Josi Treleaven
04.04.2016
Environmental Science 20

1. An example of how Environmental Science contributes to the human understanding of anthropogenic effect on the environment is climate change. Anthropogenic is caused by human activity. Scientists have come to a conclusion that one of the main reasons of global warming is from the increase in the human population which increases the Greenhouse Gas effect. The atmosphere traps heat for earth. Some long term gases are “semi-permanent” and don’t get along well with physical or chemical changes in the temperature, which can be referred to as “forcing climate change”. A positive for climate change is water vapor because water reacts physically and chemically with the changes in temperature. This change in temperature has affected the polar bear; it melts the ice glaciers and destroys their habitat. The glaciers supply the polar bears with some of their everyday essentials; food, water, and shelter. This pushes the polar bears away from their homes and forces them to move; therefore it decreases their population. This effect also lowers the hunting opportunities and expands the shortage of food.
2. CCCma, IPCC, and PARC all obtain their policies and implement them from the data received. Climate Summit has presented this data at their multi government meetings. In 2015, in France a global agreement on reducing climate change was suggested. Fifty-five countries need to sign this global agreement before April 2017 to make it legal because their intention for this agreement is to have no increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the 21st century.
3. Policy makers use scientific information saying the world is using this big amount of fossil fuels. We need to start figuring out ways to eliminate the fossils fuels and adapt ways to contribute to environment. The policy makers gather their information, then give the information to the government to make the positive changes. Some countries that are making some notable changes are Germany, and Bangladesh. Eighty-one percent of Germany’s power energy comes from wind turbines, thereby decreasing emissions and the reduction of non-renewable resources. Bangladesh creates solar energy faster than any other country in the world. They have an option that you pay as you go; meaning, if you don’t have enough to pay for use of a certain amount of solar energy, you can pay for how much you used. Lastly, people are picking to invest in renewables over fossil fuels and nuclear energies because of economics. Also because from an environmental look at it, solar power is the best thing out there. A 1.5 kilowatt PV system will keep more than 110,000lbs of CO2 out of the atmosphere for the next 25 years. This system will also hold up the need to burn 60,000lbs of coal. There is no acid rain, smog, or pollution with solar power.
4. Knowing that 93% of man made heat is stuck in the oceans, the Arctic has had the biggest blow on climate change. The North Pole has less land and is surrounded by more ocean water and in the Arctic the sea levels increased. With the quick increase in temperature it affects the wildlife and plants living situation. As people who depend on hunting wild life and who fish, the balance within the ocean is very serious. Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Kenya and other areas around the equator have high temperatures and more dry spells. As you move further from the equator the weather gets wilder. For example, the snow patterns and the changing rain patterns occur because the Arctic has less snowpack. The glaciers are also melting; the ice from the sea is shrinking and permafrost is melting. The warmer oceans can cause a boost in acidity and the sea levels will rise. This is an issue because it will either rain more, and with the acidity, the little tiny animals will die of faster. We can not afford to lose any species in the ocean because the little species feed the bigger species who feed us.
5. Our global warming is increasing, but if we consume it now we can save it. There are 10 signs of Global warming;

1. The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing because we are producing more CO2 with all the processing we do, whether it’s coal in China or oil in Canada.
2. All the ‘hottest decades’ keep changing constantly, meaning that they record 2014 as the hottest year but then the year 2015 is warmer, so the records change.
3. The rate of warming has never happened within a 11,000 years do to more population and processing.
4. The arctic sea life is in big, big danger because of the acidity, pollution and the melting of ice.
5. Greenland is losing a lot of ice fast do to the increase in the ocean temperature.
6. Antarctica is in the same state as Greenland.
7. Oceans are warming up because of the Ozone depletion and the heat from the sun is intensifying.
8. Sea levels are rising because polar ice caps are melting.
9. Our planet is heating up which affects all of the oceans, out climates, and environment because of the Ozone depletion.
10. Our “Extreme Weather” is becoming more extreme do to the lack of humans not trying to help repair it and taking advantage of it.

Basically we are overpopulated, were over producing everything and we don’t care we just use and abuse it.

Biologically our global warming is increasing because of the increase of microbial diseases like; west nile from mosquitoes, rift valley fever, zika virus and plus more. Also the spread of acid in the oceans not only affects global warming and ozone depletion, but our marine lives. Some signs around the world that this is a big issues is Syrian climate refugees, poverty, and individual people putting money into getting renewable resources. Some people are also making green homes, or they put solar panels on the roof of their homes