No doubt about it, pollution has been an environmental threat for a long time to our magnificent ocean and everyone knows that. In the text, “In addition to debris, the oceans are polluted by oil, sewage, and toxic chemicals,”(Dignan 14). This really proves that pollution is a part of environmental threats because oil, sewage, and toxic chemicals keep on either being purposely or accidentally dumped into the ocean which kills fish and habitats they live in. Vengeance did not come with this, but in other hands, overfishing has also been a problem in the environmental threat category. As the author stated, “...have shrunken-some drastically-as a result of overfishing or catching fish faster than they can reproduce,”(Dignan 14). This shows that overfishing is a problem because each time people overfish, down in the ocean fish can’t reproduce fast enough so less fish than before are left and other fish don’t have food then. Of course, global warming or climate change has been a huge environmental threat for a long time. Beyond that, as mentioned by NationalGeographic.com, “Global warming may lead to devastating droughts.” This illustrates that global warming also is a problem to the ocean because like National Geographic said, droughts cause less fish to appear and the ocean gets overflowed with air from humidity so it can’t get air…
In the article, “Oceans Are Losing Oxygen—and Becoming More Hostile to Life” by Craig Welch, climate change is affecting the lives of all kinds of sea creatures. This article explains how climate change, and the warming of ocean water, has began taking oxygen out of the water. This means that many fish species have shrunk because of this loss of oxygen. The warmer water speeds up the metabolism of these fish, which makes them breathe in more of the oxygen. A couple of scientists from the University of British Columbia say that the body of the fish grows faster than the gills of the fish, so the water won't be able to provide enough oxygen to maintain the growth. "What we found was that the body size of fish decreases by 20 to 30 percent for…
The article discusses the predicted rate of global warming, which could be affected by global feedback mechanisms such as the alteration of ocean currents due to meltwater, the release of carbon dioxide and methane from permafrost in Alaska and…
Thinning of the ozone layer will also have a long-term effect on the Antarctic food web. Scientists are speculating that the ultraviolet rays penetrating the waters are the cause of the decline in algal production. Global climate change is another way that humans have affected the Antarctic population. As the temperature of the water has warmed there is less pack ice being formed during the winter months. Pack ice is critical for the survival of the krill because the krill feed from the marine algae. If the waters continue to remain warm the…
his article was written Chris Eboch, who is a science writer, and it was published in the December 2013/January 2014 edition of the Chemistry magazine Chem Matters, a magazine based in Washington DC, USA. The article is called Global Climate change; A reality check and its aim is to inform the public, particularly high school students, about the damaging effects of global warming on the environment. The author firstly talks about the process of global warming, the gases that cause the greenhouse effect leading to global warming. She then retrospectively looks at how we know that human activities have led to increase in greenhouse gases, and supports her claims with studies. The next section talks about the global warming potential, or the potential temperature that the Earth can rise to due to global warming and accelerate the effects of global warming, such as the increasing average level of the sea. She then moves to talk about what each individual can do to lessen the effects of global warming, and talks about the society's need to reduce carbon dioxide emission and the ways in which to do so.…
To support his observation, the author reported data published in Science in 2007 revealing that sea level was rising 1.6 times faster and the temperature 1.3 times faster than the predictions included in the IPCC reports. What is more concerning he said, is that we still don’t know if these changes are reversible. If not, and probably not, a potential impact of sea level rising could be…
Whittney Lange Movie Analysis In the movie, “6 Degrees That Could Change the World,” we see some of the disaster effects that would occur if they earth were to continue to warm. We see effects from 1 degree Celsius, up to 6 degree Celsius. This increase in temperature may seem like a small number, but in terms of global warming, 6 degrees has been the difference between now and the last ice age that occurred 18,000 years ago. This can be very devastating for our planet.…
There is a great deal of controversy among people on the subjects of climate change, global warming and sea level rise. There is also great confusion caused when scientists ineffectively communicate complicated information to the general public, thus the information in misunderstood and often rejected. This confusion commonly prohibits the measures that need to be taken in order to adapt to the elements like sea level rise. In simple terms Climate change, as described by The United States Panel on Climate Change, is the “climate is undergoing dramatic changes as the direct result of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity” these green house gasses act like a ceiling for our environment and trap the heat that would otherwise be released…
The sea level has been rising globally for the past 10,000 years before anthropologic influence, but due to large amounts of CO2 release the sea level is now rising rapidly. The warming of global temperatures over the past century that continues to grow with time causes this rise in sea level. Because of this growing global temperature, the ice caps are melting rapidly and will continue to melt at a faster rate. “…Even if we could stabilize concentrations of GHGs, we are already committed to significant warming and sea level rise no matter what scenario we follow (Gerald A. Meehl et al).” At this point, it would be impossible to avoid increased sea levels due to this melting. This melting means that many areas of low elevation will experience major flooding. Sea levels could rise by several meters in the next 100 years, leading to major land loss. Flooding can also lead to declines or shifts to local fisheries, leading to possible protein shortages in poorer populations, leading to famine. This could put many lives in jeopardy and could alter many coastal ecosystems, leading to loss of coastal infrastructure, coastal erosion, loss of human life, and the extinction of several species unable to adapt or move to another adequate…
fossil fuel combustion– has increased carbon dioxide concentrations from °280 to 355 mL/L since 1800; the increase is unique, at least in the past 160 000 yr, and several lines of evidence demonstrate unequivocally that it is human—causedRead More: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.2307/1941591…
Global warming is result of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases trap radiation from sun and hold them from being released back into space. This causes rise in temperature at few places on earth. It is not much noticeable in western part of earth but in eastern parts like North Pole, Alaska and others slight increase in temperatures makes a huge difference. Scientists believe that if current situation continues many kinds of changes will take place which can be either beneficial or harmful for the living beings.…
“ALREADY, warmer temperatures are causing meltwater to stream into oceans, changing temperature and salinity; sea ice and permafrost are thawing, pulsing methane into the air; seawater is expanding, causing floods and…
With each eruption, volcanoes have the potential to eject large amounts of ash, gases, and sulfuric aerosols into the upper troposphere and stratosphere (Allen, 2015). Volcanism helped form Earth’s ancient climate and influences climate change in today’s world (Kasting, 1993). A recent example of a volcano influencing climate include the 1982 El Chichon eruption in Mexico, which is regarded as the largest volcanic disaster in modern Mexican history (Mass, 1989). Ancient examples of climate-changing eruptions include the Huaynaputina volcano in Peru in 1600 C.E. (Costa, et al. 2003) and a volcano called Tambora in Indonesia which exploded in 1815 (Harpp, 2005). All three volcanoes had direct and indirect influences on humans, livestock and plant-life because of the global climate change outcome.…
* Wildlife is affected- Increasing global temperatures are expected to disrupt ecosystems, pushing to extinction those species that cannot adapt.…
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s report (2007) says that evidence is now ‘unequivocal’ that humans are causing global warming [2]. It refers to Carbon dioxide (CO2) that enters the atmosphere as a result of human activity. The changes in the atmosphere, the oceans and glaciers and ice caps are due to human activities. The world’s average surface temperature has increased by around 0.74°C over the past 100 years (1906 - 2005), whereas a warming of about 0.2°C is projected for each of the next two decades. Sea-level is expected rise in the range of 28 - 58 cm by the end of the century due to ocean expansion and glacier melt. Sea ice is projected to shrink in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Snow cover has decreased in most regions, especially in spring.…