• Question: Do you think that we can stop global warming to an such an extent that we wont even remember it?

    Asked by bfill2 to Andrew, Beth, Bruce, Lindy, Lizzie on 18 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Beth Mortimer

      Beth Mortimer answered on 18 Jun 2012:

      I don’t think so. It will be vary hard to reverse it from what I understand. Global warming is caused by the release of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere. Before we started releasing it the carbon was locked up in fossil fuels (which we’ve nearly all burned) and plant material (deforestation has been going on for thousands of years). It is a lot harder to lock the carbon back up again.
      I do think we can adapt to any changes if we start really changing the way that we live, the energy we use and the materials we make.

    • Photo: Lindy Heath

      Lindy Heath answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      Global warming is the increase in temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. It is caused by a process called the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a naturally occurring process where the gases in the earth’s atmosphere absorb infrared radiation from the sun. This means that the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere is increased as the radiation cannot escape from the earth’s atmosphere. The main gases that are responsible for the greenhouse effect are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone. These gases are all produced naturally, however, since the Industrial Revolution lots more of these gases have been released into the atmosphere. This is bad news, as an increase in greenhouse gases will lead to an increased greenhouse effect which leads to global warming. We can’t completely stop global warming as these gases are produced by nature but we can limit the amount of greenhouse gases being produced by human activity. One of the major causes of greenhouse gas emissions is the burning of fossil fuels. There are lots of scientists at the moment working on ways that we can use renewable energy sources to decrease the amount of fossil fuels that we need to burn. There are also lots of scientists working on ways to capture the carbon dioxide from the earth’s atmosphere to bury it underground. However, this will not remove enough carbon dioxide to stop global warming completely. So I don’t think that we can stop global warming but I do think that we can slow the process down by using renewable energy sources and renewable materials.

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