How are Arctic sea-ice, climate and culture all connected? First of all; cryosphere, thermohaline circulation, and cultures are all interrelated. What happens to one of them affects the other two.
Cryosphere, which refers to all frozen areas on the Earth’s surface reflects more radiation than it absorbs. It plays an important role in global temperature regulation. Thermohaline circulation, on the other hand is sometimes referred to as the ocean conveyer belt. I liked the term cardiovascular system better since its our Mother Earth we are talking about.
Unfortunately, its been suspected that the ocean currents are warming gradually due to reduction in size of our cryosphere and carbon dioxide emissions; possibly by microbes, and most definitely by humans and their lifestyle.
When I watched the film about Sishmaref, it reminded me of a show I watched last night on I Shouldn’t Be Alive. Two boys are in a boat without a motor. They decide to go fishing in the ocean but didn’t see a sign warning of strong ocean currents. They are pulled out to sea faster then they could paddle back to shore as their oars were no match for the undercurrent.
They both contemplated suicide at different times to quicken the inevitable but instead decided to wait and see if they would be rescued. They ended up being rescued just hours away from their body shutting down permanently.
The Shismaref residents are watching their livelihood literally breaking apart in front of their eyes. Global warming has melted the sea ice which acted as a protective barrier around the island. Without this barrier the residents are being “drifted” away from the sea-ice and away from the subsistance lifestyle that they are used to and depend on. The resident said he felt fear throughout his body. His statement stood out for me because he didn’t say that he was worried or that he was anxious. Robert Iyatunguk said it scares him in his body.
Contra Costa Community College is doing something to help reduce global warming. Chevron Energy Solutions is available to help save energy and cut greenhouses gas emissions by use of solar panels and they took up on the offer.
Tim Leong, stated that it was daunting and a bit scary to try something new, but they took the chance and had the largest solar power installation ever built at an institution of higher learning in North America.
A verse in the song, Circle of Life, states; “You should never take more than you give.” All of us can make a difference in making our planet Earth a better place to live by making changes in our lifestyle. It could be as simple as turning of a light switch or putting a solar panel on your roof. We can all make a difference.
Sites I liked:
Digital Bits Science Lab
Global warming information
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Great Lion King connections. I also liked the Chevron link with the image of solar panels shading the parked cars.
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