APES Current Events

   As the fires on the west coast burn more in more, the wildlife found in the surrounding oceans could be in danger. Due to the marine animals being adapted to the ocean, they aren't used to the chemicals and air pollutants on land, making them more susceptible to health issues that we may not react to as much. The oil rig spill in the Gulf of Mexico now 10 years ago, the bottlenose dolphins who experienced the burning of the oil had extreme lung issues and their offspring died very quick. Although there is no evidence yet of the wildfires affecting the marine mammals, it is a possibility and something that should be thought about. Scientists along the West Coast are being told to start collecting data in order to better understand the consequences of the smoke on dolphins, porpoises, whales, etc. Their lungs and general anatomy differs from those animals on land who are able to get the smoke out of their system much easier. Back during the oil spill, it could ...

 Due to COVID 19 the amount of has massively dropped in many areas of the world. According to the article the amount of nitrogen dioxide levels in china have dropped by up to 30%. In Italy the nitrogen dioxide level have fallen by 40%. These are huge drops in pollution due to factories closing and less cars traveling everyday. Professor of air pollution, Paul Monks, even called it "the largest-scaled experiment ever seen" as the results will let scientists learn a lot from the air pollution pattern due to many countries quarantining. This is a huge step for the worlds environment as this will show so many people that we can make a difference to stop climate change and help the plant like we have done so now. At least the pandemic has brought something good for the world. Article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/23/coronavirus-pandemic-leading-to-huge-drop-in-air-pollution

 On September 15, 2020, Arctic sea ice reached its yearly lowest size. However this year the ice is much smaller than it should be, 2nd smallest on record. NASA has been keeping track of the Arctic's ice size since the 1970s, when the satellite data was studied it showed that the ice was increasingly small this year, only around 1.44 million square miles. The ice in the Arctic goes through seasonal patterned changes each year. The ice thickens and expands in the fall and winter to the point where almost the entire Arctic ocean is covered, and the ice shrinks and thins in the spring and summer months. The reason for the decent decrease in the size of the Arctic's ice is due to a Siberian heat wave that swept through the area in the spring. The heat wave caused the ice's melting season to start earlier than usual, this is only the second time the Arctic's ice has reached a size below 1.5 million square miles. The melting seasons of the ice keep starting earlier and earlie...

The Fight to End Climate Change      Climate change is a very controversial topic. I was hesitant  to write about this but I wanted to become more educated on this topic. Many people recognize the change that will be happening in the next few decades. This article talks about climate change. While reading this, I recognized that it was trying to persuade us readers that, in order to fight climate change, we cannot have Trump as our president. He has done absolutely nothing to help fight it. We learn that Biden already has a plan for if he wins. Trump will not help us fight it. If anything, he will make it worse. Not only will this effect us, but it will effect everything living on this earth. Think about all the animals that will lose their lives, food source, and habitat. Think about all the plants, oceans, and sea creatures that will die from this. We can help them. We have the ability to stop all of this from happening, but we aren't....

This article focuses on what energy, and how much, we can get from raindrops. Studies referenced in the article say that the amount of energy gained is based on the size or mass of the rain drop, how fast it is traveling, and how efficient the solar panels, or other device being used, is. The energy that we could gain from raindrops would not be enough to power things like our houses, but could potentially help more "self-powered miniature devices". Scientists believe that this would be able to help significantly in the near future.  How Much Power Can We Get from Raindrops? I think that it is good that scientists are still finding new ways to gain energy and power, even tough we have efficient ways that are helping us already. I also didn't think of the fact that raindrops could produce energy just from falling to the ground. Raindrops that seem so small to us can create about 0.18 Watts based on the calculations in the article. 

       As of, September 10, 2020 California has been fighting 12 dozen different wildfires, destroying 2.5 MILLION acres of their land. Because of have so many fires, the sky gets a hint of orange in it. People were then forced to leave their homes and find other place to live, that were safer. Day by day the air becomes more and more thick and deadly. Of course this all happens to them during a pandemic!       Honestly, I didn't know there was fires in California. This article really put a perspective on things. It really makes me question, because of there being so many fires, if it could happen to us. The fires also would kill all the organisms and resources, so when everyone does go back, what are they gonna have to survive off of.  Open Link Here!!

 Huge parts of the Pacific Ocean warmed up quickly around our West Coast and other parts of North America.  It would have felt like a heat wave in the ocean in the middle of the summer.  There have been a lot of short ones over the past few years but there have been ones that have lasted longer.  Scientists believe climate change is the cause of the heating oceans.  Some of these events would have been possible without human-caused warming, but there is human-caused warming which makes the odds of this kind of warming happening 10%.  As emissions of greenhouse gasses continue, global temperatures will be 5 degrees warmer leaving the oceans in extreme heat.  This could be permanent because the oceans absorb most of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gasses.  Adding this heat to the ocean can cause problems for marine life including causing toxic algae to bloom, which fish eat, causing them to die.  Animals that are food for other animals wi...