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Jan 15: Huge Oil Spill Spreads in East China Sea, Stirring Environmental Fears

Potentially the most disastrous oil spill since 1991, a huge oil-carrying ship called The Sanchi crashed into a freighter. 3 bodies were found but 29 others were presumed dead from both China and Iran. The bigger issue at hand is the even dirtier fuel that was powering the ship leaking. This is the single largest instance of such a leakage, and furthermore is taking place in a prime breeding and migratory spot for aquatic life. Whales, blue crab, and mackerel all traffic the area of the spill. Despite being concentrated for a 40 mile radius initially, it is spreading and is now 200 miles off the coast of Japan. This especially dense oil can sink down deep into the ocean potentially further damaging marine life. This is an environmental tragedy.

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December 13: "Federal maps underestimate flood risk for tens of millions of people, scientists warn.
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that about 13 million people live in a “1-in-100-year” floodplain zone, a region that has a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year. But the agency’s risk assessment largely focuses on larger streams and rivers, and lacks assessments of risk along smaller tributaries. FEMA’s calculations “miss a lot of the risk,” says Oliver Wing, a geographer at the University of Bristol in England." This article shows risk of a repeat of the scenario in Texas earlier last year. If action is not taken, 13 million people are at risk of displacement due to floods. Once again, our politicians are too selfish so one may assume that nothing will be accomplished to rectify these mistakes. As such, the united states will likely be forced to spend trillions of dollars to make up for the mistakes of our current government.

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Jan 8: Warming ocean water is turning 99 percent of these sea turtles female.

Warmer temperatures are causing an exceptionally large quantity of sea turtles to be born female-- 99% in fact. These turtles are green sea turtles found along the Great Barrier Reef. "It’s unclear what the long-term impact of such a strong skew will be, but it’s probably not good news for the turtles. Sea turtle populations can get by with fewer males than females (SN: 3/4/17, p. 16), but scientists aren’t sure how many is too few. And while turtles can adapt their behavior, such as laying eggs in cooler places, the animals’ instinct is to nest in the same spot they were born, which works against such a change." At the moment, 1 male sea turtle is born for every 116 females.

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Jan 16: Darker Skies, Darker Behaviors

Although this sounds utterly ridiculous to me, increases in pollution relate directly to increased crime rate. However, to back their claims they looked over nine years over data from more than 10,000 cities. It's hard to refute such data. The experience of air pollution is found to make people more anxious, thus more likely to commit crimes. This research provides simply another reason, no matter how small, to reduce air pollution. Sadly the administration of the United States seems to be working against this. Carbon emission is one huge contributor and I feel that policy is moving in the wrong direction, and politicians are selfish for repealing environmental policies.

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Jan 8: US rivers and streams are compromised by increasing salt loads.

Human activity is beginning to create more-saline lakes and rivers in North America. Doing so may have consequences to infrastructure and availability of clean drinking water. The salt ions are driving up the alkalinity and pH of the water, which can influence the stability of pipes. "Sources of increased salt in waterways vary regionally. In the Northeast, sodium chloride used to maintain roads in winter is a primary culprit. In the Midwest, fertilizers -- particularly those with high potassium content -- are a major contributor. In other regions, mining waste and weathering of concrete, rocks, and soils releases calcium and magnesium salts into nearby waterways."

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Nov 3: A Warming Planet Is Helping Shrink The Ozone Hole To Smallest Since 1988.

"The reason behind the significant decrease in the ozone layer is unusually warm weather conditions in Antarctica's stratosphere, which helped push away ozone-depleting chemicals. However, the overall trend of a shrinking ozone hole is a result of the global effort to eliminate ozone attacking chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons, previously used in refrigerants." The hole first appeared in the 1980's, and has been gradually increasing in size since. At one point in the early 2000s it hit over 25 million square miles large. Increase in temperature is believed to cause short-term healing to the hole. "The ozone layer helps protect humans, animals, and plants from harmful ultraviolet radiation. Depletion of the ozone layer causes an increased risk of skin cancer, cataracts, suppresses the immune system and can damage plants. " The scientists believe that it will take until 2070 for all of the ozone depleting chemicals to decay.

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Oct 30: Greenhouse gas concentrations surge to new record.

Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged at a record-breaking speed in 2016 to the highest level in 800,000 years. This is up 145% since 1750. "Population growth, intensified agricultural practices, increases in land use and deforestation, industrialization and associated energy use from fossil fuel sources have all contributed to increases in concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since the industrial era, beginning in 1750." Because Co2 can stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, should this not be dealt with then the future could be significantly hotter. Treaties like the Paris Accord need to be made in order to further stymie the flow of greenhouse gasses into our atmosphere and oceans. If we do not make a change today, we hurt only the generations of tomorrow.

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Oct 31:  Dinosaur-killing asteroid impact cooled Earth's climate more than previously thought.

Everybody knows of theory that the dinosaurs went extinct because of a giant asteroid colliding with the earth. Something recently discovered however, was the drastic climate change that was brought about by such an event. The Chicxulub asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs likely released far more climate-altering sulfur gas into the atmosphere than originally thought, according to new research. Scientists now believe that more than three times the sulfur than was previously predicted was kicked up into the atmosphere. The massive asteroid was 7 miles wide and killed up to 75% of all plants and animals, including dinosaurs. The cloud of dust and sulfur that was in the atmosphere reflected the sunlight back into space, thus the land beneath began to rapidly cool. It is assumed that the temperature of the earth's surface dropped up to 26 degrees Celsius from the norm, which is a drastic amount. The new results and assumptions state that nearly 325 gigatons of sulfur was released into the atmosphere.

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Oct 29: (Topic Global Change)

Explorers Will Dive Beneath Antarctic Ice Shelf Looking for Life.

This article is about explorers who are diving beneath the Ross Ice Shelf to figure out how global warming is affecting life in the arctic oceans. They were to be staying in ice structures as depicted in the article, which they built due to the new skills that they learned in their 6 week snow survival courses. Both sites chosen were meant to serve as a comparison to prior data collections and expeditions. "Seven of the nine-member team would be diving beneath the ice, and they hoped to complete four dives each day by two-person diving teams, for a total of 60 dives during their six weeks of fieldwork on the ice shelf, Joanna Norkko said." The water they are diving in is -1.9 degrees Celsius. The main threat posed is by Seals which are non-aggressive but could occupy the ice holes they dig while the explorers are under the water. This could prove fatal.

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Oct 2: Radioactive material from Fukushima disaster turns up in a surprising place.

Radioactive waste from Fukuishima is releasing Cesium into the groundwater beneath beaches up to 100 kilometers away. "Scientists tested for radioactivity at eight different beaches within 100 kilometers of the plant, which experienced three reactor meltdowns when an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, knocked out its power." The fact that 6 years later this is still causing problems just shows how devastating melt-downs can be. It is said that these beaches were contaminated because of cesium being carried in the water and lapping against the beaches. However, because this water is not being used for drinking, it is not an immediate health threat.

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Sept 20: How 139 Countries Could Be Powered by 100% Renewable Energy by 2050

A study from Stanford University has conclusively found that the use of geothermal, wind, solar, and water energy to power economic sectors "including the electric grid itself, transportation, heating and cooling, industrial, and the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries — would significantly reduce energy consumption, decrease deaths from air pollution, create millions of jobs, stabilize energy prices and save trillions of dollars on health care and climate-related costs." 139 countries could feasibly be converted to these energy types by 2050, accounting for 99% of air pollution world-wide. The health issues alone due to pollution will cost each country $28 trillion each year, so the money spent to convert the system of generating electricity would be very useful in stymieing this flow of cash.

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Sept 26: Iceberg 4.5 Times the Size of Manhattan Breaks Off Antarctic Glacier

In west Antarctica, a glacier 4.5 times the size of Manhattan broke off from the rest of it's body. This is over 103 square miles of ice. Events like this could lead to future increases to sea level. "Of all the glaciers in West Antarctica, the Pine Island Glacier is the largest contributor of ice to the ocean. Each year, it loses 45 billion tons (408 billion metric tons) of ice, causing sea levels to increase 0.03 inches (1 millimeter) every eight years." "If the entire glacier melted, sea levels could rise 1.7 feet (0.5 m), The Washington Post reported." The reason why the ice is cracking is because the water beneath it is heating up. This "inside out" melting may be happening because human-caused climate change is warming the oceans, or because of increased ocean flow reaching the bottom of the ice shelf where the glacier rests.