Week 14 Blog

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 Lab:

In lab this week, we continued our discussion on climate change. We looked at a lot of different graphs about climate change to analyze any common trends. The graphs all showed that temperatures and CO2 levels are rising. One takeaway from these graphs was the future predictions they showed. The data continues to skyrocket in the next 50 years. If we don't work to prevent further damage to our planet, pollution, natural disasters (droughts, storms, etc.), and more will only continue to get worse and more common. We also learned that CO2 levels naturally rise in the winter when there aren't plants to take it out of the air. This natural rise between seasons was manageable but humans are causing this rise to happen in every season without the steady decline in the warmer seasons. 



Lecture:

In lecture this week we learned that the planet naturally decreased the amount of CO2 before any life began. The sun and volcanoes are two natural contributors to climate change. However, everything has stayed the same with both of these factors. The only significant differences are because of human causes. The ocean uses convection cells to control the nutrients in the water. However, if the ice caps melt, these convention cells stop. It will result in three million people losing their food supply. We also learned about the effects of turf fields on children. When athletes are playing on turf fields in the summer, the black turf absorbs the heat from the sun. This makes the turf extremely hot as athletes are expected to play on it with all their heavy gear. 


Pressbook: 

It was very scary to learn that scientists predict that Earth can reach its tipping point by 2060. Climate change is human-caused and it's human's responsibility to work towards making positive change. One takeaway from this chapter was that climate change isn't only about the warming of the Earth. Even though the Earth is warming and we are having extremely high temperatures, the opposite is true too. Climate change can cause extreme cold temperatures.

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