There are some who believe that Global Warming is a myth, how convenient that would be… The reality is that we, as human beings, have affected our environment in ways that we can understand in others that are impossible to predict. Awareness of this impact helped lead to the outlawing of CFCs (clouroflouro carbons) in the late 20^th century. However, carbon emissions are still on the rise, and this is a more drastic problem than the release of aerosols into the atmosphere.

        If I were to tell you the o-zone layer has holes in it, you wouldn’t be surprised. You might be surprised to learn however, that holes in the o-zone layer are not the biggest proponent of global warming. In fact, the o-zone layer is healing. During this healing process, large clouds in the atmosphere are being formed and reflecting back a lot of the radiation from the sun. This is actually causing a drop in temperature in the Antarctic Circle.

      The Carbon Cycle is a huge tool in helping us discern how we are affecting the climate. It shows how carbon goes through its natural stages, from being air borne, absorbed by plants, and released back into the ocean. This is a perfectly natural cycle that has been occurring as long as the earth has been around.

     In prehistoric times, Carbon was king. The levels of CO2 in the atmosphere were monumentous, and as a result the average temperature of the planet made it feel like a sauna. The oceans were like bath water. The animals and plants that lived during this time were adapted to these conditions however, and it was just how it is. The Carbon Cycle is to blame for the change in the environment between then and now. So, climate change does happen naturally, but the amounts of carbon we are releasing are rapidly speeding up this process.

     Today, there are massive amounts of carbon being released by humans and reabsorbed by the planet. This is causing the oceans to become more acidic as more carbon is released back into it, and the CO2 in the atmosphere is also contributing to the Green-House Effect. The Green-House effect is nothing new to most of us, so I’ll keep my focus on the ocean.

     As more CO2 is released into the ocean it becomes more acidic, affecting marine ecosystems and rising the temperature of the waters. Run-off from industry reaches the ocean through river deltas. This also contributes to the pollution of the waters and what’s known as the De-oxification of the ocean. The more carbon that is absorbed into the ocean, the less oxygen is available for marine life. There are species of algae that do thrive off of the Carbon dioxide, however. Huge plumes of these algae start to form near river deltas, thriving off the CO2. These plumes create dead-zones in the ocean where aquatic life cannot survive. This is caused by the use of oxygen in decomposing algae as it sinks to the bottom; suffocating any unfortunate creature that wanders into one of these dead-zones (this explains how/why there are huge underwater oil fields).

The warming of the oceans and atmosphere are leading scientists to believe that the environment of the future will resemble that of the past, as the earth tries to reabsorb the massive amounts of carbon we’ve released.

The Earth has this remarkable ability to recover and transform, and as we continue to affect the environment it will inevitably affect us.