Global Warming 101
Earth's climate has always fluctuated over time, but in the last century the planet's temperature has risen unusually fast. It is most likely due to human activity from driving, factory production, and power plants that is causing what scientists call global warming. The burning of fossil fuels from oil and coal is releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and causing more than usual amounts of heat to be trapped near the earth, which is known as the greenhouse effect. Proof of global warming is shown in a link of warm years with 1998 being the warmest year in measured history and 2005 following that. It is also shown in tests taken from ice cores that carbon dioxide and methane have hit their highest levels in the past 420,000 years. Additionally, Arctic sea ice is shrinking at a rate of 10% in the last 30 years. As long as people use energy and increase fossil fuels, the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere will continue to rise. This will lead to either minor changes like an increase in temperature or more dramatic changes like rising sea levels that could flood coastal areas, severe droughts, animals unable to adapt to changes and becoming extinct, and more intense hurricanes. Overall, people need to be conscious and make smarter decisions that are helpful, rather than harmful to the planet.
Population Growth
For the world to reach a population of 1 billion it took hundreds of thousands of years, but it only took 123 more years to reach 2 billion. As time has progressed, the world's population is currently increasing by 1 billion people every 13 years. Today's population is estimated at 7 billion, but by 2025 it is estimated to reach 8 billion. Even more shocking, by 2050 there will be 2.5 billion more people than there are today. Since there is an increase in population, there is an increase in demand for water, but the earth only contains so much water. In addition, population has been growing faster than the food supplies. If there is an increase in production of food to meet this demand there will need to be a compromise of an ecological disruption. Along with the population increase, there will be an even worse climate change than what is currently occurring due to a higher demand of oil, gas, and coal. The solutions to all of these problems include a reduction in consumption, sustainable solutions to meet the increasing demands of food, water, and fuel, provide universal access to family planning resources, contraceptives, and information, and empower women by giving them access to health care, education, and birth control.
The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes
Seven Suzuki represented a group of 12 and 13 year olds known as ECO, the Environmental Child's Organization, by speaking about how the future for the next generation does not have the best odds. This is due to the people of her parent's generation not taking care of the environment. From the starving children around the world, the animals that are dying from their homes being taken away, and the fear of breathing the air because of the uncertainty of what chemicals are in it. The adults treat these problems like they have all the time in the world to fix the problem, but since they don't know how to fix it and they don't have a lot of time, then they need to stop breaking it. Everyone is in this together and needs to help fix the problem. The problem is that everyone who is wealthy and is blessed to have the finer things in life are too afraid to share and let go of some of their wealth with those less fortunate. Even a child Seven's age from the streets of Brazil said she wished that she was wealthy so she can share the wealth with the other people. She goes on to explain that adults teach children not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up their mess, not to hurt other creatures, and to share and not be greedy. Yet based upon society and the environment, those same adults that teach those children those morals don't follow those morals anymore.
Saving Valentina
A man named Michael Fishbach spends 2 months in the Sea of Cortez every winter photographing blue fin back and humpback whales. He helps track the whales while observing their behaviors in the wild. In 2011 on Valentine's Day, Michael and his family came across a young humpback whale that seemed to be deceased, but was actually still alive. Michael put on some snorkeling gear and jumped in the water to see what was wrong with the whale. Upon examining the whale, he found out that the whale had been severely entangled in a net that had been used by local fisherman. The net went all the way up the whale's back, both pectoral fins were pinned to its side, and the tail was so entangled in net that the whale was weighted down about 15 feet below the surface. They tried radioing for help, but it would take too long for someone to arrive and help before the whale would die. Since they didn't want the whale to die, they started to try and cut the net to free the whale. They first were able to free one of the pectoral fins and then half an hour later were able to free the other pectoral fin. After an hour, they made the final cut in the net that was wrapped around the tail which released the whale completely. After being freed, the whale breached, did tail lobs, tail slaps, and pectoral fin slaps for an hour. They all believed it was not only a show of pure joy, but of also great thanks.
Why I'm a Weekday Vegetarian
Speaker Graham Hill, realized that even though he considered himself "green," was raised by hippie parents in a log cabin, started a website called Tree Huger, knew that eating a hamburger a day could increase his risk of dying by a third, knew that 10 billion animals that are raised each year for meat are raised in factory farm conditions that people wouldn't even consider for cats, dogs, and other pets, knows that meat causes more emissions than all of transportation combined, and knows that beef production uses 100 times the water than most vegetables do. He realized that what he was faced with was that he is either completely a vegetarian or completely a meat eater. So instead of having to choose between those 2 options, he came up with a third option that he has been doing for a year called "Weekday Veg." Basically he eats like a vegetarian Monday through Friday and eats whatever he wants on Saturday and Sunday. He explains by doing this, he is cutting 5 days of meat out of the week which is 70% of meat intake, he's leaving behind a smaller footprint, he's lessening his pollution, he feels better about the animals, he's saving money, he's healthier, he knows he's going to live longer, and he lost some weight.
Garbage Island
Journalist Thomas Morton travels for a week to reach an area in the Pacific Ocean where there is trash that is polluting the ocean that is estimated to be double the size of the state of Texas. The region is not only trashed by big and identifiable pieces of waste such as tires, helmets, coke bottles, and hockey sticks, but it is also completely littered with broken up bits of plastic that makes it seem like you are swimming inside of a snow globe when you are in the ocean. The reason why there are bits of plastic is because plastic is not biodegradable, but rather photodegradable which means the plastic is broken down by sunlight into tiny pieces. Since all of these contaminants are in the ocean where it is small enough for some sea lifeforms to consume, those sea creatures get consumed by fish that then get consumed by other fish, and are then consumed by humans.
Greenpeace: Stopping Amazon Deforestation
Forests house 2/3 of the world's land based species of plants and animals, but are quickly being taken away from them. By logging and burning forests, the large amounts of carbon that is stored is released into the atmosphere which is contributing to 20% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions that is causing climate change. That is more than what cars, planes, and trains are emitting put together. Brazil is now considered the world's 4th largest climate polluter due to deforestation. A large amount that is being deforested is to produce chicken feed. Greenpeace started to work with locals and Brazilian organizations to stop the destruction and find out who is responsible. Businesses such as McDonald's were part of purchasing the chicken feed that was being produced due to deforestation. When Greenpeace put the uncomfortable spotlight of those corporations, it brought change. Brands like McDonald's and Walmart agree it's customers and promote that they want to contribute to solutions and not deforestation.
Canary is Dead
A team of biologists studied the coral reefs of the Phoenix Islands in 2000 and 2002, where the coral reefs became known as the most pristine on the planet. But in 2004, another team went to visit the coral reefs where they found the reef to be completely dead. The researchers tried to think of reasons for why this would happen. Coral reefs are susceptible to viscous diseases which erode away living tissue, but there were no traces of an epidemic. Excessive logging or intense agriculture can throw sediment onto a reef choking corals to death, but there are no trees or farms. The crown of thorns is a deadly sea star that in large numbers can wipe out vast areas of coral, but there was only one crown of thorns that was observed during the dive. Over harvesting of top predators like sharks and turtles can wreak havoc with the ecological balance of a reef system, but the predator population was found to be almost completely intact. Destructive fishing methods such as dynamite, cyanide, and natural growing plants can be used to stun fish and destroy coral in the process, but those methods are not in use at the Phoenix Islands. Pollution from industry oil and sewage feed fast growing algae that can easily dominate the reef, but there is no source for pollution anywhere near the reefs. Instead, an intense overheating of the central Pacific Ocean began as scientists were leaving the area of the coral reefs in 2002. The coral can usually recover if the conditions return to normal under 3 months, but this overheating lasted for 7 months, which in the end killed the coral reef.
