30 September 2009

::: Water World | Gamini s Greener Globe :::

Water is the most powerful, destructive, and creative force in the world in which we live. Over 60% of the total area of the earth in covered by water and as such has the largest effect on the shape of the land and the carving of new features. Though the changes that come due to a multitude of factors, we will focus upon coastal landforms that have been altered or changed through the process of sea water. Coastal landforms can be affected by three factors as sea level change, land movement, and glacial movement. These factors foremost affected by climate change. Global warming is a general term and can be defined as Thermal Expansion, De-Glaciation, and Re-Glaciation process of the Globe. Thermal expansion is the process whereby the temperature of the earth's atmosphere increases and therefore so does the water. As water is a liquid it expands as temperatures increase. Therefore, as thermal expansion takes place the sea level rises. Current revelations tell us that thermal expansion is caused by the warming of the earth's atmosphere, and this entails that glacial areas will melt causing large influxes of fresh water. Through detailed research, scientists have discovered that concentrations of salt water within the sea contribute to the thermal activity upon the earth. As the earth is constantly trying of equilibrating the temperatures around the world both atmospheric and within water, glacier melting will continue to shape the land around us and form a multitude of land types. Although, we as humans through industrialization have increased green house gasses and therefore stated to warm the earth's atmosphere ending up in thermal expansion and glaciers melt ..
Through detailed research, we have discovered that water currents provide vast amounts of temperature differentiation throughout the world. These giant thermal water cycles such as the gulf stream are driven by salt water. Therefore; as glacial melts, fresh water pours into the salt water under current system and it will reach a point where the system cuts off. This will have outstanding effects upon the world. For example, Labrador in Canada has an yearly average temperature of 11° Centigrade less than that of the UK though it is at the same latitude. This is due to an absence of the gulf stream. As such; if the gulf streams stop flowing, most of Indian Sub Continent would be forced into a colder region and there will not be any tropical climatic conditions in Sri Lanka. This has been proven to be a natural cycle in the earth's life and is the way in which the ecosystems of the world find a balance and reset, these balances of course have been exaggerated by the influences of humans. As we have already seen recently climate based events are becoming larger, rainfall is becoming heavier and in shorter periods. This is following previous records taken from ice cores of what happened last time sea levels rose and CO2 levels rocketed. We should expect sea levels to follow a similar pattern, as suggested maybe rising up to another 20 - 40 centimeter before another mini ice age takes affect and forces human industrialization in the northern hemisphere along with tourism the largest worldwide industry to decline. While near the equator rainfall will become a lot less and droughts will become more common. Across the world, living forms will be getting all the hardships to survive. In other word, our Mother Earth would not be a gentle habitat to live. It is amazing how the things are interconnected around us .. !

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