The video by National Geographic Strange Days: The one Degree Factor was quite intriguing. It blew my mind to see all the interconnecting of phenomena’s happening around caused by an increase in CO2. It is going to be both interesting and frightening to see the effects of future global change on our planet. After all, we are experiencing faster global change than any other human beings have witnessed.
It is crazy to think that global temperature can have such a negative effect on an animal as large as a caribou. In the bad periods that happen sporadically, longer insect breeding seasons have caused the mosquito population to grow much larger than normal, driving the caribou to poor grazing grounds. It causes increased precipitation which increases snowfall in the winters making it much more difficult for the caribou to graze in the winters as well. Spring blizzards throw off migration patterns and make it much harder for the caribou young which are often birthed during the migration.
Another troubling occurrence happening due to the warming global temperature is a decrease in the population of zoë plankton and species found in the tidal pools of the pacific. The population has been rising and falling due to the changing of changing water temperatures. If the water temperature continues to rise many of the species in the Pacific Ocean will either migrate or die.
The most interesting parts of the movie was the connection between a drought in Nigeria and an increased number of children with asthma and a startling numbers of coral reef destruction. They believe that the North Atlantic Oscillation has been stuck on an intense cycle for almost 30 years and has been sending increasing amounts of Saharan dust over to the Americas. This dust contains pathogens, malogens, and a fungus called Aspirigilis, a sea fungus known to cause sea fan disease.
No comments:
Post a Comment