Humans are currently responsible for all the rapid loss of trees. More than 50 percent of the tree cover has disappeared overtime due to human activity. The trees are used for many different things like for paper, wood and other urban purposes. The land where they once stood is used to plant other things or to graze cattle. Trees are also cut down for fuel purposes, in order to make fire wood, and charcoal for cooking.
We rely on these trees because if all the trees were gone, pollution and population rising, there would be more C02 in the air. Trees breathe in the C02 in the atmosphere and let out O2, otherwise known as oxygen which is what we humans breathe in.
Rainforests once covered 14 percent of the earth's land surface; now they cover only 6 percent and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. Tropical Rainforests presently give a place to call home for 50 to 90 percent of all organisms, 90 percent of our relatives, the primates, and 50 million creatures that can live no place but the rich rainforests. Though rainforest now only cover 6 percent of the earth’s surface, almost half of all plant and animal species on earth. Some of these species only live in small specific areas, which make them especially vulnerable to extinction. 50 to 100 species are being lost per day, which is around 50,000 a year. We are also close to loosing 25 percent of our medicines.
The future of the world with deforestation looks very gloomy; all the diversity on earth will be gone.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Biodiversity Research
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/eco.html
An ecosystem is an interdependent, functioning system of plants, animals and microorganisms. Since it relies on itself if one little thing is affected it reflects on all the ecosystem.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/171/loss-of-biodiversity-and-extinctions
Most of our medicines come from animals and plants which are not becoming extinct because of humans' fault. We are killing and/or polluting their natural habitats.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug1999/1999-08-02-06.asp
If we continue like this by the second half of the next century one to two-thirds of all species of plants, animals, and other organisms would be lost.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4391835.stm
Because of human activity, currently 10-30% of all mammal, bird and amphibian species are endangered. 12.5% of the world’s plant species to become rare just because of deforestation, even though new species have been discovered in the forest, if deforestation continues these new species will die off as well.
http://www.pmschools.org/schools/hs/departments/science/coveney/4Plants.htm
An ecosystem is an interdependent, functioning system of plants, animals and microorganisms. Since it relies on itself if one little thing is affected it reflects on all the ecosystem.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/171/loss-of-biodiversity-and-extinctions
Most of our medicines come from animals and plants which are not becoming extinct because of humans' fault. We are killing and/or polluting their natural habitats.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug1999/1999-08-02-06.asp
If we continue like this by the second half of the next century one to two-thirds of all species of plants, animals, and other organisms would be lost.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4391835.stm
Because of human activity, currently 10-30% of all mammal, bird and amphibian species are endangered. 12.5% of the world’s plant species to become rare just because of deforestation, even though new species have been discovered in the forest, if deforestation continues these new species will die off as well.
http://www.pmschools.org/schools/hs/departments/science/coveney/4Plants.htm
Friday, February 26, 2010
Peer Reviewed Annotated Sources
Daily, Grechen C., and Paul R. Ehrlich. "Population, Sustainability, and Earth's Carrying Capacity: A framework for estimating population sizes and lifestyles that could be sustained without undermining future generations." Population, Sustainability, and Earth's Carrying Capacity:. Web. http://dieoff.org/page112.htm
The population is growing at an annual rate of 1.7%, which will approximately add up to 93 million people this year.
In this paper they define carrying capacity as the maximal population size of a given species that an area can support without reducing its ability to support the same species in the future. Specifically, it is "a measure of the amount of renewable resources in the environment in units of the number of organisms these resources can support". "Carrying capacity is a function of characteristics of both the area and the organism. For humans, the matter is complicated by two factors: substantial individual differences in types and quantities of resources consumed and rapid cultural (including technological) evolution of the types and quantities of resources supplying each unit of consumption. Thus, carrying capacity varies markedly with culture and level of economic development."
McDougall, Rosamund. "Climate Change & Population." Optimum Population Trust. 3 Oct. 2009. Web. http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.more.climate.html 24 Feb. 2010.
In the end of 2007 there was still little doubt that the world's 6.8 billion people are under serious threat from global warming and that urgent action must be taken. "There is now both scientific and political consensus that greenhouse gases trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere are due largely to human activities, and that "deep emissions cuts" must take place within as little as a decade to curb warming of our atmosphere, land and sea. If this is not done, further rises in the Earth’s temperature caused by the greenhouse effect may cause dangerous and irreversible climate change." Global surface temperature averaged 14 degrees Celsius in the 20th century. The rate of increase tripled in the last 25 years, faster each time.
population affects because we are overpopulating and instead of more of us becoming aware & helpful to the environment we all remain ignorant, letting ourselves get fooled by people who try to cover this up.
"According to the UN population projections revised in 2006: "A fertility path half a child below the medium would lead to a population of 7.8 billion by mid-century." If the world's mothers reduce the number of children they have accordingly, there could be 1.4 billion fewer climate changers in 2050 - equivalent to the whole population of China."
Humans cause the problem we have to be part of the solution as well.
The population is growing at an annual rate of 1.7%, which will approximately add up to 93 million people this year.
In this paper they define carrying capacity as the maximal population size of a given species that an area can support without reducing its ability to support the same species in the future. Specifically, it is "a measure of the amount of renewable resources in the environment in units of the number of organisms these resources can support". "Carrying capacity is a function of characteristics of both the area and the organism. For humans, the matter is complicated by two factors: substantial individual differences in types and quantities of resources consumed and rapid cultural (including technological) evolution of the types and quantities of resources supplying each unit of consumption. Thus, carrying capacity varies markedly with culture and level of economic development."
McDougall, Rosamund. "Climate Change & Population." Optimum Population Trust. 3 Oct. 2009. Web. http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.more.climate.html 24 Feb. 2010.
In the end of 2007 there was still little doubt that the world's 6.8 billion people are under serious threat from global warming and that urgent action must be taken. "There is now both scientific and political consensus that greenhouse gases trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere are due largely to human activities, and that "deep emissions cuts" must take place within as little as a decade to curb warming of our atmosphere, land and sea. If this is not done, further rises in the Earth’s temperature caused by the greenhouse effect may cause dangerous and irreversible climate change." Global surface temperature averaged 14 degrees Celsius in the 20th century. The rate of increase tripled in the last 25 years, faster each time.
population affects because we are overpopulating and instead of more of us becoming aware & helpful to the environment we all remain ignorant, letting ourselves get fooled by people who try to cover this up.
"According to the UN population projections revised in 2006: "A fertility path half a child below the medium would lead to a population of 7.8 billion by mid-century." If the world's mothers reduce the number of children they have accordingly, there could be 1.4 billion fewer climate changers in 2050 - equivalent to the whole population of China."
Humans cause the problem we have to be part of the solution as well.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Nate Lewis Presentation Reflection
The Nate Lewis presentation was very informative. I felt like I learned a lot about the different types of energies and all the consequences of each one.
Nate Lewis said that globally we use 13 trillion watts and that the international currency for energy is joules. Electricity consumption globally goes down 2% each year, and only 10% of total energy is electricity. It is expected that in 2050 we will need 28 TW (terawatts).
He stated that oil consumption is directly related to global warming and explain that because of it 20% of corral reefs have been bleached. Also global warming is cause a lot ice to melt, if Greenland melted the sea level would go up 20ft worldwide, that could possibly flood places with low elevation.
He brought up an interesting point which was carbon sequestration which is basically when the store a bunch of CO2 in a deep hole in the earth or in the deep ocean which will change the ph of the ocean water making it acidic.
He also talked about all different types of alternative energies, like hydroelectricity which is energy made by water. It has 4.6 TW potential in the US but some have an issue with it because it does not allow the fishes to swim upstream. Biomass has 6-7 TW potential, wind energy has 2 TW potential and geothermal has 11.6 continental potential.
He concluded with solar energy, he thought solar would be the best solution because it was one of the highest amount of potential energy, which is 600 TW, 90 of them coming from photosynthesis. One hour of sunlight approximately equals 14 TW for a year. The only problem is that solar panels are expensive but people need to realize that in the long run it will actually save you money since sunlight is free. The real problem is that a way to conserve the energy is yet to be figured out because otherwise we will have no energy when there is no sun shining, like at night and winter.
Nate Lewis said that globally we use 13 trillion watts and that the international currency for energy is joules. Electricity consumption globally goes down 2% each year, and only 10% of total energy is electricity. It is expected that in 2050 we will need 28 TW (terawatts).
He stated that oil consumption is directly related to global warming and explain that because of it 20% of corral reefs have been bleached. Also global warming is cause a lot ice to melt, if Greenland melted the sea level would go up 20ft worldwide, that could possibly flood places with low elevation.
He brought up an interesting point which was carbon sequestration which is basically when the store a bunch of CO2 in a deep hole in the earth or in the deep ocean which will change the ph of the ocean water making it acidic.
He also talked about all different types of alternative energies, like hydroelectricity which is energy made by water. It has 4.6 TW potential in the US but some have an issue with it because it does not allow the fishes to swim upstream. Biomass has 6-7 TW potential, wind energy has 2 TW potential and geothermal has 11.6 continental potential.
He concluded with solar energy, he thought solar would be the best solution because it was one of the highest amount of potential energy, which is 600 TW, 90 of them coming from photosynthesis. One hour of sunlight approximately equals 14 TW for a year. The only problem is that solar panels are expensive but people need to realize that in the long run it will actually save you money since sunlight is free. The real problem is that a way to conserve the energy is yet to be figured out because otherwise we will have no energy when there is no sun shining, like at night and winter.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
3 Sources & Connection to Climate Change
Population Research
Johns Book (Chapter 15: Human Population)
This book chapter was very informative. I learned that it look more than three million years to reach the first billion and the each time the gap before the next billion becomes shorter and shorter. It is estimated that by 2020 they world population will reach eight billion.
This chapter also brought up the point that argues people now life their life fuller and healthier than before but the do not mention that their will be an equal or even higher number of people that will life in poverty and misery.
http://www.populationconnection.org/sites/News2?new_iv_ctrl=-1&page=NewsArticle&id=6645
What I got from this reading was that there is about one million people starving out of the current population of 6,692,030,277.
McGinley, Mark; David Casagrande. 2007. "Carrying capacity." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). February 08 2010.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Carrying_capacity
Reading this I learned that everything has a carrying capacity. Carrying capacity is the number of people a certain area can sustain. It does not let the population grow exponentially because then there would be a lack or resources. A way not to let the population grow so much would be too keep the number births around the same as the number of deaths.
Daily, Gretchen; Paul Ehrlich. "Population, Sustainability, and Earth's Carrying Capacity: A framework for estimating population sizes and lifestyles that could be sustained without undermining future generations". February 9th, 2010
Shah, Anup. "Global Warming and Population". February 9th, 2010
http://www.globalissues.org/article/708/global-warming-and-population
This article was about how countries blame huge developing countries like China and India but some disagree arguing that the greenhouse gases that are affecting the climate today are the one that were used decades ago so the countries that the primarily responsible are the countries that were rich back then.
Connection to Climate Change
Climate change will affect the population in many ways. The hotter climate will started to melt all the ice and that will cause the sea level to get rise which means that the places with low elevation will begin to sink so the habitable areas will be less.
It is predicted that because of that there will be around 200 million refugees which would be made up of the poorest people on earth.
The population will also be affected because there will be a lot of less fertile areas, desertification, which means there will be less food for the rapidly growing population.
The population will affect the climate by overpopulation. It is estimated that by 2050 the population will increase by 2.3 billion which will cause the climate to change because the world will be ecologically unstable.
The population is in responsible for the earth's sudden change in temperature, because we love using technology that involves the consumption of fossil fuels and do not realize that we are emitting so many greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere that remain there for years so even if we take initiative and want to see a change it will take a longer time.
Johns Book (Chapter 15: Human Population)
This book chapter was very informative. I learned that it look more than three million years to reach the first billion and the each time the gap before the next billion becomes shorter and shorter. It is estimated that by 2020 they world population will reach eight billion.
This chapter also brought up the point that argues people now life their life fuller and healthier than before but the do not mention that their will be an equal or even higher number of people that will life in poverty and misery.
http://www.populationconnection.org/sites/News2?new_iv_ctrl=-1&page=NewsArticle&id=6645
What I got from this reading was that there is about one million people starving out of the current population of 6,692,030,277.
McGinley, Mark; David Casagrande. 2007. "Carrying capacity." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). February 08 2010.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Carrying_capacity
Reading this I learned that everything has a carrying capacity. Carrying capacity is the number of people a certain area can sustain. It does not let the population grow exponentially because then there would be a lack or resources. A way not to let the population grow so much would be too keep the number births around the same as the number of deaths.
Daily, Gretchen; Paul Ehrlich. "Population, Sustainability, and Earth's Carrying Capacity: A framework for estimating population sizes and lifestyles that could be sustained without undermining future generations". February 9th, 2010
Shah, Anup. "Global Warming and Population". February 9th, 2010
http://www.globalissues.org/article/708/global-warming-and-population
This article was about how countries blame huge developing countries like China and India but some disagree arguing that the greenhouse gases that are affecting the climate today are the one that were used decades ago so the countries that the primarily responsible are the countries that were rich back then.
Connection to Climate Change
Climate change will affect the population in many ways. The hotter climate will started to melt all the ice and that will cause the sea level to get rise which means that the places with low elevation will begin to sink so the habitable areas will be less.
It is predicted that because of that there will be around 200 million refugees which would be made up of the poorest people on earth.
The population will also be affected because there will be a lot of less fertile areas, desertification, which means there will be less food for the rapidly growing population.
The population will affect the climate by overpopulation. It is estimated that by 2050 the population will increase by 2.3 billion which will cause the climate to change because the world will be ecologically unstable.
The population is in responsible for the earth's sudden change in temperature, because we love using technology that involves the consumption of fossil fuels and do not realize that we are emitting so many greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere that remain there for years so even if we take initiative and want to see a change it will take a longer time.
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