Transcript Global Warming

Larissa, Marina, and Trevor S.
Is Earth’s Climate Warming?
 Yes, the Earth’s climate is
warming.
 This is because of greenhouse
gases, which act as a blanket for
the Earth. When there is a
natural level of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere, the
right amount of heat from the
Sun stays trapped in the
atmosphere.
 But, when there is too many
greenhouse gases in the air, too
much heat stays trapped under
the ‘blanket’ from the Sun,
causing global warming and
destroying (eventually) life on
Earth if we don’t do something
about it.
What are the Causes of Global
Warming?
The causes of Global Warming are as follows:
 Sun
 Greenhouse Effect
 Fossil Fuels
 Industrial Manufacturing Plants
Did Humans Have Any Impact? If
So, How?
Humans DO have an impact in the following ways:
 Industrial
 Transportation
 Residential use of electricity
 Power Plants
What are the Consequences of
Climate Change?
The consequences of climate change are as follows:
 Rising Sea Level; it hurts coastal human settlements and marine life
 Extreme Weather; hurts flora, fauna, humans, and their settlements
and way of life; may cause extinction in one area for a period of time
 More El Nino’s and El Nina’s will occur-they are changes in ocean
temperature; El Nino water temperature is hotter; El Nina is cooler
water temperature; it will hurt drinking water and marine life, which
we sometimes depend on for food.
 The impact of all of these things will cause a ripple of catastrophe
through the whole Food Web, causing worldwide starvation,
dehydration, and extreme weather-all devastating effects.
What are the Consequences of
Climate Change? (cont.)
What Choices do Humans Have for
Responding to Global Climate Change?
Choices humans have for
responding to climate change
are as follows:
 Plant trees (Coldplay-Mango
Trees)
 Alternate Energy Sources
(AES’s) such as Geothermal,
Hydropower, Wind, Solar, and
Biomass
 Carpooling or Public
Transportation (Subway, Bus,
Train, etc.)
 Biking or Walking instead of
riding in a car
 If possible, do work from home
 Don’t take plane trips as often
What Choices do Humans Have for Responding to
Global Climate Change? (Continued)
 Turn off lights and electrical
appliances when not in use
 Replace incandescent light bulbs
with CFL’s (Compact
Fluorescent Lightbulbs)
 Reuse and Reduce
 Pass down clothes to youngsters
instead of buying new ones; or,
if there are no youngsters to be
found, pass your unwanted
clothes to charities like Purple
Heart or the Salvation Army
Choices for Responding at the Personal,
Business, and Political Levels
 The choices for responding at
the personal level are in the
previous two slides
The choices for responding at the
business level are as follows:
 Replace all incandescent
lightbulbs with CFL’s
 Arrange for employees to
carpool to work
 Arrange for employees to bike or
walk to work
 Use packaging that requires
little material, and is not
wasteful
Choices for Responding at the Personal,
Business, and Political Levels (cont.)
 Use modes of transportation that
don’t pollute as much, such as
trucks that run on biomass gasoline,
solar-powered cars, and electric cars
that are charged by wind-power,
geothermal, or hydroelectric
methods of renewable energy
 Do as much in-office work as
possible so that transportation isn’t
needed very much
 Even better, do as much work at
home as possible, to further avoid
commuting from work costs
 Use renewable sources of energy to
run in-store or in-office appliances
such as computers
Choices for Responding at the Personal,
Business, and Political Levels (cont.)
Choices for responding at the political
level are as follows:
 Send a letter to a politician
explaining who you are , what your
purpose for writing to them is, and
what you would like them to do
about the issue
 Use scientific data to prove a point
 Debate about whether or not to do
something about global warming,
and, if so, debate over what to do
about it
 Exploit a campaign to raise
awareness and to help solve global
warming!
The Pros and Cons of These Different
Choices
 The pros of planting trees are
that they take lots of CO2 out of
the air
 The cons are that some people
want more space on their lawn
for other things, and that some
people think they (trees) look
ugly
 The pros of Alternate Energy
Sources (AES’s) such as
Geothermal, Hydropower,
Wind, Solar, and Biomass are
that they don’t pollute the air
and that they are clean, and
don’t need fossil fuels to use
The Pros and Cons of These Different
Choices (cont.)
 The cons of AES’s are that they
can’t be used in some places,
such as geothermal cannot be
used in Michigan. Some people
think that wind turbines look
ugly, and birds and bats
sometimes fly into them.
Hydropower requires dams to be
built, which sometimes disrupts
the ecosystem, and some people
don’t want solar panels installed
on their roof and lawn. Some
people think getting energy
from poop (biomass) is gross.
Biomass
The Pros and Cons of These Different
Choices (cont.)
 The pros of Carpooling or Public
Transportation (Subway, Bus,
Train, etc.) are that they use the
same amount of fuel to get more
people to a place, and that they
are also convenient because
there are lots of them, and they
take you anywhere you need to
go. Also, tied with the thing
below, there are lots of people to
help you if you get into Stranger
Danger.
 The cons of public
transportation is basically
Stranger Danger, as a lot of
weirdoes hang out in subway
stations, begging for money and
acting sketchy. The same is true
for any other public
transportation method.
The Pros and Cons of These Different
Choices (cont.)
 The pros of Biking or Walking
instead of riding in a car are that
they don’ t use any fossil fuel to
get you where you want to go,
other than your own energy
 The cons of biking or walking
are that they can get tiring after
long distances, and that there is
always Stranger Danger out in
the open
 The pros of doing work from
home are that you don’t need to
commute to work every day,
which means that you don’t have
to use your fuel-burning car as
often. Also, you don’t have to
worry about being late. And,
there is one less computer on at
the office.
The Pros and Cons of These Different
Choices (cont.)
 The cons of doing work from
home is that you have to keep
the phones and computers and
lots of other electronic devices
on all day, including all of the
lights, which would normally be
off if you commuted to work
every day like all the other
millions of people in the world
 The pros of not taking as many
plane trips as often are that not
as much CO2 will be released
into the atmosphere because
one less plane will be flying
 The cons of not taking as many
plane trips as often are that you
might not get the work done
that you need for your business
because you wouldn’t be able to
take as many business trips
The Pros and Cons of These Different
Choices (cont.)
 The pros of turning off lights
and electrical appliances when
not in use is that they won’t suck
up unneeded energy when
you’re not using them, and that
there won’t be noise in the
background from electrical
appliances while you are trying
to do work
 The cons of turning off lights
and electrical appliances when
not in use is that at night, the
house may be pitch-black, and
you need a night-light to see
The Pros and Cons of These Different
Choices (cont.)
 The pros of replacing
incandescent light bulbs with
CFL’s (Compact Fluorescent
Lightbulbs) are that you will save
lots of energy and money by
using them
 The cons of replacing
incandescent light bulbs with
CFL’s are that there is always a
risk that you could drop them
and they could break, releasing
the small amount of
concentrated mercury vapor
inside
 The pros of reusing and
reducing are that not as many
new products will need to be
manufactured, therefore
requiring less energy to be used,
and polluting the air less
The Pros and Cons of These Different
Choices (cont.)
 The cons of reusing and
reducing are that after awhile,
some things may start to get
unusable, such as moldy food
containers, or threadbare cloth
 The pros of passing down
clothes to youngsters instead of
buying new ones or if there are
no youngsters to be found,
passing your unwanted clothes
to charities like Purple Heart or
the Salvation Army are that the
clothes can be used many, many
times and not thrown in
landfills as waste. Also, by not
being thrown in landfills, it
saves space.
The Pros and Cons of These Different
Choices (cont.)
 The cons of passing down or
donating clothes is that after
awhile, they may get threadbare
and too ratty to wear
 The pros of carpooling to work
are that it takes the same
amount of gas to get, say, 4
people to work in one car that it
does if one person was in that
car
 The cons of carpooling to work
are that it may be crowded, the
car may stink and might be dirty
and disgusting
How Will These Choices Affect the Economy, Public Policy, our
Lifestyles, and the Kinds of Technologies Used?
 These choices will affect the
economy because some of them
are more expensive to operate,
therefore improving the
economy
 These choices will affect our
lifestyles because some require
extra money, such as getting
energy from renewable sources,
or using CFL’s. Also, some
choices will require us to live our
life differently, such as biking,
walking, or carpooling
 These choices will affect the
public policy because it will
bring dramatic differences in
how we get and use energy
How Will These Choices Affect the Economy, Public Policy, our
Lifestyles, and the Kinds of Technologies Used? (cont.)
 These choices will affect the
kinds of technologies used
because we will be using
different sources of energy,
which require new technologies
to harvest, such as solar, wind,
and hydropower energy, which
require solar panels, wind
turbines, and dams to harvest
the energy required. Also, CFL’s
are a new kind of technology
which uses less energy to
produce the same amount of
light.