Josh+G's+Journal+Page

=__**Josh G's Weather Journal Page**__= 9/12/11 (Journal #1) Next year, as I am beginning to start thinking about where I am going to continue my education, I have decided that I plan on furthering my career as a runner at the collegiate level. Throughout all of high school, I have been a track runner, specializing in short sprints. In track and field, especially in the shorter events, weather plays a huge role in my performance as well as those of my competitors. Living and competing in New England, I have been subject to all kinds of weather in the span each of my 3 outdoor track seasons. This has been a large factor which has dictated my success or lack of success on any given day. On days when it has been especially cold, usually at the beginning of the season, I have had to be extremely careful to take extra precautionary measures regarding preperation for races. This can range from more stretching to more warming up. When it is cold especially, runners have to be careful not to get injured. In addition to having to watch for injuries due to cold, naturally, in the cold, humans' muscles are not as loose, causing me and all of my competition to be slower on any given cold day. Of course, on hotter days, it is much easier to get prepared for races and I usually am much looser and warmer at the start of a race. This allows me and my competition to run faster on these days. Besides temperature, wind can play an even larger role in a 100 meter or 200 meter race. Depending on the direction of the wind on a given day and the direction which the track is oriented, wind can be an extremely large factor in times of a race. When running into a headwind, times are much lower. Runners are forced to work a lot harder to run at slower speeds due to the resistance of the high amounts of air molecules being pushed into them. This can be advantageous to stronger, bigger runners because they are able to run with more resistance with less difficulty due to their strength. Likewise, it is a disadvantage for weaker smaller runners. In addition to these weather conditions, rain or other kinds of precipitation can slow down a sprinter on any given day. Having to run into rain can dramatically slow down runners as well as making it much more dangerous to run. Because of the fact that I have had to deal with such an extremely large variance in weather throughout such a short amount of time during my spring seasons, it has caused me to have very inconsistent times in track. On a Wednesday I could run a 11.4 in the 100m on a 60 degree cloudy day with a slight headwind and then the following Saturday, with a clear sky, no wind and 85 degree temperature I could run a 10.7. Because of this, it has been hard for me to tell what my best times in some events are.

9/28/11 (Journal #2) Global warming is the theory that the average temperature of our planet is increasing over a period of time. It is theorized that the amount of Carbon Dioxide and other "greenhouse gasses" in the atmosphere are increasing. These gasses are called "greenhouse gasses" because they create the same effect as a glass greenhouse, which magnifies the suns rays and in turn heats up the greenhouse. In the case of the earth, with addition of more greenhouse gasses, the earth or globe as a whole will be subject to more intense radiation from the sun, causing it to heat up or warm, which is where this theory got its name, Global Warming. This of course would be very important because climate is something that plays a huge role in all human's lives, as well as all other animals and organisms. If the whole Earth's climate was to change, in this case by an increase in temperature, organisms everywhere would have to adapt to warmer living conditions. In addition to this, with the Earth's temperature increasing, many polar ice caps that are present towards the earths poles would begin to melt, which would have the effect of raising the earth's sea-level. This could be extremely detrimental to many organisms because the amount of landmass could decrease due to many coastal areas being consumed by sea. In my knowledge, I have not seen much evidence of Global warming at all. I have heard it theorized throughout my studies and on the news, however, I would say that this summer was equally hot if not cooler than last summer, and last winter was no warmer than the winter before it. However, theoretically, the pros of global warming would be that it would eliminate problems with freezing and allow many organisms and ecosystems that thrive in warm climates to thrive. However, likewise it would cause immense problems for those organisms and ecosystems that thrive in colder or less warm climates.

10/3/11 (Journal #3) For some reason, I dont know why, but many people tend to attach the idea of the greenhouse effect to global warming. Often, it is said that global warming is happening because there is this new phenomena known as a greenhouse effect. In actuality, the greenhouse effect is an effect that is caused by various gases that can be considered greenhouse gases (Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Water Vapor, etc.) These gases make up a very small percentage of our planet's atmosphere, but are crucial for the survival of life on Earth. When energy from the sun is absorbed by the Earth, the Earth then emits infrared radiation back up towards space but it is absorbed and transformed into heat by these greenhouse gases. Without these gases, we would lose a lot of energy on earth and the Earth's temperature would dramatically decrease. In terms of global warming, that is a theory that is founded in the belief that because the amounts of these greenhouse gases are increasing (especially Carbon Dioxide), more of the sun's heat will be absored by the Earth and the temperature will increase, causing global warming. This is a widely debated issue and many people believe that it is a serious problem that we are facing in the future. However, many other people believe that it is not something that is real, does not need to be worried about, and is not caused by humans.

10/5/11 (Journal #4) Based on your current knowledge, what are your thoughts about the consequences for humans of global climate change? If the global climate was to increase by the incredibly small amounts that it is currently, I do not think that it would make a very big impact on humans or many other organisms. Up until now, humans have managed to survive through all kinds of natural changes and circumstances. Humans, like almost all other forms of life, are incredibly adaptive and have been able to survive on the world up until now. I do not think that something as little as a rise in temperature of 1 or 2 degrees would make nearly a big enough impact to cause much to change at all. No one has started to look at the patterns in climate as well as many other aspects of nature until very recently in the grand scheme of the history of the Earth. Because of this, I feel that it is not only wrong but foolish to try to make any type of predictions or judgement about something like climate. Climate and the weather is something that is (literally and figuratively) above our heads as humans. If people want to speculate about what is going to happen in the future and what the effects are going to be, they are more than welcome to but as far as I am concerned, if people could tell what is going to happen in the future they should use it to predict much more relevant things such as natural disasters or violent crimes. Meteorologists are very good at what they do and strive to be better and better but yet, the day to day forecast still manages to change hourly and is oftentimes very inaccurate. However, people still look to them every day to find out what they think the weather is going to be like for the next few days. Despite their lack of accuracy over a short period of time, they still try to look into what is going to happen over a long period of time (hundreds and thousands of years). I think that this forecast of global warming will be much like any other weather forecast, subject to extreme change and fluctuation, especially as we move forward in time. 1. Owners of ski mountains and resorts will be concerned about the future of their professions 2. Fisherman because fish will be moving to warmer and/or colder water 3. Water companies/water treatment companies will be concerned with the increased demand for water that would come with a rise in temperature 4. Realtors (especially those who own property near the water) will be concerned that their land might go underwater if the sea-level raises 5. Zookeepers will be concerned with how they are going to keep all of their animals happy in a new climate.

10/12/11 (Journal #5) We have been experiencing some very strange weather lately. Last week, it was especially cold (around 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit) and often overcast and even rainy. Over the weekend, it was especially sunny and the temperature increased dramatically (80 degrees Fahrenheit). I was wondering why there was such a dramatic temperature shift, especially as it appears to have shifted back to cooler temperatures with less. This weekend, the weather felt like summer but now we are right back into fall.