The Northern Hemisphere

One of the biggest tectonic events that has an effect on the earth climate is volcanic activity.

The volcano had been dormant for hundreds of years and this violent explosion lasted days, sending ash into the atmosphere (D'arcy Wood). At the time, there were both native villagers living in the area and British officers, as the area was a colony under the British crown. Most of the surviving records of the explosion come from these British officers, some of whom didn’t actually witness the explosion but heard it and assumed the explosion was from rebels on the island. A captain of a nearby East India Company ship reported ash falling out of the sky and “By noon, the light that had remained in the eastern part of the horizon disappeared, and complete darkness had covered the face of day” (D'arcy Wood). At the time of the explosion another British subject, Sir Thomas Raffles, was the governor of Java, Indonesia. His compiled record of first hand accounts confirming the blackened sky and falling ash (Skulls). Similar accounts of darkness were recorded throughout the region, which was due to the sheer volume of ash that was released by the volcano. The ash-blackened sky was not the only impact of the eruption. The more far reaching effects of the eruption would not be felt until the summer of 1816, when the eruption gasses and particles so affected worldwide meteorological patterns that the western world called 1816 “The Year Without a Summer”.

Every forest has a story to tell. By looking closely at its habitants, that story can be interpreted. Much of this narrative is written in the trees: their age, their tolerance to shade, and the rate at which they grow are all characteristics that can imply a lot about their environment. Exploring these relationships and how they connect with each other can indicate the health and history of the land. Heiberg Forest, located in northern New York, was once used for agricultural purposes in the 1800-1900’s. (Nowak, Lecture Notes) Much of the land once used for farming was left to regrow back into a young forest. The life history of different tree species can be determined by examining the most common species in Heiberg.

Anthropological theories concerning the peopling of North America is a topic that is widely debated. By far, Western scientists seem to agree that: “As a result of the vast amount of water that was locked up in glacial ice toward the end of the Pleistocene era, there was a worldwide drop in sea level of as much as 400 feet” (Sutton 19), creating a land link, known as the Beringia, between Asia and Alaska. Starting from this point about the land link, we find that Elias’s article “First Americans Lived on Bering Land Bridge for Thousands of Years,” is the most agreeable theory about the peopling of North America.

The topography of the island is also of note. The west end of the island features a closed-canopy forest with more hardwood trees. The east end of the island is better characterized as a “boreal forest,” a term used to describe regions that are mostly covered by coniferous forests. It is good to note that the balsam fir is found on both ends of the island, but that samples used in the study from the west end of the island were, on average, older, but shorter, than those samples found on the east side of the island.

The Earth has been experiencing a considerable amount of climate change for the last several decades. Natural factors that contribute to the climate system consist of: solar output, volcanic activity and earth’s orbit around the sun. The two factors relevant on timescales of contemporary climate exist in volcanic activity and changes in solar radiation. The earth’s energy balance primarily influences the amount of incoming energy from volcanic eruptions, which have a relatively short-term effect on climate. Changes in solar output have contributed greatly to climate trends over the past century. The effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been at least ten times that of changes in the Sun’s output and the ocean covers more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface, receiving twice the amount of earth’s radiation. Although the sun is the engine that drives all the weather, oceans and atmosphere control the sun 's energy along certain

The millennium from 1000 to 1500 C.E. changed significantly from the past eras that have been studied before. Sizable regions such as Africa and the Mediterranean Basin dominated the eastern side of our world. From incredible advancements in agricultural technology and extensive trade networks, to the complex social classes and religious values, the eastern hemisphere influenced the development of all societies.

The mid-Atlantic and Southern regions during the 17th century, played a big role in creating and structuring America’s politics, economy and social life. Through trial and error eventually these regions formed America into the country as we know it today. The mid-Atlantic 's vast wealth of natural resources allowed this region to become very fruitful, economically in several key industries. The South during this time became very dependent of agriculture and trade. Settlers relied heavily on slave labor to work on farms, which created economic wealth through the use of plantations (Original13colonies, “n.d.). These two particular regions had several overlapping similarities as well as differences that made them unique.

Northern and Southern United States both started their history differently. The South was mostly into farming, while the North was more about the industry. Both regions also had sectional differences in the way tariffs and slavery were intertwined. Since there were unfair tariffs that tested dominate leaders like the Britain Crown, many rebellions have been staged.

Looking further into the impacts of the Rodeo-Chediski fire the trees saw the greatest impact of the fire. Almost 90% of the trees suffered complete crown kill (Ffolliott, 2008). Either some trees had survived with low severity, were harmed, or dead because of the drought and the fire combined. Even though some of the trees that had faced high severity apparently after having seen what trees had survived the fire yet by 2004 two years after the fire they had died (Ffolliott, 2008). The wildfire also impacted the standardization structure, post-fire mortality of trees, and stocking of tree reproduction on the Steamer Ridge Watershed (Ffolliott, 2008). After the fire had finally been contained the density of the forest had been forever changed.

In North America, the boreal forest is known to be one of the largest carbon storage systems. A boreal forest is a biome that is made up of trees such as pines, spruces and another conifer species, the Black Spruce being one of the most essential species of the boreal forest. Fires may be a significant element to the ecosystem in terms of maintaining an ideal community by selecting for species and their traits that, in return, shape the environment, however forest fires are causing the Black Spruce species to deteriorate in population size due to the effects of the fires, caused by a rise in temperature. Clearly, temperature is the leading factor causing constant wildland fires across North America. This concludes the degree of heat intensity in the environment is

As soon as individuals develop very diverse ideas from one another it can appear as if they live in separate worlds. In the course of the early 1800s, the South and the North were worlds apart from each other in various ways. The North and the South had altered economies, ideas, and attitudes toward slavery. The diverse economies in the North and South led to discrepancies among the regions about taxes on imported goods or tariffs. Furthermore the disagreements over slavery, tariffs, and other economic disputes amplified sectionalism, or the loyalty to one part of the country, in the North and the South. The North and South were ultimately headed towards a brutal war.

The first argument examined on the man-made global warning side is that increasing greenhouse gases caused by human activities is causing directly observed climate changes. The first resulting climate change discussed is warming global surface temperature. There has been an increase in global surface temperature of 0.74 degrees C since the late 19th century. In the last 50 years alone the temperature has increased by 0.13 degrees C per decade. North America and Eurasia have seen the largest increase in warmth. However, some areas of the earth have actually cooled some this past century (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para6). After the mid 20th century 70% of the global land mass saw reduced diurnal temperatures. From 1979 to 2005 the maximum and minimum temperatures have shown no change; both indicate warming (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para10). Furthermore, borehole temperatures, snow cover, and glacier recession data all seem to agree with recent warming (Easterling & Karl, 2011, para11).

Introduction: Since the beginning of time, volcanoes have been wreaking havoc on the world, as we know it. Yet in the more recent times, there has been a great amount of debate regarding the effect of volcanic eruptions on world climate change. In this report, the effects of these volcanoes will be explored, particularly in regards to cooling and the depletion of the ozone.

The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) refers to a relatively warm period lasting from about the 10th to the 14th century.2 However, the initial evidence for the MWP was largely based on data3 gathered from Europe, and more recent analyses indicate that the MWP was not a global phenomenon. A number of reconstructions of millennium-scale global temperatures have indicated that the maximum globally averaged temperature during the MWP was not as extreme as present-day temperatures and that the warming was regional rather than global. Perhaps the most well-known of these is that of Michael Mann and colleagues (Nature, 392, 1998, pg. 779). Their reconstruction produced the so-called “hockey stick” graphic that contributed to this conclusion in the 2001 assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: “The…'Medieval Warm Period' appear(s) to have limited utility in describing trends in hemispheric or global mean temperature changes in past centuries." The accuracy of the “hockey stick” graphic was widely discussed in the press when the Mann et al. methodology was criticized by McIntyre and McKitrick (Geophys. Res. Lettr, 32, 2005, pg. L03710). Less attention was given to subsequent studies, such as that of Moberg and colleagues (Nature, 433, 2005, pg. 613) and Osborn and Briffa (Science, 311, 2006, pg. 841) that were based on different, independent methodologies but reached conclusions similar to Mann. Observations of melting high altitude glaciers are