As global warming causes the climate to change overtime, the polar ice caps in the Arctic are melting. The loss of the polar ice caps is one of the most widely talked about negative consequences associated with climate change and global warming. Often times, the public sees articles of polar bears stranded on a piece of ice in the water or emaciated polar bears. These organisms that inhabit the Arctic are suffering as their niche is altered and they begin to lose their primary food source.

According to the World Wildlife foundation, a nonprofit organization that works towards conserving nature and reducing the threats to the diversity of life, the Arctic sea ice is declining at a rate of 13% per decade. Additionally, the oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic is declining by 95%. I was surprised by this high statistics. Typically, Arctic ice and permafrost stores a substantial amount of methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. When the ice caps melt, methane is being released into the air, and thus causing the temperature to increase. In turn of the higher temperatures, more polar ice caps are melting, creating a vicious cycle between the warming of temperatures and the melting of ice caps. NASA provides a satellite representation of the decrease in polar ice caps mass in the Arctic from 1979-2020. As seen in the images, there is a drastic decrease in the polar ice landmass overtime.

As mentioned above, many organisms in the Arctic such as polar bears, walruses, and Arctic foxes, are all negatively affected due to the melting of ice caps and permafrost. A large portion of the polar bears diet are seals. The polar bears still-hunt for seals, meaning they sit by the seal’s cone-shaped breathing holes in the sea ice. When the seal surfaces through the breathing hole, the polar bear can get the seal. Therefore, the loss of ice disrupts the polar bears’ still-hunting. As a result, the polar bears are finding it harder to find food to obtain nutrients and energy that are necessary for survival. Due to the loss of sea ice, polar bears were listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act in 2008.

Throughout this semester, this civic issue blog discussed the negative consequences associated with climate change and global warming. As greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, global temperatures are increasing, causing more several natural disasters, such as wildfires, harming the coral reef ecosystem, and reducing the mass of the polar ice caps in the Arctic. In order to protect our Earth, it is important that we recognize the negative consequences from our current actions and take a progressive stance towards reducing the greenhouse gas pollution.

Climate change negatively affects various biomes, altering the food web within the ecosystem, the species’ habitats, and how they interact. As climate change causes the temperatures of a region to change over time, one biome that has been impacted greatly is the marine ecosystem. Increasing water temperatures may cause organisms to move to a different region where the water temperature is conducive to their survival. In addition, as water temperatures increase, it creates a thermal stress on coral reefs, causing the coral reefs to become bleached and possibly die.

Coral reefs are important in a marine ecosystem. They are a habitat and shelter for many marine organisms, provide a source of nutrients and nitrogen for the food chain, help in the nutrient recycling process, and assist in carbon and nitrogen fixing. Coral reefs also contribute largely to the biodiversity in the ocean. It is often thought that having a biodiverse community is crucial to maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Therefore, as the coral reefs continue to be impacted and die, the biodiversity and stability of the marine ecosystem is also in danger. Healthy coral reefs also benefit humans; they protect coastlines from strong waves and tropical storms. Additionally, the coral reef industry plays a role in many local economies as many commercial businesses, restaurants, and hotels all rely on the vibrant coral reefs to attract consumers.

As previously mentioned, coral bleaching occurs due to warmer water temperatures. When the water is too warm, the coral reefs will release an algae known as zooxanthellae that typically lives in their tissue. This algae gives the corals their unique color and is a food supply for the coral.  Without this algae, the corals loose their major food source, turn white, and become more susceptible to disease. However, a bleached coral is not dead. If the coral survives the bleaching event, it is under more stress and is a greater subject to mortality, but it is still living. The infographic below gives a great representation of how climate change causes coral bleaching and how it impacts the overall coral reef ecosystem.

In some cases, corals can recover from their bleached state if the conditions return to normal to allow the corals to produce the algae. However, this recovery process takes a long time. If society continues to burn fossil fuels and release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that contribute to climate change, it will be hard for corals to recover. Instead, there could be an increase in the number of bleaching events the marine ecosystems experience each year. Thus, it is important to reduce the carbon pollution and the global temperature increase to protect the coral reef ecosystem.

In recent years, the fight against climate change has been gaining awareness. As people are witnessing the negative consequences connected to climate change, such the melting of polar ice caps or the increase in the severity of natural disasters, there has been an uprising in the support of the green movement. From the transportation industry to the food sector, companies are trying to work towards creating sustainable, eco-friendly products. By creating these environmentally-friendly products, companies are reducing the amount of pollution that is being released into our biosphere.

One company that highlights this shift towards producing products that leads to a more sustainable future is Tesla. Written in their mission statement, Tesla does not rely on fossil fuels to power their cars. This company builds all-electric vehicles that are powered by a rechargeable battery. According to the US EPA, transportation accounted for about 28.2% of the greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 due to the burning of fossil fuels. By creating electric-cars, it reduces the amount of fossil fuels that is being burned due to transportation. Tesla is revolutionizing the transportation industry, surpassing many of the big automobile companies such as GM and Ford. This company is creating competition in the automobile industry as other companies are following Tesla to produce their own electric cars. In the future, as more more electric-cars are being produced by some of the big automobile companies, it will reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, and thus decrease the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere. 

Other popular franchise businesses, such as Starbucks, are also contributing in small ways to help protect our Earth. A couple of years ago, Starbucks and American Airlines decided to eliminate using plastic straw after seeing a video surface of a turtle with a straw stuck in his nose. While plastic is convenient to humans, it is causing harm to many marine organisms whose home is being polluted. Since this video, Starbucks banned straws and replaced them with strawless lids. Starbucks is just one company that shows the change in the company’s policies to help protect our environment. 

There are a multitude of different ways companies are trying to help protect our Earth. Many grocery stores are selling reusable bags for consumers to buy to reduce the dependence on plastic bags. For Tesla, the company helps protect the Earth by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted. For Starbucks, it is focusing on decreasing the plastic pollution in oceans. As the consequences of climate change and pollution continue to be brought to light, the efforts towards protecting our Earth is constantly increasing. After all, we only have one planet Earth, so we should take care of it as best as we can.

While 2020 was and will always be defined as the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia was fighting off another disaster that destroyed national parks, forests, ecological habitats, and homes. Australia is no stranger to wildfires, however, the 2019-2020 fire season had some of the worst wildfires the country has seen in years. In the past couple of years, wildfires have also ravaged through our country in the West, causing immense damage. Every year, it seems as though more wildfires are occurring and getting harder to control. Is climate change playing a role in the intensity of the wildfires?

With the increase in global temperatures, prolonged periods of droughts, and shifting weather patterns, the perfect conditions for wildfires to start are created. As temperature increases, the warmer air takes in more water from the surrounding soil and vegetation. As a result, this dry vegetation creates a great risk for a wildfire to start and spread rapidly. Something as much as a lightening spark could ignite a fire. Climate change is contributing to the longer heat waves and stretching out the hot-dry season in the Western part of the United States. As stated by the National Geographic, the nature of wildfires are changing and becoming more intense, and climate change is playing a role in this alarming trend.

The 2020 California wildfires burned over 4 million acres, setting a record for the number of acres burned during a wildfire year. As of October 4, 2020, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection released a summary that more than 8,200 fires had erupted, causing the damage over the 4 million acres. In Australia, more than 1,588 homes had been destroyed and over 650 homes damaged. In addition, in six of Australia’s states, more than 17.9 million acres were burned. The state affected the most was New South Wales with 12.1 million acres burned. The smoke from the fires also caused the air pollution in many parts of Australia to be 11 times the hazardous air quality measure. Sadly, animals such as kangaroos, koala bears, and birds were also affected, with many animals being displaced as they lost their homes.

As the intensity of the wildfires increases, the approach towards controlling and managing the wildfires may need to be reevaluated. Some cities have put into place greater regulations for homes that are built in fire-prone areas. There was even a movement to use a prescribed fire in order to get rid of vegetation that could possible ignite a larger wildfire. Overall, climate change has played a role in the increased severity of the wildfires, leaving officials to adapt towards tackling this new challenge.

Welcome to my Civic Issues blog! With this blog, I hope to bring awareness to some of the current environmental issues our world is facing, situations with environmental implications, and ways citizens are actively trying to protect the Earth. I would like to start by discussing the pandemic and its impact on the environment. As COVID-19 spread rapidly across the world, many countries and cities were forced to go into a mandatory lockdown. As people were forced to stay at home, many businesses, industries, and transportation services shut down. COVID-19 has greatly disrupted the lives of many citizens. It has separated families, taken innocent lives, and pushed people to their limits, both mentally and physically. But, how has the pandemic affected our environment?

Since the start of the outbreak, researchers have been tracking pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, and greenhouse gas emissions and noticed a decrease in these levels. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are gases that trap heat within the Earth’s atmosphere, thus causing the global temperatures to increase. However, with the lockdowns, many industrial sites and transportation services were shut down, thus contributing to decrease in the emission levels. For example, in New York, the carbon emissions have reduced by about 50% in March 2020 in comparison to the levels in 2019. In China, the emissions fell by 25% at the start of 2020 as citizens were starting to stay home.

Currently, NASA researchers are using satellites to track changes in the air, land, water, and climate. Nitrogen dioxide, as mentioned above, is a common air pollutant that is released into the environment from the burning of fossil fuels in cars and power plants. In the Northeast, NASA observed that the NO₂ levels decreased by as much as 30% during the lockdown. The graphs above highlight the decrease in NO₂ levels at the start of March 2020.

While the emission levels decreased, the use of masks, plastic bottles, and gloves are causing an increase in marine pollution. In Brazil, a penguin died after a mask made its way into its stomach, causing it to become malnourished. In a report from New York Post, it states that more than 1.5 billion face masks could end up in the oceans this year. It is a tragedy to hear and see pictures of masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer bottles that are polluting the oceans and endangering marine organisms.

Overall, I think it is interesting to see how the lockdown of cities have contributed to the decrease in emission levels. Through this pandemic, we have seen our influence and the role we play on the levels of gas emissions and pollutants within the environment.