Perhaps I was destined to be an environmentalist since my birth on Earth Day. Or perhaps I am simply a product of my environment, living in a perpetually drought-stricken suburb of California. Whether nature or nurture, environmental science captivates me. Though I’ve always had a general interest in climate change and the earth’s systems, AP Environmental Science revealed its pervading READ MORE
Tag: climate change
Ocean Acidification’s Effects on Coral
Many misconstrue why and how coral reefs are collapsing. There are a number factors including warming waters which causes coral bleaching, rising sea levels, and ocean acidification (what we will be covering here). A number of people are familiar with coral bleaching, with the stark white in contrast with the normally vibrant corals that we are familiar with. However, ocean READ MORE
The Intersection Between Racism, Health, and Nature
Aside from blatant disregard for people of color’s health as seen in Flint, Michigan, environmental injustice can also be seen on a smaller scale. Less obvious health hazards can quickly add up and severely jeopardize the health of our most vulnerable members of society. Some examples include a lack of nature in poor neighborhoods to decreased access to nutritional foods READ MORE
Developing nations should not be our dumping grounds
Last month, we talked about how environmental racism affects communities around the United States. However, this phenomenon doesn’t just happen at the national level; throughout the world, developing countries are forced to bear the burden of the world’s pollution and the effects of climate change, even when they are the ones who contribute the least to these problems. For example, READ MORE
California Wildfires: Causes, Effects, and Solutions
In California, rapidly changing climate creates the perfect conditions for longer and more extreme fire seasons each year. Paired with seasonally dry Santa Ana and Diablo winds, increasing temperatures and dry spells create highly flammable vegetation, which is ideal for wildfires. The dry, windy weather also causes bushfires to spread quickly and unpredictably. Windy and hot weather is natural for READ MORE
Chemistry’s Role in Climate Change
Chemistry is key to solving climate change. Everything we already know about climate change, and all the progress we have made combatting it, can be attributed to our knowledge of chemistry. We know what climate change is because scientists have sought to understand how greenhouse gases—namely CO2—interact with our atmosphere and oceans, but chemistry has also been essential to combatting READ MORE
An Overview of Climate Change
Climate change has been a hot topic throughout the news lately. But what is climate change? Weather vs. Climate People often confuse weather and climate. The two are not interchangeable and have very different meanings. Weather relates to the current condition of a specific location in terms of minutes, hours, and even days. Climate, however, is the average weather conditions READ MORE