People have mixed views about the future of Earth relating to global warming. Some think the future will be bad and have severe consequences, but some believe the future holds good results. For example, these are some expectations from the Green Facts web article, Scientific Facts on Climate Change :

“Over the course of the 21st century, many impacts are expected to occur in natural systems. For instance, changes in precipitation and the melting of ice and snow are expected to increase flood risks in some areas while causing droughts in others. If there is significant warming the capacity of ecosystems to adapt will be exceeded, with negative consequences such as an increased risk of extinction of species.”

That was a negative view on the future of the issue. It touches on the side effects that have been and will result from global warming over the years. However, people have more positive views as well. Take a look at this excerpt from Hilary Clinton’s Hilary for President article, Powering America’s Future: New Energy, New Jobs about what she plans to do to help lower our greenhouse gas emissions:

“Hillary has a bold and comprehensive plan to address America's energy and environmental challenges that will establish a green, efficient economy and create as many as five million new jobs.

Centered on a cap and trade system for carbon emissions, stronger energy and auto efficiency standards and a significant increase in green research funding, Hillary's plan will reduce America's reliance on foreign oil and address the looming climate crisis.”

As shown by the two examples, different people have different views about what awaits us in the future as far as global warming is concerned. In actuality, the future mainly depends on what everyone does. We SHOULD do our best to lean more toward opinions such as Hilary’s. This way, we can solve our planet’s problem and not have to deal with any consequences that may follow if global warming were to get out of hand. Only the people of the world can truly make a difference, so we might as well make some kind of attempt to keep our world in the best condition possible while we still can.

Is the world ready for a change? As the article “Gore Group Plans Ad Blitz on Global Warming” from the New York Times states, “Pollsters and communications experts have noted that the public remains deeply divided along party lines over global warming and that the issue rarely shows up on voters’ lists of worries.” This means no one really cares what’s happening to the earth. People are more concerned about health care and other common issues.

The article “Gore Group Plans Ad Blitz on Global Warming” also states that Al Gore and the non-profit climate group are beginning a 300 million dollar advertisement campaign. The goal of this campaign is to get about 10 million people to work with Al Gore’s cause. We need 10 million people because global warming has gone too far and we need to make a change. Another goal of this campaign is to promote law changes. By having a law that states that you have to be a good ecocitizen Earth will be safer and a better environment to live in.

But can there be difficulties making this project happen? Well maybe. John P. Murry Jr., an associate professor that has studied public service advertising, said that the campaign might be spending too little. The article states that he says since Coca-Cola and Pepsi spends billions of dollars every year to promote their drink doesn’t 300 million dollar seem very small since we are tying to change lives here? Well I guess we have to wait and see.

I don’t think the money will go on waste because now people will start to know what global warming really is all about. Some people still believes it’s only a theory, which is not true. The advertisements have already begun and people are beginning to help out by supporting Al Gore’s cause at this site . If you would like to support the cause please support now and be a part of the voice.  

Rising temperature, increasing sea levels and the death of animals not enough? Well guess what? We have more to worry about…earthquakes. Global warming is causing earthquakes. How you ask? Well as National Geographic News states, “As ice sheets melt, they can release pent-up energy and trigger massive earthquakes, according to a new study.”

These earthquakes can and will lead to mass destruction and confusion. As ice shelves melt across our planet this can only get worse. The article also states that studies show that it can happen on any fault line that exists. For example the article states, “a huge lake at the end of the last ice age had triggered a series of large earthquakes in Utah.” where earthquakes aren’t prone to happen, but due to the existing fault line it happened. Obviously the frequency of earthquakes is increasing because of global warming. It’s especially effecting Antarctica, where most of the ice in the world is contained. So again the melting of ice is not having one effect on earth, but two. If you think about it, global warming is not having only two effects on earth it’s actually having multiple effects like destruction of civilization, as we know it.

More and more houses will be destroyed and more buildings will be demolished. This can only make our earth seem bleak, but also effect our global economy. We will loose money, power and strength of our world just because of global warming. This shows one thing cannot only have one effect, but that it’s more of a domino effect that’s happening because of global warming.

We are not alone in our fight against global warming. There are several people and groups who want to see this planet’s problem fixed as much as us. They can provide others with helpful information, tips on how to deal with global warming, and possibly funding to help in people’s attempts to lower the effectiveness of global warming.

One of these global warming agents is the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). They have an entire article on their website about global warming called Issues: Global Warming. It tells you many things about global warming, such as what contributes to it, its effects, how to prevent it from getting worse and make it better, etc. For example, in the article’s Solutions section, it says that the design and construction of “green buildings” (energy efficient buildings) can waste a lot less energy than normal establishments and contribute less to global warming emissions. The article directly states that these special buildings can “dramatically reduce the enormous amounts of energy that buildings consume in heating, cooling, lighting and water use.” In other words, if you use “green buildings,” they could conserve a lot more energy than normal buildings.

Another agent that relates to global warming is Energy Star. This is a company that gives information on energy efficiency and sells energy efficient products. At their website , they have products in over 50 categories that qualify for their trademark, the Energy Star. Here’s an interesting quote from the Energy Star website that could point you in the right direction towards energy efficiency:

“Did You Know?

The typical household spends $1,900 a year on energy bills. With ENERGY STAR, you can save up to 30% or more than $600 per year.”

As far as funding goes for helping out with global warming, our government may be a source. But organizations like the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation ARE sources. As shown by the stated examples, there are several people who can help us to prevent the dangers of global warming, we just need to be willing to ask.  

I think I am doing well with this project so far. I have emailed my change agent more than once to fill him in on my progress, and I have everything done that needs to be done right now. The next thing for me to do is the action plan.

What was easy for me this time was getting quotes and incorporating them into my blog posts. What was difficult was finding more information for the second scientific and historical posts, but this was only slightly difficult. I think I should be okay for the rest of the project. 

The Greenhouse Effect of global warming and the things that contribute to it have a history of their own. As stated by the Lenntech web article, History of the Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming , the first person to claim that burning fossil fuels could eventually lead to an enhanced global warming was Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927). He was a Swedish scientist who made this claim in 1896. Here is an elaboration on Arrhenius’ claim from the article:

“He proposed a relation between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and temperature. He found that the average surface temperature of the earth is about 15oC because of the infrared absorption capacity of water vapor and carbon dioxide. This is called the natural greenhouse effect. Arrhenius suggested a doubling of the CO2 concentration would lead to a 5oC temperature rise.”

Along with his claim, Arrhenius cooperated with another scientist, Thomas Chamberlin to make an additional discovery relating to global warming. According to the Lenntech article, the two men calculated that humans are able to warm the planet through adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The research that Arrhenius and Chamberlin conducted was merely a “bi-product” of previous research as to whether or not carbon dioxide would give explanation to the cause of the Ice Ages. However, their discovery was not verified until 1987, certainly long after Arrhenius’ death.

During the late 20th century, media sources were confused about the effects of global warming, according to the Article of the Newspaper ARCHIVE search engine article, History of Global Warming . But, in 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development was held. As a result, over 150 nations signed a declaration. For the nations that signed, the declaration was “committing themselves to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide in their countries,” says the article. This shows that people have already taken steeps towards solving our world’s global warming problem. We all just need to keep at it.

How can ice be history? Well, global warming is making it history. There are many famous glaciers around the world. “A glacier is a large, long-lasting river of ice that is formed on land and moves in response to gravity and undergoes internal deformation.” ¹ These glaciers can be as big as a country. So what is happening when a country made of ice melts?

According to Glacial Activity Online , “The largest and most famous glacier is Malaspina Glacier on Yakutat Bay in Alaska. It covers 2,176 kilometers (840 sq. miles).” The biggest glacier in the world is 13 million sq. kilometers (about 5 million sq. miles) and it’s located in Antarctica.² Greenland had the second biggest glacier in the world, which covers 1.8 million sq. kilometers (about 700,000 sq. miles) and it’s over 2,700 meters in thickness (more than 9,000 feet).² Right now because of global warming the glaciers are melting.  

A NPR article called “Connecticut-Sized Ice Shelf Crumbling in Antarctica” written on March 26, 2008 claims that an ice shelf size of Connecticut is crumbling and breaking off from one of the glaciers. This will not cause the global water level to rise, but the glacier, the ice shelf was holing off, might now start to slide out, which will lead to global sea level to rise because it’s on land.  This is happening because the temperature has “risen dramatically over the past 50 years” wrote Christopher Joyce in this article.  

Also awitness.org claims, “in the last two decades, temperatures have been rising in the arctic at a rate 20 times faster than the warming that occurred over the previous century” meaning that temperature is rising on earth! If all the glaciers start to melt, the global sea lever will rise tremendously causing death to millions of plants, animals and human.

¹ http://library.thinkquest.org/5280/Famous_Glaciers.htm 

² en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier

Time to touch more on the scientific side of global warming. Exactly how do the emissions of Co2 and other greenhouse gases heat Earth? According to the Thinkquest article, Global Warming , these greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide (Co2), methane, and water vapor, rise into the planet’s atmosphere from human and natural activities. Then, the gases trap light and heat from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere. This causes our planet to warm. This process can eventually hurt and kill off creatures, humans as well, that cannot accept the climate change due to global warming. The name for this process is the Greenhouse Effect. Here is a simple explanation of the Greenhouse Effect from the Thinkquest article previously referred to:

“The greenhouse effect is when the temperature rises because the sun’s heat and light is trapped in the earth’s atmosphere.  This is like when heat is trapped in a car. On a very hot day, the car gets hotter when it is out in the parking lot.  This is because the heat and light from the sun can get into the car, by going through the windows, but it can’t get back out.  This is what the greenhouse effect does to the earth.  The heat and light can get through the atmosphere, but it can’t get out.  As a result, the temperature rises.”

The Greenhouse Effect, ironically, is what has made the planet habitable for us since before early civilization. But, too much of it can cause major harm. For example, if the planet heats too much, people, plants, and animals would die off. The plants would die because they wouldn’t be able to survive through the raised heat levels of the planet. This will result in less food for animals, causing them to die, which then lowers the food source of humans, causing us to die. Basic life on Earth would be wiped out due to starvation because the heat would severely lower the planet’s food source.

Many things contribute to the gases that cause global warming. Several of them are activities performed by humans. These can include playing video games, watching television, riding in a car, using a hair dryer, and heating food with a microwave. The stated activities all involve electricity. Coincidentally, electricity is created through fossil fuel burning, which contributes to global warming. The article Global Warming says that the U.S. relies on the burning of fossil fuels to get a large portion of their energy. The site directly states “Although this source of energy gives off a lot of pollution, it is used for 38% of the United States’ energy.” Looks like it’s time for people to look towards alternate energy sources. We need to beware that the things we use the most may hurt us the most.

How long has global warming been happening? 10? 15? 20 years? Well you can say it’s been around forever. As said by globalwarmingarchive.com many scientists believe that sheets of ice covered Earth’s surface about 15,000 to 30,000 years ago. This time period is known as the Ice Age. About 7,000 years ago the Earth began to heat up and that’s when Ice Age ended and thus began the early stages of global warming.

Global warming wasn’t discovered until 1824. Globalwarmingarchive.com states that “Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier discovered that the Earth's temperature was slowly increasing”. Fourier also argued that Earth's atmosphere is trapping solar radiation and reflecting it back toward the earth. Later on Noble coined the term “green house” effect to explain Fourier’s theory, which also describes how carbon dioxide gets trapped into our atmosphere. As time went by many people went against this, which lead to “green effect” to become a theory. 

In the 20th century people believed that, this global warming is going to lead to another Ice Age, which might bring up the temperature and then slowly the Earth will get warmer again. While some people believe that others thought that global warming is going to cause all the ice to melt in North Pole and cause global flooding. This flooding will not only effect human, but it would also effect animal and plant life.

The guardian.co.uk states “Studies already suggest that the ranges of species are shifting towards the poles at around six kilometers a decade”. This is causing the whole global animal food chain to shift. All the species that are unable to evolve rapidly or move out will die out. With out proper food sources animal as well as human life will become extinct.  

Right now, I am pretty much caught up with the project. I have posts 1 through 6 up and my elevator pitch is just about done. I will, however, have to start finding more fresh information for later blog posts.. Also, there are only 4 informational posts left to do, so I want to make sure those are good.

What has went well for me was putting the information I found together and using my own words to elaborate on them. This really helps towards making good blog posts. Something I used to have difficulty with was finding accurate information, but that's not really a big problem anymore. Now, I mainly have to worry about this elevator pitch, the change agent being impressed or not, and getting more information.