Global Warming

For my research paper, I had chosen the topic of pollution and global warming with its effects directly on the health of people. Many of you have probably have seen the movie The Day after Tomorrow, as well as the movie An Inconvenient Truth. In both movies the melting of the polar ice caps is mentioned because they are melting. Very quick melting of the polar ice caps is a bad thing because they release cold fresh water into the ocean that intervenes with the natural 'conveyer belt flow' of the ocean. The ocean has a natural current wrapping between the continents carrying warm water north and cold water to the south. The colder water is in the deeper part of the ocean with the warmer water at the surface due to reasons some of you may know from chemistry. Also from chemistry you may know that a less dense fluid will float atop a more dense fluid. The freezing cold fresh water melting from the polar icecaps does not want to push to the bottom of the ocean regardless of its temperature because it is less dense than the salt water. The result of this is the drastic decrease in the temperature of the warm water flowing to the north. Without a differential between the temperature of the water, the current will ultimately cease causing the northern hemisphere to become much colder. Good news however, Josh Willis of Nasa has helped develop a new system to determine the temperature of the current all around the world and has determined that it has not been greatly affected over the past 15 years, in fact it is increasing in speed. Although the melting of the icecaps could become a problem for the 'conveyer belt' as the melting of the glaciers were, assisting in the freezing cold temperatures for the north during the ice age, they fortunately are not a problem as of now.

" The latest climate models predict the overturning circulation will slow down as greenhouse gases warm the planet and melting ice adds freshwater to the ocean. "Warm, freshwater is lighter and sinks less readily than cold, salty water," Willis explained.
For now, however, there are no signs of a slowdown in the circulation. "The changes we're seeing in overturning strength are probably part of a natural cycle," said Willis. "The slight increase in overturning since 1993 coincides with a decades-long natural pattern of Atlantic heating and cooling.""-PHYSORG.COM


This does not mean the icecaps are not melting or that global warming is not an issue, however, it does insure us the world wont turn into a giant snowball if you don't go by a prius tomorrow. While the effects from our pollution, if carried far enough, can literally change the entire climate of the planet permanently destroying species and changing the way we live, the change in subtle statistically insignificant changes in temperature are most likely just due to the fact that the earth is going through a cycle. Keep in mind the earth has gone through cycles before, and has had an iceage, and from what we know mammoths and cavemen weren't driving hummers, so it does just happen regardless of our contribution to the greenhouse gas increase.