Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) for Global Warming

Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) for Global Warming Josh Chaplin â€Å"Can the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) be used as an analogue for anthropogenically-induced global warming?† The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was a global climatic occurrence in the early Paleogene period, spanning across the Paleocene and Eocene epoch overlap at 55.8 Ma (Gradstein et al 2004). Although the exact start and end points of the PETM are disputed, drilling in the North Sea and the Southern Ocean’s Weddell Sea has allowed an accurate duration of the phenomenon to be calculated to around 170,000 years. There is, though, much controversy over these figures and the mechanisms that caused such a climatic anomaly, but particularities aside, this geologically recent warming cycle may be of much use when it comes to understanding our changing climate today. A proposed cause of the PETM thermal anomaly is the release of 1,500 Gt of methane and carbon from decomposing gas-hydrate reservoirs in the terrestrial biosphere, initiated as part of a sequence of events leading on from mass volcanism associated with the opening of the North Atlantic (Winguth 2011). The resulting rise in temperature of around average 5.6 °C, and up to 9 °C is comparable to extrapolations which predict the temperature shift by the end of the current century (Rà ¶hl 2000). Sluijs (2007) explains how the climatological evidence for this comes from Oxygen isotope excursions in foraminifera and terrestrial carbonates, increased levels of Magnesium and Calcium in foraminifera and the poleward migrations of tropical plankton, mammals and terrestrial plants. On the other hand, the inception of the modern warming period was human-induced, and carbon was released from traps much faster than it would have been during the PETM, and has thus accumulated in the atmosphere a t a higher concentration in a shorter space of time. The PETM did not surpass a so-called ‘tipping point’ whereby the effects of the warming would be irreversible, whereas the exteremely rapid release of carbon over the course of the past three centuries may have catalysed such a scenario. As a result, it is a reasonable assumption that it may be possible to rely on the PETM as an analogue for modern anthropogenic climate change, due to the analogous effects and root cause, however it must be remembered that the speed of the onset may very well render these expectations void. There are a number of close similarities between modern and past warming periods which vouch for the validity of using their analyses as an analogue for what is happening at present, and what will be still to come. For example, anthropogenically-induced warming and the natural warming of the PETM both were the consequence of excess carbon in the atmosphere. In addition, the scale of temperature rise during the PETM is consistent with predictions for the end of the current century, at around 6 °C (Rà ¶hl et al 2000). Applying the principle of uniformitarianism, the climatic reconstruction of the conditions throughout the PETM can be useful in aiding us to understand what is happening and the effects we can expect. As the globe warms up, consequences occur such as the thermal expansion of the oceans and the release of terrestrial carbon which also have knock-on corollaries as is seen today (Hayward 2011); this is shown in Figure 1. Furthermore, due to the geologically relative recen t occurrence of the event, it is more reliable to construct climatological models and replicate what the potential consequences of the warming may be. This is another advantage in using what we know of the PETM as an analogue for what is happening to the planet at present. Modern Global Warming is, however, remarkably different from the rise in temperature associated with the PETM. Whilst the rise of the temperature today is comparable to the Late Paleocene at around 6 °C (Rà ¶hl et al 2000), the onset of this thermal spike occurred naturally and at equilibrium climatic state. The industrial revolution and the resulting vast amounts of coal, oil and gas which have ended up in the atmosphere as CO2 since the early 1800s have bought about the temperature shift in a very small fraction of the time than it did during the Paleogene. Figure 2 puts this into perspective. The anthropological extraction of carbon reservoirs has depleted their stratigraphic storage much quicker than would be the case naturally through uplift and erosion. â€Å"PETM: Global warming, naturally† (2012) states around 5109 tons of Carbon was released into the atmosphere each year during the PETM, whereas the figure for 2010 alone is 35109 tons. Such rapid accumulation of ca rbon in the atmosphere has never been reconstructed within the last 20 million years, and current atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are higher than at any point within the last 800,000 years (Hayward 2011). With reference to Figure 1, the knock-on consequences of each occurrence within a warming cycle are numerous, and the simultaneous onset of several of these is largely uncharted territory. A tipping point could theoretically be reached whereby global temperatures spiral out of control because of this, and drawing from the reversal of snowball earth periods, such an extreme planetary climate could take many millions of years to return to optimal conditions, if ever again. When considering the centuries that are required to transport all heat to the deep ocean and the millennia needed to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere, the consequences of climate change will still be materialising for generations and will likely last for longer than the 170,000 years it took the earth to remove all excess CO2 from the atmosphere. By 2300 sea levels are expected to be up to 0.8m higher than 1980 levels, many more species will be extinct and the poles will have considerably smaller ice sheets if still in existence, and one can only assume the repercussions will be more severe than the altered migration patterns and dinoflagellate calcite levels of the PETM. In conclusion, the PETM can be considered as an analogous representation of the warming of the globe. In the case of anthropogenic climate change however, the rate of carbon accumulation simply means that the potential consequences of the climatic shift are too unpredictable in years to come. Using the PETM as an analogous model for the current period of warming may suffice for the present, but future outcomes are uncertain as atmospheric carbon continues to accrue at an alarming rate. References: Gradstein et al (2004) – â€Å"A geological timescale† Hayward, A. et al (2011) – â€Å"Are there Pre-Quaternary Analogues for a future Greenhouse Warming?† 933-941 â€Å"PETM: Global Warming, Naturally† (2012) – Found at http://www.wunderground.com/climate/PETM.asp?MR=1 Rà ¶hl, U. et al (2000) – Geology Issue 28 – â€Å"New chronology for the late Paleocene thermal maximum and its environmental implications† 927-930 Sluijs et al (2007) – â€Å"The Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum super greenhouse: biotic and geochemical signatures, age models and mechanisms of global change† 333-338 Winguth, A. (2011) – â€Å"The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum: Feedbacks between Climate Change and Biogeochemical Cycles† 43-45

The Human Brain Essay -- Health, Diseases, Brain Damage

The human brain is a big, intricate—yet delicate, structure in the human body. It is the key structure in cognitive function. Any damage to the brain does not only â€Å"erase† memories but also may â€Å"deceive† the brain to erroneously remember a new object as being familiar (2010). The innovative researchers at Cambridge University investigated this phenomenon in their research on The Paradoxial False Memory for Objects after Brain Damage. The publication began by stating the widely acceptable premise that medial temporal lobe damage results in the inability to remember new experiences soon after they are learned. They indicated that the general belief is that this occurs because the ability to remember such information becomes compromised after a short period of time. They therefore deduced based on this premise that such information or experiences are either lost or become inaccessible to the extent that when such experiences are presented and re-experienced, they appear as if they are new or never have been learned. They therefore set out to explore this premise by using the generally used model of memory impairment, the â€Å"the standard object recognition memory model.† According to James Hampton, a well-renowned Professor of Cognitive Psychology at City University London, â€Å"recognition is the process of matching a perceptual representation of the stimulus item [into] stored representations of previously [exposed] stimuli† (2003). This stored information is known as structural representations based on the visual-spatial nature of the retained information (Moss and Hampton, 2003). â€Å"Object recognition memory is the ability to discriminate the familiarity of previously encountered objects† (Gaskins et al., 2009). The standard object ... ...indings from the simulation were valid because animals that suffered damage to the perirhinal cortex saw novel objects as familiar. Based on the support of these simulations and their laboratory findings, I agree with the notion â€Å"that object recognition memory impairments does not result from damage to the memory system. Rather brain damage that results in such impairments only compromises only a [precise] type of complex stimulus representation† (McTighe et al., 2010). Such may be the case of individuals with cortical brain damage such amnesia and Alzheimer’s disease based the combination of perirhinal lesions and object recognition impairments similar to the findings in this research. However in order to evaluation between and the paradoxical phenomenon, more research is needed and further representation-hierarchical simulation testing must be performed on humans. The Human Brain Essay -- Health, Diseases, Brain Damage The human brain is a big, intricate—yet delicate, structure in the human body. It is the key structure in cognitive function. Any damage to the brain does not only â€Å"erase† memories but also may â€Å"deceive† the brain to erroneously remember a new object as being familiar (2010). The innovative researchers at Cambridge University investigated this phenomenon in their research on The Paradoxial False Memory for Objects after Brain Damage. The publication began by stating the widely acceptable premise that medial temporal lobe damage results in the inability to remember new experiences soon after they are learned. They indicated that the general belief is that this occurs because the ability to remember such information becomes compromised after a short period of time. They therefore deduced based on this premise that such information or experiences are either lost or become inaccessible to the extent that when such experiences are presented and re-experienced, they appear as if they are new or never have been learned. They therefore set out to explore this premise by using the generally used model of memory impairment, the â€Å"the standard object recognition memory model.† According to James Hampton, a well-renowned Professor of Cognitive Psychology at City University London, â€Å"recognition is the process of matching a perceptual representation of the stimulus item [into] stored representations of previously [exposed] stimuli† (2003). This stored information is known as structural representations based on the visual-spatial nature of the retained information (Moss and Hampton, 2003). â€Å"Object recognition memory is the ability to discriminate the familiarity of previously encountered objects† (Gaskins et al., 2009). The standard object ... ...indings from the simulation were valid because animals that suffered damage to the perirhinal cortex saw novel objects as familiar. Based on the support of these simulations and their laboratory findings, I agree with the notion â€Å"that object recognition memory impairments does not result from damage to the memory system. Rather brain damage that results in such impairments only compromises only a [precise] type of complex stimulus representation† (McTighe et al., 2010). Such may be the case of individuals with cortical brain damage such amnesia and Alzheimer’s disease based the combination of perirhinal lesions and object recognition impairments similar to the findings in this research. However in order to evaluation between and the paradoxical phenomenon, more research is needed and further representation-hierarchical simulation testing must be performed on humans.

Internet neutrality Essay

Internet neutrality enjoys a lot of support from consumers, technology companies and online companies. It is also supported by the main internet application organizations. This is mainly because they feel that the users of the internet should be in full unrestricted access to the internet applications and that they should have unregulated choice of the content they wish to view from the internet. The internet has applied the principle of neutrality ever since it was invented. An equal opportunity to access the internet is a basic concept that should be applied at all times, and thus no single user should be denied the right to access the internet. It would be not in order if the broad band carriers were allowed to use their power in the market to discriminate against the less powerful up coming carriers. The same way the telephone service providers are not allowed to dictate to the consumers whom they should call or even what to say in a telephone conversation, the same should apply to the broadband carriers, and thus they should not be permitted to misuse their power in the market to control online activities (Cerf, Para 7). Data would be controlled if internet neutrality is not allowed to continue, thus a legal mandate should be put in place to ensure that all the cable companies allow the providers of internet services unlimited access to the cable lines. Internet neutrality should be denied the right to screen, filter or interrupt the internet content unless permitted to do so by a court order. Internet neutrality should also ensure that there are laws governing digital freedoms and rights, thus the internet technology should remain open and free to all the internet users and this would enhance democratic communication (Zittrain, pp 78). Charging each and every website regardless of its market share would effectively hinder innovation and competition especially to the new small entrants into the market and thus more developments in technology would be blocked. By permitting preferential treatment of traffic in the internet, the newer and less competitive online companies would be highly disadvantaged and slow innovation would be realized in online services. In fact, most of the current major internet providers started as their operations in small garages with little capital and very great ideas, thus without internet neutrality such great ideas and innovations would never have been realized. If the internet neutrality is not maintained the internet would more or less appear like a television cable. It would be dominated by only a few companies who would be responsible of controlling the distribution and access of internet content. This would impact very negatively to some major industries and they would be faced with increased costs in order to acquire secure and fast internet facilities (Nuechterlein, & Weiser, pp 120) Conclusion The internet neutrality should be protected as it minimizes its control by the owners, it increases healthy competition and also gives others a chance to come up with innovative ideas which ushers in new technology every now and then and thus the internet remains relevant to the modern society. The neutrality of the network is very important in ensuring that a competitive and free market exists for the internet content. Work cited: Cerf, Vinton; Internet neutrality law needed (2006): Retrieved on 9th May from, http://www. infoworld. com/d/networking/internet-neutrality-law-needed-vi nton-cerf-says-577. Nuechterlein, Jonathan E. & Weiser, Philip J. ; Digital crossroads: American telecommunications policy in the internet age (2005): MIT Press, ISBN 0262140918. Zittrain, Jonathan; The future of the Internet and how to stop it (2008): Yale University Press, ISBN 0300124872.

Religious Allusions and Metaphorsâ€Martin Luther King Jr Essay

Martin Luther King, Jr., in his famous Letter from the Birmingham Jail, responds forcefully yet politely to a public statement made by eight Alabama clergymen in 1963. He defends his position as an African American and strongly defends racial equality, referencing countless sources and utilizing several literary devices. Most significantly, King uses frequent Biblical allusions and metaphors, not only to relate to the Clergymen and the people of Alabama, but also to display his passion for equality. For instance, when he speaks of just and unjust laws, he references the reasoning of Saint Thomas Aquinas, â€Å"To put in the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any laws that degrades human personality is unjust†(King 180). King cites the book of Daniel when he discusses Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the disobedience of a law for higher moral principle. King also relates himself to the Apostle Paul and his thriving effort to assist the men and women who call for his aid. After much further research I have gained new insight in why King used these metaphors as he did. Outside sources have helped me analyze the deeper meaning behind the allusions and understand the changes King was hoping to impose on the public and the Clergymen. King’s ideals are supported with his immense knowledge of the Bible, which make his connections extremely credible. King opens his letter by connecting himself with the Apostle Paul in an attempt to better associate with the Clergymen. â€Å"Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their â€Å"thus saith the Lord† far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I† (King 174). Upon first read of the â€Å"Letter† I clearly thought that King was using Biblical references simply to relate to the Clergymen on a level they could understand. Though King is, in a sense, trying to establish his credibility by using this allusion, there is a much more clandestine meaning. â€Å"Like The prophets of the eighth century and like St. Paul, King must leave home and respond to the call for aid† (Tiefenbrun 265). After researching Paul, I found why King used him in his letter. Paul was persecuted for spreading  Christianity. So much so that he was put in prison. While in prison he, like King, wrote many letters responding to the criticism he was receiving. Some of these letters were encouragement to the Christians of Corinth and later became the book of Corinthians in the Bible. Paul died as a martyr, fighting for his beliefs just as King did. Paul’s mention was an early warning to the Clergymen of what they were doing to King. If they continued their criticism and persecution, King will end up facing a grim future. At first read I thought King was only addressing the Clergymen as a response to their letter, but with further research I have uncovered an indirect public statement. In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, King discusses the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, praising their act of civil disobedience. He states, â€Å"It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire† (King 180). In this statement King is reaching out the general public, encouraging them not to conform to a â€Å"false idol† of society. † Kings Biblical reference to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego creates an identity between the Alabama demonstrators’ form of civil disobedience and â€Å"the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at sake† (Tiefenbrun 263). King uses Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to correlate his ideas of what a society could be not only to the ignorant people of Alabama but also to everyone willing to listen. Martin Luther King Jr. handpicked these events in Biblical history to more clearly represent what he is writing about and why he is so avidly defending his cause. He argues against repression and urges the public to defend their rights and resist the rut of conformity. Just reading Letter from Birmingham Jail won’t do it justice. Further researching the components of this letter have opened my eyes to what King was really portraying. King is pleading with the Clergymen to reconsider their prejudice against him and his beliefs. He is driving the public to become like him, and to become like  Paul stating that it is ok to be persecuted for your beliefs. He makes clear in hismessage that it will not be an easy task but it must be done in order to create an influential change in society. This change must be done now so that it can display its longstanding effects on the generations to come. Works Cited King, Martin Luther Jr. â€Å"Letter from Birmingham Jail.† A World of Ideas. Comp. Bissegger. Writers House LLC, 1963. Mott. Wesley T. â€Å"The Rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail.† Phylon (1960-), Vol 36, No. 4. (4th Qtr., 1975), pp. 411-421. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8906%28197536%3A4%3C411%3ATROMLK%3E2.0.CO%3B2-ITiefenbrun, Susan. â€Å"Semiotics and Martin Luther King Junior’s â€Å"Letter from Birmingham Jail†.† Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, Vol. 4, No. 2. (Autumn, 1992), pp. 255-287. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=10431500%28199223%294%3A2%3C255%3ASAMLK%22%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I

Interesting Quotes About Idioms

citaty â€Å"People use idioms to make their language richer and more colorful and to convey subtle shades of meaning or intention. Idioms are used often to replace a literal word or expression, and many times the idiom better describes the full nuance of meaning. Idioms and idiomatic expressions can be more precise than the literal words, often using fewer words but saying more. For example, the expression it runs in the family is shorter and more succinct than saying that a physical or personality trait ‘is fairly common throughout one's extended family and over a number of generations. † (Gail Brenner, Webster's New World American Idioms Handbook. Webster's New World, 2003) ? â€Å"If natural language had been designed by a logician, idioms would not exist. † (Philip Johnson-Laird, 1993) â€Å"Idioms, in general, are deeply connected to culture. . . . Agar (1991) proposes that biculturalism and bilingualism are two sides of the same coin. Engaged in the intert wined process of culture change, learners have to understand the full meaning of idioms. † (Sam Glucksberg, Understanding Figurative Language. Oxford Univ. Press, 2001) ? Shakespeare's Idioms Shakespeare is credited with coining more than 2,000 words, infusing thousands more existing ones with electrifying new meanings and forging idioms that would last for centuries. ‘A fool's paradise,' ‘at one fell swoop,' ‘heart's content,' ‘in a pickle,' ‘send him packing,' ‘too much of a good thing,' ‘the game is up,' ‘good riddance,' ‘love is blind,' and ‘a sorry sight,' to name a few. † (David Wolman, Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling. Harper, 2010) ? Levels of â€Å"Transparency† Idioms vary in ‘transparency': that is, whether their meaning can be derived from the literal meanings of the individual words. For example, make up [one's] mind is rather transparent in suggesting the meaning ‘reach a decision,' while kick the bucket is far from transparent in representing the meaning ‘die. ‘† (Douglas Biber et al. , Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Pearson, 2002) â€Å"The thought hit me that this was a pretty pathetic way to kick the bucket–being accidentally poisoned during a photo shoot, of all things–and I started weeping at the idiocy of it all. † (Lara St.John) ? The Idiom Principle â€Å"The observation that meanings are made in chunks of language that are more or less predictable, though not fixed, sequences of morphemes leads [John] Sinclair [in Corpus Concordance Collocation, 1991] to an articulation of the ‘idiom principle. ‘ He states the principle thus: The principle of idiom is that a language user has available to him or her a large number of semi-preconstructed phrases that constitute single choices, even though they might appear to be a nalysable into segments (Sinclair 1991): 110) The study of fixed phrases has a fairly long tradition . . , but phrases are normally seen as outside the normal organising principle of language. Here, Sinclair extends the notion of phraseology to encompass a great deal more of language than it is commonly considered to encompass. At its strongest, we might say that all senses of all words exist in and are identified by the sequences of morphemes in which they typically occur. † (Susan Hunston and Gill Francis, Pattern Grammar: A Corpus-Driven Approach to the Lexical Grammar of English.John Benjamins, 2000) ? Modal Idioms â€Å"Modal idioms are idiosyncratic verbal formations which consist of more than one word and which have modal meanings that are not predictable from the constituent parts (compare the non-modal idiom kick the bucket). Under this heading we include have got [to], had better/best, would rather/sooner/as soon, and be [to]. † (Bas Aarts, Oxford Modern Engli sh Grammar. Oxford University Press, 2011)

Icarus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Icarus - Essay Example The myth marks a lesson for the youth, for indeed Icarus was one himself. The Seagull example depicts him as a valorous young soul who takes to the skies bearing wings made out of wax and feathers while a seagull watches from below. In this instance, the seagull is symbolic of nature and its natural instinct not to overindulge in matters that are examples of poor judgment. Icarus flies high and dangerously, leading to his eventual demise in the waters below. Lord Frederic Leighton’s example relays the same arrogance, in which Icarus stands high and mighty like the statue behind him. Clearly, the mention of spring invites the reader to consider the lively nature of the season itself, full of life and harboring nature’s return in all its glory. Instead of basking in it, Icarus the youth spends his time testing his limits, going against the warnings of his father not to fly too close to the sun. This, as it turns out, was a perilous move, and Icarus had no one but himself to blame, as noted in â€Å"With Nothing But Courage:† Indeed, he flew with nothing but courage, which alludes to his lack of understanding of the gravity of the situation. This action speaks loudly to the mass of youth that let arrogance cloud their judgment. Indeed, he went against his father’s very advice not to â€Å"go too low, or water will weigh the wings down;  Dont go too high, or the suns fire will burn them,† (Ovid 24), causing the wax to melt and leading to his downfall. The freedom of flying did not come free of the perils of

Tangible and Intangible Brand Attributes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Tangible and Intangible Brand Attributes - Essay Example Intangible attributes plays a significant role in attracting more customers towards the products and services by the business. However, there is no clear outline of specific attributes that can achieve this aspect. This section will discuss various attributes that can be used by the restaurants in order to increase the number of clients. Pricing Indian social classes have a major impact on the success of the product in the market. In order for Starbucks to succeed in the Indian market, it needs need to distinguish the needs of people in different social classes. However, people in a higher social class rarely interact with those in a low social class. As a result, the pricing of the product should be unique to ensure that it segments the market and reaches the target market. For instance, outlets located in areas where majority of the people are poor should ensure that the prices of the products are friendly to the population (Kapferer 2012). Coffee Dates Starbucks should organize evening coffee dates for Indian couples. It should ensure that once in a week, it organizes a function to appreciate and make Indian couples feel good while in the outlets. During such days, the company should offer discounted products such as coffee and other meals. This is to ensure that money does not prevent people from enjoying their love (Wells, Burnett & Moriarty 2006). This day should be one when the firm experiences a very low number of customers.