In this section, we talk the following 3 topics: 1.The History of Climate Change 2.The Geological Records

3.Humanities Records

Members:

1. (JianSing Junior High School)

2. (Chongming Junior High School)

3. (Yenping Junior High School)

I. The History of Climate Change 1. Glacial Age & Interglacial Age

For the past few million years, the earth has changed between Glacial Age and Interglacial Age. (An interglacial has warmer global average temperate.) Now we are in the era of Interglacial Age which has existed for 12000 years.

Researchers found that the latest Ice age started 80000 years ago. Even during the warmest Interglacial Age, the ice sheet of Antarctica has not been completed melted. Now the Antarctica has about 90% of the world's ice.

Ice Age Interglacial Age Ice Age 80000 68000 ? (years ago) (years ago)

2. The Causes of The Cycle Between Glacial Age and Interglacial Age (1)

Changes in the earth’s orbit: In 1930, Milan Malkovich proposed “Earth Orbital Eccentricity.” He pointed out that the radiation of the sun led to the changes of the global temperature. And the cycle of Glacial Age and Interglacial Age must be resulted from the earth’s revolution around the sun. (The earth’s axis is titled at an angle of between 22.1°~24.5°.)

The way the ocean and the atmosphere interact.

Changes in energy received from the sun and volcanic eruptions.

The amount of carbon dioxide.

http://ext.pimg.tw/bebot/1214704718.jpg

3. The Trace of The Climate Change

How do scientists trace the evidence of climate changes?

In 1990‘s, scientists drilled ice core in Greenland and Antarctica. For the first time, they got the details of the past temperature record of more than 100,000 years.

Scientists got the details of climate

change by analyzing the elements of ice core, including pollen, and seabed sediments and so on.

3.1 The Preface

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tina9757/3117332169/

Iceberg in Greenland

3. The Trace of The Climate Change

Pollen is small and hard. It easily becomes intact fossil. According to the research, pollen

fossil which are suitable to grow in the warm period can be found in the seabed accumulated in the warm weather and vice versa.

3.2 the Analysis of Pollen

Pollen fossilhttp://www.kobe-c.ed.jp/shizen/strata/tis1_org/1206801.jpg

3. The Trace of The Climate Change

Scientists analyze the plankton from seabed sediments, and they know the CO2 concentration in the air when plankton exited. (In the topic 2, we will have further discussion about foraminifer, one kind of plankton.)

One of the evidence comes from two hundred kilometers south of the Arctic seabed sediments, which can only survive in the subtropical waters of the algae fossils, while the earlier species that live in local waters, but it disappeared. This means that climate change affected the plankton.

3.3 The Analysis of Seabed Sediments

4. The Reason That The Changes of Global Climate Aggravated

Since the Industrial Revolution, which began in the 18th century, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has increased by 35 per cent.

In fact, the concentration of CO2 is now higher than at any point in the past 650,000 years.

The climate change timeline: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/guide/timeline/

http://www.america.gov/climate_change.html?gclid=CPPWwKar7J0CFZMwpAodJTqYOw

5. Remarkable Examples of The Global Climate Changes(1)

In 2009, there’s a heaviest blizzard for the past 20 years in London.

The temperature in winter from 1990 to 2000 set a record of the last 103 years in America.

In 2000, there’s the most serious flood for the past 50 years in England. The average rainfall in April in both England and Wales was the highest and broke the record for the past 235 years.

In 2001, 7 provinces in China suffered from the most serious drought for the past 20 years.

5. Remarkable Examples of The Global Climate Change (2)

In 2008, there was a serious blizzard in Beijing.

In July, 2001, the southern part of Poland was hit by a rainstorm. Thousands of people were forced to evacuated and at least 28 people died. Over 5000 hectares of farmland was soaked in the water.

The climate change 2007 issued by the UN Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change has pointed out that from 1961 to 1993, sea level rose 1.8 mm every year. Up to 2100, the sea level will increase 18 to 59 cm. After 2050, the ice floes will disppear in Antarctica in summer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pots/338413631/

II. The Geological Record1. Preface ： The relation between

climate change and geological change

Climate change influences not only the aerosphere and ocean, but also the crust.

Scientists say, global warming leads to the crust change, and makes more earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides and Tsunamis.

Geological change may let methane break out. Now, the amount of solid methane in the permafrost and under the seabed is more than the carbon dioxide in the aerosphere.

2 、 Examples2.1 Landform of Daguei Lake Wetland in Taiwan

It’s at an elevation of 2,180 meters, and it’s 650 meters long, 250 meters wide, 34 meters deep.

It is about 39 hectares. It’s not only the deepest lake, but also the deepest natural lake in Taiwan.

The stratums near the lake are mainly shale, phyllite, slate. Some of them are sandstone.

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/a36202452/article?mid=8095&prev=10081&next=7863&l=f&fid=55

2.1 Features of Daguei Lake Wetland in Taiwan

It is very important in ecology in Taiwan.

Because it locates in

remote mountains and there is no oxygen at the bottom of the lake for organisms, it keeps the environment features and records the ancient climate change in Taiwan.

http://tw.wrs.yahoo.com/_ylt=A3eg8_nW3uxKQxgATml21gt./SIG=12241foj0/EXP=1257123926/**http%3A//www.flickr.com/photos/pro_v/3284221094/

22. Features of Foraminifer

They are very old organisms. They have lived on earth for five hundred million years.

They are protests which catch food with pseudopods.

Their shells are made of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) or sediment particles.

http://image.cpst.net.cn/upload/2007-03/15/173939220.jpg

2.2 Importance of Foraminifer

They are very useful in paleoclimatology and paleoceanography.

Their sells gathered and became rock at the bottom of the ocean after they died.

Scientists not only can tell the rock’s geological age from the fossil but also can trace the ancient climate and temperature in the sea.

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!cvt9SjWYRUV_ojwpE3prkQ--/article?mid=1224

2.3 Importance of Corals

The annual growth bands in corals help to predict earthquake cycles.

Take the study of corals nearby Sumatra for example, the earthquake occurs in Sumatra every 200 years from 1300 AD.

In the past 700 years, every 200 years, there would be a big earthquake group with magnitude 8 and this phenomenon lasted for 10 years.

After an earthquake, the seabed rises, and coral’s growing space becomes smaller.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimgsmith/3147724041/

http://times.hinet.net/times/article.do?newsid=2422744&option=graph&optionType=graph

2.4 Landform of The Live Basin in Nantou in Taiwan

It is about 50 hectares. It’s the biggest live basin in Taiwan.

Its soil is composed of peat and the composition of dead plants and animals.

The researchers said that it took at least 6000 years to accumulate 60 meters deep peat.

The soil is like a sponge which has absorbed a lot of water, so the soil is fluid.

If you step on the soft ground, it will move wavily.

http://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw/TW/03000583.aspx

http://malukooo.pixnet.net/blog/post/23168126

2.4 Something Interesting About The living basin in Nantou

People built roads in the basin, but the roads disappeared the next day.

A farmer put the container on the farm, and he found it sagged down about 30 centimeters.

Someone wanted the soil to become hard and tried to grout but in vain because a truck of concrete disappeared after he poured it on the ground. http://malukooo.pixnet.net/blog/post/

23168126

III. Humanities Record1. The Move of Maldives 1.1 The reasons:

The Maldives consists of about 80% coral islands ,and the average sea level is below 1.5 meters.

Because of the global warming and the possibility of much of the islands being inundated with water from rising sea levels, the President plans to look into purchasing new lands.

Maldives’s Capital City - Malé

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Male-total.jpg 　

1. The Move of Maldives 1.2 Future Solutions and Measures

They will purchase new lands and relocate the whole nation by using the sightseeing income.

President Mohamed Nasheed appeal the whole country to lower Maldives’ CO2 emissions to 0 in ten years.

Malé (has 1/3 of Maldives’s population) reconstructed breakwaters around Malé in order to defend sea water invastion 。

In order to increase land areas, Maldives has a new land after ten years of land reclamation.

World’s first underwater meeting:Reminding people about how serious global

warming is now.

http://big5.cri.cn/gate/big5/gb.cri.cn/27824/2009/10/18/3785s2651016.htm

2. Kyoto Protocol 2.1 Background Information

The Kyoto Protocol was first open for signature to 149 countries willing to participate in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. It came into force in 2005.

Purpose: Limiting developed countries’ greenhouse gases emissions & stopping Earth from getting warmer.

Every developed country has to reduce 5.2% of its greenhouse gases emissions compared to 1999.

In order to become an international convention with legal binding forces, Kyoto Protocol needs at least 55 countries with a total of more than 55% of greenhouse gases emissions ratified. http://www.wikispaces.com/file/

view/Kyoto_Protocol.jpg

2. Kyoto Protocol 2.2 The Present Situation and Measures in Taiwan

CO2 emissions occupies 1% of the world and its total quantity ranks at twenty-second globally, so Taiwan is not one of the signatory countries.

Taiwan’s average CO2 emission per person is the same as Japan’s. However, Taiwan’s average gross national product is only Japan’s 1/2. This shows that Taiwan uses energy inefficiently.

In 2000, most buildings are “Green Architectures.”

Advocate EEWH : ecology, energy saving, waste reduction and health

Increase “non-carbon energy.

http://bpl.abri.gov.tw/Portals/0/11-Green/%E7%B6%A0%E5%BB%BA%E6%9D%90%E6%A8%99%E7%AB%A0.JPG

3. How Climate Chang has Affected Animals and Plants3.1 Phenomena Australia’s researcher: Many flowers and

plants in Asia either blossom ahead of time or blossom before time. Those original migratory birds now don’t necessarily need to migrate to the south and evade wintry winters.

Violent weather, such as storms and droughts, has a direct impact on biodiversity.

More and more organisms are extinct because frozen lands in Polar Regions melted and some even became forests. The temperature of Antarctica’s waters rose and icebergs melted. These phenomenon affected oceans’ salinity.

http://www.firstpeople.us/pictures/polar-bears/polar-bear-profile.html

3. How Climate Chang has Affected Animals and Plants 3.2 Climate Change’s Impact on Migrating Animals United Nations’s Environmental Plan:

The report on “Animal Migration and Climate Change” shows that the unusual climate change has a deep and great impact to habitual migrating animals.

EX 1: Because the temperature of the oceans rose, krill can’t compete with heat-resisting organisms and decreased drastically. Being the basic organisms in the food chain, the decreasing of krill affected the animals that are on the food chain’s upper class.

EX 2: Organisms that originally don’t appear in areas of high latitudes migrate to northern areas because of global warming. Eventually, these animals became food competitors with animals that live originally in Polar Regions.

http://www.beihaixia.com/xia/duxia1.jpg

Krill

4. Humans’ Future Habitation: Mars 4.1 Similarities Between Mars and Earth

Its equator inclination angle is 25 degrees, which is only 1.5 degrees more than Earth’s.

It has four seasons. It has similar frigid zones,

temperate zones, and tropical zones. However, the temperature between Mars and Earth is quite big.

Its period of rotation is 24 hours and 37 minutes (only about thirty minutes more than Earth’s.) http://facweb.bhc.edu/academics/

science/harwoodr/Geol101/study/images/mars01.jpg

The combination of Earth’s Duckweed with inflatable houses that can be charged with gas is the human habitation on Mars.

It exempts from cosmic radiations and terrible weathers’ harm and effect.

Caves may include large amounts of minerals, water, and ice.

Food on Mars is Duckweed. Experiment: Scientists made a

simulated “Mars Cave Environment” in a sealed volcanic lava cavern in central Oregon for two mice. The result shows that the two mice were still alive, but has a sign of oxygen deficit.

http://tw.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=1305090215846

Duckweed

4. Humans’ Future Habitation: Mars 4.2 Research on the Immigration to Mars