Monday, November 29, 2010

Social Awareness Research Response

I decided to research the arctic, and problems Antarctica is currently having. I made a decision to research this based off my interest in the arctic and the animals living there. I researched the arctic also because many of my favorite childhood picture books take place in the arctic.
One of the articles I read and printed about the arctic was one I found on SIRS. The article discusses different scenarios the arctic could be in by 2040. A few of the scenarios involve a very different environment, or a more industrial Antarctica. Some involved there being very little ice left, hardly enough to maintain a stable living environment.
 Many people are now very aware of how the climate is changing in the arctic. Pollution from cars and factories enters the air, and rises into the atmosphere, and causes it to get thicker and more dense. Sunlight that comes through the atmosphere to the earth would normally rise back up through the atmosphere, but because of the density of the atmosphere, is unable to, and stays close to the earth, warming our planet. Temperatures everywhere have been rising gradually. Ice in the arctic is melting. If we do not act soon to prevent global warming, there might be no arctic in 2040. If that does happen, animals living there will forced to adapt to new habitats and climates or go down with their home.
Animals are not the only ones who are and will be affected by this drastic climate change. If all of that ice does melt, it will increase the sea level by at least twenty feet. Cities near oceans will have large areas flooded. Some theories state that entire cities (inlcuding New York City) may end up completely flooded.
Global Warming is our problem. We caused it. Now it if affected others, and soon has will affect us unless we act. Stopping cars and factories is definitely not an option for easing down global warming, but we could drive less often, and use potentially more energy efficient cars and factory solutions. it is up to us to take action. If we act now, there may be a bright future for the arctic and its inhabitants.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Social Awareness part 2- List and Entry

List:
-fight next to Prospect Park
-homeless man at the seventh avenue subway station that I have seen every time I have been in there for the past 3 years
-a dad yelling at his kid, hitting her
-a mom beating her son on the street
-crowded emergency room- people without healthcare

Entry:

There is a man that always sits in the seventh avenue train station. In this certain place right near the ninth street exit. He always sits there, sometimes asleep, sometimes awake observing the people that walk speedily past him. He always wears a black coat and a black hat. That man is probably there right at this minute, while I am writing this entry for homework to post on a blog, sitting there. I first saw him when I was 10 years old. It was 7:00. The man was sitting in a corner. He wasn't holding out a cup asking for change, just sitting. As I walked by, I looked at him, and he smiled, a grim, sad smile, then looked back down. Ever since then, I have noticed him every time I pass through the station, wearing the  same thing. Sometimes I wonder what he does, if he counts all of the people that pass by him in a day, if he looks for people that passed by earlier when it is late, or if he just waits. Waits for change to come. Not the kind of change that  you might drop in a homeless person's cup, the kind of change  that could really help a homeless person. Kids run by the man in the subway station that walk past him as adults later.
  He he sitting there now, unaware that somewhere, a teenager is writing a homework entry about him. There is one thing that I know that man has: hope.