Hey Everyone!
As you know I choose to read the Wave by Susan Casey. So far I've read 5 chapters (85 pages) which turns about to be a little more than what I said I was going to read, but I can't put it down!
This story is told through a young female re searcher's eyes. She first talks a great deal about the history of what we thought of the ocean. Up until very recently it was believed that waves couldn't reach over about 50-60 feet high. This caused problems for ships being engineered to only withstand waves that tall. Ships have always just disappeared and it was credited to simply bad weather. Now they're finding that waves can easily reach over 100 feet tall in certain circumstances and have progressively become more and more common. So this young researcher is trying to find out why these waves are more and more common. What she and the scientists in her field are finding is that it may be due to the change in the global climate. This book is basically a story book. You get to hear about all of her adventures out at sea and the people that she has meet that play important roles to the over all findings that she's collecting, as well as history of the ocean and the boats it's collected at the bottom.
I've learned a lot so far. The book quotes a lot of published research. For example, the book quoted IPCC -Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on a study done in 2007. The study concluded that "the ocean has been absorbing 80% of the heat added to the climate system". What that means for us is that the ocean heats up, wind velocity increases, storms become more devastating, ice caps melt and sea volume rises. In 2009 researcher found that this change in climate would cause the sea levels to rise 39 inches by 2100 displacing over 600 million people...completely submerging Florida. So I've just been learning a lot about ocean history and global warming effects on ocean.
I think that this effects society greatly. In less than 100 years were going to be facing serious issues do to this change. We need to think that that's going to be our children and grandchildren facing what we've done to the earth. I think that we should definitely be concerned seeing as though the US has a great deal of coastal regions. I think that it's scary to think that FL,HI, and CA might be completely swallowed up by the ocean if we don't find a way to fix this. I think that we need to make major changes to take care of our ozone layer but I don't know the full solution to global warming yet.
Wow! What an interesting book. This is definitely a lot of information about how much the ocean can impact the earth, especially with global warming. I always thought that the water was doing it's job to prevent global warming. Please read on and share what does happen with Susan Casey's journey. Mary
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness Brier! Sounds like quite a thriller! I can't believe the waves can get that high out in the ocean. I can't even manage being on a boat with nowhere to hide.It is very interesting that these ferocious storms and waves can be traced back to global warming. I for sure agree with you that we have to do something to find a solution to global warming before it swallows us up like one of those waves!
ReplyDeleteWell it does sound intimidating. It is so sad that parts of the world may not be around for years to come. Could you imagine what would happen if the waves got to be 200feet tall? I think we would all be in for a bit of a scare, and I doubt we'd have to go chasing for them all. Hopefully someone out there can come up with an effective plan against global warming, and soon.
ReplyDeleteThat's great the book quotes published research. It really bugs me when I read an informational book and doesn't have research to back up what they are saying. Sounds like a cool book though!
ReplyDeleteAt first I was hesitant about the title because I didn't think that waves had anything to do with any environmental issues. Even by reading your summary, I want to learn more about this topic. I had NO idea that the levels of the ocean could potentially create so much damage and loss of land, and due to global warming? What a wide and diverse world issue.
ReplyDelete