The Different "Spheres" of the World 5/14

http://assets.openstudy.com/updates/attachments/547f6731e4b03e22bc88fba0-kamibug-1417635919362-capture.png

Humans have impacted the world greatly. Don't be flattered because I don't mean in a beneficial way. What I'm trying to say is that human activities and actions have damaged the Earth's environment. This takes me to the 5 "Spheres" of the world. Earth's system can be separated into five major subsystems; air, land, water, organisms, and ice. These five subsystems are called "spheres". More specifically, they are the atmosphere (air), lithosphere (land), hydrosphere (water), biosphere (living things), and cryosphere (ice). The atmosphere is the layer of gases surrounding a planet. Humans activities effect the atmosphere by causing air pollution in many different ways, including the use of transportation that requires gas, working in factories that give off fossil fuel gases, and using items that give off smoke. The lithosphere is the rigid outer part of the Earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle. The lithosphere is impacted by humans because of erosion. Natural land cover is disturbed as new cities are built because this new development can result in very high levels of erosion. As well as deforestation to clear land, damages the quality of land. The hydrosphere consists of all the waters on the surface of the Earth, such as lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans. Humans can impact the hydrosphere by creating water pollution. Water pollution occurs when humans let out oils and trash into bodies of water. In addition, humans can redirect the course rivers take make by creating dams. The biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living things and their relationships. The biosphere is effected by humans when humans cause species to become endangered and go extinct. Humans cause this to happen by clearing out the homes of different species in order to build cities. The final sphere, cryosphere, is the frozen water part of the Earth's system. Climate change is a big impact on the cryosphere and all of the fossil fuels that are let off from humans makes the Earth warmer. The cryosphere protects the Earth from getting too warm, but when the ice melts from global warming, it impacts the affects the entire planet's energy balance.

S&EP - SP7: Engaging in argument through evidence

I used evidence to defend my explanation. I played a playlist of educational games on "Legends of Learning" that dealt with human impact on the Earth and taught me how we can start improving, providing the information that I learned as evidence. I formulated evidence based on solid data when I stated that human activities damage the atmosphere by creating air pollution using my knowledge that gas emissions from transportation mobiles, fossil fuel gases that are given off from human made factories, and smoke that is burned from humans cause air pollution, as evidence. I examined my own understanding in light of the evidence. I used to think that deforestation of areas in order to clear space for cities effected the lithosphere most because of soil erosion that deforestation causes, but because of playing the educational games and learning new information, now I think that deforestation is a huge impact on the biosphere because of the lost of homes of animal species. I collaborated with my peers in searching for the best explanation. I did some research on the different "spheres" of the Earth and how human activities greatly impact them, which I discussed with my class and the people at my table. Together we figured out how humans effect the environment of the Earth and the Earth's "spheres" with our actions.

XCC: Cause and Effect

The cause and effect relationship that occurs in the different "spheres" of the Earth happens between us humans and the well being of the Earth's environment. More specifically, the relationship revolves around the actions and activities humans take in daily life and how this effects the "spheres" of the Earth. For example when humans let out fossil fuels into the atmosphere, this not only affects the atmosphere with air pollution, it also causes the global warming. Global warming is the act of the Earth getting warmer. When the Earth gets warmer, it effects the cryosphere by melting ice. This is important because when the ice melts, it effects the entire planet's energy balance and encourages global warming. Another example of this relationship is when humans cause water polution. When we release oil, trash, and other toxic items into bodies of water, it of course pollutes the water and contaminates it. However, this action also affects the biosphere by killing any species that live in these contaminated bodies of water.