Synthesis

            To me the most important environmental issue that needs to be addressed is just awareness in general. And by this I mean finding effective ways to convince people that are not already interested in environmental issues to take an interest in them. I feel like a lot of environmentalists end up preaching to the choir sometimes, which is good in its own right, but still does not address the larger problem. Most people tend to just not think of environmental issues. Or even if they do they convince themselves that it is not an urgent issue or actively seek information that says it is not a “real issue”. A ton of people are brushing aside scientific research in favor of convenience on issues such as global warming. I fee like in today’s society people are not willing to sacrifice economic stability for environmental sustainability, so we have to make saving the environment worth their while. The problem is we don’t have an unlimited amount of money, so things like finding oil and getting jobs often takes president over important environmental issues in our government.

            I think finding more options like hybrids and things of that nature, and encouraging or even forcing people to use hybrids and to maybe even use shower heads that put out less water or low-flow toilets or things like that would be a good step in solving environmental issues. I am not suggesting a fascist environmental dictatorship, I’m just saying that we should utilize environmentally efficient alternatives when they become available. It also seems like recycling and not littering should be mandatory to the point where you get fined if you put recyclables in the trash bin. But again, that would cost the government money to enforce, so that probably is not going to happen. I think ultimately we just have to work on convincing the government that there is an interest in solving environmental issues and that there are a lot of people who would appreciate that. I guess maybe just taking it one step at a time and communicating with government officials about environmental issues we think our important might be the first step to solving them. In the future I will be sure to contact whoever I can to see if I can at least understand have my opinion heard and considered in regards to keeping the earth healthy. I think that is really the best thing I can do aside being more environmentally self-conscious on an individual level.

            The most interesting thing I learned this quarter is just how interconnected everything is. Certain species like bees and butterflies control a huge part of the ecosystem and if these keystone species die out then tons of others will die out with them. It is also interesting how certain species depend on each other to survive in mutualistic relationships, and how populations will control themselves to keep from using up all of their available resources. Logistic growth was also really interesting in that it seems that people are pretty close to the point where we might start dieing out due to lack or resources. Overall I think the important message here is that the ecosystem is a lot more delicate than we give it credit for and we do not know what damage killing off certain creatures or using up certain resources could cause, so it is definitely worth being more careful to conserve and protect the resources and species we have. Even if you do not care about the environment there is a degree of personal interest in doing that too as we rely on animals for food and other resources. And if we keep using resources at the rate we are, and populating the earth at the rate we are, then it will eventually catch up to us—probably sooner than we expect. And it seems to me that the end result will not be pretty. So it was really fun learning about the implications of our actions and what we can do as people to save or destroy the environment. It helped me realize that I can conceivably make a significant difference if I go about things the right way.

An Inconvinient Truth Reflection

These week in environmental science class we watched Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth. From this film, I was able to learn a lot of information about global warming and its affects on the earth's atmosphere, people, and just the earth's at and the environment in general. I was also able to learn ways that people can work to help prevent global warming from destroying our planet. Below I will share some of the information I gathered from this film.

The most vulnerable part of the earth is the atmosphere because it is so thin, and so we can change its composition without intending to.  In this sense, the atmosphere is very vulnerable to global warming. Sun radiation comes in the form of light waves, which are reflected back up into space. Some of these light waves end up getting trapped in the atmosphere as something called inferred radiation. Global warming pollution thickens the thin layer of atmosphere, therefore, more of these polluting chemicals that are heating up the rest of the world are being trapped in the atmosphere because the layer of atmosphere is bigger. 

Global warming is harmful to society. One way global warming affects society is that 40% of people get over half of their water from glaciers, and soon those people will face a shortage of water because glaciers are melting all over the world. Global warming also means both extreme flooding and extreme droughts. Not only does the extra precipitation cause more rain, making certain areas more vulnerable to flooding, but when glaciers on the land melt into the ocean it causes the water level to rise, meaning huge chunks of land will be swallowed up by water. Millions of people will die from flooding if we allow our glaciers to keep melting.  As far as the precipitation is concerned, all of that extra precipitation has to be coming from somewhere. This is where droughts come into play. Global warming focuses the precipitation in an area in Africa near Nigeria. It takes water from there and relocates it, causing drought in that area. In other areas it can also increase soil evaporation increasing the amounts of infertile soil. Another way global warming affects people is that it increases the frequency and severity of hurricanes and typhoons. Catastrophes like Katrina could have been prevented if it were not for global warming. As water temperature increases, wind velocity and moisture content do as well. Hurricanes and typhoons will pick up that extra momentum and get stronger and stronger, causing the eye of the storm to get bigger and bigger. If global warming was not warming up bodies of water hurricanes and typhoons would not be given this advantage. 

Society contributes to global warming. There is a consistent pattern where the larger civilization gets, the more the environment heats up. In light of that, one way to help prevent global warming from affecting the atmosphere so much would be to decrease our population. Another way we contribute to global warming is by producing carbon dioxide. Consistently throughout history when there has been more carbon dioxide, the earth’s temperature has gone up. We have more carbon dioxide in the air now than ever by a lot and our carbon dioxide levels are continuing to rise. Graphs tracking back 650,000 years indicate that temperatures will continue to rise unless humans stop creating so much carbon dioxide. America in particular is contributing heavily to global warming. Even when you take into account countries like China who have way more people than us, America is responsible for nearly one and a half times as many fossil fuel emissions than any other country. American cars do not meet Chinese environmental standards because we do not want to lose automaker’s jobs. In fact if a state tries to create laws forcing people to drive more energy efficient cars like what California did, American automakers are allowed to sue you.

Out of 928 articles written by scientists from 1995-2005, none of them disagreed that global warming is taking place. People saying that there is not global warming are buying into false propaganda spread by a small group of people what are not scientists. They are trying to perpetuate a false image of global warming because they rely on money from big businesses. If we solve global climate change issues we will be creating jobs and wealth because if we allow this to continue it will become extremely expensive and damaging to solve the problems it will cause. Not to mention that if there is no planet then we have no economy to preserve anyways. Scientists estimate that we have the tools available to us to get below our 1970s emissions if we choose to use them. North and South Dakota reached record-breaking temperatures of 120 degrees in 2006. And they are not the only ones. Record-breaking heat waves were popping up all over the place and all fifty states were above their normal heat in 2006.

All of this information is taken from the film An Inconvenient Truth.

Columbia River Dams

The largest dam in the Columbia River is the Grand Coulee dam. Not only does this dam help control the water in the Columbia River so as to prevent floods, it also irrigates 600,000 acres of land and provides 6,809 megawatts of electricity. In that sense at least, it is both environmentally friendly and industry friendly because it conserves power and water and gives industries access to a larger power resource. However, the dam does consist of 11,975,521 cubic yards of concrete and requires an additional 536,364 cubic yards of concrete per month, which can get expensive. Basically from a government standpoint building this dam, as well as others along the Columbia River was a mechanism to prevent flooding after there was a huge flood that whipped out the entire city of Vanport in Oregon. In addition to that, building the dam was expected to bring in a ton of jobs and provide us with cheap water and power in the wake of the Great Depression, so that was the original reason for building the Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams. When the band started developing electric power it brought in big industries to the area, and did not help the residents that much. This caused turmoil, as people generally do not want big business building around their living space, and these factories also caused a fair amount of pollution. At the same time, this again provided a lot of people in the area with jobs and money. The downside to damming up the Columbia River is that it has adverse effects on the ecosystem. Because of this, the fish population there has decreased dramatically since the dams were built. This is because the dams actually block fish from migrating.

Sources:

http://www.usbr.gov/pn/grandcoulee/

http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/pubs/Columbia_River_Treaty_Review_-_April_2008.pdf

http://www.ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historicviewer/CeliloFalls/