LDR   04547nam^^22002893a^4500
001        FI15052589_00001
005        20171020120712.0
006        m^^^^^o^^d^^^^^^^^
007        cr^^n^---ma^mp
008        150602n^^^^^^^^xx^||||^o^^^^^|||^u^eng^d
245 00 |a Unnatural Disaster |h [electronic resource] |b Global Warming and Our National Parks.
260        |a [S.l.] : |b National Parks Conservation Association, |c 2008.
506        |a Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.
520 2    |a Evidence is mounting that our planet is undergoing rapid and troubling change. In short, this is what is happening: 1) Average global temperature is rising. In the past 100 years the average temperature on Earth’s surface has increased 0.74° C (1.3° F); 11 of the last 12 years rank among the hottest on record since 1850 (IPCC, 2007). The current rate of warming is faster than anything detected for thousands of years. 2) Billions of tons of greenhouse gases blanket the globe. Emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide — so-called greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere — have been rising since the start of the Industrial Revolution, and their concentration in the atmosphere is now more than 70 percent higher than pre-industrial levels. Combustion of fossil fuels such as coal account for most emissions in the United States (U.S. EPA, 2006). 3) Ecosystems are changing. Blossoms and leaves are appearing earlier in the spring, birds are migrating and reproducing earlier, and winters are no longer cold enough to control insect and other pests. High alpine species have nowhere higher to go, and polar species are running out of ice. Invasive species are more prevalent. (Parmesan, 2006). 4) Weather is less predictable and more extreme. Droughts, heat waves, floods, and intense hurricanes have all increased in many locations (IPCC, 2007). 5) Glaciers and snow packs are disappearing. The famed snows of Kilimanjaro will be gone by 2020 (Thompson et al., 2002), ski resorts in the Alps are canceling competitions due to lack of snow (Burke, 2006), and Glacier National Park will be largely glacier-free by 2030 (Hall and Fagre, 2003). 6) Arctic sea ice is thinning and retreating. Satellite images document a rapid decrease in the extent of sea ice across the Arctic (IPCC, 2007). Native people say it’s no longer safe to hunt on the unstable ice, and there’s not enough sea ice along the coasts to protect communities from fall and spring storms. 7) Sea level is rising. Since 1900, sea level has been rising ten times faster than over the past two millennia (IPCC 2007, IPCC 2001a). 8) The ocean is becoming more acidic. As carbon dioxide reacts with seawater, acidity increases, making it more difficult for marine animals like corals and clams to create and maintain calcium carbonate shells and skeletons. Acidification is so rapid in the southern ocean that within the next 100 years shell-building animals may be unable to survive (Raven et al. 2005). What happens to Earth’s climate in the next few centuries depends to a large extent on decisions that we as individuals, organizations, and governments make in the next decade. There is a growing scientific consensus that by stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide at 450 parts per million by 2100 we can avert severe damage to some coral reef systems and probably prevent catastrophic jumps in sea level that would result from disintegration of large land ice sheets (O’Neill and Oppenheimer, 2002). If we start now, achieving this goal is possible without draconian measures, scientists say. Options ranging from capping industrial emissions to broad use of more fuel-efficient vehicles to increased reliance on alternative energy sources could, if applied together, keep emissions in check for the next 50 years (Pacala and Socolow, 2004), buying us time to develop safe, feasible technologies for even greater reductions.
533        |a Electronic reproduction. |c Florida International University, |d 2015. |f (dpSobek) |n Mode of access: World Wide Web. |n System requirements: Internet connectivity; Web browser software.
650        |a climate change.
650        |a national parks and reserves.
650        |a global warming.
650        |a natural disasters.
700        |a Jennifer Hoffman.
700        |a Eric Mielbrecht.
830    0 |a dpSobek.
830    0 |a Sea Level Rise.
852        |a dpSobek |c Sea Level Rise
856 40 |u http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI15052589/00001 |y Click here for full text
992 04 |a http://dpanther.fiu.edu/sobek/content/FI/15/05/25/89/00001/Hoffman_Mielbrecht_2008_Unnatural Disasterthm.jpg
997        |a Sea Level Rise


The record above was auto-generated from the METS file.