Geography research

The World's Weirdest Weather

After watching a few episodes of this, it sparked up my love for Geography again and so I tried to relate some weather related into my work. 

Looking into weather was my main idea as I wasn't sure what to do with natural disasters till inspiration hit me in lesson.

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Going with pattern of the 4 elements natural disaster style: 

Fire = Volcanoes

1. A volcano is a rupture on the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. Earth's volcanoes occur because its crust is broken into 17 major, rigid tectonic plates that float on a hotter, softer layer in its mantle.
2. 
   

Earth = Earthquakes

1. An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time.
2. 
   

Wind = Hurricanes

1. A hurricane is a huge storm! It can be up to 600 miles across and have strong winds spiraling inward and upward at speeds of 75 to 200 mph. Each hurricane usually lasts for over a week, moving 10-20 miles per hour over the open ocean. 
3. 
   

Water = Tsunamis

A tsunami, also known as a seismic sea wave or as a tidal wave, is a series of waves in a body of water caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.

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Carbon Footprint

For starters what is a carbon footprint? 

- It is the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organization, or community. -

According to the Dictionary but more importantly what does it have to do with my project? Well the fact that carbon footprints are causing global warming which in turn may cause natural disasters to worsen and kill ourselves and the planet.

What is/causes global warming?

One of the first things scientists learned is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Other contributors include methane released from landfills and agriculture (especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals), nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes, and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2.

 Since 1990, yearly emissions have gone up by about 6 billion metric tons of "carbon dioxide equivalent" worldwide, more than a 20 percent increase.

Possible outcomes if global warming continues:

• Ice is melting worldwide. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.
• Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.
• Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
• Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
• Precipitation has increased across the globe, on average.
• Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.

The effects that could happen later this century, if warming continues.

• Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches.
• Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
• Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
• Floods and droughts will become more common.
• Less fresh water will be available.
• Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
• Ecosystems will change - some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct.

All of this will lead to us either becoming extinct, because of overpopulation, environmental destruction and climate change.