admin on July 6th, 2008
There are numerous examples and evidence Global Warming is damaging, however, the most predominant are those which have measured the amount of Arctic melts and extreme weather conditions which are attributed to global warming.
Global warming has increased the earth’s temperature by 1.0 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900. The last nine years are among some of the hottest on record in the last twenty-five years. According to NASA 2005 was the hottest year on record.
The results of this is having a marked affect on the amount of ice sheets and glaciers that are declining in size at an alarming rate. The Arctic ice pack has become forty percent thinner over the past four decades. Rising temperatures are also melting glaciers and ice caps. In 2000 the Ward Hunt Ice shelf, the Arctic’s largest single block of ice, began cracking and by 2002 had split all the way through, it is continuing to break into pieces.
Other evidence of global warming has been recorded, since 1979 there has been a sixteen percent increase in some of the areas of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which has experienced some degree of melting. There has also been a fifteen to twenty percent decline in summer sea-ice over the last thirty years.
NASA satellite imagery has shown a reduction in sea-ice covering of some nine percent since 1979 and it believed that if this rate of decline continues there will be no ice in the Arctic by the end of the century.
A MIT study shown that there has been a one hundred percent increase in the ferocity and duration of tropical storms and hurricanes since the 1970s, which is believed to be due to the increased amounts of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, this in turn has increased the earth’s surface temperature.
Evidence of Global Warming also shows that between the years 1800 and 2000 the levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen by thirty one percent, rising from two hundred and eighty parts per million to three hundred and sixty seven parts per million. Scientists believe that by 2100 carbon dioxide levels could be as high as nine hundred and seventy part per million.
Technorati Tags: Evidence Global Warming, Global Warming Statistics
admin on July 1st, 2008
Global warning for kids has to be informative yet fun and challenging to keep them interested and motivated sufficiently to try different ways in which they can try to reduce their own carbon footprint on the world.
Kids to need to be informed of how fossil fuels like oil and coal burn greenhouse gases that escape into the air and it is these that are the cause of global warming. Deforestation caused by man cutting down vast areas of forests is another major cause of global warming kids should be informed of.
Kids also need to know that the sea levels are already beginning to rise above the natural rate, which means that coastline around the world are changing and some animals are having to find new places to live.
If global warming continues at the present rate there will be some animals and plants, trees and shrubs, which will no longer exist, they will become extinct.
There are many ways in which kids can be educated to help reduce global warming by relating their actions and habits to their everyday lives, global warming for kids will then become a natural and relevant topic to discuss.
Kids should be given the opportunity to make their own suggestions on what they can do to lessen their carbon footprint, as their own ideas will give them the responsibility to act rather than think it is a chore and just adults nagging.
The discussions can be guided by an adult, parents, teachers etc. and could include the following suggestions.
Why using energy saving bulbs or fluorescent lights in their room and by turning lights off when they leave rooms can reduce greenhouse gases.
As heating water uses energy showers rather than baths are not only more economical financially, showers use far less water than a bath.
Rather than keep turning the heating up put on a sweatshirt or jumper when they feel cold, likewise when it is hot instead of turning on the air conditioning or using a fan, close the blinds and wear lightweight clothes.
One of the ways which will have the most impact on reducing global warming for kids is to walk rather than ask for a lift in the car. Kids should be encouraged to start walking or cycling to school. There are many different ‘walk to school’ campaigns which kids can become involved with.
Technorati Tags: Global warning for kids
