Sunday, May 13, 2012

Cop out, again

Ok so, this is a cop out, but I leave you with hope.....I hope (sorry, bad bun, I mean pun). This is a science report I did a few weeks ago, but next week, I'm going to do a HUGE movie-review extravaganza of the absolutely amazing movie Birdemic: Shock and Terror (available on Netflix Watch Instant). So be afraid, be very afraid.


Realization of Global Warming
                Global warming is a prime example of how scientific data can actually affect a whole society. Everybody, including politicians, will state their view on the issue. It’s a very political issue, and everyone wants to talk about it.  We are so used to phrases like ‘greenhouse effect,’ ‘ozone whole,’ and ‘carbon cycle’ are very common in speeches and general conversation. However, most of us are so concerned with politics and have lost track of the actual facts about global warming. Many scientists hope to make the general population aware of global warming, but it has been hard. There is a lot of data that backs up global warming (140 years of data and also reconstruction of the last 1,000 years of weather patterns) show that the earth is warmer now than it has been in the past millennia. The main question is: how much of an impact have humans had on the warming of the earth. Is it our fault alone, or is earth doing it by itself. Some people are so say that scientists are just trying to scare people, and also state that science isn’t used to prove global warming. The global average of warming goes from 0.5⁰ Celsius to 6⁰ Celsius. Some regions of earth will also become colder, say scientists. Global warming could be catastrophic, and potentially cause a lot of harm to the world. Without our atmosphere, the temperature of the earth would be about the freezing temperature of water.
                Although it might seem that anybody studying the environment should have realized that the earth could be affected by human pollutants, it’s not that simple. A lot of global warming evidence isn’t a complete study. It’s bits and pieces. It takes a certain type of researcher to actually study climate change, as they have to go to obscure places to gather data. Global warming wasn’t discovered in one experiment, it was the product of many different experiments over a long period of time.  Even as far back as 1896 scientists like Svante Arrhenius were commenting on how “evaporating coal mines” into the atmosphere was having an effect on the earth. In the 1950s, two scientists started to study carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere: one of whom was David Keeling, a post-doctorate student as Caltech. He had been studying the carbon dioxide levels in different areas of the country in 1955. He loved the outdoors, and decided to work outside of the lab.
                By 1958, he’d collected a huge amount of data and found that there were two invisible carbon dioxide cycles.  Another scientist, Gilbert Plass, was researching heat-seeking missiles, and began to study the absorption of energy by carbon dioxide. Many researchers began to study global warming, and the decided to meet in Boulder, Colorado. The meeting was called “Causes of Climate Change” As fuel resources began to become used at alarming rates, the world began to feel the effects of climate change, however, when politicians and reporters wanted a lot of answers that the scientists didn’t have.
                By the 1980s, climate change started to become a very public topic. Although one=third of America’s population had actually heard of global warming, accurate details haven’t been discovered yet. It was becoming more popular, and more scientists began to make shocking discoveries. People had to face the truth that global warming was actually happening.


1.       Important inventions are often thought of when we think of science’s contributions to the public’s well-being. However, many scientific ideas contribute to society as well. Without research into global warming, we never would have known that we need to reduce our emissions. So now we can at least try to stop global warming.
2.       Science is such a broad subject that one subject or experiment can’t cover a whole phenomenon  We need multiple experiments to cover all of the angles of the subject of study.
3.       If we are just working on trying to do experiments for the benefit of society, we won’t study everything that is available for study. The research will be on what the people want, not what needs to be studied/done.
4.       They don’t understand that not all experiments can be done in the lab. Some experiments can only happen if we take a more broad experimental approach.. 
nand now, the trailer for Birdemic....

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