• Question: what is your opinion on global warming and what would you do to prevent it

    Asked by trysono to Ailsa, Evan, James, Kath, Ryan on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Ryan Ladd

      Ryan Ladd answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Whilst I think that we should do everything we can to reduce pollution because it damages the environment and the animals and plants that live in it, I’m not sure that global warming is a proven danger.

      There have been some studies which even faked some of their results or presented them in a way to make things look like the situation is worse than it actually is!

      Reducing pollution is a really good thing though, and I try to do that by recycling things, walking rather than driving and taking public transport if it’s too far to walk, amongst other things. Also, my research is to help develop fuel efficient marine transport, so hopefully this will reduce pollution too!

    • Photo: Evan Keane

      Evan Keane answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Global warming is a fact. The planet is warming up. Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Global_Temperature_Anomaly_1880-2010_(Fig.A).gif

      All international scientific bodies agree on this. The temperature is about 0.8 degrees higher now than 100 years ago. Forecasts for what it will be in 2100 range from it being 1 degree higher to as much as 6 degrees higher. Both scenarios are disastrous. This will make ice caps melt and make the sea level rise. If you live in the Netherlands or Bangladesh (countries below sea level) you would be very worried as your country may all soon be under water.

      Everyone also agrees that global warming is due to things that us humans have done. Like what? Well we put a LOT of “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is one such gas – look at how much of that there is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mauna_Loa_Carbon_Dioxide-en.svg These gases absorb the heat radiated by the Earth’s surface and re-radiate it back at us heating things up (just like a green house). This is bad. The source of these gases are things like us burning fossil fuels and also us cutting down forests (because trees covert carbon dioxide to oxygen, and less trees means more carbon dioxide not converted to oxygen). You can cut down on this – your “carbon footprint” by walking and taking public transport when you can, using renewable sources of energy, not wasting energy like leaving lights on when you leave the room, not leaving electronics on standby. All these things would help us use less energy which is good because much of our energy comes from fossil fuels. Every little helps!!!

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