Three Degrees of Warming

In Mark Lynas' novel, Six Degrees, the third chapter is about what would possibly happen if the global climate increased by three degrees. The most influential changes that would occur are extreme weather-related events, movements of citizens to more densely populated areas, and a great loss of biodiversity among plants and animals. All in all, Lynas emphasized that the most civilized peoples are consuming the world and that with three degrees of warming we would be in a life-or-death situation.

I think that the 5 most important things to know from this chapter are:

1. The places that wish for more rain will get less rain. With three degrees, there will be droughts and famine in southern Africa, primarily Botswana. The Kalahari, which supports cattle herding and the growing of staples, will have raging sandstorms. Similar to the Mayan civilization, one of the most advanced societies in the New World, the Central American countries will be extremely vulnerable to drought.
2. Droughts will increase the chances of forest fires. Australia, one of the driest continents, has "crown fires" which suck the oxygen out of the air and can asphyxiate anyone caught underneath. These fires also spread very quickly. In addition, the Amazon ecosystem, which is home to half the world's biodiversity, has no fire resistant trees compared to some in Australia.
3. Three degrees of warming will lead to a loss of biodiversity and a spreading of diseases. The tabletop mountains in Venezuela make a paradise of various plants which would die from warming. By 2050, between a third and a half of all species will join the "living dead" category. Those species will eventually become extinct because of the changing climate. In addition the mosquitoes that carry malaria and dengue fever will prosper and could travel farther north killing thousands of people along the way.
4. The places that wish for less rain will get even more rain. With three degrees, there will be inconsistent extreme flooding from the Asian Summer Monsoon that waters India and Bangladesh. In the book there is a good description of what would happen if there is a super-Hurricane Odessa in future Houston, Texas. The streets would flood from the Buffalo Bayou river and the sound would be like a freight train in the sky. In addition, New York would have more floods and there would be more storm surge events across Europe.
5. Because of the above circumstances, people would vacate areas and would move into highly populated areas. As we discussed in class, the Indus River which arises in India and flows into Pakistan would have less water entirely and those two nuclear nations would clash for supplies.

Lynas states that the places that would experience the worst wipeout will be those where life flourishes. Lastly, global warming is the result of accumulated greenhouse gases which means that we have to decrease emissions now - It takes time for the world to reach thermal equilibrium.

Greenbutts Article Summary

For the Soapbox Project, my original idea is to find a solution to cigarette butt litter:

For the past centuries, people would always smoke indoors until second-hand smoking was discovered and legislation decided to force people to smoke outside. The problem is that tobacco products comprise 38% of all U.S. roadway litter. And that's not all! Cigarette butt litter decreases the appeal of public spaces, adds toxic chemicals to water supplies, and can be a fire hazard to local wildlife. On top of all that, cigarette butts aren't biodegradable. They will not completely disappear if they are thrown into the environment instead of an ashtray, and can take years to break apart. I've recently researched more about any possible solutions already being tested and found one.

Greenbutts, LLC has come up with biodegradable cigarette butts that can even plant seeds if they are thrown on the ground. But...they've been doing 5 years of research and development and only have a patent in the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, in this article (link) Timothy Donahue describes the creation of the company and how Greenbutts can provide the same smoking experience without the waste of cigarette butts. The article also describes the challenges that the company is going through and how the biodegradable filters will hit the market in the future.

Since I'm collaborating with Danielle,

Write to you soon...probably next Monday morning... XD

Joe

Ishmael - Chapters 5-8

Through chapters 5 to 8, Ishmael first discusses how the Takers have to keep conquering the world but are bound to screw it up because they don't know how to live. As civilized people we tend to look to the prophets to tell us how we ought to live. But in chapters 7 and 8 we learn that there is one fundamental law in the world that keeps the world as it should be. Ishmael points out that as Takers we are attacking diversity and we are destroying the world because we are at war with it. We aren't fundamentally wrong. We are physically destroying the world because we are breaking the fundamental law that states - "You may compete but you may not wage war on the world. The world was not made for any one species."

This law describes how people must live, yet as Takers we don't follow it at all. I found it interesting how Ishmael explains that humans are subject to the law of competition.

For the Takers, Mother Culture demands increased food production. "Increasing food production to feed an increased population results in yet another increase in population." Without expressing an emotional and ethical perception of the starving millions and the absence of population control, Ishmael emphasizes the logical reasoning behind it all. When the narrator asks, "What do we do about the starving millions?" Ishmael replies, "nothing" because all species are subject to famine yet we decide every year to increase food production (though millions are starving) which results in a greater population. We keep growing and keep expanding past our limits. It's disappointing that we don't understand the cycle of everything. If we produce more food, we lead an increased population over and over again. I understand now that we need to focus on population control instead of increasing the production of food in the United States in general.