Climate Change is Fighting Back Against Wind Energy

Climate Change is predicted to have a massive impact on the world, from more fierce hurricanes to decreased snowfall. Additionally, the effects of climate change are predicted to complicate our ability to use windpower.  According to a recent study in the journal Nature Geoscience, could significantly weaken winds that blow across much of the world. Kristopher Karnauskas, a climate scientist at Colorado University Boulder and primary investigator, "Our results don’t show the wind power goes to zero. It’s a reduction of 10 percent over [most] regions."

Image Credit: SIA Group

To calculate their statistics, Karnauskas and his team used several different climate scenarios from the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They then combined them with a used formula in the industry to determine how much energy a turbine can produce. The study used 10 different IPCC models, each of which predicts with an large amount of CO₂ going into the atmosphere. This data predicted that weather patterns would cause an eight to 10 percent decrease in the wind by 2050 and a 14 to 18 percent drop by 2100.

These changes may seem small to most people, but a minor drop in available wind can lead to massive amounts of energy lost. Geoff Spending, a professor of aerospace and mechanical energy at the University of Southern California believes that the overall energy generated from wind facilities would "drop significantly." That's because the energy generated from a wind farm is wind speed multiplied by three. So, Spending calculates that a 10 percent decrease would lead to a 30 percent decrease in wind energy generated. This new study is crucial because the United States Department of Energy is providing $20 million for research and development of offshore massive wind farms.

For more information on wind energy click here.

Works Cited:

https://www.wired.com/story/climate-change-could-take-the-air-out-of-wind-farms/
http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/science/wind-farms-in-northern-hemisphere-at-risk-from-climate-change/article/509818

New Climate Study Increases Certainty of Warming Due to Greenhouse Emissions

In 2015, 197 countries from around the world gathered to ratify the Paris Climate agreement. By signing on to the agreement, 173 countries pledged to lower their greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to control global warming. At the time of the agreement, models had shown that Climate Change will lead to global temperature increases of 1.5 to 4.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit). (http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php)

However, earlier this month, scientists at the University of Exeter in Great Britain published a paper that predicts the range of increase to be from 2.2 to 3.4 degrees Celsius (or 3.96 to 6.12 degrees Fahrenheit). Additionally, the paper reduces the uncertainty in previous models by 60%. In other words, the predictions are more accurate than previous predictions. (https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25450)

Those who say that 3 degrees Celsius is not a large increase are mistaken. if our warming reaches 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), more than 100,000 square miles of wetlands and dry land will be lost. Furthermore, for each degree Celsius (1.8 F) of warming, there is a 400% increase in the area burned by forest fires in the United States alone.  (https://www.wired.com/story/the-dizzying-science-of-climate-change-gets-a-bit-clearer/)

Overall, the new climate models are important for climate optimism. Scientists are now less uncertain about how bad climate changes effects will be and can therefore make appropriate environmental preparations. (https://www.wired.com/story/the-dizzying-science-of-climate-change-gets-a-bit-clearer/)

Sources:
https://www.wired.com/story/the-dizzying-science-of-climate-change-gets-a-bit-clearer/
http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25450

Cute, Cuddly, and Endangered : Giant Pandas have a Giant Problem

Cute, Cuddly, and Endangered: Giant Panda Have a Giant Problem         

In 1990, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) officially declared the species known as the Giant Panda as endangered. In 2014, scientists found that there were 1,864 giant pandas left alive in the wild. Though still very low, the population represented a real success, with the numbers increasing from around only 1,000 in the late 1970s. In the past decade, giant panda numbers have risen by 17 percent. This was also great news because, in 2016, it led to the Giant pandas being downgraded from endangered to vulnerable. For 28 years, scientists all around the world were trying to get the population to flourish, and they finally achieved the positive outcome they were looking for. Unfortunately, one year after this great success was announced, Chinese scientists had sobering news: The animal’s natural habitat,  temperate-zone bamboo forests in central China, was in serious danger.

http://amazing-creature.blogspot.com/2011/07/cute-baby-panda-pictures.html

Among the best recognized animals and now one of the rarest species, these black and white colored bears have come symbolize endangered species and conservation efforts across. For example, WWF (World Wildlife Fund), internationally known for its international conservation work, uses Chi-Chi the Panda as an inspiration for its logo. 


According to the National Zoo, giant pandas are found in the wild only in the remote, mountainous regions of central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces.  The cool, wet bamboo forests in these are perfect for the giant panda's needs. 
Unfortunately, the giant panda’s habitat--which once spread across central, southern, and eastern China, and into China’s neighboring countries of Myanmar and northern Vietnam--has been dramatically reduced by the growth in logging and farming.
Now, the species is restricted to only about 20 isolated patches in western China’s Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi Provinces (cite).

https://www.chinahighlights.com/giant-panda/life-cycle.

          Currently, the most pressing issues for the Giant Panda are loss and fragmentation of habitat. Fragmentation occurs when a species' habitat  is divided into several small isolated patches. A large proportion of the panda's habitat has already been lost (mostly due to logging for timber and fuel wood) or cleared for farming or buildings to support the teeming population in China. Though the Chinese government banned logging in the panda's habitat in 1998, new roads and railways continue to cut through the region, further fragmenting the home of the pandas. This isolates panda populations and prevents them from breeding successfully, which leads to a decrease in population. Other threats to the numbers of Giant Pandas include harvesting, hunting, and tourism. Seventy-five percent of the plants in Giant Panda habitat is used for traditional Chinese medicine. Harvesting these plants contributes to habitat loss. Increasing tourism around the world is a problem as well. The construction of tourist facilities and the rapidly increasing number of tourists in the forests and China is disturbing pandas and their habitats. Lastly, poaching, though not a really large issue for pandas, does happens accidentally in China even under the strict laws and great public awareness. Hunters kill pandas for their fur, meat, and other parts of the panda's body. Although it is rare for someone to kill a panda intentionally, Pandas still get caught in traps intended for other animals such as musk deer and black bears, which can severely injure or kill them.

What can you do?
You can help the conservation effort by donating to WWF or World Wildlife fund Funding, travelling smart, and spreading the word. Tell your family, friends, whoever and they can help contribute too!

To learn more ways to help pandas go to this website at: 

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/giant_panda/whatyoucando/

Donate to help save the pandas!  
http://wwf.panda.org/how_you_can_help/support_wwf/donate/donate_panda.cfm

WORKS CITED
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/giant-panda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda
https://www.livescience.com/27335-giant-pandas.html
https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/giant-panda-no-longer-endangerer
https://www.chinahighlights.com/giant-panda/habitat.htm
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/giant_panda/problems/
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/giant-panda

The Pangolin

What is a pangolin?

Photo Credit: Associated Press.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/15/pangolins-13-facts-about-the-worlds-most-hunted-animal/


A pangolin (often called scaly anteaters) is a mammal which is covered with tough scales which are made from the same thing as your fingernails and toenails. Pangolins weigh anywhere from 3 pounds to 75 pounds. This is because there are 8 different species of pangolin which live throughout Africa and Asia. Many of these species are critically endangered. Although Pangolins share many characteristics with anteaters and armadillos, they are actually more closely related to cats, dogs, and bears.

Pangolin Range
(whatspecies.com)

Predator/Prey

A pangolin eats insects like ants, but they also eat worms as well. Scientists estimate that a pangolin can at as many as 70 MILLION insects every year. Pangolins also have special muscles in their mouths which protect against attacking insects. Hyenas, leopards, and humans are the main predators of the pangolin.

Threats

Pangolins are in severe danger, for one is poached every 5 minutes. Even though international trade is prohibited, pangolin skin is prized in many countries around the world. That is why they are the most poached mammal in the world. One of the reasons for this is because conservationists have a lack of data for where pangolins come from, and where they end up. Ending the illegal trade of the pangolin is crucial to protect this animal from extinction.
Another of the threats the pangolin face is deforestation. As trees are rapidly being cut down, pangolins are being forced to live in smaller and smaller spaces. However, you can help save the pangolin.

A pangolin skin hung at a market alongside other endangered species
(Photo Credit: Rich Garella)

How can you help?

Many people don't know about the pangolin, so right now we need to INFORM the public about this endangered animal. Tell your friends about this species, and reshare this post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or any other social media platform. Write emails to political leaders telling them about this animal too! Finally, you can play the Google Doodle on saving the pangolins! It is accessible here.

Works Cited

http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/pangolin
http://savepangolins.org
http://www.pangolinsg.org/

Honeybees: Important Pollinators in Danger

Photo Credit: CNN Tech

Bees, considered as a nuisance by most people, are much, much more important than you might think. Without them, you wouldn't have foods such as nuts, many fruits, and beans. While bees travel around gathering pollen for their hives, pollen sticks to their bodies. As bees move from plant to plant,  they spread pollen to other plants.

What's the Problem?
Currently, bees are in extreme danger. Beginning in 2007, beekeepers began noticing that most of the worker bees had left the hive, leaving the queen and larvae. This phenomenon, known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), has been emptying hives all around the globe. Most hives do not survive through the winter. The strange thing is there are no dead bees near or around their home.

Entomologists (people who study insects) and other scientist have come up with many possible causes for CCD, but insecticides and pesticides are the main suspects. When bees visit insecticide-sprayed plants, they die, as that is what pesticides are meant to do. Other reasons include stress that bees face as a result of management and transportation, the varroa mite, and change/loss to habitats.

Photo Credit: beeinformed.org

The graph above illustrates how bad CCD is. Up to 45% of US managed bee hives have succumbed to the strange epidemic within the span of 2 years.

What Eastern Middle School is Doing to Help
Here at the Eastern Environmental Club, the first thing we plan to do is plant native species around the school grounds, not only to create a more diverse area but also to give bees a place to pollinate that doesn't have any chemicals. We are also trying to discourage the school from using bee-killing chemicals such as pesticides and insecticides. We are also spreading the word to our fellow students about the danger that bees are in.

What can you do?
Do just what we're doing at Eastern!

• Plant pollinator-friendly native species around your house (you will not only attract bees, but also birds, butterflies, and other pollinators) 
• Discourage your parents and friends from using insecticides 
• Spread the word over social media and with friends

The significance of bees is much greater than you think, and in order to save our tiny friends, we must work together as a community.

Information from:
https://www.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/colony-collapse-disorder