Archive
CNN Report About Climate Change and Coral Reefs
The Dolphins Cant Hear Themselves THink!!
We all know that the oceans are absorbing more CO2 and becoming more acidic. There are many well known consequences to this such as the dissolving of pteropod exoskeletons. However, what isn’t so well known is what happens to the distance soundwaves travel.
As the oceans become more acidic, the soundwaves travel a greater distance. This can become a problem for marine animals depending on the ability to communicate for hunting and other functions. Check it out here.
Polar Bears Endangered
Polar Bears are in trouble. It is easy to see the link between global warming and polar bear extinction. Polar bears hunt on sea ice. Global Warming causes the melting of sea ice. With less sea ice there is less room for the bears to hunt on. Polar bears can only swim for relatively short distances. Some of them drown. Some of them turn to cannibalism. The female bears don’t have enough weight to produce milk so the cubs die. The situation is grim. Something needs to be done. They have finally been listed as threatened (not endangered). What are we waiting for? Two-thirds of Polar Bears may be gone in the next 30-40 years!
Natural Solar Variations?…I Think Not!!
Even after watching last night’s vice presidential debate, some people still aren’t convinced that Global Warming is caused by man! In the face of overwhelming evidence, some people still just shrug their shoulders in disbelief. Why are they still denying it? Do they really believe what they say they do? Or are they just afraid of what it will mean to our way of life? Some of the more educated skeptics state that the climate change we are experiencing is a result of the natural cycles of our orbit and the sun’s fluctuating heat output (click here for info on the Milankovitch theory of changing climate).Read more about skeptic’s beliefs here
Since Global Warming is our problem and NOT the sun’s lets try to reduce our carbon footprint.
The below video is from Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and discusses Carbon Dioxide. One more little bit of info. CEI gets funding from Exxon, Texaco, and Ford Motor Company. Keep that in mind while watching the clip!
Unlikely…But Possible
The Gulf Stream is a powerful, warm, and fast moving current that transports warm water from the southern tropical regions near the equator to the colder regions near Greenland and Northern Europe. This helps keep Northern Europe’s climate mild and comfortable. This “conveyor belt” is a very important mover of heat. At the same time it allows cooler water to circulate south to allow the equatorial regions to keep from overheating.
But how does this complicated conveyor belt (called the Thermohaline circulation/ Thermo meaning heat and haline meaning salt) of warm and cold water work? It works based off of the idea that things that are more dense (salt water) sinks below things that are less dense (fresh water).
As the salt water sinks it does so with so much energy that it pulls the warm water on the surface in the opposite direction, much like a conveyor belt, thus allowing the different waters to move (cold water along the bottom of the ocean south and warmer water along the surface northward).
What happens when this circulation is interupted?
“Just over 8000 years ago, a huge glacial lake in Canada burst, and an estimated 100,000 cubic kilometres of fresh water rushed into the North Atlantic. Researchers now say they know for sure that this catastrophic event shut down the Gulf Stream and cooled parts of the northern hemisphere by several degrees for more than a hundred years. The findings show modelling studies are right to suggest that something similar could happen with equal abruptness as the planet warms under human influence. The film The Day After Tomorrow (imdb, wikipedia), which portrays such a scenario, may have exaggerated – but not by much.” Read more here or here.
What is important to remember however, is that when the lake in Canada burst 8000 years ago and during the recent Little Ice Age the temperatures were much colder than they were today. These colder conditions made it so parts of Europe froze more readily. Some climatologists now feel that by the time this conveyor belt were to shut down again (this is obviously not a good thing and some say the signs of it beginning are here read about it), enough ice will already be melted and the temperatures will be high enough that the lack of warm water moving north may be a welcome vacation from the extreme heat becoming characteristic in Western Europe (read more here and here) .
Even if it isn’t as dangerous for Western and Northern Europe, we must not forget our neighbors to the south. The thermohaline current not only brings warm water north; it brings cool water south. Is it possible that if the conveyor belt shuts down, the equatorial regions may get even hotter than it already is because of a lack of cool water circulating their way? Time will tell.
The ice sitting on top of Greenland is of great concern because it is melting extremely rapidly and is dumping more fresh water into the North Atlantic Ocean interupting the delicate balance of fresh and salt water. Some scientists are worried that this could trigger the same situation as happened in the past triggering small ice ages (read about it). Other scientists aren’t as concerned about another ice age being triggered (check it out). They are more worried about the rise in sea level that is likely to occur from the masses of land based ice constantly calving (breaking off) into the oceans.
Below you will find two videos explaning the thermohaline circulation:
Either situation is not one to be happy about!
Pollack's Science Blog 