Hey folks! Did you know that there are roughly 1.8 million organisms that exist on this planet? Well, this figure isn't exactly correct, scientist believe there are actually 5 to 50 million more organisms out there that haven't been discovered. Now what if I told you that each one of these organisms can help cure a disease? Or maybe even help advance our technology, like spiders silk. These strands when twined together become much stronger than steel, which is truly remarkable that it comes from a minuscule creature that some people fear. Fear, what defines fear? We all experience this sometime in our lives. Some cope to the situation better than others which in return provides a skewed idea of what some people perceive as fear. This can be induced multiple ways but one way in particular is when someone detects a sense of creepiness from some source. Vsauce does a tremendous job in explaining why things are creepy, you can check out the video here. Now what if I told you something rather CreEpY? What if I told you those 50 million organisms that haven't been discovered yet are dying off? Now I'm not talking about a couple a day, I'm talking about a rapid extinction that is currently plaguing our world. What is this plague called?
Global warming has been affecting earth for the past 20,000 years, or maybe it was 13,000? Who really cares anyways! Apparently the United Nations does, you know, those people that lead us and try to stabilize the world and make it peaceful. They recently delivered stark warnings about the potential irreversible dangers of greenhouse gases. These dangers include, but not limited too, rising sea levels, melting ice caps, migration of species, droughts, and many more. National Geographic composed an article about the effects of global warming if you want to check it out here. Global warming has been a increasing danger to our society! It is up to this generation to change the old ways. Green Technology is the way of the future and if our society continues to use greenhouse gases, the world as we know it presently, will disintegrate. Do you want the future students/siblings/sons and daughters to experience a world equivalent to Pixar's planet in Wall-e? If you have never seen this movie, just take a pile of compacted trash and put it on a mound of dirt. Now imagine this being all of earth, depressing isn't it? If you want to hear more reasons why to save this wonderful planet we call home then head over to MinuteEarth. This wonderful YouTube channel highlights all aspects of the earth such as "The Secret Social Life of Plants", "How to Build a Better City", and "Denizens of the Deep". I highly recommend this YouTube channel along with the other links provided throughout the blog.
If you have any comments or questions about this blog, feel free to leave it in the comment section. I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
Hey Tyler, I really enjoyed reading your blog, the first paragraph was really interesting and I didn't know a lot of the things that you mentioned in the beginning which was really cool. So now that we know how dangerous global warming is and we know how important it is to save this plant that we live on, what are basic ways that I can make a difference to help the planet? Also, you mentioned that global warming has been affecting the earth for thousands of years so why is it making a huge different now? Thinking about global warming and the world falling apart is really scary but it is something that we need to keep in mind so thanks for sharing this info it was very informative!
ReplyDeleteHey Suria, global warming has become a main concern for the world in recent years. In fact if you go on major news websites, you will more than likely run into some article about global warming. What are basic ways to make a difference? There are plenty of ways to help! This website does a great job at providing ways to help stay green: http://www.50waystohelp.com/ . Now to answer your other question, ever since the formation of earth, continents drifting, changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns and much more helped contribute to warming and cooling periods. We are currently in a warming period, why is it different now this time around? Well scientist have linked green house gases to be main factor in rising temperature globally. Melting ice, and changes in organisms behaviors are key indicators to the rise in temperature. The reason why it is a major concern now is because the rate that the temperature is rising, is very rapid compared to the past. In fact, we just recorded the hottest September on record (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/). This is why it is becoming more of a concern since we are on the path to having irreversible effects on the earths environment.
ReplyDeleteNow Global Warming is certainly a topic worthy of a good discussion. I believe the two schools of thought on the issue is: It exists and if we don't take action we'll continue to destroy the world we live in and: It's not real and just a scare tactic used to win elections and gain the popular vote. While I don't fully subscribe to either one of those perspectives, I do find validity in both of them. When looked at from an extremely high level, one will see that fluctuation in the earth's environment are both drastic and common place. On the other end of the coin, it's hard to ignore issues like the current pollution problem in China or the recent one that plagued Los Angeles. I think the old "use moderation" approach is probably best.
ReplyDeleteTyler you are writing on a subject near and dear to my heart! Your opening paragraph was great in getting my attention. It is such an interesting subject. I love the argument that global warming occurs with or without humans. So what's the big deal? That's like the sound of nails down the chalkboard for me! It is important that the population truly understands the repercussions of the warming climate. Then and there I think that more people will start paying attention, especially when it directly affects them.
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