Frostburg Focus
Dr. Bogart began the presentation by defining what climate change is and showed statics to support her discussion. For example, according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change is known as a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and or the variability of its properties. Dr. Bogart stated that one of the biggest misconceptions of climate change is global warming. An impactful quote Dr. Bogart used during her speech was; “people always ask me why we still keep getting snow storms. People think because of global warming that there will be less snow, but the truth is that hot weather and cold weather are both affected because of climate change. There are many variables that are affected by global warming”. Dr. Bogart was very thorough with her definition of climate change and gave the audience a clear understanding before getting into the details of climate change.
The next portion of the presentation showed how our climate has changed over the years. She compared four different organizations that have all studied the temperature of the climate. All four organizations concluded the same results, the temperature of our climate in continuously increasing over the years. The climates temperature is increasing about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit per century. The temperature has been significantly different from the average or what the temperature is usually, which Dr. Bogart described as an anomaly. This was evidence that climate change is a serious issue, which needs to be addressed. Dr. Bogart showed records and examples of historical climate records that were used in determining the climate during that time. These historical records helped evaluate the weather during that time period to get a better understanding of how significant the change of the climate is. Dr. Bogart mentioned an interesting fact about a very popular story that can be seen as a historical climate record. The story Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelly who was at a writer’s convention during a time period called “a year without summer”. The weather was terrible the day of the convention so all the writers had a contest on who could write the scariest story. Shelly wrote the story of Frankenstein and won the competition. This story can be seen as a historical climate record because it documents that it was written during a summer where the weather was very cool. After seeing the statics, it’s evident that human activity has an impact on climate change.
After Bogart addressed and supported her argument, she discussed why climate change and global warming is actually an issue. Dr. Bogart stated, “Climate ultimately affects all aspects of like”. It affects agriculture, biodiversity, and distribution of vegetation and soil type, human health, and migration. Climate of a particular region is dependent on latitude and altitude, orientation of water bodies, mountains, and wind direction. So basically, climate affects many different aspects of life making it crucial to preserve and regulate it. Not only will the change in our environment drastically affect the lives of humankind and their existence but also every living species on earth. Hundreds of animals have been declared on the endangered species list and are struggling to continue their existence. Global warming and climate change are also dramatically affecting areas like Baltimore, MD. The sea level has gone up about a foot since 1875 due to climate change. If it keeps increasing, Baltimore will ultimately end up under water.
Dr. Bogart’s presentation was very informational and brought awareness to severity our climate is being faced with. After the presentation, Dr. Bogart showed a link to a website http://climatechange.maryland.gov
where you can learn more about climate change. This website also shows certain ways a person can help support the cause and little ways people can try to decrease climate change.
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