On February 17th, Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, posted a picture on Instagram that sparked both negative and positive emotions. In his post he says, “I’m committing $10 billion to start and will begin issuing grants this summer. Earth is the one thing we have in common — let’s protect it, together.” He calls this donation to climate change the Bezos Earth Fund. This post appears to be a positive movement that provides baby steps towards our goal of fighting climate change; however, the comments by the public have not all been nice. Some comments have said “You’re disgusting and no one likes you,” “Stop acting like a hero and spread the money you don’t need that much,” and “Take care of your workers first.” His overall intentions are to donate to such a serious problem such as climate change. Even though he donated a considerable amount of money, people are skeptical of his intentions. 

A group of Amazon workers appreciates the actions of the Bezos Earth Fund, but they spoke up against Bezos talking about Amazon’s involvement with the natural gas businesses. This group of Amazon workers calls themselves the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice. After Bezos posted his Instagram announcement, the Amazon employees posted a counterattack against the company. Their post was nowhere near malicious, for they were just informing the public about the involvement in the climate crisis. Their post says, “When is Amazon going to stop helping oil & gas companies ravage Earth with still more oil and gas wells? When will Amazon take responsibility for the lungs of children near its warehouses by moving from diesel to all-electric trucking?” After the word got around about the gas and oil companies, thousands of employees signed a letter to the board of directors demanding to end the contracts with the harmful companies and create goals for renewable alternatives for the future. 

Amazon finally obliged to the workers after threats of an employee walkout. The committed “to use 100% renewable energy by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2040” (Held). This pledge was a success to the workers and gave Amazon a better reputation amongst the community. They have also purchased around 100,000 emissions-free electric vans to deliver packages all over the country. Climate change remains a scary topic to think about. Although the earth seems fine at the moment, we must think about how our future will look if our bad habits continue. The earth has endured years of abuse and neglect from humans and now we must work together in order to save our beautiful planet and all the inhabitants on it.

Held, Amy. “Jeff Bezos Pledges $10 Billion To Fight Climate Change, Planet’s ‘Biggest Threat’.” NPR, NPR, 17 Feb. 2020, www.npr.org.

Approximately 8.6 million people live in New York City. Known for the broadway shows, fashion icons, Wall Street, and hundreds of other unique attractions, millions of people both visit and live in this bustling city. With that many people in such a compacted space, air pollution is off the charts. The abundance of taxi cars, buses, and subway transportations are all responsible for the drastic increase in CO2 emissions. With a majority of the population in self-quarantine, there is less traffic releasing these pollutes. According to Columbia University, traffic levels were about 35% less than what they were a year ago. 

As a result of the 35% decrease in traffic, carbon monoxide emissions have dropped about 50% in just a couple of days. New York’s air is able to be partially clean compared to a normal day of traffic. Usually, the month of May has the most CO2 emissions due to decomposing leaves; however, the lack of motor vehicles cause the levels to be the lowest they have been in over a decade. A similar situation is occurring in other countries as well, especially in China. NASA released pictures of China showing the decrease of nitrogen dioxide due to the decrease in vehicle emissions. According to Carbon Brief, there has been a 25% decrease in emissions and energy usage in just the past two weeks in China.

In addition to the lack of motor vehicle usage, air traffic has declined greatly as well. With fewer planes in the air, emissions of pollutes will decrease globally. People will stop traveling for work temporarily, people are less inclined to go on vacation and risk exposure, and most people decide to stay in self-quarantine to not spread or contract the virus as well. International travel prohibited which will decease large planes using an abundance of fuel to travel overseas as well.

Depending on the amount of time that economies will be slowed down determines whether or not these changes will stay. Similar circumstances happened during the global financial crisis in 2009. Emissions increased 5% after this crisis after fossil fuel usage skyrocketed. This pandemic could last anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. No one knows how exactly this virus will play out but for now, we must do what is best to prevent the spread of the virus. This small benefit of declining toxins is proof that humans are the reason for most air pollution problems, climate change, and ozone changes. Air pollution will be on the decline for now.

The Coronavirus has caused millions of people to stay inside and self-quarantine from the rest of the world. During a time of fear and worry, people feed off of possible hope during this pandemic. Recently, a tweet about the canals in Venice went viral on Twitter with over one million likes and almost 300 thousand shares. This tweet said, “Here’s an unexpected side effect of the pandemic – the water’s flowing through the canals of Venice is clear for the first time in forever. The fish are visible, the swans returned.” This tweet may sound optimistic, it is false news. People responded positively thinking that having everyone in self-quarantine will magically “heal” nature.

Another tweet went viral regarding the Venice canals as well. This tweet said, “Venice hasn’t seen clear canal water in a very long time. Dolphins showing up too. Nature just hit the reset button on us.” Thousands of people responded positively to this tweet as well. During stressful situations seeing hopeful posts about restoring the world will induce joyful emotions. However, these tweets are providing false information about animals living in a “human-less” world.

The swans in the first tweet are not returning, in fact, they are regulars. They are normally seen swimming around the smaller islands around the main area of Venice. While the boats may scare the swan from swimming everywhere, they have always been in Venice. Regarding the dolphins swimming freely in the canals, they are actually dolphins filmed in Sardinia. Sardinia happens to be hundreds of miles south of Venice against the Mediterranean Sea. The clear water in Venice is because of the lack of boat use; however, the main reason is that the dirt and sediments are laying on the bottom of the canals. Without boats, the dirt is not mixed with the water making the water appear dirtier than when the canals are boatless. Boats are also contributing to water pollution, but the dirt is what makes the water appear brown.

The canals are beautiful due to the lack of boat use which does bring joy to residents of Venice and everyone around the world. Having optimism during the pandemic will help those who are stressed during this time. According to Susan Clayton, a psychology and environmental science professor at the University of Wooster, “I think people really want to believe in the power of nature to recover.” She shares how people would love to think that humans polluting the earth can be reversed and that nature can always recover. The downside to these fake feel-good news stories is that the public may distrust the media more than they already do. These tweets may bring spirits up during a crisis, but in reality, nature cannot bounce back from dire situations in only a couple of weeks or months of isolation. 

 

Annually, about 300 million tons of plastic are created worldwide. About half of the plastic made will only be used once. As a result of not reusing plastic items or not using disposable items, approximately eight million tons of plastic enter the world’s oceans and rivers annually. Currently, there are an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic floating around in the oceans. This affects all marine life by contaminating and entangling all types of animals. The most common example may include the six-ring plastic can holder. Animals such as turtles, seagulls, seals, penguins have all been found with this plastic wrapped around their necks. The negligence of humans has resulted in intense pollution and endangering wildlife. 

So, how could we possibly solve this everlasting problem of polluting our waters? One young, Dutch inventor, Boylan Slat, sought of an idea to clean the ocean from surface pollution. At 18, Boyan founded The Ocean Cleanup non-profit organization. Because of his inventions and successful organization, Boyan was awarded Champion of the Earth in 2015, the Young Entrepreneurship Award in 2015, and the European of the Year in 2017.

The Ocean Cleanup’s main goal is to rid the already polluted areas of the ocean and to stop plastic from entering the oceans via rivers. They target the large collections of plastic, known as a gyre, that has been picked up by a current. This provides an easy pick of up mass objects and allows the broken down particles to be cleaned before marine animals mistake it for food. Instead of using nets to manually collect trash from these large currents, The Ocean Cleanup created an innovative way to collect plastic. They created a fleet system that goes with the currents to catch plastic. According to their statistics, they are estimated to remove fifty percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch every five years. Eventually, they will expand to the trash patches located in the other parts of the ocean as well. 

In addition, The Ocean Cleanup invented The Interceptor. This structure is 100% solar-powered and its main purpose is to restrict trash from entering the ocean. They place The Interceptor at many large rivers in order to catch the trash. Their plans are to place The Interceptor at over 1,000 of the world’s most polluted rivers in hopes to remove about 90% of the ocean’s trash by the year 2040. 

The Ocean Cleanup organization gives people hope for the future. If more innovative organizations come together to tackle the longing issue of pollution and ocean pollution, then maybe one day we could rid the ocean from the trash. Everyone must work together to strive for a more sustainable lifestyle to help keep our beautiful planet clean and healthy.

I often hear people joke about how climate change is not real. They may think it is an exaggeration and the planet as of now is in adequate condition. What most people do not take into consideration is how the planet may be in fifty years. Will we have polar climates? Will we have clean air? Will the ocean level rise sinking sea-level areas? While no one knows for sure how our future may present itself, we do know that continuing careless environmental actions will further deteriorate our beautiful planet.

Something I just found on the NASA website proves 2019 to be the second averaged hottest year since record-keeping started in 1880. The year 2016 holds the title of the average warmest year recorded which was only three years ago. The National Ocean and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) concluded that the past five years have been the warmest recorded temperatures within the past 140 years. They have also proven that every decade has warmed gradually since the 1960s. With 2019 just ending and entering a new decade, the pattern of drastic warming is projected to continue. This trend exhibits itself as extremely dangerous considering the fast pace of warming.

Results have shown that in this past year, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies recorded temperatures were 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the average in 1951 to 1980. This proves that the climate is indeed changing at a rapid rate. NASA has disproven the ideology that strange weather patterns have changed the temperatures, for the average warming trend remained consistent for the past seventy years. 

So, how are these rising temperatures affecting us now? The Arctic region is warmed three times faster than any other region on the planet. Because of this, extreme loss of icebergs and other ice landmasses in Greenland and Antarctica. Not only do these temperatures create heat waves, they also contribute to the wildfires in Australia. Dry, hot air create a breeding ground for wildfires to hatch and, unfortunately, that circumstance has engulfed Australia for months. Intense precipitation can also be an extreme factor in the increasing atmosphere and ocean temperatures. Overall, NASA is committed to figuring out specific trends and causes of our warming planet. Using airborne and ground measurements help to ensure accurate long-term results to determine changes to the climate. With further understanding and knowledge, we may one day be able to solve our increasing temperature problems. For now, we must protect our planet for our future generations to prosper without climate change worries.

 

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2945/nasa-noaa-analyses-reveal-2019-second-warmest-year-on-record/

Back in 2018, Florida experienced an array of dead sea animals wash up onshore. Various fish, manatees, sea turtles, nine dolphins, and one whale shark have all washed up on the beaches of Tampa Bay, Florida. Of course, this raises suspicion as to what is killing these sea creatures and why. As a further examination of the creatures progressed, they found out that they were all poisoned by an algal bloom. This toxic algae, scientifically named Karenia Brevis, infested the waters of Florida causing a state of emergency for seven counties along the southwest coast. The algae was nicknamed the “red tide” for the distinct red color of the organisms in the ocean.  

Along with the increased wildlife deaths, humans have experienced problems as well. The red tide alters wildlife central nervous systems which eventually leads to death in mass exposure. Humans have reported respiratory problems due to the neurotoxins released by the toxic algae. Those who actually come in contact with the algae may experience irritation on the skin and eyes, usually in a rash form. Now, the red tide has not been uncommon in past years. In fact, the bloom practically returns every year. However, the levels have never reached dangerous concentrations until 2018. Their season of growth ranges from late summer to early fall. 

So why is there a drastic increase in the red tide concentrations during 2017 and 2018? The recent warming in the ocean water surrounding southwest Florida and the Gulf of Mexico attracts the algal bloom. Of course, the gradual warming of the water is caused by human-induced weather changes and building development in Florida over the years. Not only have the waters warmed creating a cozy environment for the invasive algae, but runoff from fertilizers contains phosphorous and nitrogen contents which happen to be nutrients that the algae use to survive.

Humans are essentially feeding these toxic algae causing larger blooms to reoccur over the years. There is no set way to get rid of the red tide since they are naturally-occurring organisms; However, with the regulation of the use of pesticides and a decrease in air pollution will prevent these organisms from spreading further than they already are. Our endangered sea creatures cannot withstand years of highly concentrated toxic blooms in their ecosystem. Ocean Conservancy shared how we must fund observation and data collection to form a further understanding of these algae. Understanding the species in depth can result in conserving animals during red tide months and protecting humans from contaminated waters as well. If organizations start to work together, we can prevent the mass outbreak of red tide from contaminating more shores. 

 

Climate change works in mysterious ways. Last week I talked about the devastating fires which engulfed a majority of Australia, however, this week I am going to touch upon the floods in Venice, Italy. Considering Venice canals have been known to increase inching higher yearly, they are used to high tide effects. Although, this past November they recorded the second-largest flood in city history. The waters reached a maximum of 1.87 meters or approximately six feet. After visiting Venice this past July, I am devastated to hear about the destruction of various ancient attractions. The beauty of the canals and architecture remain truly unique to Venice. 

So how did this catastrophic storm form in the Adriatic Sea? Due to a low-pressure system south of Venice air began to flow counter-clockwise. This created high-intensity winds which found its way straight towards the ancient city. Since Venice is only four feet above sea level, the storm overpowered the city causing about two million dollars worth of water damage. Now the storm was not formed because of drastic climate change, but the sea level rising happens to be human-caused. This includes composites from buildings, an aquifer built in the 1920s which pumps freshwater under Venice, and overall global sea level increase. 

Just this month Venice experienced the exact opposite of the floods in November. Instead of being underwater, the canals actually became trenches due to the extreme low tide. Last week it was a record 53 centimeters below sea level. Although the low tide after a storm is particularly rare, it has been seen before.

With floods damaging ancient monuments, such as the St. Marks Basilica, and various shops and restaurants, Venice has been under a state of emergency. Their ideal tourist attractions must undergo intense renovations and provide more protection for future floods. The trenches have also inhibited normal transportation throughout the city and overall decreases the natural beauty that Venice is known for.

Venice is now thinking about their future plans in completing their ongoing project of inflatable gate systems. These gates are planned to rise from the ocean to block storms from infiltrating the city from the Adriatic Sea. While this project will cost over $6.3 billion dollars to complete, the recent events created a motive to increase project production. These gates add a defense that can block up to 3 meters, or 9.8 feet, of storm tides. The inflatable gate system is predicted to be completed by the year 2022. In just two years, Venice could finally be protected from devastating floods and rising sea levels. 

 

 

Mailonline, Danyal Hussain For. “Canals in Venice Are Left Almost Dry Because of Low Tides.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 14 Jan. 2020, www.dailymail.co.uk.

Masters, Jeff. “Venice Has Its Worst Flood in 53 Years.” Scientific American Blog Network, Scientific American, 14 Nov. 2019, blogs.scientificamerican.com.

 

As most people know, Australia is on fire; however, the reasoning behind the vigorous fires remains an ongoing debate. Unfortunately, this is no the first mass forest fire that Australia has endured. There have been four major bushfires throughout the 1900’s, but the deadliest of these bushfires happened to be in 2009. Also known as “Black Saturday” these bushfires in Victoria, Australia killed a record of 173 people. Today, the bushfires have killed twenty-seven people as of January 10th and has spread over 15.6 million acres. 

So the question still remains if these fires are a result of climate change. Australia has in fact warmed approximately one degree on average since 1910. Also, 2019 happens to be the year where Australia recorded its hottest average of about 41.9 degrees Celcius (approximately 107.42 degrees Fahrenheit). The increase in temperature plus years of drought caused the environment to become extremely dry. Because of these conditions, a simple lightning strike could cause mass destruction as a result of easy fire spread. 

Meteorologists have also found the reasoning behind the drastic temperature and drought conditions. They concluded that there is a positive “Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) – an event where sea surface temperatures are warmer in the western half of the ocean, cooler in the east” (Australia). This dipole demonstrates that the warmer western side of the Indian Ocean produces an abundance of rain for Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. In contrast, the eastern side of the ocean remains cooler which prevents rain in Indonesia and Australia. 

These fires threaten not only the people and animals in Australia, but the smoke seems to be traveling towards South America and New Zealand. The Black Carbon which resides in the smoke is harmful to all living things. Along with the harmful effects, this carbon can also increase climate change as well. With the drastic air pollution and poor air quality, citizens in Southern Australia must wear face masks. According to the Air Quality Index, most of South Australia have hazardous or very unhealthy air quality.

As a result of these ongoing fires, it has been estimated that a billion animals, including insects, have perished. Austalia alone is the home to about 500,000 different species which only reside within the country. These fires threaten the prosperous number of species and further endanger already threatened animals. It has been shared that about 25,000 koalas have perished on Kangaroo Island. This cuts the koala population in half which alludes to possible extinction if the bushfires continue rapidly.

Overall, the bushfires in Australia have created grief and worry for everyone around the world. Witnessing the devastation of an entire country is heartbreaking for both the people and animals of Australia. Although there has been some rain in parts of Australia, these fires show no signs of ending anytime soon. We must hope that these fires die off on their own and with the help of firefighters. 

 

“Air Pollution in Australia: Real-Time Air Quality Index Visual Map.” Aqicn.org, The World Air Quality Project, aqicn.org/map/australia/.

“Australia Fires: A Visual Guide to the Bushfire Crisis.” BBC News, BBC, 13 Jan. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50951043.

Zaveri, Mihir, and Emily S. Rueb. “How Many Animals Have Died in Australia’s Wildfires?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Jan. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/world/australia/fires-animals.html.