The Down-to-Earth Guide To Global Warming

PowerPoint Presentation

Congratulations!

• By sitting here, watching this demonstration about global warming you’ve taken the first step to solving it!

• But before we begin, we need to understand the problem.

The Earth Is Warming and Humans Are Causing It.

• Greenhouse gases are substances found naturally in our atmosphere. They include carbon dioxide and methane.

• These greenhouse gases make it possible for life here on Earth by trapping the sun’s heat, otherwise the Earth’s temperature would be below 60 degrees Fahrenheit or colder.

Normal Greenhouse Effect

• But the carbon dioxide humans are adding to the atmosphere from the cars we drive, the electricity we use in our homes schools, & buildings, and the factories that make our toys, furniture and steel are trapping too much reflected heat from the sun.

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Extreme Greenhouse Effect

So What Exactly is Global Warming?

• Think of it like this…when you go to sleep on a cold night you layer an extra blanket over you.

• Suddenly you wake up because you’re too hot, so you kick off the covers and happily go back to sleep.

• Greenhouse gases are extra blankets that are making the Earth too hot. But the Earth can’t just kick off the gases and cool off.

• This is global warming.

1 Degree

• The average temperature of Earth is 57 degrees.

• In the last 150 years it has risen 1 degree.

• It doesn’t sound like much, but one degree is the difference between a popsicle frozen in the freezer and a sticky pink puddle on the floor.

The Earth Has a Fever!

• The earth is sensitive, just like your body.

• When you have a fever, you feel yucky. Your eyes hurt and your muscles ache.

How the Earth Shows Her Fever

• Her glaciers and polar ice caps melt.• Her oceans warm up, causing stronger

hurricanes.

Wacky Weather

• Heat waves become more common.• Wildfires intensify.• Flooding increases.• Droughts worsen.

“It’s January in Chicago and it’s 70 degrees!”

• I know we all hear people saying how great it is that they can wear shorts in Chicago in January.

• Well, it’s not so great when its 110 degrees in June!

What happened to the Midwest in 2008?Disastrous flooding because of too much melting

snow and unusually heavy rain. Look at all the damage it caused:

• 2-5 million acres of crops destroyed.

• 35,000 – 40,000 people evacuated from homes.

• 83 of 99 Iowa counties declared disaster areas.

• Destruction in Cedar Rapids alone cost over $1.5 billion.

Not Just in the United States

• During the summer of 2003, Europe had one of the warmest years on record and thousands died.

• In 2005, one downpour in India brought 37 inches of rain in 24 hours. That’s as tall as the first three steps of a ladder!

Extreme Weather

• Global warming causes extreme weather in both directions, hot and cold.

• Sounds weird, right? If the planet is warming, how can it still be cold in some places?

The Earth is Round

• All weather begins with the sun.

• Because the earth is a sphere, the weather is different depending on how the sun hits where you live.

• For example, warmer land temperatures can increase wind speed. Put that wind over a warm ocean, like the Gulf of Mexico, and it can turn into a hurricane like we had with Katrina.

• In the artic, that wind can send a cold front all the way to California and you can have snow in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles like we did in 2007.

• So, 1 degree of warming can intensify a heat wave in France, but it can also cause an intense ice storm in New England.

Weather vs. Climate

• The important thing to remember is the difference between weather and climate.

– Weather is what it feels like outside right now.– Climate is what it feels like outside over the course

of time.

• Global warming is actually changing the climate for the long term.

What About Animals?

They suffer, too.

Polar Bears• The sea ice that they dive

from to look for food is melting, so they are forced to swim farther to find solid ice to stand on.

• They are literally drowning from exhaustion.

• Scientists say we will lose two-thirds of all polar bears in the next 50 years.

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What’s Causing All This Damage?

• Over 150 years ago, a period of great progress began. It was called the Industrial Revolution.

• Factories were built to produce items like iron and steel, which became our skyscrapers.

• The invention of the light bulb brought electricity into the home, where before there was only candlelight.

• The steam engine helped our trains move across the country and later, evolved into the combustion engine that powered the first cars.

We didn’t know all that progress

would cause all this damage.

But now we know.

Oil, Coal and Natural Gas

• These are also known as Fossil Fuels.• Fossil Fuels were formed around the time of

dinosaurs from carbon buried deep in the ground millions of years ago.

What Happens When You Burn Fossil Fuels?

• It releases buried carbon into the atmosphere.

• Then it mixes with oxygen to become carbon dioxide.

– Cars burn oil. – Using electricity burns

coal.

• We’re taking all that buried carbon, that took millions of years to form, and we’re putting it back into the atmosphere in a fraction of the time.

• The earth can’t handle so much carbon dioxide.

• Our oceans and forests can only absorb so much.

Deforestation is the Second Largest Contributor to Global Warming

• Forests that have been clear cut look bald!

• Every two seconds, a forest area the size of a football field is destroyed.

Imagine if Will Ferrell was deforested!

Why Are Trees Being Cut Down?

• Farmers cut trees to make room for their crops or their animals to graze.

• Engineers cut trees to make room for pipelines.

• Lumber companies cut trees to build houses.

• Paper companies cut trees for our toilet paper, paper towels and printer paper.

• We need trees to store carbon dioxide like a piggy bank.

• When trees are cut down, its like smashing the piggy bank. All that carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere, trapping more heat and thickening that blanket we talked about earlier.

• Here’s a 2 minute video that might help you understand what we’re talking about. QuickTime™ and a

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We Can Solve It!

• The Blue Man Group just showed us what can happen if we don’t do something.

• But here’s the exciting news. WE CAN SOLVE IT!

A Clean, Green Revolution

• Instead of the Industrial Revolution, we are in the midst of a clean, green energy revolution.

From Every Problem Comes an Opportunity

• We now have the ability to get power from difference sources that don’t burn fossil fuels or add greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.

• Solar panels and wind turbines are examples of renewable energy, meaning the source of their power, the sun and wind, won’t run out.

Your Carbon Footprint• Everyone on the planet

has one. • Instead of leaving

footprints in the sand, we’re leaving footprints in our atmosphere, marking the way we live.

• But a carbon footprint can’t be washed away – it sticks around for 40 years or more!

Your Daily Carbon Footprint

• This comes from the amount of carbon dioxide you emit while doing regular things like taking a shower (because heating water uses energy), driving to school, or turning on your computer at home.

Does the Meat we Eat Have a Carbon Footprint?

• When grazing, cows emit methane (from both ends!)

• Methane traps more heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

• Meat has to be processed at a factory and then shipped to your town.

• Your parents drive to the market to buy it.

• So the answer is yes!

Connecting the Dots

• The key to reducing your carbon footprint is to connect the dots between how you live and how that contributes to global warming.

So What Can We Do to Reduce our

Carbon Footprint?

• Use less electricity by turning off the lights when you leave the room.

• Unplug cell phone, ipod, gameboy and computer chargers from the wall. Even after you pull your cell phone off of the charger it is still draining energy. 10% of all energy use is phantom energy!

• Unplug your video game console. Leaving it plugged in is like leaving over 200 cell phone chargers in the wall!

• Replace all of your regular light bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) that use less energy. If every home replaced 5 light bulbs with CFLs it would be like taking 8 million cars off the road for a year!

• Use a surge protector for your computer, printer, tv or dvd. Turn it off each night!

• Put your computer into sleep or stand by mode instead of using a screen saver.

• Carpool to school with friends or even skateboard, scooter or ride your bike!

• Check to see if your home’s refrigerator, washer, dryer, dishwasher and water heater have the ENERGY STAR sticker. The average home is responsible for twice as many greenhouse gas emissions than the average car.

• Save paper. Use both sides of the paper to write or print, then recycle it.

• Look for paper products made from at least 30% post consumer fiber. Most paper companies cut down virgin trees for fiber – trees that have never been touched by human hands. Imagine using a 100-year-old tree to wipe your nose!

• Bring canvas bags when you shop. Over 1 billion plastic bags are thrown away in America every year. Plastic is made from oil. Paper bags are made from trees and we know how important trees are!

• Use re-usable containers for your lunch and start a no-waste lunch policy at your school.

• Be a meat reducer by eating meat one day less a week.

• Become a virtual marcher at StopGlobalWarming.org Join other marchers like Reggie Bush, Kobe Bryant, Guster and Tony Hawk.

• Write your mayor and suggest he or she sign the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

Start a Green Team at School!• Meet at lunchtime or after school to talk about global

warming and recycling.

• Try to convince the school office to go paperless and email parents as much as possible.

• Plan a fundraiser to buy your school CFL light bulbs or replace an old water heater.

• Screen the DVD “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Too Hot Not to Handle,” or “The Eleventh Hour.”

• Start a no-idle rule in the carpool lane since leaving a car running for more than 30 seconds creates more global warming pollution than turning the car off and on.

School Projects

• Decorate your recycling bins so everyone can see them!

• Put a worm compost in the cafeteria for your food waste.

• Plant trees on campus to absorb carbon dioxide.

The Solution is You!

And tell your friends to read The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming!!! If they see you doing one thing to help stop global warming, they’ll want to do it too! You can make a difference!

Thank You.