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Earth Hour
Saturday event urges everyone
to cut the lights, save the planet
By Cathy Hollander up and up and up.
For The Courier-Journal “The entire world is
seeing different weather
It’s time to shed a little dark on climate patterns,” he said. Some
change. of climate changes include
The World Wildlife Fund is encouraging stronger hurricanes, less
people all around the world to turn off their water for people to drink or to
lights from 8 to 9 p.m., Saturday, March water their crops, and increased
29, for what’s being called Earth Hour. The flooding.
purpose? To make everyone aware of what “The 10 hottest years on record
they can do to help keep the planet and its have been within the last 12 years,”
plants and animals safe. said Pouliot. “It is abundantly clear that
There’s a very thin blanket of gases the world is getting warmer and that is
around the earth that traps in just enough beginning to have consequences.
of the sun’s energy to maintain the best Many scientists think that there are more
temperature for the planet. The gases that wildfires, floods and droughts because of
scientists are worried about are carbon climate change.
dioxide and methane. “The city of Atlanta nearly ran out of pull out of
water last summer because they went through the ground.”
“It’s earth’s atmosphere that makes us
a unique planet that’s able to sustain life,” such a long period of drought,” Pouliot said. During Earth Hour, the World Wildlife STARTED DOWN UNDER
said Joe Pouliot, a spokesman for the World “We’re seeing tornados in Florida where Fund is encouraging people to talk about Earth Hour was started in Sydney
Wildlife Fund. “Over the past 150 years since we haven’t really seen that many tornados things they can do in their homes to use
less electricity. They can switch to compact Australia to make people aware of how their
the beginning of the industrial revolution, before.” use of fossil fuels results in climate change.
the amount of carbon dioxide has increased According to the World Wildlife Fund, fluorescent light bulbs that use less energy
and last longer. Last year, more than 2 million people and
dramatically. That’s essentially turned up the climate change is threatening the lives of businesses in Australia turned off their lights
knob, so to speak, on the globe’s thermostat. polar bears, tigers, salmon and penguins. When people leave a room, they should
Ice melting in the north and south poles get into the habit of turning off lights, for one hour.
We’re amassing far too many of those so-
called greenhouse gases, and the planet is dumps cold fresh water into the ocean that televisions, computers and anything else that This year, countries around the world
heating up.” could throw off the Gulf Stream, which is uses electricity. That saves power, reduces and many cities in the United States are
ocean water that flows from warm tropical electric bills “and means less coal needs to joining Australia in observing Earth Hour.
Using gasoline or diesel fuels to run The World Wildlife Fund suggests making it
cars, buses and trucks creates carbon dioxide. areas. Without the Gulf Stream, warm water be burned because less electricity has to be
made,” Pouliot said a fun evening by planning special activities in
Burning coal, oil or gas to make electricity or wouldn’t come up to Europe and their climate the dark.
buildings also creates carbon dioxide. could get colder. “A lot of the electronics today, even
“As we continue to pump more carbon though you turn them off, they’re still pulling “We all have a stake in this and we all
“Everything that uses electricity have things we can do to solve the problem,”
generally results in carbon dioxide being dioxide into the atmosphere and the warmer electricity to keep on that clock or that little
the planet gets, the more we’re going to see light on the television and that flashing light Pouliot said. That’s the idea behind Earth
released into the atmosphere,” Pouliot said. Hour.”
“In the United States, half of the electricity these things,” Pouliot said. “To reduce the on the VCR,” he said.
comes from burning coal, about 20 percent is carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is going to Even some cell-phone chargers use
nuclear energy,” and some is made by burning take a lot of work by a lot of people.” electricity whenever they’re plugged in. Additional resources: Earth Hour
natural gas. “For some of these appliances, they’re (www.earthhourus.org/eh_lesson_plans.php);
WHAT WE CAN DO still using close to 20 percent of the electricity www.earthhour.org/downloads;
A WARMER PLANET The World Wildlife Fund suggests that they’d use if they were turned on. You can worldwildlife.org/climate/seclimatewitness/
buying local fruits and vegetables whenever stop the waste by unplugging devices. curriculum.cfm.
Increased carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere traps more heat, which most possible to reduce the gasoline used to move
climate scientists say is leading to changes food long distances. Buying food at farmers’
in the earth’s environment. According to markets where farmers sell their produce

WORD UP!
scientists, the earth has warmed a full degree directly to families can be a good way to do
Fahrenheit in the past 150 years. They that.
examine the rings in tree trunks and take core They also suggest using reusable lunch
samples from glaciers to make graphs of the boxes and plastic containers rather than
globe’s temperature and the amount of carbon disposable bags. Another way to create less
dioxide in the atmosphere during different waste is to choose reusable water bottles. By Down Under: a nickname for Australia or New Zealand.
time periods. Scientists also look at corals in setting up a system to recycle cans, bottles,
the ocean, which are dying because oceans paper and cardboard, people reduce the need Drought: a period of dryness especially when prolonged
are getting warmer. As the planet gets hotter, for using natural earth resources to make
weather patterns change all over the world. It more. Fossil fuel: fuel such as petroleum, coal or natural gas, derived from living
throws off the delicate balance of nature. “Recycling is good for a number of matter of a previous geologic time.
“One degree may not seem like a big reasons,” Pouliot said. “It cuts down on the
deal, but the scientific community feels that amount of trash that’s sent to the landfills. Graph: a diagram (using points, lines, line segments, curves or areas), a
anything above a two-degree rise will have One of the main ingredients of plastic is drawing that shows a comparison of one or more things.
serious consequences,” Pouliot said. “We’re petroleum. The fewer bottles that we have to
already halfway there, and every year, the manufacture, the less petroleum we have to Sustain: to nourish and supply.
world’s carbon dioxide emissions keep going

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