Picture form Wikipedia

Evolution creates new types of species through a process called speciation. These species find an environment where they can thrive and procreate. Species extinction typically occurs within 10 million years after a species’ first appearance, but some species, called living fossils, can survive for hundreds of millions of years. A mass species extinction is quite rare, but isolated incidences are much more common. It is estimated that half of the species alive today will become extinct by the year 2100.

Species extinction happens when a certain type of animal can no longer live in its current environment due to competition from more superior species. It can occur in a number of ways. The main cause of species extinction is the deterioration of its habitats. With the current human population at more than seven billion, more land is needed to support this growing population. This means that wetlands and forests are being disturbed and converted into housing. Logging, mining and agriculture also disrupt species’ habitats and force them to relocate to other habitats. Other habitats may not be suitable for the species, since the species faces a lack of housing and food and possible competition from other species. This leads to toxicity, which can kill off a species very quickly.

Genetics and demographics often play a role in species extinction. Although natural selection works to eliminate weaknesses and build upon beneficial traits, it is still possible for a genetic mutation to proliferate throughout a species population and kill off many of its kind. Along the same line, genetic pollution is also a cause. When a certain species comes into contact with a similar species and procreates with it, it results in a hybrid species that, while may maintain favorable characteristics of both species, may also result in a previously undiscovered genetic mutation. This mutation can end up being fatal along the line, and if the species with this mutation continues to procreate, it can lead to a diseased gene pool that eventually dies off and leads to species extinction.

In some cases, coextinction can lead to species extinction. When one species depends on another, such as a parasite, and the species dies off, the other species may die off as well. This can also happen to predators that lose their prey or bees that lose their source of pollination.
Climate change can also lead to species extinction. This occurs primarily with amphibians, which are cold-blooded creatures and therefore need to live in cooler temperatures. A warming trend can cause them to die off. Certain plants also thrive in very cold or very hot temperatures, so any sudden deviations can cause them to become extinct. It is estimated that anywhere between 15 and 37 percent of land species may become extinct by the year 2050.

Please pay also attention to these articles !

Near Future Threatened Species

Causes of Species Extinction

List Of Present Extinction Threatened Species

What is Global Warming

Global Warming describes the current rise in the temperature of the Global Atmosphere and the seas. A continously rise in the earth´s temperature will lead to rising of the sea levels which will cause a shift in the natural Balance on earth. But what are the Facts about global warming ? We have prepared some numbers for you.
The Picture below shows the change of earth´s temperature in the last 2000 years. It is clearly visible that there is an unnormal rise in the average temperature od the earth 1800 and 2000.

This Abnormal rise in temperature has /is happening because of the so called Green House Effect.
Naturally occurring greenhouse gases have a mean warming effect of about 33 °C (59 °F). The major greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 36–70 percent of the greenhouse effect; carbon dioxide, which causes 9–26 percent; methane ,which causes 4–9 percent; and ozone (O3), which causes 3–7 percent. Clouds also affect the radiation balance, but they are composed of liquid water or ice and so have different effects on radiation from water vapor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_effect

Alot of people believe that Global Warming is a lie. As the scientists provide detail material on the reasons of the Green House Effect, there are people comming up with evidences, that on the first glace, seem to be hard enough to start to think about it again.

So here is a Statistic showing the reasons of the growing green house gases according to the scientists that claim that Glaobal Warming is happening.

But What is Global Warming doing To The Environment ?

Global warming is affecting many parts of the world. Global warming makes the sea rise, and when the sea rises, the water covers many low land islands. This is a big problem for many of the plants, animals, and people on islands. The water covers the plants and causes some of them to die. When they die, the animals lose a source of food, along with their habitat. Although animals have a better ability to adapt to what happens than plants do, they may die also. When the plants and animals die, people lose two sources of food, plant food and animal food. They may also lose their homes. As a result, they would also have to leave the area or die. This would be called a break in the food chain, or a chain reaction, one thing happening that leads to another and so on.
The oceans are affected by global warming in other ways, as well. Many things that are happening to the ocean are linked to global warming. One thing that is happening is warm water, caused from global warming, is harming and killing algae in the ocean.
Algae is a producer that you can see floating on the top of the water. (A producer is something that makes food for other animals through photosynthesis, like grass.) This floating green algae is food to many consumers in the ocean. (A consumer is something that eats the producers.) One kind of a consumer is small fish. There are many others like crabs, some whales, and many other animals. Fewer algae is a problem because there is less food for us and many animals in the sea.

Global warming is doing many things to people as well as animals and plants. It is killing algae, but it is also destroying many huge forests. The pollution that causes global warming is linked to acid rain. Acid rain gradually destroys almost everything it touches. Global warming is also causing many more fires that wipe out whole forests. This happens because global warming can make the earth very hot. In forests, some plants and trees leaves can be so dry that they catch on fire.

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/global_warming.htm

An alarming sign is the steadily rising sea level in the last 2 centuries as seen on the picture below

Ok that looks very obvious so far. Lets see what the other side says.

On this site http://www.globalwarminglies.com/ The author is claiming that :

Before you go through this site, if you have an hour to kill this is a great video and covers just about everything. Global Warming Swindle.If this link is temporarily down please google Global Warming Swindle.
Every Climatologist will tell you the Earth’s temperature has been much hotter and colder than it is now.
There was an Ice Age and it warmed up, there was a Mini Ice Age just 500 years ago and it has been warming up ever since. The Industrial Revolution was not around during those periods.
NASA reports because of Solar Flares the Sun is the hottest it has been in over 100 years. There are no cars on the sun.

Global warming is causing ice to melt on Mars. There are no cars on Mars.
Thousands and thousands of studies and experiments prove that more carbon dioxide produces better fruits, vegetables, trees and almost any sort of plant life.
Most of the temperature increase happened before 1940 (Before most carbon dioxide was released by cars and factories)
The hot year of 1998 was caused by El Nino.
Joining the Kyoto Protocol would cost the U.S. approximately $400 Billion every year and would have virtually no effect on earths temperature.
April 28, 1975 Newsweek printed an article about scientists predicting doom and gloom because of Global Cooling.
Global Warming Lies and many millions of other people who don’t believe global warming is man made have never received money from any oil company.
Climate models do not take into account water vapor that is 95% of the atmosphere.
The United Nations left out two statements that were supposed to be in the final draft of a paper on Global Warming.
1) “None of the studies cited above has shown clear evidence that we can attribute the observed climate changes to increases in greenhouse gases.”
2) “No study to date has positively attributed all or part of the climate change to man–made causes”

The only grafik they provide as statistical proof is this Graph, which to me, doesn´t look very convincing.

MuchMore convincing is this Article from Andrew Gavin Marshall.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5086

Just a short rezitation from his article is :

For those who saw Al Gore’s “documentary”, it was very convincing of its hypothesis that global warming is a man-made phenomenon that has the potential to kill us all and end humanity. After all, the film was filled with graphs and charts, so it must be true. Let’s just get something straight here, Al Gore is not a climatologist, meteorologist, astronomer, or scientist of any kind; he is a politician. And as we all know, politicians always tell the truth. However, as Al Gore’s popularity grows and with his recent winning of an Academy Award for his movie, the issue has spiraled into massive push for quick action and stifled debate, forcing many scientists to speak out and challenge the political status quo. A group of scientists recently stated that the research behind Al Gore’s film and in fact, the concept of greenhouse gases causing global warming, is “a sham”. They claim that in fact, there is very little evidence to prove that theory, and that the evidence actually points to an increase in solar activity being the cause of climate change. In Gore’s movie, he presented evidence that was found in the research done on ice core samples from Antarctica, which he claimed is proof for the theory of CO2 being the cause of rising temperatures. However, this group of scientists state that “warmer periods of the Earth’s history came around 800 years before rises in carbon dioxide levels”, meaning that a rise in Carbon Dioxide follows a rise in temperature, rather than increasing temperature following rising CO2 emissions. And not only that, but it follows behind the rise in temperature by about 800 years. The group also mentions that, “after the Second World War, there was a huge surge in carbon dioxide emissions, yet global temperatures fell for four decades after 1940.” They also claim that the report given by the UN, which said it was backed by over 2,000 of the worlds leading scientists, “was a ‘sham’ given that this list included the names of scientists who disagreed with its findings.”

So there is a lot of information on Global Warming all over the net. I think both sides are very ambitious in spreading their truth but in the end it is seems like things are not as clear as the should be. If there is a real big danger in the Global Warming for the short future, than government would have taken much quicker and harer action than they did until now. Still we should be aware of the fact that we affect the world we live in and take care of it. Every one of us should do something against Global Warming.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

But, what is it?

Literally, climate change means a statistical change in the average weather conditions over a certain period of time. What we understand from the term today is not a mere climate modification, though. Rather, it refers to a specific and unique occurence that affects the whole world. It is called the “anthropogenic climate change”, in other words: climate change triggered mostly by human impact.

Temperatures are observed to reveal unnegligable increases in the overall face of the world. Extreme droughts are followed by unprecedended floods. Polar ice is being melted down. Sea temperature gets higher constituting a jeopardizing the bewildered. Therefore, even though some places on earth do go though a cooling period, the term “global warming” is often used interchangeably for modern day climate.

So, what did we do all of a sudden to heat up the climate?

Before answering this question, we must caution that the answer is related to certain types of gasses that act upon the world’s atmosphere. Green house gasses they are called, for the green house effect they create. Methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are among the well-known green house gasses, to name a few.

You might be objecting this statement saying that carbon gasses are released with or without human impact. You are right. They are naturally present in our biosphere due to many natural events such as plate tectonics, volcanism or even from mere animal excrements. What’s more, life on earth is actually bound to these gasses. Because, these gases act as thermal blankets for the atmosphere. In their inexistence, the heat couldn’t be absorbed in the atmosphere, thus the temporature would be zero.

The problem, today, is that the blanket over the blue marble has got extremely thick.

Over the last 80 years, huge amounts of greenhouse gases have been released to the atmosphere. The major causes of this increased emission are of human impact, such as fossil fuel combustion, aerosols  and cement manufacture. The way we produce, the way we travel, the way we build… everything we do has been adding up to the carbon concentration. Moreover, deforestation and ozone depletion, two other anthropogenic hazards of our century, have been magnifying the affects of GHG emissions.

Scientists and politicians are now questioning what we are awaiting as the earth goes on to heat up. The retreatment in the size of world’s glaciers are considered to be the most manifest indicators of Global Climate Change. Glacier National Park has already lost 65 % of its size. Vegetation, insects and ice cores also indicate the scope of the impact. Unless our impact on our environment goes through a radical change, we should be ready for worse repercussion along the 80 years to come.

Examples: Blue-billed Duck, Solitary Eagle, Small-clawed Otter , Maned Wolf
Least Concern: no immediate threat to the survival of the species. Some of the including species:

Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags yearly.

Made out of low density polyethylene, they are among the products that are most commonly used by consumers due to their light weight, availability, low cost and huge variety of types.

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However, apart from these advantages for use, plastic bags are utterly dangerous for the environment. Their production process consume large amounts of non-renewable petrolium. They are not biodegradable, ie. they can not be  degrade by biological activity, such as enzymatic action, altering the chemical structure of the material.

Morover, only 1-2 percent of plastic bags in USA are recycled, the rest end up in landfills polluting the soil and water, where needless to say they pose a serious danger for wild animals and birds.

Do you need all those plastic?

Most people think that plastic bags are an indispensible part in our daily lives. We grab them everywhere, in malls, grocery, bookstores… For the last one year, I started resisting plastic bag offers in all such occasions and drastically reduced my use.

I carried everywhere a large, yet light weight and foldable cotton bag in my briefcase. At home I emptied it and put it back. Solely carrying around a cotton bag accounted for at least 10 plastics bags a week which adds much up to over 500 a year. It is no minor number…

If nothing you can simply ask for paper. Most of the bigger stores have them. In smaller ones, like most grossery shops in Turkey, you can alternatively envelope what you buy -such as bread and other small stuff- in old newspapers.

The two biggest challenges were garbage and cat litter. As I decrease the amount of plastic bags I carry home, I realized how much I needed them for garbage and litter. Enfolding them in newspaper wouldn’t work, as you might guess (even though some even recommended that to me).

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Luckily we have some compostable options to buy, such as BioBag Biodegradable Recyclable Bags. As you pay for what can be for free, you automatically reconsider if you should take garbage away now, or can that wait until tomorrow when it is really full. An easy way to go green even further, huh?

Extinct: the last remaining member of the species has died, or is presumed beyond reasonable doubt to have died. Examples:  Dodo, Caribbean Monk Seal, Passenger Pigeon

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Extinct in the wild: captive individuals survive, but there is no free-living, natural population. Examples:South China Tiger, Alagoas Curassow

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Critically endangered: faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Examples: Arakan Forest Turtle, Javan Rhino, Brazilian Merganser

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Endangered: faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future. Examples: Blue Whale, Giant Panda, Snow Leopard, African Wild Dog, Tiger, Albatross, Crowned Solitary Eagle, Dhole

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Vulnerable: faces a high risk of extinction in the medium-term. Examples: Cheetah,  Sloth Bear, Lion

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Conservation Dependent: The following animal is not severely threatened, but the animal must depend on conservation programs. Examples: Spotted Hyena, Leopard Shark, Black Caiman

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Near Threatened: may be considered threatened in the near future. Examples: Blue-billed Duck, Maned Wolf, Small-clawed Otter

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Least Concern: no immediate threat to the survival of the species. Examples: Brown Rat, Wood Pigeon, Harp Seal

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Honshū Wolf, extict due to agression and deforestation

Passenger Pigeon, extinct due to habitat loss and massive hunting

Chinese River dophine, since 2006 functionally extict

Others?

Giant pandas, tigers, polar bears, whales and dolphins, rhinos, elephants, marine turtles and great apes are currently in danger of extinction like them. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has indicated that 40 percent of all organisms is currently included in the category of endangered species.

Among the reasons why we should protect the endangered species, the experts count “aesthetic and moral justifications; the importance of wild species as providers of products and services essential to human welfare; the value of particular species as indicators of environmental health or as keystone species crucial to the functioning of ecosystems; and the scientific breakthroughs that have come from the study of wild organisms” (Wilcove & Master, 2008, p. 418).

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This explanation is true on its own: humans NEED these organisms and the health of the ecosystem for their very own survival. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims that loss of one plant species can result in the loss of up to 30 other insect, plant and higher animal species. On the other hand, apart from the homo-centric perspective, protecting the wild species, is an ethical must; since most of these extinctions are stemming from the human impact in one way or another. “As human use of resources, energy, and space intensified over the past few centuries, the diversity of life has been substantially diminished in most parts of the world” (Ishwaran & Erdelen, 2006, p.179).  In other words, we are responsible!

Major Human Induced Factors Endangering Wild Species

1) Habitat Destruction

Wild habitats are always in a process of change. But this change tends to occur gradually. When we intervene in the wild and trigger a fast change, we leave little or no time for individual species to react and adjust to new circumstances.
“Habitat loss is the most widespread cause of species endangerment in the U.S., affecting 85% of imperiled species” (Wilcove & Master, 2008, p. 416).

2) Introduction of Exotic Species

Exotic species are interlopers, introduced into new environments by way of human activities. These interlopers threathen the purebred, naturally evolved, region specific native species, through genetic pollution or as predators and food competitors. The new organisms grew in numbers in expense of the wild species. Moreover, in case of uncontrolled hybridization, introgression hybrid animals and plants which are  weaker in comparison to the naturally evolved species, can not able to cope with natural environs over the long run.

3) Overexploitation

Due to the commercialization of animal parts, many species suffer high rates of unsustainable exploitation. High demands for items such as rhino horns and tiger bones, for instance, endanger these species.

4) Climate Change

Recently, researchers have concluded that global warming may drive one quarter of all land animals and plants to extinction by 2050 (Global warming threatens millions of species). The first mammal to be named extinct due to global warming is the white lemuroid possum, only found in the mountain forests of northern Queensland.

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This is a 46 minute video on genetically modified plants and trees in the foreseenable future.

A significant number of such GE trees are known to have been developed to resist insects, such as two poplar species that were commercialised in China. Alerting effects are also detected on the soil. GE trees can affect the bacteria, earthworms and soil respiration. The leaves of GE trees planted along a water sourse can enter the waterways and we still do not have enough data to foresee its consequences for the aquatic life.

Therefore, Genetic technology should therefore be restricted to indoors, with containment, and should not be mixed with wild life.

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So peepoople -working in close cooperation with SEC Soweto East in Kibera, Nairobi, Communication consultant LOWE Brindfors, Technical development consultant SemconCaran, Chemical company BASF, Bioplastic producer Tenova- came up with an idea called “peepoo bag” which is basically a plastic bag, “that sanitise the human excreta shortly after the defecation, preventing the faeces from contaminating the immediate as well as the larger environment”.

They seem to have many practical advantages. By means of the chemicals inside waste born pathogens are killed over a period of a couple hours to a few weeks. It is partly biodegradable ( made of 45% renewable materials at the moment). When degrade in the soil, the ammonia byproduct acts as a  fertiliser. Moreover, it is way economical than establishing the infrastructure for wastemanagement and sanitary systems.

However, there is something that makes me feel uneasy about this product. And it is not just the culturally unacceptable idea of defecating in a 34 cm plastic bag.

This thing is simply not sustainable.

How much is it going to cost? let’s say 1 cent. How much will take make up for one person’s annual need? Who is going to provide them their peepoos and for how long? Isn’t that going to make them more dependent on the providers?

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There are some dry toilet solutions (like http://www.oursoil.org/firstdrytoiletinmilot.php). I don’t think that constructing dry sanitary infrastructure, say self composting latrines and checking its maintenance yearly would cost more than continously spending on plastic bags.

Furthermore, it doesn’t sound reasonable to me that the plastic would be 100% biodegradable in thenear future. Even if it does, how long will it take to degrade in soil?

Peepoo bag is an interesting idea, I must admit. But it is more likely for it to be used by the developed world in camps.

Stephanie Soechtig’s feature is a look into the bottled water industry which privatized one of the major sources of the world in expense of damaging the environment drastically. (http://www.tappedthemovie.com/)

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Waste management is still a large problem with considerably low recycling rates. Only 20 percent of plastic water bottles used in the United States are recycled and the larger quantity discarded by consumers has exacerbated this problem. To pronounce in numbers, annually around 1.5 million tons of plastic are expended in the bottling… not to forget the energy consumed in manufacture and transportation.

“People need to think about all the unnecessary energy costs that go into making a bottle of water,” said Peter Gleick, an expert on water policy and director of the Pacific Institute in Oakland. “It would be like filling up a quarter of every bottle with oil,” he added.

In Turkey, I believe the rates are even worse, since we can’t drink from tap and bottled water is way cheaper than many other places. Yet, it would only take 5 minutes to wash a bottle and refill each day or use a flask, instead of spilling a quarter bottle of oil on the ground.