Let’s Talk Trash! JAN/FEB 2018
12
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Climate change, while caused by increased greenhouse gas emissions from cars, is also influenced by the planet’s natural weather cycle . The cycle may not be concerning, but the rate the planet’s temperature is increasing is unsustainable. According to NASA, “Earth’s climate is always changing. There have been times when Earth’s climate has been warmer than it is now. There have been times when it has been cooler… Earth’s temperature has gone up about one degree Fahrenheit in the last 100 years… small changes in Earth’s temperature can have big effects… Warming of Earth’s climate has caused some snow and ice to melt. The warming also has caused oceans to rise. And it has changed the timing of when certain plants grow.” With increasing coastal populations, millions of homes are at risk of flooding every year. The damage can be devastating. Recently Puerto Rico was decimated by Hurricane Maria, leaving the entire island without power, cell service, and clean water. By October, 70% of the island was still without power. It was declared a Major Disaster by the President, but the island is still in shambles and little help is reaching the Rural communities. That is why climate change is a concern. Cyclical or not, millions of lives are in danger because of stronger storms, higher flood waters, and hotter weather. Do your part and act now. Sources http://ensembles-eu.metoffice.com/IPCC/rev_archive/SOD/Ch19.pdf / https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa- knows/what-is-climate-change-k4.html / https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1508251490706-c45ffe54424cebb6c3e5ae5b4ccd364b/ FEMA4339DRPR(Expedited).pdf / https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sep17/hurricane-maria.html / https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&e src=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjJmpvwq5vXAhUM7yYKHbZfCPkQFggzMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2Fmon ey%2F4935684%2Fhurricane-irma-harvey-economic-cost%2F&usg=AOvVaw0zI0nAnMOpUOKLVmoet78K / https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/ dynamic/153/590x/hurricane-maria-path-puerto-rico-damage-856840.jpg http://52.24.98.51/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/hurricane-maria-flooding- puerto-rico.jpg / https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/153/590x/secondary/Hurricane-Maria-Damage-San-Juan-Puerto-Rico-1072195.jpg CLIMATE Change? Climate change is a change in the Earth’s weather patterns; hotter summers, colder winters, and stronger storms.
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2017-2018 CCHS STUDENT EDITORIAL STAFF
By Victoria Roberson, Devin Snow, John Horton, and Emma Stafford
The estimated cost of hurricane damage in the United States for 2017 is calculated at over $200 billion dollars. That is over 200 billion lollipops, dump trucks, and dump trucks of lollipops.
Antarctica’s climate was once warm enough to sustain substantial vegetation including trees. How warm? Some estimates place it at 20 degrees warmer than present day. That temperature was determined after studies were conducted on sediment core samples that contained plant leaf wax. The samples were pulled from beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. According the data that the team gathered, 15-20 million years ago the Antarctic was a far warmer and wetter place than previously imagined. Temperatures have been estimated reaching as much as 45 degrees F. and precipitation was several times higher than what the region currently experiences. This presents a problem for some of the current statements regarding climate change as humans weren’t around during this period. Also given that the region was once so warm and then returned to far chillier temperatures points to another potential problem – climate change appears to be a naturally recurring process and one that is cyclical in nature.
“The ultimate goal of the study was to better understand what the future of climate change may look like,” said Feakins, an assistant professor of Earth sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “Just as history has a lot to teach us about the future, so does past climate. This record shows us how much warmer and wetter it can get around the Antarctic ice sheet as the climate system heats up. This is some of the first evidence of just how much warmer it was.” It is normally very difficult to obtain this data as the region experiences massive flows of ice that essentially grinds away all of the evidence for what the climate used to be like. An assistance professor at LSU discovered unusually high quantities of algae and pollen in the core samples that were retrieved.
Antarctica today is a frozen wasteland. During the Miocene era some 16 million years ago, high carbon dioxide levels appear to have made it more like modern day Iceland. Image Credit: NASA
Source: http://www.americaspace.com/2012/06/25/is-climate-change- cyclical-nasa-study-suggests-yes/
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