REPORT23

Connor Luong E-research
 * Global Warming and its effect on our climate.**

Water in the world we live in today is something that we take for gannet because just about 71% of our world is covered in the stuff. But most of that water is salt water. It has too much salt for us to use in cooking or other things. So that means that only a small fraction of the 326 sextillion (326 with 18 0s after it) gallons of the water on this world is usable. This doesn’t seem like a lot of water but the number is shrinking very rapidly. In this report I am to explain and embellish on the water shortage crisis specifically how global warming is taking effect.

Before we start talking about how global warming is taking effect on the water shortage climate we must also delve into the background of global warming. Below, I have a video describing global warming and it’s effects. During the summer, the temperatures all across the US, Hit up to 100°F. The only comfortable place during the summer is an air-conditioned room or in a pool. But imagine a place where there is no sanctuary from the heat of the summer. It would be torture. That might be the problem for the people living on the western part of the United States. The Colorado River is a source of fresh water for up to 25 million people in the west. That river has slowly shrunk in width and is decreasing in volume. Which means that eventually, the people on the west coast will have no more water. Which means no drinking water, no water for food, or pools. In California there were plans to make a desalinization plant, which turns the salt water from the ocean into fresh water. They also had plans to treat sewer water but no one wanted to drink or use water that they know has gone through that toilet so that idea was thrown away. Cars are also one of the main problems of global warming, in the suburbs you cant go anywhere without using a car. Which means releasing more greenhouse gases into the air. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (Co2) and Methane. These greenhouse gases get released into the air through cars and pollution. When they are in the atmosphere they trap in the heat that is brought in from the sun’s ultra-violet rays. Which warms up the earth. The spread of civilization is also a factor in global warming. From Phoenix to Palm Springs there used to be all desert but now there is endless construction which is turning this barren into a concrete jungle. It is all fine and dandy but there is a catch. They have no plans to have forms of mass transportation, which means no buses or subways, which means more cars going around and more pollution.

At the poles there are also problems. Glaciers at the poles extend toward the equator during colder periods of time known as ice ages. But they recede back to the poles during warmer weather. The problem is, is that the poles are not coming back to the equator because the colder ice ages are becoming part of the warmer times. Which means the glaciers are only going to shrink, not grow. In 42 years if the arctic ice melts as quickly as it is now rainfall will decrease 30%. Also, as temperatures rise the arctic sea is going to shrink up to 50%. Jacob Sewall from the university of California, Santa Cruz explains: “winter sea ice acts like an insulating lid (for the heat the earth absorbs form the sun’s rays)…when the lid is reduced more heat can escape from the ocean into the warm atmosphere.” These pillars of warm air escape into the atmosphere and disrupt airflow around them. “Like the supports under a bridge alter the flow of water in a river” Sewall goes on to explain, Sewall and his college Cirbus Sloan found these pillars block storms that would bring annual rainfall to Norway and Greenland. media type="youtube" key="oJAbATJCugs&hl=en" height="355" width="425"Video describing the effects of global warming and the factors leading into it.