Teen+Science+Cafe-+Antarctica

Today's speaker at the Daily Planet Cafe was Al Rotherburg, who had recently returned from his expedition in Antarctica studying wildlife. He discussed the effects of human activity in Antarctica, as well as played a game of extinction bingo, in which he was able to explain how some characteristics allowed animals to survive while others went extinct. His main point in the lecture was how human activities are generally negatively affecting the organisms living in this region. He discussed the effect of global warming on the ice sheets of Antarctica, which in effect caused the mass migrations of species in Antarctica. He also discussed whether or not Antarctica would be suitable for fishing, as Antarctica could potentially boost the fishing industry.

This is related to AP environmental science because it discusses some of the negative aspects of recent human activities, such as global warming causing changes in animal patterns and land alteration. Global warming is a topic often brought up in APES, and is related to the discussion of types of energy sources that humans use, such as fossil fuels which climate change versus renewable. Another aspect is his discussion of Antarctica as a potential resource reserve. We have discussed Antarctica's untouched oil and minerals, and how keeping it untouched will prove to be both beneficial to the environment and negative to further developing of these industries. The resource he focused on was fishing.