Climate change in California
Description
Research Proposal ——————————————————————— When you think of climate change what’s the first thing that comes to your mind ? Is it that we still have warm weather in months when it should be cold, or is it the actual pollution that we create that initially harms the earth and the health of people living within it. To create a clearer idea, the term climate change actually includes both the global warming driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases, and the resulting large scale shifts in weather patterns. Global warming has really taken effect in the world over the last century. It is the unusually rapid increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released as people burn fossil fuels and emit different pollutants into the air as well. It is almost inevitable to completely get rid of greenhouse gases and the pollutants that we emit into the air however there are a lot of methods and actions we can take to help minimize these effects on our Earth. This problem of climate change does not only affect our earth but it also creates dangerous living conditions for everyone and everything living within. It harms our ecosystems, our animals, plants, and most importantly it can harm us as well if we are not informed and knowledgeable about the subject. A state that I will be primarily talking about is the state of California. I chose to do California because of the recent issues the state itself is facing with all of the wildfires, climate change effects, and other common problems that I already have some knowledge on about the state. We can all agree that California’s climate is changing whether you’ve heard some things on the news/radio, or have just heard about some common issues the state is facing overall. California itself has warmed about three degrees fahrenheit in the last century and the state is becoming warmer. Issues regarding heat waves are becoming more common, there is less rainfall, which further decreases the supply of water and makes the risk of wildfires more prominent. Higher temperatures and drought are likely to increase the severity, frequency, and extent of wildfires, which could harm property, livelihoods, and human health. Another common issue regarding climate change that is noteworthy is Sea level. Sea level in california is likely to rise between one and four feet in the next century which has a devastating effect on the state itself. This sea level rise could threaten coastal highways, bridges, and many surrounding amenities like airports and buildings. These issues regarding climate change further threaten coastal development and harm the ecosystem whether we can see it or not. Although this is not something one person can make a big impact on, with the help of many organizations and people who are actually willing to help and aren’t stubborn, our actions towards the problem can make a difference. With that being said, what actually causes climate change? There is no real definitive answer as there are many reasons towards the issue most of which are not self created, however, there are also many things an individual can do to help minimize the amount of greenhouse gasses being emitted into the atmosphere. One of the simplest forms of doing so is to drive an electric powered vehicle rather than a gas powered vehicle. Gas powered vehicles emit carbon dioxide which is a pollutant that is very harmful for the health of individuals and earth as well. Converting to an electric powered vehicle can substantially decrease the amount of pollution created by a single person and if the entire population switched over to electric vehicles, it would save 14% of the carbon emissions polluted into our air. Other than the carbon emission that gas powered vehicles create, other forms of issues that create climate change include burning fossil fuels, cutting down rainforests and farming livestock. This adds enormous amounts of greenhouse gases to those naturally occurring in the atmosphere, increasing the greenhouse effect and global warming. Overall if the earth’s temperatures continue to rise in the future, living things on earth would become extinct due to the high temperatures. To make my research a little more focused I choose to write about the pollution in terms of emissions from vehicles and the overall air quality in California. This could be elaborated and expanded by talking about pollution that factories create, the harmful emissions in terms of carbon dioxide cars emit, the other pollutants that harm the air quality and how the ozone itself is being destroyed from all of these pollutants. —————————————————————— Here are 6 sources with an annotated bibliography, I would need two more ——————————————————————- Shonkoff, S.B., Morello-Frosch, R., Pastor, M. et al. The climate gap: environmental health and equity implications of climate change and mitigation policies in California—a review of the literature. Climatic Change 109, 485–503 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0310-7 Seth B. Shonkoff, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Manuel Pastor and James Sadd are all professors in big universities that all share the same common interest. They all have a very immense understanding of the world’s climate due to the fact that they all teach the subject. Seth B. Shonkoff and Rachel Morello-Frosch are both professors at the University of California, Berkeley which teach environmental science. Manuel Pastor is a professor at the University of southern california and teaches geography, American studies and ethnicity. Last but not least James Sadd is a professor at Occidental College in los angeles california and teaches environmental Science and Geology. All four professors have a credible background as they do teach these topics at universities and explore research that tie in with climate change as well. The article that they have written speaks upon how climate change is an issue of great importance for human rights, public health, and socioeconomic equity. They believe that this is the case because of its diverse consequences overall as well as its disproportionate impact on vulnerable and socially marginalized populations. I plan to use this information in my essay as it provides great information for the air quality and actual health of people in regards to what climate change is doing in the state of california. What Climate Change Means for California . Aug. 2016, www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-ca.pdf. “What Climate Change Means for California” is an article written by the United States environmental protection agency. The Environmental Protection Agency is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. This proves to be a credible source because it is a source that is provided by the government and with information supplied by societal research. The article itself speaks on many different issues. It is broken down into six different topics that include Snowpack, Water Availability, Wildfires and Changing Landscapes, Agriculture, Human Health, and Sea Level Rise all pertaining towards california. These topics are explained, and within these explanations the reader can find information as to what causes these topics in climate change and how it is bad for the economy. I plan on using this in my essay because it explains many topics that cause climate change to give my readers some background of the different types of issues California is facing. “How Climate Change Is Fueling Record-Breaking California Wildfires, Heat and Smog.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 13 Sept. 2020, www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-13/climate-change-wildfires-california-west-coast. Susanne Rust is an American investigative journalist. She graduated from Barnard College with a bachelor’s degree and continues her further research writing for the new york times. Tony Barboza is a reporter who covers air quality and the environment with a focus on Southern California. He has been on staff at the Los Angeles Times since 2006, is a graduate of Pomona College and completed a Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado. These two writers have gathered their research and have written the article “How Climate Change Is Fueling Record-Breaking California Wildfires, Heat and Smog.” This article primarily talks about how the heat index of California’s rapidly changing temperatures are the state’s main reason for wildfires. California is known as one of the biggest wildfire states and we can accredit this to the dry land that California faces with heavy droughts and hot temperatures. All three of these combined are all virtues of disaster and these wildfires do not aid in the issues of climate change whatsoever, in fact they actually make climate change in terms of california alot worse. I plan on using this in my essay because wildfires and air quality in terms of pollution is something I will be covering in my essay. Liu, J.C., Mickley, L.J., Sulprizio, M.P. et al. Particulate air pollution from wildfires in the Western US under climate change. Climatic Change 138, 655–666 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1762-6 Jia Coco Liu and Michelle L. Bell are professors in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, at Yale University. Loretta J. Mickley, Melissa P. Sulprizio, and Xu Yue are professors in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, at Harvard University. The rest of the people that have written this article are also professors at big time universities. These professors all share the same common knowledge of the topics and studies that they teach which makes for a credible source within the information of the article. They have years of experience on the areas of studies they teach and prove that they are knowledgeable about the climate change topic as well. This article primarily talks about the wildfires within california and their growing rates due to climate change. The article provides statistics and different relatable projections with research that is backed up and explains some of the drawbacks that climate change proposes on the economy. This is a variable article on my topic as it offers many statistical facts on the matter which I will be using in my essay. Roberts, David. “California Has a Climate Problem, and Its Name Is Cars.” Vox, Vox, 22 Aug. 2017, www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/8/22/16177820/california-transportation. David Roberts is a writer for a journalism website called “vox”. He mainly resorts to writing about energy and climate change within our economy. In this article Roberts mainly focuses on the topic that automobiles are one of california’s biggest causes of climate change. In the article he mentions that california is heading on a great route, maximizing the number of electric vehicles on the road and minimizing the gas powered ones. There is still room for improvements as electric vehicles are not all that eco friendly however they propose no carbon emissions which is very beneficial for the state and the economy overall. One of my main topics for my essay is how cars affect climate change and this is a very viable source to use because it goes into that electric car context and explains what would need to be done to minimize the way cars cause climate change in california. Huseynov, Samir, and Marco A. Palma. “Does California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standards Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions?” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0203167. Samir Huseynov and Marco A. Palma are professors at the Department of Agricultural Economics, at Texas A&M University. They are both professors that study and teach the same realm of information. In this article, both Huseynov and Palma discuss the topic that asks the question, does California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standards reduce carbon dioxide emissions ? They introduce many topics on the state of california and how automobile emissions affect climate change of the area as well. They propose many statistics on the state itself and also show how california’s transportation sector is the largest carbon dioxide producer in the state, accounting for nearly 37% of total emissions. This is a great article for my research paper as it adds background information for the reader introducing many statistics that evaluate how much carbon emissions California’s transportation sector is producing and how that affects climate change.
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