Mr. Callahan
24/08/18
Since the Industrial Revolution has begun, billions of metric tons of carbon have been released into the atmosphere through burning fossils fuels and deforestation. Recently, it’s been discovered that the increase in carbon alters temperatures by melting glaciers and rising sea levels & increased ocean acidity. When Kolbert visited Castello Aragonese, an island near a tectonic plate, it was a crystal ball into the futuristic state of Earth’s marine life. While scuba diving, there were rising bubbles from the sea floor vents signaling that the sea life was declining. One such example is the erosion of sea creatures’ shells, which was caused by ocean acidity and therefore threatened their survival.
Moreover, carbon emissions are driving ocean acidification as it interferes with photosynthesis, deprives animals of nutrition, but most importantly, causes calcifiers to die or adapt to the conditions. As a result, this causes chaos in the food chain and a decrease in biodiversity. One passage that significantly stood out was, “In the process, we are surrounding geologic history not only in reverse but at warp speed.” Although it seems that the carbon emissions are the problem, the real problem is that humans have been releasing them too quickly. As a result, species don’t have the time to adapt to the changing conditions leading to their imminent demise. Overall, technology has enabled humans to increase the scale of their impact on the environment; As populations boom all over the world, there is a greater dependence on technology. At the expense of trying to improve their lifestyle through farming, mining, and manufacturing, humans are damaging the environment at a quicker speed.
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