Global Warming
Our hypothesis' are: Global Warming is a growing threat to
humanity, The Carbon Dioxide in the air will have increased drastically
over the past 50 years, Hurricanes will be more abundant in the last 15
years, and The Global temperature will rise compared to 100 years ago.
We collected most of our data from websites suchas Gale. The data
revealed that "climate changes large enough to have extensive impacts
on our society have occurred in less than 10 years" thus "our climate could
change significantly" in our lifetimes meaning that more or less, the
climate will change in the next 100 years.
An event caused by global warming is glaciers and ice shelfs
melting. This a certain sign that global warming is happening. . The largest
ice shelf in te Artic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf cracked recently after being
in place for at least 3,000 years. The cracks are getting deeper and as
scientists say, "We're now seeing some very extensive fractures in it that
extend many kilometres horizontally across the ice-shelf; and they extend
all the way through from the top to the bottom, many tens of meters
through the ice shelf. And we've never seen fractures like this." The Ward
Hunt Ice Shelf was also a natural dam to an epishelf lake, the largest and
best-understood epishelf lake in the Northern Hemisphere. If the ice shelf
fractures, then the entire lake will be drained to the Atlantic Ocean(
about 3 billion cubic centimeters). So, as you can clearly see, glaciers and
ice shelfs melting/ cracking will cause major problems for the world.
The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf
More invasive species are also an effect of global warming.
Invasive species are a threat to the envirnment because they are "likely to
cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health." Take
for example the Burmese Python. It normally lives in Southeast Asia where
grasslands, marshes, swamps, rocky foothills, woodlands, river valleys, and
jungles with open clearings are common. Captive breeding is what
caused the Burmese Python to become an invasive species in the U.S. As
people grow tired of breeding the pythons or they have grown too big,
Americans would let them go free. A large number of them arrived in the
Everglades, thrived, and reproduced prolifically(abundantly). Becoming
an invasive species, they eat endangered birds/ alligators presenting a
danger in the ecosystem. This invasive species will keep on disruping the
envirnment and will cause major problems soon(also, with warmer
weather, they can thrive more easily in the Everglades ).
Burmese Python
Sea levels rising are an effect to global warming as well. Thermal
expansion has already rose sea level by 4- 8 inches already. "The
consequences would be catastrophic," said Jonathan Overpeck, director
of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona in
Tucson. "Even with a small sea level rise, we're going to destroy whole
nations and their cultures that have existed for thousands of years." A one
meter rise would destroy cities along the eastern boarder of the U.S. while
a six meter rise will flood most of Florida. Because warmer water takes up
more space than cooler water, water levels rise. Melting sea ice also
contribute to the rise. Greenland's melting of ice sheets will begin when
there is a 3 degrees rise in temperatures. The complete melting of these
ice sheets will rise sea level 7 meters but a partial melting will cause a one
meter rise. This will have a devastating impact on low-lying island
countries, sumerging them completely. Sea level rise is a great threat to
humanity because it can sumerge entire cities and towns. Leaving this
event alone will be disastorous.
Florida with a 3 ft rise in sea level
Species dying is a large effect of global warming. Since global
temperatures are getting warmer by 1 degree(2-10 degrees in the next
century), animals will respond to this by "reacting to what's going on out
there and if their behavior is very similar to what we expect with what's
going on with global warming - if they're shifting and they're moving, if
they're changing their breeding time by 5 days in 10 years - we can use
that information to support what the thermometers are also showing" as
Terry Root, an environmental science and policy professor at Stanford
University said. This rise in temperature has affected many artic animals
such as the Artic Fox. Artic Foxs in Germany, Belgium, and western Russia
might die out because tracing back to the last "warming of the earth,"
indicated no ancestral link to arctic foxes living there today. Instead of
moving northward like the Scandinavia Artic Foxes, they move up in
altitude taking higher areas such as the Alps. Then, Red Foxes, twice their
size move into those areas that they left. Being marooned or isolated, Artic
Foxes will be more vulnerable to global warming. Seeing this, I hope, will
help you realize that global warming is an even greater threat than
before.
Artic Fox
