PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Climate change is the long term changes in weather and temperature patterns.
Climate change can be caused naturally, or like the leading factor at the moment, human activity
Burning fossil fuels, releasing chemicals into the atmosphere, reducing the amount of forest cover, and the rapid expansion of farming, development, and industrial activities are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and changing the balance of the climate system.
When we burn fossil fuels greenhouse gasses are admitted into the atmosphere, causing something called the greenhouse effect.
The greenhouse effect is is a process that occurs when energy from a planet's sun goes through its atmosphere and warms the planet's surface, but the gasses in the atmosphere keep the heat from escaping.
Although greenhouse gasses are important to keep the planet warm, too much of those gasses can be bad for the environment and lead to global warming.
Global temp rise, warming ocean, shrinking ice sheets, glacial Retreat, decreased snow cover, rising sea levels, declining arctic sea ice, extreme events, ocean acidification. These are all problems caused by global warming
“The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and other human activities. Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the seven most resent years being the warmest.”
-https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass.
“Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019, while Antarctica lost about 148 billion tons of ice per year.”
-https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
The acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%.
“This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the ocean. The ocean has absorbed between 20% and 30% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in recent decades (7.2 to 10.8 billion metric tons per year).”
-https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
What can you do to make a difference in your everyday life?
Well…
You can walking and bike instead of driving when you can
Turnoff the lights, unplug electronics, and power down your laptop when your not using it
Take shorter showers and only do full loads of laundry.
If we all do these small things to lessen our carbon footprint, we can slow down the rising levels of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere and slow down global warming.
So let’s all do our part to help the future of our planet!
