It’s an undeniable fact that climate change is a major issue facing us today and MWCC is making moves to help students learn how to better respect the environment.
MWCC has an entire club dedicated to the environment called the Green Society. President of the Green Society and MWCC student Christine Nelson talked about the club’s main goals saying “We aim to problem-solve. I love that the Mount has wind turbines and solar panels to reduce the school’s fossil fuel usage. But there is more we can do for the environment.”read more
Coral bleaching is a serious issue affecting large amounts of the Great Barrier Reef, as well as other coral reefs throughout the Earth’s oceans. Image by Acropora, via Wikimedia
The Great Barrier Reef, located off the coast of Australia, is almost at the end of its’ road as it bleaches away its’ remaining color.
The coral reef is approximately 500,000 years old. As of 1998, the reef was filled with beautiful colors that is a result of the 600 types of hard and soft coral that are stacked on each other to create the reef. Over the past 20 years, a process called bleaching has slowly replaced these colors with a solid white coating.
The process of bleaching occurs when the oceans waters raise in temperature, sometimes by just a few degrees. According to the great barrier reefs website, when the water gets too warm the coral excrete the algae that lives inside them which causes the coral to turn completely white. As a result, the coral is also no longer living. The reef currently stretches about 1,400 miles long and losing this destroys the homes, food, and mating grounds for all varieties of fish.read more
Hurricane Florence passed over the Carolinas in early September. Image from Wikimedia
In the wake of the two hurricanes, Michael and Florence, that hit the East Coast in 2018, one professor said that these storms might be proof of a much larger problem.
Tom Montagno, Biology professor, said global warming is contributing to the severity of the two hurricanes that hit Florida. Global warming has many negative effects including melting polar ice caps, causing water levels to rise, and flooding. However, it also creates warmer oceans, which Montagno said, “fuels a hurricane.” “That’s why that last hurricane became a tropical storm to almost a category 5 hurricane in two days,” said Montagno.read more
