Z8-E.A.

Global Warming
By: Emma

Step #1: When the sun’s radiation reaches the Earth’s atmosphere some goes through and warms the Earth, but some of the radiation is reflected back into space. The Earth’s heat then radiates outward and is absorbed by greenhouse gases, which then warms the Earth to just the right temperature. This process is called the greenhouse effect. By burning fossil fuels humans have intensified the warming effect, because the gases in fossil fuels have heat-trapping qualities.

Source: [|www.discoverychannel.com]

Step #2:
 * What is global warming? Global warming is when greenhouse gases trap heat and light, from the sun, in the Earth’s atmosphere. This causes the Earth to gradually grow warmer and warmer


 * What is climate change? Climate change means changes in the weather.


 * What are greenhouse gases? Greenhouse gases are gases in the Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat and light from the sun. Some examples of these gases are Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Nitrous oxide


 * What is the Greenhouse effect? The greenhouse effect is when Earth’s temperatures rise because the sun’s heat and light is trapped in the atmosphere.

Sources: http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/global_warming.htm

Step #3:

3 Reasons Global Warming Reflection
There are many different causes of global warming. I have learned about a few of them and will describe what they are. Burning fossil fuels is a major cause of global warming. Fossil fuels contain certain gases that have heat and light trapping abilities. Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are some of these gases. They trap the sun’s heat and light in the Earth’s atmosphere causing the Earth to get warmer. Humans release these fuels into the atmosphere by cars, electricity production, landfills, factories, and fertilizers. Another cause of global warming is human population increase. The more humans there are, the greater the use of things that give off fossil fuels, and therefore increasing the Earth’s heat. Deforestation is another cause of global warming. Trees take carbon dioxide out of the air while making food. When forests are burned, or cut down, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which adds to global warming. The end result is there are fewer to trees to help take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Source: [|https://docs.google.com/a/bettendorf.k12.ia.us/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dF9lMjJoMjZ1ZVZ3WGlKY0RvS1BYRGc6MQ#gid=0]

Step #4:

Is Global Warming Real Reflection
Yes global warming is definitely real. There is lots of scientific evidence to support this conclusion. Thermometer records, kept for the last 150 years, tell us the average temperature across the globe has increased more than one degree Fahrenheit in the past 100 years. In the arctic temperatures have increased by more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Other records of climate and temperature can be found in nature. Some of these records go back thousands, even millions of years. Trees leave some record of climate change. The rings seen in the trunk of a tree change in thickness depending on the temperature from year to year. Scientists can also test samples from sediment at the bottom of lakes and oceans. Sediment is particles, the remains of creatures and pollen, which sinks and settles at the bottom. Sediment preserves information about what was in the air and water from millions of years ago. Core samples from polar ice contain air bubbles frozen in time. These air bubbles tell us that the amount of greenhouse gases in the air is higher than it has been for hundreds of thousands of years. All of this information supports my conclusion that global warming is real.

Final Reflections:
I don't really think global warming is affecting me very much at the time.Although after reading the article and viewing the map I feel that the future environment seems like it will be a sad and scary place. If things continue in the way there going the future could possibly be filled with starvation, disease, and disasters. Global warming will not only humans, but animal populations as well. It will affect yields, snow pack, and severe storms in the North American climate zone.

Source: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-real.html?referrer=epals

Step #5:

__Things We Can Do to Reduce Global Warming__
• The use of wind, solar, and nuclear power • The use of biofuels and natural gases • Storing carbon from fossil fuels in the ground • Walking or biking instead of riding in a car • Turn off the lights, TV, and computer if your not using them • Recycling • Planting trees to help reduce levels of carbon dioxide

__Most important:__
 * Walking or biking instead of riding in a car, because cars give of fossil fuels such as carbon dioxide.
 * Recycling, because landfills give off methane, a fossil fuel
 * Turning off the lights, TV, and computer if your not using them, because that is a wasting energy when you could easily save it

__Recycling__
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE Sources: http://www3.telus.net/public/a6h4z2/recycling.htm http://environment-green.com/ http://www.help-stop-global-warming.com/global-warming-recycling.html
 * recycling helps slow down global warming
 * today approximately 60% of the things we throw away could be recycled
 * paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum can all be recycled
 * if each person reused a shopping bag for just one trip to the store we would save 60,000 trees
 * instead of throwing away food you can put it in a compost pile
 * organic materials like paper do not easily decay when they are thrown into landfills
 * aluminum dumped into our landfills will stay there for over 200 years
 * each year Americans throw away 25 trillion styrofoam cups, enough to circle the earth 436 times
 * glass is 100% recycle-able ,and can go from a recycling bin to a store shelf in 30 days
 * 44 million newspapers are thrown away everyday in the US, it's like throwing 500,000 trees into a landfill each week

Class Discussion Reflection
In our class discussion we debated the questions "Is global warming real?" and "Are humans the cause of global warming?". We all pretty much agreed that global warming is real and we discussed the different causes of it. We also agreed that humans are partly responsible for speeding up the global warming process. Although we thought nature also impacted it. Some people think that Earth is just going through a phase, based off how there was an ice age and then it got hot. They think that the Earth cooled down and that it is now heating up again. We talked about things we had read and learned about and asked each other about any questions we had.

=__Final Reflections__= In this extension I have learned how to make digital posters, practiced finding information that I needed from articles, and practiced meeting a deadline. I feel that I tried my best in this class and did quality work. I enjoyed having to doing a fun but challenging project.





Source: aea online

Source: aea online



Source: aea online