Tuesday, September 13, 2011
As Perry Campaigns, Texas Burns
Here are some great pictures chronicling the current drought and wild fires in Texas. As population increases, the need for water is rising fast and in an unsustainable way. If we do not adopt better water conservation habits, the threat of catastrophic droughts and wild fires in California is a very real one.
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2 comments:
Jacob I appreciate your concern you've shown for the people of Texas in this post. It is too common in our day to focus all of our attention on stories of government and politics and ignore cases of real human suffering. However, where I do take issue is your implication that unsustainable human activity is connected to droughts and wildfires. It is impossible for one person to influence the weather, the rain comes and goes in cycles driven by forces beyond human reckoning. It is true that these fires are raging across Texas for a reason just as it is true that the Earth's atmosphere is heating up for a reason but humans are not that reason, it is a message from a higher power that we need to correctly interpret. I believe this article will clarify my view
I am going to have to disagree with the above comment and agree with Jacob that this is a huge issue we need to deal with. Yes, humans can't control the whether and yes, the Earth does get warmer naturally, but humans have a huge influence on these patterns. The rate at which the Earth has been getting warmer has greatly accelerated in the past few years due to human activity such as deforestation and carbon emissions (cars and anything else that uses oil) to name two of the most common issues brought up about climate change. The trees we cut down can be directly related. With less trees, there are less plants to produce oxygen with some of the carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere, which means less oxygen and more carbon dioxide. This remaining carbon dioxide then "settles" high up in the atmosphere and traps radiation from the sun in our planet, which makes everything hotter. The same thing goes for carbon emissions except the part about producing oxygen. For proof the Earth is warmer, Jacob points to an excellent example. With a warmer Earth, there is going to be dryer grass, and with dryer grass, there are going to be a lot more fires that can be set off easily. This is why many parks that have a "Fire Danger" sign are usually pointing to "high" nowadays. Though not mentioned, Antarctica is also a prime example. An entire bay has been created where a once huge glacier stood. Getting back to Texas, the drought created by recent weather is a direct cause of what I mentioned above. Like Jacob said, with less water, there is a higher chance that fires will be able to do more damage because they will be able to burn for longer. We need to recognize that humans are the cause of climate change and fix that by adjusting many of our practice, such as our dependency on oil. "But I digress" (Mr. Silton, class today).
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