Geography 100

Physical Geography

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(last updated: 19 January 2004)

Bonus paper (click for more information)

If you decide to use one of the topics below, please let me know of your choice. 

To date, the following topics are taken:

• None yet...

Some possible issues to write about

You are welcome to pick a topic affecting the local physical geography (water supply, wetlands, cranberry harvest, fishing, whale watching, beach erosion, overdevelopment, wastewater sewage in Boston Harber, traffic accidents related to weather, Nor' easters...)

Hey, it's your environment and taxes that could be affected by all these issues!  Talk about it in a bonus term paper.

You may pick a more global issue:
This site reports on climate-related issues, including weather, forest fires, famine, draught, flooding, and others.
Weather and Climate in the News

1) The Pathetic Relationship Between Atmospheric CO2 and Earth's Temperature
Over the Past Sixty Million Years

Summary: A sixty-million-year record of atmospheric CO2 concentration and
proxy temperature data demonstrates that the commonly-assumed "large and
predictable effect" of changes in the air's CO2 concentration on planetary
temperature is about as wrong as it can be.
(http://www.co2science.org/journal/2000/v3n23c1.htm).

2) Deaths in the United States Due to Extreme Heat and Cold

Summary: A study of U.S. death rates between 1979 and 1997 indicates no
trends in deaths due to either extreme heat or cold.  Deaths due to extreme
cold, however, were approximately twice as numerous as those due to extreme
heat, suggesting that a little warming would actually reduce the total
number of deaths in the United States due to extreme temperatures of both
types (http://www.co2science.org/journal/2000/v3n23c2.htm).

3) No Pain, No Gain
Summary: Repeated experimental investigations of ecosystem carbon balance in
the Alaskan Arctic demonstrate that the initial transformation of wet-sedge
and moist-tussock tundra communities from net summer sinks of carbon to net
sources has slowly but surely been reversed, even in the face of further
warming, demonstrating the reality of "a previously undemonstrated capacity
for ecosystems to metabolically adjust to long-term changes in climate" in a
way that stimulates biospheric productivity and diversity
(http://www.co2science.org/edit/v3_edit/v3n23edit.htm)

4) General topics on Global Change

Includes issues that the general public should be aware of when making decisions
http://gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov

CLICK HERE for MORE TOPICS.

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Contact for ideas or to have your topic confirmed: Dr. Robert A. Hellstrom, at Bridgewater State College, Department of Earth Sciences & Geography