Negative and Positive Affects of the Melting of Arctic Ice on a Variety of Species

           As the arctic ice melts many different species are being affected and changing the way that they live. Temperatures are increasing from global warming and it is causing the ice to melt³. Majority of species are being affected negatively, however some are benefiting from the decrease in ice. 

            Polar bears, for example, have been struggling to find food and are losing the majority of their habitat. This is causing them to venture further for food as well as go into more populated areas. The polar bears are going into people’s homes and offices¹. People are afraid of being attacked and are afraid to leave their homes. In some areas extra fences or military are used to patrol and keep people safe. Some people want the bears to be killed, however in some countries such as Russia the polar bear is listed as an endangered animal, so shooting them is prohibited. 

Image 1: Polar Bear Struggling to Find Food. Source: National Geographic⁶

           Another species suffering from the decrease in ice is the ringed seal. The seals make small ice caves to raise their young and are having a difficult time creating them. They used older, sturdier ice to build these caves and approximately 95% of the sturdier ice is gone². Since they are losing the ability to make these caves they are getting preyed upon more frequently. The pups are mostly at risk, especially those who are unweaned. The University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands created a mathematical model that predicts that by 2100 the ringed seal population could decrease by 50-99%². They also determined that the decreasing snow and ice will lead to fewer juvenile seals than adults in the future. 

Image 2: Ringed Seal Pup in Alaska. Source: Forbes² 

            One species that is benefiting from the arctic ice melting is the beaver. The beaver is moving into areas that are melting and expanding their range. This is benefiting them by increasing their population and the food they have access to. However, this is creating a negative impact on the habitat in the north. They are creating dams which are creating new water channels. The channels they are creating are making permafrost, permanently frozen ground, melt at a fast rate³. Permafrost holds the soil together, so these channels are washing away soil along with other things such as carbon. The carbon released is accelerating the warming and harming the environment. 

We need to find a way to help species losing their habitats. The loss of their habitats is what is causing the negative interactions with humans. We must slow down the melting of the ice. One way to do this is to cut back on mining, oil and gas exploration, ports or other industrial incursions. The United Nations Environment Program estimated that 15 percent of the region's lands were affected in 2001 by these activities⁴. There are also possible ways to increase the ice such as using wind-powered pumps in the winter ⁵. The pumps are designed to bring the water to the surface where it would freeze and allow thicker ice to be formed. The beavers also need to be dealt with. They are benefiting from the expanding habitat, however are causing more damage to the environment. The arctic ice melting is an issue for many different species and if it is not dealt with soon it can cause a loss of the habitat and multiple species. How do we decide what species are more important in assisting? Should species like the beaver be removed in order to save the ice from melting and harming other species? 

Sources:

1: Mack, E. (2019, February 9). Threatened Polar Bears Are Terrorizing An Arctic Town.  Forbes. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2019/02/09/threatened-polar-bears-are-terrorizing-a-small-arctic-town/#231688406710

2: McMillan, F. (2019, January 30). Climate Change Is Melting Arctic Sea Ice - And That's Endangering Ringed Seal Populations. Forbes. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/fionamcmillan/2019/01/30/the-decline-of-arctic-snow-could-decimate-ringed-seals/#46893f5f650b

3: Pierre-Louis, K. (2017, December 20). Beavers Emerge as Agents of Arctic Destruction. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/climate/arctic-beavers-alaska.html

4: Myers, S.L., Revkin, A.C., Romero, S., Krauss, C. (2005, October 20). Old Ways of Life Are Fading as the Arctic Thaws. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/20/science/earth/old-ways-of-life-are-fading-as-the-arctic-thaws.html

5: Rosen, J. (2017, February 8).  Arctic 2.0: What happens after all the ice goes? Nature. Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/news/arctic-2-0-what-happens-after-all-the-ice-goes-1.21431

6. Leahy, S. (2018, February 1). POV FOOTAGE SHOWS POLAR BEARS STRUGGLING TO FIND FOOD. National Geographic. Retrieved from: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/polar-bears-starve-melting-sea-ice-global-warming-study-beaufort-sea-environment/

Less meat, less climate change?

http://bravenewclimate.com/2012/03/24/dietary-gc-ignores-cc/

Environmentalists all over the world have their sights set on one goal: saving our planet. However, there is not just one way to accomplish this goal. We’ve all heard the various suggestions on how to do our part in reducing our impact on climate change, such as driving an electric car, turning off our lights, and reducing our showering times, but have you ever heard that eating less meat could be more important than all of those? For instance, the amount of water used to shower for two months is equivalent to the amount of water used to produce a single hamburger: 660 gallons of water (Gillam). Convinced yet?

Damian Carrington, a writer for The Guardian, confronts us with a fact that many people are unaware of, which is that “the global livestock industry produces more greenhouse gas emissions than all cars, planes, trains, and ships combined” (Carrington). Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang conducted a study to discover the levels of “uncounted, overlooked, and misallocated livestock-related GHG emissions” and found that “51% of annual worldwide GHG emissions are caused by livestock and their byproducts.” In fact, livestock and their byproducts actually “account for at least 32,564 million tons of CO₂e per year” (Goodland and Anhang). Animal agriculture also accounts for much of the deforestation and land-use occurring around the world. In fact, animal agriculture is responsible for 91% of the Amazon destruction and 45% of earth’s land is covered by livestock (Gillam).  Greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and land-use are some of the main concerns for climate change and if animal agriculture is responsible for such high amounts then obviously changes need to be made.

Meat consumption in Asia is expected to rise with a 116% increase in China and a 138% increase in India between 2006 and 2050 (Casey). This is a major concern because a growing demand for meat will result in increased greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately causing the dangerous effects of climate change to be unavoidable (Casey). If action isn’t taken to stop this increase in meat consumption, agricultural emissions could take up 100% of the carbon budget by the year 2050 (Carrington). Simply said, every other industry would have to impossibly emit no carbon in order to keep our planet from warming an extra 2 degrees.

By switching to a plant-based diet, you can reduce your carbon footprint by 50% by reducing both emissions and land-use because feeding a vegan for a year requires 18 times less land than meat eaters (Gillam).  Reducing meat consumption will not only have a positive impact on the environment, but it will also have a positive impact on human health since there are reports coming out about health issues that could be attributed to consumption of certain meats. You can help your planet and yourself by becoming more aware of your meat consumption and making a few changes.

It is safe to assume that the most effective method of avoiding this unwanted increase in emissions is to reduce meat consumption worldwide. The first step that needs to be taken is raising awareness of the impact animal agriculture has on the environment and human health. This may sound easy, but there are many barriers. Kate Irwin of The Daily Californian informs us that “many of the world’s largest and most famous nonprofit environmental organizations suppress, do not acknowledge or are ignorant of this basic truth” (Irwin). These organizations that are all about protecting the environment aren’t even addressing this problem and that is an issue. On top of that, according to Laura Wellesley of BBC News, governments aren’t addressing this environmental issue either because they fear backlash from the people and they know the public’s awareness of this issue is low so they do not feel the need to do anything (Wellesley). Despite the lack of support that this issue gets from the larger organizations and governments, many environmentalists continue to address the issue on their own. In 2014, Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn took it upon themselves to create a risky documentary, Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, to explore the impact that animal agriculture has on our environment and present their own solution to this environmental issue: a plant-based diet (Irwin). So, are you willing to give up some meat for the sake of the planet you live on?

Interaction Between Rainforests and Climate Change

(Photo cred linked)

There are a few factors that can be seen in the relationship between the rainforests of the world and climate change. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air is 40% higher than what plants were taking up about 100 years ago. (Schiermeier) From my previous blog, we know that global climate change is the increase of the Earth’s atmospheric temperature due to the increased emission of carbon dioxide that is released into the air. We took a look at what climate change can do to the world’s oceans, but the focus of this blog is to see what’s happening on land, and specifically in the rainforests of the world.

Rainforests, both tropical and temperate, are actually very beneficial to us in the fight to decrease carbon dioxide into the air. In the carbon cycle, the trees of the rainforest are known to pull the main greenhouse gas (CO2) out of the air and hold the carbon in their wood as well as the soil that they are rooted in; carbon is then turned into sugar for the plant. (Gillis) The stored carbon is what’s helpful. Sounds like the perfect picture, right? So why do we have a problem? Not only are people getting rid of the one source that can help in capturing the carbon in the atmosphere, but they are re-releasing carbon back into the atmosphere when they go into rainforests and destroy the land. Climate change is the one thing that is making it harder for rainforests to help slow down… well… climate change. Due to the increase in carbon dioxide in the air, this is causing the atmosphere to become warmer and the environment to become drier; the change in these conditions is what is killing off the trees and other plants in the rainforest. Studies suggest that by the year 2050, “temperatures in the Amazon will increase by 2-3°C. At the same time, a decrease in rainfall during dry months will lead to widespread drying.” (Pratginestos) Dead trees don’t absorb CO1, and their stored carbon is released as their biomass is decomposed.

   

Loss/Gain forest cover in the last decade (Gillis) 

Rising temperatures and dryer conditions aren’t the only things killing off the rainforests and affecting climate change. Another major factor that goes into the relationship between rainforests and climate change is deforestation. “Over time, humans have cut down or damaged at least three-quarters of the world’s forests, and that destruction has accounted for much of the excess carbon that is warming the planet.” (Gillis) Cleared forest lands also have the potential to absorb more heat energy than the forest lands that were there before. A farmland in Europe that practices “no-till” farming has come to realize that the plants that grow from their no-till technique (seeding before plowing) have the potential to decrease the atmospheric temperature in the area. This is because the “effect is driven by the increased fraction of sunlight that the soil reflects back into space… which reduces the amount of the Earth’s surface absorbed from the Sun.” (Morello) Knowing that more plants on the ground can reduce the amount of heat that the Earth is absorbing is a strong argument as to why the rainforests need to not be destroyed; the more rainforests there are, the cooler the environment/atmosphere will be, and it will decrease the affects of climate change.

It is now evident how we’re losing the rainforests: deforestation, temperature increasing, drier atmosphere, and other factors of climate change including climate change, itself. If these effects continue to happen at the scale that they are currently happening at: 

•  Coast redwood could lose up to 23% of its current distribution as the climate changes more drastically in the southern rainforest region. 
• Alaska yellow-cedar could lose up to 21% of its current distribution and already is experiencing extensive dieback from warming and reduced snow pack. (SitNews) 

Some countries have made the effort to make sure that they are cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions. Others have even proposed protection laws, and have pushed regrowth of the rainforests. According to a New York Times article (Gillis), Brazil has done more than any other country to limit the emissions leading to global warming. In the same article, it is started that leaders of other countries encourage forest regrowth in attempts to balance out the human impact on global climate change. I don’t think proposing protection laws on the rainforests as well as attempting to regrow the regions that have lost the rainforests are such bad ideas. For the amount of work the trees do for the planet in reducing the effects of climate change, it’s evident why the rainforests need to be preserved. The more rainforests that we lose, the worse the global climate change issue will get. 

RESOURCES: 

Gillis, Justin. "Restored Forests Breathe Life Into Efforts Against Climate Change." The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Dec. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.

Morello, Lauren. "Unploughed Fields Take Edge off Heatwaves." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 23 June 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.

Pratginestos, Juan. "Climate Change in the Amazon." WWF. WWF, n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2015.

Schiermeier, Quirin. "Climate Change Crisis for Rainforests." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 5 Mar. 2009. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.

"Scientists Warn Climate Change Is Threatening World's Most Expansive Temperate Rainforests." SitNews. Ed. Mary Kauffman. SitNews, 3 Mar. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.

Climate Change Effects on Coral Reefs

Photo from daintyflair.net
Healthy coral vs dead/dying coral due to effects of climate change

One of the most threatening factors to coral reefs around the world is climate change. Climate change affects the atmosphere, increasing the levels of carbon dioxide in the air. With this increase in carbon dioxide, the Earth as a whole gets warmer. When the Earth gets warmer, the temperature of the oceans increase as well. These increases in temperature are extremely harmful to the coral reefs of the world; they cause the corals to become bleached and die off. 

Steve Palumbi, a professor of marine science at Stanford University, explained what coral bleaching was in an interview with Steve Curwood for Living On Earth’s magazine. Palumbi says, “Coral bleaching is an event that happens when the water temperature gets a little too high for the coral. … And when that water temperature heats up, that algal interaction with coral breaks down and the coral splits the alga out. … It is called bleaching because they turn white before they die.” (Curwood) Some scientists believe that the rise in water temperature only weakens the coral, making them have a higher probability of getting sick and be resilient toward rising temperatures in the future. (The New York Times) This is such a predicament because coral rely heavily on the algae in the water for their survival. If the temperatures continue to rise, more algae is expelled out from the corals making more and more coral die year by year.

Photo from Tropical Marine Biodiversity
Number of species of coral around the world

In a news article from The Guardian, it says that researchers believe that most of the world’s corals could be gone by the year 2100. The article states that researchers have found that the rate at which corals are dying are far greater than the rate at which they are staying healthy and living. Currently, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is around 388ppm, and it is expected to be at 560ppm by the end of the century. (The Guardian) If the atmosphere reaches this level, it is a concern that around 9,000 corals will be no more. What’s even more upsetting is that almost half of the corals in the world have already been destroyed over the last 30 years due to climate change. (The Independent) If climate change continues to change atmospheric and water temperatures, it is without a doubt that most of the world’s coral will be dead soon.

There have been countless efforts in attempting to stop or at least slow down the process of coral bleaching in the world. Australia is looking to invest about 8 million dollars over the course of five years to protect the Great Barrier Reef from the pollution and threats (like climate change) that the coral have been facing. (BBC Australia) This will be beneficial to those coral reefs because they've already been weakened by things like pollution that continued climate change effects make them more susceptible to larger damage. Their government also has a plan to further protect the Great Barrier Reef with the “Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan”. Palumbi’s research could help aid in this plan to protect the corals; his team happened to find a group of corals in the back reef lagoons of the American Samoa that were thriving off of the heat; they are using this area/information as insight to find out how this is happening, and why the corals are surviving so well. If they are able to find answers to this, it may help us find ways to save the corals around the world suffering from the high temperatures of the oceans. (Curwood)

Overall, it is extremely evident that climate change is, indeed, happening, based on the fact that there is evidence of destroying corals all over the world. If these corals die off and become non-existent, the whole marine ecosystem will be in danger. Coral reefs are also very crucial to the marine ecosystem; when the coral is healthy, they provide food, shelter, and nursery grounds to the marine life around them, as well as serve like a storm buffer to land around the area. To quote Mitchell Ramsey on the seriousness of the effects on the marine ecosystem, he says, "The oceans is the home to over one million species, and the ocean is so large that there may be another million species out there to be discovered." Rehabilitation efforts, whether it be governmental support or help from organizations, need to be continued and taken seriously. It would also help if there were more education to the communities on the subject so people can be more aware of the seriousness of the topic. With these

RESOURCES:

Bawden, Tom. "Race to save Coral Reefs from Destruction 'could Be Lost within 10 Years'; UN Warns 50 per Cent of 'rainforests of the Sea' Destroyed by Climate Change in 30 Years." The Independent [London] 24 Sept. 2013.

Curwood, Steve. "Living on Earth: A Bright Spot for Coral Reefs." Living on Earth. Living on Earth, 11 Jan. 2013. Web. 03 Feb. 2015.

"Protecting Great Barrier Reef 'needs A$785m' Fund." BBC Australia. BBC Australia, 19 Jan. 2015. Web.

Ramsey, Mitchell. "A Changing World with the Changing Climate, Part III: The Oceans." Web log post. Blogger.com. Blogger, 1 May 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

Sample, Ian. "World's Coral Reefs Could Disintegrate by 2100." The Guardian. The Guardian, 23 Feb. 2010. Web.

The Associated Press. "Most of Hawaii's Coral Recover From Mass Bleaching." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Jan. 2015. Web. 03 Feb. 2015.