Things to dream with a future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZPcdLHyLyw

The boat called PlanetSolar is ending the trip around the world. This ship is equipped of 537 square meters of photovoltaic panels, which have provided the energy to make this long journey.

The trip began on 27 of September of 2010 in Morocco, where he also completed his journey. The ship has capacity for 50 persons. Diesel engines, designed for an emergency, haven’t been used.

This is a fact who reflects the possibilities and the versatility of this energy.

Stratospheric ozone depletion

The ozone hole that formed in the stratosphere over Antarctica in the 1970s was a classic example of an environmental tipping point.

Ozone-destroying chemicals built up in the frigid stratosphere until they abruptly - and unexpectedly - caused the ozone layer over the Antarctic to shift into a new state, with ozone all but absent in the spring. Nobody saw it coming, as nobody understood at the time that the chemistry of polar stratospheric clouds makes ozone-destroying chemicals more potent, leading to runaway ozone destruction.

The primary cause of ozone depletion is the presence of chlorine-containing source gases (primarily CFCs and related halocarbons). In the presence of UV light, these gases dissociate, releasing chlorine atoms, which then go on to catalyze ozone destruction. The Cl-catalyzed ozone depletion can take place in the gas phase, but it is dramatically enhanced in the presence of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs).

These polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) form during winter, in the extreme cold. Polar winters are dark, consisting of 3 months without solar radiation (sunlight) and the low temperatures form cloud particles.

The world acted quickly to heal the hole. With most of the culprit chemicals now banned, the worst of the danger has passed. It is not over entirely, however. One concern is global warming. Trapping more heat close to the Earth's surface leaves the stratosphere colder. This means that the Arctic stratosphere could get cold enough in coming years for the remaining ozone-eating chemicals in the atmosphere to open up an ozone hole over the northern continents.

Away from the poles we look safe, unless there is some unknown quirk of atmospheric chemistry waiting to trip us up. Rockström and Paul Crutzen of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany recommend preventing stratospheric ozone concentrations outside the polar regions from falling by more than 5 per cent, or below a global average of 276 Dobson units (a measurement of the density of stratospheric ozone). With the concentrations of ozone-eaters still falling, it seems likely that we will stay within this planetary boundary.

Satellite instruments provide us with daily images of ozone over the Antarctic region. The ozone hole image below shows the very low values (blue and purple colored area) centered over Antarctica on October 4, 2004. From the historical record we know that total column ozone values of less than 220 Dobson Units were not observed prior to 1979. From an aircraft field mission over Antarctica we also know that a total column ozone level of less than 220 Dobson Units is a result of catalyzed ozone loss from chlorine and bromine compounds.

The ozone hole is the region over Antarctica with total ozone of 220 Dobson Units or lower. This map shows the ozone hole on October 4, 2004. The data were acquired by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA’s Aura satellite.

Consequences of ozone layer depletion

Since the ozone layer absorbs UVB ultraviolet light from the Sun, ozone layer depletion is expected to increase surface UVB levels, which could lead to damage, including increase in skin cancer. This was the reason for the Montreal Protocol. Although decreases in stratospheric ozone are well-tied to CFCs and there are good theoretical reasons to believe that decreases in ozone will lead to increases in surface UVB, there is no direct observational evidence linking ozone depletion to higher incidence of skin cancer in human beings. This is partly because UVA, which has also been implicated in some forms of skin cancer, is not absorbed by ozone, and it is nearly impossible to control statistics for lifestyle changes in the populace.

Increased UV

Ozone, while a minority constituent in the Earth's atmosphere, is responsible for most of the absorption of UVB radiation. The amount of UVB radiation that penetrates through the ozone layer decreases exponentially with the slant-path thickness/density of the layer. Correspondingly, a decrease in atmospheric ozone is expected to give rise to significantly increased levels of UVB near the surface.

Biological effects

The main public concern regarding the ozone hole has been the effects of increased surface UV radiation on human health. Were the high levels of depletion seen in the ozone hole ever to be common across the globe, the effects could be substantially more dramatic.

Is there a connection between the ozone hole and global warming?

Our atmosphere is one connected system, it is not surprising that ozone depletion and global warming are related in other ways.

The thickness of the polar stratospheric ozone layer depends on the rate of production of ozone in the tropical stratosphere, the movement of ozone from the tropics to the poles, the amount of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, the polar stratospheric cloud cover, and the chemical reactions between the ozone and ozone-depleting substances. Each of these factors might be affected by climate change.

Poleward motions in the stratosphere, which increase polar concentrations of ozone, as well as the strength of the polar stratospheric vortices, which decrease ozone via PSC formation, are both expected to increase as temperatures rise in the lower atmosphere.

Yet temperatures in the lower stratosphere are decreasing as a result of increased carbon and other heat-trapping emissions.

Cooling of the lower polar stratosphere enhances PSC formation, and thus contributes to ozone loss. It appears unlikely that the decrease in ozone-depleting substances will lead to restabilization of the pre-1980 stratospheric ozone layer because of the competing and uncertain effects of further climate change.

Trash of Titan

Hello word,

Maybe it can be a crazy, but when I watched this video of Johan Rockstrom, I remembered a episode of The Simpsons whose name is Trash of Titan(in Spanish is "Residuos Titánicos"). Is the episode 22 of the season 9.

In this episode, Homer gets the job of Springfield's Sanitation Commissioner and well, later will destroy the city of Springfield...How? It's simple, Homer spends all the money  of his job and need more. Homer uses the Springfield's mine as a dump of many cities. And put and put and put a lot of garbage of all these cities and finally the garbage rises to the surface, leaving Springfield uninhabitable.

And which is the solution? Fix the problem? Clean the area? No, the solution is move the city 8 km.

Always the solution of humanity with the environmental's problems is to do nothing and go to another area to destroy it. 

When I was young, this episode made me laugh, but now  I watched from other point of view. The point of view about who knows more about environmental and how is the humanity, and I saw a critics to our style of life, our waste.

This episode have more of ten years, and we don't learn nothing about our errors...

Minamata disease

What is Minamata disease?
 

 

William Eugene Smith
1972 - Minamata, Japan 

Minamata disease is a neurological syndrome caused by mercury poisoning.
In the decade of the 50, in the city of Minamata in Japan was discovered this disease. It was caused by the release of methylmercury in the industrial wastewater from the Chisso Corporation's chemical factory, this release continued from 1932 to 1968.

The problem with the methylmercury is the bioaccumuled in the fish and shellfish, and in Japan this is very common.

The death of persons or animals will be ocurred along many years without nobody will take liable. It was and it is one of the worst environmental problems that it have ocurred in the world. This is an example of exceed a boundary in the planet bit by bit.

About planetary boundaries

Hello world, a few time ago I watched this videos of Johan Rockström.

 

The firts that we need to know is who the hell is Johan Rockström

Who is Johan Rockström? 

Johan Rockström is a executive director of the Stockholm Environment Institute and theStockholm Resilience Centre, and teaches natural resource management at Stockholm University. 

He is a strategist on how resilience can be built into land regions which are short of water, and has published over 100 papers in fields ranging from practical land and water use to global sustainability. More information in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Rockstr%C3%B6m

In this video, Johan speaks about global change and planetary boundaries.

He says that there are many boundaries that if we exceeded we will have problems to subsist. For example, the climate change, ocean acidification or biodiversity loss.

Every one of this examples can affect the others. How? Is very simple, because all are interconected. This world is a huge net that when one is directly affected, others are indirectly affected.

In this huge net, the humanity is the principal problem because is the cause of the world's changes.

Hello world

Dear readers,

I am Antonio Jesús Ibáñez García, I have 25 years and currently I live in Budapest. 

Well, I don't know how start. First, I will begin with the physical appearance.

I am tall, thin and I have a crest on the head. My personality is amazing. I am a good person, very funny, always with a smile in the face. I like to help my friends and always I like stay with them and I like talk with them about all things. I am a good cook and I like cook because I love the food and eat. I know do all the housework, and I do very well. 

In occasions, I am a little bad with the people, but it's normal, in many occasions, the people are stupid. I don't like the opinion of some people about some themes in concrete and I like talk about this themes. 

I have two sisters and one brother. I love all of them, but I have different relationship with each one of them. Sometimes it's very difficult have siblings. Your siblings always are with you. It's beautiful to have a person who you know that always he will help you.

My father is a person who it's difficult to describe. It a good person but he has some problems and it's better don't talk about him.

I have many good friends. Now that I am in Budapest, I miss them very much but it's normal, I am in other world here. You meet people all days, you learn many things about all cultures and cities around the world.

And I don't know that I can write. This is all for my dear readers.

Best regards for all.

Five likes and five dislikes

Five likes

1. The people who accompained me all days to class and the good moments that I passed with them in the bar.
2. The teachers who teached their subjects with a smile and good jokes, it isn't all the content, it is the way of how you teach.
3. The weather with the big sun and the hot.
4. The city with your family, your friends and your beach.
5. The subjects without problem to convalidate.

Five dislikes

1. The test because for me it's always the same, you don't learn nothing.
2. The infraestructure very small but it's normal, it's a small city.
3. Some teachers with who is imposible talk with them.
4. The time-table is very early at nine o'clock.
5. The size because is small when compare with other place.

Explain your reasons for taking this course and your expectations about it

 

I take this subject because it is interesting to have the knowlegde of the global change in all of his extension. Because without these knowlegde, we are blind about the world's problems.

Other interesting in this course is the posibility to write in english because I am in other country to learn english and it is good for me.

I wait to learn all about the matter of the global change and the problems that humanity cause to the Earth in all his extension.

How is possible that the humanity use the natural resources without impact?. One day, Earth will not have the possibilty to providy all natural resources for the humanity.

What seems to you most interesting or challenging about the course?

I wait to learn all about the global chance. The most interesting is to talk about the global chance, all his problems and his drawbacks.
To know the little things of global change, the why, how and who, I think that this is easy to know but it is not too much because there are a lot of lies behind the global change and a lot of trues hidden.