Article Summary

In this article, they discussed Lake Chad located in Africa. Currently in Lake Chad there is an decrease in the water levels. It is such a big issue because 30 million people depend on this particular lake for fresh water. The water levels now are less then one-tenth than what they were in the 1960s.  

This article Highlights the important aspects that deal with renewable energy. It focuses on the fact that the United States uses a lot of nonrenewable energy. That the fossil fuels that we use are finite. Also, that when we are using these types of energy we are potentially damaging our planet.This article focuses on the types of renewable energy sources that we have and that we use. These sources are infinite and they replenish themselves easily. The renewable energy sources include: Wind, Geothermal, Water, Hydrogen, Solar, Biomass, and Advanced Vehicles and Fuels. This article was very informative on elaborating and explaining the different renewable energy sources we have.

From reading this article I learned a lot about the non-renewable resources out there and how most are fossil fuels. It was really interesting to find out when they got started and there time period, the Carboniferous Period. This period was about 360-300 million years ago, and formed before the Dinosaurs. This article mentioned how the Earth was a different landscape at that time, and it was covered with wide shallow seas, with swampy forests. The only thing that grew were plants, algae, and plankton. How this period got started was these plants, algae, and plankton, absorbed the sunlight's energy through photosynthesis, then when they died, the organisms drifted to the bottom of the sea floor. Over time then, the dead plants were crushed under rocks and sediment creating a heated pressure underground. With this pressure and heat it turned the dead plants into fossil fuels such as; coal, natural gas, and petroleum. Now there are lots of pockets underground of fossil fuels all over the world. Fossil fuels are valuable and abundant, unfortunately they are also harmful as according to this article, when they are burned they pollute our air quality or supply.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/non-renewable-energy/

Title: "Oil and gas companies continue to ignore regulations by dumping fracking waste into local rivers" by,  Ethan A. Huff

There is a big argument in the Golden State on natural gas also known as Hydraulic Fracturing. which involves blasting toxic chemicals into the ground to draw up energy resources. Voters will come together to see if they will ban "fracking" which is harmful to the environment. In this article they say that fracking has been destroying the environment and has been contaminating their waters with this toxic waste.  "U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act. The proposal would ban the creation of new wastewater injection wells and ponds, as well as new oil and gas wells, throughout Monterey County in the Bay Area." (Huff). It shows that for 20 years violations by natural gas industries on using the wells that have been contaminating the waters. They have not been using the natural gas that they get wisely. The wells that they are using are not clean and are having too much waste which is hurting th water supply that is clean that people drink. All over the country there have been problems about fracking. California is the main place where water is becoming more scarce. There have been too many droughts here. There are at least 2,100 active oil wells throughout the state that are operating in zones that are not cleared which means that it is illegal. 

This article is about air pollution it talks about the different things that may cause air pollution for example carbon dioxide which comes from cars, planes and burning of fossil fuels. It also mentions that air pollution can cause serious health issues. The article also mentions what things can be done to stop air pollution. Air pollution is one of the things that was discussed in this class and it's one of the things that I learned a lot about. I knew that air pollution can damage our environment and our health I never knew it could be that bad.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Water/page2.php

This is an article NASA earth observatory. It was a super intersting read and i learned a lot. This article talks about the water cycle and how it effects our lives. It also talks about how over the course of the next couple of years how the water cycle will grown and continue to effect our lives.

Summary of Scientific Article

In “Fuels and fire behavior dynamics in bark beetle- Attacked forests in Western North America and implications for fire management,” Michael J. Jenkins, et al., discusses the relationship between the bark beetle and forest fires.  The article explains that the bark beetle is an integral part of the forest ecosystem.  Changes to that ecosystem, such as drought, shift the balance.  When something like drought happens, the bark beetle becomes an endemic, eventually shifting to an epidemic.  A bark beetle epidemic leads to a huge tree mortality rate.  The beetles invade the tree and kill it while it is still erect.  With standing trees dead, there are more resources for other shrubs, which are considered to be fuel for fires.  Consequently, when a fire happens, it is likely to go into the crown of the trees.  The article explains that this can be a century long process of reshaping the forest.  In order for people to combat this, and not fall victim to mother nature’s cycle, one option is to remove hazardous trees.  It is complicated to study and predict fire suppression when bark beetles are involved because there is no real way to know how hot the fire will burn.  Hopefully more research will be done in the future to aide in these pursuits. 

Jenkins, Michael J., et al. “Fuels and fire behavior dynamics in bark beetle-Attacked forests in Western North America and implications for fire management.” Forest Ecology and Management, Elsevier, 4 Apr. 2012, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112712001235?via%3Dihub&scrlybrkr=1e20b822.

In this article it discussed about Floridas climate and how it may be able to save a handful of Americas ash trees. It explained how over the years the emerald ash borer has gone through 30 states killing the trees in the park, homes, and forest. So, by doing that they are putting certain species in endangerment for the loss their habitat meaning that they are being brought to extinction. This article emphasized how the last emerald ash borer extended for about 120 miles above the northern part of Florida. Also, it talked about how this is not the first time we have diseases that are affecting our trees in the US and how those trees that are being affected also affect the animals around them. To add, over the years due to some extreme diseases that have affected the American population greatly scientists were able to use ash trees to help repopulate American cities. Ash trees are critically important because they provide so much for us such like homes for other creatures, air to breath in, and even cures for certain illnesses. Overall, these were some of the few things this article talked about.

This article briefly discussed the fact that the Earth is heating up and it will be doing so in future years to come. It also mentioned how the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) meeting, a meeting consisting of thousands of scientists and a number of other experts on the topic, have met to discuss this current issue. It was mentioned that there is conflict in these meetings because many cannot agree on how to go about reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. Some want there to be immediate changes while others want to focus on future cleaner technologies to help with the issue. The article also briefly mentioned the many negative affects the rise in temperature could bring. It stated that this rise in temperature not only melts the Arctic ice, which can harm the many animals that live there, but cause more widespread issues. It also mentioned how this rise in temperature can also aid in the spread of disease. All-in-all this was an informative and interesting article to read because it is something that can affect us all in the long run in the near future. 

 The world’s population has increase rapidly and experts has been aware of the growing rate for years and predicted that by 2050, the world’s population will be approximately up to 9.9 billion. A difference of 33 years and an addition of 2.3 billion more people on Earth. The longevity of life is possible because people are living longer due to better healthcare, nutrition, and access to food but with rapid population growth, there may be consequences for future generations such as the resource to clean water and food. As the planet get more crowded, the possibility of global starvation is high. Even if there is enough food produce to feed the world, there is only so much access to land for agriculture work and food production. 

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-population-is-growing-faster-than-we-thought-new-report-finds

Check out this scientific article is about the rising sea level drowning the coral reefs around Hawaii.

This article was about the pollution in our valley. The way we are surrounded by mountains, and how we have so much agriculture in the valley. There is a big amount of people in the valley and there is a lot of emission becasue of all of the vehicles on the road. We also have a lot of greenhouse gases which cause a lot of bad gases to be trapped. I enjoyed reading the article.