Olivia Conniff
Mr. Ippolito
Current Event 9
11/24/19
Gramling, Carolyn. “California Landfills Are Belching High Levels of Climate-Warming Methane.” Science News, 13 Nov. 2019, www.sciencenews.org/article/california-landfills-are-belching-high-levels-climate-warming-methane.
For my ninth current event, I decided to read “California Landfills are Belching High Levels of Climate-Warming Methane” by Carolyn Gramling. In her article, Gramling gives the details of the efforts of a group of researchers who used airborne remote sensing to find the exact places in California, that produce the greatest amount of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases. These researchers discovered that the greatest producers of methane are dairy farms, the oil and gas industry, and the highest producer being landfills. It was discovered that landfills contribute 41% of methane emissions, and dairy farms and the oil and gas industry contribute 26% each.
This research on the greatest sources of methane production is extremely important, as it means that we can focus our mitigation efforts on those sources, to slow the rate of climate change and stop this gas from deteriorating the ozone layer. It will help us to zero in our efforts on facilities that are producing the greatest amount of greenhouse gases, particularly methane.
While I found Gramling’s article to be very interesting, it was a bit confusing while reading, and I certainly had to go back multiple times and reread. It started out strong and clear, talking about the team of researchers focused on pinpointing the greatest producer of methane in California. It was also very clear when giving facts and statistics, particularly the percentages that make up the greatest producers of methane. However later in the article it got confusing when describing 5 different research efforts at once. It was worded strangely and very hard to follow. I feel she could have improved this if she had focused on each research effort separately or not included so many. However, overall it was a very interesting and informative article.
Olivia’s review was brief, but well written. She chose to review an article about scientists locating the highest methane-producing locations in California. She chose an interesting topic and explained it in a simple manner. The effectiveness and credibility of her review was raised by her decision to include the statistics of methane production from the study, and she fairly critiqued the article she read, while also highlighting the importance of the new information.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Olivia’s review was somewhat lacking in information. She did not describe the researcher’s motivations behind the study, how airborne remote sensing worked, or the five other research efforts that were present in the article she reviewed. I think her review would be improved if she chose to include more details.
This research is important, because by identifying the greatest sources of methane, we can focus our efforts to target those particular sources in order to protect the ozone layer. We have already begun to see changing climates and entire species of organisms going extinct. It is important that we find ways to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions now, rather than waiting until the situation has become so drastic that we cannot avoid it.
Sarah Whitney
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Current Event 10
12/5/19
Gramling, Carolyn. “California Landfills Are Belching High Levels of Climate-Warming Methane.” Science News, 13 Nov. 2019, www.sciencenews.org/article/california-landfills-are-belching-high-levels-climate-warming-methane.
Link to review: https://bronxvilleapbiology.blogspot.com/
In her review of “California Landfills Are Belching High Levels of Climate-Warming Methane.” by Carolyn Gramling, Olivia did many things well to help strengthen her review. First, she provided many specific details throughout her summary to demonstrate her understanding of the subject. Second, Olivia’s criticism was very well thought out and provided specific details to help the author improve their work. Lastly, her relevance paragraph was very well thought out and clear, relating this topic to modern events.
Although Olivia did many things well, there are two things in which she could improve upon. First, I wish Olivia would have included some quotes from the article to give the reader an idea of the author’s perspective. Second, I wish her summary would have been a bit longer as it seemed to be missing some information on the subject, leaving the reader somewhat confused.
I was very surprised to find how much of an impact landfills have on the environment. I was aware that they were very harmful, however, I never knew just to what extent.