Month: April 2020

Recently, the new UCL-led study showed that global warming may cause a loss of biodiversity throughout the 21st century.

Dr. Pigot and colleagues from the USA and South Africa did the research. They used the climate model data from 1850 to 2005 and cross-referenced it with the geographic ranges of 30652 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and other animals and plants. The data was available for areas across the globe, divided up into 100 by 100 km square grid cells. According to the model, they predicted that species in each grid cell will begin experiencing temperatures that are consistently higher than the organism has previously experienced across its geographic range, for a period of at least five years. Especially, at least 73% of the species would be influenced by the increase of temperature and more than 5% of constituent species may endanger. It is irreversibly harmful to the ecosystem.

The experts stated that climate change would begin before 2030 in tropical oceans. And recent events such as mass bleaching of corals on the Great Barrier Reef indicated that the environmental issue had already started to happen. Until 2050, higher latitudes and tropical forests may be seriously influenced.

To relieve the environmental issue, Dr. Piogot claimed that the reduction of emissions could avoid more species to be died out. As long as keeping global warming below 2 °C, it will be effective for species to adapt to the change of climate with more time.

Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/#74972df52254

Audience: Forbes is an international platform mainly used by industrialists and business owners. The average age for users is 46.5, and since it is a paid service I would assume that the audience is rich to an extent. Also Forbes talks alot about technology to tech geeks are also a quite active part of the audience.

The topic I am choosing to write about is what COVID-19 has to do with Climate Change. I am writing about how the pandemic has actually been saving our planet. The debate on this topic is that going vegan could have prevented not only COVID-19 but many other human diseases. The meat industry has been one of the biggest contributors to global warming for many years now and red meat is also known to be bad for people’s health. In a Euronews article, The best way to prevent future pandemics like coronavirus? Stop eating meat and go vegan written by Elisa Allen, she writes that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that “more than 75% of emerging infectious diseases originate in animals” (Allen, 2020). Another article from Wired believes that more regulations on meat markets and other places that deal with wildlife could help with slowing future zoonotic viruses. On the other hand, some believe going vegan might not have entirely prevented COVID-19. In the article, A vegan world wouldn’t keep diseases like COVID-19 from infecting humans, from Popular Science written by Kat Eschner, epidemiologist Gregory Gary said that even if the world went completely vegan, we would still be in contact with animals that carry foreign pathogens. He also stated that animal consumption is a significant contributor to many new human diseases which is important to know. In this debate, I think it’s important to take into consideration the idea of consuming less meat for the health of the population and the environment. My position is important because it helps us understand how to prevent a future outbreak.

Copper. That bright, retro looking metal that might remind you of perhaps the finishing in your grandmother’s home, has surprising benefits. Used by the ancient Greeks, Romans, Indians, and Native Americans, Copper has been prized for its antimicrobial, and antibacterial properties.

When bacteria and viruses land on hard surfaces, they can often last for hours to five days, however almost upon instant contact with copper, bacteria and viruses die. This is why hospitals once used to be fitted with copper fixtures, as it is known to kill these sickness causing microorganisms and is the only EDA approved metal to do so. With the rise of CoronaVirus across the world, perhaps we should take a step back and look into the ancient practices of various cultures and take notes.

While it may not be feasible to change all your stainless steel hardware throughout your home to copper, a simple way that one could incorporate this rose gold metal into your daily routine would be to use a copper water bottle or water pitcher. Not only will this water hydrate you, but the container will make sure the water is antimicrobial and antibacterial. Furthermore, copper is a metal that is known to help boost immunity, which is incredibly important during this time. Thus, incorporating copper is another way (along with hand washing) to help you to stay as well as possible during this Corona Virus pandemic.

Yesterday, the Chinese Academy of Sciences “exploration one” ship carrying “deep sea warrior” manned submersible arrived in Sanya smoothly. This voyage started on March 10. One of the significant achievements of this voyage is that scientists first found a whale fall about 3 meters long in the South China Sea. Whale fall with hydrothermal and cold springs are called the “oasis” of deep-sea life. Experts said that at present, less than 50 modern natural whale fall had been found in the world, and the newly discovered whalebone has a long-term observation value for the change of the marine environment.

The ocean’s depths are supplied by nutrients falling down from the surface waters. Whale fall refers to a unique ecosystem formed by the slow sinking of a whale’s body into the seafloor when it dies in the ocean. Whale fall can provide a circulatory system dominated by decomposers for up to a hundred years.

Different stages of whale carcass decomposition support a range of marine communities. Scavengers eat soft tissue in a few months. Whalebones can support abundant communities for years to decades, either as hard substrates (or surfaces) for invertebrates to settle on or as sources of sulfide from the decay of organic compounds in whale bones. Microorganisms depend on the energy released by these chemical reactions to survive and form the basis of ecosystems for a sustained period of time from food sources.

One whale falls, as through blue breeze, gave life to other creatures. This is the whale’s last gentle gift to the sea.

The op-ed I found on wired was written by a father on April 1st about climate change and coronavirus. He wrote about how he was coming back from a ski trip with his children and they were discussing cliamte change becasue there wasn’t much snow as there normally would be. The conversation turned into a bit of an agrument when one of his children asked what invention would be able to help? He responded with a better battery, which became the topic of his op-ed, and he talks about hwo they would maybe put together a better battery with today’s technology.

This is a very different style of writing from a scholarly article or journal because there’s no evidence or logos, it’s just the writer’s opinion and point of view throughout the whole article.

Link: https://www.wired.com/story/climate-issue/