Tag: earth nature

Hurricane – Destroyer of Many Places

 Hurricane!  A hurricane is a huge storm, that generally forms over warm ocean waters.. ..near the equator. The warm air above the ocean rises upward.. ..thus creating an area of low pressure, below! Air from the surrounding areas.. ..push in and try to fill the area with low air pressure. Which now becomes warm and moist. And, rises too. 

As the moist air rises, the surrounding air again, tries to fill in. And, this process continues, till the water in the air forms clouds! Soon the clouds and winds spin around.. ..fueled by the oceans heat and water vapor. Therefore, hurricanes could also be called, Giant Engines. That use warm and moist air as their fuel! When we see from the top,.. ..hurricanes can be as huge as 300 miles wide. The center of the hurricane is called ‘The Eye’ of the hurricane. 


Which is the calmest part. The ‘Eye Wall’ surrounds the eye. Where the most damaging winds are found. It can range anywhere, from 5-30 Miles. Then comes ‘The Rain Bands’. Which surround the eye wall. These bands are a series of dense clouds.. ..that give a pin wheel like appearance to the hurricane. Which range from 50-300 Miles. Hurricanes are divided into 5 categories. Depending on the speed of their wind. Here, take a look. Category 3, 4 and 5 are the most dangerous ones. TRIVIA TIME. A huge hurricane can release energy.. ..equivalent to 10 atomic bombs per second. Hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean are know as Typhoons!…


How tsunamis work in the nature – Tsunamis

 Hello Friends , In 479 BC, when Persian soldiers besieged the Greek city of Potidaea, the tide retreated much farther than usual, leaving a convenient invasion route. But this wasn’t a stroke of luck. Before they had crossed halfway, the water returned in a wave higher than anyone had ever seen, drowning the attackers. The Potiidaeans believed they had been saved by the wrath of Poseidon. But what really saved them was likely the same phenomenon that has destroyed countless others: a tsunami. Although tsunamis are commonly known as tidal waves, they’re actually unrelated to the tidal activity caused by the gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon.

 In many ways, tsunamis are just larger versions of regular waves. They have a trough and a crest, and consist not of moving water, but the movement of energy through water. The difference is in where this energy comes from. For normal ocean waves, it comes from wind. Because this only affects the surface, the waves are limited in size and speed. But tsunamis are caused by energy originating underwater, from a volcanic eruption, a submarine landslide, or most commonly, an earthquake on the ocean floor caused when the tectonic plates of the Earth’s surface slip, releasing a massive amount of energy into the water. This energy travels up to the surface, displacing water and raising it above the normal sea level, but gravity pulls it back down, which makes the energy ripple outwards horizontally. 

Thus, the tsunami is born, moving at over 500 miles per hour. When it’s far from shore, a tsunami can be barely detectable since it moves through the entire depth of the water. But when it reaches shallow water, something called wave shoaling occurs. Because there is less water to move through, this still massive amount of energy is compressed. The wave’s speed slows down, while its height rises to as much as 100 feet. The word tsunami, Japanese for “harbor wave,” comes from the fact that it only seems to appear near the coast. If the trough of a tsunami reaches shore first, the water will withdraw farther than normal before the wave hits, which can be misleadingly dangerous. 

A tsunami will not only drown people near the coast, but level buildings and trees for a mile inland or more, especially in low-lying areas. As if that weren’t enough, the water then retreats, dragging with it the newly created debris, and anything, or anyone, unfortunate enough to be caught in its path. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was one of the deadliest natural disasters in history, killing over 200,000 people throughout South Asia. So how can we protect ourselves against this destructive force of nature? People in some areas have attempted to stop tsunamis with sea walls, flood gates, and channels to divert the water. But these are not always effective. 

In 2011, a tsunami surpassed the flood wall protecting Japan’s Fukushima Power Plant, causing a nuclear disaster in addition to claiming over 18,000 lives. Many scientists and policy makers are instead focusing on early detection, monitoring underwater pressure and seismic activity, and establishing global communication networks for quickly distributing alerts. When nature is too powerful to stop, the safest course is to get out of its way.

Climate Change Of The Earth – Explained

 This is a simple explanation of Climate Change, based on an article in the New York Times. The average temperature on the surface of the planet has already increased 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, which may not seem like much, but think about it this way, the heat from human emissions is roughly equal to 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs exploding across the planet every single day. Future generations are in big trouble. But for now it will continue to get warmer and storms will grow more intense, with longer periods of drought in between. But longer-term, if emissions continue to rise unchecked, the climate disasters will be so severe they will destabilize entire nations, send millions of refugees across borders, cause widespread extinction of most species on Earth, and melt the polar ice caps, leaving most of the world’s coastal cities several feet underwater.

 All this could take centuries, but something like the sudden collapse of agriculture would trigger immediate chaos in society. Best case is we get our act together and begin to rapidly bring emission levels down; meanwhile, Earth turns out to be less sensitive to greenhouse gases than we currently believe, plants and animals adapt quickly, and major technological breakthroughs help society limit emissions and adjust to climate change. But, these are all the opposite of what we’re actually seeing, so the only thing in our control is to limit emissions using all available tools and best behaviors currently at our disposal. Worst case, the collapse of food production causes spiraling prices and kind of like a zombie apocalypse, but with extreme hunger spreading chaos instead.

 So, yeah, still just like a zombie apocalypse. This would be coupled with the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet, leading to rapidly rising seas that would force us to abandon many of our greatest cities and all of the social and scientific progress that we were making within them. Adding insult to injury is the fact that many of the emissions were emitted while building these now abandoned, underwater metropolises. If emissions continue unchecked, we’re looking at a total rise of between 80 to 160 feet, which would occur if all the ice in the polls melted. 

So the oceans will rise, the real question is how fast? Scientists only have Earth’s history to base their predictions on, which suggests that the rate has occasionally hit 1 foot per decade…so we’ll have to adapt to an altered coastline sooner or later, but probably much sooner than later. Because… Computer forecasts only give us a range of future possibilities, the most important evidence comes from the study of past climate conditions which clearly show that every time the amount of carbon dioxide in the air rises, the Earth warms up, ice melts, and the ocean rises. What’s important to remember here is that we are in uncharted territory

–humans are pumping carbon dioxide into the air far faster than nature ever has before us. Scientists have been publishing strong evidence that warming is making drought and heat waves more frequent, causing heavier rainstorms, and more severe coastal flooding. But while the Internet has made us all more aware of weather disasters in distant countries, it’s hard to prove these are all directly made worse by climate change, although they probably are. Canada and Russia both have vast, frozen lands, and could see some economic benefits from a warmer climate. Putin and the Russians, therefore, have been reluctant to make ambitious climate commitments. 

But expect that to change as these countries realize they will be swamped by millions of refugees from less fortunate nations. Libertarians and other political conservatives do not like the policies proposed to fight climate change and have chosen to try and block them by actively undermining the science. This effort has been funded by the oil and coal industry, who favor making money above all else. As more resources are devoted to solving the problem, our chances at big technological breakthroughs are improving, but we still should be spending about three-times as much money as we currently are on these efforts according to several in-depth reports. 

You can reduce your carbon footprint by doing things like plugging leaks in your home insulation, installing a smart thermostat, taking public transit, taking less airplane trips, buying an electric car, and putting solar panels on your roof. A big one is eating less meat. But what’s really needed is for you to speak up and exercise your rights as a citizen, because strong, collective action through state and national policies is how we’ll make the most impact. Considering that we’ve been ignoring scientists’ warnings since the 80’s to limit emissions, we’re pretty late in the game. But we’ve finally reached a moment where nearly every country in the world agrees this is a huge problem, and seem ready to commit to taking at least some kind of action. 

Leading corporations will continue to make bold promises to do their part, low-emission technologies will improve, and many states and cities will go much further than any goals set by their national governments. The United States, the world’s biggest economy, is finally starting to move aggressively, and China, the world’s largest emitter, is beginning to recognize that it needs to do the same, as many of its megacities cities will be underwater if the seas rise too high. But it’s up to us, the ordinary citizens, to continue demanding our political leaders tackle climate change, the hardest problem that humanity has ever faced. 

Why is Biodiversity so important ?

Hello Friends ……Our planet’s diverse thriving ecosystems may seem like permanent fixtures, but they’re actually vulnerable to collapse. Jungles can become deserts, and reefs can become lifeless rocks, even without cataclysmic events, like volcanoes and asteroids. What makes one ecosystem strong and another weak in the face of change? The answer, to a large extent, is biodiversity. Biodiversity is built out of three intertwined features: ecosystem diversity, species diversity, and genetic diversity. The more intertwining there is between these features, the denser and more resilient the weave becomes. 

Take the Amazon rainforest, one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth due to its complex ecosystems, huge mix of species, and the genetic variety within those species. Here are tangled liana vines, which crawl up from the forest floor to the canopy, intertwining with treetops and growing thick wooden stems that support these towering trees. Helped along by the vines, trees provide the seeds, fruits and leaves to herbivores, such as the tapir and the agouti, which disperse their seeds throughout the forest so they can grow. 

Leftovers are consumed by the millions of insects that decompose and recycle nutrients to create rich soil. The rainforest is a huge system filled with many smaller systems, like this, each packed with interconnected species. Every link provides stability to the next, strengthening biodiversity’s weave. That weave is further reinforced by the genetic diversity within individual species, which allows them to cope with changes. Species that lack genetic diversity due to isolation or low population numbers, are much more vulnerable to fluctuations caused by climate change, disease or habitat fragmentation. 

Whenever a species disappears because of its weakened gene pool, a knot is untied and parts of the net disintegrate. So, what if we were to remove one species from the rainforest? Would the system fall apart? Probably not. The volume of species, their genetic diversity, and the complexity of the ecosystems form such rich biodiversity in this forest that one species gap in the weave won’t cause it to unravel. The forest can stay resilient and recover from change. But that’s not true in every case. In some environments, taking away just one important component can undermine the entire system. 

Take coral reefs, for instance. Many organisms in a reef are dependent on the coral. It provides key microhabitats, shelter and breeding grounds for thousand of species of fish, crustaceans and mollusks. Corals also form interdependent relationships with fungi and bacteria. The coral itself is a loom that allows the tangled net of biodiversity to be woven. That makes coral a keystone organism, one that many others depend on for their suvival. So what happens when destructive fishing practices, pollution and ocean acidification weaken coral or even kill it altogether? Exactly what you might think. 

The loss of this keystone species leaves its dependents at a loss, too, threatening the entire fabric of the reef. Ecosystem, species and genetic diversity together form the complex tangled weave of biodiversity that is vital for the survival of organisms on Earth. We humans are woven into this biodiversity, too. When just a few strands are lost, our own well-being is threatened. Cut too many links, and we risk unraveling it all. What the future brings is unpredictable, but biodiversity can give us an insurance policy, Earth’s own safety net to safeguard our survival.

Overpopulation – The Human Explosion

Never before in history, have there been so many people on Earth as right now. Our numbers have skyrocketed, from 1 billion in 1800, to 2.3 billion in 1940, 3.7 billion in 1970, and 7.4 billion in 2016. The world population increased fourfold in the last century, so what can we expect for the next century? And what does population growth mean for our future? Will there be mass-migration? Overcrowded slums and megacities covering continents? Diseases and pollution? Chaos and violence over energy, water, and food? And a human species focused only on sustaining itself? Will population growth destroy our way of life? Or is this prophecy just ungrounded panic? In the 1960s population growth reached an unprecedented rate. Which lead to apocalyptic prophecies. 

The poor would pro-create endlessly and overrun the developed world. The legend of overpopulation was born. But it turns out high birth rates and the population explosion are not permanent features of some cultures or countries, But rather a part of a four step process the whole world is going through, The demographic transition. Most developed countries have already made the transition, while other countries are doing it right now. Let’s go back to the 18th century, when the entire world, including Europe, was in the first stage of the demographic transition. By today’s standards, Europe was worse off, than a developing region, suffering from poor sanitation, poor diets, and poor medicine. 

A lot of people were born, but lots of them died just as fast, so the population hardly grew. Women had between 4 and 6 children, but only 2 of them would reach adulthood. Then the industrial revolution happened in the UK and bought the greatest change in human living conditions since the agricultural revolution. People went from being peasants to workers. Manufactured goods were mass produced and became widely available. The sciences flourished and advanced transportation, communication, and medicine. The role of women in society shifted and created the conditions for their emancipation. Slowly this economic progress not only formed a middle class, but also raised standards of living and health care for the poor working population. The second transition stage started. 

Better food supplies, hygiene and medicine, meant people stopped dying all the time, especially so, at a very young age. The result was a population explosion. Doubling the UK’s population between 1750 and 1850. The main reasons families used to have lots of children was that only a few of them were likely to survive. Now that had changed, so the third stage of transition was set in motion. Fewer babies were conceived, and population growth slowed down. Eventually a balance emerged, fewer people were dying and fewer children were born, so the death rate and birth rate became stable. 

Britain had reached the fourth stage of the demographic transition. This didn’t only happen in the UK, more and more countries went through the four stages. First, many births and many deaths due to bad living conditions. Second, better living conditions leading to fewer deaths and a population explosion. Third, fewer deaths resulting in fewer births, and population growth came to an end. But if birth rates have dropped so much, why is the population still growing so fast? Well, the children born in the population explosion of the 70s and 80s are having kids themselves now. Leading to a noticeable spike in overall population. But they are having far fewer children on average than their parents.

 The average today is 2.5, it was 5, 40 years ago. So as this generation gets older, and fertility declines further, the rate of population growth will keep on slowing. This is true for every country. In the west, we tend to overlook progress in other regions of the world. But actually most of the world’s countries have made it to the fourth stage. Just look at Bangladesh. In 1971, the average woman had 7 kids, but 25% of them would die before the age of 5. In 2015, the mortality rate was down to 3.8% and women had only 2.2 kids on average. This is the rule, not an exception, we’re not special, we just had a head start. It took developed countries about 80 years to reduce fertility from more than 6 children, to less than 3. Others are catching up fast. 

Malaysia and South Africa did it in only 34 years; Bangladesh took just 20. Iran managed it in 10 years. All these countries that are catching up didn’t have to start from scratch and the more support they get, the faster they catch up. This is why programs that help lower child mortality or help poor nations develop, are so important, No matter what your motivation is, whether you dream of a world where all people live in freedom and wealth, or you just want fewer refugees coming into your country, 

The simple truth is, that it’s beneficial to you personally if people on the other side of the globe can live a good life. And we are getting there, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty has never been as low as today. So the future of global population growth is not an apocalyptic prophecy, it’s a promise! Population growth will come to an end. The UN forecasts that the 12th billionth human will never be born at all. And as the development level of the world rises, the number of people a higher education will increase tenfold. Countries who used to be a need, will help advance development instead. More people is going to mean more people able to advance our species.