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Global warming causes, effects, solutions . Good for highschool aged students. Look at notes on slides to explain some visuals.
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First, some climate change terminology:
Positive feedback loop: natural processes that can amplify the magnitude of the warming eg, as temperatures rise, ice melts, more dark sea water is exposed, absorbing more heat, causing more ice to melt…
Greenhouse Effect: The insulating effect of atmospheric greenhouse gases (e.g., water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, etc.) that keeps the Earth's temperature about 15 º warmer than it would be otherwise.Greenhouse Gas (GHG): Any gas that contributes to the "greenhouse effect."
Global Warming: The progressive rise of the Earth's average surface temperature caused by increased concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere.
Carbon Sinks: Processes that remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release. Both the terrestrial biosphere and oceans can act as carbon sinks.
Causes
Effects
Solutions
#1 Causes
So who, or what is responsible?
CO2 is released when ever fossil fuels are burned…
…and they’re burned a lot!
Burned for Power generation
Coal
Natural gas Power generation
Home heating
Burned for
Moving us and our stuff around the globe…and for getting more oil, coal and
natural gas out of the ground
Burned for
there are no fewer than 4,000 aircraft in the air at any time over
the U.S.
Causes continued…So who, or what else is responsible?
I don’t even own a car!
Or more accurately, the people who eat them…
I hope this
place has good
plumbing!
beef cattle account for a whopping
70% of all livestock methane
emissions!
Other sources of methane:
a.k.a. cow
burps!
There are billions of tonnes of
methane trapped in the permafrost
Methane is 20-30 times more
powerful than CO2 at trapping
heat!
•Water - sea level rise, coastal flooding, mass evacuations
- fresh water shortage (rivers and lakes)
- ocean water acidification (base of the food chain)
- Thermohaline circulation shut down
- coral bleaching
thermohaline circulation
Hyperlink to animation
A pteropod shell exposed to carbonate ion-depleted seawater with acid levels set to the pH of ocean water
expected in 2100.
The shell dissolved after 45 days. Rising
CO2 levels in the atmosphere, directly
correspond to increasing acidity of
seawater.
• Severe weather - increasing in frequency and severity.
• Disease
Malaria
• Habitat loss & Species Extinction
All of these animals
need arctic ice
to survive…
…and it’s melting fast.
• Heat waves
France heat wave death toll set at 14,802
Posted 9/25/2003 10:56 AM
• Forest fires
Australia's fires taken as a portent of global warming Submitted by Sid Astbury on Tue, 02/10/2009
• Food shortages due to drought
Palmer Drought Severity Index
Effects summarized:
Water – too much…too little
Animals – in trouble
Weather – hotter & stormier
Disease – diseaseier
Food – less
Fire – more
$$$ - less
…yes, something
can be done !
Tips for Cutting Automobile Emissions
Take it easy: Aggressive driving wastes fuel. Driving like a moron can burn an extra 125 gallons
of gas per year!
Don't idle: Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more gas than restarting your car.
A/C: Air conditioning can decrease your fuel efficiency by as much as 12% in stop-and-go traffic,
so consider cracking the windows.
Keep up the pressure: Low tire pressure wastes over two million gallons of gasoline
in the U. S.— every day!
Skip the drive thru! – instead of letting your car run as you inch toward the pick-up window…turn it off,
get out, and pick it up yourself
A gas powered lawn mower running for 1 hour emits as much pollution as driving 1000 km in a 1992 model
automobile
Zero CO2Zero V.O.C.s
(volatile organic compounds…a.k.a.
pollution)
Half a million trees would be spared if every U.S. household replaced a 500-sheet roll of tree fibre toilet paper with one made from
recycled paper…so quit flushing trees down the toilet!
• Air Dry Your Clothes• Line-dry your clothes in the spring and
summer instead of using the dryer. Save 700 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $75 per year.
Seventy percent of
the levelled rain forest
in the Amazon is
used to raise
animals for meat
consumption….so eat less meat!
Hours for Earth to receive the same energy from the sun as humans consume in a year: 1