Reply to comment

I have been thinking about global warming a lot recently. Global warming is one of those "hot topics" (no pun intended) that many people hate and want to ignore because it is overwhelming. Eventhough I am a political junkie, I feel like I myself have somewhat ignored this issue because it is so much bigger than myself. Now that I am really starting to notice the climate change that has occured over my lifetime, I know that I can't push this issue aside. Today in class when Professor Grobstein brought up global warming I thought that it was interesting that people didn't know what to say about it. It is hard to know what to say because the global warming story is so contreversial and constantly changing. It seems like when I was younger scientests were predicting that there would be some noticeable changes within our lifetime. Only a few years later we are seeing HUGE changes...I think this says something to us about science as storytelling, especially when the stories being told concern global issues. Scientests can predict the rate and effects of global warming, but how accurate can they be? There are so many factors that affect global warming and so many things that are affected by global warming.

As Prof. Grobstein said in class, the current story is that global warming is the result of a rise in carbon dioxide. So this means that the amount of photosynthesis has either stayed the same or decreased while the burning of fossil fuels has increased. When you look at it this way, it almost seems like the solution is formulaic. Could we try to create an equilibrium by increasing photosynthesis?

The discussion that we have been having over the past few weeks about altering human genes has led me to wonder if we could do the same thing for plants in a way that could help us overcome global warming. I found an article about a research project in Illinois that created a computer chip that simulates the steps of photosynthesis in hopes of finding new ways to increase plant productivity. The model simulates many different scenarios including different environmental changes and permutations of proteins to find the most productive. Interestingly enough, the article does suggest that the model could be a part of the solution to overcoming climate changes. I would encourage you all to check out the article!!

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2007/11/25/making_more_energy_while_the_sun_shines

I hope I didn't run away with the global warming issue too much but I find it so interesting. My web paper topic actually has to do with this but I couldn't wait to share this article with you all because it is like a hybrid of our class discussions!