Week 14 Blog Post

 What did you do in lab?

        -     In lab this week something we learned about was the greenhouse effect. This begins with either the absorption of radiation by the earth's surface, causing it to get warmer, or the radiation is instead reflected. Infrared radiation that was emitted from the earths surface then goes through the atmosphere. Here the earths surface and the lower atmosphere become warmed by the infrared radiation that becomes absorbed at first and then gets re-emitted. Something else we learned about is that heat that we feel is from infrared photons that are created by visible photons being absorbed by the earths surface.

What did you learn in lecture?

        -     In lecture this week, something I learned about was the albedo effect. The albedo effect relates to whether a surface reflects or absorbs radiation. If a surface has a higher albedo it indicates that it reflects more rather than absorbing, and on the other hand, if a surface has a lower albedo, it will not reflect more and instead it will absorb more, and this high or low albedo is highly determined by what color the surface is. Something else I learned about the albedo effect is that it is a feedback cycle. This cycle begins with ice caps and glaciers melting, which then shows more of the dark water in the ocean, darker colors absorb more light so it warms the water up, which then leads to melting more ice and repeating the cycle. This is related to the snowball earth and the feedback cycle from the albedo effect caused warming in the earth which then melted the ice that was surrounding the earth.

Textbook Questions:

1. What did you learn?

        -     Something that I learned during the textbook reading is that we are reaching a point in climate change where the damage that is done by it cannot be reversed, and the new temperatures and weather we are receiving is going to become the day to day normal. This point of no return is predicted to be reached by 2060 if humans do not make a change soon. 

2. What was most helpful?

        -     Something that I found helpful was the global map that showed the temperatures in certain areas from coldest to warmest. By looking at this map it is clear to see that many places around the world are reaching their warmest temperatures or are getting close to reaching their warmest temperatures. Knowing that this is data from 2019 might mean that it is even worse in our current year. 

3. What do you need more information on?

        -     Something I need more information on is specifically how to teach students who have family or friends around them that believe that climate change is not caused by humans. How do you make them more educated on the topic when the people that are close to them are telling them the opposite?

What questions, concerns, and/or comments do you have?

        -     In the timeline it is interesting to see that in 2015 there was lots of actions made that pushed us back on our attempts to fix the damage that has been done by climate change, and as time went one more people started to stand up and try to make a change, however, there are still lots of fallback.