Here we need to be able to explain in some (but not too much) detail the science
ID: 802183 • Letter: H
Question
Here we need to be able to explain in some (but not too much) detail the science behind global warming. OUCH! How do you do that in a couple of pages? Kind of hard, huh? But we need to be able to do this, because we have to be able to explain to our friends and co-workers how the global ecosystems work, and how they will change if we keep warming the planet through greenhouse gas emissions. And we need to understand why these changes will be harmful not only to the animals that currently exist, but to our own species as well. So the assignment for this week is to do that – explain how our planet functions as one big ecosystem. Or, to think of it another way, you are going to try and explain how everything is connected.
In order to do that, read through each short chapter in part I, and then write a brief answer to the main question for that chapter below (short paragraph, 3-5 sentences). Use specific information from the book – facts, figures, concepts – to answer. Then at the end you will try to put it all together.
Gaia – what is the main idea behind the Gaia concept? How does it point us to thinking about Humans as part of the natural world rather than distinct from it?
The Great Aerial Ocean – how do the gasses in the atmosphere interact to help the planet breathe? How will adding extra carbon and other greenhouse gasses alter that system and harm the ecosystem we presently live in?
The Gaseous Greenhouse – what is the basic carbon cycle of the earth? What are “carbon sinks” and how are they related to this cycle (explain using the carbon kidney of the ocean). What happens to these sinks as more greenhouse gasses are put into the atmosphere?
The Sages and the Onion Skin – how does solar radiation affect the planetary ecosystem?
Time’s Gateways – how have the past shifts in climate influenced the planet? How can our present time period cause the same kind of dramatic shift (i.e., what are Humans doing to cause a time gateway)?
Born in the Deep Freeze – why are Humans and so many animal and plant species today threatened by global warming?
The Long Summer – how has human activity in the past interacted with climate patterns to produce the “long summer”? If Human activity in the past has influenced the Earth’s climate (we are part of Gaia), how might we do it again?
Digging up the Dead – how does the use of carbon added to the increase in population cause global warming?
Explanation / Answer
According to the Gaia concept/principle, organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic self-regulating, complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet. It refers to the confluence of the best available scientific understanding of Earth as a living system with cultural understandings of human society as a seamless continuum of that system.
The great aerial ocean is an extremely thin envelope of gas and suspended particles that encompass our planet. The atmosphere is to the Earth as an onion’s wafer thin outer skin is to an onion. But while it may be just a sliver, it’s critical to life on Earth.
The gaseous greenhouse comes majorly from the carbon cycle: Plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to make their own food and grow. The carbon becomes part of the plant. Plants that die and are buried may turn into fossil fuels made of carbon like coal and oil over millions of years. When humans burn fossil fuels, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Yet in the past few decades, the onset of CFCs and other aerosols have quadrupled the content of carbon dioxide. Carbon sink is referred to a forest, ocean, or other natural environment viewed in terms of its ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The solar radiation comprises of various energentic wavelengths, espcially in the UV-IR range. The UV radiation, the carcinogenic ones causing skin cancer in humans, are send off by the protective ozone layer. The IR radiation, being the penetrative ones, reach to the surface and is essential for the Earth's ecosystem.
The Earth has had its fair share of climatic shifts and variations including the Ice Age. It is to be noted that in its formations years, the Earth was a hot ball of molten metals with basically no trace of water. The evolution of the planet over time has made it habitable for us.
Humans and other flora-fauna have a specific range of temperature tolerance limits. Extremly cold climates and severe heat are unbearable. The global warming threatens to engulf the planet in like an oven in which almost all organisms will perish leading to widespread extinction.
The technological advancements due to rapid urbanisation, increased deforestation, overutilisation of fossil fuels etc., has added to the pace of the global warming. These have led to severe changes in the climatic conditions such as the long summers