One Planet Earth, Extra Crispy, Please!

A homework assignment due on Monday. Any criticism is welcome, please tear it apart! :D

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The affects of climate change have a huge impact on our world, and so long as we can prevent three primary keystone collapses and make an effort to recycle and use less energy, we can save our only planet. But what is global warming, and what does it do? What are these tipping points? How can we help? With the answers to these questions, we can have a better understanding of what is happening to Earth and how to help it the best we can.

Firstly, what is this thing that everyone speaks of called climate change? Climate change, in this case global warming (as opposed to cooling), is the increase of Earth’s temperatures caused by the release of greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), into the atmosphere. Much of this is caused by the emissions from cars and power plants; evidence suggests that we must cut the amount of CO2 being released by 70% by 2050. Global warming effects far more than the ecosystems we rely on or extreme weather events such as Hurricane Katrina; it directly changes the lives of individuals, such as those living in Sahel, Africa, many of which live off the land and are starving due to the lack of rainfall that has persisted for more than 40 years. Global warming is the increase of global temperatures caused by the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, which affects not only the natural world, but also families.

There are three major ‘tipping points’ that, once they fall, will make the impacts of climate change irreversible. The first is the Gulf Stream, the fastest ocean current in the world, that, if collapsed, will stop ocean circulation world-wide; this will decrease oceanic productivity by 20% and biological productivity by 50%. The second is the Amazon Rainforest, which stores an extraordinary amount of CO2 both in its vegetation and soil, primarily the latter; if it is destroyed, it will release 185 gigatons of CO2 and, over time, and nearly triple our current 387 parts per million of the gas in our atmosphere to almost 1,000 ppm. Last is the release of methane from the sea floor. It is trapped in ice crystals called clathrates that are kept solid from the pressure and the cold of the sea floor; if released, it will rapidly increase the speed of global warming and very well may have been what caused the mass extinction called the Permo-Trassic extinction event that killed 90% of the planet’s species. If any of these ‘tipping points’ — the collapse of the Gulf Stream, the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest, or the release of methane from the sea floor — is triggered, it will make climate change irreversible.

But there is still hope for Earth and we can save our world! Even the smallest things such as recycling aluminum soda cans can make a difference! In Sydney, Australia, they held an Earth Hour on March 31st, 2007, when from 7:30 to 8:30 in the evening its residents turned off all their electric lights; the next year, when Toronto, Canada participated, they cut their power usage by 15%. Something much simpler, such as using cloth bags instead of plastic or paper bags (or even reusing the latter) can have an impact: plastic bags, 100 billion of which are thrown away in America each year, take 1,000 years or more to completely disappear, and have negatively affect animals, especially marine ones, and paper bags use a lot of energy to make and trees are cut down to make them. Each reusable bag could potentially keep hundreds or thousands of plastic or paper ones from being used. Recycling a single aluminum soda can can save enough energy to run a television for 3 hours and saves 95% of the energy used to produce a new one due to the bauxite ore recycled from it. Even minute actions can make a change and, by doing so, one contributes to saving our precious world.

Climate change is a global problem, but once we know what it is, what the three keystones are in keeping it from becoming unchangeable, and doing small things to work towards a larger goal we can save it. Global warming is simply the steadily-climbing heat of the world caused by gasses in the atmosphere. Keeping the three tipping points safe — the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest, collapse of the Gulf Stream, or release of methane from clathrates on the sea floor — is vital in keeping our planet savable. Lastly, we can save the world and we can all make a difference by doing small things such as recycling. Climate change may be a global problem, but with knowledge, global catastrophe can be prevented.