Now that we know about Global Warming, What can we do?

Well, on the advice of my amazing Social Studies Pre practicum Professor, I decided to check out 350.org which is an organization commited to changing our environment,

Their mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis-to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet!

Your probally wondering where 350 came from? Me too!
This is what their website had to say.

350, as in parts per million CO2, If we cant get below that, scientists say that the damage we are already seeing from global warming will continue and accelerate, but 350 is more than a number, its a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.

This is site is really cool and I advise everyone to take a look at it, I will be adding it to my link list. I searched around this site for over an hour and I found a bunch of awesome information. The topic of my blog this week is focused on what we can do, so I will stick to sharing that info with you, and boy did I find some really interesting ways to help! Starting with 10/10/10. 10/10/10 is the day that the work party starts..Will you join me? Well first I need to explain what it is. Sorry, I am overly excited and I only have 10 days to think of what I will do :)
O.K. so basically, what it is, is a way to take action in your community and help with the issue of climate change. You can creat a work project in your community, something large or small. Some great ideas are below.
Organize a tree planting, try to aim to plant 350 trees in a day
Work on a community Garden.
Ride a bike, paint bike lanes in you community or be really ambitious and head up a 350 mile awarness bike ride!
Organize a trash cleanup and make sure products get recycled.
Join the 10:10 campaign, go to 1010global.org to find out how.

I am so excited that I found this site, there is so much useful information that teaches all about the effects of global warming and what we can actually do about it. It just goes to show that millions of people are trying to make a change and they want you and I to join them! Another really neat aspect of this site is campaigns from the previous years, along with pictures and videos.
Oh, and if you do decided to do something for 10/10/10 make sure you take a picture with some sort of 350 graphic(sign,etc) and upload it to the site, becasue they are going to create a gigantic photo petition to show the world that people everywhere are demanding leadership on solutions to the climate crisis that will get the world back to 350.

17 countries dont have any work parties yet, get over to the website asap and see what you can do to help!
I cant wait to hear if anyone decides to do something :)

http://www.350.org/

What is Global Warming

What is Global Warming?
It is an increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere(especially a sustained increase that causes climate changes)
Caused primarily by increases in "greenhouse gases" such as Carbon Dioxide.

What is the Greenhouse effect?
The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature on Earth as certain gases in the atmosphere trap energy. There are six main greenhouse gases, including:
Carbon Dioxide(CO2)
Methane(CH4)which is 20 times as potent to the greenhouse effect as Carbon
Nitrous Oxide(N2O)
Hydroflurocarbons(HFCs)
Perfluorocarbons(PFCs)
Sulphur hexafluoride(SF6)
The last three are fluorinated industrial gases.
water vapor is also considered a greenhouse gas.

Why is it called the "Greenhouse effect"?

Energy from the sun drives the earths weather and climate, and hears the earths surface. In turn , the Earth radiates energy back into space. Some atmospheric gases(water vapor, carbon dioxide)trap some of the outgoing energy, returning heat somewhat like the glass panels of a greenhouse(hence the name "greenhouse effect"

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explained that there are 7 indicators that would be expected to increase in a warming world, and they are:
Sea surface temperature
Ocean heat content
Sea level
Temperature over oceans
Humidity
Tropospheric temperatures
Temperature over land

and 3 indicators would be expected to decrease, and they are:
Snow covers
Glaciers
Sea ice

and on July 28,2010 the N.O.A.A. stated that this past decade was the warmest in recorded history according to scientists in 48 countries.

It is pretty obvious that the climate is changing. It is much warmer and there is overwhelming evidence that this is happening and it is human-induced and it is one of the greatest threats facing OUR planet.

How is this OUR faults?

The Earth Observatory, NASA sums it up best.
The Human Role
In addition to the natural fluxes of carbon dioxide through the Earth systme, anthropogenic(human) activities, particularly fossil fuel burning and deforestation, are also releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When we mine coal and extract oil from the Earths crust, and then burn these fossil fuels for transportation, heating, cooking, electricity, and manufacturing, we are effectively moving carbon more rapidly into the atmosphere than is being removed naturally through the sedimentation of carbon, ultimately causing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to increase. Also, by clearing forests to support agriculture, we are transferring carbon from living biomass into the atmosphere(dry wood is about 50% carbon dioxide)
The result is that humans are adding ever increasing amounts of extra carbon into the Earths atmosphere. Because of this the concentration of Carbon is higher than it is has ever been in the last half-million years or longer.

What does this all mean for US and OUR children?

Some of the negative effects from a warmer climate include:
More hurricanes and drought
Superstorms
Weather record are being set all the time.
Massive extinciton of species will aggravate the environmental crisis.
Rising sea levels will impact many coastlines(many people live in the cape,etc)
Increase in pests and disease
World hunger caused by agriculture issues and drought
and I could go on and on.

If you havent noticed I capitalized US and OUR..Because this is EVERYONES problem and this is going to affect ALL of OUR children!


Stop and ask yourself a few questions.

Would you starve your children?
Would you force your children to have to try to survive a massive hurricane?
Would you force your children to fight through pests and disease?

Then why arent you doing anything to prevent it?

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange