We Are Scientists 4

Farewell My Readers!

    Well you guys, its about that time. It has certainly been a pleasure writing for you. I probably learned just as much as you did in these past few weeks I’ve been blogging. Before this project I didn’t even know how to blog and I kinda thought it was weird but NO MORE! I love blogging now, I think it helps people and you learn from what you write (in this case science). There were definatly sometimes when I was like “ugh this project is a pain in the butt!” but when I look back on what I’ve done, I find myself very proud. So lets recap shall we:

 

    In my first post “Climate Change: Who is Being Affected?”we discussed the matter of all things in general when is comes to climate change. Mostly though I was talking about animals and their affections which introduced me into writing about animals fulltime. I found myself finding so many things to talk about when it came to this topic so it only seemed fair to take advantage of that. Lets fast-forward to my blog about the oil spill called “What would YOU Do?”.I had so much fun on animoto making that video. My family told me that it looks like something that should be on tv. So if you haven’t seen it: CHECK IT OUT! It had to do with the oil spill and I was asking what you would do in that situation. We all should make a choice in that matter and mine is to definatly STOP off-shore and on-shore drilling because as long as we’re drilling there will always be spills. All of my other posts were along the same lines: helping animals and preventing all of the things affecting them.

 

So guys I shall miss you and our talks. What is your choice? What will YOU Do? What do YOU stand for? I know. Do you?

Love ya,

Kenya

Coral Reefs 101 (part 2)

    I seem to be able to make videos well and people seem to get something from it. So I decided to make another while also talking about corals. There are many things that are affecting these underwater beauties. As I mentioned in my other post “Coral Reefs 101″, there is coral bleaching but another thing destroying corals is coral disease. Honestly when I first saw this I laughed because I thought it had to do with humans having a disease that looks like coral but this is no laughing matter. Coral Reefs are actually dying from coral disease which is a disease in which coral bleaching becomes too much leaving no nutrients in the coral. Also its not just this affecting the reefs, sample taking and stepping on them doesn’t help either so watch where you’re going! 

    Well I really do hope you like this video. The next time you hear from me it will be the last post I’m going to write. It has definitely been a pleasure educating my fellow readers and myself. I hope that from each post you learned something from it and really want to make a difference. I believe that in due time we can stop climate change and get the world back on track. It just takes us a while but we’re getting there…slowly….but surely. Comment on the video please, I love hearing what you think. This is Kenya signing out. Oh hold that thought……MAKE A DIFFERENCE, BE THE CHANGE WE NEED! OK, now I can go

Click here to view for the video!

Will The Trees Be Left Alone?

The removal or clearing of trees is called deforestation. Deforestation  is happening all over the world, especially in the tropical rain forests. Even the worlds largest rain forest in the world, the Amazon, is being deforested. Why does cutting down trees have anything to do with climate change? Well, the trees take in most of the carbon that we release into the air from planes, factories and cars, and  in turn they release oxygen. Having trees helps keep down the amount of greenhouse gases in the air. Cutting down trees is not the only form of deforestation. Many forests are being are also being destroyed from wildfires, which ends up releasing more carbon into the air. 

    The World Wild Life Fund (WWF) reported, not too long ago, that the Amazon will either be destroyed or deforested by 2030. How can we help; Americans can help by not buying any products from Brazil especially lumber. Other than that Brazilians are going to have to take  responsibility and not destroy the largest rain forest in the world.      

Coral Reefs 101

A good friend of mine wrote some posts on Coral Reefs and they were really good, so I decided to do some research. It really got me thinking about how severely the reefs are being affected and the sea creatures that are living within them. Coral Reefs are some of the most beautiful creatures you can find under the sea/ocean. When I first used to look at coral I didn’t think anything about it because from far away they look like rocks or just something that isn’t alive. Boy! I was so mistaken; each piece of soft or hard coral is divided into different sections and tissues. Algae makes its home inside the corals tissue and the coral stores food for the algae. The reefs are able to convert sunlight into food just like plants. The critters are like super amazing!!!!
Unfortunately things can’t always stay the way we want them. This all is just being to tie into climate change. I would have never thought that coral reefs were also being affected by this dreaded change. There is something called coral bleaching entitles that the plant like organisms that live inside the tissue called zooxanthellae. Zooxanthellae and corals work together; one provides the host with oxygen and food while the other receives nutrients, carbon dioxide, and an enemy-free shelter. Anyways, without the zooxanthellae the coral appears to turn white and all calcium carbonate is gone. More than 90% of corals are bleached and at least 50% end up dying. Poor poor reefs.
(Coral Reefs 101 part 2 coming soon to a computer near you!)

Pictures via:
http://www.thew2o.net/events/coralreefs/images/CR_image01.jpg
http://www.eoearth.org/article/coral_reefs_and_climate_change#Coral_Bleaching

Holding on…

     Most of the time when people think of climate change the first thing that comes to most minds are the polar bears. It certainly comes to mine; polar bears have become the animals that everybody knows about and hopefully wants to protect. Polar bears are also known as the sea/ice bear and are mostly found in really cold areas with ice such as the Arctic, Alaska, etc. Their only and most dangerous predators are the humans because we hunt them for their fur. But also because of global warming these animals are losing their habitats. A recent source has said that “Experts in polar bear science believe they are endangered. They predict that as the Arctic continues to warm due to climate change, two-thirds of the world’s polar bears could disappear by 2030.” Rapid loss of sea ice is becoming a major problem. Without the ice polar bears would have no place to rest which in this case is very bad considering they need the ice to rest and digest their food. Also sometimes food finding becomes a problem and the polar bears start to prey on their own kinda. CANNIBALISM!! This shouldn’t be happening and originally I would have even thought about writing about polar bears because it seems to be everyones topic but after what I’ve read, its something to be discussed.

     So what can we do to reduce this horrific realization? Well before we even think about helping, let me give you some facts on what’s going on and some charts:

             

Extreme Hurricanes to be Expected

This year a total of 23 named tropical storms that is forming in the Atlantic Ocean has been predicted by NOAA. Tropical storms aren’t exactly hurricanes quite yet, but 14 out of the 23 storms could become a hurricane. The winds of these 14 hurricanes could exceed to 74 miles per hour winds. Half of these storms could be even worse than this, with the winds becoming 110 miles per hour. NOAA has come to this conclusion because, of the warm water temperatures in the Atlantic regions of the ocean where these storms form. Including the paths that the storms take to become hurricanes. The warm water temperatures aren’t the only culprit to blame, humid air gets hurricanes moving too.

Extreme Weather To Be Expected

As the new hurricane season is approaching there is already some concerns of what is to happen. There’s some predictions that this season is to be extreme. This prediction was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or otherwise known as NOAA.  The surprising thing about this new information is the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will be affected too. 

5.4 Miles Less, That’s it?

I’m pretty sure that everyone has heard about the giant oil spill in the Gulf. If you haven’t where have you been? This disaster wouldn’t have happened if there wasn’t such a thing called off-shore drilling. In America we basically rely on oil, it helps us go everywhere! But, what if we could completely get rid of off-shore drilling in the Gulf? If we could that means no more big disasters like what is happening now, would ever happen again. Sounds good right?

It’s as easy as driving 5.4 miles less everyday. At some point, anywhere in the media people always talk about how bad America’s oil consumption is, and comparing it to Europe makes it seem even worse. Each year one American consumes up to 428 gallons on average, but in Europe the number of gallons per person is 59. Yes, this means that an average US person uses 6.2 times more gasoline per person than an average European. It’s not like this is in a lifetime either, this is every year. In the Gulf of Mexico alone, we use 1.75 million barrels of oil.

Let’s take a look at how we use this oil. A lot of adults go to work everyday, so you would think that the most gasoline would be used for commuting to and from a someone’s job right? Wrong, only 20-30% of American’s car mileage is spent on going to work. The other big portion,  or 60 miles per week was spent on entertainment. This does not include church, school, doctor’s trips etc.

I agree with the person who wrote this article, that I’m getting this information from, that we should be spending our money on something other than oil. We should be putting our money towards building bigger and better communities where we wouldn’t need to get in our car to go shopping or go to work.

Since this big idea may not come to reality there is other ways where we can drive 5.4 miles less everyday. Carpooling 2-3 days out of the week can help. Also pull out the bike that’s been in the back of the garage waiting to be used. It can decrease the miles on your car, reduce the use of gasoline and help you get the exercise. Also you have 2 legs for a reason, walking will help too.

To finish up this post, if we reduce the amount of gasoline we consume by 20% we can completely get rid of off-shore drilling in the Gulf. That would help increasingly with reducing climate change and oil spills.

What would YOU Do?

I’d like to take this time to introduce you to a video I made having to do with Climate Change. I technically should have showed this video for my 5-minute presentation but unfortunatly never got a chance to do so. While you watch the vid you may be wondering what its all about and since I can’t explain it to you during class I figured I would just do it now (better later then never :].) So here we go… I don’t think humanity is the same as it once was and I know I wasn’t born that long ago, but still. Humanity is nature of our being, how we are as people, and from what I’ve seen there isn’t really anything good we’re doing here. We’re supposed to care about things but what do some of us do when we see how animals are being treated? We turn the other way and cover it up. We blame other people..”The government did it!” or “Stupid animals!” We could be helping them out there and true of the matter is…animals need our help. If we make the mess we should clean it up right? Basically all I’m trying to say is I don’t blame you or anybody but that’s not important; we NEED to help the creatures out there who otherwise wouldn’t make it without us..Please comment on the video I hope you enjoy it!

Click here to SEE!

Ebola? Not for Monkeys!

So finishing up my lovely adventure of blogging, I decided I’d do a post about monkeys. Monkeys don’t get enought attention, and we did evolve from them.  Scientists are constantly coming up with new vaccinations for all kinds of diseases.  However, not all of them are 100% effective.  Well, in monkeys, the vaccination for Ebola is 100% percent effective!