Ethan's Interesting Articles
“The Search For Planets Better Than Earth”
by Rene Heller
Scientific American
January 2015, Volume 312, Number 1, Pgs 32-39.
Rene Heller’s article, “The Search For Planets Better Than Earth”, is about the fact that we will eventually need to leave our Earth and go to another planet, and what the other “super habitable” planets traits should be. The articles main point is that our Earth, as weird as it may seem, is not in its peak stage. Rather, our Earth is nearing the end of its lifetime. Our sun is burning out our ozone layer, and the core is heating up our Earth. ‘Super habitable’ earths, as they our now called, would most likely be revolving around smaller suns, would be slightly larger than earth, would have shallower seas, and would need to be in their peak time, even if that means they are older than our earth. Scientists would like our super habitable earth to be revolving around a smaller sun because a smaller sun would not burn up as much hydrogen and would eventually last longer. We will need to move planets eventually since our sun will scorch our earth, but, luckily, that stage of our civilization will not come for another 1.75 billion years!
"A Hackers Guide To Planet Cooling"
by
Scientific American
***
"A Hackers Guide To Planet Cooling" is an article written by Scientific American directors, talking about geo-engineering. Geo-engineering is an idea whose main purpose is to combat Global Warming by artificially changing our climate. Geo-engineering can be done lots of different ways, from blocking the sun's rays with sulfates from volcanoes and even sinking the Earth’s carbon, which could involve having phytoplankton entomb carbon at the bottom of the sea! Though this approach to fighting Global Warming has possible positive outcomes, scientists and environmental groups are fretting about unknown side effects. For example, setting off artificial volcano’s all over the world might break the ozone layer, or blocking the sun's rays might trigger a small ice age. That is another reason that we must try out these ideas on a small scale, so we know what not to do. Though geo-engineering might not sound the best for the environment, it may be our only way to fight global warming until we can fully stop our emissions.
“The Search For Planets Better Than Earth”
by Rene Heller
Scientific American
January 2015, Volume 312, Number 1, Pgs 32-39.
Rene Heller’s article, “The Search For Planets Better Than Earth”, is about the fact that we will eventually need to leave our Earth and go to another planet, and what the other “super habitable” planets traits should be. The articles main point is that our Earth, as weird as it may seem, is not in its peak stage. Rather, our Earth is nearing the end of its lifetime. Our sun is burning out our ozone layer, and the core is heating up our Earth. ‘Super habitable’ earths, as they our now called, would most likely be revolving around smaller suns, would be slightly larger than earth, would have shallower seas, and would need to be in their peak time, even if that means they are older than our earth. Scientists would like our super habitable earth to be revolving around a smaller sun because a smaller sun would not burn up as much hydrogen and would eventually last longer. We will need to move planets eventually since our sun will scorch our earth, but, luckily, that stage of our civilization will not come for another 1.75 billion years!
"A Hackers Guide To Planet Cooling"
by
Scientific American
***
"A Hackers Guide To Planet Cooling" is an article written by Scientific American directors, talking about geo-engineering. Geo-engineering is an idea whose main purpose is to combat Global Warming by artificially changing our climate. Geo-engineering can be done lots of different ways, from blocking the sun's rays with sulfates from volcanoes and even sinking the Earth’s carbon, which could involve having phytoplankton entomb carbon at the bottom of the sea! Though this approach to fighting Global Warming has possible positive outcomes, scientists and environmental groups are fretting about unknown side effects. For example, setting off artificial volcano’s all over the world might break the ozone layer, or blocking the sun's rays might trigger a small ice age. That is another reason that we must try out these ideas on a small scale, so we know what not to do. Though geo-engineering might not sound the best for the environment, it may be our only way to fight global warming until we can fully stop our emissions.