Civic Issues Blog #5

My civic issues blogs have focused mainly on natural disasters here on earth including hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and more. There is a lot to consider when dealing with this sudden turn of events like preparing, preventing, evacuating, and recovering. For my last civic issues blog I’ll be bringing up something that I’m sure you’ve all heard about and are probably sick of it. Today is all about global warming. As you know global warming is the idea that green house gasses are being trapped in our atmosphere, burning up the ozone layer, and warming up the earth. So I wont go into that really. What I want to share with you is a few facts that might show you just how serious this can be, mostly focusing on its effect on rising water levels.

In places like Antarctica, there are a number of ice shelves that work as dams, keeping back the rivers and lakes of water coming off of the glaciers. If these ice shelves were to break off, these rivers and lakes would be free to flow straight into the ocean, which could cause extreme effects on the water level. Unfortunately, these ice shelves are in fact breaking off due to increased climate temperatures. If any of you have seen the movie “The Day after Tomorrow” you would know exactly what I’m talking about. The main character claims that the ice shelf that broke off was approximately the size of Rhode Island. Well that was actually true. Around that same time, a huge piece of the Larsen B Ice shelf broke off. As glaciers melt and ocean water reaches the glaciers, they loose their density and thickness. In the past 50 years, the average glacier lost 50 feet of thickness. So if a glacier was 50 ft tall 50 years ago then it is completely melted by now.

Global warming and rising water levels may not seem like the biggest concern to people in the United States. I know we’re all concerned of course. We can feel the summers getting hotter and winters getting shorter. But we will not feel the effects of rising water levels like some other places. For example, Greenland has taken so many precautions against rising water levels because should water level get too high, the entire island could be in danger. They’ve created artificial islands with movable dams attached to them in order to stop floods. Since a lot of their coastal economy relies on the ocean, they can’t always have them closed, so they engineered a way to have moving dams when a storm or flood is coming. They have also created a special type of house that actually has the ability to float in the water. Because these dams simply can’t stop everything, they made houses with sealed off basements and walls as the house sits on column that allows it to float up when the water rises and lets it sink back down when the water recedes.

I think this adds a lot of perspective to something we have all known about for some time now. We in America don’t really see these kinds of reactions because we may not be in any direct danger. However, we can assume that should global warming get bad enough, it would have major effects on the entire world, just maybe not us first. So just be aware of global warming and the effect that humans have on it.

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5 Responses to Civic Issues Blog #5

  1. I think the problem for a lot of people when it comes to accepting the severity of the issue of global warming is that they tend to look only in the short term and/or affects only them. I saw a picture yesterday of what happens when flooding happens in Ireland and it was basically 8 feet of water stretching up someones front door. Luckily they’ve figured out how to seal everything to be watertight, but it might not be enough soon.

  2. Marissa Fritz says:

    I’ve never considered the impact rising water levels could have on different economies. I think that we are all so concerned with our own country we sometimes don’t see the larger impacts. You made a great point about how in the US we don’t always see the direct affects of global warming. Do you think people in the US believe the media just tries to make it into bigger news than it really is? I think we really need to pay more attention to the larger issues if we want to stop global warming

  3. Dalton Cristini says:

    Global warming is one of those things that I have always heard about but never really understood. I mean, I understand the chemistry behind what happens but I don’t know anything about what effects it has on the world today.

  4. Tyler Sullivan says:

    This is definitely an eye opener! I’ve seen the movie and thinking that anything even similar to that could happen is a frightening thought for sure. Finding solutions to these problems should definitely be a key focus because of the potential negative repercussions.

  5. Christina Soliday says:

    Wow, I never realized how serious of an issue global warming is. Sometimes, I just play it off to be conjecture, but your evidence seems very conclusive. Do you think that legislation in the States will be put in place to incentive us to change our behaviors to be more aware of global warming? After all, there have been many green movements lately.

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