5.+Investigate

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Do you think that the ice melting will have a big impact on the world? True or False?
==True. An increase to the temperature on earth would lead to massive changes on land and in the ocean. Natural ecosystems would change as animals become extinct or move to new habitats. Sea creatures would be affected by changes in the ocean's saltiness. But humans would be affected too. Crops would be difficult to grow without enough water and some people would even have to leave their homes if sea levels rise. Climate change would also cause extreme storms and flooding in some areas. The Arctic and Antarctica are not the only ice that can melt in the world. There are also plenty of glaciers and and even some mountains that can melt. The water will possibly rise over 200 metres and that will have a huge impact on the world ==

What do __you__ think will happen if Antarctica melts?
==During the last few years many of the earths glaciers and ice sheets have been melting. Less ice means less sun is reflected off the ice and there is more warming.Also loss of the ice shelves allows the glaciers draining Antarctica to flow faster, causing sea levels to rise faster. One dramatic example of what is happening to our planet took place in Antarctica in early 2002. Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf lost an area larger than the Australian Capital territory in 31 days! Ice melting could lead to climate change, causing floods, droughts and severe storms will occur. What happens with the ice is that the ice reflects most of the sunlight, like a giant mirror. The open water, however, absorbs most of that heat from the sunlight and as the water warms up, it causes more melting at the edges of the ice. There are also now studies showing that if we continue to release green house gases at the rate we have been, the Arctic ice will completely disappear each year during the summer. Polar bears and walruses have even fewer options. They have nowhere colder to go and as the sea warms there habitat will shrink. The last time the world warmed significantly was after the last ice age which was when the hairy mammoth became extinct. Ice is extremely heavy—weighing about one ton per cubic meter—and glaciers are massive sheets of ice. When they are intact, glaciers exert enormous pressure on the portion of the Earth’s surface they cover. When glaciers begin to melt—as they are doing now at an increasingly rapid rate due to global warming—that pressure is reduced and eventually released. Geologists say releasing that pressure on the Earth’s surface will cause all sorts of geologic reactions, such as earthquakes, tsunamis (caused by undersea earthquakes) and volcanic eruptions. What happens is the weight of this thick ice puts a lot of stress on the earth, t he weight sort of suppresses the earthquakes, but when you melt the ice the earthquakes get triggered. M any of the earthquakes that occur in Canada today are related to the ongoing rebound effect that started with the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But with global warming accelerating climate changes and causing glaciers to melt more quickly. the inevitable rebound is expected to happen much faster this time around. ==

Could Antarctica melt in the next 50 years?
==Some scientists believe that there will be little change in the Antarctic ice sheets in the next 50 years, and that the ozone hole would close up over the next 50 years, and that even if Antarctica was to warm in the future, it's mass balance is expected to become more positive: The rise in temperature would be insufficient to initiate melt but would increase snowfall. Other scientists have said in the past that a lot of Antarctic ice looks set to melt over the next 100 years, with the entire West Antarctic sheet likely to melt within 1000 years. But an investigation into the stability of the ice sheet has shown that it has collapsed before when carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere reached about 400 parts per million, a level expected to be reached by 2050. The more ice that melts, the faster it goes. ==

**What are some of the causes of ice melting? **
==**Some of the causes of Antarctica melting are that there is an increased rainfall on the Antarctic peninsula is rapidly melting glaciers, like Sheldon, which has shrunk 1.2 miles in 20 years and is raising world sea levels. But when it does rain, it usually freezes before it hits the ground, so it becomes ice.But one of the main causes is global warming, and whats causing global warming is Green house gases. Things that are causing green house gases are fossil fuel burning, which has produced about 3 quarters of the increase in carbon dioxide from human activity over the past 20 years. Deforestation is also increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere because there aren't as many trees to obsorbe up some of the carbon dioxide. But water vapour causes about 36-70% of the greenhouse effect, and if the atmosphere is warmed the saturation vapour pressure increases, and the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere will tend to increase. **==

How many ways could you prevent Antarctica from melting?
==Green house gases trap some of the heat from the sun, making Antarctica melt even more, so we can help stop Antarctica from melting by producing less green house gases, and ways you can do that are: == ==*Plant trees- Although New Zealand is very good with this sort of thing because they have been planting 10 seeds for every one tree they cut down. ==

*Buy less wood- Buying less wood would help because if we bought less wood not as many trees would have to be cut down.
==*Use wind and solar power- Because it has been suggested that emissions of pollutants and green house gases from electricity generation account for a significant portion of world greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, electricity generation accounts for nearly 40% of emissions, the largest of any source. == ==*Walk,bike or bus instead of using a car- A new study shows that 15% of the man made carbon dioxide in the earths atmosphere comes from cars, trucks, airplanes, trains and ships. So walking, biking or busing can help to reduce green house gases. == ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">*Eat more vegetables and less meat- It is estimated that livestock accounts for 9% of carbon dioxide, so if we eat less meat then we wont need as many livestock, which will help decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. == ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">*Use natural heating and cooling- Using natural heating and cooling is better because if you use a heater then your using electricity which produces green house gases. == ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">*Use energy saving devices- If everyone uses them, then we won't need to produce as much electricity, so then there won't be as much carbon dioxide. == ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">*Switch of electricity when your not using it- Switching of electricity when your not using it could help lower carbon dioxide levels because your wasting electricity. == ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">*Use less hot water- To heat up water you need electricity, and by having shorter showres you can save up to half a kilogram of greenhouse gas for every minute. == ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">*Buy locally produced foods- Eating locally produced food helps stop global warming because the average fresh food item on our dinner table travels 1,500 miles to get there. == ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">*Use warm jumpers- Instead of turning on a heater you can put on a warm jumper and save electricity or you can insulate your home more. As much as 35% of heat loss from a house is through an uninsulated ceiling, uninsulated walls account for a further 15 to 25% and uninsulated floors lose between 10 and 20% of heat. == ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">*Recycle- Recycle Aluminum - **Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours** -- or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline. It takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from raw materials. Recycle Steel "Tin" Cans - A 60-watt light bulb can be run for over a day on the amount of energy saved by recycling 1 pound of steel. In one year **in the United States, the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18,000,000 homes!** It takes 60% less energy to recycle steel than it does to make it from raw materials. Recycle Paper - **Each ton** (2000 pounds) **of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water.** This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution! The 17 trees saved can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would //create// 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide. It takes 40% less energy to recycle newspaper than it does to make it from raw materials. Recycle Plastic - Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator. It **takes 70% less energy to recycle plastics** than it does to make it from raw materials. *Save forests- Saving forests is very important, because they absorb an estimated of global greenhouse emmissions every year. ==

<span style="color: #249d10; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">If Antarctica melted, how do you think the world would handle it? How would you feel about it?
==**<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The world would not handle it well because if Antarctica melts then sea levels will rise which will flood peoples homes and force them to move out. They will have nothing. Little flat islands could be covered completely by water. The world would be devastated. An example is in Bangladesh and the city of Calcutta, 60 million people will be uprooted. that's roughly the entire population of France or the U.K or Italy. Also the saltiness of the sea will be affected by fresh water from the ice melting. This will effect sea creatures and also the global ocean Conveyor Belt which is a rhythm of hot and cold water which could be affected by the freshness of the water. **==

<span style="color: #249d10; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Bibliography

 * ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Dayna's Grandad ==
 * ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">BBI Library/books - Earth, Antarctica, Environment and An Inconvenient Truth. ==
 * ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Internet ==
 * ==<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[|www.environment.gov.au] ==
 * ==[|www.help-stop-global-warming.com]<span style="color: #005dff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> ==