APES Current Events

Nursing their young is a characteristic that had specifically belonged to mammals, but researchers have discovered a species of spider in Southeast Asia that nurses its offspring. The young spiders feed on a nutrient -filled fluid created by their mothers until even after they have fully matured. This milk helps the spiders survive for their first 20 days, where it is necessary, but they still continue to use the milk. This is very important because it allows for more research to be put into finding out what has caused organisms other than mammals to nurse their young. This could potentially also lead to new discoveries of other insects that use milk to feed their young. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/11/spiders-nurse-young-with-milk-lactation-arachnids/

Article The increase in shopping during this holiday season has various negative impacts on the environment. Online shopping was once thought of as more environmentally conscious, but due to new overnight and 2 day shipping options, it is no longer as efficient of a shipping system. Also, the waste from electronics, clothing, and packaging can be harmful to the environment. I believe that people must make efforts to be a bit more environmentally friendly while shopping by analyzing their buying consequences and adjusting them for the betterment of this planet.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/impact-crater-greenland-asteroid-younger-dryas Scientists have discovered a 31-kilometer-wide crater underneath 930 meters of ice in northwest Greenland. The pit being 1.5 kilometers across could potentially cause major environmental damage across the Northern Hemisphere. Researchers suggest this impact of the meteorite took place about 13,000 years ago causing the Younger Dryas. Researchers discovered deformed quartz minerals along with signs of ancient impact within sediments on the outer edges of the crater. - I think it is amazing how we are still discovering new things around the world and learning more about Earth's history. It allows us to get a glimpse of the past and the affect it will have in the future.

Link Humic acids that are found in soil can be applied to elk brain tissue and nearly erase the brain protons called prions that cause a chronic wasting disease.  This disease is an incurable neurodegenerative disease that has killed deer, elk, and moose.  I think this is interesting and it is very good they have found a way to help these other populations of animals.

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/29/672063876/flash-floods-hit-communities-devastated-by-camp-fire This article was about the immense amounts of rain that California, especially Chico, is receiving after the deadly Camp Fire that has been destroying California lately. It has continued to rain very fast and there are flood warnings in multiple different parts of California. The police are warning people to not drive through or over the barricades that have been created as damage from the rain. I think that California is really experiencing major climate problems right now but I am not exactly sure how anybody could fix it because the rain is not necessarily something that we directly cause.

El Paso, Texas, which has been struggling through the tough climate changes and droughts that have been striking them has brought extreme desperate measures. El Paso will be the first large city in the U.S. to retreat sewage water to be put right back into the taps. This seems unreal and a bit insane that we have to result to this because of the ever changing Earth.

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/28/671521901/fact-check-trumps-claims-about-record-clean-u-s-air This article was about Trump and his stance on climate change. He says that we have the cleanest air compared to a lot of different countries and climate change and air pollution/quality is not something we need to worry about. The article also talked about how the environment is changing due to global warming and the increase in temperature which is affecting the ozone pollution , or smog. The air quality is not the best that it has ever been, as Trump claimed, but it has improved. I think this was a very interesting article and I kind of agree with Trump, but I also don't think that our air quality is the best that it has ever been. 

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/kids-born-august-are-diagnosed-adhd-more-kids-born-september?tgt=nr In recent studies, it has been found that 34% of kids diagnosed with ADHD turn 5 just before beginning kindergarten (meaning their birthdays are in August), than the kids that are older. This contributes to the concern that ADHD is over-diagnosed, as some problems could just be because of the age gap and maturity level. I think that this is an interesting find, because if children are misdiagnosed it can affect their entire life. But, they need to be careful that they diagnose the people who do have ADHD, because if they just chalk it up to immaturity or the age gap when it is actually ADHD, that can lead to many problems in the future.

        In recent reports, the threats from climate change   have been coming fast and furiously. The latest report from "A  startling analysis from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change"  predicts terrible food shortages, wildfires and a massive die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040. If climate change reaches 2 degrees  the Arctic sea ice is 10 times more likely to disappear over the summer, along with most of the world’s coral reefs. As much as 37 percent of the world’s population will become exposed to  extreme  heat waves, with an estimated 411 million people subject to severe urban drought and 80 million people to flooding from rising sea levels. I f we can hold the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Arctic sea ice are far likelier to survive the summers and coral reefs will continue to be damaged, but will not be wiped out. Also the overall  of people exposed to severe heat waves would drop to about 14 percent and the number of exposed people t

As climate change is becoming more present and increasing where the oceans are becoming warmer and rainfall intensity is tending to rise, it's not the reason why hurricanes are becoming stronger. In fact, it's because of us, humans, where Americans whom lived in the state are now affected by tropical cyclones up to 60 million and are becoming more prone to them as there is an average of 34 million houses built on the Atlantic and coastal regions which are the two areas most exposed to hurricanes. As in addition, most scientists think the reasoning for stronger destruction is due to the shift toward vulnerable regions as people build houses in areas prone to hurricanes which leads to the mass destruction that there is said to come from them. Therefore in the future, scientists say that hurricanes are to become more disastrous, stronger and in higher rated categories towards the second half of our century as overall the rise in hurricanes are predicted to be caused by the way we

A newly invented micro-needle bandage could patch up damaged tissue on the heart of a heart attack survivor, mending the damaged heart. The thin bandage has a base studded with tiny needles that latches onto the surface of the heart before delivering a bunch of molecules that heal damaged tissue that could have resulted from a heart attack. The flat surface of the bandage is covered in a gel that holds cardiac stromal cells containing molecules that help the growth of heart muscle cells. These molecules transfer directly from the cells to the damaged tissue. Before using these patches on humans, researchers must observe if there are any long term effects on the animals the product was tested on. Also, a more innovative way to insert the bandage onto the heart must be discovered to replace the sole option of open-heart surgery. The invention of this bandage-like product will lead the way to major advances in the medical field. If we can begin to find ways to prevent serious conditions

Over several decades blue whales pitches have been dropping, but the reason remained a mystery until recently. The study analyzed the song from three species of whale: Antarctic blue, fin, and pygmy blue whale. The study shows that variations in the whales pitches are related to breaking ice in the Southern Indian Ocean. Whales call louder in the summer so they can be heard over the breaking ice. Due to the growing number of whales they can decrease their intensity of the calls to keep in touch.The research rules out noise pollution as the global long-term end. The study also suggest that the drop in the pitches is an anatomical consequence. At first this seemed concerning to think some type of pollution is causing whales to become almost silent, but it was a relief to find out that noise pollution wasn't the issue.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181119160239.htm Geophysicists from the University of Rice have gathered evidence from the pacific ocean shows that the last ice age might have been cause by changes deep under the earth. from there study they have found that earth had changed its spin axis. Due to the spin axis changing it changed the way the tectonic plates move about. since the axis changed and the tectonic plates moved around the continents began to shift which changed the earths magnetic poles and that made the ice age begin. In my opinion this extremely important to know and understand because it can help possibly predict when the next ice age will begin. It not a set in stone and it is only a prediction but from the article it say that the shift was directly before ice age which can help scientist predict the next possible one

https://newsela.com/read/lib-ocean-noise/id/42711/ It states in this article that although the ocean is already loud because of all the storms and animals in it, the ships we have and drilling we do in the ocean add to the sound. Sound travels father underwater As we are growing, the louder the ocean is becoming because of all the ships we are using. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been researching ways to reduce the sound. One of their ways was a device to track where certain animals and another device was to track sound of human activity. To make the ocean quieter, they thought to produce more bubbles into the ocean called a "bubble curtain" which will block some of the sound waves. While reading this, I was shocked to read that sound travels farther underwater. I also could not believe that bubbles could block sound waves.

Scientists transplanted hundreds of coral fragments that were grown in a nursery to the Great Barrier Reef, near the coast of Queensland, Australia. This process is being used to prevent the world's largest reef from dying off. Normally, the Barrier Reef is left to naturally recover when its growth fluctuates. With the impending effects of climate change however, humans are forced to nudge the reef back into growth. I believe that this speaks larger volumes than the life of the reef itself. This situation sheds a light on the larger issue of climate change, and the severity of what parts of nature can easily be destroyed. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/great-barrier-reef-restoration-transplanting-corals/

Washington State University did a study on how microplastic fibers are moving through the environment. Millions of plastic waste float around Earth's oceans, even in microscopic forms, which even though they are super small, marine animals end up eating them and dying. The plastic typically comes from cosmetic items, clothing, industrial processes, and packaging. A scientist by the name of Engdahl wondered whether the plastic roamed around or if it all remained in one general area. Whereas he still does not know the answer to his question, he knows it will accurately measure the environmental impact of the plastic. However, he did find that the movement of shorter microscopic plastic fibers were more complex and traveled faster than substances that dissolved in water. I always knew plastic affected the health and safety of marine life, but I always thought it was big plastics, such as those from soda can packaging. Hearing that plastic so small to be considered microscopic create

These two ancient children were found in the same archaeological. Their teeth showed signs of lead poisoning. They probably got the poisoning from drinking contaminated water. The teeth also showed signs of nursing. Its crazy to think that our technology is this advanced to the point that we can see what neanderthals diet was and to see traces of lead poisoning.   lead poisoning

Last year, the Great Barrier Reef experienced warmer ocean temperatures that resulted in the death of a third of all coral present on the reef. In an approach to save the reef, new science has been reported that can try to save the dying coral, which includes growing coral on mesh platforms in a sandy lagoon, and then planted on a novel type of clip that will attach to the reef easily. However, the threat of climate change affects the reef's progress because continued warmer temperatures will kill off even more coral. My reaction to this article is insightful, as I do not read much about the Great Barrier Reef, but also a sign that change needs to happen in the world, with respect to climate change. Because of climate change, the coral is dying off; if the coral dies off, then we lose barriers that can protect us from storms and other events that the ocean assists in. If this new science can assist in saving coral, and we can decrease carbon emissions, then we can continue to have

There is something hot under the ice in Antarctica however scientists and researchers have  a clue what it is.  In an article written it showed that there is a lot of melted water underneath Antarctica crust.  It says that this is not related to climate change.  Scientists say that there might be a hole in the crust allowing water through and heating it up.  This article is pretty cool because I never knew much about Antarctica and I find it interesting how this is happening and how this is formed. https://www.livescience.com/64116-east-antarctica-hot-spot.html

The United States government has released it's 4th National Climate assessment and the info is not great. It highlights California's increased risk for wildfires and Iowa's agricultural struggles thanks to global warming. The second half focuses on how these changes to our climate are already effecting us at the economic and social fabric of the United States. The main problem is we must reduce the amount of green house gas or matters will just grow into bigger problems. My thoughts on this is there is definitely a problem that we should start focusing on. We continue to push ideas back and back because we don't want to make changes that will hurt our lives, rather than help the environment. The Article: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/11/climate-change-US-report0/

The oldest found human bones in Poland, belonging to a child, have a very porous surface. This hints that the neanderthal child was consumed by a large bird years ago. Because of poor preservation, however, the bones can't be tested for DNA. I think this is very interesting. Thinking about a giant bird eating a child is pretty metal. It makes you think about the giant size of birds back then and helps readers imagine their humongous bodies. Its actually kind of terrifying that a bird had the size and determination to eat a child. Bones reveal Neanderthal child was eaten by a giant bird

https://www.livescience.com/64183-solar-dimming-air-spray-climate-change-cost.html Recently scientists have discovered that releasing a cheap chemical into the air, can help slow down climate change. This chemical is not a permanent fix, but its definitely a step towards improvement for climate change. This chemical is called sulfur dioxide (SO2). It's inexpensive so "a single, determined country could pull it off." I think we should give it a shot, we need to make some sort of progress to solve climate change. Even though this is not a permanent solution, we can use the extra time to our advantage and look into other solutions before things get to the point where we can't do anymore and the damage is finished.

In this article some people argue how they would like some things left unsaid in certain cases. In ways, scientific experiments, scientists get the thrill of solving them. Some people are worried about the big reveal being disappointing. With some mysteries, it's better to imagine what's in the black hole or why we have bad dreams. Some things are better left unknown. I agree with this article, I think the way things are going is fine enough with me, why change the way I think of things, just to get a scientific answer, that's boring. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/science/unsolved-mysteries.html

The complex network of inter dependencies between plants and animals multiplies the species at risk of extinction due to environmental change. With climate change happening drastically a community of plants and animals dependent on each other could become extinct entirely caused by a domino effect. Climate change needs to be addressed and solutions need to be made because these situations are serious.   https://www.enn.com/articles/56148-global-warming-increases-the-risk-of-an-extinction-domino-effect

With reports saying that the less bitter the taste of coffee the more they drink. Bitterness is a natural warning that our system is trying to protect us from harmful substances and scientist say people with heightened ability to detect coffee's bitterness learn it to associate it with good things. With people who have a better ability to detect coffee's bitterness and caffeine can harm the taste buds in our mouths. Therefore people who are used to the bitterness of coffee can taste other things just as bitter and be used to it. My reaction to this is that coffee is very bitter and some people shouldn't drink it as much but everything is okay in proportion. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181115104603.htm

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/climate-change-economic-cost-united-states?tgt=nr The U.S.'s economy is at risk of being reduced by 10% if we don't start taking action to clean up our act. On top of that more and more people are going to die from air pollution especially on the northeast, temperatures will continue to rise (on the northeast), and there will be large labor losses in the southeast of the U.S. We need to take action. Such as signing up for the Paris Agreement. Doing nothing isn't an option.

Rising sea levels near Puerto Rico could cause trouble for the island. Nearly 8,000 structures lay at sea level, susceptible to damage. It is said the Puerto Rico will lose 3.6% of coastal land to the ocean by the turn of the century. It is still recovering from the devastating hurricane Maria last year, and rising sea temperatures could mean even more damaging hurricanes to come. This proves to me that islands are not the place to be. With warmer, and higher sea levels hurricanes will only get worse and island life will suck even more. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rising-sea-levels-climate-change-threatens-puerto-rico-s-infrastructure-n939726

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis/ This talks about how much plastic that we use and how its impacting the water because people carelessly leave plastic everywhere. It also talks about how there is between 5.3 million and 14 million tons of plastic each year. After reading this people need to put more effort into recycling so we can all do our part and better the environment and our self. Because if we don't then the plastic will keep coming and it will keep getting worse and it might be to late before we could do anything.

A new study states that a seasonal variation in the whales' pitch is in due part of breaking sea ice in the southern Indian Ocean. The new research also extends the mysterious long-term falling pitch to related Baleen Whales. This also rules out noise pollution as the cause of the global long-term trend.Blue and Fin Whales are among the loudest and largest animals in the ocean. Only the males sing. They creating a humming sound that can be as loud as a large ship and can travel up to 1,000 miles; allowing for long distance communication across larger oceans. The pitch of Blue Whales though has been dropping incrementally over the past several decades, but the reason why has remained a mystery. The new study also finds the same pattern of falling pitch in Fin and Madagascan Whales. The researches involved with the new study use new data from the Southern Indian Ocean to rule out noise pollution as the cause of the pitch change. Instead, the new study suggests the pitch drop is a con

A new study determines that half of the earth's snow, ice, and rain tend to fall on the twelve wettest days of the year. Researches now know that climate change will increase the entire precipitation amount. The researches new studies on the amount of precipitation will not help in many ways at all to the earth. Increase in the average temperature of the world cause the weather to be more extreme than normal. A recent study showed that the newly occurring hurricanes already are much wetter. Many stations were placed around the world to gather the total precipitation. Scientists came to the conclusion that rain falls very fast in a short time. Short enough for twelve days to gather the half the world's yearly rainfall. 12.5% of the yearly rainfall comes down in just two days. The most wet days of summer are 5.2% of the total rainfall and the winter is 3.4%. As the temperature starts to increase the precipitation amount will change also. Scientists tend to have one question whic

https://www.livescience.com/64169-swallowing-and-pooping-legos-for-science.html If you've ever heard somebody ask how long it takes to poop a brick, you're in luck. A scientific study recently took place where scientists in the UK and Australia swallowed the bodies of lego figures, then their heads. Weird folks, right? After letting nature run its course for a little while, they extracted the legos from their fecal matter. Roughly 10,000 people in America each year swallow whole foreign objects, such as legos, with 80 percent of them being children, requiring medical attention right away. In the end, the scientists found that swallowing legos is not harmful to an adult. They also discovered that when you swallow a rounded object, like a lego head, right after something on the sharper side, like a lego hand, helps to get the object through the body quicker and with more ease. I never thought I would read an article for a high school science class about grownups swallowing leg

French Hold Firm The French president while sympathizing with the protesters stood firmly with the tax that caused the issue. The French president is willing to adjust the tax on oil when the oil price rises or lowers, his main goal with the tax is to get people to start thinking about the environment and what the emissions from burning oil does to the environment.

Severe storms could increase by the 21 st century due to climate change. Without the reduction of greenhouse gases, the storms will happen more frequently and be even more destructive to our society. Extratropical cyclones lead to warm air being drawn from the south and cold air from the north, the production of warm and cold air fronts can produce heavy rainfall. Most of the destructive flooding occurs in North America and Europe. Researching are now analyzing the behavior current and future storms using state-of-the-art modeling and storm tracking techniques. With new advances, researchers were able to evaluate the changes and intensity of the extratropical cyclones with more accuracy. I believe it is a great idea to attempt to track future storms and weather behavior so we are prepared for a possibly weather disaster. https://phys.org/news/2018-11-climate-threefold-powerful-storms-europe.html

Just out .....The   National Climate report  we now have a climate change report from US agencies and the outlook is still not good. Just for laughs... Calling Earth a “Loser,” Trump Vows to Make Better Deal with New Planet https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/calling-earth-a-loser-trump-vows-to-make-better-deal-with-new-planet

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46327634 Deforestation in the Amazon rain forest has hit a new high in a decade. Between August 2017 and July 2018, around 7,900 sq km of the rain forest have been removed which is the equivalent to 5 times the size of London. Edson Duarte who is an environmental minister claims that illegal logging was the cause of this. The latest government data shows that most of the deforestation occurred in Mato Grosso and Para. Mato Grosso happens to be the top producer of grains in Brazil. Edson Duarte also says that organised crime is to blame for the deforestation and that Brazil must broaden its fight against these environmental violations.

The new federal report found that climate change is affecting human life and our safety, it threatens the natural and social systems we rely on, changes the quality of agriculture, causes major disrupts in our ecosystems, and changes the amount of fresh water available to us. My reaction to this is humans need to change their ways. I know a lot of people don't really care right now because it's not affecting us greatly yet, but if they don't change their ways Earth is going to die. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181125113728.htm

-ARTICLE- For a long period of time, scientists and researchers believed that there was a group of large lakes deep below a glacier in East Antarctica. How else could they explain the movements of the ice? It rises and falls in cycles and is moving in sweeping motions towards the sea, likely caused by water somewhere beneath the surface. However, in a new study, there is no evidence of those large bodies of water beneath the surface. This information is important so that scientists can determine how this area will react to climate change. The lack of lakes and water has surprised many, and the search for a reason why the ice behaves this way has begun. Researchers are going to detonate explosives to create seismic waves, in order to truly determine the structures of ice and whether or not there is water beneath the surface.

The video I watched talks of how a hurricane is formed. To give some background, hurricanes are formed by warm water giving off warm air and rising. This pushes down cold air causing a hurricane. The climate has an effect on making hurricanes worse because the water is becoming warmer and warmer overtime. This, in turn, causes a worse hurricane because of the more diverse air. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-DCyP1RBc

In a study in Shanghai, for newborns to toddlers of three years, exposure to fine particles such as PM2.5 which comes from vehicle exhaust to industrial emissions and many more showed that it had increased the risk of developing ASD (autism spectrum disorder) by 78%. In this study there were 124 children with ASD and 1240 healthy children which were the control. Professor Guo stated that the causes of autism are still complex and not yet fully understood. Air Pollution is said to be the cause of 4.2 million deaths globally every year. Many outdoor pollutants have contributed to the number of pre-mature deaths. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181105105414.htm

Article Scientists conducted an experiment with different fish to see if they can keep themselves warm in the freezing cold water. " They found that during cold exposure, the microbes tended to switch off processes that expend energy (metabolism) and turned on cell processes that were related to a stress-and-defense response. This mirrored the response seen in the genes of the fish themselves, suggesting that exposure to cold triggers a concerted energy-saving, stress-induced adaptive response that involves both the fish host and its microbiome." They realized that the fishes responses to the cold water was stress. Cold water stresses them out because their cells change and affect the fish differently. I found this very interesting that cold water would have this impact on the fish and I also found it interesting that they can change their bodies based on the water temperature.

The Caribbean region has been drying due to multiyear droughts.Millions in the Caribbean are facing food insecurity along with decreasing freshwater as droughts become more likely across the region. Growing crops is becoming difficult and so is finding freshwater sources because they are dwindling due to salt water intrusion from rising seas. Even though the Caribbean was struck by disastrous hurricanes that caused a lot of damage, the drought can slowly cause damage to vulnerable Caribbean countries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/climate/why-california-fires.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate&action=click&contentCollection=climate&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront California is prone to wildfires for a wide variety of reasons, but recently many of those factors have been combining and causing the conditions to worsen. Due to a lack of rain and high temperatures in the summer, the vegetation spread throughout California tends to dry out and serve as easy kindling for fire. In addition, California has experienced a 2-3 degree temperature increase overall due to global warming. As a result of these two things, nine of the ten largest wildfires since the 1930s occurred after 2000. I think that Californian wildfires will not only continuing impacting people now, but worsen as the globe temperatures rise.

Article The pollution in the world today is slowly but surely ruining the earth as it was. it is changing into something far more dangerous and it is killing off a lot of our wild life. One way we could fix the amount of pollution being created in this world would be signing the Paris Agreement which we just talked about. I think is is sad to look at how many animals have died from pollution that humans cause. In my opinion there is a lot more healthier ways t get rid of annoying insects.

Fires are currently ripping through parts of California.  The fires have turned deadly and thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and escape.  A new problem quickly formed.  With so many people leaving, cars began to pile up on the sides of the freeway causing a few miles to be traveled in a few hours.  Police began to urge people to abandon their cars and take their chances on foot.   This situation is extremely unfortunate and would be terrifying to be in.  The fires are most likely the result of how dry California has gotten in recent years.  If the drought in California continues to get worse, then the issue of forest fires will also increase.  If the population of California also continues to increase, then the evacuation issues the authorities are currently having will only get worse.    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/us/california-fire-paradise.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FWildfires&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=st

Large tortoises have been found all around the world and were originally thought to have come from islands, but recent studies have shown that that might be true. Due to the lack or predatory animals they are able to grow as large as they want with out any limitations to there size. The giants didn't exactly evolve on islands, they traveled to the islands and evolved more since there was an abundance of food and no humans or predatory animals to limit there growth. I believe that this helps us to see what would happen if there was a species that had no predatory animals or if there was a species that went extinct and all the animals it ate became overpopulated. his In full retro-spect, it shows us how a food chain works and how it becomes extremely useful. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181023110534.htm

https://www.livescience.com/64042-earth-weight-in-neutrinos.html Although there is no way of actually determining how much the Earth weighs, it is estimated that our planet weighs about 13.17 septillion pounds. Or 13.17 with 24 zeros added on. This number comes from an indirect calculation based on Earth's gravity. This is pretty cool to see an estimate of how much the Earth weighs.

Prolonged growing seasons are occurring because of increased temperatures that are contributing in the improvement of the US corn production.  Another reason climate change is contributing to the US corn production is even though the over all yearly temperature has risen, the hottest days of the year have cooled down. so that means it is a constant of higher temperatures with not as many spikes in the temperature. Although it is looking like a positive now scientist do not know how long this will be beneficial if things keep changing.   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181105160903.htm

This article was about young kids, the youngest being 11, having the ability to go to the Supreme Court about climate change. The activists claim they have just as much of a right as adults do to voice their opinion about climate change. They believe that because they have to live in the environment also, they should have the ability to do their part in changing climate change. There was a Supreme Court case that started in 2015 through which an Oregon citizen is trying to give children the same rights as adults in the decisions about climate change. The citizen said she is tired of the defendants playing people like they are games. I think this sounds like a better idea than what it actually is. The idea is a great one, but we can't just put our Earth into children's hands because they want the same rights as adults. A lot of people want things but that doesn't necessarily mean they need them. https://www.npr.org/2018/11/03/663887560/young-activists-can-sue-government-ov

Asian jumping earthworms are carving their way through our territory and they are changing our soil. Scientists can tell when they have been in the soil because they leave little balls of feces. They affect the earth by locking up the nutrients and chemically alter the soil \meaning the feces is holding the nutrients which makes it hard for the plants to absorb. I think this is a problem because if this keeps occurring then plants won't grow and that becomes a big problem. https://phys.org/news/2018-11-invasive-earthworm-feces-soils.html

The air and the environment we are living in is becoming more and more of a problem everyday but do you actually know what you're breathing in? With using high-powered equipment to analyze the air researchers were able to get a detailed look at what we are breathing in. With big factories becoming a problem to air pollution we should be concerned about how it is effecting us. Airborne particles falling into two categories.  The first categorize  p rimary organic aerosols that can form during combustion, such as in car and truck exhaust, and  the second organic aerosols that result from oxidation of organic gases and particles in the air. My conclusion to this is to make the environment better sooner then later because we don't have forever. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181102132001.htm

The Ocean Cleanup have come up with a project to help collect plastics in the ocean. Scientists set up a study where they placed a net in one area where it collected about 1.8 trillion pieces of debris. With larger areas, this would allow a bigger cleanup of the plastic in the ocean. However, many scientists are skeptical about whether or not this project will work in the long run. I believe that this project is someway affective in collecting plastics in the ocean. However, it is not very effective and not all plastics will be caught within the net. There is also the concern about wildlife getting caught within the netting. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/massive-net-being-deployed-pick-plastic-pacific

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181031141515.htm Oceans have absorbed more than 150 times the amount of energy humans produce annually. Earth is more sensitive to fossil fuel emissions than predicted. Oxygen and carbon dioxide are less soluble in warmer water.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/save-endangered-species-should-we-bring-them-our-cities-180970611/ This article is about how endangered animals could be taken out of their habitat on purpose and brought to cities around the world to avoid being hunted or captured and used as pets. Most of these animals are small like birds or lizards but moving them into the city is a good idea I think because that way they won't have to worry about survival as much. Nobody goes bird hunting in the city so it's the perfect place to relocate endangered birds.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2018/08/08/how-immortal-animals-do-it/#.W83CpdNKjIX This article talks about how some organisms can essentially live forever. Some of these animals include mole rats,  Turritopsis dohrnii  a species of jellyfish, and eastern box turtles. I find it cool how some organisms can essentially live forever. I'm curious as to why it certain organisms have this ability but others don't. I also hope humans never evolve to have this ability. 

 Earth's oceans are much different than its streams, rivers, and lake. The ocean contains large amounts of salt which give the water such a high salinity. This salinity is built up through rain water's acidic ability to erode and break down rocks, exposing salt deposits. This will end up staying in that water deposit forever, if you take out the possibility of animal or human disturbance, because it doesn't evaporate with the water.  I believe that  this is very interesting and it provides a basic understanding of questions that we never thought to ask.

So you probably know about other food and drinks that are most likely going to be gone because of climate change, such as honey and chocolate, but did you know beer is also threatened by climate change? Due to a decrease in malted barley, the main ingredient in beer, there will be an increase in price if (almost double) climate change continues to shit all over us. Not only will the price increase, but as the production of malted barley decreases, the taste of beer will be different. This is another effect that is going to affect our economy and as well as social aspects. NOT THAT WE CARE AT ALL BECAUSE WE ARE GOOD NOODLES AND WILL NOT CARE UNTIL AROUND THE YEAR OF 2023 OR EVEN MORE. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/add-beer-list-foods-threatened-climate-change

An elephant doesn’t have sweat or sebum glands, so it covers its skin in water or mud to keep cool.  The cracks in its skin retain 10 times more moisture than a flat surface, which helps them regulate their body temperature. Researchers also suggest that an elephants skin can offer more information on treating human skin disease. I find this article very interesting because It's nice we found a way elephants can help us without hurting them.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/science/elephant-skin-cracks.html

There are 29 million people in the U.S that live in high risk locations. Researchers used census data to identify 12 million people that are especially vulnerable to wildfires. They are less able to adapt to a wildfire if one occurred. Communities that have a characteristic disadvantage will take much longer to recover. This makes sense how a lesser community will take longer to recover. We should help these communities out when there is a disaster like this so they can recover faster. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/climate/wildfires-minorities-risk.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate&action=click&contentCollection=climate&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront

In 2011 it was discovered that sediment from fracking wastewater disposal sites still contained fracking chemicals and became radioactive. Drinking water became contaminated  and aquatic life was contaminated. In Pennsylvania it was requested that wastewater treatment plants do not release water from unconventional oil and gas drilling. A research team collected freshwater mussels from the Alleghany River and they discovered the elevated concentrations of strontium in the shells was collected downstream from the facility, the shells collected upstream showed no trends overtime.

Read it This talks about how the climate change is impacting everyone. There has been heat waves and wild fires as a result of the planet heating up. The reason for this is because people are releasing harmful gases into the environment and its part of the reason that the earth is heating up. If we would want to stop this then we would have to cut back on green house gases and focus more on using clean and renewable energy.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-roaches-fight-wasps-turn-their-victims-zombies?tgt=nr Emerald jewel wasps and american cockroaches have a never ending feud between each specie. The wasps turn their enemies into so-called zombies. With just two stings to a cockroach, they can be a walking skeleton with a small amount of meat. The wasp stings through the throat of the roach and makes its way to the brain. The roach would then only be able to move if the wasp allows it to by pulling on its antenna. As a defense, the roach can kick the wasp away like if a soccer player kicked a ball across the whole soccer field. Ok, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it's something of that sort. I heard once before that there's a such thing as a bug that created zombies, but I never believed it. Now I do and quite frankly I'm a little bit scared.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/add-beer-list-foods-threatened-climate-change Beer can be affected by climate change by making it have a sour taste left behind after you drink it. A major ingredient in beer is called Malted Barkley and is sensitive to warmer temperatures. Before 2099 barley in crop field will decrease by 17 percent. In some countries beer price may double in price. Consumption of beer will definitely drop around 16 percent compared to what people drank in 2016. My reaction towards this current event is sort of shocking.. Knowing how many things could be affected by climate change is scary. Climate change does not just affect environmental aspects, but literally everything.

In 1987, the Montreal Protocol was passed worldwide to protect the ozone layer.  The gas trichlorofluoromethane, or CFC-11 is among the gasses that are supposed to be limited in the atmosphere by this act. However, it appears that China is breaking this protocol by illegally producing it in rogue factories in the country. The ozone layer has been healing, but this breach could hurt it again. The China government says they will take action to stop this illegal production, and scientists are looking more into the effects this gas and others have on the environment. I think this is very scary, considering how powerful and big China is. If they are illegally producing CFC-11, who knows what other gases they are producing and what other world acts they are breaking.  More Evidence Points to China as Source of Ozone-Depleting Gas

The ice berg is large enough to receive its on name. While it has not yet it may not ever now. The ice berg is falling apart. The new mass that broke of was 115 square miles. While it is unclear to scientist why the massive glacier is breaking up more and more the answer may lie in the environment itself. Earth's rising temperature due to global warming may be the cause of the rapid breakup of the glacier. https://www.livescience.com/63974-pine-island-iceberg-calves-2018.html

Article Human activity has reduced species counts by about 60% over the last four decades. This crisis is occurring due to pollution, climate change, habitat loss, and exploitation of the environment. Studies show that current rates of extinction are between 100 and 1000 times higher than before human pressures, showing that human activities are the leading cause. In the last 50 years, 20% of the Amazon, which provides lots of oxygen for our planet, has disappeared. In the past 30 years, the Earth has lost about 50% of its shallow water corals. Scientists are saying that these changes are so severe that we may be causing a mass extinction. I find this extremely alarming. If we are losing biodiversity and lots of species are disappearing, who knows what kind of effects that could have on the planet. We definitely need to make efforts to help reduce our negative effects on the planet before it is too late.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/10/1024512 Scientists at London's Kew Botanical Gardens reported that there are organisms that break down and eat plastic particles. These scientists believe that there might be as many as 3.8 million fungal species that eat plastic, as only 144,000 are named. Scientists are now trying to learn on how to control this and try and stop the plastic pollution as soon as they can. I think this is super cool because it means that we can breed these and naturally break down plastic witch will obviously have a major, positive impact on our oceans.

Since 1991, the oceans have absorbed 150 times in heat energy than energy humans produce as electricity annually. This study shows that Earth's oceans are more sensitive to fossil-fuel emmissions than previously thought.