Monthly Archives: January 2019

Global Warming

When most people think about environmental issues facing the Earth, one of the first things that comes to mind is global warming.  Global warming is exactly what it sounds like, an increase in the air, land, and water temperature of the planet.  This is caused by the greenhouse effect, which is a result of increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants in the atmosphere.  Due to this, the global temperature of the Earth has risen about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880.  Although this amount sounds incredibly small, two-thirds of this warming has occurred since 1975, which still may not seem like a lot.  However, look at this graph of global temperature over the past thousand years.

Fig. 1. Skeptical Science. Global Temperature.

When viewing this, it can easily be seen that our current situation is an anomaly.  Global temperatures have never spiked this high in the modern era, and unfortunately this may be a sign of things to come.  Scientists estimate that if global warming continues to occur at its current rate, the Earth’s temperature will increase another 8 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.  Remember, a 1.4-degree jump is considered a lot, so 8 degrees would be no less than catastrophic.

Although many effects of climate change will not be seen until the future, we in the United States been exposed to quite a few already, such as more frequent extreme weather.  From hurricanes constantly battering our coastal regions to horrific wildfires and mudslides ravaging California, severe weather has reared its ugly head increasingly more in recent years.  Hard evidence of this can be seen through the monumental expenses these events have caused.  In the years from 1980 through 2015, natural disasters and other weather-related events cost the United States an average of $5.2 billion dollars in losses annually (adjusted for inflation).  However, if you single out 2011 through 2015, you can see that the average cost jumps to $10.8 billion dollars per year, more than twice the previous amount.

Another potentially terrible effect of global warming is higher sea levels.  This is in part due to the rapid melting of the polar ice caps.  Interestingly, temperatures at the North and South Pole are rising twice as fast as in other parts of the world, causing glaciers to disappear at breakneck speeds.  In fact, Glacier National Park in Montana, created by President Taft in 1910, was once home to around 150 glaciers.  However, that number has dropped to less than 30, with the surviving glaciers having two-thirds fewer area than they once did.  David Fagre, a research scientist from the U.S. Geological Survey Global Change Research Program, says, “Things that normally happen in geologic time are happening during the span of a human lifetime, it’s like watching the Statue of Liberty melt.”  At this rate, most, if not all, of these glaciers will be gone within the next 30 years, a foreboding sign for ice caps in other parts of the world as well.

Fig. 2. Staehli, Bernhard. Melting Ice Caps.

However, the expansion of warming ocean water will have an even larger effect on rising sea levels than melting glaciers.  As the temperature of seawater continues to increase, the molecules of said water get excited and spread apart, causing the water to expand and take up more space.  This effect will only get more pronounced in the future, and scientists are worried about its possibly destructive effects.

With glaciers melting at an unmatched pace, accompanied by the expansion of warming ocean waters, it is predicted that global sea levels will rise by one to four feet by the year 2100.  Once again, this number seems minimal, until you realize that most of the world’s biggest cities were constructed right at sea level.  This rise would leave parts of New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Mumbai, Sydney, and Rio de Janeiro all underwater, possibly within our lifetimes.

Amazingly, with all the evidence that humans are causing climate change, a large number of Americans still continue to deny our harmful impact.  Currently, 97% of climate scientists agree that human activity is the main cause of global warming.  However, only 6 in 10 regular Americans see humans as the problem, and as many as 30% of us deny that climate change is happening at all.  These statistics could be problematic in the future, especially considering that the United States just pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord.  If we are to confront global warming head on, it will begin with convincing our own citizens that we are the ones responsible for it.  Only then can we make strides toward reducing our massive carbon footprint.

This is where it falls on us.  Our constant use of gas-guzzling cars, unnecessary aerosols, and other destructive devices has led us to the predicament we’re currently in.  However, I believe that it’s not too late to reverse the drastic effects of climate change.  It will take a big commitment from world leaders, local government officials, and all of us, but it’s something we must do if we want to stay out of hot water, quite literally.

Deforestation

Out of all the threats to our environment in the 21st century, deforestation may be one of the most urgent.  Deforestation is the systematic removal of forests or sections of trees from land to be converted for commercial or public use.  Most deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests and can have devastating effects on wildlife and human populations in these areas.


Fig. 1. Erlangga, Aulia. Deforestation in Sumatra.

First, let’s take a look at the reasons why deforestation occurs.  According to OneGreenPlanet, the five largest causes of deforestation are agricultural expansion, livestock ranching, logging, infrastructure expansion, and overpopulation.

For agricultural expansion, deforestation is the result of increased demands for goods like palm oil, soybeans, and other commodities.  In fact, Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of palm oil, was recognized in the 2008 Guinness Book of World Records as the “Fastest Forest Destroyer.”

With livestock ranching, the large worldwide demand for beef has played a pivotal role in the expansion of deforestation for these purposes.  For example, Brazil, one of the world’s top beef exporters, has seen an area of forest three-fourths the size of Texas cut down since 1990.

As far as logging is concerned, most deforestation caused by this is actually illegal.  Illegal logging has become a large source of revenue for people in countries in the developing world, such as in Indonesia (once again).  Indonesia is near the top of the world in terms of timber exportation, but many people would be surprised to learn that as much as 80% of this exporting is done illicitly.  Worldwide, illegal logging is a financial windfall for organized crime groups, with $10 to $15 billion dollars being generated each year.

Infrastructure expansion refers to the building of new and improved roads through previously uninhabited regions, which doesn’t necessarily sound like a bad thing.  However, these roads give loggers and settlers easy access to areas that used to be hard to reach, meaning that they will have more opportunities to exploit the forests for their own gain.

Finally, all of these first four causes can be seen as a result of overpopulation.  With today’s global population exceeding 7 billion people, demands for goods and services are at an all-time high, leaving areas like rainforests vulnerable to companies looking to make a quick buck.  Interestingly, deforestation is growing at a comparable rate to population growth, suggesting that this logical trend is very true.

Fig. 2. United Nations. Population and Deforestation.

Now that we outlined the causes of deforestation, how widespread is this removal of forests?  First of all, many people don’t realize that forests are one of our greatest natural resources.  They cover a whopping 31% of land area on our planet and house many of our most endangered species.  Not to mention that 1.6 billion people rely on forests for their many benefits, including food, water, clothing, medicine, and shelter.  And did I mention that they provide us with sweet, sweet oxygen?  However, forests are being cut down at an alarming rate.  Currently, 18.7 million acres of forest are disappearing each year, a number equivalent to 36 football fields being cut down every minute.  If something is not done about this, deforestation will continue to grow until no forests are left at all.

Sure, deforestation is a big problem.  But what are all the effects?  One of the most potentially catastrophic outcomes of deforestation is the rapid advancement of global warming, particularly due to greenhouse gases (like CO2) in the atmosphere.  Elementary school science class reminds us that trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.  Well, when trees are cut down, fewer of them are around to absorb CO2, leading to carbon dioxide becoming trapped in the atmosphere, thus increasing global warming.  One study estimates that four years of deforestation creates a carbon footprint of the same magnitude as every airplane flight in the course of human history through 2025, combined.

Another devastating effect of deforestation is the loss of biodiversity.  Rainforests cover only 7% of Earth’s land but are home to about 50% of all its plant and animal species, many of which are endangered.  In fact, as many as 135 species of plants, animals, and insects are going extinct every day due to deforestation.  If this isn’t bad enough, scientists believe that cures for many diseases could be found within these rare life forms, potentially jeopardizing the future of human health if we don’t keep them alive.

Finally, soil erosion, flooding, and loss of indigenous homelands are also the result of deforestation.  In addition to everything else, trees are also great at retaining water and depositing it back into the soil and atmosphere.  Without them, soil used for agriculture erodes after a period of time, rendering it useless for growing food.  When this happens, farmers just clear more trees, and then more trees after that soil dries out, and then more after that, in this self-perpetuating cycle.  Also, destruction of coastal forests can leave inlands defenseless against floods.  This proved to be fatal in 2008, when Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, killing over 100,000 people.  Scientists say that if mangrove forests along the Burmese coast had not recently been cut down, the cyclone would have hit with much less force.  Lastly, when forests are destructed, so are the indigenous people who live among them.  These people rely on the forests for basically everything, meaning that when deforestation occurs, they are left with nothing.  As these tribes don’t have legal ownership of their land either, there are very few protections against their villages and ways of life being ruined by deforestation.

At this point, many of you are probably wondering what you can do to prevent this travesty.  Some simple things that can be done are recycling, trying to go paperless, and eating less meat.  Other than that, lobbying for a cause is the best way to make your voice heard, whether through contacting a representative, attending a protest, or simply stating your beliefs.  It’s time that we took care of deforestation, because this exploitation is taking its toll on large regions of the developing world, and unfortunately, we may be next.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

What if I told you that there was a gigantic patch of plastic just sitting in middle of the Pacific Ocean, somewhere between California and Hawaii.  Even worse, what if I told you that this region is 1.6 million square kilometers large, making it twice the size of Texas and three times the size of France.

At this point, I’m sure many of you are asking, “How is it even possible for plastic to contaminate such a large region?”  Unfortunately, much of this is due to humans.  According to The Ocean Cleanup, it is estimated that between 1.15 and 2.41 million tons of plastic enter the ocean from rivers each year.  From there, most of these plastics float along currents and end up in one of five offshore accumulation zones, the largest of which being the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or GPGP for short.


Fig. 1. Remarkably. Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

As mentioned, plastic accumulates in the GPGP by traveling along currents, namely the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.  In this region lies the millions of pounds of plastic and other trash that makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  Luckily, this slow-moving, counterclockwise system of currents is pretty barren as far as oceans go, hosting only phytoplankton, some small fish, and minimal breezes.  For this reason, most fisherman and sailors avoid this patch as well, leaving the plastic to accumulate with reckless abandon.

I realize that I still haven’t established why the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is such a big problem.  After all, it’s just a bunch of plastic sitting out in a relatively uninhabited portion of the ocean, it’s not like you’re going to accidentally stumble upon it one day.

As much as I wish that the GPGP was insignificant, unfortunately it isn’t.  Plastic is notorious for being unable to biodegrade, which means it doesn’t naturally break down into smaller pieces.  However, plastic does photodegrade, meaning that constant exposure to sunlight can break it down into miniscule fragments.  Once larger debris breaks down into these microplastics, it becomes incredibly hard to remove them from the water, and marine animals often mistake them for food.  Additionally, 84% of this plastic was found to contain at least one Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic, or PBT, chemical.  Therefore, when animals mistakenly eat plastic, they also consume the harmful toxins that come along with it.

Two species, the sea turtle and the albatross, have had particular trouble differentiating between food and garbage.  In fact, sea turtles captured in or near the GPGP had a diet that consisted of up to 74% plastic, not to even mention the thousands that die from fishing nets every year.  Meanwhile, albatrosses have possibly had even more trouble with ocean trash.  Each year on Midway Island, which is near the garbage patch, albatrosses give birth to 500,000 chicks.  Unfortunately, as many as 200,000 of these birds die due to their parents feeding them plastic that they mistakenly believe is food.  On a larger scale, more than a million birds and marine animals die every year from eating plastic or getting caught in debris.  If that statistic doesn’t call for a change, I’m not sure what will.


Fig. 2. Perez, Francis. Sea Turtle in Net.

However, if the safety of wildlife still doesn’t concern you, maybe the concept of bioaccumulation will.  Bioaccumulation means that the matter consumed by prey eventually ends up in predators, and so on up the food chain.  According to this principle, plastic consumed by sea turtles and other aquatic animals will eventually end up in the gastrointestinal systems of humans, barring some miracle.  As previously stated, 84% of these materials were found to have toxic chemicals as well, possibly putting humans in harm’s way.


Fig. 3. The Ocean Cleanup. Bioaccumulation in Humans.

Along with the health and biodiversity hazards associated with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes negative economic implications.  According to the United Nations, plastic pollution in marine environments costs $13 billion every year in beach cleanups and financial losses to fisheries.  These costs will only continue to increase as more garbage keeps streaming into our lakes and oceans.

Logically, attempts have been taken to try to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but initial results haven’t been very encouraging.  This past fall, a $20 million project was embarked on by the Ocean Cleanup to try to remove large amounts of plastic.  However, it was determined that the apparatus the team was using was actually pretty bad at collecting plastic.  Boyan Slat, inventor of the device (a sort of floating barrier), said, “What we’re trying to do has never been done before. So, of course we were expecting to still need to fix a few things before it becomes fully operational.”  Slat and his team have gone back to the drawing board, so hopefully they can come up with an efficient way to remove this devastating trash from the Pacific Ocean.

If at first you weren’t concerned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, I hope you are now.  Unless we take drastic action, this problem will continue to grow for years to come.  And of course, this starts with all of us.  Throwing away disposable plastic has terrible effects on the environment and is an action that will take hundreds of years to undo.  Therefore, always try to recycle any plastic you use.  And better yet, try to use as little plastic as possible.  It might not seem important now, but the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is growing, and it would be best not to get caught dead in the water.