Showing posts with label Global warming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global warming. Show all posts

Friday, April 3, 2009

Death of a lily


This is an ironic image as a lily which signifies death has been killed by death. This can be viewed as the cycle of life; it was born and now it was its time to die, this issue can be linked to the idea of natural causes. What is anatural causes, can you pin point this idea even in the terms of humans who supposedly die of natural causes? Is natural causes just another word for old age?

However, there is a different argument which is that perhaps this part of nature would survive longer without humans due to their industrilization, over population, and pollution which all leads to global warming which is killing the Earth. This can thus be interpreted as mass murder of nature and the possible end of human kind cause with out plants, trees and nature all living things will die as they need oxygen to survive.

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and the oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the 100 years ending in 2005. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that anthropogenic greenhouse gases are responsible for most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the twentieth century, and that natural phenomena such as solar variation and volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect afterward. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by more than 40 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.

Climate model projections summarized in the latest IPCC report indicate that global surface temperature will likely rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the twenty-first century.[1] The uncertainty in this estimate arises from the use of models with differing climate sensitivity, and the use of differing estimates of future greenhouse gas emissions. Some other uncertainties include how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. Most studies focus on the period up to 2100. However, warming is expected to continue beyond 2100, even if emissions stop, because of the large heat capacity of the oceans and the long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Increasing global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, likely including expansion of subtropical deserts. The continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice is expected, with the Arctic region being particularly affected. Other likely effects include shrinkage of the Amazon rainforest and Boreal forests, increases in the intensity of extreme weather events, species extinctions and changes in agricultural yields.

Monday, March 30, 2009

What is a natural disaster?

What is a natural disaster? Is it actually natural or do humans trigger this disaster through their abuse of the world? Is it due to global warming? Or is it the worlds way of killing of mass numbers of people to try and save the world from over population? Is it not interesting that so many of the places hit by natural disasters are in poverty striken areas? So many questions and so few answers!

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is known by the scientific community as the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake,[3] and the following tsunami is known as the Asian Tsunami or the Boxing Day Tsunami.

The earthquake was caused by
subduction and triggered a series of devastating tsunami along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet) high. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were hardest hit.
With a
magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. This earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 cm (0.4 inches)[4] and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska.[5]

The plight of the many
affected people and countries prompted a widespread humanitarian response. In all, the worldwide community donated more than $7 billion (2004 U.S. dollars) in humanitarian aid.