Week 14

The big question addressed in lab, and a description of what you did.

 

In lab,
we discussed more about climate change. We reviewed and shared our elder interviews. We also looked at the  CO2 jars. Then we watched The Science of Climate Change Video. One thing that was discussed in the video was how 2020 had the most amount of wildfires. This occurred because the year also had the most amount of droughts. They stated in the video that this wasn't an issue 20-30 years ago. 





Another thing we discussed is how the Earth has warmed by 1 degree since the 1800s. This is because the atmosphere has been changing the temperature and affecting climate change. Likewise, CO2, methane, and water vapors stay in the atmosphere and cause the greenhouse effect . In 1958 the CO2 levels were 315  per million. The CO2 does naturally move up and down with the season, however until the industrial era it had never gone past 300. Now in 2023, the CO2 levels are 422 parts per million. This is a 40% increase.


Next, we have been able to see the CO2 levels up to 1 million years ago thanks to ice cores. These are chunks of ice that have been drilled out. The air gets trapped in ice naturally as bubbles and thanks to that we have over 1 million years' worth of data,


Misc Facts 

The greenhouse effect is initially bad but we have too much of it 

Surface Temperature: hottest 10 years, are all within the last 10 years 

albedo is important for polar bears because more ice means more land for polar bears 

positive means correlation 


A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture.

In Thursday's lecture, we talked about how climate change caused derecho, derecho leads to higher car insurance for some and other reasons why climate change leads to cause of living increase like groceries. This occurs because of supply and demand. For example, less strawberries equals more expensive strawberries.

Another thing we discussed was albedo and what it means. In simple terms black equals hot, if I am wearing black my clothing will warm up hotter than if I am wearing white. This is an issue in Arizona because Arizona used to get really cold at night, it would drop from its day temperature of 90 to a night temperature of 40. However, thanks to the black roads Arizona doesn't get as cold at night because the roads trap heat. Furthermore, if their day starts at 70 degrees instead of 40 degrees it then gets even warmer throughout the day and the temperatures reach 100 + degrees.


Misc Facts

-Antarctica melting is more an issue not just for polar bears but because methane is below ice , methane is 1000x worse than carbon dioxide

-turf is not a great idea  10-20 degrees hotter 

-solar panels save lots of money for not paying for electricity, ted came out on top in just three years, the government gave him back 45% of what he paid, and he made payments monthly to the bank instead of to the electric company.



Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading: What did you learn?
 I learned that Climate Change is not a new concept. It has been around since 1861.
What was most helpful? The analogies and examples are very helpful. 
What do you need more information on?
I think the information here is very sufficient. 
What questions/concerns/comments do you have?
Not so much a question Ali or Ted can answer but I am just curious if my school taught us about climate change in elementary. I would guess no, but it has been over a decade so I cannot say for sure. 

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