Global Warming

On Monday, we had the pleasure of learning about global warming. We had a guest speaker who is a professor here at Western in the biology department named Dr. Karowe. In high school we never talked much about this topic and it always seemed to confuse me because in high school the teachers would just talk about it a little not making much sense of it at all! Looking up a general definition for what global warming is would be a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect cause by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants (dictionary.com). I found this definition easy to understand and it is not too scientific making it difficult to comprehend. Throughout his whole entire lecture I learned a lot of interesting information. Some of the information I found to be extremely interesting is when he talked abut how during the Summer of 2012 we lost 5% corn, 50% sorghum, and 35% soybeans. I found this to be an interesting fact because that summer it was very hot, but as a whole we lost a lot of crops due to that. What I also enjoyed was when he talked about corn....since I am completely obsessed with corn this really kept me thinking! He said that corn does have photosynthesis, but it is done in a different way than most plants--it is a C4 plant which it makes not be very beneficial from having more CO2 within the atmosphere. Overall, I am very glad I had the chance to listen to such an informational presentation Dr. Karowe really did a great job...thank you!