Annotated Bibliography on Global Warming and Global Change

May, R. M. (1988). How many species are there on earth?Science, 241(4872), 1441-1449.

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The article surveys the number of organisms existing on earth. Scientists approximate that although only two million species of organisms are officially named, there are over fifty million of them on earth. Some of these organisms are tiny and cannot be seen with naked eyes. They include microbes that can be found on every earth's crevice. These organisms play a significant role in the environment, for instance, the tiny worms that aids in soil formation. Some of these species are large and attract human attention which results in disruption of the environment due to the interaction between the two. Organisms may be multicellular for instance fungi, plants, and animals or unicellular such as archaea, protists, and bacteria. All these organisms affect the environment in various ways.

Beerling, D. (2017). The emerald planet: how plants changed Earth's history. Oxford University Press.

The book explains the evolution and effects of plants on earth. Studies show that organisms have the power to alter the environment by changing stocks of energy and other elements at large and small scales. Plants have greatly altered the climate and the evolutionary path of life. Plants are active elements on earth and they shape the environment from the beginning of time. Beerling put plants at the center of the earth demonstrating the important role of plants to change the environment. The book helps in future prediction because it records concealed aspects of Earth's history.

Biro, P. A., Beckmann, C. et al. Small Within-Day Increases In Temperature Affects Boldness And Alters Personality In Coral Reef Fish. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277, 71-77 (2010).

Personality can be defined as persistent behaviors in animals. These common differences are common in all populations can compel their reactions to environmental variation, for example, temperature. The authors conducted manipulative and observational experiments that demonstrate that daytime temperature fluctuations below 3 degree Celsius affect the behaviors of two types of young coral reef fish. The species three personality characters (aggressiveness, activity, and boldness) increased as the temperature in their environment reduced. The book will be used in the environmental organisms' research project because it shows the effect of changes in the environment of species.

World Health Organization. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Ecosystems and Human Well-being: General Synthesis. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005.

The article is a research report conducted by W.H.O on the human impact on the environment. The global world is continually changing due to the rapid increase in human population and economic development. The assessment involved 1300 experts across the world figuring the consequences of environmental change to humans and animals. Moreover, the article raises some solutions to achieve sustainable development when preserving the ecosystem. The ecosystem provides basic goods and services that are basic for human health such as food, water, and air. The article report is important to the project as it shows the consequences of human activities on the environment and how to preserve it for future generations.

Schlesinger, W. H. An analysis of global change. In Biogeochemistry. 2nd ed. (New York: Academic Press, 1997).

Life depends on different species such as temperature vegetation, cyanobacteria, and tropical trees. The earth surface enjoys many provisions from plant life, for instance, the interaction between organisms and their physical environment), habitat for consumers, and controlling chemical emissions in the atmosphere. Nutrients from the land are taken into ocean and lakes where surplus principal production by algae and phytoplankton supports large populations of sea mammals, fish, birds, and zooplankton. After some time, these nutrients from the sea go back to the land due to the gaseous exchange in the atmosphere and geological practices that lifts lake sediments. The article is an important source because it shows the movements of organisms from the land, the lake and back through the earth processes.

Chapin III, F. S., Vitousek, P. M., & Van Cleve, K. (1986). The Nature of Nutrient Limitation In Plant Communities. The American Naturalist, 127(1), 48-58.

The earth absorbed carbon atoms from the stars that were burning before the formation of the sun. The atoms had the capacity to form a four-way connection with other elements. These links offer life because they sustain all organic molecules. There are two atoms that are also important in living organisms and they include nitrogen and phosphorus. They play key important roles in the formation of nucleic acids, energetic compounds, and proteins. These air composition has changed and the essential gases that support live are limited for instance inert nitrogen as is 78% of the atmospheric air but terrestrial ecosystems supported by nitrogen are scarce. The source will be useful in analyzing the important atoms to support living organisms.

Driscoll, C. T., Buonocore, J. J., Levy, J. I., Lambert, K. F., Burtraw, D., Reid, S. B., ... & Driscoll, C. T., Buonocore, J. J., Levy, J. I., Lambert, K. F., Burtraw, D., Reid, S. B., ... & Schwartz, J. (2015). US power plant carbon standards and clean air and health co-benefits. Nature Climate Change, 5(6), 535.

Power plants are the major cause of environmental pollution across the world. In the United States effort to establish a mandatory climate policy is hastening and it seems likely that a national market-based strategy for dealing with climate change is on the near-term horizon. The government has been trying to come up with different policies to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and these include the clean air act, and the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The cap and trade policy is straightforward for any government to implement since it only needs to set an overall limit also known as a cap on emissions and then issue tradable permits or what is also called allowances to regulated sources. The source is important in the research because it offers the most effective solution to power plant emissions.

Pachauri, R. K., Allen, M. R., Barros, V. R., Broome, J., Cramer, W., Christ, R., ... & Dubash, N. K. (2014). Climate change 2014: synthesis report. The contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (p. 151). IPCC.

Global warming is one of the most serious environmental challenges in facing the planet today. There have been many human and natural factors causing the climate to deteriorate. For decades, humans have been burning massive quantities of these fossil fuels to power the global civilization and the developing technology which increases of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. CO2 absorbs heat Carbon dioxide concentrations in the air are now the highest in 150,000 years since it is beyond the required level of 2 degree Celsius. In the year 1998, the temperatures were the highest and people started to study measure that could lower the increased temperature in the 1990's.

Miller, C. E., Frankenberg, C., Kuhnert, A. C., Spiers, G. D., Eldering, A., Rud, M., ... & Jaffe, D. T. (2016, September). Capturing Complete Spatial Context in Satellite Observations of Greenhouse Gases. In Imaging Spectrometry XXI (Vol. 9976, p. 997609). International Society for Optics and Photonics.

Power plants and the transportation sector are currently the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States (Pachauri et al 2014). Increased coal burning has raised the amount of carbon which leads to an increase in global warming. Transportation is among the largest sources of global warming emissions which endangers individuals health because it has severe impacts such as rising sea levels, severe droughts and flooding, and increased high temperatures. In the United States, cars, planes, freight, and trucks contribute one-fifth of emissions because it releases 24 pounds of global-warming gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Meehl, G. A., Washington, W. M., Collins, W. D., Arblaster, J. M., Hu, A., Buja, L. E., ... & Teng, H. (2005). How much more global warming and sea level rise?. science, 307(5716), 1769-1772.

There are two reasons how global warming affects sea levels. The sea levels expand due to increasing temperature making the water to expand. The sea water occupies more space than before causing the water level to rise. Another mechanism how will global warming affect sea levels the melting of ice over land resulting in water increase to the ocean. Many people (40%) of the world's population live near the oceans. The population is faced with the risk of high tides and storms. People who suffer from calamities such as tsunami undergo mental health problems due to stress and shock. These people may die or may be forced to relocate.