Brendan+Cooney

Brendan Cooney

When im not in school i am usually at the gym lifting or running getting in shape for boot camp in november. i was a wrestler for 3 years and started boxing 6 months ago. im not going to college after school because i joined the marine corps, i joined the marines to be the best of the best and defend my country, college is not for me. i hope to become a mechanic after my 4 year term in the marines after attending a trade school.

Assignment #1
 * The science topic i usually hear about most is pollution
 * i hear this often because it is such a problem and a concern in our modern world
 * The goal of this message is to make people aware of there actions and try and help the cause and not worsen it

Assignment #2 __//**Time-stamp: Friday 4-15-11, (10:30pm) Brendan has completed lesson #1 and lesson #2 on this wikispace.**// __
 * renewable sources are elements that can be reused for long periods of time and non renewable sources you cannot reused because they will run out eventually
 * The three types of fossil fuels are oil, coal, and natural gas All three were formed many hundreds of millions of years ago before the time of the dinosaurs – hence the name fossil fuels. Oil was formed from the remains of animals and plants that lived millions of years ago in a marine environment before the dinosaurs. Over millions of years, the remains of these animals and plants were covered by layers of sand and silt. Heat and pressure from these layers helped the remains turn into what we today call crude oil. The word petroleum means rock oil or oil from the earth. Coal is called a fossil fuel because it was formed from the remains of vegetation that grew as long as 400 million years ago. It is often referred to as "buried sunshine," because the plants which formed coal captured energy from the sun through **photosynthesis** to create the compounds that make up plant tissues. The most important element in the plant material is carbon, which gives coal most of its energy. The main ingredient in natural gas is methane, a gas composed of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. Millions of years ago, the remains of plants and animals decayed and built up in thick layers. This decayed matter from plants and animals is called organic material it was once alive. Over time, the sand and silt changed to rock, covered the organic material, and trapped it beneath the rock. Pressure and heat changed some of this organic material into coal, some into oil, and some into natural gas — tiny bubbles of odorless gas.


 * Lesson#3** Why should we care about global warming?
 * **Global warming**- ice caps melting, forest are dying and wild fires are more frequent these are all affects of GLOBAL WARMING all of this is caused by the highness of the **greenhouse gasses.** These gasses have been at there highest level of intensity now in over 650,000 years. this is saying something, as we expand our use of modern technology the more we damage the earth and the longer us humans live on this planet, the more we destroy it.

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 * **Climate change-** Climate change includes pattern changes of temperature, wind, percipitation, humidity, and seasons. It effects more than just the weather, it refers to seasonal changes over a long period of time


 * We should be concerned about **global warming** and **climate change** because it is destroying our world even if you do not notice any

changes or your just used to the unatural events that occur in our world, they will affect YOU and me in some ways eventually.

weather its

flooding, wild fire, or just humidity. We need to ta the most of our ability prevent such things from happening, here are some

examples... 1 :

you could turn your car off when not in use 2 pick up trash and do not litter 3 inform people of wh is happening with our

world and tell them t

o take part in the prevention.

Some ways this could affect me is when i travel over seas to a combat zone because there is going to be enough to worry about with the

enemy attacking us now we have the factor of an unstable climate which could mean mass floodings and extreme wind storms which would

effect the flight of the bullets and artillery.

Lesson #4

How is the carbon cycle affected? Greenhouse Effect- there are two meanings to the greenhouse effect, there is the 'natural' that keeps the Earth's climate warm and habitable. Then you have the 'man-made" which is the enhancement of Earth's natural greenhouse effect by the addition of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.
 * The carbon cycle is the process through which carbon is cycled through the air, ground, plants, animals, and fossil fuels.
 * The difference between renewable and non renewable resources is that non renewable resoucres can not be reused when renewable resources can be.
 * Carbon Source: a nutrient that provides carbon skeletons needed for synthesis of new organic molecules.
 * Carbon Sink: anything that absorbs more carbon than it releases.
 * Greenhouse Gases: Greenhouse gases are atmospheric gases that trap radiation emitted from the earth, lower atmosphere, clouds and/or aerosols, this causes positive radiative forcing.

**A.**How could deforestation (the cutting down of a large quantity of trees, in one area, in a short period of time) disrupt the balance of the carbon cycle? -Cutting down trees in a certian area in a short period of time would effect the balance of the carbon cycle by destroying the homes/habittats of many animals and the photosynthesis would be greatly affected.

**B**. How can burning fossil fuels affect the carbon cycle? - burning fossil fuels release a mass amount of carbon, producing more carbon dioxide wich would affect the carbon cycle

**C.** Identify one process that adds carbon to the atmosphere ( = CARBON SOURCE) and one process that takes carbon out (= CARBON SINK). - One process that adds carbon into the atmosphere is burning of anything, ( fuel for example). The process that it takes or what takes carbon out of our atmosphere would be, biochar. Biochar is the only reductive technology that exists to remove carbon from the atmosphere.



Lesson #5

-A carbon footprint is a mesure of impact our activities affect the enviroment. As you can see in the picture below our activities are divided up into percentages. -An ecological footprint is a mesurment of an area of land and water a human population would need to provide all the resources required to support its self and absorb its wastes.
 * **What is a carbon footprint??**
 * **What is an ecological footprint??**





**How can YOU make a difference???** -If one person takes atleast one possitive action towards bettering this world it can still make a difference and change this world for the better you can turn off the lights when you are not in the room, not leave the water running, not leave your car running while you are parked and spread the word to others! following these actions will greatly affect our enviroment if more people get the idea of what is going on here and if they take action imediatly. If more and more people start to do this then more people will follow then you will see changes for the better and then you will not think twice if one person can make a difference or not.