White paper – Cocochanel715

1. Working hypothesis 1

1. Climate Change
2. Climate Change around the world
3. Climate Change in different elevations
4. The Coral Reef decreasing in size every year
5. The Arctic melting and getting significantly smaller
6. The snow caps on top of the mountains disappearing
7. Working hypothesis 2
   1. Arctic melting causing ecosystems to decrease
   2. What is causing the temperature to rise that is increasing climate change
   3. Ways to stop climate change from happening so fast
8. Topics for smaller papers
   1. Definition argument: the misunderstanding of climate change
   2. Cause/ effect argument: Not seeing a problem that the world is melting and not doing anything about it
   3. Rebuttal argument: climate change will happen no matter what
9. 5 sources
   1.  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/04/arctic-ecosystem-ice-disappear-ecosystem-polar-bears-fish
   2. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/big-thaw
   3. https://arcticwwf.org/work/climate/
   4. https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/arctic-meteorology/climate_change.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/04/arctic-ecosystem-ice-disappear-ecosystem-polar-bears-fish

The article “How disappearing sea ice has put Arctic ecosystems under threat” by Robin McKie discusses the effects of the drastic decreasing of the sea ice in the arctic. With this huge change the animals that live in these places are facing difficulties to hunt, travel, and seek protection. McKie mentions that “the alignment of different lifecycles is being disrupted by sea ice loss and it is affecting animals on both land and in the ocean.” There are certain animals that are in danger in the arctic and they are caribous, harp seals, zooplankton, polar bears, narwhals. Caribou’s normally take advantage of the large variety of nutritious plants that bloom in the spring for the females to gain strength before they give birth, but the plants are blooming earlier each year in the far north and by the time the caribou reach the plants they are no longer at their best. Narwhals hide safely in the sea ice to avoid their natural predators, the killer whale, but if the sea ice is melting there is nowhere the narwhals can protect themselves which is then going to cause the population to dwindle dangerously. This change will affect the Inuit’s who use the narwhal’s blubber and skin to make meals. Professor Julienne Stroeve of University College London highlights that harp seals “often give birth on snow mounds on sea ice. But if the sea ice is thin or formed late it breaks and the seal pups are dumped into the ocean and the drown.” With the temperature rising it is causing these animals to be come in dangered and is ruining the Arctic ecosystem.