https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r en-us 2018-05-15 12:01:56 UTC 2018-05-18 01:23:23 UTC hello@padlet.com 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/203584274 In October, President Trump nominated Andrew Wheeler, a very well known, outspoken coal lobbyist for the #2 seat in the E.P.A.  Groups that promote fossil fuels and oppose most climate change legislation, such as the Institute for Energy Research, are huge fans of the nomination, while a lot of others are up in arms regarding it.  In fact, some democrats are calling for a veto of his nomination on the grounds that he has previously worked for certain powerful energy companies. This nomination is one more piece of Trump's plan to revamp America's climate laws in a way that aligns with his campaign promises.]]> 2017-11-05 02:00:02 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/203584274 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260808294 2018-05-15 12:07:43 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260808294 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260809966 According to a recent study published in the Lancet Scientific journal, pollution kills about 9 million people worldwide each year.  These deaths are the result of dirty air in China and India, tainted water in sub-Saharan Africa, toxic mining conditions in South America, as well as many other things. These 9 million deaths related to pollution are more per year than deaths caused by HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis combined. These numbers are quite astounding, and according to environmental expert Gina McCarthy,  these numbers are not only astounding, but very reliable. She is known to claim that these are the best epidemiological numbers that we have. ]]> 2018-05-15 12:13:15 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260809966 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260810434 2018-05-15 12:14:47 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260810434 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260810591 In efforts to lessen the effects of flooding of the Mississippi River, humans over time have built systems to try to contain the water, such as levees. This method it turns out, seems to have been a bandaid. Research done recently states that 100 year floods now have a 20% chance of happening each year, whereas a century ago it was only a 1% chance (hence the name). "We've only channelized the river. We've strengthened it," says Sebastian Munoz, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. ]]> 2018-05-15 12:15:16 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260810591 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811001 2018-05-15 12:16:31 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811001 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811112 Shell, the oil powerhouse, as reportedly devised a plan to oust oil from the energy equation, and comply with the goals of the Paris Accords of having Earth's temperatures rise no more than 2 degrees celsius over pre industrial levels by 2070.  The plan is complicated, but the CEO of Shell has stated that he plans on the company's carbon footprint to be cut by 35 percent by 2035 and 50 percent by 2050. He has also said that part of their plan is to push the advancement of nuclear energy towards reaching numbers about three times as high as they are right now. ]]> 2018-05-15 12:16:48 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811112 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811262 The article explains how the nuclear industry is really struggling in America, despite the plea by experts such as the one in the Switch Video from class, and that things aren't getting much better. FirstEnergy Solutions just announced that they plan on shutting down 3 struggling plants if the government does not intercede and help them. To make matters even worse for the future of Nuclear Energy, Rick Perry, the Secretary of Energy in Trump's Cabinet was quoted saying, "FirstEnergy Solutions will most likely file for bankruptcy by the end of the month". ]]> 2018-05-15 12:17:10 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811262 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811479 2018-05-15 12:17:43 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811479 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811682 At the top of a 50 foot cliff in the Bahamas lies a common tourist spot -- two extremely large boulders. For decades, scientists have wrestled with the question of how they got there, but the solution may have just been found. After running data, is believed that these rocks may have landed there during a period of time around 100,000 years ago, when global temperatures were high, sea levels were too, and storms were violent enough to throw boulders from the sea as large as these. This idea is scary to a world with a rapidly heating climate, and it acts as a warning to avoid the Earth to going back to that state. ]]> 2018-05-15 12:18:23 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811682 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811957 This video from the Wall Street Journal highlights why Hurricane Harvey was as devastating as it was to Houston. The video begins by stating that most storms quickly move off the coast at which they first hit, but Harvey was different and stayed inland for a very long period of time. Houston also lies very low in altitude, which does not help at all with drainage. To further worsen drainage issues, Houston has not been careful with preserving its swamp-land, and has allowed for a lot of laying down of asphalt. This means that the only place that the water has left to go is the residential streets. All of these factors contributed to the making of "the 800 year flood". ]]> 2018-05-15 12:19:05 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260811957 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812250 Yesterday, the U.S. released a report worked on by 13 of their agencies, that states that "humans are the dominant cause of the global temperature rise that has created the warmest period in the history of civilization," entirely contradicting the views of the Trump Administration in the process.   This release is very timely, as next week the United Nations convenes in Germany for its annual conference regarding climate change.  The U.S. is expected to be heavily criticized for the fact that Trump's peers now have scientific proof that his views on climate change are incorrect, and that he seemingly will still remain out of the Paris climate accord agreement.  ]]> 2018-05-15 12:20:00 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812250 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812361 The United Nations just announced that Carbon Dioxide levels grew at a record rate in 2016. This rate was 50% faster than the average of the last decade, taking the ppm from 400 to 403.3. The last time that the world has ever seen levels of Carbon Dioxide this high was 3 to 5 million years ago in the mid-Pliocene era. Scientists believe that this growth in Carbon Dioxide levels has contributed to the sea levels rising about 20 meters and the global average temperature also rising 3 degrees. ]]> 2018-05-15 12:20:21 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812361 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812416 Recent research shows that the cold snap of the last few weeks is not the result of climate change.  This research was done as a result of Trump's odd tweet saying that the East Coast "could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming. Al Gore then responded to the tweet by saying that he believed that the drastic temperature change was just some more of that good old climate change. The researchers also said that these swings are just natural in North America, and that while they'll still happen, they will most likely not be severe as climate change worsens. ]]> 2018-05-15 12:20:30 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812416 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812575 Most articles about climate change have a very saddening view on the Earth's future, but this one is quite the opposite.  According to a team of researchers from Leeds, England, if we continue creating environmental legislation at even a bit of a faster rate, then we may just end up at the lowest end of their predicted average temperature range at the end of the century.  They were able to predict this using something called "equilibrium climate sensitivity". The only problem with this data is that it is just that - predictions. Should we hit temperature ranges just a tad higher, the same scientists say that we are essentially doomed.]]> 2018-05-15 12:20:56 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812575 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812707 A team of researchers led by Daniel Scott, a University of Waterloo professor, recently did research that analyzed the rising temperatures in all of the previous Olympic Winter Games sites. They came to the conclusion that of the 21 sites, 9 of them will have temperatures too high to host another Winter Games by the year 2050. The researchers were also quick to point out that conditions for the Winter Games have not been ideal in recent years either. In Sochi, a record number of snowboarders wiped out during their half-pipe run. This crazy occurrence was due to the quality of the snow at the top of the pipe. The sugary texture slowed the riders down right as they were attempting their most difficult maneuvers.  ]]> 2018-05-15 12:21:22 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812707 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812770 President Trump and America as a whole made headlines when they did not sign the Paris Agreement, which aims at solving global warming as a world. Despite the signing by almost every other nation, emissions still climbed in all of those areas, but in the U.S. emissions actually fell. Asia accounted for two-thirds of the global increase in emissions, whereas the U.S had the biggest decrease of any modern country in history within the last year. Experts hope that it is just a blip worldwide in solving the issue, but they all also agree there is a lot of work to be done. ]]> 2018-05-15 12:21:33 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812770 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812819 Data shows that the rising of sea levels around Easter Island, a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, are threatening the islands famous statues, while also eroding the land. Most of these statues lie around the perimeter of the small island, and the projected rise in sea levels by 5 or 6 feet threatens the statues. This would not only threaten the history that lies in these statues, but almost the entire economy of the small island that stems from the tourism that the statues bring in. ]]> 2018-05-15 12:21:41 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260812819 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260813729 NASA just ranked 2017 as the second hottest year since the data was first recorded in 1880. The only year to have been hotter was 2016. Even more shockingly, it came during a year without El Nino, which as we learned, naturally increases the average temperature. Gavin A. Schmidt, the man in charge of the committee that compiled that data at NASA, was quoted saying, "It's not that we've gotten to a plateau, this isn't where we're going to stay. In ten years we are going to say, 'oh look another decade of record setting temperatures'". Scientists also project that if our temperatures rise more than an average of 2 degrees celsius, the climate will hit a "disastrous point of no return".]]> 2018-05-15 12:24:05 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260813729 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260814076 Tracked as a measure of the effects of global warming, the amount of Arctic Sea Ice was the second lowest this winter in recorded history. Due to temperature fluctuation, there is naturally more ice in the winter than there is in the summer, and this winter there was a historically low amount of it. Experts have even linked this change to the rise in Nor'Easters within the last few weeks, and as with many cases of global warming, this tie can reminds us that the Earth is a system where every action has an effect on something else. ]]> 2018-05-15 12:25:01 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260814076 18wajdap https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260814860 This article outlines the idea that environmental issues are becoming increasingly bipartisan, and that this trend has no plans of stopping soon.  Fewer than a third of republicans nationwide would say that climate change is caused by humans, compared to an overwhelming majority of democrats.  As a result of today's hyper partisanship, "Being skeptical about global warming has become part of Republican or conservative identity", says Riley E. Dunlap, a professor of environmental ecology at Oklahoma State University. Due to this overall trend, it will become harder for environmental legislation to become passed. ]]> 2018-05-15 12:27:13 UTC https://padlet.com/18wajdap/6bzmjith9r3r/wish/260814860