That's the number of Earth's we would need if everyone on the planet lived the same kind of lifestyle as I do, according to
myfootprint.org. (What's your carbon footprint) I based my quiz answers off of my family's household, and I was surprised by that number because I thought we did a lot to conserve energy. We all take short showers (mostly because the water gets cold, but none the less), we recycle literally everything that we can because the town of Abington only allows one trash can and one recycling bin, we use energy saving light bulbs even though they really bother me because you can't see in the dark until they've had time to warm up, and by then you already stumbled around in the dark and found what you needed. We also grow our own vegetables, and have a compost in the back yard- but that's about all we do. There are two cars, one truck, on SUV, a boat, and three snowmobiles in the driveway. We have too many TVs to even talk about and we tend to forget to shut them off when we leave a room. We all travel pretty frequently and we don't usually use public transportation because it's not available in the suburban area where I live really.Unfortunately it looks like mine isn't the only family using up more than our fair share of resources.
The first factoid I wanted to look into was the difference in carbon emissions in the U.S. since 2005. In
An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore showed that the United States had the highest rate of carbon emissions on the planet, at that time the carbon emissions were rated at about 7,147.2 million metric tons according to the
U.S. Department of energy . In the past eight years though, the U.S. has made significant strides in decreasing its carbon footprint. According to
Suzanne Golenburg, recent energy saving technology has brought us more than halfway to meeting President Obama's goal of cutting down our emissions by 17%. This is due to an increase in the use of hybrid cars, as well as natural gas and renewable energy such as solar or wind power over the past five years. China is now the world leader in carbon emissions, although we are still dramatically ahead of them per capita. Here's a nifty
spread sheet from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that shows the carbon emissions from each country from 1980-2010. All the graphs and charts and numbers make me a little bit dizzy, and I definitely can see how there is conflicting information out there, but from what I can tell it looks like America is on its way towards becoming more eco-friendly, but we have a long way to go, and it would be a lot easier if everybody would get on board!
The other factoid I was interested in looking up was the cyclical climate changes that people use as a counter-argument for global warming. In
An Inconvenient Truth Gore covered the basics. Greenhouse gases and other carbon emissions are thickening the outer layer of the atmosphere, which inhibits infrared rays from reflecting off the surface and then going back out to where they came from. Because the atmosphere is so thick the rays get stuck there, and they heat up our planet, which is melting the ice caps and glaciers which could flood the world as we know it. This is all information I studied in seventh grade Earth Science, but it's always been a little over my head. It sounds like a real thing to me, and it seems to make enough sense, and the Earth is getting warmer, so why not? I am curious, however, to see what this "warming cycle" Gore referred to in his presentation is, and what effect, if any, it might be having on what we consider to be global warming. An article from CNN by
Manav Tanneeru in 2008 explained a little bit about the Earth's natural warming and cooling periods, which tend to last up to twenty-five years before switching directions, the last "global cooling" ended in 1975, which would indicate that these past twenty-three years have been a part of this natural process. Some scientists think that global warming is a phase, and that people on the bandwagon are crediting naturally occurring things to this phenomenon. Although it's possible that these things are part of a natural cycle, I can't help but think that the damage we're doing to the environment HAS to be having some effect on it, even if it's just adding insult to injury in a stage in a naturally occurring cycle.
So here's my REAL problem with global warming. Drowning polar bears make me sad and the idea of being cooked to death in my old age is somewhat disconcerting, but here's the worst of it:
No more wine! I'll be cooked
sober, and that's just unacceptable. Another article by Suzanne Goldenburg explained the repercussions of the climate change in popular wine producing areas such as Tuscany and Napa Valley. The harsh change in climate makes those places unsuitable to grow the grapes to make the vine. While the loss of this industry may be devastating for the economy in these areas, no worries! New areas that used to be unideal for grade growing may become more suitable by 2050.
This does NOT make me happy.
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