Climate- the weather
patterns occurring in a certain
area.
Troposphere- the closest atmosphere layer to the earth containing most of the atmospheres nitrogen water vapor and oxygen.
Stratosphere-the layer of
atmosphere extending above the Earth’s surface.
Albedo- the percent of
incoming sunlight reflection off of a surface.
Hadley Cells- convection current which cycles between the equator.
Intertropical
convergence zone(ITCZ)- located at the converging point of the two Hadley cells and
at the area Earth receives the highest level of sunlight.
Polar Cells- formed by the air
that rises at 60° N and 60° S a convection cell in the atmosphere and sinks at
the poles.
Coloilis Effect- “bounce off” of moving objects when they are viewed in a
rotating reference frame.
Gyres- water
circulation that in the Northern
Hemisphere moves clockwise and
counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
Upwelling- resulting
from diverging currents an upwelling is the upward movement toward the surface.
Thermohaline Circulation- an oceanic circulation pattern that drives the mixing of
surface water and deep water.
ENSO(El Niño Southern Oscillation)- Causes cooler and wetter conditions in southeastern US
and dry weather in southern Africa and southeast Asia from its periodic changes in winds.
Rain Shadow- towards the sheltered side of a mountain range
the rain shadow creates a region with dry conditions causing precipitation on
the windward side.
THE 5 GYRES: Understanding Plastic Pollution Through
Exploration,
Education and Action.
The 5 Gyres is an
organization fighting to eliminate plastic pollution and flow of plastic in the
sea as well as island debris removal. To understand the impact of plastic
pollution the 5 Gyres study the 5 subtropical gyres by sailing through them.
Through this research they have discovered the problem. The problem is that
humans are using too much plastic and “throw away” containers and not properly
disposing of the products. As humans, we currently recover only 5% of the
plastics we produce. What happens to the rest of it? Roughly 50% is buried in
landfills, some is remade into durable goods, and much of it remains
“unaccounted for”, lost in the environment where it ultimately washes out to
sea. In the ocean, some of these plastics- Polycarbonate, Polystyrene, and
PETE- sink, while LDPE, HDPE, Polypropylene, and foamed plastics float on the
oceans surface. Sunlight and wave action cause these floating things to break
into smaller particles, but never completely disappearing. This plastic
pollution is a danger for marine wildlife and for us humans. The 5 Gyres
however has a solution to this problem
The 5 Gyres is encouraging all people around the world the world
to take a stand by limiting use of plastic products, spreading the word on
social media, around your community and even writing letters to the government to
stop pollution.
Human
environmental interaction is part of what my current event focused on. Humans
every day drink water, soda, tea and many more liquids that are in plastic
bottles as well as disposable chip bags, canned food, boxes and so much more
which develops into huge waste piles. This high-demand of plastic shows the
negative economic impact on the environment, because big businesses are
economically benefitting from these products. Because humans use so much there
is nowhere to put the trash, which is why so much ends up in the sea. The trash
pollution is negatively affecting the sea because the trash is clogging the
water circulation (hence the 5 Gyres project). Because the trash is affecting
the Gyres it also affects the upwelling and other currents in the sea. The 5
Gyres is working to get government legislation involved to regulate the waste
services so that they are not going into the ocean anymore.
