Elizabeth+Marsh

Libby Marsh

Outside of school, I am a cheerleader and I enjoy spending time with my friends. Day 1: In the news, I mostly hear about the pollution in our country and other countries. New sites such as CNN, Yahoo, and Google provide stories about current pollution rates and the deaths from the chemicals that are destroying the ozone layer year by year. Pollution is a popular issue because it is a current topic that is affecting the world. Since the outbreak of global warming in the 21st century, humans have been blamed because of the pollution we create. The goal of scientists is to share information with the world to alert about new global issues and how we can prevent any damage from happening to our environment. 

Day 2: 1) A renewable energy resource is the energy which is generated from natural sources such as sun, wind, rain, tides and can be generated again and again as and when required. A non renewable energy resource is the energy which is taken from the sources that are available on the earth in limited quantity and will vanish fifty-sixty years from now. The difference between them is a renewable energy resource can be anything that is natural and that will create itself, while a non-renewable energy resource is anything that is man made or not as common on earth such as fossil fuels. http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/ 2) Examples of fossil fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas. Coal is made from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur. Oil is said to be formed by tiny diatoms otherwise known as microscopic sea creatures. Natural gas is made up of methane or CH4. http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter08.html 3) Fossil fuels store energy by converting it into chemical energy and it can be released when heat and oxygen are used to burn the fuel. The process of fossil fuels transferring into electrical energy can be described by combustion.   Fossil fuels are extracted from the land and are transported to a power plant to begin the process of __combustion__. The fossil fuel is pulverized into smaller particles and burned with oxygen making __chemical bonds__ to create chemical __energy__. __Combustion__ has taken place and __emissions__ are created from the gas. The chemical energy heat the water in the boilers and creates __steam__. Steam is then used to turn the __turbines__ and transferred into mechanical __energy__. The __generators__ use the mechanical energy to create high and low voltage electrical circuits to send the electricity to the transformers. The electricity becomes high current and low voltage, which is able to be used by houses through electrical wires to power lights and electronics. The __energy__ is created as a __byproduct__ from the __combustion__ of fossil fuels and transferring of a gas into electrical energy. 4) Some renewable energy resources are the sun and the wind. emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. || Solar panels and other means of using solar energy are very expensive and not affordable to the average family. || excess amounts of space on farms or any land. || The amount of energy produced by wind depends on the power of the wind and that varies by day. || http://www.powersourcesolar.com/5151/ http://www.technologystudent.com/energy1/wind8.htm 5) What is the connection between the terms: Crude Oil, Gasoline, Petroleum and Plastic? Crude oil, gasoline, and petroleum are all used to make plastics. Plastic is made of monomers, which come from oils such as crude oil, gasoline, and petroleum. These are fossil fuels that have to be refined and mixed to create plastic.
 * || Benefit || Consequence ||
 * Sun (Solar Energy) || Solar energy is able to produce electricity without
 * Wind (Wind Power) || To obtain wind, it is free and wind turbines do not take up

Day 3: Why should we care about global warming? >
 * Greenhouse Effect: The trapping of the sun's warmth in a planet's lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface. [[image:greenhouse_effect2.jpg width="472" height="312"]]
 * Air Pollution: T he introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the natural environment into the atmosphere.media type="youtube" key="-1DNjJd2YfA" width="560" height="315"
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14px;">Global Warming: <span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">A gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, CFCs, and other pollutants.media type="youtube" key="ab6jV4VBWZE" width="560" height="315"
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14px;">Climate: <span style="color: #212121; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">The weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #212121; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">[[image:climate_map.gif]]
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14px;">Climate Change: <span style="color: #212121; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">A change in the world's climate. To understand if the climate is changing look at the clues on this image.

3) Humans are the main factor for global warming because they are not being careful with how much they are polluting into the atmosphere. Pollution can come from smoking or driving a car, which are daily habits for many Americans. Fossil fuels emit carbon dioxide into the air when they are used as energy. This act creates global warming and the greenhouse effect because the CO2 emitted from burnt fossil fuels traps the heat in the atmosphere from the sun. The trapping of the heat gradually warms the earth throughout the year at times when colder temperatures are expected. Uses of aerosols can cool the earth by reflecting away solar radiation. Smoke and fog are natural sources of aerosols but humans can create these gases using hairspray or cigarettes. If global warming strengthens over time, the land may deal with extreme flooding and there will be extreme climate changes that affect our plants. If temperates begin to rise increasingly, then the ice caps and glaciers will melt causing the sea level to rise over the land. The climate changes could have been causes by ocean currents and if the oceans are not maintained, then the surrounding land will suffer from lack of appropriate temperates to keep crops alive. 4) One reason to care about global warming is because the climate change can affect the human health by limiting safe drinking water and creating an unsuitable environment for humans. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"Public health depends on sufficient food, safe drinking water, secure shelter, good social conditions, and a suitable environmental and social setting for controlling infectious diseases. All of these factors can be affected by climate." ====<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Another reason is because the sea level will rise enough to cover small islands and states near the coast. This might affect the state of Connecticut or at least the inland areas. ==== <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"Coasts have been modified and intensively developed in recent decades and thus made even more vulnerable to higher sea levels. Developing countries with their weaker economies and institutions face the gravest risks, but the low-lying coastal zones of developed countries could also be seriously affected. Already over the past 100 years, 70% of sandy shorelines have been retreating." ====<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">A third reason that global warming will affect me is because the temperature and climate will vary extremely causing over heating or frosting of the earth. ==== <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"On time­scales of days, months, and years, weather and climate variability can produce heat waves, frosts, floods, droughts, avalanches, and severe storms. Such extremes represent a significant departure from the average state of the climate system, irrespective of their actual impact on life or the earth's ecology. Record-breaking extremes occur from time to time in every region of the world." <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The last reason I have discovered on how global warming will affect me is because food will be hard to find when the climate changes and kills off many crops. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.5;">Plant growth and health may benefit from fewer freezes and chills, but some crops may be damaged by higher temperatures, particularly if combined with water shortages. Certain weeds may expand their range into higher-latitude habitats. There is also some evidence that the poleward expansion of insects and plant diseases will add to the risk of crop losses." Two ways you can reduce global warming are by eliminating the burning of fossil fuels by resorting to renewable energy resources that do not emit CO2 into the atmosphere and by not creating as much waste from non degradable items. By using these two methods, it will help from the destruction of the ozone layer and will clear the earth of overfilled landfills. http://unfccc.int/essential_background/background_publications_htmlpdf/climate_change_information_kit/items/288.php 6) We should care about global warming because it will effect everyone on Earth. Our temperatures will rise and fall to the extremes creating unsafe living environments and destroying our only sources of food and water. The lower temperatures could cause an ice age, freezing all the crops and animals. The higher temperatures could melt the ice caps creating higher sea levels that will cause flooding and there is a potential risk for drying out the inland areas that do not experience rainfall.

Day 4: How is the balance of the carbon cycle affected? 1) More carbon is being released into the atmosphere rather than reused in the carbon cycle and it is trapping heat on the earth. This is how global warming and the greenhouse effect are caused. The excess carbon that comes from the burning of fossil fuels is being distributed into the air and warming the temperatures on earth. 2) Carbon Cycle: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">The series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment, chiefly involving the incorporation of carbon dioxide into living tissue by photosynthesis and its return to the atmosphere through respiration, the decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels. http://eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/cycles6.htm

Carbon Source: A<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">ny activity that emits Carbon Dioxide. Sources can be stationary emitters such as power plants or refineries, or they can be emitted from activities such as driving automobiles. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ClimateChanging/ClimateScienceInfoZone/ExploringEarthsclimate/1point6/1point6point1.aspx Carbon sources are what emit the CO2 into the atmosphere to cause global warming and they disrupt the carbon cycle.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">Carbon Sink: A forest, ocean, or other natural environment viewed in terms of its ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ClimateChanging/ClimateScienceInfoZone/ExploringEarthsclimate/1point6/1point6point1.aspx

Greenhouse Gases: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small;">A gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, and fluorinated gases. http://www.acoolerclimate.com/greenhouse-gas-emissions/

Greenhouse Effect: A<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;"> process by which radiative energy leaving a planetary surface is absorbed by some atmospheric gases, called greenhouse gases. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/grnhse.html

You can think of a carbon sink as your stomach absorbing nutrients (CO2) from food (atmosphere). A carbon source would be the food that hold the nutrients (CO2). The process of digestion is similar to the process of the carbon cycle because it is a reoccurring pattern of cycling nutrients or CO2. Your body cycles nutrients and the earth cycles CO2. http://eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/cycles6.htm http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ClimateChanging/ClimateScienceInfoZone/ExploringEarthsclimate/1point6/1point6point1.aspx

3) Humans affect the carbon cycle by the excess amount of fossil fuels we burn for energy and by driving cars that emit CO2 in the air. The burnt fossil fuels emit CO2 into the atmosphere and cars emit CO2 into the atmosphere through the exhaust.

4) Humans help the carbon cycle because they are breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. Humans can help the carbon cycle by planting more trees to consume CO2 and produce oxygen and by eliminating deforestation to keep the wilderness around.

Day 5: What is the size of your carbon footprint?

1) A carbon footprint is t<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #212121; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">he amount of carbon dioxide emitted due to the the consumption of fossil fuels by a particular person, group, etc. media type="youtube" key="FIhnDvb7Exo" width="420" height="315" An ecological footprint is t<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5;">he sum of an individual's or other entity's impact on the environment, based on consumption and pollution.

3) Food: 22% Shelter: 15% Mobility: 11% Goods: 13% Services: 39%

4) Two of my bad habits are eating meat daily and flying on airplanes too often. This is a problem because by eliminating the amount of animals around the world, humans are decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide that can be reused in the carbon cycle. Flying on airplanes bring too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that can not be used in the carbon cycle. Although this plan is very unrealistic for me, I could become a vegetarian to eliminate eating too much meat and I could stop flying on airplanes even though it would not be easier to drive to places such as California.

HOW CAN YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Personally, I do not think one person changing their ways can make a difference but if that person spreads the message and gets other people to join in then the outcome changes. I would convince someone to change their lifestyle because it can make a difference by telling them to let other people know how they are affecting the world negatively and how small changes can add up to big differences.

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