Driving to your upstate to your grandma’s house, cooking a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, turning on the lights to light the dinner table, baking a pumpkin pie, turning up the heater to warm us from the cold freezing winds are all some of the daily activities that we do without thinking twice. However, these activities are slowly emitting a greenhouse gas called carbon dioxide or CO2. According to Merriam-Webster, a greenhouse gas is “any gaseous compounds that absorb infrared radiation and trap heat in the atmosphere.” Without greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, Earth would be a frozen world. However, humans have burned so much fossil fuel that the greenhouse gases are causing the whole planet to become warmer. This causes detrimental
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Hansen focuses on coral reefs, the most diverse marine ecosystem, which is often described as the rainforests of the ocean. Coral reefs have over a million species with many that are not yet identified and described. Their ecosystems are highly vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification and global warming. Ocean acidification occurs when the ocean carbon dioxide and produces carbonic acid. This causes the gradual destruction of the exoskeletons of many marine organisms including the coral reefs’. The warming of the ocean causes coral bleaching. The overheated coral begins to expel algae which makes them vulnerable to disease and mortality. 1%-2% of the coral reefs are lost each year due to these effects. It causes consequences for all the species that depend on them and causes coastlines from wave stress. Many nations may need these local coral reefs to control the wave stress with the combination of rising sea levels and the intensification of storms (Hansen …show more content…
Jorgenson and Brett Clark’s study on the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions in a country and the population of that country, they found that the primary driver of total carbon emission is the overall population of the country. They had sampled 85 countries and all the regions they examined had experienced overall increases in carbon dioxide emission and population size during their 45-year period of investigation but with different rates. In the research, it indicated that population is a huge factor to carbon dioxide emissions and that population continues to be a primary driver to the increasing carbon emissions. Jorgenson and Clark has also indicated that the U.S. National Research Council reported that the global population will continue to increase for at least the next few decades and that population and the environment can not be seen as separate issue (Jorgenson and Clark 5-6). Rising carbon dioxide emissions is not a short-term problem but a growing problem that people will have to
Hansen focuses on coral reefs, the most diverse marine ecosystem, which is often described as the rainforests of the ocean. Coral reefs have over a million species with many that are not yet identified and described. Their ecosystems are highly vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification and global warming. Ocean acidification occurs when the ocean carbon dioxide and produces carbonic acid. This causes the gradual destruction of the exoskeletons of many marine organisms including the coral reefs’. The warming of the ocean causes coral bleaching. The overheated coral begins to expel algae which makes them vulnerable to disease and mortality. 1%-2% of the coral reefs are lost each year due to these effects. It causes consequences for all the species that depend on them and causes coastlines from wave stress. Many nations may need these local coral reefs to control the wave stress with the combination of rising sea levels and the intensification of storms (Hansen …show more content…
Jorgenson and Brett Clark’s study on the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions in a country and the population of that country, they found that the primary driver of total carbon emission is the overall population of the country. They had sampled 85 countries and all the regions they examined had experienced overall increases in carbon dioxide emission and population size during their 45-year period of investigation but with different rates. In the research, it indicated that population is a huge factor to carbon dioxide emissions and that population continues to be a primary driver to the increasing carbon emissions. Jorgenson and Clark has also indicated that the U.S. National Research Council reported that the global population will continue to increase for at least the next few decades and that population and the environment can not be seen as separate issue (Jorgenson and Clark 5-6). Rising carbon dioxide emissions is not a short-term problem but a growing problem that people will have to