Polar Bear Troubles

            Is it too soon to begin questioning whether or not we need to add polar bears to the endangered species list? I don’t believe so, because as the years pass the average polar bear’s chance of survival gets slimmer and slimmer. Survival of the fittest no longer can be applied to life in the arctic, because adaptation is a key factor to a species survival but what happens when the environment is changing at a rate that is too fast to adapt to?

            The article states that “Climate change is threatening polar bears with starvation by shortening their hunting season, according to a study by scientists from the Canadian Wildlife Service.” The seasons are changing too quickly with the ice beginning to warm up before the polar bears have an adequate amount of food for survival. With the ice melting and spreading apart at faster and faster rates each year the polar bears have less and less time to hunt down their favorite meal, the ringed seal who tend to dwell on ice sheets.

            The ringed seals live on the ice of the Hudson Bay, which is becoming increasingly harder and harder for the polar bears to reach each year. The shorter season could be caused by a long-term warming trend that is associated with global warming. The rising amount of greenhouse gases and soot released into our atmosphere is trapping the heat around the Arctic Circle and causing the ice to melt at tremendous rates. The article suggests that “The study says that the sea ice season in western Hudson Bay has been reduced by about three weeks over the last 20 years.” Also, a previous NASA study found that the total Arctic sea ice extent had declined 2.9% over the last decade.

            Unfortunately, without the proper amount of food needed to sustain survivability the polar bears are returning to land in poorer conditions. The article reports that “Weight for both male and female polar bears is declining and female bears are having fewer cubs.” The grim search for food is also causing more frequent visits by polar bears to northern communities such as Churchill, Manitoba. The problem used to not be so frequent and the bears were easily scared away from the town. Recently though Harvey Lemelin says “Bears now have to be moved away from property using everything from dogs to vehicles to cracker shells.” Even though the season is not over yet Lemelin has reported that in the last three years the average number of encounters used to be 20, but now has grown to 36 which could still rise.

            The article suggests the only way to stop this alarming trend is for "World governments must intensify negotiations to cut greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously beginning the phase-out of fossil fuels and switch to renewable.” The solution may not be a cheap one for all of the companies that contribute to major greenhouse gas emissions, but in the end can there be actually be a price set on the sustainability of the world?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/521451.stm

Keep the Environment in Mind

            Al Gore, who is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, asked the world to reduce the burning of wood and fuel to curb ‘black carbon’. He insists that the soot produced is accelerating the melting of ice in polar and mountainous regions. Al Gore is one of the most prominent figures in the fight against global warming and is gaining more and more credibility as his research continues.

            I choose to take Al Gore’s advice seriously because the man has done countless studies on the impacts we have on our atmosphere and the grim results which are caused by it. Gore, backed by government ministers and scientists, said that the soot, also known as "black carbon", from engines, forest fires and partially burned fuel was collecting in the Arctic where it was creating a haze of pollution that absorbs sunlight and warms the air. The soot is also being deposited on snow, which in return darkens its surface and reduces its ability to reflect sunlight back out into space.

            According to the article, “A study this month indicated that soot from industry, cars, farming and wood fuel burning has been responsible for half the total temperature increases in the Arctic between 1890 to 2007. Temperatures there are rising twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet, making it the region worst affected by climate change.” The soot problem is causing pollution problems all across the higher altitude regions of the world. According to Gore, “Black carbon is settling in the Himalayas. The air pollution levels in the upper Himalayas are now similar to those in Los Angeles." With that being said I believe this problem needs to be addressed immediately, because it makes no sense that the beautiful scenery surround the Himalayas has to be scarred with the same pollution that lingers over Los Angeles.

            The problem is widespread across all of the land and water. Permafrost is warming fast and at its margins thawing at an alarming rate. In Russia, the tree line has advanced up hills and mountains at 10 meters a year. Finally, sea levels are rising at tremendous rates due to the rapid melting of ice sheets. The Greenland ice sheet has continued to melt in the past four years of summer and melting has lasted twenty days longer than usual at sea level.

            Al Gore’s research reports that “New satellite data suggests the ice is much thinner than it used to be. For the first time in existing records, both the north-west and north-east passages were ice-free in summer 2008.” This seems to be caused by Arctic waters warming as a result of the increase of warmer waters coming from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Similarly like I mentioned about the snow earlier the loss of reflective, sea ice also means that more solar radiation is being absorbed by the water, which in return heats the surface layer further.

            In conclusion, I believe we need to listen to Gore and trade in our jacked-up diesel trucks for something that is less dangerous for the environment. Because even if we aren’t directly impacted here, our choices are definitely noticeable on the other parts of the world.

http://www.burningissues.org/car-www/latest_news/AlGore-soot-Guardian.html

The Truth is in the Ice

             Through the past years global warming has been a topic doused with plenty of uncertainty and a lot of doubt. The fact that has remained through all of the debates is that the Arctic Ice Circle is seeing dramatic changes that it has never witness before. In the summer of 2007, the Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia.

            Over all, the floating ice dwindled to an extent unparalleled in a century or more, by several estimates. You may ask what is truly causing this shift in the ice? It is no mystery that increased emissions of greenhouse gases are causing these dramatic changes in the ice sheets. Some scientists believe that the system of ice is trending towards a new watery state and that greenhouse gases are the root of it. On the contrary, arctic experts want to believe that the ice shifts can also be somewhat contributed to more natural factors, such as the wind.

            According to the article, “A new study, led by Son Nghiem at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and appearing this week in Geophysical Research Letters, used satellites and buoys to show that winds since 2000 had pushed huge amounts of thick old ice out of the Arctic basin past Greenland. The thin floes that formed on the resulting open water melted quicker or could be shuffled together by winds and similarly expelled, the authors said.”

            If this were the case you would think that these regions have had to at least experience an instance where something similar to this has occurred. Yet, experts are having trouble finding any records from Russia, Alaska, or elsewhere that such a widespread ice retreat has happened in recent times. This leads us to believe that the finger cannot be pointed at Mother Nature, but instead it has to be pointed at us humans. Some scientists believe that the change in atmospheric gases have now taken an irreversible turn for the worst.

            The main issue is that the thick ice is the ice that is melting. Thick ice is known to characteristically be able to endure months of nonstop summer sunshine, but it is disappearing at an unusually alarming rate, which leaves room for more dangerous thinner ice to form. Thin ice is the most dangerous form of ice in the Arctic Ocean because it can thaw quickly, but also refreeze just as fast if the temperatures are just right. This causes weary, treacherous travels by boats and other vessels who venture forth through the arctic region, because their path could be clear for one moment but within the next minute ice could freeze around their ship.

            It is clear that climate change is upon us and we should definitely do what all we can to stop it. The Arctic Ice tells us a story that we just cannot refute or choose to disbelieve. The truth is in the ice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/science/earth/02arct.html

Dead End Jobs Reach Space

For any job that I sign up to work at, after training, I always intend to eventually perform the same tasks for the company that their current employees do. With the last shuttle mission scheduled to lift off in June, this is not the case for former or upcoming NASA astronauts. They went through years upon years of school and eventually years of training to live out their childhood dream: to be able to feel the weightlessness of no gravity.

            Unfortunately, this dream that once seemed to be finally inside the grasp of their hands, has sadly taken an abrupt turn and is starting to veer out of sight. President Obama has curtailed the NASA’s human spaceflight program. After the space shuttle launch in June there were plans to have two more programs lift off and take astronauts to the moon once again, but that unfortunately has been curtailed with the human spaceflight program. Instead, NASA is reaching out and hiring outside companies to devise alternatives.

            According to the article “Morale is pretty low,” said Leroy Chiao, a former astronaut who now works for a company that wants to offer space flights for tourists. “This is a time of great uncertainty.” The future looks very grim for our astronauts if they are already seeking to be hired onto companies that cannot even offer space flights yet. Chances are the astronauts may be too old to fly whenever the time does come when the space chase enters the tourist industry. It’s either the astronauts find jobs like Chiao or over the next few years, American astronauts will be competing for a handful of slots on the International Space Station, flying there on Russian Soyuz capsules. This is an option for many of the American astronauts, but some are experiencing difficulties with flying on the Soyuz capsules.

            For example, Capt. D Altman of the Navy has flown four missions for NASA, but at six feet and four inches he does not fit inside of a Soyuz capsule. Finally, when the Obama administration made the plans to scrap the Constellation and Ares I programs Altman decided it was time for him to depart from NASA.

            In the future inspiring astronauts will not imagine working for NASA, but will instead aspire to be a part of one of the many companies offering space flights for tourists or for cargo heading towards the International Space Station. Virgin Galactic is already seeking three space pilots for its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane which may being space tourism next year. Do not expect to fly to the moon just yet though, because the SpaceShipTwo will only take suborbital hops and you will only experience a few minutes of weightlessness. In some tourists’ eyes a few minutes could seem like a lifetime.

            Whether it is with NASA or with a coinciding company, the space race has all of a sudden come to a halt. Earth is now not the only place that is suffering from job cuts and dead end careers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/science/space/24astronaut.html?ref=science

Increasing Tornado Valley

            Being a student at the University of North Texas, I have noticed that there has been not only a frequency of severe thunderstorms, but also a frequency in the number of tornados that spawn from them. I must admit the recent wicked weather has at least made campus life somewhat more exciting. I now expect to hear a tornado siren go off once every few days and I catch myself walking down the more comfortable hallways fearing that I might have to take shelter somewhere close by.

            It is being noted that the beginning of this year’s tornado season is off to a very unusual start with tornados bringing destruction from as far as Wisconsin to the East Coast, Georgia. Since the start of tornado season this year there have already been 250 tornadoes reported. According to Sulzberger, the author of the article, “So far this year, tornadoes have killed 41 people and torn apart countless neighborhoods and, this weekend, one major airport.” The airport which was damaged was St. Louis’ International Airport, and luckily, even though the tornado ripped through Concourse C of the airport no fatalities have been reported. If you wish to view the video of the tornado tearing through the airport you can do so right here: (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110425/us_yblog_thelookout/watch-a-tornado-rip-through-st-louis-airport).

            But that is just one of the many tornados that have touched down this season and there will most likely be many more to come. Scientists have admitted that they do not know what is causing such an increase in the frequency of tornados. There isn’t a credible reason that global warming could be causing the increases because there is a clear lack of historical data. Since in the early 1900’s people were not as spread out over the entire country, as we are now, there could have been several tornados that touched down but were never reported. For instance the author mentions in “April 1974, there was a record 267 tornadoes reported, but the actual number that occurred is believed to be closer to 500.” Whereas today we notice the majority, if not all, of the tornados that touch down because we are so vastly populated across the country.

            The article states “It’s unusual but it does happen,” said Howard Bluestein, a meteorology professor at the University of Oklahoma who specializes in tornado research. “This isn’t a sign that the world is about to end.” This might just end up being an abnormal year as far as thunderstorms are concerned. Knowing Texas we will get swamped with rain this year, but next spring there probably will not be a rain cloud in sight. Tornadoes are one of the hardest weather formations to predict, because tornadoes form when warm moist air combines with powerful dynamic winds inside a thunderstorm, sending a funnel cloud spinning toward the ground. It is only usually minutes before a funnel cloud starts to take shape that a meteorologist can actually predict that a tornado is about to form.

            This spring seems to be turning out to be an interesting one. With that being said all I can suggest is to hold onto your hats and good luck holding onto your name UNT. If all these tornadoes persist we might have to start calling it the ‘University of Not There’.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/us/26tornadoes.html?hpw

Illegal Immigration

  

Is It Only Our Dream?

The majority of Americans define illegal immigration as a nuisance for our country. They complain that illegal immigrants do not pay taxes, they are the stemming cause of increased crime rates, and they are taking all of our jobs. In reality, most of these key issues can be argued in favor or against illegal immigrants within our country. Yet this appears to be a huge pressing issue in Arizona as the state recently passed a new strict law on immigration.

Arizona now has the toughest law against immigration in our nation. Its aim is to identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants. According to the article, “The law, which proponents and critics alike said was the broadest and strictest immigration measure in generations, would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. Opponents have called it an open invitation for harassment and discrimination against Hispanics regardless of their citizenship status.”

This means that any normal citizen, or non-citizen, can be casually strolling down the street and might be pulled over and questioned of their citizenship if he or she happens to appear to be of Hispanic dissent. This is wrong on so many levels because for instance: a mother could be walking her children to school one morning and then be pulled over and if she happens to not have her citizenship papers on her person then she might be hauled away for questioning even in front of her children. The line of right or wrong has to be drawn somewhere and we have to really consider if our laws are still moral.

Also, the author of the article informs that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles said the authorities’ ability to demand documents was like “Nazism.” During World War Two the Germans would force villagers to wear large identification cards on their person to be able to tell the distinction between the person being of Jewish dissent or not. In my opinion I believe Arizona’s laws are not too far away from reaching this point and there were probably more rational suggestions for the lawmakers to consider first.

I feel the laws shouldn’t be so harsh because in a way, even though it might be small, illegal immigrants do pay help. Every time they purchase something at the store they pay the same sales tax as us, so in a way they are still contributing to the economy and helping maintain some of our basic infrastructure which keeps America running at full efficiency. Yet, assuming if they get paid under the table for their work what they do not pay is the social security tax, state tax, and any other tax/fee that is withheld from our checks. However, if they did somehow fraud their way onto the company's payroll then they do pay these taxes just like the regular citizens.  Finally, let’s be honest most of the jobs that they do get are the ones that are not our first choices of careers and in the end they are just chasing the same American dream as us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html

Texas and Guns on College Campuses

             Spring is not the only thing that Texans are preparing themselves for, but also the idea that students soon may be allowed to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. The bill seemed like it was due to pass with more than half of the Texas House having signed on the measure, which directs universities to allow concealed handguns. If the bill had been passed it would have made Texas the second state, behind Utah, to have such a broad-based law.       In my opinion, I would have to agree with allowing students to carry concealed handguns while on campus. I believe college students are very capable of responsibly carrying a firearm by the age of twenty one, and I do not see an issue with alcohol at bars because the bars can still place a ban on guns while on their property. Also, the students would follow the proper protocol to obtain a concealed handgun license which requires them to attend a ten to fifteen hour gun safety class. A portion of the gun safety class would be spent at the firing range, and sometimes the instructors require the attendees to bring their own gun so that the instructor can make sure they are familiar with it.

            In the article I took notice of what Colin Goddard, a victim of the Virginia Tech shooting, had to say relating to the issue of concealed handguns on Texas campuses. "People tell me that if they would have been there, they would have shot that guy. That offends me," Goddard said. "People want to be the hero, I understand that. They play video games and they think they understand the reality. It's nothing like that." Goddard makes a valid argument by basically saying that talking about the situation is a lot easier than actually being in it. Yet, on the contrary if a student is always unarmed in these situations then he or she is always doomed as being the person on the wrong side of the gun.

            This statement coincides with the part of the article in which another student argues that a person carrying a handgun could have changed things. The article states that Derek Titus, a senior at Texas A&M who has a state license to carry a concealed handgun, said someone with a gun that day could have improved the chances of survival. "Gun-free zones are shooting galleries for the mass murderers," Titus said. "We do not feel that we must rely on the police or security forces to defend our lives.” I can also agree with Titus’ statement by saying that I believe students sitting in a classroom can be compared with sitting ducks in a pond.

            In the end it all boils down to trust. How much trust can we place in our fellow students that they will carry and operate their handgun in a responsible way? Can we trust them enough that I can remain classified as a student while at school and not target practice? I believe we can, so I do trust them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/20/texas-guns-campus-colleges_n_825718.html