Two steps back, and one step forward.
There are many organizations out there that are trying to help fix mistakes that man made but there is a particular organization that i found that has a plan that is very realistic and could affect the world in the near future. The organization is called The Glaciares Peru. The Glaciares Peru is an organization that's goal is to save the tropical glaciers, which are at risk. This project is to build a production facility that will create a paint able white cover material that can be applied to exposed rocks surrounding the glaciers in order to increase glacier reflectance, the glacier melting will slow and the earth will absorb less heat. The approximate price of the project is nearly $200 000, which is a sensible price to help and save the world.
Is it not normal for glaciers melt? Of course it is, when the temperature rises, the upper layer of the glacier begin to melt, the melting glacier will then be replaced by more snow and the cycle continues. It is this process that supplies fresh drinking water for agriculture to many places around the world. Recently, this process is not happening and the cycle is disrupted almost everywhere in the world. Global warming has increased average temperatures worldwide; making more glacier ice melt more than what the snow can cover. Imagine you have a lot of money saved in your bank, and you deposit and withdraw the same amount of money every week. Now imagine you start spending more money every week. What you spend does not cover what you deposit, and eventually you will lose all your savings. That's exactly what's happening to the glaciers.
Not only do the glaciers supply us with fresh water, but if they were to melt, the world would face many catastrophes. In recent years, sea levels have increased dramatically because of global warming, if the glaciers are to continue to melt, it would only mean that entire communities that reside near the shore are threatened by floods, fresh water will not be available, and their farmlands and crops would be destroyed. Living in such areas would not be humanly possible. DDT, a pesticide that is a harmful chemical, became airborne and settled into cooler climates, and are now embedded and trapped in layers of glaciers. If the glaciers are to continue to melt the way they are now, the DDT chemicals would flow into the oceans, rivers and lakes, and would threaten many of the wild life. The biggest fear that arises from the melting of the glaciers is the increase of global warming. Glaciers absorb 20% of the heat from the sun, and reflect 80% of it back to space. When glaciers melt, the complete opposite happens, more of the heat from the sun is absorbed into the earth, and less is reflected to space. This cycle would mean that more glaciers will melt, and the rise of global warming would be tremendous.
When the project comes into place, the glaciers will become better reflectors, and the earth will absorb even less of the heat from the sun, this is a great way to save the glaciers, help decrease global warming, reduce the rise of sea levels, prevent flooding, and even save the lives of many people and wild life. The world is in jeopardy from our creations and selfishness, and only we can save it, so please support this organization if you are given the opportunity to. Thank you.
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| Upsala 1914, Upsala 2004 |
Your post was very informative. I honestly didn't know that it was possible to paint/cover rocks in order to take the place of the glaciers. I do believe that this solution is very realistic and pretty inexpensive. Thanks for the information Daniel. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see some positive information on the situation of glacier melting. I think that it's really cool that we can use paint to help the glaciers do their light reflecting job. However, at the same time, I wonder how effective this solution is, and how it may work to well, and too much sun will be reflected. But it is nice to see some hope in this sea of dispair that is global warming.
ReplyDeleteHey buddy, you spelled despair wrong. LOOL.
ReplyDeleteEmbarrasing
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot of stuff from reading your blog. The idea of painting on rocks to reflect the sun so the glaciers do not melt as much could be a really good idea to slow down the rate the glacier is melting. Hopefully in the near future this project will be in effect and it will be helping the glaciers from melting slowly.
ReplyDelete