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Environment, Energy and Economies - A Canadian Primer: AMAZING WORLD - Ray Hamm

We live in an amazing and wonderful world. Think about the richness, diversity, and abundance of life: a seed grows to produce a harvest, the colours on flowers or birds, sunrise, sunset, mountains, and lakes. People are incredible. The wonder of a newborn baby, the tiny fingers and so much more; look up at the immensity of the universe.


Amazing balance

How we can live here on our earth is almost too much to understand. The balance for life as we know it is incredible and we are learning that it can be changed. The earth receives approximately one billionth of the energy that the sun pours into space - just right for our life systems. From the sun, the earth is only a tiny speck in space. Sunlight goes everywhere. Some of the energy that comes to Earth is reflected into space by clouds and ice, some is absorbed by oceans and land - just right for our life systems. Oceans and forests and plants breathe huge amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide all the time - just right for our life systems. Marine life in the oceans produces approximately half the oxygen in our world. Natural ocean currents mix ice-cold water (from north and south poles) and warmer equatorial water and have maintained fairly constant temperatures for centuries - just right for our life systems. 


Earth and energy

The earth receives a lot of energy from the sun. Earth receives more power from the sun in one or two hours than the entire world uses in one year. It used to be that energy received was just a bit more than energy reflected back into space - a good balance for our life. That pattern has been disturbed. Heavy, large-scale use of coal, natural gas, gasoline and other fossil fuel products has put enough extra carbon dioxide in the air to change the energy flow. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been mostly stable, for centuries, maybe even millennia. Since 1950 the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased dramatically. The level of CO2 is higher now than it was during the ice ages or during the recovery from the ice ages. Carbon dioxide in the air acts as an insulating blanket. Previous levels were a good balance to receive energy from the sun and to let enough heat back out. Now there is more “insulation” and more heat is staying on the earth rather than going back out into space. Light from the sun comes through the insulation blanket. This light heats things and in recent decades, more of this heat is blocked by the carbon insulation in the atmosphere, and so the overall average temperature gradually rises.


Extra heat and Climate

More than 95% of weather scientists, meteorologists, agree that human activity is a major factor (cause?) for this increase in heat and average global temperature. This has begun to affect climate, weather patterns and other aspects of life on our earth.


Take time to think about all the harmonies and balances for life as we know it within and around you. See yourself fitting into this, strengthening it.


ACAN seeks to educate and inspire sustainable practices in our community.

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