http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/Poster_Presentations/PstrStart.html
The link above is a good source to go through step by step process of what is useful to be included onto poster presentations and what is not needed. Right from the start it gives a basic layout of a poster idea, and the reading is small and easy to navigate through and with good visuals to see rather than just read or hear another person say this is good and this is bad. It actually gives good visuals to either base ideas off of or to just use in bits and pieces as someone would do their own project.
abacus.bates.edu/~bpfohl/posters/
I really think this second link is useful specifically to us, because it caters to the use of PowerPoint in making a poster presentation. It gives little details that are helpful to make a poster look professional and to make it look as though there were actually time put into the project.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
What causes Ice Ages?
It seems from the readings that ice ages are caused by many things, including Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations, changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun (Milankovitch Cycyles), and the motion of tectonic plates resulting in the relative location and the amount of continental and oceanic crust on the Earth's surface. Most of the issues begin with the idea that the Milankovitch cycle creates a period, in the North, that causes snow to not melt in the summer time from previous seasons. This is caused from lower than needed temperatures and as this cooling happens snow accumulates and keeps continuing up until it reaches areas that are warm enough for it to melt. As the snow is unable to melt it causes Carbon dioxide levels and temperature to decrease causing a period in which the cold only exist, from not enough heat getting trapped and instead reflected by the snow and becomes huge ice sheets that cover a mast amount of the Northern continents. There are of course other influences, such as winds taking water vapor to lower latitudes and ocean currents taking warmer water lower as well, but the main ideas behind the cause of an ice age are the period listed above.
Figure 1: This shows how ice ages can occur,more specifically the Milankovitch cycle. The Earth axis tilt over time and at points when the North or south is as far away as possible there comes the point when temperatures fail to reach a critical value to melt the ice and snow.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Tipping Points
One such tipping point listed in the Kerry paper was the runaway greenhouse effect, which talks about an increase of water vapor in the air leading to the oceans and water sources to dry up from increased heat and the cycle that would keep going until the earth was waterless and the heat created would cause the effects of an inferno, basically too hot for human life.
Another is the idea that the more snow that develops and spreads across the Earth will cause more heat and sunlight to be reflected back and would increase the amount of ice and snow covering the Earth until it is completely covered and there is no heat getting in to melt the snow and ice. A recent theory kind of shuts down this idea saying that without any water carbon dioxide could not be absorbed and the greenhouse effect would eventually melt the snow and ice.
One thought about a tipping point in the oceans was mentioned in Sanders' article and said basically that changes in temperature and acidity in oceans could cause a tipping point for coral reef ecosystems causing the cycle to change drastically or completely fail.
He also mentions in that article that melting in Antarctica can lead to a rise in sea and ocean temperatures as the increase in heat creates more melting of ice. The more water and less snow and ice would result in more warming, because of more sunlight absorption by water as compared to snow and ice.
Then the Levitan article talks about more of a domino effect stating that the melting in the Arctic could cause a rise in temperature and spread down northern continents creating a domino effect of increased heat started from the Arctic. Although most have said there is no clear evidence to predict that there is a tipping point for sure, they do not want to rule it out and feel that something should be done such as trying to reduce our emissions, to lessen our effects on the greenhouse effect.
The ones that seem to be the most likely to occur in recent years are the two mentioned by Sanders, being that the sea levels could rise, it states by up to 3 feet by 2200, and our heat from emissions needs to be reduced to stop this and coral reef ecosystems. Then, Levitan's domino effect is more of a slow change, but says there could be a point of no return which we simply cannot guess exactly at this point. Finally, the two extremes of the fire and ice world, seem to be not really something that could happen soon, but it does get people to think that ok this in theory could happen so lets not try and push it past a point of reversing.
Reliability: I think all these articles are quite reliable and list many of the same scientists, some being known as leading scientist, others were still well respected. So overall they were good sources.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-global-tipping-points-exist/
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/12/03/report-warns-of-climate-change-tipping-points-within-our-lifetime/
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5OYZdqOzxSLa3hSdE9GX0FycFE/edit
Another is the idea that the more snow that develops and spreads across the Earth will cause more heat and sunlight to be reflected back and would increase the amount of ice and snow covering the Earth until it is completely covered and there is no heat getting in to melt the snow and ice. A recent theory kind of shuts down this idea saying that without any water carbon dioxide could not be absorbed and the greenhouse effect would eventually melt the snow and ice.
One thought about a tipping point in the oceans was mentioned in Sanders' article and said basically that changes in temperature and acidity in oceans could cause a tipping point for coral reef ecosystems causing the cycle to change drastically or completely fail.
He also mentions in that article that melting in Antarctica can lead to a rise in sea and ocean temperatures as the increase in heat creates more melting of ice. The more water and less snow and ice would result in more warming, because of more sunlight absorption by water as compared to snow and ice.
Then the Levitan article talks about more of a domino effect stating that the melting in the Arctic could cause a rise in temperature and spread down northern continents creating a domino effect of increased heat started from the Arctic. Although most have said there is no clear evidence to predict that there is a tipping point for sure, they do not want to rule it out and feel that something should be done such as trying to reduce our emissions, to lessen our effects on the greenhouse effect.
The ones that seem to be the most likely to occur in recent years are the two mentioned by Sanders, being that the sea levels could rise, it states by up to 3 feet by 2200, and our heat from emissions needs to be reduced to stop this and coral reef ecosystems. Then, Levitan's domino effect is more of a slow change, but says there could be a point of no return which we simply cannot guess exactly at this point. Finally, the two extremes of the fire and ice world, seem to be not really something that could happen soon, but it does get people to think that ok this in theory could happen so lets not try and push it past a point of reversing.
Reliability: I think all these articles are quite reliable and list many of the same scientists, some being known as leading scientist, others were still well respected. So overall they were good sources.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-global-tipping-points-exist/
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/12/03/report-warns-of-climate-change-tipping-points-within-our-lifetime/
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5OYZdqOzxSLa3hSdE9GX0FycFE/edit
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Post About Connection of Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events
The question is, what is the
connection between climate change and extreme weather events and disasters?
I would answer this question by first pointing out there is no direct evidence to prove that the increase in temperature is the ONLY cause for an increase in extreme weather events (i.e. heat waves, hurricanes, forest fires, etc.). From reading and watching videos about this information it seems though that there is a bit of a consensus to say that the increase in temperature globally leads to extreme weather events to become more likely to occur. Meaning that the increase in temperature makes it such that areas that already had forest fires, that are now hotter because of global warming, are more prone to get a forest fire. The sources that I got from touched upon the idea that climate change is so hard to connect to extreme weather events, because fires are a few steps removed from simply a temperature rise and is hard to show a direct connection. There is also an idea that climate change can also cause the cold extremes, such as increased snow, but the fact still remains there is no direct link that we can be positive to make such a call. A good way to look at the scenario would to be to compare it to studying for an exam. Take for example someone who reads the book assigned for a course. You would think that a person who does all the work is going to get a good grade, there is an assumption that doing the work increases your chances of getting a good grade on an exam. Except the fact still remains there is no way to assure that doing all the work will get that good grade, just like with climate change and extreme weather events. We notice that the increase in climate change is also caused some increases in extreme weather events, but you cannot make the assumption that it is a DIRECT cause without proof, same as you cannot say that simply reading will get you good grades(other factors like applying ones' self are important). Finally the last answer of who is Kevin Trenberth is answered by saying that he is a lead scientist that is part of the Climate Analysis Section at the USA National Center for Atmospheric Research. He is a Atmospheric scientist as well as a meteorologist that was the lead author of the IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change 3 different years(1995, 2001, 2007).
Sources used:
- Based on what you just saw and read - how would you answer this question?
- What are the connections? Does it even matter?
- Is there a good analogy you can use to illustrate the connections?
- And - who is Kevin Trenberth?
I would answer this question by first pointing out there is no direct evidence to prove that the increase in temperature is the ONLY cause for an increase in extreme weather events (i.e. heat waves, hurricanes, forest fires, etc.). From reading and watching videos about this information it seems though that there is a bit of a consensus to say that the increase in temperature globally leads to extreme weather events to become more likely to occur. Meaning that the increase in temperature makes it such that areas that already had forest fires, that are now hotter because of global warming, are more prone to get a forest fire. The sources that I got from touched upon the idea that climate change is so hard to connect to extreme weather events, because fires are a few steps removed from simply a temperature rise and is hard to show a direct connection. There is also an idea that climate change can also cause the cold extremes, such as increased snow, but the fact still remains there is no direct link that we can be positive to make such a call. A good way to look at the scenario would to be to compare it to studying for an exam. Take for example someone who reads the book assigned for a course. You would think that a person who does all the work is going to get a good grade, there is an assumption that doing the work increases your chances of getting a good grade on an exam. Except the fact still remains there is no way to assure that doing all the work will get that good grade, just like with climate change and extreme weather events. We notice that the increase in climate change is also caused some increases in extreme weather events, but you cannot make the assumption that it is a DIRECT cause without proof, same as you cannot say that simply reading will get you good grades(other factors like applying ones' self are important). Finally the last answer of who is Kevin Trenberth is answered by saying that he is a lead scientist that is part of the Climate Analysis Section at the USA National Center for Atmospheric Research. He is a Atmospheric scientist as well as a meteorologist that was the lead author of the IPCC Scientific Assessment of Climate Change 3 different years(1995, 2001, 2007).
Sources used:
Feebacks
The ice-albedo feedback is the system in which snow and ice reflects back more sunlight and heat than other surfaces, therefore cooling an area, but when this ice melts it in turns is reflecting less heat back. So when the ice melts in an area such as the Arctic it will inevitably cause more ice to melt, because more heat will get trapped in the area than before and cause a trend of ice melting. Not only can heat from the sun cause this effect, but also human heating and other processes of creating heat can cause ice to melt and lead to more ice melting.
Source: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-change/guide/science/explained/feedbacks
Source: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-change/guide/science/explained/feedbacks
Figure 1: This separates the latitudes into three regions. At the higher latitudes you see a constant polar season, where the temperature is cooler, opposed to the central tropic region where it is consistently wet and dry and warm.
Ice Cores
Ice cores are a useful tool in predicting the past climate change. One such reason for this is that when the layers of snow fall down they trap the dust, sea-salts, ash, gas bubbles and human pollutants of the past underneath and it freezes over. The important part is that it traps all of this so we can later examine the inside chemical makeup to figure out these concentrations at separate periods. The deeper you dig to retrieve an ice core the longer period of time you can see variation of weather periods and what the area was like in the past. An important piece of information gathered from these ice cores though is the water isotopes that are known to have relationships with temperature and are good predictors at determining past temperatures beyond our records. The ability of these ice cores to trap substances and chemicals is key in helping figure out climate change, and the fact that they are layered so well helps determine time periods and how these periods changed in climate. For example salt concentrations are associated with higher winds, similar to how the water isotopes are associated with temperatures.
Source: http://climatechange.umaine.edu/icecores/IceCore/Ice_Core_101.html
Source: http://climatechange.umaine.edu/icecores/IceCore/Ice_Core_101.html
Ocean Sediments
1. Ocean sediments are special, because they can be used to find out climate change of water surfaces of oceans and of areas on continents next to these oceans.
2. Ocean sediments are good for predicting the climate of past surface water temperatures, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrient availability. Also using inorganic materials found in ocean sediments can be used to find information about continental humidity-aridity variations and intensities/directions of winds.
3. Things that set Ocean sediments apart from other proxies is that there are billions of tonnes found on ocean basins every year, so there is almost always availability to this source.
4. The areas that Ocean sediments truly excel is in coastal continental areas and finding out surface temperatures in the surrounding waters, these sediments are good for determining climate change of these locations. They are also able to help find these changes from ranges of thousands of years all the way to ten million years in the past.
5. Ocean Sediments would prefer to work in areas that are coastal, such as off the coast of California, Alaska, Australia, and basically anywhere that has a surrounding area of water that has sediments for study.
Source: http://www.global-climate-change.org.uk/3-3-4.php
2. Ocean sediments are good for predicting the climate of past surface water temperatures, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrient availability. Also using inorganic materials found in ocean sediments can be used to find information about continental humidity-aridity variations and intensities/directions of winds.
3. Things that set Ocean sediments apart from other proxies is that there are billions of tonnes found on ocean basins every year, so there is almost always availability to this source.
4. The areas that Ocean sediments truly excel is in coastal continental areas and finding out surface temperatures in the surrounding waters, these sediments are good for determining climate change of these locations. They are also able to help find these changes from ranges of thousands of years all the way to ten million years in the past.
5. Ocean Sediments would prefer to work in areas that are coastal, such as off the coast of California, Alaska, Australia, and basically anywhere that has a surrounding area of water that has sediments for study.
Source: http://www.global-climate-change.org.uk/3-3-4.php
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