Field Notes Of A Catastorhphe

Principles of Sustainable Urban and Regional Planning
Melissa F. Anderson
09/17/2012

Field Notes from a Catastrophe

* Social and environmental consequences: people living in places thatare close to the poles noticed changes in the environment that surround them. Significant changes in the landscapes are more noticeable in those areas. Glaciers are fading away.
* Society pushedthe global warming situation at a point in which became irreversible, and the efforts to diminish it, because it can’t be stopped at this point, are going to be pretty big.
* Mistaken conception ofwhat the results of the increasing CO2 would have: Arrhenius indicated that the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere would be beneficial to the future generations, getting cold away from people andcrops, allowing them to grow faster and healthier.
* Fauna and flora species are changing their genetics and behavior as the change in the environment is taking place. Most of them would adapt, butmany others are in their way to extinction.
* As environment changes so does life in it, but we can’t foresee how is this change is going to be, nor how severe these changed are going to be for theworld and the civilizations in it.
* Along history there has been many times where climate changes and water avaliability had determined the continuance of a civilization. Many disappeared whenthey experiment severe droughts.
* It’s curious how the writer indicates that man-made aerosols slowed down the process of warming when I always thought it was one of the main reasons for globalwarming.
* Good comparison: “we have covered the earth with tiny bulbs, six for every square meter”(Christmas light bulbs). I think it is an easy way to explain the situation.
* As CO2 levelsrise, the world is going to suffer from a shortage of water starting from the line of the equator to the poles.
* Politicians use economic reasons to hide what is really happening: Ex. people (most...