FMHS APES First Spring 2019

1/27/2019 Sam Jang       The notion of Wildfires seems to remain trivial, unimportant for those who live in the eastern or northern part of our country. Nonetheless, states in the western part of the US react to the term "Wildfire" in a entirely different manner.      Mostly revolving around the West, Wildfires are commonly known as uncontrolled bursts of fire due to sparks or blazes that occur in extremely dry conditions. Wildfires usually burn 4 to 5 million acres of the US territory and can speed up to about 14 mi/hr, leaving nothing behind its trail but a pile of ash. Wildfires may harm not only the animals that live in dry areas, but also people who live near or in states with dry weathers and climates.      What seemed quite intriguing about the concept of Wildfires, especially in California, is that the cause of such catastrophic event is directly rooted within human activities. Unlike other natural disasters, Wildfires simply...

Cole Hood January 25th, 2019 Hurricanes can become even worse. Imagine Hurricane Harvey with an extra 25 knots of winds and increasing rainfall by 10%. Yeah, it can get even worse, and it will. If climate change continues on the upward trend then this will become a reality. According to the balance.com, Hurricane Harvey, the second costliest hurricane on record (second to Katrina), destroyed 204,000 homes, dropped 60.5 inches of rainfall in one town in south Texas, and caused a total of $125 billion in damage. That was one hurricane. It is unknown  if climate change will increase the number of hurricanes, but the intensity of hurricanes is expected to rise. As mentioned earlier, the intensity can rise causing rainfall to increase 10% and adding up to 25 knots of wind. The reasoning behind these estimates comes from the ocean levels rising and warmer sea surface temperatures. Ocean levels are on the rise thanks in part to the icecaps melting from climate change, and...

Cracks and holes in the ozone layer, first made apparent in the 1970s, initially demonstrated a threat most severe in Antarctica, but evidence reveals that this issue has an effect on the life and health of all of Earth’s organisms, including humans. First of all, what is the ozone layer and what does it do for us? Ozone is a molecule that mostly resides in the stratosphere. Stratospheric ozone is like Earth’s “sunscreen”, serving as a shield to protect Earth’s surface from the sun’s harmful UV radiation. The ozone layer is extremely valuable since it absorbs over 90% of UV-A and UV-B radiation, which have enough energy to significantly damage to the living tissues and DNA of living organisms. Starting in the late 1970s, though, atmospheric researchers and scientists found evidence that human activities were disrupting the ozone balance. Specifically, human production of chlorine-containing chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) contributes to ozone depletion and thin...

Tarun Gunampalli: Colony Collapse Disorder You walk through the doors of Flower Mound High School as the clock hits 8:17. You pay no heed to your surroundings as you race the bell to class. 8:18. 8:19. You reach your class and find your seat with seconds to spare. As you begin to relax, you finally look around and notice the lack of students. Maybe they were also late. Maybe they’re on a field trip. Panic rises as you notice no teacher and think back to your frantic sprint through the hallways. Even at those speeds, you tripped over no feet, bumped into no students. They were gone. All gone. You explore the school, trying to find anything, anyone, until finally, you stumble into the front office and see a single lost soul. The lone principal remains, and you wonder what could have happened. This story may seem like the beginning of a horror movie, but this event has been occurring all over the earth in a world much smaller than our own. Colony collapse disorder is the terrifying p...

Nikhil Guddati - Ice Cream and the Environment Ice cream. Pure joy. Utter bliss. Unparalleled happiness. Environmental destruction. Humanity’s one sweet, sticky, gooey pleasure might not be as sweet as it seems, and it might not even remain our one true pleasure for long. The production of ice cream continues to corrupt the environment, and at the same time, the environment may mark an end to ice cream. Ice cream, no matter how pleasurable it is, harms the environment through an excess amount of emissions, furthering climate change. However, at the same time, an increase in climate change may mark an end to ice cream. Ice cream is creating its own kryptonite. One way in which ice cream destroys the environment is from the extraction of palm oil, an essential ingredient in ice cream. In fact, the World Wildlife Magazine writes that palm oil is essential in giving ice cream its smooth and creamy texture, yet its extraction threatens rainforests and bio...

Air Pollution Harrison Cui Air pollution is, as we all know, the contamination of air by chemicals or compounds that pose a level of health risk. The World Health Organization estimates there are 4.2 million deaths every year due to ambient air pollution, and they report over 91% of the world’s population live in places where air quality exceeds WHO guidelines. In addition, the Earth’s ozone layer in the stratosphere is being depleted by chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons. The ozone layer is what protects us from harmful UV rays from the sun. We were taught from a very young age what air pollution is, how it’s caused, and what can be done to slow its progression. I remember walk-or-ride-your-bike-to-school day was a huge deal at Old Settlers Elementary, but nowadays I don’t see the same enthusiasm or effort to be a greener people. Granted less than half of an elementary school student body riding bikes to school 1 day out of 365 is microscopic, it was someth...