Where Do We Stand With Climate Change Today?

Climate change is generally defined as changes in regional temperatures and weather patterns in the world. Some individuals and scientists link these changes to human activity across the globe over the past century or more.

A recent study from the University of Exeter in England concludes that increasing global temperatures is likely to play a significant role in the environmental decline of the Eastern European Alps. Two serious events during this decade, a heat wave in 2003, and a flood in 2005, resulted in glaciers in the region melting at a record pace, and millions of dollars in damages to the infrastructure in Austria.

On the Flip Side of Climate Change

A British journal recently published a study conducted by biologists from Australia that states that sperm whales in the Southern Ocean, despite being mammals that exhale large quantities of carbon dioxide, are actually contributing to the environment in an unexpected way. These whales add an estimated two hundred thousand tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through respiration, which is roughly the equivalent of the carbon emissions of about forty thousand automobiles. Their fecal matter, however, is estimated to remove over four hundred thousand tons in carbon from the atmosphere every year. This is a result of the iron released from their feces following the ingestion of the fish and squid they consume. This iron is a valuable food source for phytoplankton, which consume carbon dioxide during the process of photosynthesis.