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Reply to at least two classmates’ responses by the date indicated in the Course Calendar. An important part of researching a topic is identifying where scholars disagree with each other. For your topic, where have scholars reached different conclusions or held different points of view? How has this helped you refine or update your thesis? Share one example of a debate, controversy, or inconsistency that you have discovered. Explain how understanding this issue has helped you situate your topic and how you will explain this issue to your reader. Here are the 2 classmate posts that need replies.You ONLY need to reply to the 2 classmates’ responses: Post #1-From Miranda In the discussion of rising sea levels, the most substantial amount of research and academic publications analyze anthropogenic forces of sea level rise. Often, climate variability is generally understood by scholars and therefore not a focal point of extended research. Climate variability is not a topic that should be overlooked, though, and many scientists argue that it plays a major role in changing sea levels along the North American coasts. Climate variability refers to the natural fluctuations and changes in climate patterns observed over different timescales, encompassing short-term variations, such as seasonal or annual oscillations, and longer-term cycles that can span decades or centuries. These variations can manifest in alterations in temperature, precipitation, wind patterns, and other climatic elements (Thornton et al., 2014). One study investigated long-term trends in coastal sea levels from 1948 to 2018 and their connection with various climate indices (CIs) along the coasts of North America and Mexico. They found consistent associations between specific climate indices and sea level patterns over different time periods. During the entire period studied, certain climate indices, like the Western Hemisphere Warm Pool (WHWP) along both the East and West Coasts, the Trans-Niño-Southern Oscillation (TSA) along the southern East and Gulf Coasts, and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) along the West Coast, dominated the sea level trends. These findings align with previous studies linking sea level patterns to ocean temperature variations in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the Caribbean. Along the US East Coast, the study identified a transition point around Cape Hatteras, where the WHWP and CAR strongly influenced sea levels along the southern East Coast and Gulf Coast, respectively. These climate indices, characterizing sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and the wider Western Hemisphere region, substantiated previous findings linking ocean temperatures to the strength of the Florida Current and southern East Coast sea levels (Giovannettone et al., 2023). Understanding the duality of sea level changes from both natural variability and anthropogenic forces required me to rework my problem statement. It became important to simply include the reality of our climate today, which results from climate variability and climate change. When discussing this topic with readers, I’ll emphasize the relationship between different climate cycles, such as Trans-Niño-Southern Oscillation and El Niño-Southern Oscillation, and their influence on sea levels in the Gulf Coast. It’s important to acknowledge that while human actions are a major contributor to rising sea levels, these natural climate fluctuations also play a substantial role. References: Giovannettone, J., Paredes-Trejo, F., Amaro, V. E., & Carlos Antonio Costa, d. S. (2023). Assessing Potential Links between Climate Variability and Sea Levels along the Coasts of North America. Climate, 11(4), 80. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli11040080 Thornton, P. K., Ericksen, P. J., Herrero, M., & Challinor, A. J. (2014). Climate variability and vulnerability to climate change: a review. Global Change Biology, 20(11), 3313–3328. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12581 Post#2-From Matthew An article written by Richard Bränström, Ph.D., and John E. Pachankis, Ph.D. and published in October 2019 faced criticism regarding its statistical methodology after publication. Letters that questioned the methodology led to statistical consultations and further analysis of the data by the authors. The comparison between individuals with gender incongruence who had undergone gender-affirming surgery and those who hadn’t showed no advantage in terms of subsequent mental health visits, prescriptions, or hospitalizations for suicide attempts. The study’s original conclusion which stated that supporting the decision to provide gender-affirming surgeries based on the observed long term association was deemed too strong. Also, some of the numbers within the article such as the the percentage of individuals with a gender incongruence diagnosis who had received gender-affirming surgical treatments during the follow-up period were inconsistent in the tables presented and actual text of the article. By recognizing that the sources I’m citing and researching may contain errors it acts as encouragement to read them closely and pay attention to the details. While I was able to cite an example of something that made news in the science community, the vast majority of the articles I am finding are in agreement and finding the same results from their experiments and surveys. Bränström, R., & Pachankis, J. E. (2019). Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization among Transgender Individuals after gender-affirming surgeries: a Total Population Study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 177(8), appi.ajp.2019.1. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19010080
