Peak Oil Survival

After reading through this article, I was very shocked. To think that our lives could come to matter of surviving, and struggling for fresh water. Many things that I read in this article I had no idea about before, and had never thought about certain events in such a way. For example, the fact about rain water, at the beginning of chapter 3, how Aric McBay states how rainwater could become the new means of bottled water. It was also very shocking how bluntly McBay gives an argument towards innovative technology, saying how even at this point, what is the reason to try and fix the situation we find ourselves in. If this is true, then this article will become a survival guide for everyone in about 50 years. Through the way McBay describes his techniques, everyone will need to live following these guidelines.

“Ecopsychology and the Destruction of White People” and “The World Without us”

Many connections can be made between both texts, but the one that stood out to me the most was that of personification. Both pieces of work speak about the earth and describe it as if it was a person, and I think that through this way of writing, it is more effective and easier to get the point across to many different types of audiences. According to the interview with Carl Anthony in “Ecopsychology and the Destruction of White People” he describes situations like this ““wanting to hear the voice of the earth, the notion that nature is crying out in pain…” through this not only do we get a strong image of the state the earth finds itself in, but we also are able to better understand how bad the situation is. This quote shows how the inventions of mankind have begun to harm the earth, and how everything that we take for granted is taking a toll on the world.
As Alan Weisman stated in his article “ The World Without us”, the quote that stated “Gradually, the asphalt jungle will give way to a real one.” This vivid described quote shows how everything that mankind has spent hundreds of years building up to be better than anyone else, will eventually be taken over by the most powerful thing, nature.

Southen Photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/southen/2129478468/in/photostream/

In this picture, you see the new architecture in the city of Detroit. Along with the huge bridge that you see in the background, you see an old rusting house. The roof of the house is falling apart. My initial reaction to this picture was that even when there is that majestic bridge, you cant forget about the places in cities that need the most fixing up. I also thought about the fog you see around the bridge, even though its not that thick, you can barely see through it. It just goes to show polluted the air is, and how that bridge you see in the picture will just allow more of it to be created.

Research Exersice: Linking Population between Climate Change

Leon Kolankiewicz, an environmental planner, discusses how population growth and uncontrollable immigration have been a potential threat to climate change in the video “The Impact of Immigration Policy on the Environment”. In the 60s, and all throughout the 70s, the population of the United States grew by approximately 2 ½ million people a year. This was a huge concern for those who wanted to protect the environment. While this was taking place in the US, the population growth around the world was a staggering 90 million people a year. There is an equation that can be used to calculate the impact of a growing population on the environment. It’s called I=PAT, which is multiplying the population by the affluence and by the technology. If you had to put the increase of the population in the US in these terms, then America has had a much greater impact because of the much higher levels of per capita consumption and the technology. “The average American would be consuming 10 to 100 times to any developing country” said Kolankiewicz. “Since we have added another 100 million Americans, 2/3 of which is driven by immigration” this has an incredible impact on the amount of energy being consumed. A connection that can be made between Kolankiewicz’s ideas and Mark Maslin’s ideas is that both believe that an increase in oil imports and greenhouse gases would only worsen the situation we find ourselves in. In Kolankiewicz’s case these increases are due to the growth of populations, while Maslin believes that it is due to careless actions taken by humans.
In my opinion, the connections between population growth and global warming can be closely tied. The reasons behind this are that with more people living in the country, the more resources are being used. “Less space, less country side, and cities never stop growing,” said Kolankiewicz. The amount of greenhouse gases being released into the air can only be increased with more people creating them.

Suburbia

In the first video, “Radiant City: Suburban Landscape” we see how the landscape across suburban areas are very homogeneous. All of the structure looks like its compressed. According to the speaker in the video, Gary Burns, “suburbia separates the elements of daily life” which means the homes from the offices, and the shopping areas. There is a statistic that mentions “traffic injuries or death care three times more common in the suburbs than in the inner cities” All of this contributes to even more pollution being created because to get anywhere, you need some sort of mean of transportation, in this case, automobiles.
In the second video, “Radiant City: Commuting”, it shows how thousands of working people are stuck in terrible traffic jams to get into the cities and work. “The average North American spends 55 8-hour work days driving” If this statistic goes for every commuter, then imagine all of the CO2 emissions being released into the air.
The next video called “1950s”; we see the changes that took place after WWII. All of the American soldiers came back home, and wanted a nice, calm place to live. This is where the “American dream” began. The development of growing sky scrappers, and the “inflation of downtown real-estate prices lead to downtown becoming more dedicated to business’s” Although we heard about how great the 50’s were, and how it brought “ new hope, new life, new homes, and new families” we don’t really the see the horrific things happening to the minorities around the country. The African Americans and other minority groups, the people that weren’t able or weren’t allowed to live in the suburbs, were suffering under segregation and unfair civil rights.
The next video, called “Gangs and White Flight” it shows the history behind the first black gangs, and how they appeared. “When you cant go where you want to go, and when you cant live where you want to live, without some one saying something to you, there is a problem. “ said a former gang member in LA. When you have these people tormenting you because you are different you end up starting with a bad attitude toward your problems. In this case, it resulted in violence. They got in groups and stuck together when they got stoned or abused by the white kids in their school. When the African Americans came from the south of the US and into cities they were confused about prejudice. During the White Flight, people began to leave schools and move out of the cities and into suburbs, which lead to the schools becoming more integrated.

Letter to Global Warming Skeptic

Dear Person,
You might not be aware of what really is going on around the world. Your parents are telling you what they believe, they are skeptics. It’s not your fault that you have no background information. Through this letter, I’m going to show you how your ideas of global warming are based on incorrect evidence.
In the book on Global Warming, written by Mark Maslin he has many descriptive charts that he takes his evidence from. In these complicated graphs, what he is basically trying to show through his charts is that CO2 levels have been increasingly rising over the past 50 years. It is no coincidence that during the Industrial period, when man began creating machinery and polluting the air, that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere increased dramatically. “There is clear evidence that Antartic temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are in step demonstrating the central role of carbon dioxide as a climate amplifier” We know that this a fact for global warming because of all the effects that have been spreading across the world. For example, the hurricanes all along Florida and Louisiana, they wouldn’t have been as strong if the hurricane hadn’t grown from taking in moisture and heat while passing over the ocean. Another example of climate change is how the ice in Greenland is beginning to melt, as well as the permafrost in Alaska. The reason behind this is that because the temperatures are rising, spring is coming quicker than usual, and winter is coming later than usual. The trees and grasses growing in the region of Alaska don’t fully decompose, so when the new plants come in, they grow off the old ones. The risk of the rising temperatures is that organic material that has been frozen for millions of years will break down, releasing carbon dioxide or methane.
Another strong fact concerning global warming, is the evidence shown of the increasing sea levels. The risks of this getting worse is the possibility of cities under water, many different species completely wiped out, and millions of refugees. If this was to happen, it would be the biggest catastrophe in the world. The reason we know this could actually happen is because there is scientific evidence of the polar ice caps, and Greenland already diminishing in size. Polar bears, and other species that depend on their environment, have been reported drowned, due to swimming long distances looking for ice and food.
Now, what I understand about your position on all of this is that, you don’t believe any of this scientific evidence is true. In my opinion, the reason why you and your family believe in what they do, the “junk science”, is because, your parent is the CEO for a major oil company. Oil being one of the biggest contributors to the increase in atmospheric CO2, your parent would loose money, if he and his coworkers were to stop denying climate change. If they were to accept the facts and evidence, then they wouldn’t have such an income of money as they do keeping the users of their oil in doubt. Another opinion of mine on why you are a skeptic on this issue, is that if you are following a political leader that objects to any evidence of global warming, then why should you. You are being influenced by someone that is also uninterested in loosing money to accepting the risks of climate change. These are some reasons for why your belief on this matter is flawed.
Well, I hope you have taken this all into consideration, and have had a change of mind. If not, then I don’t know how much more evidence you need to be reassured that global warming does exist, and that it is no myth.

Thank you,
Camila.

My viewpoint on the Future

My view on nature throughout my life has changed enormously. When I was younger, and didn’t even know about global warming and the issues with climate change, the view I had on nature was so different. The way I’d look at my environment was something that seemed never ending. Back then, nature appeared to be something that seemed too majestic to have a possible expiration date on it. Nature to me was benign. As described in the reading, “Nature… is predictable, bountiful, robust, stable, and forgiving of any insults that humankind might inflict upon it. However violently it might be shaken, the ball always comes to rest in the bottom of the basin…”
Now, as I learn more on climate change, I have realized that nature is in no way predictable and stable. As past events and tragedies show, our earth is going through a downfall. Everyone’s actions are now coming back as consequences. We can’t take our world for granted. Just the fact of the polar bears, which is just one example, is scary. These animals, which have never faced the risk of extinction, are now in danger of disappearing. Their environment is changing so quickly, and to think that in less than 70 years, animals that are being affected might not exist anymore. According to the chapter we read on the views of nature and the future, my view has gone from thinking nature is benign, to perverse/tolerant. Meaning, “ Within limits, nature can be relied upon to behave predictably. It is forgiving of modest shocks to the system but care must be taken not to knock the ball out of the cup. Regulation is required to prevent major excesses while leaving the system to look after itself in minor matters.”
Work Cited:
Professor John Adams. “Your Viewpoint Determines the Future.” Chapter 3.

Review of the Websites

What Manhattan might look like if sea levels continue to rise:

Initially, when I saw this picture, I was shocked. The fact that our future could lead us to be underwater is very frightening. The risk of cities going under water is obviously a great one if there are already images of what the future could hold for us. This picture made me think about what people around the world could do to decrease the risk of increasing sea levels. Another thing it made me think about was that, even though people have seen this image, there isn’t any action being taken. Sometimes the inaction of preserving the environment can seem worse than actions taken to hurt the environment.

North East Climate Impacts:
My personal impression from viewing this website was that I was surprised there are so many people involved in the resolving of this issue. Even though you see images as scary as the future predictions of Manhattan, it’s comforting to know that there are people and organizations out there concerning themselves with the issue. The fact that so many people across the country are involved with this organization shows that hopefully we will never reach such an extreme point, portrayed in the previous website. Also that the NECIA climate research group’s use new climate technologies to determine how global warming could further affect the Northeast climate.

The Scientific meaning of Global Warming

In the most basic words, climate change is the warming of the Earth due to the careless actions of the people living on it. The rays from the sun are entering earths’ most vulnerable part, the atmosphere, and some get absorbed and others escape. Infrared rays are getting caught between the atmosphere because greenhouse gases are keeping them in, and making the atmosphere too thick for anything to escape. What is causing these rays to stay trapped are the great amounts of CO2 being created. As Al Gore stated in his film, An Inconvenient Truth when the evidence and details of climate change came to the government, they should have been startled by the amount of change in the environment, but they were capable of just sitting there, doing nothing. The biggest contributor to global warming is the U.S. Alone, the U.S. covers the pollution of more than at least 3 countries put together.
The biggest changes are being seen in the Arctic. Where as Elizabeth Kolbert reported for the New Yorker, in the article The Climate of Man, the biggest glacier’s there are beginning to crack and form water pools on their surfaces. This occured because the North pole of the earth is used as a mirror, the rays come in and are reflected back off, but because the Arctic the shrinking in size, the rays are hitting the open ocean and heating up the sea temperatures. In Alaska, the permafrost is starting to melt. The reason behind this is that because the temperatures are rising, spring is coming quicker than usual, and winter is coming later than usual. .The trees and grasses growing in these regions don’t fully decompose, so when the new plants come in, they grow off the old ones. The risk of the rising temperatures is that organic material that has been frozen for millions of years will break down, releasing carbon dioxide or methane. All of this contributes to the devastating consequences spreading across the world. For example, In the Himalayas, more than 40% of the population in that area gets their drinking water from the melting ice, and the ice is beginning to disappear. The ice is beginning to disappear because the temperatures are getting out of control, and becoming to warm for there to be ice. With all theses changes in the environment and climate, there comes many other changes as well; a change in politics, culture, habits, and many other aspects of an individual’s life also come into factor.
-Kolbert, Elizabeth. "The Climate of Man" The New Yorker Apr 25, 2005.
-The Inconvenient Truth. Al Gore. Paramount Vantage. 2006

The Climate of Man-Summary

Elizabeth Kolbert went visit the little town in Alaska, Shishmaref. A town inhabited by Eskimos. In the early 1990’s, they began to notice that the sea ice was changing. The ice was starting to form later in the fall, and earlier in the spring. This and many other changes in the environment put the inhabitants in danger, make them consider relocating and leaving their homes. Results from more research done by Syukuro Manabe, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and another by James Hansen, at NASA’s Godard institute for Space Studies, were alarming. The AD Hoc Study group on Carbon Dioxide and climate, or called the Charney panel found that climate change was inevitable if CO2 increases. Hansen and Manabe followed with more research, and they discovered that almost every following year since 1990 has been warmer. Almost every major glacier in the world is shrinking. The ones in Glacier National Park are decreasing so quickly that it is predicted they will be completely vanished by 2030. Many other signs now confirm that global warming is no longer a theory. Kolbert took a trip through the interior of Alaska with a geophysicist and permafrost expert at the Univeristy of Alaska, Vladimir Romanovsky. Romanovsky took Kolbert to see a hole that had opened up in a patch of permafrost. The holes had appeared when the permafrost gave way. He also showed a trench that had been formed when a wedge of underground ice had melted. The trees that had been growing next to it, or perhaps on top of it, were standing at strange angles. Locally, these trees are called”drunken”. Ten years ago, said Romanovsky, no once cared about permafrost, and now in some places, the temperature of the permafrost is less than once degree below freezing. One of the most dangerous things that there is a risk of happening if matters get worse, is that if the permafrost were to melt to a point where the carbon and methane is released from the inside, that come from the plants growing out of the ice, which would be terrible.

Summary of Global Warming

Due to many different aspects of societies, including the individuals’ choice of lifestyle, global warming is becoming a bigger problem, resulting in great consequences, according to the IPCC. There are many drastic changes that the world will face, if this problem is not taken seriously. Many predictions foresee the situations we would find ourselves in if things were to worsen, for example, the Amazon rain forest to burn, a rise in global seas, and other different events which would accelerate global warming.