Polar regions have increased in temperature about 85% more than the tropics. Why? Well there are a few reasons as to why this occurred and will continue to happen. When the ice in polar regions melt, the water absorbs a lot of the sun’s heat or radiation as mentioned on the San Jose State University website. The air in these regions are also extremely dry, dry air increases carbon dioxide, and because there is no room for evaporation to take place due to the dryness of the air, clouds cannot form in these regions. Knowing what the polar regions look like will help us conclude why tropics take a little longer to warm up as compared to the polar regions.

Source: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/polarwarming.htm

Sea level has been rising and will continue to rise as the years go by. There are many large sheets of ice globally  that have been around for thousands of years. Unfortunately, due to the rise in temperature because of global warming these ice sheets are beginning to melt and pour into our oceans. NASA have launched altimeters to sit outside in space and observe our sea levels. These alimeters have determined that these large sheets of ice and glaciers are melting a lot sooner than expected. Greenland’s ice sheet is 660,000 sq. miles, with a high thick point measuring 2 miles. This ice sheet has begun to melt, it had melted about 97% of its top layer in 2012 (NASA, 2015). The Antarctic ice sheet is 5.4 million sq. miles. This ice sheet has melted roughly 1,250 sq. miles of ice. NASA says that these ice sheets will cause sea levels to rise tremendously once they have melted completely. With global warming and temperatures rising higher and higher each year these ice sheets will melt quicker than we think. If pollution is not stopped and we don’t start to change the way we treat our planet our sea levels will reach unimaginable heights.

Source: https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/rivers-are-draining-greenland-quickly-nasa-ucla

There are many positive feedbacks in the carbon cycle, and a few negative feedbacks. Positive feedback destabilize climate change, while negative feedback do the opposite. Some positive feedbacks are the reduction of ice and snow, this causes the Earth to absorb more energy which increases the temperature, same goes with soil, when frozen soil unfreezes is releases methane and carbon dioxide which also causes the temperature to increase. When temperatures are high, evaporation occurs. This can be a bad thing and a good thing. This then brings us to the negative feedback in the carbon cycle. The more evaporation occurs the more clouds form. Clouds help decrease warm temperatures. Another negative feedback is plant growth. Warm weather encourages plants to grow, and when plants grow they store carbon. Katie Theoharides, the director of climate and global warming solutions in Massachusetts, wrote on these feedbacks.

Source: http://www.ecosystems.umb.edu/FeedbackLoops.pdf

Manganese and rhenium are needed to reconstruct oxygen levels, but they started decreasing about 17,000 years ago according to Mark Floyd, a writer at the Oregon State University. With the weather’s temperature rising there is very little oxygen being produced, the colder the weather the more oxygen. Hypoxia is when there is a deficiency of oxygen in water bodies. Referring back to the article, Floyd mentions that a change in wind patterns, especially today, is the cause of hypoxia. Hypoxia increases as warm weather increases. Hypoxia is extremely bad for the animals and critters that live in the ocean, the lack of oxygen has killed thousands of crabs and other bottom-dwelling creatures (Floyd, 2009).

Source: http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2009/dec/nature-study-hypoxia-tends-increase-climate-warms

Ocean acidification does not only affect the those living in the ocean but it also affects us, humans. Oceanscientists.org tells us about how the acidification of the ocean prevents shellfish to form their shells. This is important to us not only because it is bad for businesses but it is also bad for our health. We need our proteins from fish and shellfish, if shellfish cannot form their shells how are we going to be able to eat them, and how are the fish we consume going to be able to eat as well. Another way ocean acidification affects us is that coral reefs are in danger. We use coral reefs to keep up with medicine, they also protect our coasts, and these coral reefs are used for tourism dollars (climateinterpreter.org, 2013).

Sources: http://oceanscientists.org/index.php/topics/ocean-acidification, http://climateinterpreter.org/content/ocean-acidification-effects-humans

In May 2015, Glenn Coin, a writer for the weather section on the Syracuse news website, stated that about 9.8 million people were affected by the drought that hit New York. Just like the people of Australia, New Yorkers were not at all ready for this event, even though they occurred at different times to the people of New York and Australia. This shows us that we never know what could happen and when it could happen. With the climate conditions constantly changing and with global warming being the reason for this we cannot predict when a natural disaster or crisis, such as a drought, will occur. Therefore, we must be prepared for the worst to happen. We need to buy cases and gallons of water whenever we can. When there are sales on water that is the perfect chance to go on a shopping spree. Storing these cases of water and gallons will be of great help if something like this happens to us. Storing non-perishable foods is also a great idea, if you buy these items once a week, or every time a paycheck rolls in and store them in a pantry or the basement one will be and can be prepared for anything.

Source: http://www.syracuse.com/weather/index.ssf/2015/05/drought_overtakes_a_third_of_new_york_nearly_10_million_affected.html

Climate change has had positive and negative effects on agriculture. However, the negative effects are concerning to us and farmers. Some crops grow in the Winter, while others grow in the Summer. There are some crops that could increase in production due to carbon dioxide, as mentioned in The Guardian these crops would be rice, wheat and soybeans. While these crops increase in production many others will decrease due to the heat, flooding, and or fires. According to this article, they say that countries that are in the mid to high latitudes part of the world will be able to improve the conditions to grow crops, but countries in the Mediterranean region and low latitudes part of the world will have a decrease of production by 2020. The percentage that was given was said to be about 50%, if you think about it that is a huge decrease. We would then have to grow our crops and food elsewhere and have then shipped to us. This might not be able to work and will have to limit the foods we eat, which can hurt us in the long run. This is why taking care of our planet is extremely crucial, we would not have to worry about a decrease in our agriculture and food.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/sep/19/climate-change-affect-food-production

According to the Climate Institute sea levels have risen a lot in the past 20 years, they say it has risen about 3 inches and will rise up to 6.6 feet in just a few years, estimating that  by the year 2100 to be exact it will rise that high. Being from New York City, I can see that the Hudson River alone has risen, when I go to the beach, waves come up a lot farther than they used to. I believe that countries with the impacted coastal areas should not be the only ones to deal with this issue. I believe in unity, think, it is easier to get a big job done with two or more people, you get the work done faster and done well if you have help. I believe that countries who especially don’t have this issue should help countries who are dealing with this issue. The countries who are safe from this problem should tell the countries who aren’t what they have done to prevent this issue from occurring. If they have done anything to prevent this, and if they haven’t really done anything to prevent this then they can give advice and come up with ideas to help prevent this. Teamwork is very important in many situations, no matter what the situation is. Many countries are prideful and have social issues with many other countries surrounding them, not realizing that they can help each other in the long run and short run and keep each other safe from things, for example, the destruction of our planet.

Source: http://climate.org/sea-level-rise-risk-and-resilience-in-coastal-cities/

For starters I am a huge animal lover. I believe there are a lot of cruel people when it comes to animals which is extremely sad. There are so many important measures I would impose to help save endangered species. I would set laws like no hunting these endangered species, leaving them alone to live their life as peaceful as they want is the best thing to do. People hunt birds as a sport or hobby and I strongly believe that should be stopped all together. Their homes are also disturbed by tree cutters and inquisitive people who think it is okay to disturb nests and take their babies for experiments and whatever else they may “need” their eggs and babies. I think that tree cutters should carefully move nests and babies to a tree they are not going to disturb, this should be enforced strongly and if this rule or law is broken they should face consequences. Many species, not only birds and amphibians have become endangered because their habitats are being destroyed. We need to work hard to avoid these situations and destroy less habitats.  As for amphibians, it is said that about 32% are endangered (amphibiaweb, 2015),  there is also an organization that has a website called savethefrogs.com. They state many ways you can save these amphibians. They even mention how amphibians are harvested in European countries and transported worldwide. Transporting these frogs can sicken them, giving them diseases and spreading it worldwide. This is extremely dangerous not only for them and their species but for us as well. The government needs to get a lot more strict and enforce laws to stop the farming and transportation of these amphibians. Overall, we need stricter laws to help save animals, animals of all sorts are important to our planet, they help control disease and prevent them. They help our ecosystem and waters and we should appreciate them a lot more and treat them with respect.

Sources: http://www.savethefrogs.com/how-to-help/, http://www.amphibiaweb.org/declines/declines.html

In my opinion reducing carbon emission is extremely important, and it is something we should want to invest money in now to help save money in the future. Yes, I understand that it will cost a lot to reduce carbon emission, but why not try to make a difference and help our planet. Our health is much more important and so is the earth we live on. As a nation we are already in dept, so why not use the money for far more important things, like saving our planet. If we spend the money now to reduce carbon emission, in the long run we will save money on purchasing gas, releasing pollution into the air and so on. Not only will we be saving money but we can increase the life expectancy of our planet. I read an article in the NY Times which had a lot of good key points, but one thing that stood out was this, “Action will have costs, and these must be compared with the costs of not acting.” With that being said, I believe we should work with China to reduce carbon emission and better our planet, and set an example so other countries can come together with us and help each other’s economies as well as save our planet.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/magazine/11Economy-t.html