Rhinos on the verge of extinction? 

Since 2007, South Africa has seen a 5,000 percent increase in the poaching of rhinos. Being such an animal lover, this upsets me. This year, there has also been an increase in the death toll of rhinos. Last year, poachers killed 668 rhinos; this year the death toll is already 688 and there is still three more months left in the year. The black market is a huge seller of rhino horns, which is the reason they have been hunted. “They are worth there weight in gold”, stated Mathew Lewis, Senior program officer of African species with the World Life Fund (WWF).  In Vietnam, it there has been a recent and growing myth that rhino horn can cure cancer and also help with hangovers! But currently, all studies prove this to be false. It’s also dangerous for the people to believe in this because of getting real medical help they are relying in these “cures” that do not actually even work, Marshall Jones pointed out. With the population of rhinos declining so rapidly they have started to implement a 24-hour guard of the rhinos. Because the rhinos are being sold on the black market, they aren’t the only ones in danger and dying. The rhino guards are being killed so that the poachers can get their “product”. I hope that we can save theses beautiful creatures. As the Environmental affairs minster of South Africa promised, "I can assure you that we will not allow rhinos to become extinct on our watch,"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/23/rhinos-killed-south-africa-record-2013-poaching_n_3976258.html?utm_hp_ref=green

This week in Sweden...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is coming to town and with it, their fifth assessment report on climate change.

The hope is to brief the leaders of the world of the global temperatures and rising sea levels and what to expect in the coming years.

Apparently the IPCC’s track record is a little tarnished by not having correctly predicted the lull in rising temperatures and so have brought even more doubt to the table than is most likely healthy for the planet in the long run.

Even though America experienced the hottest summer on record and the arctic is melting at a rapid speed which is most likely going to result in an ice free summer in a couple of decades, we are still questioning human involvement as the cause of our current predicament.

We know for a fact that currently, oceans are rising at an average of more than 3 millimeters, or 0.12 of an inch, per year. Which is a pace that is significantly faster than the average rate over the last several thousand years, according to scientists.

The warming of the oceans is what keeps the sea levels rising, but what concerns me even more is the affect this will have on the ocean currents. The currents transport warm and cool water over the entire planet like a conveyer belt, which plays a dominant part in determining the climate of many of the Earth’s regions and with it controls the agriculture as well as the dispersal of many life forms, on land and in the sea. 

Say, the climate change is truly on a hiatus, as some scientists want us to believe, wouldn’t it be wiser to use this precious time and see it as a gift, rather than fight over who is right and who is wrong for the umpteenth time, and actually do something to change the course we are headed on?

Is it too idealistic of me to hope that we could come together as one people wanting to ensure our life quality on this planet for as long as possible? To put aside the ego and money questions and simply do what’s right and productive in the long run?

http://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-climate-change-uncertainty-20130923,0,791164.story

Insane New Studies On Climate Change

The article I read from The Guardian says that on monday September 23, scientists will be handing a report to political leaders in Stockholm. These assessments will say that the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation have now led to a warming of the entire globe. This includes land surfaces, ocean, and atmosphere. Heatwaves, storms, and other extreme weather events have increased in many regions while ice sheets are becoming scarce. The sea levels are rising as the oceans are being acidified. This could result in the planet's coral reefs disappearing before the end of the century.

These assessments also warn that in the next few decades, global temperatures will raise enough to trigger the release of plumes of methane gas from the Arctic tundra, while the solar ice caps, which reflect solar radiation back into space, could disappear. This, although the report doesn't say so, means that Earth would probably then be facing a runaway greenhouse effect.

The report will be discussed by political leaders meeting in Stockholm this week. This study is the work of more than 200 scientists and outlines the physical changes that are likely to affect Earth's climate this century. Future reports are planned to cover the social impact of these changes and the efforts required to offset the damage caused by global warming. Ultimately, these political leaders now have to decide how we are going to approach this issue.

The article also says that this report is coming at a time when more and more people think that global warming is not real, but whether global warming is real or not, how can we think that everything that we are putting out into the air is good for the earth? Instead of arguing about whether these awful things will happen, we should simply always be aware of how much waste and chemicals we are putting out into the earth. This is our home and we should want to keep it beautiful not only for ourselves, but for future generations.

Read the details here