Climate Change (more)

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Adopt- a -topic: coral reefs

Ham, K. 2022, Ken Ham Blog, Great Barrier Reef Sees “Record Coral Comeback”; https://answersingenesis.org/environmental-science/climate-change/great-barrier-reef-sees-record-coral-comeback/

Coral Reefs cover on two-thirds of the iconic reef, wow! Setting a world record since 36 years ago. Which is so exciting for the ocean. Scientist say that this could be short term and we are not to be getting excited about the fact that the coral are surviving. Because there are still jobs to be done to help maintain the coral and help the desiccated ones to be healed. The Scientest that manage the reef state that the problems with the reefs are due to climate change. The climate change is affecting the temperature and the movement of the water. Climate change isnt only impacting the ocean and the sea life but it is also affecting so much more in  the environment. 

Climate change affects the way the water feels; as in the temperature, the way the erosean occurs, the way the water works, and the way not only coral reefs will stay intact but other sealife will stay alive. They climate change possibly might not always be affecting the coral reefs dirrectly, but it could potentially affect the coral reefs ecosystem or food source in the ocean. Not only the temperature but the sea level rise. It can overwhelm and basically choke in a way the Coral Reefs, becasuse of the presure and the rate the ocean is coming at them, especially because the reefs are located closer to the coast of the ocean.    

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Adopt-a-topic: coral reefs

News, U. H. (2022, June 17). UH to develop living coastal-protection system inspired by coral reefs. University of Hawaiʻi System News. Retrieved September 5, 2022, from https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2022/06/17/engineered-coral-reef-ecosystem/ 

This article talked about a 25 Million dollar act to create an engineered ecosystem to help protect Hawaii’s coasts. UH engineers, biologists and ecologists are working together to create structures for resilient corals to grow on. They are creating these structures for the corals to heal and it is supposed to attract coral larvae in hopes to kick start a coral reef. 

I found this very interesting because they didn’t talk about fixing the actual problem that is killing their coral reefs. They are simply putting structures in in hopes of attracting coral and killing a whole new generation with pollution, runoff and insatiable fishing. However the idea is brilliant and I think that it does bring new hope. However, coral will continue to die if we do not fix our part of the problem first. They also had a very good idea for bleached coral. They said feeding and providing shade may bring them back, that is a good idea and as the coral mutual relationship with bacteria starts to fail it would be nice for not much direct sunlight to make the process faster.  

 

 

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Risk of exposure of harmful chemicals due to improper disposal of Electronic-Waste.

The growing environmental risks of e-waste. Geneva Environment Network. (2022, Jun 22). Retrieved September 1, 2022, from https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/the-growing-environmental-risks-of-e-waste/

 

     Approximately, 57.4 million tons of E-Waste is produced globally. Due to the informal recycling process it releases emissions. The inefficient practices of recycling E-Waste negatively affect the environment and human health. The electronics that get discarded contain many toxic materials in these products that aren’t biodegradable and accumulate. The improper disposal of E-Waste is another factor contributing to climate change. 

 

     The article discusses the issue of improper practices when recycling E-Waste. Since the E-Waste is not disposed of properly, it damages the environment and endangers human health. Many of the workers who are part of these facilities that inefficiently recycle E-Waste, have their health at risk. The exposure of toxic chemicals from E-Waste aren’t biodegradable and remain in the environment, therefore increasing the risk of being exposed. Every device has a carbon footprint and when these devices are being “recycled” they release Co2, therefore, contributing to climate change. I find it concerning how this issue has escalated, especially now since the production of electronics is always increasing. 

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Adopt-a-topic

21, P. A. (2022, April 5). Caring for Hawaii’s coral reefs. Pacific RISA – Managing Climate Risk in the Pacific. Retrieved August 31, 2022, from https://www.pacificrisa.org/2022/03/25/saving-hawaiis-coral-reefs/ 

Climate stressors are not the only thing that affects coral reefs. Pollution also greatly affects the health of a coral reef such as runoff, spills, fishing tactics. Pollution also causes coral bleaching, the pollution causes heat waves one being called “The blob” that occured in 2019. Now that climate change has become worse and worse, heat waves will become more and more comen and very taxing on the reef and its community. 

This article really shows that pollution also causes problems in the reefs. It also talks about heat waves and that they will become more and more common as more pollution and ocean acidification continues and grows. We need to be more careful with runoff, spills and fishing tactics because it is very harmful not just for the reefs and environment but also for us. The coral reefs around the world are home to 25% of the oceans’ life and feed many people around the world.

 

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Adopt- a- topic: coral reefs

Gibbens, S. (2022, March 10). Climate-resilient coral species offer hope for the world’s reefs. Environment. Retrieved August 28, 2022, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/climate-resilient-coral-species-offer-hope-for-world-reefs 

Reefs are being affected by human activities such as carbon emissions and overfishing for example. However there are two coral species that are so far surviving this marine heat wave. The ocean absorbs carbon from the air but there is so much that the ocean is taking so much causing acidification. They experimented differently; they took a couple tanks filled with normal reef/ ocean life and put it outside coconut island to see what would happen after 22 months. Many were struggling but some were doing well, that gives new hope for our future. 

This leaves new hope for global warming, coral is very sensitive to the environment. That is why global warming is so bad because a few degrees higher means warming water and that leads to coral bleaching. Even though it is a wonderful surprise that it is possible for some coral to survive in warmer waters they can only survive in a couple degrees warmer water. Its also scary that the water temperature is increasing so rapidly in almost 2 years. That coral will most likely die out within a couple years a year even if the water temperature is rising that quickly.   

 

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Adopt- a -topic: coral reefs

Handley, E., & here, P.  (2022, March 11). 61% of Hawaiian coral exposed to warming conditions survive. Open Access Government. Retrieved August 28, 2022, from https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/hawaiian-coral-global-ocean-warming-climate-change/131407/ 

There was a 22 month study of three coral in simulated conditions to see how they would react in different conditions. They did this study because most if not all of marine life depends on coral reefs. They had four different tanks with four different conditions, one control tank with current ocean conditions; an ocean acidification condition (-0.2 pH units); an ocean warming condition (+2 degrees Celsius); and a condition that combined warming and acidification surprisingly their research revealed that 61% of coral exposed to warming conditions survived compared to the 92% exposed to current ocean temperatures.

This is super interesting because it raises the question how are some corals able to survive and others aren’t? It also gives a little hope that not everything is being destroyed so fast, it gives us more time to analyze the situation and fix the problem. I also found it interesting about the time period, at what point did the coral start getting affected.

 

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adopt- a -topic: coral reefs

News, U. H. (2022, April 5). Delicate balance of coral reef processes creates management challenges. University of Hawaiʻi System News. Retrieved August 28, 2022, from https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2022/04/05/coral-reef-processes/  

Coral reefs are very important to the environment, however they are being damaged by algae blooms, predation, biomass production, and the cycling of nitrogen and phosphorus .No reef is able to protect itself from all of those things.  There are more than 500 reefs and they support a very big part of the ocean and support people on land. It also talked about if some species are more important with others. 

This article goes over the causes of a coral reef being unhealthy and that a reef needs all the organisms it has to get over some of the causes of its downfall at the moment. That brought them to a question of are some organisms more important than others. I thought that it was interesting how they thought that maybe some organisms contribute more to the reef than others. They tested it and it turned out that no organism was more important than the other.  

 

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Why proper disposal of Electronic-Waste is important to our health and the environment.

Ruiz , A. (2022, July 18). 17 shocking e-waste statistics in 2022. The Roundup. Retrieved August 27, 2022, from https://theroundup.org/global-e-waste-statistics/#:~:text=There%20is%20over%20347%20Mt,highest%20e%2Dwaste%20recycling%20rates.

 

     Electronic waste (E-Waste) for the most part is disposed improperly. Many people discard that E-Waste needs to be disposed of separately. Since it’s uncommon for E-Waste to be disposed of properly, many natural resources go to waste because some can still be recycled. Nowadays, technology is constantly evolving and the demand for electronics increases more by the years. The more production, the more waste there will be especially if not correctly disposed of. Which affects the environment, human health and animals. 

 

     Arabella Ruiz shares information in her article based on the importance of disposing of E-Waste properly. A small percentage of the E-Waste hardly gets disposed of correctly. Therefore, this affects the environment, human health, and animals. The E-Waste that ends up in landfills releases toxins such as mercury and BFR plastics. These toxic materials have a negative effect if humans or animals come in contact with these toxins. For that reason, many of the E-Waste that ends up in landfills also release chemicals into the air, soil, or water. However, there are many natural resources going to waste that could’ve been recycled such as silver, gold, copper, and iron. After reading this article, my initial thoughts were that I never really thought about where the E-Waste goes. As well the importance of separately disposing the E-Waste due to it being hazardous or valuable. Ruiz mentioned that every individual can fix this issue by disposing of it correctly, however many people fail to do that either because they lack awareness or simply laziness. Especially now, since we constantly use electronics in our everyday lives. We should know how to properly dispose of it in order to take care of our environment. 

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Social Media’s Impact in Climate Change Opinions

Archie, A. (2022, June 24). Factual Climate Change Reporting Can Influence Americans Positively, but Not for Long. NPR, NPR. Retrieved August 21, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/24/1107239912/climate-change-science-environment-global-warming-study-report. 

The problem of receiving enough support to take action on climate change seems to be held within the role of the news media. A recent study was performed by Thomas Wood, Brendan Nyhan, and Ethan Porter, professors at The Ohio State University, Dartmouth College, and George Washington University. This study proved that the public will often show support when given factual articles about climate change, however, that information is almost never retained as the amounts of consumer-based articles overpower the factual articles.

I find this information very relevant to climate change as we need the support of the public in order to make a change to the current standard of living. In order to make a difference, people cannot be easily fooled into arguing for the wrong position when it comes to scientific facts about our environment and climate change. The article helped me realize that climate change is an issue that needs to be addressed on all fronts. While the government attempts to enforce the decrease of greenhouse gas emissions, the news media also needs to be held accountable for making sure the public unites rather than argues about the actuality of our current, fragile state within our environment. 

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Inflation Reduction Act

Vaidyanathan, G. (2022, August 16). Scientists Welcome ‘Enormous’ Us Climate Bill – but Call for Stronger Action. Nature News, Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved August 21, 2022. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02223-8. 

United States President Joe Biden finally signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law on August 16, 2022. The Act states that $369 billion will be committed to helping decrease the effects of climate change over the next decade. Within this Act, Biden promised to decrease emission rates by 30% of the rate recorded back in 2005. By including this Act, the United States has raised the expectations for other countries who agreed to help reduce climate change in 2015. America plays a deep influence on other nations, so it is expected that we uphold our side of the agreement.

In creating this Act, the United States is encouraging the studies of environmental science as it sets our priorities for setting long-term expectations for a better global environment. This encouragement is proven within the Act statement considering $50 million was put aside just for climate change research. However, I am worried about the possible outcomes of this plan considering the public has been promised a drastic change in our current state for a long time. Greta Thunberg’s speech was presented in 2018, and yet this seems to be America’s first real commitment to solving climate change. So, I remain skeptical about the authenticity of the government’s role in protecting our climate since it still seems too good to be true.