Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Class #3: Cooling the Waters

Hurricanes, Tornadoes,
and New York City

We have already seen more tornadoes this season than in any other year in the past decade, 35 on May 8th alone. 100 people have died from tornadoes this year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ("NOAA") has cataloged over 1,000 sitings of tornadoes.

We all remember the 2007 Brooklyn tornado, According to the Post, it was the first tornado hitting Brooklyn in 118 years, and the first EF-2. The Daily News called it Tornado Alley. It only touched down for less than a minute, but that was enough time to knock out public transportation.

Do these these trends have anything to do with global warming? Let's start with a recap from last class -- what is global warming?


In Class Assignment


I would like everybody to answer the question, "What is global warming?" in 2-3 sentences only, by posting an anonymous comment to this blog entry (not all the way at the bottom of this page!). To do so, please follow this procedure:
  1. Click on the 'comments' link at the bottom of this posting.
  2. Select the 'Anonymous' Identity
  3. Type your name at the top of the Comments box,
  4. Type your answer to the question (2-3 sentences only), "What is global warming?" Make sure to include the following points in your answer:
  • "Ancient vs. Current" sunlight
  • Global Warming gases
  • The flow of the Sun's energy through the Earth's atmosphere and crust
  • When finished, click on the 'Publish Comment' button.


Discovering a New World, and New Weather



“Hurakan, in lingua di questa isola vuole dire propriamente fortuna tempestuosa molto eccessiva, perche en effetto non è altro que un grandissimo vento è pioggia insieme.”

Oviedo y Valdés
"Historia General y Natural de las Indias"
lib. vi. cap. iii. 1547-9

But those that they had made, that they had created, did not think, did not speak with their Creator, their Maker. And for this reason they were killed, they were deluged. A heavy resin fell from the sky. The one called Xecotcovach came and gouged out their eyes; Camalotz came and cut off their heads; Cotzbalam came and devoured their flesh. Tucumbalam came, too, and broke and mangled their bones and their nerves, and ground and crumbled their bones.
This was to punish them because they had not thought of their mother, nor their father, the Heart of Heaven, called Huracán. And for this reason the face of the earth was darkened and a black rain began to fall, by day and by night..


Popul Vul, Chapter 3



Hurricane History


Since 1900, the United States has faced many hurricanes, beginning with the destruction of Galveston. History reveals hurricanes have threatened New York City every century, an "American Experience" episode was dedicated to the event. Winds reached 70 mph when the hurricane hit the Long Island coast. New York City's Office of Emergency Management Hurricane page also lists hurricanes dating from 1821, the year every street south of Canal Street was flooded.The New York metropolitan transportation system is particularly vulnerable to disruption by major storms even at present, since most area rail and tunnel points of entry as well as the three major airports lie at elevations of 10 feet or less.

  1. Using the links above, and the U.S. Storm Disaster Timeline, create one of your own, using this worksheet. Scale the time axis to include the years between 1600 and 2000.
  2. Create "word balloons" to attach to the appropriate date on your timeline. Write a sentence or two describing the storm that hit the American mainland on that date.
  3. Make sure to include the "Great Hurricane" and the "Gale."

Hurricane Katrina


Today, most hurricane lessons begin with Hurricane Katrina, so here are some links to some videos about it. If you're already worried about extra credit, you can do the following. Peruse the following links for fifteen minutes, and write a paragraph listing what you found to be the most interesting/informative parts of the videos. Post your information as a comment to this blog posting.


Homework


What should we do when we hear a hurricane or tornado warning on the news? Unfortunately, many of us don't have an emergency plan ready if these warnings were to happen tomorrow. There's a little information about tornadoes, but there's a lot more on hurricanes, so that's where we'll focus our investigations. Your homework for this class is to make a plan, for yourself, your family (including pets). The federal government has some suggestions on how to make an emergency plan. Governor David A. Paterson has proclaimed May 25-31 as Hurricane Preparedness Week in the Empire State. But we all live in New York City, and that's where most of our planning information is. Follow these steps in developing your emergency evacuation plan:

  1. Find your home on the NYC Hurricane Evacuation Zone map. Answer the following questions.
    • Are you in Zone A, B, or C?
    • Where is your nearest evacuation center? Contact the center and find out if they have a plan in place for such an emergency?
    • Design an escape route, including subway contingencies.
  2. Develop your own evacuation plan. Make sure to include your
    • Go Bag
    • Plans for your Pets.
    • Plans for meeting your family.
  3. Contact your Evacuation Center either by phone or in writing. Ask them for any evacuation plan or other information the school may already have in place.

52 comments:

Anonymous said...

Daniel Vazquez

Global warming is the heating of the atmosphere and crust of the earth caused by burning of CO2 contained in ancient sunlight combined with the current sunlight we receive on a daily basis not be able to be reflected due to melting polar ice caps.

Anonymous said...

Michele Pellicane comments:
Global warming increase in the average measured temperature of the Earth's near surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and it projection. Ancient sunlight is trapped sunlight from the earth while current sunlight helps plant grow and stimulates photosynethsis With the current change in the weather we will have more greenhouse gas causing the atmosphere to be hotter.

Anonymous said...

Tamara Hernandez

Global Warming- The planet is steadily growing warmer, and temperatures are expected to rise another one to five degrees over the next fify years.Current sunlight natural energy use to grow plants we would eat the plants the animals that ate the plants and we eat the animals that eat the plant. Power Plant burn gasses, Cole burning natural ancient sun. Carbon dioxide water,meths are gases the sun traps in.

Anonymous said...

Kelly Ann WItkowski
Definition

Global warming is climate change which affects all aspects of the environment. Global warming consists of Carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels and gas emissions.

Ancient Sunlight

Coal petroleum and natural gas 100 billion years to create trapped by plants and buried by earth.

Current Sunlight

Plants using sun to create sugar which we eat (livestock eats plants we eat animals) means of survival.

Anonymous said...

Maria Benenati
Global warming is the increase in the average temeperature of the Earth's surface. Greeenhouse gases released by the burning of ancient sunlight capture heat and keep the Earth warm. The emission of too many gases create a thick heat blanket around the earth. Current sunlight uses the sun to create plants that we eat. If the earth becomes too hot we won't be able to grow the food we need.

Anonymous said...

Erica Alicea

Global warming is climate change which effects all aspects of the environment. It includes ancient sunlight (which takes millions of years to be trapped in plants) and current sunlight (which plants use for photosynthesis). The main gas that effects global warming is the excessive release of Carbon Dioxide.

Anonymous said...

Lisa Gonzalez
Global Warming to me means if we don't watch out now we are going to be in trouble especially when we let these power plants constantly bur gas throuh our atmosphore. We used to nave natural gas by the sun storing in light then we had to depend on coal giving us light.

Anonymous said...

Marisol Rivera

Global warming is a change in climate. The global warming climate change is due to natural climate fluctuation. ancient sunlight-coal, natural gas, petrollium took 100 million years to create.

Anonymous said...

Marisol Rivera

Global warming is a change in climate. The global warming climate change is due to natural climate fluctuation. ancient sunlight-coal, natural gas, petrollium took 100 million years to create.

Anonymous said...

Dexter Valles

Global warming occurs when carbon and water vapor traps the heat from sunlight that is reflected off the earth's surface.Humans have increased the amount of carbon by burning fossil fuels (oil and coal) also regarded as ancient sunlight

Anonymous said...

Lizette Marcano

Global warming is an increase in temperatures caused by gases that are trapped by the sun's heat in the Earth's atmosphere.

Anonymous said...

Sonia Villamil 08/22/08
1. What's global warming?
Gradual increase in the Earth's surface temperature or Warming caused by human activity
2. Ancient -vs- current sunlight?
current is the photosynthesis
3. Global warming gases?
CO2

Anonymous said...

ancient sunlight is what we need to have then the current because we are in a melt down. global warming gases is becoming more powerful every day the world just might blow up one of these days. well it did many years ago. the flow of the earth is all of balence and that is one of many problems we have today.
maylin mazzeo

Anonymous said...

Dexter Valles

Global warming occurs when heat from the sunlight passes through our atmosphere and is reflected off the earth's surface only to be trapped by the carbon and water vapor that is in our atmosphere. Humans have increased the amount of carbon in the air by burning fossil fuels (oil and coal) also referred to as ancient sunlight. These fossils used to be living things that utilized ancient sunlight. (we use current sunlight) It took millions of years for fossil fuels to form and now we are burning and releasing that sunlight in a relative short period of time. This in turn floods our atmosphere with carbon and traps more heat which raises the temperature of the Earth.

Anonymous said...

maylin mazzeo

Anonymous said...

Aldona Gielarowiec
Global warming is the time when the earth change its temperature to warmer. The gasses create the gasses create a heat around the earth.

terminus said...

end posting

Anonymous said...

Stephanie Rivera

Ancient sunlight is what is needed more then the current because of the meltdown. Global warming gases has more power .

Anonymous said...

Isis

Global Warming is the change in weather from hot to cold. this has been effected because of gasses such as carbon dioxid, petroleum and coal that is burned and transmitted in the atmosphere which gets trapped and causes global warming.

Anonymous said...

Dexter Valles

Global warming occurs when heat from the sunlight passes through our atmosphere and is reflected off the earth's surface only to be trapped by the carbon and water vapor that is in our atmosphere. Humans have increased the amount of carbon in the air by burning fossil fuels (oil and coal) also referred to as ancient sunlight. These fossils used to be living things that utilized ancient sunlight. (we use current sunlight) It took millions of years for fossil fuels to form and now we are burning and releasing that sunlight in a relative short period of time. This in turn floods our atmosphere with carbon and traps more heat which raises the temperature of the Earth.

Anonymous said...

Lisa
Global warming to me means that if we don't stop what we are doing now to the sunlight we had by natural light stored such as the green houseor to the sun light we had about the coal being burned to store light. We are burning a lot of gas everyday by letting these power plants do so. The sun that does come out is from the layers of the ground with the gasses burning.

terminus said...

Post your comment underneath this one

Thanks,

Prof. Lewis

Anonymous said...

noemi

What is global warming? Global warming is the sun. This happens when we use to gasoline and the gas covers the earth, this traps the heat of the sun.

Anonymous said...

daisy rodriguez

Global Warming is the change in climate. mostly cause by fossil fuel, carbon dioxide,green house gases.
fossil fuel also called ancient sunlight.current sunlight, growing food.

Anonymous said...

Tiffany Rhodes,

i think that it has something to do with pollution. people are making the earth worse by polluting,or probably it isn't that maybe its doing that on its own and there isn't anything anyone can't do about it.

Anonymous said...

Joselyn Espinosa


Global warming- A change in average global temperature that is a result from the temperature increase owing to the greenhouse effect.

Anonymous said...

Erdinc Yesiltepe
ancient sunlight is the use of old energy. current sunlight is the use of ever day sunlight.
global warming gases are the gases that we burn off on an everyday bases.

Anonymous said...

Leonides Vidro


Global warming is the changes in climate such as floods, disasters, people being left without home and without foods.

Anonymous said...

merva boatswain

ancient vs current sunlight:
ancient sunlight is sun that warm through the earth for example coal and natural gas.
current sunlight is light that was created.
the flow of sun energy through the earth atmosphere is like forcing ten or twenty co2 into the air. if we even stop the flow of co2 it would still effect our global warning
global warning is a shift in climate change which effect the a melting change in our climate and the release of to many c02 in the air.

terminus said...

These are my Thursday afternoon posts.

Prof. Lewis

Anonymous said...

Tiffane Jones

Ancient sunlight is trapped by plants buried in the earth over millions of years and converted into coal. natural gas, and petroleum.

Current sunlight grows plants and supplies food within a year.

Sunlight hits the earth as land and ocean warms, more heat bounces back into atmosphere. Heat is trapped by water, methane, and carbon dioxide.

Greenhouse effect- sun warms greenhouse cycles and stores it in the earth.

Anonymous said...

Angel M. Reyes:

Global warming is the increase of our average temperature. This is caused when sunlight enters the earth and gets trapped by carbon dioxide and methane gases. This is also caused by Ancient sunlight which is stored in coal and other fossil fuels and is released when burned.

Anonymous said...

Dina DiSalvo
Global warming is the gradual increase of heat of the Earth's atmosphere and crust. By burning fossil fuels and Co2 (also known as "global warming gasses"), it causes the Earth's temperature rise, thus resulting in a gradual climate change over time. The flow of the suns energy through the Earth's atmosphere is affected as a result of global warming because the Earths trapped sunlight (also known as Ancient Sunlight)is now able to pass through the damaged ozone layer and mix with the current sunlight, resulting in disruption of plant growth etc.

Anonymous said...

Kim epps


sun beams down on the earth heat is
radiated back. heat rays on ice more radiation rays back.

Anonymous said...

Melanie Lopez
A world-wide weather phenomenon characterized by rising average temperatures and violent storms, caused by the increase of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases as a result of human activity.

Anonymous said...

Darma Diaz

Global warming is the heating of the atmosphere. The crust of the earth is caused by oxygen in ancient sunlight along with an on going bases which intern does not allow for the reflection of the sun due to the melting of the ice.

Anonymous said...

Velissa

Global warming- gradual increase in the earth's surface temperature.

the global warming gases are coal, petroleum and natural gas.

Anonymous said...

Francisco Quintanilla

Ancient vs Current Sunlight: Ancient sunlight is when people for the winter used to warm themselves with coal and fire. Current Sunlight is what we use the wood that we use now to warm ourselves.

Global Warming Gases: Is the increase of temperature all over the world. This is affecting the oceans.

Anonymous said...

Andrea M-
Global warming- is the increase in the average measured temperture of the earth's near the surface air and ocen since the mid 20 century and it has projected.the one hand lead to catastrophic consequences on earth, on the other hand it is also counter productive for it growing 4 to 70 the less ice less food to feed.Carbon dioxide water,meths are gases the sun traps in.

Anonymous said...

Tatiana Susol

Global Warming is the heating of the planet due to green houses emissions, such as water(H2O), carbon dioxide(CO2) and methane gases. This occurs due to the sunlight being trapped in the ozone layer and being readmitted onto the planet causing major temperature changes in the earth's surface. The excess of greenhouses gases is believed to be caused by ancient sunlight, the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gasoline, being readmitted to the earth, instead of the use of current sunlight, energy admitted from plants.

Anonymous said...

Dianna Grizzle
ancient sunlight is the sunlight that is converted in this planet and is use as coal, oil and natural gases we turn it on when we use eletricity and gas at the gas stations. current sunlight is the light we use now which is radiate back into water methane,carbone ,dioxide.

Anonymous said...

GLOBAL warning is the increase the temperature by gases produced by vehicles,power plants and deforestation
carbon dioxide absorb radiation and act in the green house

Gladys Delgado

Anonymous said...

Niall Rouse

Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the Earth.

The difference between ancient sunlight and currrent sun light is nothing its because of the melting ice caps that aren't reflecting the sun light.

The gases that cause global warming is carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.

Anonymous said...

Niall Rouse

Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the Earth.

The difference between ancient sunlight and currrent sun light is nothing its because of the melting ice caps that aren't reflecting the sun light.

The gases that cause global warming is carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.

Anonymous said...

David Reyes

Global warming is the unexpected change of the earths atmosphere which causes a wide range of unexpected weather changes as well the melting of the polar ice caps

Anonymous said...

Gloria N. Doanyre

Global warning is affecting to most of the countries. We need to prevent so it won't increase more and for that we need to work together, because our lifes is involve.

Anonymous said...

Global warming is a change in the earths temperature in conjunction with the temperature increase of the green house effect
global warming argues on whether or not high elevated concentration of co2 is the main reason for increased in the earths atmosphere

George Rivera

terminus said...

This is the end of the Thursday evening class posts.

Prof. Lewis

Anonymous said...

stephanie barlow

Global warming is the heating of the atmosphere and crust of the earth caused by burning of co2 contained in ancient sunlight combined with the current sunlight we receive on a daily basis not be able to be reflected due to melting polar ice caps.

Anonymous said...

Katrina

The thing that was interesting to me about all of the videos about Katrina was the music. All of them were set to music. The other thing that stuck out and touched me was the pain and the position they were in even a year later still dealing with the destruction. The animal rescue was so gut wrenching. I agree with Spike Lee that he needed more time to tell the story, because there were so many people affected and they each had a story. The other videos were very informative because they show you the storm (Katrina) at its worst. They also showed what is being done now to help. Which leads back to music. So many artist leading their names to the releif effort and still they haven't recovered.

By:Lizette Marcano

Anonymous said...

Lana King

Global Warming is the gradual increase in the earth's surface temperature as a result of increased emission of greenhouse effects gases.
"Ancient vs Current" sunlight
The ancient sunlight is the one that had been trapped over millions of years like natural gas and petrolium. The current sunlight is the one that comes from plants and animals.
Global Warming gases includes carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases.

Anonymous said...

Global warming is an average increase in the Earth's temperature and causes changes in climate. This leads to warmer Earth and a warmer earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. Human activities is the main issue of the increse in global warming, climate change and greenhouse effect.