Dealing with Global Warming needs Cultural Change

John M. Broder from the New York Times describes how Americans must move away from the Scientific innovations and statistical data in order to find solutions and work towards changing the way people in our communities think about Global Warming. Quoting Andrew J. Hoffman, an advocate and professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources and Environment:

“It requires a shift in our values to reflect what scientists have been telling us for years,” he added. “The certainty of climate change must shift from that of being a ‘scientific fact’ to that of being a ‘social fact.’ ”

This way of thinking by John M. Broder and Andrew Hoffman is absolutely what must be done now. As a country, we must change the way we view the problems of Global Warming and put as a top priority. Change will only come about only when the majority of the citizens and politicians advocate issues such as the Civil Rights movement and in Broder's view, the connection between the smoking of tobacco and the banning of smoking indoors. It is because there were so much resentment that the change socially and politically is even possible. The same concept will apply to Global Warming. Either the nations of the world start changing their cultural views on this matter and begin a global movement or there will be a great disaster that will occur and force us to change prematurely.

Fuel from Carbon Dioxide??

What if there was a way to use our environmental output hazards, carbon dioxide, and reuse it in a cycle that utilizes it to make fuel?

This is a very interesting concept and one that may give the solution to the reduction if not elimination of fossil fuels for energy. By using alternatives such as water and wind powered generators, this energy can be used to fuel the reaction to make the carbon dioxide fuse with hydrogen to produce usable gasoline for everyday life. However, the most promising elements that can be an important ingredient to fuel these reactions is solar power. The sun is always present and is constantly being supplied unlike limited conditions to generators such as windmills. Arun Majumdar presents his view:

Turning CO2 into fuels is exactly what photosynthetic organisms have been doing for billions of years, although their fuels tend to be foods, like sugars. Now humans are trying to store the energy in sunlight by making a liquid fuel from CO2 and hydrogen—a prospect that could recycle CO2 emissions and slow down the rapid buildup of such greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

With these possibly viable sources of "new technologies get commercialized, those jobs always end up in the U.S." as Alan Weimer theorizes.

 

 

Bleaching the Coral Reefs

Even today, a minority of critics doubt the existence of Global Warming. Corals Reefs do not lie, they bleach or turn fluorescent when it experiences heat increases as they are doing...Right Now! Justin Gillis, New York Times writer, reports on this extreme heat condition for the coral reefs of the world.

"What is unfolding this year is only the second known global bleaching of coral reefs. Scientists are holding out hope that this year will not be as bad, over all, as 1998, the hottest year in the historical record, when an estimated 16 percent of the world’s shallow-water reefs died."

Coral Reefs Bleaching

From Thailand to Texas, these coral bleachings are occurring everyday and some have even died. There is no doubt this is one of the final signs that the disasters of Global Warming are starting to occur more and more frequently. When these coral reefs die, more than one fourth of marine species will be in danger. If the coral reefs do not reform into another specie of coral and die instead, an abundance of species of coral dependent marine life will be terminated, or even worse, extinct. Though there may not be a sure cure for this phenomenon, this is definitely a warning for humans to brace for more to come.