Two Degrees Cooler

When I talk about global warming, I say “Greenhouse gases are released, causing more heat to be trapped in the atmosphere and raising the global average temperature”. This is the basic version of the greenhouse effect. There’s a missing step: How do greenhouse gases physically cause more heat to be trapped? What is the physics behind it? My ruse has been uncovered, since my dissertation supervisor noticed that I didn’t actually go into the physics of climate change in my paper, so I’m going to need to look into it and tell you guys what I find out on the way! What are Greenhouse Gases? A greenhouse gas (GHG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The thermal infrared energy is what is known as heat, which are waves that humans can’t see but they can feel. GHG are Carbon Dioxide (from burning fossil fuels), Methane (from producing fossil fuels and agriculture), Nitrous Oxide (from agriculture and industrial activi...

I have just attended the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics , or CUWiP. It was online for the first time thanks to the pandemic, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The website says, “The goal is to encourage undergraduates to continue in physics by focusing on their development as a scientist and showcasing options for their educational and professional futures” and they had events like a Wikipedia edit-a-thon, a bunch of talks and panels, and a talk from the esteemed physicist Jocelyn Bell Brunel.  The experience was valuable in a way that I hadn’t expected. I definitely enjoyed all of the talks and activities, but more than that, it felt to empowering to be in a room full of people who look just like you. It isn’t something you experience, ever, as woman in physics so it’s a feeling that you don’t even know that you’re missing. To be able to see yourself as just a scientist rather than a female scientist removes this burden of insecurity that you don’t even realise that ...

 I’ve been looking at places where Environmentalism and Feminism intersect. One really shocking issue is that Climate Change could cause more people to fall victim to human trafficking, sex trafficking in particular. This is a horrifying outcome so I thought it was worth bringing awareness to this outcome and look at what could be done to prevent it.  How does climate change connect to human trafficking? As we release more greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere, more heat is trapped causing the average temperature to rise known as ‘global warming’. This affects the climate, the average weather over a long period of time.  One outcome of global warming is that ice will melt – mostly land ice- and cause sea levels to rise. This threatens to sink islands and flatter countries like Sri Lanka . Another outcome is more extreme weather and natural disasters, like stronger typhoons, flooding, and droughts. More information on global warming  here .  This could make ...