Global Warming in the U.S. & Caribbean

Hasan Ahmed 9EMrs. KorbatitsHumanatiesPresented Via Slide Share13sha.qataracademy.wikispaces.net

Describing The Issue: Global Warming

Global Warming is the term for an increase in the worlds surface heat/temperature, As the Earth’s temperature is rapidly increasing, Natural disasters will appear around the world a lot more often. During the last hundred years the average temperature of the air’s density on Earth´s Outer surface/Crust “has risen a little less than 1° Celsius (0.74 ± 0.18°C, or 1.3 ± 0.32° Fahrenheit)”. This actually does not seem like a lot at all, BUT! Scientists believe that this increase in temperature is the cause for most of the natural disasters happening around the planet in the last couple of years. “Their data show that an increase of one degree Celsius makes the Earth warmer now than it has

been for at least a thousand years”. 19-20 of the hottest recorded years have occurred after 1980, the three hottest ever recorded years have been 2007, 2008, and 2009 AKA the past three years of the planets existence. A rapid temperature increase like today's has never occurred before the last 30 years. That is what most scientists

have predicted. Our planet goes through these unique temperature cycles quite often “The Ice Age’ so our planet should be in a standby cools down stage. A change in the climate is not a very good thing at all this is because, as

the earth’s natural temperature continues to increase this will cause areas such as the North Pole & Antarctica and there giant glaciers/ice chunks to drift away from the area eventually causing them to melt and this would

lead to an increase in the sea level putting places such as California, New York, Coasts Of Mexico and the Caribbean Islands to be under the sea level causing many different versions of Atlantis…

Projections of Surface Temperatures in the next 100 years

About The Caribbean

The Caribbean is located south east off the Gulf Of Mexico, north Of South America and east of Central America. The Caribbean is basically a region full of islands and coast lands. The region is built up of 7,000 + islands, the Caribbean Islands are called the West Indies because when Christopher Columbus landed here in 1492 he thought the he had finally landed in Asian India.

Language and Religion in the Caribbean

English, Haitian Creole, Spanish, Dutch, French and ,Papiamento are the predominant languages of most of the countries .a very low number of Creole (ancient) languages can also be

found from one island to another .The largest Religious groups in the region consist of Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Rastafarian, Santeria and even Voodoo

Geography and Climate of the Caribbean

The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies upon location and elevation. The climate of the region is tropical but rainfall varies with elevation, size and water currents. Hurricanes and Earthquakes are the most common natural disasters in the Caribbean (examples – Haiti Earthquake & Hurricane Mitch.)

About The U.S. The United States of America, often known as (America, U.S.A. or the U.S.) 49 of the 50 states are located in the continent North America, 48 states are inside the landlocked U.S., Alaska borders Canada, and the Hawaiian Islands lie in the mid pacific. The U.S. also possess several islands in the Caribbean and mid pacific. The U.S. is the third most populated country in the world after China & India and third in total area (size of the country) after Russia and Canada. The U.S. is probably the worlds most

ethnically diverse and multi cultural country in the world .

Language/Religion in the U.S.:English is the predominant language in the U.S. however there is no official language in the country. This is because, Spanish the second most common language is spoken by twelve percent of the total population. French, German, Dutch, Chinese, and Hindi are also languages that are commonly spoken.

The United States allows any religion to be practiced within the country the predominant amount of the population are Christians and roman Catholics, as well as Muslims, Hindus, Jews and Buddhists.

Geography and Climate of the U.S.

The geography and climate in the U.S. like the Caribbean varies upon location and elevation. The climate of the north east is usually quite cold; the south is quite warm etc. rainfall varies with location as does snow with elevation. Hurricanes and Earthquakes are the most common natural disasters in the U.S. (examples Hurricane Katrina and the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.)

Global Warming Impacts on the Caribbean

Environmental

"Small islands have characteristics that make them especially vulnerable to the effects of global warming, sea level rise, and extreme events. Our beautiful beaches, coral reefs, mangroves, fisheries, bird life, and livelihoods focused on the coasts are all

threatened by climate change."Marine and coastal ecosystems are in danger. Warming ocean waters and rising sea levels are causing coral reefs to "bleach" "Caribbean forests will also suffer from climate change, especially hurricane damage and increased drought". The drought will enable an increase of water shortage, causing tourism to drop, as well as some of the endangered species located in the Caribbean

to die and possibly end up being extinct .

Social

Hurricanes and other natural disasters are predicted to become a lot more frequent and stronger. With rising sea levels, causing erosion of beaches and "threatening vital

infrastructure"

Economical

EconomicalMany tourist attractions will be underwater in a couple of years. Causing the economy of some

counties to spiral downwards pretty quickly ,

Global Warming Impacts On the U.S.

Environmental

The average temperature in the United States has rapidly increased in the last 20 yrs and is still increasing. Global Warming causes this climate increase and this climate increase is causing much more frequent forest fires and other natural environmental disasters to take place a lot more frequently and violently. For example hurricane season is between August to October expect a lot more frequent and rapid hurricanes to hit the southern area of the United States.

 

Political

In 2006 politician and ex vice president Al Gore wrote a book called" An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming

and What We Can Do About It "This book was later turned into an award

winning documentary .

Social/Economical

The economy will decrease to the fact that nobody will travel due to temperature increase as well as economic depletion.

SolutionsSome of the possible solutions would be to start using CFL light bulbs as they use 60% less energy compared to a regular light bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon emission in a year.

 Turn of your air conditioner when you're not using it or when it's not the season to be using one .

You could save up to 2,000 pounds of carbon emissions a year just by doing this. Turn of electronic items and switches that are currently not in useYou could save thousands of pounds of CO2 a year

The 3 rs reduce reuse and recycle

Drive LessStart to carpool with others or go outside and get some fresh air by walking or riding a bicycle .

And finally protect mangroves wetlands forests and plant treesOne tree can absorb up to 1 ton of Carbon DioxideMangroves Wetlands and Forests store TONS of carbon emissions and also protect wild and endangered species of birds, insects and other animals

Bibliographies

Google. Web. 30 Jan. 2010. <http://www.google.com.qa/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CA0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fscscb%2Fprograms%2FProgram_resources%2FGlobal-Warming-Fact-Sheet.pdf&rct=j&q=global+warming+in+the+caribbean&ei=8_djS7jpLILs7AP84MAa&usg=AFQjCNEp_n

rycodoPb7G4r1vbIfz69IIfg.>"Caribbean -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 30 Jan. 2010.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean.>"United States -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 30 Jan. 2010.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.A.>.Caribbean Islands. Photograph. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CaribbeanIslands.png. Web.Map Of USA. Photograph. Http://americasroof.com/counties/features/usa-blue.gif. Web.

" What Is Global Warming?" With Knowledge Comes A Responsibility To Act! Web. 25 Jan. 2010. <http://knowledge.allianz.com/en/globalissues/climate_change/global_warming_basics/

global_warming_definition.html.> Projections Of Surface Temperature 2090-2099. 2010. PhotographCaribbean Beach. Photograph. Http://www.aolcdn.com/channels/03/04/45d49fc4-001cb-01f62-400cb8e1. Web.