The Earth Rage Against The Machine : Killing in the Name of

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've all heard it. "Save the earth" "Save the rainforest" "Save at the quicky-mart". Well I'm tired of it. Destroy it all. Blow it all up. Pollute. Litter. Cut the forests down, burn everything in sight. What was there anyway?

Well, to see what was there, you must take a close look at the Earth itself.

The earth is somewhat of a sphere, actually with the mountains it's quite square, but not by much. Because of the roundness of the earth and the tilt of the axis, light doesn't hit all points on the earth in the same way. This creates uneven heating which causes wind, which causes weather (in a way). The uneven heating also creates different environments. But other variables, such as altitude, affect the climate. Temperature depends on these two factors, while precipitation depends on the airflow, heating, and altitude.

Now we have that out of the way. Lets see what happens when we take all these variables (and many more) into account and classify the environments.

Below are the biomes respectively.

	Low average temperature. Short growing season. During winter, ground frozen. During summer, topmost layer of soil thaws. Underneath, permafrost, is still frozen. 10-12 cm rain a yeay. Vegetation- Lichens, mosses, grasses, sedges, and shrubs. Animals- Reindeer, musk oxen, caribou, wolves, arctic hares, arctic foxes, lemmings, snowy owls, and ptarmigans.
TUNDRA

	Cold winters where the ground is covered in deep snow. Longer growing season than tundra (about 120 days). Summers are warmer, and the ground thaws completely. 50-100 cm rain a year. Vegetation- Pines, firs, spruce,willows, birch, and shrubs. Animals- Moose, wolves, bears, lynx, deer, elks, wolverines, martens, snowshoe hares, porcupines, and various rodents, birds, and insects.
TAIGA

	Summers are hot and humid. Winters are cold. 75-150 cm rain a year. Vegetation- Oak, maple, hickory, beech, chestnut, and birch. Animals- Wolves, gray foxes, bobcats, deer, raccoons, squirrels, and chipmunks.
TEMPERATE FOREST

	Temperate and tropical climates. 25-75 cm rain a year. Not enough rain for trees, but deep rich soil. Vegetation- Grasses, and wild flowers. Animals- Coyotes, badgers, rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, jackrabbits, squirrels, bison, pronghorn, cattle, sheep, zebras, giraffes, gazelles, lions, meadowlarks, ringnecked pheasants, prairie chickens, hawks, and owls.
GRASSLANDS

	Most precipitation in winter, therefore, summers are desert-like. Shrubs and trees are common. Mediteranean climate region.
CHAPARRAL

	Occur in regions too dry to support grasses. Less than 25 cm rain a year. Temperature varies from 300 C at night, to over 1000 C during the day. Vegetation- Cactus, yucca, mesquite, sagebrush, and creosote. Animals- Fennec, snakes, lizards, spiders, and insects.
DESERT

	Expansive grasslands dotted with trees. Occur on either side of tropical wet and dry climate regions and in subtropical steppes.
TROPICAL SAVANNAH

	Uniform climate all year. 250 C throughout the year. 200-400 cm rain a year. Very dense tree cover. Trees have shallow root systems that allow then to absorb nutrients from the thin layer of wet soil. Vegetation- A lot of trees. Animals- A VERY wide variety.
TROPICAL RAINFOREST Even though we've heard about it enough, here it is again.

	Basically, in the alpine, as you go up in altitude, you hit the different biomes. Tropical rain forest, deciduous forest, coniferous forest, alpine meadow, and ice and snow.
ALPINE

Water biomes are the basic things, water, fish, whales, dolphins, seaweed, yadda yadda yadda. Look it up for more info.

Whew. Quite a bit. Maybe there was something on earth afterwards. I guess we should be a little more careful with what we've got. Stop pollution, start rebuilding nature, and all that other junk those ecologists talk about. Maybe they're not just insomnia cures after all. I guess people had better wake up while they can.

Where did I get the juicy info? The book mainly, but the pics and some more info can be found at College of the Siskiyous Geography Slide Shows .