Chapter 1 Our Story Begins
Important men have been arguing about global change s. The guy who invented the light bulb urged renewable energy on the guy who invented the car and who invented the tire. Ford Motor Company still manufactured and sold more than three hundred million motor vehicles that used excess fuel. There have been different cases of pollution and disasters that destroyed the environment throughout the years. Hope’s department chair asked her to teach a class on climate change. Hope researched through databases and data patterns across the next decade. This research became the foundation of what she taught.
This chapter shows how different people saw the need to check and regulate climate change by using renewable energy and being eco-friendly but didn’t develop proper strategies. If they had coordinated and agreed on a few things, the environment and the earth would have been a better place. I am confident that she began her work on teaching about climate change by telling what happened rather than what will happen or what should happen.
Chapter 2 Who We Are
Philosophers and critical thinkers came up and proposed different ways to control the population since they knew large populations would be difficult to manage and provide. Aristotle believed that the number of people that live in a country should be decided by politicians. Many of the scholars mainly focused on how women would be governed to reduce over population. One thing that these great thinkers never explored is the correlation between the status of a woman within her society and the average number of children she bears within her lifetime. Closing the gender gap around the world would likely result in a stable global population that neither increases nor decreases.
This chapter think that it is important to regulate population growth but with strategic solutions. There should be gender equality and awareness. Without closing the gender gap population will reach levels that earth cannot contain
Chapter 3 How We Are
The number of deaths world over has decreases. Maternal deaths have decreased due to the development and advancement of medical care. Life expectancy rate in the rich countries has increased significantly. Deaths related to illness has decreased due to better medicine, sanitation and clean drinking water. Despite all this advancements, the death rate caused by suicide and homicides constitutes almost half of the global deaths. Imagine suicide deaths being higher than deaths from global war.
I believe that more concentration should be put on mental health and therapy to help curb the rate of suicides in America and the world over. Poor counties should be helped to advance their medical prowess, sanitary system and provided with clean water to reduce the unnecessary deaths caused by avoidable diseases.
Chapter 4 Where We Are
Farming is the essential source of food in every nation. Over the centuries, more people are moving to urban areas. During the last half century, about three billion people were added to worlds cities. Many people move to urban areas because medical services, better education and a higher wage bill. A high density of people translates into concentrated human labor. If everyone moves to cities who will remain to farm the food required by the increased population?
This chapter shows me the need to improve living standards not just in the cities, but also the rural areas. If there is good health care, education and good working conditions in the rural areas, there will be fewer people moving to cities. It will bring about a large population in the rural area resulting in a large labor force to farm and produce enough food.
Chapter 5 Growing Grain
Food production has increased gradually over the years. The same piece of land that used to produce a certain amount of food and grain now produces three times more food. This amazing agricultural feat was actually the result of better watering, feeding and protecting of the crops. Increase in crop production equals increase in fertalizers and pesticides used on the crops which is harmful to the soil and sometimes crops. Increase in crop production is also a result of genetically modified crops which are drought and pest resistant.
This chapeter has exposed me to the fact that as much as there is an increase in food production, there are negative attributes to it. I believe that there shouldn’t be a monopoly in industries that produce GMO seeds as this makes the spread of the seeds minimal. Use of GMO pesticides should also be checked so as not to increase occurrence of resistant pest and weed.
Chapter 6 Raising Meat
Meet production has increased gradually 3 times more than it did half a century ago. As of 2011 the global production has exceeded three hundred million tons a year. This is over three times meet production with similar number of cattle pig and chicken used over half a century ago. The increase is because we feed the animals, and have improved the animals better than we did before. Even though meat production has increased, the amout of feed used in the animals does not account to the meet produced.
I believe as in this chapter that if we cut down on the amount of meat we eat every day, there will be an increase in grain consumption for humans by 40%. If we put into account this simple facts, food scarsity will be a thing of the past. There would be food security world over.
Chapter 7 Finding Fish
There has been an increase in fish production and see food for more than 3 times the amount 50years ago. In Norway and many other fishing countries, the fish no longer come from the ocean. They are grown in fisheries inland or in cages and nets on ocean shores. This has greatly increased the fish production by over 20000% world over. Aquaculture has not been without cost, however. There are advantages in traditional fishing than aquaculture. Traditional fishing is less costly and uses less resources.
Chapter 7 again highlights the problem with increased food production. The small fish that is caught in the ocean to be dried and fed to the fish in captivity deprives other fish in the ocean food. This fish could also serve human need. I think aquaculture should be cut down to help sustain other aspects of life.
Chapter 8 Making Sugar
The largest source of new sugar in American history in convenience foods. Most of the world rapid increase in sugar consumption between 1962 and 2000 come in the form of beverages. Most of American diet consists mainly of sugar. The drought that hit Russia and the Hurricane Carmen that blazed through the tropics and Gulf of Mexico led to the production of high fructose corn syrup. HFCS is a superior form of sugar to table sugar and the high intake by people who do even less activities lead to health problems.
This chapter clearly outlines the drastic increase in sugar consumption world over. This has led to a global pandemic in the name of obesity. It is advisable to cut down on sugar because I feel it isn’t a major requirement in human diet.
Chapter 9 Throwing It All Away
About 10 percent of the food we eat exists the body as solid waste. The human population produces billions of ton of waste from their bodies yet there is no adequate sewer system to meet the need for proper drainage. Feces and urine aren’t the only waste human produce. Vegetable rejected from farms, grain spils and milk that go bad make a large percent of organic waste. Over a billion people go hungry everyday while another billion people throw away perfectly good that is edible. A large percentage of organic waste is good food.
Chapter 9 has shown me how much human being are wasteful. Food can not be turned into waste yet there are people who sleep hungry. In this modern age of technology, there should be advancement in food regulations so that things don’t go to waste in the shelves and stores will other people are hungry.
Chapter 10 Keeping the lights on
The total amount of energy that people use has tripled in the last half century despite the population doubling. The USA is the largest consumer of the world’s electricity. The rich nations of the world amounting to only 15 percent of the world’s population consumes about 40 percent of the world’s fuel and over half of the electricity world over. This is extreme imbalance in energy consumption.
In this chapter, I believe that it is unfair that countries that are already rich but still using more than half the world’s electricity and fuel. Empowering the poor countries that more than half of its population do not have electricity should be considered so as to maximize the value and time of work.
Chapter 11 Moving Around
The need to move from one place to another force man to come up inventions like the cars, plains and trains. People are used to traveling too much that that we would do anything to travel less often. This has led to planes being the ideal means of transport since it cuts down the travelling time over the same distance as compared to other means of transport. Trains cars especially buses would be effective to travel by since it would save more than half the fuel that the plane use in travelling the same distance.
In this chapter, I feel there is need to cut down on travel using planes and cars top save up the fuel. Most people who fly do so for business. Use of technology such as skype and video call would be much better and this would even decrease the amount of carbon dumped in the air.
Chapter 12 The Plants We Burn
The world is largely dependent on fossil fuels to produce energy. The global demand to burn fossil fuels that produce energy has increased over the years. The increase in burning fossil equates to the increase in extraction of the fossil from the earth. Mapping of the fossil remains show that the its deposits continue to thin since is a nonrenewable energy. The next century, fossil deposits will run out and this might bring the collapse to the world due to the over dependence on fossil fuel.
Chapter 12 addresses the need to find a more sustainable form of energy. In my opinion, with the advancement in technology, we should take advantage of energy such as solar and nuclear power. Food cannot be turned into fuel yet there are over 100 million people starving around the world.
Chapter 13 The Wheels We Turn
Electricity is formed by large turbines driven by either waters of high speeds, steam and air. This are the most common renewable energy there is. The electricity produced from the elements do not meet even a quarter of the electric demand worldwide. It in turns brings us to the more powerful but highly toxic nuclear energy. After the several chain reactions, the by products that are produced from the nuclear reactions to produce electricity are highly toxic to plants, animals as well as humans.
In this chapter, there is good will to produce electricity from renewable energy but the output is extremely underwhelming. As much as we need clean energy, the amount produced cannot meet the demand required. I fell that we should still thrive to produce more clean energy from fossil and nuclear power.
Chapter 14 Altered Air
Plants need mainly need energy from the sun and carbon from the air in order to grow. The energy from the plants is broken down by animals in order to survive and then releases carbon dioxide out to the atmosphere. When fossil fuel burn it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In the last century, there has been beyond normal increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Even though plants require carbon dioxide to grow, excess of it in the air is dangerous because it absorbs a lot of heat. Excess heat has negative effects on plants.
In this chapter, I see the need for reduction on the use of fossil fuel. Governments should look more and act the dangerous increase in carbon dioxide that threatens to increase global warming to hazardous levels.
Chapter 15 Warming Weather
The effects of rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has brought about significant increase in temperature commonly known as global warming. Increase in temperature brings about increase in violent weather like snowstorms, drenching downpours, reverse freezes and ruthless droughts that last two decades. The UN environmental committee has tried to make countries come to an agreement to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the air. All the big players signed the agreement but failed to commit to it.
This chapter has shown me the level of ignorance that the major players like the USA, European union countries and Russia have despite them being the leading countries to release carbon dioxide in the air. If we don’t act soon enough we will have a major crisis on our hands.
Chapter 16 Melting Ice.
The global temperature rice is melting the worlds ice at an alarming rate. Freezing seasons in places like Canada and the north pole do not last as long as they used to. The sea ice that has covered the arctic ocean has thinned dramatically and its edges are breaking up which is bad news to the polar bears. When all the ice is melted, they might go extinct. Most of the mountain peak glaciers are melting or have already melted as a result of global warming.
In this chapter it is evident that our children’s children might not see snow or glaciers due to rising temperatures. Winter games will be a thing of the past if the world doesn’t come together and solve the global warming issue.
Chapter 17 Rising Waters
Measurements show that the average height of global sea level has gone up by more than seven inches and the rise is only accelerating. About half of the global sea-level rise that has occurred during the last fifty years is due to water added to the ocean from melting glaciers. The other half of the sea-level rise is due to the warming of ocean surface water. Sea creatures have move futher away and deeper in search of cooler waters. Rice in sea water means the water will cover more land.
This chapter shows the need to be more careful with climate change. I believe if the trend continues we might even lose the beaches we love going to during the summers. Carbon dioxide levels have to be regulated by all means
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Chapter 18 The Big Good-Bye
The first reason for today’s decline in species is the simple, and widespread, loss of habitat. Expanded cities means fewer places for plants and animals to live. The second reason for modern species decline are the climate changes. Extreme heat waves have been known to kill whole colonies of bats, and disappearing polar ice has decimated the hunting ground of polar bears. The current rate of global species extinction is almost one thousand times higher than the background rate seen in the rock record of fossils.
Chapter 18 shows the sickening effects of global warming. I feel saddened that forty years from know some animals will be extint and my children will never know or see them. Another reason to fight global warming.
Chapter 19 Another Page
Multiple solutions have been proposed to stabilize, and then decrease, the amount of carbon dioxide that is in the atmospher. One popular solution is to stimulate plant growth, to naturally pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and transform it into living tissue. More promising is the idea of fertilizing plant growth on the ocean’s surface: there are vast areas of the Pacific Ocean that lack only one or two key nutrients and could be stimulated to yield huge colonies of green algae and phytoplankton within weeks.
Finally, in this chapter I see there is hope in reducing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere if we work together and actually come true on the proposed methods however long it may take.