What is global warming?

How Global Warming Affects The World Global warming in the future How to stop global warming

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what is global warming?

Global Warming, true to its name, affects us world wide. These impacts range from melting ice caps to drying pancakes. In this book, you will learn about many of these changes. If you were wondering: whats the big deal? Youre about to find out. Global Warming Is a Big problem, and We Need To Stop It Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. The greenhouse gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone. The main causes of global warming are power plants, cars and trucks. All the greenhouse gas levels rise because of cutting down forests for farms and houses. That construction puts more carbon dioxide into the air. Cattle, pigs, and sheep produce high amounts of methane. Methane is one of the greenhouse gases. Methane comes from fossil fuels and animals manure. Water vapor comes from rivers, streams, oceans, soil and other living things when they warm up. Carbon dioxide comes from anything that is living. More of the gas goes into the Earths atmosphere when humans drive cars and trucks. Ozone comes from oxygen molecules that are broken apart into atoms. the more greenhouse gasses, the warmer the Earth gets.

Carbon
Everything that is living is made out of carbon. Carbon is attached to oxygen in a gas named carbon dioxide.

sunlight

co2 cycle

animal photosynthesis respiration

organic carbon dead organisms and waste decay products organisms fossils and

Cycle

auto and factory emissions

In the past, trees and plants have been able to absorb the bulk of the CO2 and transform it into oxygen, but as more and more factories spring up everywhere, more and more CO2 is being left in the air.

plant respiration

root respiration
If a human burns fossil fuels almost all the carbon enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Without greenhouse gasses the earth would be frozen.

fossil fuels

ocean uptake

Not so fun facts

The temperature of Earth has been rising for over 200 years. As carbon dioxide increases, the Earth heats up. In the last 60 years earth's average temperature has risen almost one and a half degrees! Hurricanes, tornados, floods, and droughts are getting stronger and happening more often.

As global temperatures rise, forest fires are becoming more common.

So much ice is melting in the poles that Earths sea level is rising. This melting contributes to erosion and flooding on a huge scale. A 4,000 year old Inuit village in Alaska began to fall into the ocean as the shore was eaten away by the sea, leaving the occupants homeless and their ancient village gone.

Without annual frost, insect populations are rocketing, and the bugs are destroying entire crops.

Many islands all over the world have shrunk incredibly fast as the sea swallows them. These islands are a mere 7 feet above sea level, and if the worlds glaciers melt, the sea level will rise 22 feet, turning many islands into sandbars.

The arctic food chain is out of whack. Polar bears, the top of the heap are in grave danger as their arctic home and hunting ground is melting under their very paws. As their numbers decrease, their prey, such as arctic fish face their own problems as their habitats are destroyed. Krill that make a home under the arctic ice are dying as the ice becomes scarcer. This also kills many species that prey on the krill, such as whales. Around the globe, the polar meltdown is destroying the sea life everywhere.

Ever wonder why polar bears are becoming extinct? Did you even know they were? Well, now you do. As the planet heats up, a nasty side effect is becoming more and more prominent. The ice at the Earths poles is beginning to melt. This might not seem so disastrous, but the polar meltdown is causing too many problems to be overlooked. These disasters include mass erosion, major flooding, and the destruction of marine food chains

Not So Fun Facts

Every year, American power plants pump 4,000,000,000,000 (four trillion) pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. half of the worlds natural forests have been destroyed in the past sixty years by wildfires, bug infestations, and lumberers. trees dry out, leaving them vulnerable to forest fires that are becoming more common due to the rising temperatures.

Global Warming In The Future

Have you ever wondered what the future would be like? Not very good, if we dont do something about global warming. Future climate change will cause problems.

* The EPA (Environment Protection Agency) says that global temperatures are expected to increase overall between 2F and 11.5F by the year 2100! * Also by 2100 the Ice Caps will likely be completely gone!

* Polar bears may be extinct in the next 100 years in result of habitat loss, because of the higher sea levels and the glacers melting from high temperatures

*Because of the melting Ice Caps, sea levels will rise, resulting in ooding of our low lying lands.

Maple syrup from trees will be less and less common, until there is nothing left. This is because Maple trees depend on uctuating temperatures to make sap that can be boiled into Maple syrup. There may be an outbreak of global wars over water, food, and other useful resources. The polar bear habitat is now impossible to save within the next 100 years because even if we stopped all CO2 emissions immediately, it would take 100 years for global warming to stop!

California Crops in 2000's

California Crops in 2100 (predicted) to be too hot for crops

These are ways you can stop global warming by reducing the Carbon Dioxide (Co2) that your family produces:

House

el olar pan with s

ate Tankless w

r heater

These are ways to help with heating and cooling. Switch to double paned windows and stop 10,000 pounds of C02 from forming and you also save $436 per year. Turn your thermostat down 2 degrees in the winter and 2 degrees up in the summer and stop 2,000 pounds of CO2 from forming and save $98 per year. Clean your air conditioning lter and stop 350 pounds of C02 from forming and save $150 per year. Insulate your home and stop 2,000 pounds of CO2 from forming and save $245 per year.

Com

post

er

These are some ways to help with transportation. Buying a hybrid car will stop 16,000 lb. of CO2 from forming and you will also save $3,750 per year. carpooling will stop 790 lb. and save hundreds of dollars a year. Keep your cars tires adequately inated and stop 250 pounds of CO2 from forming and save $840 per year. Check your cars air lter and change if needed and stop 800 pound of CO2 from forming and save $130 per year.

Hyb

rid c

ar

Industries are helping to stop climate change.

The industries are also helping to stop global warming.

While some are making solar and wind farms. Another thing is producing electricity from water.

Some companies are storing the C02 that they produce under the ground. Some are simply reducing the amount of CO2 that they produce.

The government can help stop global warming too. The government can reduce the taxes on things that are energy-efcient. Also the government can cap CO2 production. Finally the government can increase the taxes on things that are not so good for the environment.
Working together we can change the world!