Annotated Bibliography

Annotation:This source is a compilation of “key findings” from a report for policy makers written by CAFF, which is a “biodiversity group of the Arctic Council.” It consists of national representative that have been chosen by the eight of the Arctic Member Council States. The article addresses many of the issues that the Arctic biodiversity is facing due to climate change. The purpose of the original report was to inform policy makers of the issues that the Arctic was facing, and the source that I found included the main points and “findings” that the authors came across during their research. Some examples of these findings include ways that the Arctic has been degraded by climate change, and the idea that “climate change is by far the most serious threat to Arctic biodiversity and exacerbates all other threats.” That absolute fact, however, is something that other people could possibly dispute, so the authors include further information to solidify their claim. This article will be helpful to me when I write the portion of my paper that revolves around climate change affecting the biodiversity of Arctic regions since it gives multiple different examples of how the biodiversity is already being affected by global changes.

Cho, Renee. “How Climate Change Will Alter Our Food.” State of the Planet, Earth Institute,

Columbia University, 11 Jan. 2019, https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/07/25/climate-change-food-agriculture/.

Annotation:In this article, Earth Institute’s staff blogger Renee Cho explains how the effects of climate change on animals and plants can affect our food supply. The purpose of the article is to broaden the scope of climate change to help science blog readers understand its impacts on agriculture on a global scale. These impacts range from crop failures to possible limited variety of fish on the market. The author uses pictures and captions to emphasize the present impact of climate change. This article came from the Earth Institute which is an institution established by Columbia University which an Ivy League research university. Although no peer reviewed, the information came from a credible organization that deals with the various science topics. The article also referenced some of the case studies. The source provides significant introductory information of the impacts of climate change on food production.

Harvey, Chelsea. “Here’s What We Know About Wildfires and Climate Change.” Environment 

and Energy News, Scientific American, 13 Oct. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/ article/heres-what-we-knowabout-wildfires-and-climate-change/.

Annotation:Chelsea Harvey, a freelance journalist specializing in topics related to climate and the environment, has composed this popular source article within a news publisher dedicated to sharing scientific findings to the general public. The main argument is that scientists are continuing to find strong correlational evidence between climate change and the increase of wildfires in California. To support her argument, Harvey cites published studies and quotes environmental experts, furthering the article’s credibility and neutral tone. The author also addresses counterarguments, such as limitations to the data mentioned and the fact that correlation does not lead to causation, creating dialogue within her own work. The purpose of the article is to educate the audience, which is the general public interested in environmental issues, on some of the climate-related causes that spark wildfires. This source helps me understand the relationship between global warming and wildfires, as well as better grasp the current conversation the scientific community is having on the issue.

Jacobson, Mark Z. “The 7 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Not the Answer to Solve Climate Change.” Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation, 20 June 2019, www.leonardodicaprio.org/the-7-reasons-why-nuclear-energy-is-not-the-answer-to-solve-climate-change/.

Annotation:Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, argues that nuclear energy has seven major issues that make it an inferior alternative to coal as an energy source compared to other more practical sources. Long time between planning and operation, cost, weaponization, risk, and nearly equivalent risk in CO2 emissions as compared to other energy sources. Most of his examples are from previous nuclear plants such as the “catastrophic” Chernobyl incident, or the “damaging” three-mile island reactor. He also cites many organizations, an example being his argument that “the growth of nuclear energy has historically increased the ability of nations” to “manufacture nuclear weapons, and that the “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognizes this fact”, supporting his citation with quotes from the “Executive Summary”. Counterarguments include the cost of other sources of energy and that these “renewables are intermittent and need natural gas for backup.” The purpose of his article however was to refute this counterargument, and to illuminate the pitfalls to using nuclear energy as a source of alternative energy to fight climate change. I intend to use this information as a reference to refer to for when I need to find studies done on key examples for nuclear reactors, as well as to help structure my argument on how climate change has pushed certain areas of engineering and science in order to combat the climate change problem.

Pörtner, Hans O, and Knust, Rainer. “Climate Change Affects Marine Fishes through the Oxygen Limitation of Thermal Tolerance.” Science (New York, N.Y.), vol. 315, no. 5808, Jan. 2007, pp. 95–97, doi:10.1126/science.1135471.

Annotation:Hans O Porter and Rainer Knust are both climatologists that researched the eelpout, a bioindicator fish, because it displays how “thermally limited oxygen delivery match the environmental temperature” causing growth and density to decrease. Their experiment, models, and data display conclude that marine life is impacted by climate change as their environment heats up, species reduce in population size and have enhanced mortality. The “decrements in aerobic performance cause reduced growth” and climate change directly induces reduced aerobic performance because of thermal limitations. This study helps support my claim that climate change has effects on marine life by representing the thermal limitations that are forced when the ocean heats up which results in behavior changes. I plan to use this research article to support the findings in Rachael Spinks’ article.

Reiny, Samson. “2015-2016 El Niño Triggered Disease Outbreaks across Globe – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet.” NASA, NASA, 23 July 2019,https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2846/2015-2016-el-nino-triggered-disease-outbreaks-across-globe/

Annotation:In this government newspaper, NASA’s Earth Science reporter, Samson Reiny, makes the claim that rising surface water temperatures caused by El Nino is causing an epidemic of diseases worldwide (Reiny). Being a NASA paper, Reiny mainly cites data from the NASA organization, such as using geographic maps from the Nasa Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio to visually represent the rising surface water temperatures. He also cites a study written by NASA research assistant, Assaf Anyamba, to show that during the El Nino period, “reported cases of cholera in 2015 and 2016 were the second and third highest… over an 18-year period from 2000 to 2017” (Reiny). He also cites other reliable government sources for evidence, such as using data from the USDA and Eco Health Alliance to suggest methods for preventing disease. The main purpose of the article is to urge government agencies and the public health sector to take action to prevent the disease from spreading further. By reading this article, I gained a clearer perspective on how exactly climate change induced phenomenon’s like El Nino is directly impacting regions around the world. With the various geographic data and statistical data in this article, I plan to use this article to provide concrete evidence of the effect that climate change has on the spread of various diseases.

Tutton, Mark. “How Green Is High-Speed Rail?” CNN, Cable News Network, 19 Nov. 2011, www.cnn.com/2011/11/18/world/how-green-is-hsr/index.html.

Annotation:Journalist Mark Tutton argues that high-speed rail systems are environmentally better than using cars and airplanes, but there’s still more room for improvement for high-speed rail to reduce carbon emissions. He supports this with accounts from two experts from the field: Dr. Anthony Perl and Tony Bosworth. Dr. Anthony Perl is a Professor of Urban Studies and Political Science, and Tony Bosworth is a campaigner for Friends of Earth. Dr. Perl argues “high-speed rail offers a proven means of reducing dependence on [an] increasingly problematic energy source [oil]” (Tutton), which is known to be a leading contributor to our carbon emissions. He describes the advantages to switching to electric-powered vehicles. High-speed rails have been already used in Asia and Europe and shows less people using cars and planes while meeting travel demands “with a much lower carbon footprint than driving or flying could have done.” (Tutton) However, Bosworth argues that high-speed rails as they are right now (2011, when this article was published), may not be the most energy efficient. This is especially true in how we currently produce our electricity, which comes from burning fossil fuels. Bosworth also brings up that the cost of using high-speed rail is more expensive than driving and flying, which is why drivers and plane riders have not used HSR more. I plan to use both of these views from this article in showing support for building more high-speed rails. Since this article was written eight years ago, I can use this to contrast new technology towards developing renewable energy and better technology for even more efficient high-speed rails and its supporting infrastructure.