The Deal with Climate Change: A Lecture by Dr. Michael Edelstein
During science methods today, Dr. Smirnova invited a guest speaker to class. Dr. Michael Edelstein, who is an environmental scientist, came to class today to discuss climate change with us. In the world today, I think that climate change is a big deal that a lot of people do not want to discuss or think isn't really happening. It is a great thing the Dr. Edelstein came in to talk to us about global warming and all of the harmful effects it is having on earth.
At the beginning of his lecture, Dr. Edelstein informed us that Al Gore is one of the people that he has worked with while studying climate change. When Al Gore did not get elected as president, he went and taught about climate change all over the world. Al Gore is a part of a documentary called "An Inconvenient Truth" which follows his teachings and raising awareness of the issue of global warming. Now, in 2017, as Dr. Edelstein had studied with him, there is a sequel to that documentary "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" which is continuing to discuss climate change.
As we went on with the lecture today, Dr. Edelstein said "the earth is a finite system", and he discusses that all matter that has ever existed on earth, exists now, and that matter can only be transformed. When it comes to matter, Earth is a closed system and an open system. When we talked about Earth being a closed system, we said that all of the matter that is in Earth stays there making it a closed system. When we referred to Earth as an open system, we said that energy is a part of an open system.
From this, we discussed the Laws of Thermodynamics. The first law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, the second law is entropy of a system goes from order to disorder. Order, negentropy, is only created by working at it.
One of the questions Al Gore asks is "Must we Change?" Dr. Edelstein showed us a picture of the atmosphere. The atmosphere itself has two layers to it, and the troposphere is where we live and breathe. However, Dr. Edelstein informed us that climate change is occurring in the stratosphere. The Ozone Layer is associated with the thinning of the stratosphere. If the stratosphere is thinner, then it is letting in a lot of ultraviolet radiation which can be very harmful and lead to diseases such as skin cancer.
A similar trend is happening with the ocean, and the heat of the oceans of increased dramatically. One of the major consequences of the increasing temperature of the oceans is the destruction of the coral reefs. Coral reefs are the main source of life in the ocean, and without them, they are life in the ocean. The increasing temperatures in the ocean has also increased the amount of storms that occur, such as hurricanes and greater rain storms because of evaporation. These rain storms are dropping so much water that it is resulting in areas flooding and having difficulty recovering from the severity of that. Recently, Hurricane Harvey has gone through and destroyed the state of Texas. Not only are rising sea levels, which are putting multiple cities and populations at risk by flooding them and hurricanes are occurring, but the hotter the years we continue to have, we also have increased fire events. Since everything is so much warmer it is easier for something to catch on fire, and once a fire starts it is hard to get it to stop.
At the beginning of his lecture, Dr. Edelstein informed us that Al Gore is one of the people that he has worked with while studying climate change. When Al Gore did not get elected as president, he went and taught about climate change all over the world. Al Gore is a part of a documentary called "An Inconvenient Truth" which follows his teachings and raising awareness of the issue of global warming. Now, in 2017, as Dr. Edelstein had studied with him, there is a sequel to that documentary "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" which is continuing to discuss climate change.
As we went on with the lecture today, Dr. Edelstein said "the earth is a finite system", and he discusses that all matter that has ever existed on earth, exists now, and that matter can only be transformed. When it comes to matter, Earth is a closed system and an open system. When we talked about Earth being a closed system, we said that all of the matter that is in Earth stays there making it a closed system. When we referred to Earth as an open system, we said that energy is a part of an open system.
From this, we discussed the Laws of Thermodynamics. The first law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, the second law is entropy of a system goes from order to disorder. Order, negentropy, is only created by working at it.
One of the questions Al Gore asks is "Must we Change?" Dr. Edelstein showed us a picture of the atmosphere. The atmosphere itself has two layers to it, and the troposphere is where we live and breathe. However, Dr. Edelstein informed us that climate change is occurring in the stratosphere. The Ozone Layer is associated with the thinning of the stratosphere. If the stratosphere is thinner, then it is letting in a lot of ultraviolet radiation which can be very harmful and lead to diseases such as skin cancer.
Everyday, every 24 hours, we dump 110 million tons of manmade global warming pollution into the atmosphere. This causes global warming to occur because there is more CO2 put into the air. Usually, the CO2 would bounce back into the atmosphere; however, now the concentration of CO2 is increasing because the outgoing infrared radiation is being trapped. There is a thickening of gases that are preventing the heat from leaving; therefore, leading to climate change.
Global warming has also caused the Artic to thaw because there has been an increase in global surface temperature. We have had years where it has been colder than usual, or how it has been lately, exponentially warmer. This trend is only going to continue now, and temperatures will get warmer and warmer. Only last year, in 2016, was the hottest year on record.
A similar trend is happening with the ocean, and the heat of the oceans of increased dramatically. One of the major consequences of the increasing temperature of the oceans is the destruction of the coral reefs. Coral reefs are the main source of life in the ocean, and without them, they are life in the ocean. The increasing temperatures in the ocean has also increased the amount of storms that occur, such as hurricanes and greater rain storms because of evaporation. These rain storms are dropping so much water that it is resulting in areas flooding and having difficulty recovering from the severity of that. Recently, Hurricane Harvey has gone through and destroyed the state of Texas. Not only are rising sea levels, which are putting multiple cities and populations at risk by flooding them and hurricanes are occurring, but the hotter the years we continue to have, we also have increased fire events. Since everything is so much warmer it is easier for something to catch on fire, and once a fire starts it is hard to get it to stop.
Eventually. climate change will likely lead to food and water shortages and pandemic diseases. As humans living in this world we need to do everything we can to prevent climate change from getting any worse. There are many conscientious actions we can take to help and save our planet. If we do simple this like recycle or car pool, we are creating a better world for our own children to live in and enjoy some day.
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