When fossil fuels are used for energy, they release carbon that would normally be stored in the earth into the atmosphere as CO2. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps energy from the sun, and prevents it from being reflected off the earth. When this occurs the earth begins to warm, which causes snow in the arctics to start melting. As it melts, bubbles of CO2 trapped in the snow are released into the atmosphere, increasing greenhouse gas effects.
A second positive feedback loop is created when snow begins melting. Because snow is white, it has a much higher albedo than the ground. As snow is lost, more energy is absorbed by the earth, further increasing the temperature and melting more snow.
The combustion of fossil fuels has set something in motion that cannot be easily undone. Because of this feedback loop, temperatures will continue to increase, and species in the tundra will continue to lose more and more of their land.
I really like the diagram that shows all of the positive feedback mechanisms. I think you could include a little more information on the albedo effect.
ReplyDeleteThe diagram gives a clear representation of the warming process
ReplyDeleteHowever, in my opinion, it would be helpful to include a graph that shows how fast the arctic area is affected by climate change if you could find one.
I really like this diagram showing how the warming process occurs. It is nice to show the positive feedback system that will increase warming. If you can find a diagram which shows the correlation between the timeline and the warming, that will be more convincing. Great work tho! :)
ReplyDeleteQuan
nice job on the figures! I like the double loops. I wonder if it would be even more effective if you could make the arrows on the right vs. left different colors, and call the 'loops' by different names (e.g. the decomp loop vs. the albedo loop)? That way you can refer to them in the your text, but also emphasize that the arctic is faced by a double whammy in terms of warming.
ReplyDeleteAnother thought - you might mention that warming is disproportionately large in the tundra (compared to other geographic areas), and so that arctic species are going to experience even more warming than other species in the next 100 years.
ReplyDelete