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=Global Warming- what it is and how you can help! = = = = = = = =THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT = = The green house effect keeps the earth warm, because of natural greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor that insulate the earth by trapping heat. Greenhouse gases are gases that allow sunlight to enter the atmosphere freely. However, after the sunlight hits the earth's surface and is re-ratiated into space, the gases absorb some of the heat, trapping the heat in the atmosphere. This keeps earth warm. This is a natural process, something that is necessary for life on earth. As we burn fossil fuels, we add to the greenhouse gases by emitting gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is a cause of global warming, which is different from the greenhouse effect. =

GLOBAL WARMING: THE BIG PICTURE
== Global warming is the process of the earth heating up unnaturally due to emissions of green house gases into the atmosphere. Things like deforestation and burning fossil fuels contribute to the earth heating up because the heat trapped in our atmosphere cannot escape into space. This results in the polar ice caps melting, sea levels rising, and as an effect of that, coastlines getting flooded, because the ocean is rising over the land. As global warming continues, the earth will continue to heat up. This may sound nice, but this is actually bad for many reasons. ==



There are many things that contribute to global warming. The main one is burning of fossil fuels. What things burn fossil fuels? Cars, trucks, factories, creating electricity for things like refrigerators, computers, lights, and dishwashers, heating a building, air conditioning a building, aerosol spray, cows, gas stoves, and public transportation. All of these things release gases like carbon dioxide or methane into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, deforestation is not helping because trees emit carbon dioxide that they absorbed during their lifetime back into the atmosphere when they are dead, and by cutting down trees we are speeding up this process unnaturally.
 * GLOBAL WARMING: CONTRIBUTING FACTORS **


 * GLOBAL WARMING: LOCAL EFFECTS **
 * In addition to all the overall effects of global warming, other things will be affected if our greenhouse gas contributions don’t decrease, things that are more close to home. For example, sea levels would rise enough to flood Boston by the end of this century, causing many people to lose their jobs and have to move to another area. The sea level in the boston ****area is expected to rise as much as 3 feet in the next 100 years. Homeowners in flood-threatened areas of Boston could have damage averaging between $7,000 and $18,000 per home. In addition, global warming **** expands the habitat of disease-carrying insects like mosquitos and ticks, increasing the potential for spread of diseases like malaria and lyme disease. Also, the amount of rain and snow in winter would increase, and the number of extremely hot days in summer **** would also increase. Heat related deaths in Boston for a typical summer could increase by 50%. Massachusetts already loses an average of sixty five acres to rising sea levels per year, and that number could increase as sea levels continue to rise. The cost of replenishing the sand at Massachusetts coastlines to protect the coast from the rising sea level by 2100 is estimated from 490 million dollars to 2.6 billion dollars. That’s just to protect the coastlines of only one state! Projected temperature increases are about 6-10 degrees. That means that Hartford, Connecticut would have the same temperatures that Atlanta, Georgia does today, along with additional effects on our environment! **


 * WHAT YOU CAN DO DIFFERENTLY: **** One important thing you can do differently is reduce, reuse, and recycle!!! The first thing you can do differently is reduce your amount of waste. This means doing small things like buying products that you use or eat often in bulk instead of many smaller packages. This is a small thing, but has a big impact because you are reducing the amount of packaging that you throw away. Also, you can buy less things that you don’t need, and hold on to older things instead of buying new ones, all resulting in less trash you throw away. Did you know that Americans' total waste would fill a line of garbage trucks long enough to wrap around Earth six times, and reach halfway to the moon? Think about if everyone reduced the amount of waste they produced. The effects would add up! The next thing you can do is reuse things that you already have. One way to do this is use reusable grocery bags. Even better, bring your own paper bags to the grocery store to reuse again. They can be used many times, and can be recycled once they’ve been used over and over again, to be made into new paper products! Other ways for your old things to be reused include donating old clothes, items, appliances, etc. so that they can be used again by someone who needs them. Also, you can use nutrients from food you would otherwise throw away by composting. This creates nutrient rich soil, which is great for gardens. Did you know that food and paper are the two largest contributers to landfills, and make up more than half of all landfill waste? This is unfortunate because food and paper are biodegradeable in nature but not in landfills, because of the lack of oxygen. Last but not least, many things can be recycled, or used again, including materials like glass and plastic bottles, cups, and jars, metal cans, most types of cardboard, and paper. Other things, that you wouldn't normally think of are cars, batteries, and even christmas trees (can be used to make wood chips) to name a few. Overall, reducing, reusing, and recycling are small things you can do that make a big impact. **

In conclusion, the greenhouse effect is a natural effect that keeps earth from freezing. However, humans contribute to the heating the earth by relasing gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from things like burning fossil fuels. There are many bad effects of this unnatural process, many that are very close to home. One way people can help decrease the amount of greenhouse gases we put into the air is by reducing, reusing, and recycling. This helps because factories and transportation of food and prouducts burn fossil fuels, and if you use more things that have already been made instead of making more prouducts, it is better for the earth.
 * A SUMMARY OF YOUR RESEARCH **

"Climate Change." __[|www.epa.gov]__. May 27, 2009 June 5, 2009 <[]>
 * BIBLIOGRAPHY **

Susan Milligan. "Study Predicts City Flood Threat Due to Warming."__Commondreams.org.__ // February 15, 2005 // June 5, 2009 < http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0215-01.htm>

 "Environmental Sustainability Committee ." __newenglandclimate.org.__ January 25, 2006 June 5, 2009  [|

"Environmental Sustainability Committee" [] __.__ June 8,2009  <[]>

June 8, 2009<[]>

June 8, 2009 <[]>