Soultions for Global Warming

Every day, more and more pollutants are emitted into the air, causing damage to the ozone layer. As you go to school, either on car or on a bus, many harmful gases are thrown out, and as you may think that you don’t make a difference, but you do make a difference. For example, 25% of the total carbon dioxide emissions of the United States are from cars and trucks. If people would ride bicycles, skate, walk, or even use skateboards as their main transportation, we could reduce the amount of gases emitted, and make the terrible situation better.

While I was reading and researching solutions, I found this really interesting article in the Time Magazine written by John Doer, in September of 2006, and this is a part of the article that really drew my attention, because I think it states the opinion of many people about global warming, also my opinion.

After dinner one recent night, family an friends were discussing their
views on global warming. With clarity and wisdom beyond her 15 years, my
daughter said, "Dad, I'm scared and angry. Your generation created this problem.
What are you going to do to fix it?"

As I am sure you all know, deforestation is also a big issue nowadays, obviously not as big as global warming. Did you know that deforestation and global warming have a connection between them? Well, if you don’t I’ll tell you. Trees take up the carbon dioxide that is floating around and they turn it into air we can all breathe, so, in a simpler way to say it, trees eliminate carbon dioxide, making the air a little bit more clean, about 15%, because we emit more than we eliminate, an that is what is a cause for global warming that we may stop.

Here in Cartagena, most houses have a rule that is pretty much this “Turn off the lights when the room is empty”. But, why is it important to do so? Well, excluding the fact that your electricity bill will come much higher than usual, you are also helping to stop global warming, maybe if only a bit. In case you didn’t know, every kilowatt of electricity produces about one and a half kg of carbon dioxide, and that is a big cause for global warming we can also stop at least.Also, here in Cartagena, we do a lot of carpooling to save energy and to emit fewer gases. Carpooling is when you give somebody a ride to another place in your same car, so you don’t use two cars, so you don’t emit as much gas.

Continuing my research I found a part of an article that I really like. The part I got from an article called “Common Sense on Climate Change: Practical Solutions to Global Warming.” What I find interesting about it is that it is all true. There are people who really don’t care about what is happening to their planet, or what will become of it. What is funny to me is how people (adults) can be such airheads and completely miss the point of what we kids are trying to tell them: STOP POLLUTING!! :(

The part of the article was the following:

Mark Twain might as well have been talking about global warming when he
famously remarked, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does
anything about it." For years we have heard so much about the causes of climate
change, that we’ve missed the fact that there are simple, practical solutions
that can slow this growing problem.
Next week I would like to learn more of the opinions that different people
have about global warming, because I think it is going to be very interesting to
learn about that.

References:
-Earth On fire
- Global Warming

What Have I Learned This Week

In this week, I have learned plenty of interesting facts, like what causes global warming, what are the different ways in which we can help, what effects does the over pollution have on us, and many more things like how in your everyday life you pollute the air and don’t even notice. Most of the information from the last three posts I got from this cool website about global warming. Other information I got from an article in the newspaper my dad cut a long time ago, from the newspaper “El Universal”. Other small information I got from my Encarta, which is an encyclopedia on my computer, and I also asked my grandfather some questions.

What Are People Doing About Global Warming?

Some people are not as interested in the subject of global warming as others, but some are taking action about it. People all over the world are trying to reduce the global warming issues. People are walking more, driving less, spending less electricity on what isn’t needed, planting trees and carpooling among other things. The government is taking action too. The governments of all around the world are trying to make hairspray and deodorant companies make their products based on less harmful gases than before, so it reduces the harm. Here in Colombia, I think there are only few people who are really really interested in the subject, because there are more important issues to face in here.

Hurting the Environment

Everyday, we a hurting more and more our environment by the ways I told you in the last post, but what is happening? Well, all that pollution is going up right through our heads and into the ozone layer, where a huge hole is appearing. It is as if the gases were just eating up the ozone layer! That hole in the ozone layer is causing the heat from the rays of the sun to come through more clearly, making more heat. All that heat is warming up the ocean, causing a big problem. Algae is a type of “sea plant” that cannot live in warm water, and the heating up of the water is killing them, killing also the millions of organisms that feed from this food, so it is making a huge total “destruction” to Earth, or as my grandfather names global warming… self destruction, I like the name.

What Are We Doing For Global Warming To Occur?

Well, as you may or may not know, we are the major causes for global warming, but what are we doing to cause it? Electrical pollution causes a big part of global warming. Electrical pollution is when some types of electricity causes pollution. The burning of fossil fuels to make electricity causes major pollution. Fossil fuels are made of dead plants or animals. Oil and petroleum are both fossil fuel. In the United States, petroleum is the source of 38% of its total energy. Everyday you make pollution, either by using a car, watching TV, and using a refrigerator.
I you look at you house, you can see a lot of wood pieces. Those wood pieces would obviously come from a tree. Cutting trees can be really harmful too. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and trees collect it to make air for us to breathe. Here in Cartagena, when you are going to your farm or a place not so close, you can see people burning trash and letting out huge amounts of smoke ¿, which makes a huge impact for all of us, although people do not find out or do not care about it like we do.

Causes and Effects of Global Warming

Global warming, those are the two words that people everywhere around the globe are mentioning. What is really global warming? Global warming is the notable rising of average temperatures in Earth’s atmosphere and the rise of sea levels in various coastal spots of the planet due to ice caps melting and making water excesses. Now, scientists are making researches, and they are predicting that in the future years, temperatures are likely to increase even more , but how much more is very difficult to predict, because greenhouse gas emissions, the gases that are in part responsible for global warming, can be emitted in different amounts, so we don’t really know how much there is going to be.

But, what is really causing global warming? Burning of fossil fuel and land clearing are just two of the many activities that release greenhouse gases, which were mentioned earlier. There are many other causes, like the natural causes for example. In the artic tundra and wetlands, methane gas is emitted, and methane gas is a greenhouse gas, and they are gases that trap the heat inside the atmosphere, not letting it out. Another natural cause of global warming is that there is a climate cycle, where climate varies, that changes every 40,000 years. Man-made causes are the most responsible causes for global warming. Pollution is one of the main causes. Gases emitted in factories really harm the environment. When oil and coal mining takes place, methane gas is escaped. Population increases, and so does global warming, why is that? Well, as you know, as population increases, more food the Earth needs, and farms may provide part of that food. As more farms are made, more animals grow, and manure lets out some methane into the air. Cars are responsible too. Like you know, cars let out lots of harmful gases, and now, there are thousands of billions of millions of cars running around the streets of every city, and letting out more gases than ever before, and on top of that, now some people own more than one car, making even more pollution. Another reason for global warming is the cutting of trees. Trees convert harmful gases into oxygen that we can use. As more trees are being cut down, less gases are turned into oxygen, so those gases make the holes in the atmosphere.

The effects of global warming are the ones we really need to be worried about. Here in Cartagena we are suffering from one, rising sea levels. Because we live in the coast, at sea level, there have been floods in he streets because way up in north pole, the atmosphere is way thinner, and the gases are making a hole in the ozone layer up there, and the ice is melting, making more water, so here, there is more water too, and we are literally sinking. Another effect is diseases that are spread. Dry areas are now being more humid, and in some places that humidity attracts mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are spreading diseases from one place to another, making more people sick. The amount of floods are now increasing, and the moment in which they will happen are unpredictable, and that is a big issue.

Global Warming: Will It Affect Us?

In this post I am going to answer this question, which is really interesting:

· Do you think that global warming will harm your environment?

Actually global warming IS affecting our environment. Because global warming is melting all the ice caps, water excess is creating, and here, we are at sea level, and recently, there have been a lot of floods caused by high tides, because of the large amount of water omin from the poles, we are sinking.

My Community

In this post I am going to asnwer these quesstions:

-What do you like about your community?

-What are your favourite hangout places in your town/city?

My part of the community (where I live) is the residential part of Cartagena. What I like about it is that, unlike any other place, everything is near from one another. For eexample, near my house is the supermarket, the tennis courts, the soccer court, the baseball court, the hospital, the park, and most of my friend's houses, so I can walk from one place to another in about 5 to 10 minutes.

There are many places that we hangout in, like restaurants, the cinema, but mostly the "campito", where there is a baseball court, a socer court, a pizza stand, and a candy and junk food store.

Food

In this post, I am going to answer the following question:

·What kinds of food and drinks do you have where you live?

In Cartagena, the climate is very hot and humid, so we don't drink alot of hot chocolate and that stuff. Because we are next to the ocean, we are given large amounts of fish, so we eat fish regurarly, mostly when we go to the islands. Here, we drink Coca-cola, like in most countries, and sodas and juices, cold stuff, just to freshen up. We also eat a lot of "arroz con coco" which is Sanish for rice with coconut, it is delicious, although some coconut is put into it, for me, it doesn't taste like coconut at all. Although we live in a very hot limate, we love "ajiaco", which is a soup with chicken, rice, corn, and vegetables. Like in many other ocuntries, we eat hamburgers, pizza, fries, chips, and more junk food, that is waht us kids mostly eat!

My School

Hi, today, I started reading the teen life wiki, and I found some very interesting questions that I would like to respond in several differents posts. In this post I will answer this question:

·Does your school put on a lot of extra curricular activities or after school programs for you?

My school does have alot of extracurriular for us, and they are all sports (the ones that I know), and there is basketball,soccer,volleyball and softaball, I play soccer three times a week on our soccer court. A problem in our school with extracurricular activities is that sometimes we get too much homework, proyects and stuff, so we are at times unable to attend, and that makes it difficult for us to make the teams and play at toruaments. Every year, a different school is chosen to host the binationals, wih is the competition where some of the shools of the country play against each other in different sports.