"One Big Interconnected System"

After viewing the National Geographic Video, Strange Days on Planet Earth, it is perplexing how much the Earths' climate is connected and what one does in one part of the Earth can affect people thousands and thousands of miles away.

In 2001 researchers confirmed that by burning fossil fuels we have raised the Earths' average temperature by one degree Fahrenheit. This obviously has adverse effects in different ecosystems and in some ecological niches, temperatures have risen by as much as nine degrees Fahrenheit. One of the animals discussed were the Caribou and the porcupine river herd. Each year they cover about 1,500 miles in migration, but the rising temperatures have affected the herd. In 1989 there were 187,000 Caribou herds and now there are only 120,000. The rapid decline in Caribou can be accounted partly to mosquitoes. In the summer months since it is hotter, mosquitoes are more prevalent thus the Caribou climb mountains and hills to evade them. In part they sacrifice their supply of food; because there is less to graze on the rocky mountains. Also, rising temperatures means more storms they have to endure during their migration.

Phytoplankton have also been declining until recently they began to rise again. The rise and fall of phytoplankton is directly correlated to the sudden rearrangements of cold and warm water. Every two to three decades the Pacific does a 'flip flop' called Regime Shift. The Regime Shift disrupts the food supply to disruption of water currents which cut off nutrient rich water from the depths. The Zoa Plankton do better in cold waters than in warm so if the waters are gradually getting warmer this will greatly affect phytoplankton and nearly all marine life phytoplankton are at the bottom of the food chain.