A Connection

I, and the rest of my school, was given an assignment. I was asked to research one of five topics and compose a five paragraph essay with the notes I took. While going through the process of performing this task, I noticed a connection. A connection between the five main core classes in a student’s curriculum, a connection between language, literature, social studies, science, and math. This connection can be seen in all five topics of our choices. Going with why I chose this blog name, global warming is my topic, it is the focus of this entry, and the other focus is the relationship to mathematics.

Global Warming has a close relation to science which in turn, connects to math. When climatologists model climate change patterns into the computer, they are programming mathematical equations into them, the computer just gives them the ability to solve them quickly, but, the equations were composed by the use of mathematics. Likewise, the statistics of the temperature and carbon dioxide levels also add this connection. For example, if all of Antarctica’s ice were to melt, there would be a 64 meter rise in sea level (Jha). You would need to know the approximate volume of frozen Antarctic ice and divide this by the surface area of the ocean. Graphs are also an important tool in calculating climate change. Graphs have shown an increase in Carbon Dioxide growth over the past 200 years. graphs will somewhat help project future changes as well.

Some climate change problems make our math look primitive, some are just random. That is why people have to learn, once when they know the basics, the creativeness and logic can be used. I believe that is why we are thought these subjects in school, because of this connection. A connection between science and math, and also Literature, Language, and Social Studies. A connection forcing us to acquire knowledge that is currently thought of as having no use. This connection will also encourage us to learn, satisfying our curiosities.

Ozone Blanket

A hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica has protected areas of the continent from the dreadful effects of Global Warming. However, now, as the human race halts the emission of CFCs, Antarctica will have to acquiesce to the over heating of the globe. Not all of Antarctica though, was temporarily saved by this hole. The western Antarctica peninsula has already been thawing having been covered with ozone. The areas exposed, without this layer in the atmosphere has actually been cooling. This is because Ozone is actually a green house gas.

"They include methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone (O3), and a number of industrial gases" (Michael D. Mastrandrea, Wolrdbook).

The consequences are that one third of the sea ice may be lost and 1.4 meters of sea level rise. Since Antarctica contains 90% of the world's ice and 70% of the world's freshwater, the ocean would rise 63 meters if all the ice were to melt.

My opinion on this is that this can only be stopped by cutting back on CO2 emissions. I also believe this will affect organisms from penguins to humans, and will not be stopped in the time that the ice can still be saved. We could lose biodiversity and we will have less dry land in the overcrowded earth. I also think that this is such a "funny" coincidence that a human effort to help the globe actually is helplessly destroying it and rebuilding it at the same time.

This article is from:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/01/ozone-antarctica