s coral. As discussed in class, the melting glaciers also cause a dilemma for the world’s freshwater supply. As the glaciers melt they not only increase sea level and flooding, it also would alleviate the stressed supply of freshwater. For a short period of time, countries such as India would benefit from the growing freshwater now available for their population, who normally suffer from droughts. Although initially the increased freshwater supply would be beneficial, eventually the melted water would enter the oceans.
The melting glaciers seem like a very dangerous issue which requires urgent attention. The most pertinent side effect, in my opinion, is the rising sea level. Cities all around the world are at risk with even a small increase in seal level. New Orleans for example would be devastated by the increase. Many cities dependant on tourists and traveling would also be in economical ruin caused by the melting glaciers. There doesn’t seem to be any definite or direct solution to problem. The most effective one would be to address global warming in general. By decreasing the pollutants and greenhouse gases, the world’s temperature would stop warming and therefore the glacier melting would cease.

Gillis, Justin. "As Glaciers Melt, Science Seeks Data on Rising Seas." New York Times 13 Nov. 2010: n. pag. NewYorkTimes.com. Web. 14 Nov. 2010.

Dead Coral Found Near Site of BP Oil Spill

On Tuesday, November 2, scientists aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel found dead and dying coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico, most likely caused by the BP oil spill in April. The colony was found about seven miles from the oil spill site, about 4,500 feet deep. A type of starfish that finds it's home in the coral reef was also severely damaged. Researchers have taken samples back to the labs to analyze, but they say the results may be inconclusive because the toxins may never have accumulated in the coral tissue or on the seafloor near the corals.

Although there is no concrete evidence to prove that the reefs dying was an effect of the oil spill, most researchers conclude that the oil spill did have some effect on the phenomenon. Dr. Charles Fisher, a marine biologist from Pennsylvania State University and the chief scientist on the expedition, noted, “we have never seen anything like this at any of the deep coral sites that we’ve been to, and we’ve been to a lot of them.” The evidence points to the oil spill as the main cause of the death of the coral community. The reef is close to the spill site and could have easily been hit by an oil plume, allowing it to be damaged very easily.

This topic relates to our class because it shows how humans can severely impact the Earth and its resources. The spill was caused by human error, which could potential impact the entire ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. This simple error can lead to the destruction of not only the coral in the region, but it will also affect the rest of the life forms that rely on the coral and that can be affected by the toxins present in the water. It also shows how one problem can affect an area for an extended period of time, and that the effects of the disaster can be seen long after the disaster occurred.

I find the oil spill to be a very important event because it was the largest spill to occur. Although the spill occurred in April 2010, the effects of the spill will continue to be seen because the toxins were unable to be completely removed from the water. Many organisms rely on the coral that was damaged from the toxins, and they will need to adapt in order to survive. We will continue to see more effects from the spill appearing in the future, because it had such a severe impact on that ecosystem.

Sources:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/06/nation/la-na-dead-coral-20101106

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/science/earth/06coral.html?ref=earth

Three Major Events, One Devastated Area

In Indonesia, Mount Merapi, which is considered an active volcano, has been erupting since last week. It is a volcano on the outskirts of Yogyakarta in Central Java. On Friday, November 5, it erupted again killing 65 more people. The total number of people that have been killed has now increased to over 100 and the number injured has surpassed 200 people. The eruption has also led to the evacuation of over 150,000 people within a 20 km radius of the volcano in Indonesia. A photographer that was by the volcano said that the ash is so thick now that people actually have to put on their headlights during the day just so they can see in front of them. Although this is a horrific disaster, this is not the only event that has been occurring in Indonesia.

A few hours before Mount Merapi first erupted on Monday, October 27, a tsunami was triggered by an earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.7, near the western island of Sumatra. The tsunami killed more than 300 people. People are now asking if the earthquake and the eruption are linked in any way. People think that the shaking, as the result of the earthquake, set off the volcano. But scientifically, I think there might be a deeper reasoning.

We have learned in class that volcanoes are usually formed on the boundaries of plate tectonics. For example, the Ring of Fire surrounds the Atlantic Ocean. The Ring of Fire is where a bunch of volcanoes and earthquakes have been and it is the evidence of actual plate tectonics. There are three types of boundaries, convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries. Volcanoes are formed by convergent boundaries. This is when the plate tectonics move together and collide. Therefore, the volcanoes are actually formed on the plate tectonics. An earthquake is the shaking and vibration of the plate tectonics. So the shaking of the plate tectonics actually probably caused the volcano to erupt just because it is on the same plate as the earthquake.

I think that this is the correct reasoning for the eruption of Mount Merapi because of the theory of plate tectonics. Because the earthquake, tsunami, and volcano were all in the same general location, the assumption that they were the cause of one another I believe was accurate, but the reasoning behind it was more scientific than people might have been saying. These have been horrible disasters that have killed and injured hundreds of people. However, as you can see, there is a more scientific reasoning behind the occurring events.

WORK CITED

Beawiharta. "Indonesia Volcano Death Toll Doubles to over 100 Reuters." Business & Financial News, Breaking US & International News Reuters.com. 05 Nov. 2010. Web. 07 Nov. 2010. .

Lovett, Richard A. "Tsunami, Volcano Eruption in Indonesia Linked?" Daily Nature and Science News and Headlines National Geographic News. 27 Oct. 2010. Web. 07 Nov. 2010. .

NASA Survey Suggests Earth-Sized Planets Are Common

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/exoplanet20101028.html

In a recent NASA study, astronomers counted the number of stars in our galaxy that had planets orbiting them, looking for a potential site of life outside of our solar system. These plants are called exoplanets. They looked at 166 stars in the Milky Way Galaxy within 80 light-years of Earth. They used the wobble technique to look for these exoplanets. This technique makes use of the fact that an orbiting planet's gravity causes its sun to wobble on its axis throughout the orbit.
These exoplanets that were studied were located .25 astronomical unites from their suns, which is much closer than Earth is to its Sun. The results of the study were as follows:
23% of the stars had planets Earth sized or small
11.8% were 3-10 times Earth
6.5% 10-30 times Earth
1.6% were 100 times Earth
1.6% were 500 times Earth
1.6% were 1000 times Earth
This means that most of the exoplanets in this study were Earth sized or smaller.
This data is not what scientists expected, based on the accepted theory of planet accretion. This theory would lead us to believe that most planets would accrete and grow in a zone that is cool and more distant from the star. That fact that most of these exoplanets accreted in a hot zone near the star was not expected and not understood.
I have read other articles about exoplanets, and this study seems to have found many more of these planets that other studies have. Some other studies have found most exoplanets to be much larger than Earth, while this study seems to indicate that most exoplanets are Earth sized or smaller. This could either be due to the fact that this study used better and more recent technology that allowed scientists to find smaller planets, or there could be some problem with the data or interpretation of the data. Obviously, more studies need to be done.
I am very interested in astronomy. By gaining a deeper understanding of how our solar system and planets were initially formed, we also gain knowledge of how our Earth is today and the processes that made our planet what it is today. After all, the molten interior that gives rise to crustal movement and volcanism is "leftover" from when our planet accreted from its original spinning ball of hot gas.

~Mike Amico

Astronomers Say They've Found Oldest Galaxy So Far

European astronomers believe that they have found the oldest galaxy so far. An image from the Hubble Telescope reveals an image of a galaxy that may be 13.1 billion years old. "We're looking at the universe when it was a 20th of its current age," said California Institute of Technology astronomy professor Richard Ellis, who wasn't part of the discovery team. "In human terms, we're looking at a 4-year-old boy in the life span of an adult." If this galaxy is as old as astronomers think it is, then it would fit right into the timeline with the formation of the Earth, and life as we know it. Some astronomers are skeptical about the age of the galaxy, but they cannot deny that it is a great find.
How do astronomers determine how old a galaxy is? They study light signatures of different gasses. By looking at light signatures of cooling hydrogen gas for about sixteen hours, astronomers were able to estimate the age of this galaxy. But they are not actually seeing the galaxy in it's present form. "Because it takes so long for the light to travel such a vast time and distance, astronomers are seeing what the galaxy looked like 13.1 billion years ago at a time when it was quite young — maybe even as young as 100 million years old — Lehnert said. It has very little of the carbon or metal that we see in more mature stars and is full of young, blue massive stars, he said. This galaxy may not even exist anymore. We may actually be looking into the past and seeing what came before our own galaxy. There is no way to tell if the galaxy is still there, or if it has merged into other, larger, galaxies. But by using what we know about our universe and this new finding, we may be able to better understand how and why galaxies form. It may also lead us to find more galaxies far, far away.
Jennifer Cullen