Monday, February 9, 2009
Mr. Sunbeam is trapped! :O
So Mr Heah let us watch The Inconvinient Truth by Al Gore today. :D So I shall try to pick out the main points from the video, since some of you *ahemahem* fell asleep during the video! haha. xDSo basically, the video talks about global warming and how it's affecting us. So here's a quick recap on what global warming is (although you should know fully well by now):
The Earth is made up of a thin layer of atmosphere. It's so thin that its like you painting a coat of vanish onto a globe and the atmosphere is represented by the varnish. So you can imagine how thin the atmosphere is in relation to Earth. So when the atmosphere gets thicker, the air composition also changes, which means that more greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere and more heat is trapped! So in the video, Al Gore showed a cartoon to represent global warming and there it is! Heh. xD
So after watching this, you should have a rough idea on why the Earth is getting warmer and warmer.
So Al Gore goes on to explain why there are high and low points on the carbon charts. And this is due to the fact that there are more vegetation in the Northern Hemisphere as most of the landmass is in the Northern Hemisphere. So drung Spring and Summer, the Northern Hemisphere is facing the sun, so the plants will take in more carbon dioxide for photoshynthesis thus causing the carbon dioxide level to drop. Then when it's the Southern Hemisphere turn to face the Sun, the plants release more carbon dioxide due to respiration and a lower rate of photosynthesis. However, there is a steady increase in the amount of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over these few years. And so when the amount of carbon dioxide increases, the higher the temperature, as illustrated in the video above.
As Mr Heah always say, there is always a cause and effect for everything. So what's the effect of global warming?
-Glaciers are melting. If you watched the video, it's kinda scary to see the rate this HUGE, GIGANTIC glaciers are melting at.
-Many mountains like the Alps, Mt Kilimanjaro, etc have no more/little snow at the peaks anymore as they are melting at a super fast rate as well.
You may think, so what? This doesn't really affect us, after all we're living in Singapore and those glaciers and mountains are mostly at the other end of the world. But you're wrong! Places like Greenland and West Antartica have lots of land-based glaciers which are starting to melt. And if half of Greenland and half of West Antartica glaciers melt, the sea levels will rise about 20 feet ALL around the world. Thats like ALOT ALOT of extra water. And Singapore being an island surrounded by open seas, we're most likely going to go underwater as well. Places like San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai will all be affected as well. Billions of people are going to lose their lives cos of global warming.
So I'll just backtrack abit. If you're wondering how those ice glaciers melt so fast, its cos when sunlight hits the ice, 90% of the heat is reflected back to space. HOWEVER, when the sunrays hit the open waters surrounding the ice, 90% of the heat is absorbed, causing the surroundings to get warmer, thus causing the ice to melt at a faster rate. So it is really important for us to come up with ways to stop global warming. hopefully this will help your Geog Essay, which is due next monday, a little. (:
So I'm done summarising (ok fine, it's kinda long) today's lesson. Now i have to write my answer for the geog question on the yellow paper. And if you think you can copy my answer, GET THAT IDEA OUT OF YOUR HEAD NOW! Cos seriously, i don't do well for such questions. But we learn and improve on our mistakes. ;D
Qns: To what extent should we be concerned about the CO2 emissions?
Ans: We should be veryconcerned about CO2 emissions as it has many harmul effects on us.
Firstly, when too much CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere, it will case global warming to happen as the CO2 will trap the sun's heat and prevent it from going back to space and thus, the global temperature will gradually increase. When the global temperature increases even by as little as 1 degree celsius, the ice glaciers at the North and South pole will melt rapidly. This will cause an increase in the water levels all around the world and many places will be flooded.
Secondly, when we emit too much CO2, it will cause Climate Change. Climate Change will affect all of us. Examples of climate change can be seen in the news these days. For example, Melbourne, Australia is experiencing the hottest summer ever with temperatures rising up to as high as 46.5 degress celcius. While in places like China, certain places are experiencing severe flooding while parts are experiencing severe drought. This shows that Climate change has a negative impact on us.
Therefore, looking at the severity of Global Warming and Climate Change caused by CO2 emissions, we should be very concerned at the amount of excess carbon dioxide we're emitting into the atmosphere as it has severe impacts on us and the environment we are living in.
That's all,
-Amelia ;D