Local Cooling

This could be a project for the weekend. In year 7 we have been thinking about ways we can save energy. One way is to optimise the energy settings on your computer. Sadly this can be a bit tricky and you will never know if you are really saving energy. Now by downloading the software from this site it will do it for you and then it will tell you just how much energy you have saved (some geographers have been using global cooling for some time). Of course you could always just switch the computer off.

Year 7: Global Warming Again

Hardly a day seems to go by without a mention of Global Warming in the media. Today though a very important report on the issue came out. It is supported by 2500 scientists and 100 countries. Even though it takes a cautious approach it still forecasts at least a 3 degree rise in temperatures by the end of the century and says it is now very likely the warming is due to human behaviour. Read more about the report and what the predictions are by clicking here. Why not come along to Eco Club next week or think about the sorts of things you could do to help this issue or just learn more about what Global Warming is about. The image above by the way shows Europe from space at night, perhaps worth reflecting upon how much CO2 is released to keep all those lights going while we are asleep?

Year 7: To fly for?

You may have watched "Should I Really Give Up Flying?" on BBC2 last night. It dealt with the damage that aeroplanes do to the environment and in particular how they contribute to Global Warming as well as a look at the alternatives. You can find all the details here. Of great interest is the woman who rather than flying to Australia went by land (full story on this here). The trip took two months and cost well over £1000 but saved over 1 tonne of carbon dioxide emissions. Perhaps a sacrifice we will all have to make in the future?

Year 7: More Global Warming

For the past few months the BBC have been running an experiment to predict the extent of climate change. It has involved over 50,000 members of the public putting climate prediction software on their computers which ran as a screensaver. The results have now been released and you can watch a programme about it on Sunday night. if you can't wait that long then details are available here.

Year 7: Global Warming

Global Warming is seriously in the news at the minute. The BBC have been featuring a story about how the government is considering setting standards for carbon offsetting schemes. They included a statistic about a transatlantic flight generating 10 times our own weight in carbon. the story was followed by an ironic reference to Prince Charles making a 7000 mile trip to pick up an environmental award. Meanwhile Tesco have followed Marks and Spencer today in outlining their plans to become more environmentally aware. This all seems very promising but questions have already been raised as to the value of carbon offsetting and the seriousness of industry in tackling global warming. If you are in Mr. Batchelor's set 1 you will be discussing this next lesson.

Year 7: Global Warming

We will soon be starting to look at Global Warming and how this is linked to our unsustainable lifestyles in countries such as our own. We will start to look at sustainable and unsustainable ways of leading our lives. A good starting point is to assess our own impact on the planet. I gave myself a shock today when I used this site. According to the calculator if everyone lived their life like me then we would need 1.9 planets! I wonder how well you will do, perhaps you could post a comment when you find out.