Question and Primary Sources

Question
What is are the believed causes and the possibile catastrophic effects from global warming?

Primary Sources:
-Geography Professor
-Articles with scientists opinions and data

Roles for Research Writing

Role: Advocate in Controversy

-Should we take some sort of specific actions to stop the dramatic increase in the greenhouse affect?

-Should the United States adopt the guidlines of the Quito Treaty to limit the admission of carbon dioxide into the air?

Role: Synthesizer of Current Best Thinking on a Problem.

-What is the current thinking on the possibility of a catastrophic effects from global warming?

Research Progress Report

What have I learned so far
Are there specific terms, search terms, what do I wnaqt to focus on next week
What I have learned so far:
1) It is hard to find good creditable sources on the Internet. I’ve learned that previous to this class I was not always using good academic sources for my papers in high school.
2) I was surprised that many people and even some scientists deny the fact that global warming will have huge impacts on the world. They just believe it is part of nature and that humans aren’t causing the problems.
3) There is a huge variety of ideas of what actually causes global warming.
4) I have learned that there is the possibility of severe consequences from the changes in temperature and possibly even a second ice age.
5) I have found it hard to completely understand the topic because a lot of the information is so complicated scientifically that I don’t have the knowledge to containg the information.
What I plan to do:
1) I plan on trying to find more specific causes of global warming because a lot of my information that I have found so far is general.
2) I would also like to find the exact dates of when the severe affects from global warming are expected to happen to report the urgency of the issue.
3) I plan on visiting the library to find books on the issue so that I have more types of sources.
4) Also, I will be having an interview with a professor from the geography department to give me his opinions and information on the issue.

Valid Links

1. http://www.jstor.org/view/00129658/di960362/96pp003z/0
It gives an author and is a journal from the Ecological Society of American published in 1994.

2. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/gw.html
Is a government site sponsored by the U.S. environmental Protection agency and was last updated in 2006.

3. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/05_arctic.htm
This site is sponsored by NASA and is a government site and was written in 2004.

Potential Sources and Keywords

*Potential Sources

Primary:
-Interview Rich Schultz in the Geography Department
-My Politics teacher Dr. Shoemaker, because she is the one who introduced me to this topic and showed the movie on Al Gore’s inspirational speech on the causes and effects of global warming
Secondary:
-Al Gore’s documentary
-http://www.jstor.org/view/00129658/di960362/96p0003z/0
-http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/gw/html
-http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html
-http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/05mar_arctic.htm
-also I will be going to the library to find books for sources, and also will look for many more sources through Wikipedia and Google scholar.
*Keywords

-greenhouse effect
-global warming causes
-effects of global warming
-potential dangers of global warming
-possible ice age

My Audience and Purpose

Global Warming-A Scary Future World

Audience- My English 106 peers and professor who use the earth's resources and may not realize the serious effects of our human actions on the environment.

Purpose- To inform my classmates and teacher that the future of the world is in danger as a result of the escalating effects of global warming and will have catastrophic effects, possibly reaching another Ice Age. I will accomplish this by displaying the recent dramatic changes on earth and the scientific research behind the theory.

Refining My Topic with Questions

1) Will the dramatic changes in temperature and the increased greenhouse effect cause another ice age?

2) Are all of the changes in the world's weather and environment just coincidental or are they the result of global warming?

3) Is global warming caused by human actions? If it is, is there anything we should be doing to stop it or should we simply continue our habits that are increasing the problem?

Global Warming Exploration

Part I: Exploration
1. Identify the issue or problem that you plan to focus on in your research project.
I plan to focus on the issue of global warming and the causes and effects of it on the Earth.
2. What is your personal connection to and interest in this topic?
Last week in my politics class our teacher showed us a video documentary on Al Gore. The documentary discussed and his speech that he has given hundreds of times to audiences worldwide on the greenhouse effect and the possibilities of a dark future for the Earth if we don’t do anything to change. I was shocked at the severity of global warming and how close in the future the effects of it will occur. The topic scared me and urged me to research the topic more.
3. What opinions do you already hold about this topic?
I have always been taught to take care of the environment and recycle and reuse materials. I am completely against harming the environment and really push for recycling and picking up garbage on the earth, but I was never exposed to the severity of global warming until recently. Therefore, although I am in support of stopping the gases and causes of the increased greenhouse effect, I am not completely knowledgeable in the area.
4. What knowledge do you already have about this topic?
After watching Al Gore’s documentary on global warming I feel like I am well informed about the general information about global warming. I also wrote my synthesis paper on this topic so I found some information on the topic while writing that paper.
5. What are your main questions about this topic? What are you most curious about?
My main questions about this topic are what exactly is causing the increased greenhouse effect. I am curious as to why we aren’t quickly pushing for reforms in society to help save the future of the Earth since this problem is so severe?
6. Within what scholarly discipline (such as history, biology, psychology) do you expect to do most of your research? How does this discipline approach or study this topic?
I expect to do most of my research in a science scholarly discipline. This disciplines approach my topic because a lot of the effects and causes of global warming are all explained through science and experimentation.
7. How could you research this topic outside the library (for example, through interviews
and/or observations)?
I could research this topic outside the library by visiting a environmental activist group who supports the stopping of environmental pollution or watch more movies and documentaries on the issue.
Part II: Focusing
Write an initial claim, or an open-ended question, to guide your research on this topic. Make it specific but exploratory. Remember that a good claim opens up an area of inquiry about a topic; a claim should invite evidence, support, and debate.
Are scientists’ claims that our world might possibly be headed for a second ice age realistic?

A Terrifying Thought

Have you ever wondered what harm you are causing the environment when you turn on lights, watch TV, ride in a vehicle, and listen to a stereo? Chances are you have dismissed these thoughts and even if you are aware of the greenhouse effect and global warming, you selfishly believe that the terrifying possibility of another ice age on earth will not affect your life. Shockingly, scientists believe shifts in ocean currents and dramatic changes in temperature could come within as little as twenty years. A warmer Earth could possibly lead to changes in precipitation patterns, a dramatic rise in sea level, and a broad range of impacts on humans, plants, and wildlife. Scientists and supports of saving the present day Earth are wondering why we humans aren’t scrambling to prevent these horrific changes to our planet. What evidence do they need to convince them of the severity of our Earth’s future?
Over the past few decades scientists have been aggressively searching for the cause and effects of global warming and have become concerned about global warming caused by human activities. The EPA advocates in their article “Climate Change” that computer programs tell them that the Earth’s temperature will continue to rise as long as we continue increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. The Earth has warmed about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the last century, and the four warmest years of the 20th century all happened in the 1990s. Patrick Barry and NASA have done their own studies that they expose in their article “A Chilling Possibility” supporting the EPA’s predictions of dramatic climate changes. Barry insists that the thawing of ice covering the Atlantic could interrupt or even halt large currents in the ocean. The ocean’s currents create vast amounts of heat, “comparable to the power generation of a million nuclear power plants” (Barry, 1). Without that heat Europe’s average temperature would likely drop 5 to 10 degrees Celsius, paralleling the global average temperature toward the end of the last ice age. Anne Waple argues in her “National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration Global Warming” article that although the global surface temperatures have increased, it has been an increase of .6 degrees Celsius, a smaller amount of increase than the other authors warned. In collaboration, every article did not deny the fact that the Earth’s temperatures are changing dramatically and the temperature patterns are starting to resemble the patterns before the last ice age nearly 20,000 years ago.
Is these scientists’ proposal realistic? What are the chances that even if they are realistic that are world would unite together to prevent the ongoing global warming problems? Although many citizens across the United States have heard about the terrifying chance that our whole world could be altered because of our inability to take care of the atmosphere, some of them still dispute the predictions and disagree with the scientists’ claim. Weathermen predict the weather, but are the always right? Similarly many people feel that we are stressing out over a theory that has no evidence. Barry, Waple, the EPA, and Peter Vitousek the author of “Beyond Global Warming: Ecology and Global Change” all hold an abundance of evidence that shows the changes on the Earth that support the possibility of a potential future problem caused by global warming. Some people question if the rapid climate change is déjà vu. Barry points out that “as the world warmed at the end of the last ice age about 13,000 years ago, melting ice sheets appear to have triggered a sudden halt in the Conveyor, throwing the world back into a 1,000 year period of ice-age-like conditions” (Barry, 3).
A multitude of factors have been found supporting the fact that the Earth around us is changing more rapidly than in the past. Besides the climate changes as previously discussed, Barry reminds us that “ice is key” (Barry, 1) and that the view from orbit clearly shows a long-term decline in the Arctic sea ice. The ice has been retreating since the beginning of the satellite record in 1978 at an average rate of 9% per decade. The EPA observes that the mass amounts of glaciers melting have consequently caused the sea level to rise over the last 100 years about 6-8 inches worldwide. Hence, the melting of ice is evidence that recently the temperature of the earth has been rising overall.
Some entering in the world discussion of global warming may say that some changes that may occur because of the climate change will be positive. People who live in a cold environment might find it pleasant to have warmer temperatures. In additions, they may be able to grow different and better crops that they could before. But these few positive outcomes are highly outweighed by the multitude of the negative changes around the world. Waple points out that while some people might be able to grow better crops, others might have a drought and not be able to grow the food that they need. The EPA stresses that climate increases could also cause serious heat stress and increase other heat related health problem. It would also dramatically alter food and water supplies, and coastal flooding could cause health problems and could leave structures more vulnerable to storm waves. Waple and the EPA agree that the changes in precipitation could upset the balance of the ecosystem and could seriously endanger many living things
Another factor that both Waple and Vitousek stress as a major change in the environment ever since the Industrial Revolution is the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The most common concentration increase has been carbon dioxide from the combustion of coal, oil and gas. Waple reports that pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide were about 280 parts per million by volume and current levels are about 370 parts per million by volume. He stresses that “the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today, has not been exceeded in the last 420,000 years, and likely not in the last 20 million years” (Waple, 3). According to the IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios, y the end of the 21st century, we could expect to see carbon dioxide concentrations increase to 75-350% above the pre-industrial concentration. Vitousek emphasizes that the effects of elevated carbon dioxide are not likely to be confined to plant growth, community compositions, or terrestrial ecosystems. Vitousek gives a specific example that, “the increase in the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in seawater will reduce the degree of chemicals needed to create coral reefs” (Vitousek, 4) which in turn could potentially hurt the ecosystem.
So what exactly are we suppose to do about this problem? After all, Vitousek states that the environmental changes are “driven by the rapidly growing human population and our high rates of resource consumption” (Vitousek, 2). Is it not than our job to accordingly take responsibility for our actions and reverse our habits and lives to stop the coming of a terrifying change? The EPA points out that every time we use electricity we are helping send greenhouse gas into the air, as we are when we are driving are manufacturing items. To sum up Viousek, Waple, Barry, and the EPAs’ points we must realize that although all of their predictions for the Earth’s futures differ they all have the same basic evidence that proves that something will happen and something needs to be done to prevent a terrifying change.

Sources
Vitousek, Peter M. “Beyond Global Warming: Ecology and Global Change.” JSTOR archive. Ecological Society of America. Oct. 1994.
Retrieved 10 Oct. 2007. http://www.jstor.org/view/00129658/di960362/96p0003z/0 .

Climate Change. Last Updated 23 Oct. 2006. United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Retrieved 10 Oct. 2007. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/gw.html

Anne Waple. “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Global Warming.” NOAA Satellite and Information Service. National Climatic Data Center. 29 March 2007.
Retrieved 10 Oct. 2007. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html

Patrick L. Barry. “A Chilling Possibility.” Science @ NASA. 5 March 2004.
Retrieved 10 Oct. 2007. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/05mar_arctic.htm

Crop Circle Mania Waves Summary

When it comes to the topic of crop circles, most of us will readily agree that they are simply hoaxes and made by human beings. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of how a human could create the perfect crop patterns in secrecy without leaving any traces. Whereas some are convinced that crop circles are only hoaxes, others maintain that there is a deep meaning and unnatural involvement.

In the introduction to Crop circle mania waves: an investigative update, Joe Nickell provides evidence that many men have claimed responsibility for many of the different crop patterns created over the years. Specifically, Nickell argues that the incidences of crop circles have significantly decreased since popular crop circle creators confessed their nocturnal activity. Doug Bower and Dave Chorley admitted in 1991 to creating much of the “giant graffiti” formed over the years in England’s cornfields. These finding challenge the work of earlier researchers, who tended to assume that crop circles are caused by extraterrestrial visitation or even wind vortices. Over the years, crop circles escalated in frequency year after year and became more elaborate. These happenings support Nickell’s idea that humans are yearning for the spotlight and making their creations more detailed to draw attention. But, as the author himself put it, “(even) some cerealogists have become disillusions and have given up pursuit of the elusive ‘genuine’ phenomenon.” In sum, Nickell’s view is that new evidence over the past few years is all supporting that crop circles simply have little meaning and are human creations.

My Sources for Paper

1) Eltjo H. Haselhoff The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles: Scientific Research & Urban Legends. Frog, Ltd. 2001. Chapter 1
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=rBgiEpB0RkcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR15&dq=crop+circles&ots=6Alz2tEIp6&sig=SholU_m2GNuAHzh_IlHoFPYLP-0#PPA16,M1

2) Joe Nickell "Crop circle mania wanes: an investigative update". Skeptical Inquirer. May-June 1995. FindArticles.com. 01 Oct. 2007. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n3_v19/ai_16836665

3) Joe Nickell “Circular reasoning: The 'mystery' of crop circles and their 'orbs' of light - Special Report". Skeptical Inquirer. Sept-Oct 2002. FindArticles.com. 01 Oct. 2007. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_5_26/ai_91236221

Technology, Revised and Metacommentary

When it comes to the topic of new technology taking over education, most of us will readily agree that it is an advantage to students to be taught with technology. In other words, schools today believe that the more technology they have the better education their students will receive. Where this argument usually ends, however, is with the question of if students are actually smarter today because they were taught with new technology. Whereas some are convinced that electronics fully capture the viewers’ attention and concentration, others maintain that when the technology is turned on in the classroom, “we don’t have to think” (Stoll 46). My point here—that technology is taking over education—should interest those who are educators or students. Beyond this limited audience, however, my point should speak to anyone who cares about the larger issue of the future of education in the world.

Will computers change the way we learn? Shaffer confirms in his article Video Games and the Future of Learning, that “computers are already changing the way we learn—and if you want to understand how, look at video games…they are new ways to learn for a new information age” (Shaffer 1). To put it another way, he says that virtual worlds allow people to interact with information in a new, beneficial way because the knowledge gained coincides with everyday activities. Video games introduce a new method of learning that is not solely based on facts, but rather based on knowledge gained through interaction and experience. Shaffer recognizes that the next step to introducing new technology into the educational system is for teachers to trust them and “follow suit or risk being swept aside” (Shaffer 6).

Video games do teach some things, they are not nearly as effective or inspirational as teachers. Although some might object that you create relationships through video games, a game will not respect you, give you advice, or help you through your life problems, but a teacher will. For example, I was taught to read from a computer game, but my teachers perfected those skills and presented them to me in real life situations. Although the computer game was helpful, it could not solely teach me how to read, I needed the support and interaction of a real human being to help me with my individual reading struggles. Video games aren’t specialized for each individual, therefore if a student struggles in one area that the game does not focus on, they are not able to ask it questions or receive extra help from the game like they could from a teacher. This issue of technology being overused is important because it affects knowledge and social skills of future generations, and we need to fight for a balance between technology and teachers, otherwise the future minds of our children are in jeopardy.

“From an educational perspective, computers often do kids more harm than good…in fact, a great school doesn’t need them” (Stoll 46) Stoll insists in his article Who Needs Computers. School systems around the United States are now becoming wired and providing students each with their own computer, believing this enhances their students’ educations. Technology can have a positive effect on education as long as it is used in moderation. For instance, using blogs to promote interaction between classroom writers allows writers to compare their writings and feed off of other’s techniques. In addtion, I find that some graphics and examples on video or in virtual worlds can be easier to remember than from a lecture given by a teacher. Essentially I am arguing that both new and traditional forms of teaching methods are more effective if alternated, eliminating a loss in students’ concentrations. Stoll reports that a large percentage of students will pretend like they are taking notes on their laptops during class, but are actually checking their e-mail or playing on-line games. Furthermore, computers promote a copy-and-paste attitude that encourages plagiarism, something that stunts creativity in writing. Stoll concluded, “I’m furious to see the debasement of learning by technology…our finest weapons are books and libraries” (Stoll 49).