The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery - Essay Example All of the possible natural causes of global warming will have occurred by 2050 and man has control over the speed at which global warming will progress. There is no existing model that can be able to determine the possibility of our saving the earth, and its many habitats and species (Flannery 153-165). Chapter 17: The commitment and Approaching Extreme Danger Several eras and times have had the most impact on climate change. The Baby boomer generation in particular can be held as being the most accountable generation in respect to the levels of CO2 that has been emitted into the atmosphere. The impact of the greenhouse gases that are currently in our atmosphere will be fully felt by around the year 2050. This can mainly be attributed CO2 long life in the earth’s atmosphere. Nearly half of the entire world’s energy that has been generated since the industrial revolution has been consumed within the past 20 years. The effect of the response by the planet to these temper ature changes varies from the earth’s surface, to the atmosphere as seen with the example by the data collected in 2002. The data recorded the planet’s temperature to be over the preindustrial temperature conditions by about 0.8 degrees Celsius. The troposphere also saw an increase of about 0.25 degrees Celsius while the land surface witnessed the highest levels of temperature increase of about 1.2 degrees Celsius (Flannery 166-170). Chapter 18: Leveling the Mountains It is estimated that, for a distance travelled up a mountain of approximately one hundred yards, the temperature drops by about one degree F. This cooling is what makes mountains unique and not just a taller version of the land surrounding it. As the world rapidly warms, the mountain-dwelling species have no option but to move further up to the cooler regions which is a factor that could potentially lead to their extinction (Flannery 171-177). Chapter 19: How can they keep on moving? Various species manag ed to survive climate change in the past by moving up mountains, until they were able to reach temperatures that would ensure their survival. Nowadays water bodies and various human landscapes are impeding their paths and getting in the way of any migration. An example of this is the fynbos found in the Cape Fold Mountains which is one of the six floral kingdoms in the world. It will potentially lose up to half its species by 2050 due to global warming as they will be unable to migrate. If action were to be taken immediately, we would be able to save two species for each species killed, but if we fail to do this, three out of every five species will not live to see the next century (Flannery 178-183). Chapter 20: Boiling the Abyss When deep-sea dwelling creatures are caught by marine biologists trawling nets and are lifted to the ocean’s surface, they die within moments a factor that scientists have been attributing to pressure changes. This has wrongly been attributed to be a result of temperature changes, but modern science has now shown this to be as a result of temperature change. These creatures are used to temperatures hovering around zero and have evolved to withstand and survive in these temperatures.