Global Warming Reading Etc.

The next project for my animation class is on global warming. We were given a few articles to read and we watched "An Inconvenient Truth" in class. Now I am supposed to comment on all this info and come up with 10 things we should be concerned about and 10 things we can do to fix the problem. Here goes.





My comments- I didn't really learn much new info from either. I hadn't seen the movie or read that particular article, but I took a course as an undergrad that focused a lot on this topic. Same ol' sad tune :(





10 Things we Should be Concerned About


1)Loss of Biodiversity (aka. lots of extinctions)- not mentioned in the article, but global warming is contributing to this


2)How Fast Global Warming is Happening- I don't think this was mentioned in the article either. The climate has changed in earth's history before, but not this fast. Fast changes don't give some species a chance to move, adjust, or evolve. They just die :(


3)Shut down/changing of Ocean Currents- changes weather patterns.


4)Warmer Oceans= bigger storms (like hurricanes)


5)Rising Oceans= cities underwater and upset refugees


6)Destruction of Forests- they absorb carbon dioxide. That = good.


7)Drought/drying out- from more heat


8)Population- too many ppls


9)Cost of Doing Nothing now- a lot more than doing something (especially for the childrens)


10)Reducing US's oil dependency- an issue and a fix really. US= biggest contributor. New technologies like green ones= more jobs, not having to buy oil from nations who don't like us= better national security, and no more $3 a gallon to fill up my damn tank...





10 Things we Can do to Fix/Alleviate Global warming


1)Develop and use green technologies tailored to each region- ex. windmills in windy places, solar panels in the desert, geothermal if you live on a volcano, etc.


2)Green roofs- roof space is usually wasted space. And it's black, so it absorbs heat. Instead, you can plant stuff up there. Plants absorb sunlight and carbon dioxide, make the cost of your A/C go down, and occasionally taste delicious.


3)Adopt kids instead of having your own, or just don't have any.


4)Opt out of junk mail- do banking, bill paying, etc online. Also, if you get a lot of junk catalogues, there's a site you can go to and decline to recieve them anymore, but I don't remember where it is... google it perhaps


5)Walk/ride a bike/rollerblade/skateboard/etc. instead of driving. Lazy.


6)At Holiday time, send out ecards instead of paper ones, and use reusable boxes and bags instead of wrapping. It's faster that way anyways.


7)Drive all commercial Hummers off a cliff and melt them down to make more eco-friendly cars.


8)Invent a machine that converts carbon dioxide into diamonds and oxygen.


9)Genetically engineer some humans that take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. Maybe make them part plant.


10)Colonize Mars and move a few billion people there.

--An Illustration of how #9 would work->

I'm bored and have no life.