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Harvest Whisper | vividessentials

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Hurricane Florence, Isaac and Helene

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Images of Hurricane Florence Observed from the International Space Station

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Elephant | Drea Frei

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by catman-suha

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Border Leicester Sheep 

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Scottish Longhorn

She looked like she’d been blowdried in the sun after the rain and wind we’d had.

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Iceland, August 2018

Very August-looking scenerie am I right ?

It was a lovely day, perfect weather to hike one of the highest reachable summit of the area. We were quite lucky as this region is often covered by clouds, ask how the weather will be to a local, the only thing he’ll be able to tell you is if it’s going to be rainy or not.

INSTAGRAM

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x adventure blog x

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Untitled | mrbenbrown

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by Laura Storm

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The Seychelles 

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How To Stop the Madness...

There has been so much talk about global climate change, all the effects it has on the world, but what can we do to prevent all this? It isn’t that difficult to do your part to prevent global warming, some things you can do are so simple. To make the biggest impact, is actually the easiest, speak up! If people around the world are more vocal about global climate change, then more people will hear about it and then they will use their voice as well. People voicing concerns can make a major impact, whether it helps another person become more cautious to making it more heard at a governmental level. This will help build support for various policies at regional, state and potentially national levels. On a smaller scale, everything still counts. If you look around your house there are SO many different things you can do to help prevent the rise of global temperatures. Renewable energy is a huge step in the right direction, this reduces the about of fossil fuels that are used to provide energy. Sources of renewable energy are wind, solar, hydro and many more. Put up a solar panel, it will help in doing its part! Along with renewable energy, we can also use energy-efficient appliances. Energy-efficient appliances have kept 2.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide out of the air since 1987, which is the same amount of carbon coughed up by 440 million cars (NRDC). Buy an energy efficient refrigerator or washing machine! Water is becoming a more sought after daily essential in some parts of the world and it also plays its part in carbon pollution. There is a lot of energy that is used for pumping, heating and treating your water. To help with this, shorten that shower and turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth! Food and water tend to go hand in hand, so you can watch your eating as well to prevent carbon emissions. About 10 percent of energy in the United States is used for growing, processing, packaging and shipping food products. 40 percent of that ends up in a landfill (NRDC). That is a lot of energy going to waste just by not finishing your plate. Livestock production holds a large portion of the energy used for food, so maybe say no to meat every once in a while. Transportation is a large part of the harmful emissions released into the atmosphere. Think twice before getting in the car, try to use more public transportation. That will help preserve fossil fuels that are being burned. If you must drive, drive a fuel efficient vehicle that is well maintained. Check the tire pressure, get a tune up, do your part in maintaining a vehicle and use less gas. There are so many little things that Americans do every day that contribute to the rising temperatures on the Earth, if each one of us did our part, think about how the world would look today. That’s a world I want to live in, don’t you?

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Hit Like a Hurricane

Hurricanes are supposed to just be a natural part of our climate. They just come along every once in a while and there is nothing we can do about it, right? If you reflect back on past years, there has been more hurricanes. Along with there being more hurricanes, they have become more intense as well, having higher wind speeds and plenty more precipitation. The cause, global warming. There are scientists doing a lot of research on why this is an occurence. New research says that as the Earth has gradually warmed, the possibility of a storm with high precipitations are more likely (USC). In reality, the frequency of hurricanes has not increased. We just seem to remember more of them because of the severity of the events. Around 90 hurricanes occur every year, with most of them happening in the Pacific Ocean, which is the largest ocean. The cause of more destructive hurricanes is because the oceans take most all of the extra energy that is formed by global warming. This means the temperature of the ocean is rising. Warmer water is a major factor in the severity of hurricanes. The ocean is still on a warming trend, so this could be a very dangerous hazard for ocean-side communities. More Katrina like disasters have the potential to devastate the world. It also does not help that the ocean-side is becoming more heavily populated, so once again, we hear and see more of the damages that are caused. All in all, a warming world will increase the intensity of hurricanes and cause more damage.

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Livestock : Cause and Affected

As humans, we need to eat, most of us consume animal products as a part of our diet, so therefore we need livestock. All of the changes in the climate are actually a problem for livestock production. It affects crop quality, water availability, diseases, reproduction, and production, that is only to name a few things that these changes affect. Not only is livestock production affected, it also helps cause some of the climate issues. The livestock industry contributes 14.5% of global GHG emissions (Climate Risk). This causes pollution in air and water. The manure from the animals release methane and other gases into the environment, this negatively affects climate change. Other gases are released through processing and transport of the animal products. An increase in livestock production will most likely arise in less natural resources, which means the environment will be further damages if there isn’t an appropriate management of the natural resources. Not only does livestock production affect the environment, but the climate change also affects livestock production. Feed production is affected by lack of quantity and quality. There is an increase in CO2levels, depending on where they are and what type of livestock it is for decides how it will be affected. A lack of water is also an issue, agriculture uses 70% of fresh-water resources (Climate Risk). Around the world, the competition for water is increasing due to scarcity and depletion. Water is technically more important for a human instead of livestock, so now people in the livestock industry have to fight for the water that they need. The temperature around the world is rising, this causes heat stress on animals. Heat stress causes animals to not produce, to become more apt to diseases, lack of reproduction and less food and water consumption. This is obviously a problem. Overtime, many animals will adapt to the heat, but currently that is a problem for the livestock industry. Through all these problems, animal production will decrease. People consume animal products as part of their balanced diet. A lack of production will result in less of the product to be available to humans. Meaning in the end, livestock aren’t the only ones suffering, once again humans are seeing the consequences from climate change and global warming.

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We actually are affected too..

Global warming affects humans, just as much, if not more, than the rest of the earth. It is a major threat to all people. Humans might be the main source of this problem, but still it is very dangerous to us. We are affected by climate changes, unhealthy air, hazardous weather, various diseases and hazards to health. People can be very vulnerable to health impacts, whether it is from short exposure to a longer exposure. And individuals are all affected differently, along with different communities. These communities that experience minimal effects currently are more likely to have to experience more severe weather and climate. For example, if there are higher temperatures, this may cause higher storm intensity and rainfall rates, especially after a hurricane. The air we breathe is also a problem. Air quality is decreasing. Many air pollutants are becoming an issue for the outdoor and indoor air we must breathe. This affects our respiratory and cardiovascular systems. They cause these systems to work harder to protect our body from these harmful pollutants, and also increase allergic sensitization and asthma episodes, which is obviously a problem. Hazardous weather is something to be concerned about, we can all see the effects of a hurricane and how it affects a population. They are dangerous. Hurricanes have the potential to destroy many communities, along with killing many people. This costs a lot of money to repair. Whether it is medical bills, rebuilding infrastructure, or any of the other things hurricanes cause, it majorly affects everybody. Everything is damaged and needs to be replaced, its a bad situation all around. I know people are one of the main causes of global warming and climate change, but it hurts humans so much. People need to start to do their part to help prevent these problems from getting worse. It’s going to save us, which is so important.

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Polar Bear Endangerment

We have all heard about how we need to save the polar bears, but some people don’t even know completely what is wrong with them. Ice is melting in the Arctic, where the polar bears call home. There is about 770,000 square miles less ice in the sea from 1981-2010, which is larger than both Alaska and California put together, to try to gauge how large of a mass that is (National).  Along with the ice melting, there are problems with the time periods of ice break-up and ice freeze-up. The break-up and freeze-up periods are essential for the travel patterns and longevity of the bears.  Polar bears now have to walk and swim longer distances to get to the ice that remains, which burns a lot of energy. These bears are not built for much walking. Walking is not efficient and causes them to lose weight and muscle. If the bears lose too much muscle it leads their hunting success to drop, and that means they won’t be able to eat as much as they should. All excess movement for bears will cause many problems, like smaller bears, reduced reproduction and a higher percentage of deaths. The lack of ice means the lack of food searching places they have, they are struggling to find food. This is a major problem. Polar bears have a high energy diet, requiring 12,325 calories per day. A new study shows that this is 60 percent more calories than we originally through the large bears needed (National). Polar bears can be compared to a big cat, like a lion, being a predatory carnivore that has a very high energy metabolism. The perfect solution to this problem is seals. They carry the essential dietary needs for the polar bear. Because of all these problems, the polar bear population is decreasing rapidly. It is expected that the population of bears will decrease by two-thirds by 2050. That means that there will be less than 10,000 bears left in 2050 (National). Polar bears are on the endangered species list and considered vulnerable (IUCN). All around, the polar bears are endangered due to a lack of food and ice. We can only hope that global warming turns around  so we don’t have to continue to watch these beautiful bears struggle and potentially become extinct.