Sunday, June 26, 2016

Good bye cruel world

YES!
I'M FINALLY DONE THIS BULL POOP

I'd use other words but my English teacher would probably get mad at me. Anyway, in case you guys haven't figured it out, this will be my last real post. I'll post another just as a conclusion, but other than that, this will be the last. I must say it was more fun then I thought it would be, which was none at all. But I got proved wrong (that's a first!) because I actually had a lot of fun doing this. More fun than my other classes (I have science, history and 11th grade math, ugh!) so that's win.

Anyway, today is going to be a conclusion/wrap up of everything I've talked about so far.

So since the first post wasn't really anything substantial we'll start with my second post:

On the second we talked about the different causes of global warming. How it's caused by us and how it's about us polluting the air with too much greenhouse gases and how that heats up the planet.

Next we talked about the relations between natural disasters like hurricanes and global warming. In fact natural disasters can get a lot worse with the heated earth. Not only that, but they become rarer and more unbalanced. So while somewhere in the world they might be experiencing a flood, the next country can be having a drought.

After that we talked about the future with global warming. And how it did not look good for us in the slightest.

During my fifth post we talked about how global warming is affecting the best animal in the world which is obviously sharks (duh)

The next post we talked about which green energy source is better for the environment between wind energy, using windmills. Or solar energy using solar panels. We also figured out why solar energy is the better energy source for the future.

Next we talked about a very, very important subject which was the advent of robotics and how the advancements of robotics is actually helping solve global warming.

After that I discussed the movie The Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. Explained further on some of the things people didn't understand in my earlier posts and even posted the movie in case some of you might want to watch it.

And for my last post. We talked about how global warming is affecting all of the wildlife (not just sharks) and how unfair it is that they have to pay for the crimes we've committed against the world.

And that brings us down to this post, my last one forever on this blog, and so I'd just like to say that it was fun doing this (sort of). And I'll miss writing these. SYKE! Just kidding no I won't! I'm so happy to be done these!!!

Till next time,
Matt

Almost goodbye

What up my peeps

In any case, as it's my last and final post, I'm going to be going into more depth with a subject in which we've already discussed. Now some of you may be thinking '' But Matt, how could one subject possibly take up two posts. It just doesn't make any sense''. Now with most writers you would probably be right. But not with me. Oh no, I, am the best writer there ever was. Some would even call me the king of writers, or something like that. And, being the king of writers, I can do whatever I want and make one subject be two posts.

Anyway as some, all or none of you have guessed this subject will be about (drumroll) ..... Sharks part II. Why you may ask? Because sharks are cool that's why.

Now this post isn't actually just about sharks because I couldn't enough new stuff on sharks to make an entirely new post so I'm not. It's actually going to be on most of the animals in world. Here we go...

First up to bat we have the most obvious Polar Bears. Polar bears live on ice caps, and because these are rapidly disappearing, they're losing their home.
Polar bears are actually drowning because they can't find any ice to stand on, so they keep swimming and swimming (Dory!) until they eventually drown. That's an extremely terrible thing to do to these animals. These bears are even starving to death because all of their food has gone to colder places and they can't follow them because they would drown trying to get there.


Image result for polar bears


Next is all the aquatic birds. Ducks, Geese and all the other aquatic birds similar to them are being confused because they are leaving too late for their migration and coming to early. This completely messes up the food chain. For example, these birds will come back before their food sources is sufficient and so ducks will starve. Also because of global warming their breeding grounds are drying up and even having droughts there, so ducks can't breed there. And so, we'll be having so many less ducks and Geese around. And while I agree Geese are terrifying ducks are adorable and should be saved.

Image result for duck

Last but not least is the coral reefs. Coral reefs are almost entire ecosystems underwater housing thousands of various types of fish and undersea life. If the coral reefs die out you can bet all those other animals are in trouble too. In one year alone, over 16% of the coral reefs have died out. That's an insane amount. If that keeps up it won't take centuries for the world to change completely, only a few decades. The reason this happens is similar to what happened to sharks in the experiment I talked about in my 5th post when they got put into carbonated water. Coral reefs are much more fragile than sharks however, and so even though many other fish aren't dying out because of the elevated carbon in the water, coral reefs are, and fast.

I made this post to show that we aren't the only ones being affected by global warming. We're also affecting every other living things on this planet and it's not fair to them. They don't contribute to our global problem at all, yet they're the ones who pay for it. Not only that but they're paying for our mistakes with their lives. Yet some people still don't think that global warming is even happening.

I made this post to show people that things need to change. Something drastic is going to need to change in the world or how we do things, or else these magnificent creatures deaths will continue to happen, and continue to be our fault.

Till next time,
Matt

Bibliography:
https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Threats-to-Wildlife/Global-Warming/Effects-on-Wildlife-and-Habitat/Coral-Reefs.aspx
http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Threats-to-Wildlife/Global-Warming/Effects-on-Wildlife-and-Habitat.aspx

I almost ran out of ideas

Hey, everyone of my few readers

So I'm still out of ideas and I'm really not sure what other original ideas there are on global warming or climate change. But I did watch a movie on global warming in science class like six or seven days ago and while it was pretty boring at the time, I think I'm going to talk about it for this blog post because it's still related. The movie is The Inconvenient Truth with the former Vice-President of the United States of America, Al Gore.

So Al Gore is a politician and an environmentalist, and for years he's been presenting slide shows trying to spread awareness about global warming. If you want to watch it here is a link to watch it for free.

So, in this movie Al Gore describes how serious global warming is and I have to say it's pretty scary. So, as far as we've ever recorded in our world, the carbon level in our atmosphere has never went higher than 300 particles per million. Never, ever for over 100 000 years have we gone above than 300.
 Well in the last 60 years we have doubled that number. And it doesn't show any sign of stopping. In fact, it's going to keep going higher and faster because we aren't stopping global warming.

Now a lot of you are probably wondering "What does carbon in the air have to do with global warming. And who cares, I don't. Let's go get some pizza instead" Well children, there's actually a very good reason why you should put down that pizza (it'll make you fat anyway!) and it's that the carbon in the air is actually a huge problem. Now I've tried to explain the relation between carbon in the air and global warming in an earlier post but I don't think I did a very good job at it, so I found this video from the movie which explains it pretty clearly.



So it may be a little hard to understand but the simplest way to explain it is this. Normally the sun rays (the little red dude on fire) comes to the earth heats it up a little bit, then most of it leaves so it doesn't get too hot. But then carbon and the other greenhouse gases come along (the green gas guys) trap it in the atmosphere so it can't get out and so more of the suns rays stay in the atmosphere longer which heats up the world more.

So the movie talks about this and so many other things about how serious global warming is and how we can help. It's actually convinced me to start cutting back on some of the things I do that cause global warming. I'm starting to do my part to help the world and you should too.

If you want to see the whole movie here it is.



Till next time,
Matt

Bibliography:
The inconvenient truth movie

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Just for you M.Noecker

Hey guys,

So today I decided I'm going to talk about a subject that's really serious and that touches me personally... But then I thought '' Screw that noise!!! Let's talk about the advent of robotics!''. Sounds good right? I thought so. So here it is, my post about how the advent of robotics is either helping or hindering the change of our climate.

The advancements of robotics is actually helping with climate change so much. Just a couple examples of this is they can identify toxins in the environment and clean them much faster and more efficiently. Or being able to identify hazardous situations much more effectively.

But... I left out one of the coolest things being worked on.
I believe that this could actually be the coolest invention ever to be created... Like, ever.
This invention ladies and gentlemen (dramatic pause) is this:

Image result for robotic bugs to eliminate pollution

I'm not sure if this is how it will end up looking because the project isn't even close to being finish. But what this is ladies and gentlemen, is a little robot not much bigger than an insect that will be sent up into the sky and it will clean up pollution in the air. And so, I have one question for you. HOW COOL IS THAT! Just imagine if we had thousands of these little robots to fly around in the sky, cleaning up all the carbon in the air. It'd be like an army of little robot maids. That's probably one of my favourite fantasies I never knew I had.

Not going to lie, that's probably the coolest way to fix global warming I can think of.

But that's not the only cool thing that could happen. Although it's not really an advancement in ''Robotics'' it is an advancement in technology. So anyway, this happened last year so get ready for ''Story Time with Matthew''.

Once upon a time, last year in the first semester of high school. There was a boy. This boy was 14 years old at this time. This boy was also me. Anyway, in science class last year, during our biology unit, we were talking about pesticides and how they're bad and stuff. And then our teacher said he thought it would be cool if they invented a pesticide that, when the rain hit it, it's molecular structure changed with the water and it would become a fertilizer for the plant.

I know it doesn't sound all that exciting (unlike certain robot bugs I could mention) but imagine the effects of it. Not only would it completely destroy pesticide poisoning but it would even improve the growth of the crops while doing so. Now I'm not exactly sure if something like this actually exists or can even be created, but it's pretty cool to imagine about them isn't it.

Anyway, till next time,
Matt


Bibliography:
https://www.used-robots.com/education/robots-and-the-environmental-future

Ultimate showdown. Wind vs Sun

Well I'm almost out of ideas...
After five whole posts (four, since my intro doesn't really count) I've used up almost all my ideas to write about. So... This is totally going to suck...


Anyway, since I have to keep writing stuff to pass my english class, I've decided to talk about whether or not wind energy is actually clean and whether or not it's actually the best alternative like so many people think it is.


First I'm going to talk about the effects that these giant turbines have on the rural areas. When building these turbines they have to dig a cement base which goes about 3 meters deep. These bases are extremely difficult to remove and so are sometimes not fully removed properly. That means that part of those cement bases are just left in the ground and that can cause problems for wildlife that grows there after


You can see the actual size of the base of the windmills in this picture
But that's not all, as a lot of you probably know, there has been a lot of studies showing how wind turbines affect the agricultural aspect of rural areas where they are placed. When these windmills are running they can affect the temperature of the areas around them, this can ruin surrounding crops. Not only this but they also drastically dry out the environment which destroys the environment.


All in all they don't sound like the best solution to our energy problem do they? I sure don't think so.


A few years ago I had done a project on solar panels and had actually talked to someone who worked in the solar panel division in Suncor. During this he taught me a bunch of stuff about solar panels and after now doing research on wind turbines I think I can decide that I believe that solar panels are a much better solution to our needs of energy than wind turbines are.


Here's the thing solar panels don't create near as much electricity as wind turbines. However, they're also a relatively new source of creating electricity compared to the others (hydro, natural gas, wind, etc...) so I'm convinced that there is so much room for improvement in solar pannels. So even though they don't generate all that much, they will continue to be improved upon until they could support our energy needs entirely.

In conclusion, go sun!


Anyway, till next time
Matt,

Bibliography:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-subtopics-about-global-warming
https://ccsage.wordpress.com/naturally-green/it-is-not-really-green-energy/
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/52737

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Sharks that are Left

What's up guys,
It's your boy!

Nevermind, I can't steal Swiz the Wiz's thunder. Anyway, this is my fifth post. Guess what that means? If you guessed I was done this project, you are completely and utterly wrong. Because guess what? I'm only half done! Or half started I guess, depending on your outlook on life. You know what I'm talking about right? Is the glass half full, or is it half empty?

Anyway, today's post is one that has been talked about for weeks now. One that the readers of this blog have been anxiously awaiting (maybe, I know I have so I'm just guessing). Todays post will be completely about a certain animal, or fish to be exact, and how exactly is global warming affecting this fish. You may be asking '' What animal could this be? What animal could possibly take up an entire post?'' And to this my friends, I would reply with, a shark. A shark could indeed take up an entire post.



Now some of you may be wondering '' Why sharks? Sharks are stupid! Get a dog you loser!'' Sadly that was something actually said to me. Anyway, if any of you are thinking that let me ask you something. Is there an entire week on the discovery channel entirely devoted to dogs. No, of course there's no Dog Week, I mean come on, even the name sounds stupid. But Shark Week, that my friends, sounds completely awesome. And after watching it you will realize that sharks are in fact completely awesome and will motivate you to become a millionaire so you can buy a shark and finally sell that lame chihuahua you have.

Not only do sharks have Shark Week, but they also wear hats!


PS: this is totally not photoshopped


Anyway, as much as I would love to continue talking about sharks (I totally should've made sharks my subject for this blog) I should probably start relating this to global warming since that's my actual subject. So, without stalling any longer, let us begin.

Believe it or not, but sharks are usually pretty peaceful animals and don't tend to attack humans very much. However, because of global warming, the oceans are heating up and so the sharks move to different waters.. This means that sometimes they come in contact with people, and that doesn't always end well.

Also, sharks have to eat (that should be pretty obvious). And because of the rising temperatures, their food sources are either moving or dying. If they move then the sharks must follow them, which as I said before, can put them in the path of humans. And if their food source is dying, then the sharks must travel to find another sourve of food, which can also put them in contact with us.

Sharks are important, and now, I'm not saying we should fix global warming just to please the sharks (we should try and fix it, but there are a lot of other reasons too) but I think we should create mesures to help these magnificient creatures. Because of us, almost all sharks are already on the endangered list, and if we continue making it harder for them to live, they'll become extinct.

Also there's more reasons why sharks are being affected than just being put into contact with humans. Because of all the greenhouse gases, there is a lot more carbon in our atmosphere. Over a quarter of tha carbon is absorbed by the oceans. This makes the water in the oceans much more acidic.
In 2014, a study tested how newborn sharks were affected by these acid waters. So, scientists had put sharks in water with a similar PH level to what the oceans will be in 10 to 20 years. For the first month everything was normal. But after 30 days, their health started severly declining. They stopped moviing as much, they wouldn't eat and they got sick easily.



 Thankfully, the scientists put them back in waters with a normal PH level, and after a while, the sharks returned to normal. But if they had been left there, you can only imagine how terrible it would've been for them. And if that is how the entire oceans are going to be, sharks are in serious trouble.

Sharks are too cool to be forced to suffer this. We should try and help sharks because they are so crucial to our lives. I mean seriously, Katy Perry's Super Bowl halftime show would've totally sucked without that Left Shark.

Perfect dance moves

I also found another game that everyone should remember from their childhood. Here's the link:
Anyway, that's all for today.
Till next time,
Matt

Bibliography:
http://www.sharks-world.com/sharks_and_global_warming/
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-sharks-19221
https://www.google.ca/search?q=sharks!&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjN5pGQgbXLAhWFyIMKHf1RBDcQ_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=643#imgrc=x09_QGD3EJDJaM%3A

Saturday, February 27, 2016

We'll all be dead (not really)

I couldn't really think of a funny way to start this post so I'm just going to say this.
Hey,
I'm back,
Once again.

In case some of you haven't noticed, a new member has joined our group. His name is Pete and he's an adopted pet penguin (of sorts). You'll be able to find him at the bottom of the page, on his own iceberg, it's pretty little though (thanks global warming!). You can feed him fish if you want, and for all you jerks and mean people reading this, if you click on him enough he falls off his iceberg. I'm totally one of those jerks and mean people by the way, I think I spent the first hour after I got him just pushing him in the water. Whatever, he's not real, so who cares.

Anyway, my subject for today is going to be slightly more serious and maybe even a bit more sad than the previous three - sorry guys, so if you were just reading this because you thought I'd be joking around the whole time again, change you're perspective on this post because this one's different - because I'm going to be talking about the future. The future's a scary thing isn't it. It's scary because we don't know what will happen, and as humans, we instinctively fear what we dont know. But in this case, knowing might not exactly help stop that fear.

Global warming is happening. And it's much worse than we could ever imagine. In my opinion, we, as the entire human race, are reaching the turning point. I truly believe, as a species, this is the greatest challenge we shall face.


As everybody know's (or atleast should know), the ice caps in the north are melting. As you can see in this video, their melting a lot.



But you know what I think. I don't think people care. I don't think people give a damn what happens up north, I mean, it's so far away, so why should we?
I'm sure you've all heard that one myth that talks about if all the ice melts, the oceans will rise up and we'll all drown right? No? Well now you have. Anyway, this myth actual has quite a bit of truth too it. If the ice in Antarctica melt, global water levels will actually be raised by about 60 meters. That's a lot considering New York, New Orleans, Miami and Hollywood are all under 10 meters from sea levels. That means they would all be flooded six times over. That's pretty scary if you ask me. So those ice caps that are melting so far away, will actually be flooding places that aren't far away.

That's not all, the bee's are also dying. Now I know what you're thinking '''' Their bees! Who cares!!''''. Well, we should care. It is believed that 1 out of every 3 bites of food we have need pollen to survive. Bee's are responsible for pollinating over 80% of all the plants in the world. As you should know, there are places in this world that are starving right now, because there isn't enough food for everyone. Without bee's, we would be cutting our food supply by atleast one third. One third is an extremly large amount of food.
It's not just plants that would suffer either, the lack of food would go all the way up the food chain so their would be less meat to eat as well.


Photograph of the inerior of a honeybee hive with drone cells.

These are just two of the reasons why global warming is so important. And in my opinion (and apparently Obama's as well) it will be the greatest obstacle the human race is yet to face. And I believe it will only get worse, much worse because we aren't doing enough to fix this problem.
I don't think enough is changing for the climate to return to it's natural temperature. Mesures must be taken to fix this climate soon or it will get worse and worse.

If any of you would like me to talk about something specific about climate change, just leave a comment about it and I'll do my best to write a post about it.

Till next time (I promise my next post won't be as serious)
Matt

Bibliography:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/page6.php
http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/fcons/fcons4.asp
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/global-warming5.htm
https://www.google.ca/search?q=global+warming+bees&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=683&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwipi87GyZTLAhWJbR4KHbCdAj8Q_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=bees+are+important
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Bees/bees3.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZovcCxftAY