Writing Assignment #8

In this article, it describes how exact measurements of ice melting in Patagonia were measured and what it means for global warming. Patagonia is in the southernmost section of South America. Scientists were able to gain measurements that told them the recent rates of ice melting. These results indicated that ice melting has drastically increased in recent decades and that this has resulted in a sea-level rise at an increasing rate. Scientists attribute this to rising global temperatures within the last few decades. Scientists also say that this a warming trend that can be expected to happen elsewhere and to increase in the years ahead. Scientists say that if this trend of warming continues, that by 2100, the sea-level would have risen 3 feet. They also do not cross out the possibility of the sea-level rising up to 6 feet by then. This would affect hundreds of millions of people who inhabit the coastlines and who would be inundated by the rising sea.


Gillis, Justin. "In the Mountains of Patagonia, a Harbinger of a Rising Ocean." The New York Times.
3 April 2011. <http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/in-the-mountains-of-patagonia-a-harbinger-of-a-rising-ocean/?ref=globalwarming>

Writing Assignment #7

This article describes how a well respected astrobiologist, Richard Hoover, believes he found signs of extraterrestrial life within the remnants of a meteorite. He claimed that these signs appeared to be fossils of life form that were bacteria. If his claims were correct it would bring to the front the possibility of other terrestrial life elsewhere and also on the origins of terrestrial life. However, there is much debate and skepticism associated with this finding. Many claim that these findings are not accurate and do not prove that bacteria was found or even if there is such life form that can be found elsewhere. These skeptics also claim that much more evidence needs to be presented.


Revkin, Andrew C. "NASA Scientist Sees Signs of Life in Meteorites." The New York Times. 6 March 2011. Web. <http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/nasa-scientist-sees-signs-of-life-in-meteorites/?ref=earthplanet>