- OCTOBER 11th 2007
Tuesday, 15 Nobel Laureates met in Germany to talk about Global Warming...and soon we will know who will be the New Nobel Laureate and if she or he will be a “green” Peace Laureate.
"Among those hotly rumored as candidates are three climate-change evangelists: former Vice President Al Gore; Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit who has warned of the threat to Arctic wildlife; and Rajendra K. Pachauri, an Indian scientist who leads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which assesses the risks of greenhouse gases for the United Nations."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/world/europe/11potsdam.html?ex=1192766400&en=d61d667419357b5c&ei=5070&emc=eta1
- September 24, 2007
Subsistence Farming, Brooklyn Style
Go and check the story of Manny Howard who tried to live off his land - a 20x40-foot backyard in suburban Brooklyn.
http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/37273/
MTA, NY Transit to become more eco-friendly
The nation's largest mass-transit system is looking at ways it could become more environmentally friendly. Rooftop gardens on bus depots and windmills at rail yards are just a couple of the ideas being batted around by a member of panel experts formed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to develop a "green master plan" for the New York City's system of subways and buses.
"The issue of global warming is arguably the most significant challenge our generation faces and it's important that the MTA do its part," said Elliot Sander, the executive director of the authority.
Alex Matthiessen, president of Riverkeeper and a member of the panel, said green rooftops on bus depots could absorb water during rainstorms and mitigate the flooding that often paralyzes the subway system. ::Daily Record
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/09/nyc_transit.php
The science barge
There is an incredible place to go and visit in NY for those of you who are interested in environmental issues: The science barge
"The Science Barge is a sustainable urban farm designed by New York Sun Works, a Manhattan-based environmental nonprofit organization. Situated atop a floating ‘barge’ greenhouse powered by solar, wind and biofuels, and irrigated by rainwater and purified river water, the farm grows food in the city with no carbon emissions, no net water consumption, and no waste stream. The vegetables grown on the Science Barge require seven times less land and four times less water than traditional field crops. The center also uses a method called ‘recirculating greenhouse hydroponics’ to grow tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and peppers. No soil or pumped in water is utilized in this cultivation process."
It is currently located:
Pier 84 in Hudson River Park: Sep 2 – Oct 31
More at:
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/09/12/the-science-barge-making-waves-in-urban-agriculture/
and
http://nysunworks.org/science_barge/a
- June 19, 2007
This Year on Little Grassroots...
We are getting ready for summer vacation by looking back at what we have done this year. We had such a good time learning about how to help our Earth. Some of our favorite things this year were:
-Joining the Drip Patrol to help conserve water
-Planting in our school garden
-Helping the polar bears by making posters and writing letters
-Making projects about our environment
-Building recycled structures
-Writing Earth Day songs
-Painting garden rocks
-Feeling like we really made a difference
We also have many hopes for next year. Some of the things we hope to accomplish next year are:
-Learning about other endangered animals
-Help our school recycle more
-Keep teaching others about global warming
-Hopefully the ice will stop melting
We felt so good helping our Earth. We will be back next year and hope that you will be back as well! Have a great vacation!
-Miss Young's Class
PS 58, Brooklyn - June 06, 2007
The G8: an important meeting for Climate Change taking place in Germany
Today in Germany started the Group of 8 meeting (It involves the heads of state and government of the USA, Canada, Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Russia) and the major agenda topic of the meeting is climate change. G8 leaders are scheduled to discuss climate change tomorrow afternoon.
James Connaughton, senior environmental advisor to the president, said the US remained opposed to the target of stabilising global climate increases to two degrees.
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair is keen to secure a landmark global deal on climate change. He declared he wants to get "an agreement to the idea of a global target of a substantial reduction in emissions, it needs to be clear that it is in the order of 50%".
You might want to talk about it with your teachers and / or parents.
More in the Guardian and in The Monde:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,,2096777,00.htmlhttp://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3220,36-919818@51-912509,0.html
- May 24, 2007
The town that banned plastic bags
A month ago there's been a lot of discussion on Little Grassroots (see the comments of children at Fulham preps, but also at PS 58, Leonard de Vinci and Kindercorner on plastic bags).Today I read an article in the Guardian that might interest them and make them happy. It's about a small town in Britain, Modbury in the South Devon. The inhabitants of this small town, decided a few weeks ago (on May 1st) to ban completely plastic bags:
"Two weeks after becoming the first town in Europe to ban plastic bags from its shops (...) carrying a plastic bag has become antisocial behaviour.Wicker baskets, rucksacks and reusable bags of every shape and size swing from the arms of shoppers in the bustling town of 1,500 people. But if you're spotted with a plastic one you risk becoming a social pariah."
None of the town's 43 traders use plastic bags. The city has designed and produced its own Modbury bags made from fair trade recycled cotton are already a collectors' item. Stores also sell 5p biodegradable cornstarch bags, biodegradable bin bags and even biodegradable bags for dog mess.
The inhabitants of Modbury decided to start this as a 6-months experiment but most of the people interviewed said that it will stay after 6 months.
What is also interesting is how this experiment was started in this little town which is said to be quite conservative. End of March, one of the inhabitant of Modbury, after filming a BBC documentary about the devastating effect of plastic bags on marine life in Hawaii, told people at the pub. She showed the film to the town's traders. People in the town started discussing viable alternatives and the boycott of plastic bags began on May 1.
Could you start that in your city? or at least in your neighborhood? Or maybe you and all your classmates could decide to not use any plastic bags at all?And then you could convince all the children in your school?
Interesting information on the use of plastic bags and efforts to cut down the use:
"· 17bn plastic bags a year are given to British consumers. The average Briton accepts five a week.
· Anya Hindmarch launched the limited edition £5 I'm Not A Plastic Bag this year. It has been criticised by some because it was made in China, but Hindmarch said they were careful to carbon offset the project and the intent was not to make a profit but "cast a spotlight on the issue".
· Taiwan is prohibiting not only plastic bags, but also disposable plastic plates, cups and cutlery used by fast food vendors. Threat of fines of up to £152 have resulted in a 70% reduction in the use of plastic bags, and a 25% cut in landfill waste.
· Ireland's 15p "plastax" on carrier bags, introduced in 2002, has led to a 90% reduction in use.
· In France, reusable plastic bags - heavier, easier to recycle and less likely to blow away - now account for more than half of the market.
· In 2002 Bangladesh became the first country to ban plastic bags. A movement against them began in the 1980s in Dhaka, where bags were found to clog drains in the monsoon rains, causing flooding.
· San Francisco has become the first US city to ban plastic bags. The ban will be enforced later this year."
Read more at:http://environment.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,,2077992,00.html
Posted by ALF on May 24, 2007 at 07:13 PM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
May 10, 2007
The Encyclopedia of Life
Aileen Wilson sent me an email mentioning a new project called the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), which seems ambitious, but also interesting and exciting:
"There are 1.8 million species of plants and animals known to reside on Earth and the EOL plans to catalog every last one of them. Over the next 10 years, the online encyclopedia intends to become an exhaustive database featuring descriptions, photographs, and maps for mammals and microbes alike. It should give researchers and other Web surfers unprecedented access to a wealth of biological and botanical information."
Go and check the Encyclopedia of Life: http://www.eol.org/ - May 04, 2007
Singapore, London and now New York maybe...
There a "congestion charge" in Singapore and in London to try to prevent people to use their cars at certain moments of the day, and to have less traffic jams, and less pollution... It seems that Michael Blomberg's New York mayor is also considering that option. See the post below from Treehugger http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/bloomberg_nyc.php:
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg chose Earth Day to announce a sweeping new master plan for the city. Dubbed PlaNYC, the mayor's proposal would have the Big Apple join London and Singapore in imposing a "congestion charge": drivers would have to pay an $8-a-day fee to drive below 86th street in Manhattan ($21 for commercial trucks).
While the congestion charge is one of the most controversial elements of Mayor Bloomberg's plan (Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrión Jr. commented "I wonder if it is another hidden tax on working people.”), PlaNYC contains a total of 127 proposals designed to move the city towards higher levels of economic and environmental sustainability:
The plan is intended to foster steady population growth, with the city expected to gain about 1 million residents by 2030, and to put in place a host of environmentally sensitive measures that would reduce the greenhouse gases it generates.Mr. Bloomberg also set the parameters for what could be a large piece of his legacy as mayor. In an address outlining the plan yesterday at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, Mr. Bloomberg likened it to the first blueprints for Central Park more than 100 years ago and the construction of Rockefeller Center in the Great Depression.
Other proposals include the creation of a financing authority to complete major transit projects, opening up schoolyards as playgrounds, eliminating a city sales tax on hybrid vehicles, and increasing the number of bicycle paths.
Hybrid school buses
Less cars keep saying the children... Here are good news with Hybrid school buses!
IC Corporation Delivers the First Hybrid School Buses That Can Attain Up To 70-100 Percent Increase in Fuel Efficiency, 90 Percent Reduction in Emissions. "The new hybrid school buses are built by IC Corporation, the nation's largest school bus manufacturer, and Enova Systems, a leading provider of hybrid drive systems. The hybrid bus is a result of a nationwide initiative called the Plug-In Hybrid Electric School Bus Project. A total of 19 hybrid buses have been awarded to states around the country by Advanced Energy, a non-profit corporation that initiated a buyer's consortium of school districts, state energy agencies and student transportation providers...The initial power train for the hybrid school bus will couple an International® VT365 V8 diesel engine with the 25/80-kilowatt hybrid-electric power train, incorporating a transmission, batteries and an electric motor...The hybrid school buses are also outfitted with a proprietary GPS system called AWARE(TM) Vehicle Intelligence that allows school officials to track the exact location and performance..." TreeHugger notes two related subjects of great importance.
School buses are generally not air conditioned; and with windows commonly open in warm weather, children are thus exposed to much diesel exhaust while in cue for pickup or drop off. At the low speeds experienced during pick-up and drop-off, this hybrid system offers much promise for reduced diesel particulate exposure reduction. Second, because the top of a school bus covers many hundreds of square feet, and because school buses are typically parked outdoors through the middle of the day, away from the fleet garage - bracketing the sun's daily zenith - hybrid bus roofs would be ideal for incorporating thin film solar photo-voltaic technologies as they become more cost competitive.
April 25, 2007
The Kids maybe be alright after all
Here is a post on a the Lantern blog by Mia MacDonald who was attending the Eearh Day celebration at PS58 last Friday:
"The Friday before I had an unusual experience: attending an Earth Day fair organized by my local grade school, P.S. 58. I was there to represent the Carroll Gardens Community Supported Agriculture program but a side benefit was getting to see a bunch of little kids have serious fun raising awareness of the need for us to protect and respect the Earth. The 5, 6 and 7 year-olds sang their hearts out and they, and the lyrics, were very good (it put my grade school renditions of "Feeling Groovy" to shame). Here's an excerpt from two:
"Song of the Polar Bears"
...Their icebergs are meltingBecause of the ways we've been living...Here's what we have to doWe need to drive lessWe need to be less careless...We need to plant a tree or two
"Animals Need Our Help"
What does it mean to be endangered?It means there are very few left...How does it happen?Because of our actions...We need to help themWe need to save them...We should stop spreading outAnd share the EarthWe should stop wearing furI think that will help
As I heard the kids sing, destined like us adults to be serious greenhouse gas emitters over their lifetimes unless the U.S. changes course radically, I couldn't help but feel that here, despite that, something good and important was taking place. When little kids are singing words like "ozone" and "extinction" and "peril" it can't be all bad, unless it's only one day a year. Somehow, I got the sense it wouldn't be that. The kids may be alright after all."
http://lanternbooks.com/blog/entry.php?id=516
Earth Day Celebration at PS 58
Please go and check the pictures from the Earth Day Celebration in the photo album... As you will see it was a great success!
Thank you to Ms Marsh who started this project with the First Graders and got all the other teachers involved.
Thank you also to the First Grade teachers- Ms. Young, Dello Stritto Ardito and Dunford, Mr Nick (the Music teacher, who wrote the songs with the children), Ms Dold for the sculptures with recyclable materials.
Thank you also to Mr Wynne, the Science teacher for grades 2-5 who helped and got the upper grades involved in the project.
And of course, thank you to the First Graders for their interest, commitment, questions and ideas... and to all the other children at PS 58 and their parents...
The Earth day was not the end of Little Grassroots, but a celebration!
Soon pictures of some of the science projects of the First Graders!
Posted by ALF on April 23, 2007 at 12:54 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 21, 2007
A One Planet Life
care2.com are encouraging people to sign a petition to live a one planet life. If you want to know what this means, watch their video:http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/666393111?ltl=1177184892
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 21, 2007 at 03:54 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 20, 2007
Earth Day
Earth Day
At KinderCorner we have been reading stories about our beautiful Earth and how all of us can help take care of our Earth. This week we went to
KentRidge Park for a long ‘Nature Walk’ and looked at all the different trees and living things. We saw squirrels eating the fruit on the trees; turtles and fishes swimming in the small lake; a monitor lizard and lots of different ants. We also saw a bird’s nest high up in a tree. This reminded us of the little sunbird that made a nest outside the Nursery class. We watched the small bird collect twigs and anything it could find to make its nest (in just four days). The next week, after Easter, the little bird sat in the nest often. This week we peeped in and saw that there were two very small eggs. The little bird stayed in the nest most of the time after that. On Wednesday we felt very sad because when she was away from the nest for a little while a bigger bird came and stole the eggs. Our teacher saw the bird but was unable to save the eggs. Later the little sunbird came back and flew around and around in an agitated way making a ‘call’. She hasn’t come back anymore.
We have shared some thoughts and had some discussions about the harmful effects of pollution, extinct and endangered animals and why we should try and save electricity and water. We have been drawing and writing about this.
Many of the shops in
Singaporeare now encouraging people to use their own reusable bags, not plastic bags. We think this is good.
We have been singing the song ‘A Song for Earth’ at school, you might like to sing the song too.
The stories we have been reading this week are:
Dear Children of the Earth – A letter from Home
The Lorax
The Mountain that Loved the Bird
The Great Outdoors – Saving Habitats
Have a great Earth Day everyone.
The sunbird's nest.
The eggs.
The bird sitting on her eggs.
Bamboo.
A nest in the tree. can you spot it?
Walking further into the park.
We found a small frog.
Posted by Kindercorner @ Singapore on April 20, 2007 at 05:25 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
April 18, 2007
EARTH DAY!
Earth Day is almost here! We are getting ready for our celebration on Friday. The school is filled with projects on endangered animals, water conservation, global warming, recycling and many other topics! On Friday our school community will gather together to sing songs about the Earth (that we wrote!), read poems, share reports and even show a movie that a second grader made. The movie can be viewed on you tube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ckxynzs1zu. I encourage everyone to view it!
The festivities will continue after school when guest speaker Colin Beavan, "The No Impact Man," will be visiting to tell us about his environmental experiment. We will also kick off the gardening season by opening a new school garden! Other activities include garden rock painting, making bird feeders, building recyclable structures and reading classic stories about the Earth, like The Lorax. If you are in the area, I encourage you to come on over to PS 58 from 3-5 in Brooklyn! Have a great Earth Day everyone!
From Fulham Prep
The children from Fulham Prep posted comments on different posts.
Plastig bags:
- I think that it's ok to have plastic bags. How else would u carry them. And if u try to stop airoplane flights how would we get to these other lovely country's. Charlie Cassey
- I think it is a good idea that people in U.S.A and France. In my family we save are plastic bags so we don't need to wastse the Sainsury's plastic ag and i do think it is a good idea to charge plastic bags in the U.S.A and France, it is a brilliant idea according to my family and I. Itamar Rashkovsky
-in Australia in the stores u have to pay for the plastic bags and also they provid reusable ones. Amelia
-in France you have to pay for bags to carry your food and things that you have bought in.Also when i went to Ikea you also had to pay for bags to carry your things in. Catriona Bruce
- i think that people should bring their own bags to go shopping whith then they will be helping the world ,also because the shop will not have to spend money on the bags anymore they will be helping the shop. Eloise Fuller
-hello i always reycicle my plastic bags and bottles bertram m
- I think that we should do something about plastic bags. i think that paying for them is a very good idea, because it makes people use less of them each day. billions are wasted every day.DO SOMETHING TO HELP!!!! Ella Ross
What else could we do to stop global warming:
- i think u should have a certant amount of petrol a day. Amelia
- i think petrol cars should be banned for a long time because if we did not have invented petrol cars nobody would think there was anything better than electric cars. Lucy Penswick
-In Sainsburys (A big supermarket in the UK) are now encouraging people to buy a special bag that you use again and again. Sam W
-I think it is silly if we use materials and then just put them in the bin and forget about them. We should use them more than once. Ludo M
-I think people should not use big fancy cars just to show off its a waste of money and it damages the environment a lot. Matthieu Ortiz
- on earth day last year I planted 12 new plants in my garden, ate only organic fruit.this my sound crazy but it was quite fun. Lucy Penswick
Getting rid of plastic bags?
After discussing the No Impact experiment, the First graders of PS 58 started thinking about what they could concretely do, what they could give up ... Colin Beaver aka No Impact Man in his reply to them suggested that we could think not only of giving up, but also of doing things... One of his examples was: pick up a plastic bag if you see one of the ground... This example sadly resonated to me as I remembered the plastic bag stuck in the branches of a tree in front of our house, or as I thought of these windy mornings where plastic bags are flying in the streets in our neighborhood.
Yesterday there was an editorial article in the New York Times on Plastic Bags:
"Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags every year, mountains of plastic that can last for 1,000 years, give or take a few centuries. And when they are not properly thrown away, they litter the countryside, killing birds or choking creatures like sea turtles. The bags now flap from so many bushes and trees that some South Africans started calling them their national flower."
Several children in fact told me about how dangerous plastic bags were for sea turtles and other animals! But do we, as parents, think about it? I found myself in the last week being asked a few times if I wanted a plastic bag and replying "no, thank you".
It seems that "San Francisco has become the first major city to start banning nonbiodegradable plastic bags in its larger grocery stores and pharmacies."... And I remember this little supermarket in Paris where two years ago management decided to ban plastic bags. The first week they gave each of their customers one carryall and then started selling them...
Ikea has started a campaign "Bag the Plastic Bag" in America, charging customers for plastic bags (the money goes to a conservation group) and encouraging them to bring their own. The good news is that while their aim "was to cut plastic bag use in half — from 70 million per year to 35 million — but it has already done far better than that, cutting use by 80 percent."
So let's try to educate people so that they don't throw plastic bags, let's pick them up if we see them on the ground, and let's try to stop using them as much as we can... Reading all the recent posts from PS58 and the Leonard De Vinci School, I feel quite positive... and I think we, as adults will have a harder time than children! :-)
Read the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/opinion/15sun3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Flight of the Future
Windream One is an attempt to fly a sail balloon driven only by natural and renewable energy sources (wind and solar power) across the Atlantic Ocean. The ten day flight is scheduled for next year. Will this be the way to travel in the future? To find out more: http://www.teamtheolia.com/index_uk.php
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 16, 2007 at 12:51 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 13, 2007
Could You Lower YOUR Impact?
."
-VCR
-Toilet paper- "But I wouldn't let my mom find out."
One student pointed out that many people are, "just plain lazy and drive their cars one block. People need to THINK before they ACT!" This discussion gave us a new respect for thWe are getting ready and excited for our Earth Day celebration at PS 58! This week we were talking about our guest speaker, the "No Impact Man." We discussed what it means to make an impact on the Earth and what Mr. Beavan is doing in order to make no impact. After listing some of the things that Mr. Beavan was doing- no garbage, no TV, no subway, we asked ourselves, "What would we be willing to give up in order to help the Earth?" We struggled with this question. Some were willing to give up many things, but others were more hesitant. This is the list of things that the first graders thought they could give up for a year, if it would help the Earth:
-Cars- "Even though my mom wouldn't like it, I could ride my skateboard instead."
-Video games/ Gameworks (this item was heavily disputed!)
-Avocado
-Trains "I would ride my bike or scooter instead!"
-Radio- "We could read or play games with our families instead."
-TV (many students disagreed on giving this up)
-Paper towels- "We would use rags instead and wash theme No Impact Man's experiment. Most agreed that it would be extremely hard to give up these things. We decided that it would be more realistic to USE LESS. We can't wait to meet the No Impact Man. What would YOU be willing to give up for the Earth?
Posted by PS 58 on April 13, 2007 at 05:15 PM APRil 12, 2007
Can one person slow global warming?
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20070409,00.html
A special issue of the Time Magazine on global warming, with an article on how the most vulnerable coastal communities are taking actions to avoid floods and consequences of the sea's rise, and an article providing a big picture of climate change, its causes (there are many) and different ways of trying to fix it. As the journalist wrote "There's a role for big thinkers, power players, those with deep pockets--and the rest of us"...
And as they claim that we can all do something to make things better, they provide us with a guide of 51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment - several have already been suggested by the children posting on Little Grassroots, but you might still want to have a look, especially as the Earth day celebration is coming soon. Check it out at http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/article/0,28804,1602354_1603074,00.html
Earth Day
April 22 is Earth Day! Everyone can participate by doing something for the planet on that day - not driving the car, planting flowers or trees, buying local, preferably organic produce, etc. Check out the WWF site and this link for more ideas!http://www.worldwildlife.org/earthday/index.cfm?enews=T4CfinalT
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 12, 2007 at 06:37 AM april 11, 2007
Sea’s Rise in India Buries Islands
Today there was an article in the New York Times on Ghomara Island in India that reminded me of the article posted by Melchior and Jyoti on April 3rd on an island disappearing in the Pacific. The article tells the story of Ghomara, a fragile delta island near the Bay of Bengal. Half of it has sunk into the river.The sinking of Ghoramara can be attributed to several causes, one of them being the rising sea and the rivers pouring down from the Himalayas. Of course, islands erode and shift size and shape and there is nothing abnormal about change. Yet, "there is little doubt, scientists say, that human-induced climate change has made them particularly vulnerable. A recent study by Sugata Hazra, an oceanographer at Jadavpur University in nearby Calcutta, found that in the last 30 years, nearly 31 square miles of the Sundarbans have vanished entirely."
Ghomara's size is half of the size it was in 1969 and two other islands have vanished. Hundred of families have to be displaced as their houses disappear under water. And it's not like it's an area where only few people live: four million people live here on the Indian side of the border alone! (On the other side of the border it is Bangladesh).
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming, spurred by the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could raise the ocean’s surface as much as 23 inches by 2100. [According to the panel’s latest report, released in early April, the ecology and people of this river delta system are among the most vulnerable in the world.]"
And as highlighted several times recently on this blog, the inhabitants of Ghoraman (farmers and fishermen) and the other Sundarbans islands are far too poor to produce much carbon emissions, but they are the ones who "feel the assault already"!
Read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/world/asia/11india.html?th&emc=th
April 07, 2007
Second scientific report presented in Brussels: more details on climate change, from Poles to Tropics
In Brussels, yesterday more than 200 scientists presented a second report on climate change (the first one was presented in February in Paris). This report insists on the impact of climate change. It predicts "widening droughts in southern Europe and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, the American Southwest and Mexico, and flooding that could imperil low-lying islands and the crowded river deltas of southern Asia".
This panel of scientists also stressed that many of the regions facing the greatest risks were among the world’s poorest.
“It’s the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit,” said Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the panel. “People who are poor are least-equipped to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and therefore in some sense this does become a global responsibility in my view.”
The report written was 1,572 pages! There was also a 21-page summary, which was endorsed by officials from more than 120 countries, including the United States. One of the aim of this meeting was to make the governments and political leaders more aware and committed to take action. The scientists insisted on the need for governments to organize and plan in order to address these changes. The report is expected to be discussed at a summit meeting of the Group of 8 industrial powers in Germany in June.
Read the whole article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/science/earth/07climate.html?th&emc=th
Posted by ALF on April 07, 2007 at 12:17 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 06, 2007
In France ...
A whole week of demonstrations, open days, etc to promote interest and awareness of environmental issues has been taking place in France. To find out what's been going on in France, check this site out:www.semainedudeveloppementdurable.gouv.fr
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 06, 2007 at 03:04 PM pril 05, 2007
Transport! Shopping! Animals!
We need to stop polluting the earth because it will damage the ozone layer! We need to use cars less than we do now, and use bicycles more often. We should stop all that food transport, for example selling strawberries in winter - we have to bring them from hot countries.
We should all be careful of what we buy, like eat certain fruits when when it is winter for example strawberries, it is not good!
They have been brought from very very far away! We should think to buy Bio (organic) food also.
We need to stop taking plastic bags because when you don’t need them any more they will be trashed, and they don’t decompose! So we need to buy big bags (very cheap) and the good thing is that they are reusable.
All this we need to stop, you should know by know that some animals almost die or have a hard time to live! For example, a lake has been polluted, so the fishes in it will die.
Then the birds that eat those birds come.
There are no more fishes so they don’t have any food to eat and they will die! This is happening “almost” for all animals! We should stop cutting down trees because this will destroy some of the animals’ habitats.
Iscia
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:59 AM GLOBAL WARMING CAUSES CLIMATE CHANGE
Global warming causes climate change. Why? Because the gases we are releasing from pollution, bad shopping, transport, animal waste and power stations make the ozone layer (a sort of shield protecting us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays) weaker, allowing the boiling heat of the sun come to earth. Because of this Californian, Florida and Carolina beaches will be nothing but wilderness in a few years time.
The sea temperatures are key ingredients to windstorm formation. The hurricane season and Typhoon season exist because the sea is at the right temperature for a few months each year to allow a few storms to form. Overall sea surface temperatures have risen between 0.2° to 0.6°c over past centuries according to climate models and observations. Also, in addition to sea temperatures, land and air temperature provide an important measure of climate variation, and have been reliably monitored for many decades. It is generally agreed that the 1990’s was the warmest decade, and 2005 the warmest year in a millennium. The projected rate of increase in global temperatures for the 21st century is likely to be the fastest of a century in the past thousand years.
Some of the causes of the trends are natural. However, scientists have now shown beyond reasonable doubt that global warming caused by human activities is also a key factor. Forest fires are expected to increase in frequency and severity. In some areas, it is estimated that fire frequency could double by 2069.
Changing patterns of precipitation (rainfall) are likely to be a further result of climate change, with a potentially significant impact on society and the environment. Urban drainage systems were designed on historic climate data and will not meet the challenges of the future. Leaving inevitable to significant increases in insurance claims costing lots of money and damaging the economy. Long-term historic climate patterns are now known to be much more volatile (varying extremes) than the stability of the last few hundred years. Until 30 years ago, most experts agreed that climate change occurs slowly.
Conclusion: We do not know what impact climate changes will have. But we do know that it presents society and the economy with increasing levels of risk and uncertainty as it seeks to manage risk.
As Earth gets hotter, these are some of the important changes that could happen:
Sea levels could also rise.
Cities on coasts would flood (e.g. The Netherlands and the whole of Bangladesh!)
Places that usually get lots of rain and snowfall might get hotter and drier.
Lakes and rivers could dry up.
There would be more droughts making hard to grow crops.
Less water would be available for drinking, showers and swimming pools.
Some plants and animals might become extinct because of the heat.
Acid rain could destroy forests and lake life (fish)
More hurricanes, tornadoes and other storms
More evaporation of water from the land.
by Louis
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:56 AM Endangered Species
I think you should know what is happening to animals no: they are dying because of us. They have a hard time finding food because the food they live on is becoming rare. This is just the start of a food chain.
Here are some ways to save endangered species :
Don’t pollute forests and streets with plastic or cans because animals may think it is food, they will eat it and maybe die. Don’t pollute waters because animals drink from these and if the water they drink from has been polluted they will get ill. It will also kill fishes which means that birds that live on fish will die because there will be no more food for them.
Don’t use too much electricity (for example don’t watch too much TV and turn off lights when you don’t need them) because this creates global warming and is very bad for polar bears because their lands (the polar ice caps) are melting which means that polar bears will soon start drowning.
Put out food and water for birds, especially in winter.
Please follow these instructions and if you want to help even more, learn more about how you can save animals and share this information with everyone. To do that you can write blogs, make posters and write articles (just like me!).
Tess
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:52 AM Pollution
We should stop polluting the world. We don’t realise how much we are polluting. If we want to live longer and the world to stay good, we mustn’t give up . One country pollutes, not only their country is affected but others also. We won’t give up; we have to work for everything we gain. Stopping polluting is a hard job. Try not to take plastic bags or take only one huge bag when you go shopping!. Try to take stuff that are ozone friendly. Try your best not to buy things which are not good for the ozone layer or which come from other countries or which are out of season; it makes a lot of pollution to transport them from one country to another.
If there are any waste things you see on the road. I request you to pick it up. If you leave some plastic things on the road it will stay forever which will make pollution. We should stop killing animals because after it has to go in some specific factories to be disinfected and processed; then we have to pack it; all of which makes pollution.
Ishan
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:18 AM
April 04, 2007
The Climate divide: Two billions of people threatened of "food insecurity"
This week in Brussels there is a meeting of a group of experts to discuss climate change. The aim of this meeting (which is a follow up of the meeting that took place two months ago in Paris where the scientists discuss the results of the research on climate change and agreed on the reality of the change and on the responsibility of human beings in the change) is to agree on a "summary for political leaders" to help them make decisions.
Today in Liberation, a French newspaper, there was an interview of a French agronomist, Jean-Francois Soussana (INRA) who was saying that although the impact of climate change are still not clear, there are yet enough data showing that climate change have an impact of food resources and potential risks of starvation - due to the extreme changes in climate, droughts and changes in rain falls during the year. The main impact is on crops. The impact started to be noticed in tropical areas, but it also now starts to show in temperate and cold countries.
The region the most at risk is Africa (both because of climatic but also socio-economic reasons) [ see posts of February 12 and 22nd] but it also has an impact in other regions of the world. Soussana says that agriculture can evolve and adjust to the changes. The problem is that it all depends on how fast the change will be.
More at http://www.liberation.fr//actualite/terre/245419.FR.php?utk=00779aa6
As noted above, and also in previous posts, Africa and developing countries at large seem to be paying a higher price, while contributing the least in the production of carbon dioxide. These countries, which “suffer” more, are also the poorest.
Therefore some academics and politicians are now suggesting "the first world owes the third world a climate debt"" “We have an obligation to help countries prepare for the climate changes that we are largely responsible for,” said Peter H. Gleick, the founder of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Berkeley, Calif. His institute has been tracking trends like the burst of new desalination plants in wealthy places running short of water.
“If you drive your car into your neighbor’s living room, don’t you owe your neighbor something?” Dr. Gleick said. “On this planet, we’re driving the climate car into our neighbors’ living room, and they don’t have insurance and we do.” " (quoted in NY Times)
The children in the Philosophy Lunch Club (PS58) mentionned several times (Posts of February 2nd and March 16) the inequalities in terms of impact (bigger or smaller, droughts or floods) as well as who was concerned (human beings vs. animals, and differences among countries). They might want (and you might want to) to read 4 stories about the "climate divide" that show how people in different parts of world are affected by global warming.
More on the climate divide at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/earth/03clim.html?ref=science
An island disappearing in the Pacific
A friend of our mummy sent her a video about an island in the middle of the Pacific - very far away - nearby Australia and New Zealand, and Singapore... This island is not even as big as New York. It is very beautiful and people look happy. It is disappearing because of global warming. This is very sad. One of the teachers on the island says she believes in God and that he promised he would not flood the Earth, but the President of this island does not believe in that and he is very worried for his island. He says that in 50 years from now the island will be under water. When there is a storm, the waves go very far inside the land. Some people are scared and they took the plane to go and live somewhere else. It is sad.
You can read the whole story or see the video at:http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3002425http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=3001691&page=1
jyoti and melchior, PS58
April 02, 2007
A video to save polar bears
I like polar bears and I'm interested in them. I don't want them to die. If they do, they will become extinct. They are in danger because of global warming, so we need to stop global warming.
There are many people that I know who like polar bears, and like me they don't want to see them dying.
Maybe it will take time to stop global warming but if we stop rigth now, we will be able to stop it. It's just like when you hurt yoursefl. If you hurt yourself, you don't keep doing what you did to hurt yourself. You stop. If not, it keeps getting worse and worse.
Here is a video on polar bears.
April 25, 2007
The Kids maybe be alright after all
Here is a post on a the Lantern blog by Mia MacDonald who was attending the Eearh Day celebration at PS58 last Friday:
"The Friday before I had an unusual experience: attending an Earth Day fair organized by my local grade school, P.S. 58. I was there to represent the Carroll Gardens Community Supported Agriculture program but a side benefit was getting to see a bunch of little kids have serious fun raising awareness of the need for us to protect and respect the Earth. The 5, 6 and 7 year-olds sang their hearts out and they, and the lyrics, were very good (it put my grade school renditions of "Feeling Groovy" to shame). Here's an excerpt from two:
"Song of the Polar Bears"
...Their icebergs are meltingBecause of the ways we've been living...Here's what we have to doWe need to drive lessWe need to be less careless...We need to plant a tree or two
"Animals Need Our Help"
What does it mean to be endangered?It means there are very few left...How does it happen?Because of our actions...We need to help themWe need to save them...We should stop spreading outAnd share the EarthWe should stop wearing furI think that will help
As I heard the kids sing, destined like us adults to be serious greenhouse gas emitters over their lifetimes unless the U.S. changes course radically, I couldn't help but feel that here, despite that, something good and important was taking place. When little kids are singing words like "ozone" and "extinction" and "peril" it can't be all bad, unless it's only one day a year. Somehow, I got the sense it wouldn't be that. The kids may be alright after all."
http://lanternbooks.com/blog/entry.php?id=516
April 23, 2007
Earth Day Celebration at PS 58
Please go and check the pictures from the Earth Day Celebration in the photo album... As you will see it was a great success!
Thank you to Ms Marsh who started this project with the First Graders and got all the other teachers involved.
Thank you also to the First Grade teachers- Ms. Young, Dello Stritto Ardito and Dunford, Mr Nick (the Music teacher, who wrote the songs with the children), Ms Dold for the sculptures with recyclable materials.
Thank you also to Mr Wynne, the Science teacher for grades 2-5 who helped and got the upper grades involved in the project.
And of course, thank you to the First Graders for their interest, commitment, questions and ideas... and to all the other children at PS 58 and their parents...
The Earth day was not the end of Little Grassroots, but a celebration!
Soon pictures of some of the science projects of the First Graders!
April 21, 2007
A One Planet Life
care2.com are encouraging people to sign a petition to live a one planet life. If you want to know what this means, watch their video:http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/666393111?ltl=1177184892
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 21, 2007 at 03:54 PM
April 20, 2007
Earth Day
Earth Day
At KinderCorner we have been reading stories about our beautiful Earth and how all of us can help take care of our Earth. This week we went to
KentRidge Park for a long ‘Nature Walk’ and looked at all the different trees and living things. We saw squirrels eating the fruit on the trees; turtles and fishes swimming in the small lake; a monitor lizard and lots of different ants. We also saw a bird’s nest high up in a tree. This reminded us of the little sunbird that made a nest outside the Nursery class. We watched the small bird collect twigs and anything it could find to make its nest (in just four days). The next week, after Easter, the little bird sat in the nest often. This week we peeped in and saw that there were two very small eggs. The little bird stayed in the nest most of the time after that. On Wednesday we felt very sad because when she was away from the nest for a little while a bigger bird came and stole the eggs. Our teacher saw the bird but was unable to save the eggs. Later the little sunbird came back and flew around and around in an agitated way making a ‘call’. She hasn’t come back anymore.
We have shared some thoughts and had some discussions about the harmful effects of pollution, extinct and endangered animals and why we should try and save electricity and water. We have been drawing and writing about this.
Many of the shops in
Singaporeare now encouraging people to use their own reusable bags, not plastic bags. We think this is good.
We have been singing the song ‘A Song for Earth’ at school, you might like to sing the song too.
The stories we have been reading this week are:
Dear Children of the Earth – A letter from Home
The Lorax
The Mountain that Loved the Bird
The Great Outdoors – Saving Habitats
Have a great Earth Day everyone.
The sunbird's nest.
The eggs.
The bird sitting on her eggs.
Bamboo.
A nest in the tree. can you spot it?
Walking further into the park.
We found a small frog.
Posted by Kindercorner @ Singapore on April 20, 2007 at 05:25 AM
April 18, 2007
EARTH DAY!
Earth Day is almost here! We are getting ready for our celebration on Friday. The school is filled with projects on endangered animals, water conservation, global warming, recycling and many other topics! On Friday our school community will gather together to sing songs about the Earth (that we wrote!), read poems, share reports and even show a movie that a second grader made. The movie can be viewed on you tube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ckxynzs1zu. I encourage everyone to view it!
The festivities will continue after school when guest speaker Colin Beavan, "The No Impact Man," will be visiting to tell us about his environmental experiment. We will also kick off the gardening season by opening a new school garden! Other activities include garden rock painting, making bird feeders, building recyclable structures and reading classic stories about the Earth, like The Lorax. If you are in the area, I encourage you to come on over to PS 58 from 3-5 in Brooklyn! Have a great Earth Day everyone!
Posted by PS 58 on April 18, 2007 at 04:37 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
From Fulham Prep
The children from Fulham Prep posted comments on different posts.
Plastig bags:
- I think that it's ok to have plastic bags. How else would u carry them. And if u try to stop airoplane flights how would we get to these other lovely country's. Charlie Cassey
- I think it is a good idea that people in U.S.A and France. In my family we save are plastic bags so we don't need to wastse the Sainsury's plastic ag and i do think it is a good idea to charge plastic bags in the U.S.A and France, it is a brilliant idea according to my family and I. Itamar Rashkovsky
-in Australia in the stores u have to pay for the plastic bags and also they provid reusable ones. Amelia
-in France you have to pay for bags to carry your food and things that you have bought in.Also when i went to Ikea you also had to pay for bags to carry your things in. Catriona Bruce
- i think that people should bring their own bags to go shopping whith then they will be helping the world ,also because the shop will not have to spend money on the bags anymore they will be helping the shop. Eloise Fuller
-hello i always reycicle my plastic bags and bottles bertram m
- I think that we should do something about plastic bags. i think that paying for them is a very good idea, because it makes people use less of them each day. billions are wasted every day.DO SOMETHING TO HELP!!!! Ella Ross
What else could we do to stop global warming:
- i think u should have a certant amount of petrol a day. Amelia
- i think petrol cars should be banned for a long time because if we did not have invented petrol cars nobody would think there was anything better than electric cars. Lucy Penswick
-In Sainsburys (A big supermarket in the UK) are now encouraging people to buy a special bag that you use again and again. Sam W
-I think it is silly if we use materials and then just put them in the bin and forget about them. We should use them more than once. Ludo M
-I think people should not use big fancy cars just to show off its a waste of money and it damages the environment a lot. Matthieu Ortiz
- on earth day last year I planted 12 new plants in my garden, ate only organic fruit.this my sound crazy but it was quite fun. Lucy Penswick
Posted by ALF on April 18, 2007 at 08:15 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
April 16, 2007
Getting rid of plastic bags?
After discussing the No Impact experiment, the First graders of PS 58 started thinking about what they could concretely do, what they could give up ... Colin Beaver aka No Impact Man in his reply to them suggested that we could think not only of giving up, but also of doing things... One of his examples was: pick up a plastic bag if you see one of the ground... This example sadly resonated to me as I remembered the plastic bag stuck in the branches of a tree in front of our house, or as I thought of these windy mornings where plastic bags are flying in the streets in our neighborhood.
Yesterday there was an editorial article in the New York Times on Plastic Bags:
"Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags every year, mountains of plastic that can last for 1,000 years, give or take a few centuries. And when they are not properly thrown away, they litter the countryside, killing birds or choking creatures like sea turtles. The bags now flap from so many bushes and trees that some South Africans started calling them their national flower."
Several children in fact told me about how dangerous plastic bags were for sea turtles and other animals! But do we, as parents, think about it? I found myself in the last week being asked a few times if I wanted a plastic bag and replying "no, thank you".
It seems that "San Francisco has become the first major city to start banning nonbiodegradable plastic bags in its larger grocery stores and pharmacies."... And I remember this little supermarket in Paris where two years ago management decided to ban plastic bags. The first week they gave each of their customers one carryall and then started selling them...
Ikea has started a campaign "Bag the Plastic Bag" in America, charging customers for plastic bags (the money goes to a conservation group) and encouraging them to bring their own. The good news is that while their aim "was to cut plastic bag use in half — from 70 million per year to 35 million — but it has already done far better than that, cutting use by 80 percent."
So let's try to educate people so that they don't throw plastic bags, let's pick them up if we see them on the ground, and let's try to stop using them as much as we can... Reading all the recent posts from PS58 and the Leonard De Vinci School, I feel quite positive... and I think we, as adults will have a harder time than children! :-)
Read the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/opinion/15sun3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Posted by ALF on April 16, 2007 at 02:36 PM Permalink Comments (6) TrackBack (0)
Flight of the Future
Windream One is an attempt to fly a sail balloon driven only by natural and renewable energy sources (wind and solar power) across the Atlantic Ocean. The ten day flight is scheduled for next year. Will this be the way to travel in the future? To find out more: http://www.teamtheolia.com/index_uk.php
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 16, 2007 at 12:51 PM April 13, 2007
Could You Lower YOUR Impact?
We are getting ready and excited for our Earth Day celebration at PS 58! This week we were talking about our guest speaker, the "No Impact Man." We discussed what it means to make an impact on the Earth and what Mr. Beavan is doing in order to make no impact. After listing some of the things that Mr. Beavan was doing- no garbage, no TV, no subway, we asked ourselves, "What would we be willing to give up in order to help the Earth?" We struggled with this question. Some were willing to give up many things, but others were more hesitant. This is the list of things that the first graders thought they could give up for a year, if it would help the Earth:
-Cars- "Even though my mom wouldn't like it, I could ride my skateboard instead."
-Video games/ Gameworks (this item was heavily disputed!)
-Avocado
-Trains "I would ride my bike or scooter instead!"
-Radio- "We could read or play games with our families instead."
-TV (many students disagreed on giving this up)
-Paper towels- "We would use rags instead and wash them."
-VCR
-Toilet paper- "But I wouldn't let my mom find out."
One student pointed out that many people are, "just plain lazy and drive their cars one block. People need to THINK before they ACT!" This discussion gave us a new respect for the No Impact Man's experiment. Most agreed that it would be extremely hard to give up these things. We decided that it would be more realistic to USE LESS. We can't wait to meet the No Impact Man. What would YOU be willing to give up for the Earth?
Posted by PS 58 on April 13, 2007 at 05:15 PM April 12, 2007
Can one person slow global warming?
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20070409,00.html
A special issue of the Time Magazine on global warming, with an article on how the most vulnerable coastal communities are taking actions to avoid floods and consequences of the sea's rise, and an article providing a big picture of climate change, its causes (there are many) and different ways of trying to fix it. As the journalist wrote "There's a role for big thinkers, power players, those with deep pockets--and the rest of us"...
And as they claim that we can all do something to make things better, they provide us with a guide of 51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment - several have already been suggested by the children posting on Little Grassroots, but you might still want to have a look, especially as the Earth day celebration is coming soon. Check it out at http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/article/0,28804,1602354_1603074,00.html
Posted by ALF on April 12, 2007 at 02:53 PM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
Earth Day
April 22 is Earth Day! Everyone can participate by doing something for the planet on that day - not driving the car, planting flowers or trees, buying local, preferably organic produce, etc. Check out the WWF site and this link for more ideas!http://www.worldwildlife.org/earthday/index.cfm?enews=T4CfinalT
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 12, 2007 at 06:37 AM Permalink Comments (3) TrackBack (0)
April 11, 2007
Sea’s Rise in India Buries Islands
Today there was an article in the New York Times on Ghomara Island in India that reminded me of the article posted by Melchior and Jyoti on April 3rd on an island disappearing in the Pacific. The article tells the story of Ghomara, a fragile delta island near the Bay of Bengal. Half of it has sunk into the river.The sinking of Ghoramara can be attributed to several causes, one of them being the rising sea and the rivers pouring down from the Himalayas. Of course, islands erode and shift size and shape and there is nothing abnormal about change. Yet, "there is little doubt, scientists say, that human-induced climate change has made them particularly vulnerable. A recent study by Sugata Hazra, an oceanographer at Jadavpur University in nearby Calcutta, found that in the last 30 years, nearly 31 square miles of the Sundarbans have vanished entirely."
Ghomara's size is half of the size it was in 1969 and two other islands have vanished. Hundred of families have to be displaced as their houses disappear under water. And it's not like it's an area where only few people live: four million people live here on the Indian side of the border alone! (On the other side of the border it is Bangladesh).
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming, spurred by the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could raise the ocean’s surface as much as 23 inches by 2100. [According to the panel’s latest report, released in early April, the ecology and people of this river delta system are among the most vulnerable in the world.]"
And as highlighted several times recently on this blog, the inhabitants of Ghoraman (farmers and fishermen) and the other Sundarbans islands are far too poor to produce much carbon emissions, but they are the ones who "feel the assault already"!
Read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/world/asia/11india.html?th&emc=th
Posted by ALF on April 11, 2007 at 11:17 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 07, 2007
Second scientific report presented in Brussels: more details on climate change, from Poles to Tropics
In Brussels, yesterday more than 200 scientists presented a second report on climate change (the first one was presented in February in Paris). This report insists on the impact of climate change. It predicts "widening droughts in southern Europe and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, the American Southwest and Mexico, and flooding that could imperil low-lying islands and the crowded river deltas of southern Asia".
This panel of scientists also stressed that many of the regions facing the greatest risks were among the world’s poorest.
“It’s the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit,” said Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the panel. “People who are poor are least-equipped to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and therefore in some sense this does become a global responsibility in my view.”
The report written was 1,572 pages! There was also a 21-page summary, which was endorsed by officials from more than 120 countries, including the United States. One of the aim of this meeting was to make the governments and political leaders more aware and committed to take action. The scientists insisted on the need for governments to organize and plan in order to address these changes. The report is expected to be discussed at a summit meeting of the Group of 8 industrial powers in Germany in June.
Read the whole article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/science/earth/07climate.html?th&emc=th
Posted by ALF on April 07, 2007 at 12:17 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 06, 2007
In France ...
A whole week of demonstrations, open days, etc to promote interest and awareness of environmental issues has been taking place in France. To find out what's been going on in France, check this site out:www.semainedudeveloppementdurable.gouv.fr
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 06, 2007 at 03:04 PM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
April 05, 2007
Transport! Shopping! Animals!
We need to stop polluting the earth because it will damage the ozone layer! We need to use cars less than we do now, and use bicycles more often. We should stop all that food transport, for example selling strawberries in winter - we have to bring them from hot countries.
We should all be careful of what we buy, like eat certain fruits when when it is winter for example strawberries, it is not good!
They have been brought from very very far away! We should think to buy Bio (organic) food also.
We need to stop taking plastic bags because when you don’t need them any more they will be trashed, and they don’t decompose! So we need to buy big bags (very cheap) and the good thing is that they are reusable.
All this we need to stop, you should know by know that some animals almost die or have a hard time to live! For example, a lake has been polluted, so the fishes in it will die.
Then the birds that eat those birds come.
There are no more fishes so they don’t have any food to eat and they will die! This is happening “almost” for all animals! We should stop cutting down trees because this will destroy some of the animals’ habitats.
Iscia
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:59 AM Permalink Comments (2) TrackBack (0)
GLOBAL WARMING CAUSES CLIMATE CHANGE
Global warming causes climate change. Why? Because the gases we are releasing from pollution, bad shopping, transport, animal waste and power stations make the ozone layer (a sort of shield protecting us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays) weaker, allowing the boiling heat of the sun come to earth. Because of this Californian, Florida and Carolina beaches will be nothing but wilderness in a few years time.
The sea temperatures are key ingredients to windstorm formation. The hurricane season and Typhoon season exist because the sea is at the right temperature for a few months each year to allow a few storms to form. Overall sea surface temperatures have risen between 0.2° to 0.6°c over past centuries according to climate models and observations. Also, in addition to sea temperatures, land and air temperature provide an important measure of climate variation, and have been reliably monitored for many decades. It is generally agreed that the 1990’s was the warmest decade, and 2005 the warmest year in a millennium. The projected rate of increase in global temperatures for the 21st century is likely to be the fastest of a century in the past thousand years.
Some of the causes of the trends are natural. However, scientists have now shown beyond reasonable doubt that global warming caused by human activities is also a key factor. Forest fires are expected to increase in frequency and severity. In some areas, it is estimated that fire frequency could double by 2069.
Changing patterns of precipitation (rainfall) are likely to be a further result of climate change, with a potentially significant impact on society and the environment. Urban drainage systems were designed on historic climate data and will not meet the challenges of the future. Leaving inevitable to significant increases in insurance claims costing lots of money and damaging the economy. Long-term historic climate patterns are now known to be much more volatile (varying extremes) than the stability of the last few hundred years. Until 30 years ago, most experts agreed that climate change occurs slowly.
Conclusion: We do not know what impact climate changes will have. But we do know that it presents society and the economy with increasing levels of risk and uncertainty as it seeks to manage risk.
As Earth gets hotter, these are some of the important changes that could happen:
Sea levels could also rise.
Cities on coasts would flood (e.g. The Netherlands and the whole of Bangladesh!)
Places that usually get lots of rain and snowfall might get hotter and drier.
Lakes and rivers could dry up.
There would be more droughts making hard to grow crops.
Less water would be available for drinking, showers and swimming pools.
Some plants and animals might become extinct because of the heat.
Acid rain could destroy forests and lake life (fish)
More hurricanes, tornadoes and other storms
More evaporation of water from the land.
by Louis
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:56 AM Permalink Comments (4) TrackBack (0)
Endangered Species
I think you should know what is happening to animals no: they are dying because of us. They have a hard time finding food because the food they live on is becoming rare. This is just the start of a food chain.
Here are some ways to save endangered species :
Don’t pollute forests and streets with plastic or cans because animals may think it is food, they will eat it and maybe die. Don’t pollute waters because animals drink from these and if the water they drink from has been polluted they will get ill. It will also kill fishes which means that birds that live on fish will die because there will be no more food for them.
Don’t use too much electricity (for example don’t watch too much TV and turn off lights when you don’t need them) because this creates global warming and is very bad for polar bears because their lands (the polar ice caps) are melting which means that polar bears will soon start drowning.
Put out food and water for birds, especially in winter.
Please follow these instructions and if you want to help even more, learn more about how you can save animals and share this information with everyone. To do that you can write blogs, make posters and write articles (just like me!).
Tess
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:52 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
Pollution
We should stop polluting the world. We don’t realise how much we are polluting. If we want to live longer and the world to stay good, we mustn’t give up . One country pollutes, not only Stopping polluting is a hard job. Try not to take plastic bags or take only one huge bag when you go shopping!. Try to take stuff that are ozone friendly. Try your best not to buy things which are not good for the ozone layer or which come from other countries or which are out of season; it their country is affected but others also. We won’t give up; we have to work for everything we gain.makes a lot of pollution to transport them from one country to another.
If there are any waste things you see on the road. I request you to pick it up. If you leave some plastic things on the road it will stay forever which will make pollution. We should stop killing animals because after it has to go in some specific factories to be disinfected and processed; then we have to pack it; all of which makes pollution.
Ishan
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:18 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 04, 2007
The Climate divide: Two billions of people threatened of "food insecurity"
This week in Brussels there is a meeting of a group of experts to discuss climate change. The aim of this meeting (which is a follow up of the meeting that took place two months ago in Paris where the scientists discuss the results of the research on climate change and agreed on the reality of the change and on the responsibility of human beings in the change) is to agree on a "summary for political leaders" to help them make decisions.
Today in Liberation, a French newspaper, there was an interview of a French agronomist, Jean-Francois Soussana (INRA) who was saying that although the impact of climate change are still not clear, there are yet enough data showing that climate change have an impact of food resources and potential risks of starvation - due to the extreme changes in climate, droughts and changes in rain falls during the year. The main impact is on crops. The impact started to be noticed in tropical areas, but it also now starts to show in temperate and cold countries.
The region the most at risk is Africa (both because of climatic but also socio-economic reasons) [ see posts of February 12 and 22nd] but it also has an impact in other regions of the world. Soussana says that agriculture can evolve and adjust to the changes. The problem is that it all depends on how fast the change will be.
More at http://www.liberation.fr//actualite/terre/245419.FR.php?utk=00779aa6
As noted above, and also in previous posts, Africa and developing countries at large seem to be paying a higher price, while contributing the least in the production of carbon dioxide. These countries, which “suffer” more, are also the poorest.
Therefore some academics and politicians are now suggesting "the first world owes the third world a climate debt"" “We have an obligation to help countries prepare for the climate changes that we are largely responsible for,” said Peter H. Gleick, the founder of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Berkeley, Calif. His institute has been tracking trends like the burst of new desalination plants in wealthy places running short of water.
“If you drive your car into your neighbor’s living room, don’t you owe your neighbor something?” Dr. Gleick said. “On this planet, we’re driving the climate car into our neighbors’ living room, and they don’t have insurance and we do.” " (quoted in NY Times)
The children in the Philosophy Lunch Club (PS58) mentionned several times (Posts of February 2nd and March 16) the inequalities in terms of impact (bigger or smaller, droughts or floods) as well as who was concerned (human beings vs. animals, and differences among countries). They might want (and you might want to) to read 4 stories about the "climate divide" that show how people in different parts of world are affected by global warming.
More on the climate divide at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/earth/03clim.html?ref=science
Posted by ALF on April 04, 2007 at 10:14 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 03, 2007
An island disappearing in the Pacific
A friend of our mummy sent her a video about an island in the middle of the Pacific - very far away - nearby Australia and New Zealand, and Singapore... This island is not even as big as New York. It is very beautiful and people look happy. It is disappearing because of global warming. This is very sad. One of the teachers on the island says she believes in God and that he promised he would not flood the Earth, but the President of this island does not believe in that and he is very worried for his island. He says that in 50 years from now the island will be under water. When there is a storm, the waves go very far inside the land. Some people are scared and they took the plane to go and live somewhere else. It is sad.
You can read the whole story or see the video at:http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3002425http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=3001691&page=1
jyoti and melchior, PS58
Posted by ALF on April 03, 2007 at 09:21 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 02, 2007
A video to save polar bears
I like polar bears and I'm interested in them. I don't want them to die. If they do, they will become extinct. They are in danger because of global warming, so we need to stop global warming.
There are many people that I know who like polar bears, and like me they don't want to see them dying.
Maybe it will take time to stop global warming but if we stop rigth now, we will be able to stop it. It's just like when you hurt yoursefl. If you hurt yourself, you don't keep doing what you did to hurt yourself. You stop. If not, it keeps getting worse and worse.
Here is a video on polar bears.
April 25, 2007
The Kids maybe be alright after all
Here is a post on a the Lantern blog by Mia MacDonald who was attending the Eearh Day celebration at PS58 last Friday:
"The Friday before I had an unusual experience: attending an Earth Day fair organized by my local grade school, P.S. 58. I was there to represent the Carroll Gardens Community Supported Agriculture program but a side benefit was getting to see a bunch of little kids have serious fun raising awareness of the need for us to protect and respect the Earth. The 5, 6 and 7 year-olds sang their hearts out and they, and the lyrics, were very good (it put my grade school renditions of "Feeling Groovy" to shame). Here's an excerpt from two:
"Song of the Polar Bears"
...Their icebergs are meltingBecause of the ways we've been living...Here's what we have to doWe need to drive lessWe need to be less careless...We need to plant a tree or two
"Animals Need Our Help"
What does it mean to be endangered?It means there are very few left...How does it happen?Because of our actions...We need to help themWe need to save them...We should stop spreading outAnd share the EarthWe should stop wearing furI think that will help
As I heard the kids sing, destined like us adults to be serious greenhouse gas emitters over their lifetimes unless the U.S. changes course radically, I couldn't help but feel that here, despite that, something good and important was taking place. When little kids are singing words like "ozone" and "extinction" and "peril" it can't be all bad, unless it's only one day a year. Somehow, I got the sense it wouldn't be that. The kids may be alright after all."
http://lanternbooks.com/blog/entry.php?id=516
Posted by ALF on April 25, 2007 at 12:09 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 23, 2007
Earth Day Celebration at PS 58
Please go and check the pictures from the Earth Day Celebration in the photo album... As you will see it was a great success!
Thank you to Ms Marsh who started this project with the First Graders and got all the other teachers involved.
Thank you also to the First Grade teachers- Ms. Young, Dello Stritto Ardito and Dunford, Mr Nick (the Music teacher, who wrote the songs with the children), Ms Dold for the sculptures with recyclable materials.
Thank you also to Mr Wynne, the Science teacher for grades 2-5 who helped and got the upper grades involved in the project.
And of course, thank you to the First Graders for their interest, commitment, questions and ideas... and to all the other children at PS 58 and their parents...
The Earth day was not the end of Little Grassroots, but a celebration!
Soon pictures of some of the science projects of the First Graders!
Posted by ALF on April 23, 2007 at 12:54 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 21, 2007
A One Planet Life
care2.com are encouraging people to sign a petition to live a one planet life. If you want to know what this means, watch their video:http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/666393111?ltl=1177184892
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 21, 2007 at 03:54 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 20, 2007
Earth Day
Earth Day
At KinderCorner we have been reading stories about our beautiful Earth and how all of us can help take care of our Earth. This week we went to
KentRidge Park for a long ‘Nature Walk’ and looked at all the different trees and living things. We saw squirrels eating the fruit on the trees; turtles and fishes swimming in the small lake; a monitor lizard and lots of different ants. We also saw a bird’s nest high up in a tree. This reminded us of the little sunbird that made a nest outside the Nursery class. We watched the small bird collect twigs and anything it could find to make its nest (in just four days). The next week, after Easter, the little bird sat in the nest often. This week we peeped in and saw that there were two very small eggs. The little bird stayed in the nest most of the time after that. On Wednesday we felt very sad because when she was away from the nest for a little while a bigger bird came and stole the eggs. Our teacher saw the bird but was unable to save the eggs. Later the little sunbird came back and flew around and around in an agitated way making a ‘call’. She hasn’t come back anymore.
We have shared some thoughts and had some discussions about the harmful effects of pollution, extinct and endangered animals and why we should try and save electricity and water. We have been drawing and writing about this.
Many of the shops in
Singaporeare now encouraging people to use their own reusable bags, not plastic bags. We think this is good.
We have been singing the song ‘A Song for Earth’ at school, you might like to sing the song too.
The stories we have been reading this week are:
Dear Children of the Earth – A letter from Home
The Lorax
The Mountain that Loved the Bird
The Great Outdoors – Saving Habitats
Have a great Earth Day everyone.
The sunbird's nest.
The eggs.
The bird sitting on her eggs.
Bamboo.
A nest in the tree. can you spot it?
Walking further into the park.
We found a small frog.
Posted by Kindercorner @ Singapore on April 20, 2007 at 05:25 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
April 18, 2007
EARTH DAY!
Earth Day is almost here! We are getting ready for our celebration on Friday. The school is filled with projects on endangered animals, water conservation, global warming, recycling and many other topics! On Friday our school community will gather together to sing songs about the Earth (that we wrote!), read poems, share reports and even show a movie that a second grader made. The movie can be viewed on you tube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ckxynzs1zu. I encourage everyone to view it!
The festivities will continue after school when guest speaker Colin Beavan, "The No Impact Man," will be visiting to tell us about his environmental experiment. We will also kick off the gardening season by opening a new school garden! Other activities include garden rock painting, making bird feeders, building recyclable structures and reading classic stories about the Earth, like The Lorax. If you are in the area, I encourage you to come on over to PS 58 from 3-5 in Brooklyn! Have a great Earth Day everyone!
Posted by PS 58 on April 18, 2007 at 04:37 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
From Fulham Prep
The children from Fulham Prep posted comments on different posts.
Plastig bags:
- I think that it's ok to have plastic bags. How else would u carry them. And if u try to stop airoplane flights how would we get to these other lovely country's. Charlie Cassey
- I think it is a good idea that people in U.S.A and France. In my family we save are plastic bags so we don't need to wastse the Sainsury's plastic ag and i do think it is a good idea to charge plastic bags in the U.S.A and France, it is a brilliant idea according to my family and I. Itamar Rashkovsky
-in Australia in the stores u have to pay for the plastic bags and also they provid reusable ones. Amelia
-in France you have to pay for bags to carry your food and things that you have bought in.Also when i went to Ikea you also had to pay for bags to carry your things in. Catriona Bruce
- i think that people should bring their own bags to go shopping whith then they will be helping the world ,also because the shop will not have to spend money on the bags anymore they will be helping the shop. Eloise Fuller
-hello i always reycicle my plastic bags and bottles bertram m
- I think that we should do something about plastic bags. i think that paying for them is a very good idea, because it makes people use less of them each day. billions are wasted every day.DO SOMETHING TO HELP!!!! Ella Ross
What else could we do to stop global warming:
- i think u should have a certant amount of petrol a day. Amelia
- i think petrol cars should be banned for a long time because if we did not have invented petrol cars nobody would think there was anything better than electric cars. Lucy Penswick
-In Sainsburys (A big supermarket in the UK) are now encouraging people to buy a special bag that you use again and again. Sam W
-I think it is silly if we use materials and then just put them in the bin and forget about them. We should use them more than once. Ludo M
-I think people should not use big fancy cars just to show off its a waste of money and it damages the environment a lot. Matthieu Ortiz
- on earth day last year I planted 12 new plants in my garden, ate only organic fruit.this my sound crazy but it was quite fun. Lucy Penswick
Posted by ALF on April 18, 2007 at 08:15 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
April 16, 2007
Getting rid of plastic bags?
After discussing the No Impact experiment, the First graders of PS 58 started thinking about what they could concretely do, what they could give up ... Colin Beaver aka No Impact Man in his reply to them suggested that we could think not only of giving up, but also of doing things... One of his examples was: pick up a plastic bag if you see one of the ground... This example sadly resonated to me as I remembered the plastic bag stuck in the branches of a tree in front of our house, or as I thought of these windy mornings where plastic bags are flying in the streets in our neighborhood.
Yesterday there was an editorial article in the New York Times on Plastic Bags:
"Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags every year, mountains of plastic that can last for 1,000 years, give or take a few centuries. And when they are not properly thrown away, they litter the countryside, killing birds or choking creatures like sea turtles. The bags now flap from so many bushes and trees that some South Africans started calling them their national flower."
Several children in fact told me about how dangerous plastic bags were for sea turtles and other animals! But do we, as parents, think about it? I found myself in the last week being asked a few times if I wanted a plastic bag and replying "no, thank you".
It seems that "San Francisco has become the first major city to start banning nonbiodegradable plastic bags in its larger grocery stores and pharmacies."... And I remember this little supermarket in Paris where two years ago management decided to ban plastic bags. The first week they gave each of their customers one carryall and then started selling them...
Ikea has started a campaign "Bag the Plastic Bag" in America, charging customers for plastic bags (the money goes to a conservation group) and encouraging them to bring their own. The good news is that while their aim "was to cut plastic bag use in half — from 70 million per year to 35 million — but it has already done far better than that, cutting use by 80 percent."
So let's try to educate people so that they don't throw plastic bags, let's pick them up if we see them on the ground, and let's try to stop using them as much as we can... Reading all the recent posts from PS58 and the Leonard De Vinci School, I feel quite positive... and I think we, as adults will have a harder time than children! :-)
Read the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/opinion/15sun3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Posted by ALF on April 16, 2007 at 02:36 PM Permalink Comments (6) TrackBack (0)
Flight of the Future
Windream One is an attempt to fly a sail balloon driven only by natural and renewable energy sources (wind and solar power) across the Atlantic Ocean. The ten day flight is scheduled for next year. Will this be the way to travel in the future? To find out more: http://www.teamtheolia.com/index_uk.php
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 16, 2007 at 12:51 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 13, 2007
Could You Lower YOUR Impact?
We are getting ready and excited for our Earth Day celebration at PS 58! This week we were talking about our guest speaker, the "No Impact Man." We discussed what it means to make an impact on the Earth and what Mr. Beavan is doing in order to make no impact. After listing some of the things that Mr. Beavan was doing- no garbage, no TV, no subway, we asked ourselves, "What would we be willing to give up in order to help the Earth?" We struggled with this question. Some were willing to give up many things, but others were more hesitant. This is the list of things that the first graders thought they could give up for a year, if it would help the Earth:
-Cars- "Even though my mom wouldn't like it, I could ride my skateboard instead."
-Video games/ Gameworks (this item was heavily disputed!)
-Avocado
-Trains "I would ride my bike or scooter instead!"
-Radio- "We could read or play games with our families instead."
-TV (many students disagreed on giving this up)
-Paper towels- "We would use rags instead and wash them."
-VCR
-Toilet paper- "But I wouldn't let my mom find out."
One student pointed out that many people are, "just plain lazy and drive their cars one block. People need to THINK before they ACT!" This discussion gave us a new respect for the No Impact Man's experiment. Most agreed that it would be extremely hard to give up these things. We decided that it would be more realistic to USE LESS. We can't wait to meet the No Impact Man. What would YOU be willing to give up for the Earth?
Posted by PS 58 on April 13, 2007 at 05:15 PM Permalink Comments (3) TrackBack (0)
April 12, 2007
Can one person slow global warming?
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20070409,00.html
A special issue of the Time Magazine on global warming, with an article on how the most vulnerable coastal communities are taking actions to avoid floods and consequences of the sea's rise, and an article providing a big picture of climate change, its causes (there are many) and different ways of trying to fix it. As the journalist wrote "There's a role for big thinkers, power players, those with deep pockets--and the rest of us"...
And as they claim that we can all do something to make things better, they provide us with a guide of 51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment - several have already been suggested by the children posting on Little Grassroots, but you might still want to have a look, especially as the Earth day celebration is coming soon. Check it out at http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/article/0,28804,1602354_1603074,00.html
Posted by ALF on April 12, 2007 at 02:53 PM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
Earth Day
April 22 is Earth Day! Everyone can participate by doing something for the planet on that day - not driving the car, planting flowers or trees, buying local, preferably organic produce, etc. Check out the WWF site and this link for more ideas!http://www.worldwildlife.org/earthday/index.cfm?enews=T4CfinalT
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 12, 2007 at 06:37 AM Permalink Comments (3) TrackBack (0)
April 11, 2007
Sea’s Rise in India Buries Islands
Today there was an article in the New York Times on Ghomara Island in India that reminded me of the article posted by Melchior and Jyoti on April 3rd on an island disappearing in the Pacific. The article tells the story of Ghomara, a fragile delta island near the Bay of Bengal. Half of it has sunk into the river.The sinking of Ghoramara can be attributed to several causes, one of them being the rising sea and the rivers pouring down from the Himalayas. Of course, islands erode and shift size and shape and there is nothing abnormal about change. Yet, "there is little doubt, scientists say, that human-induced climate change has made them particularly vulnerable. A recent study by Sugata Hazra, an oceanographer at Jadavpur University in nearby Calcutta, found that in the last 30 years, nearly 31 square miles of the Sundarbans have vanished entirely."
Ghomara's size is half of the size it was in 1969 and two other islands have vanished. Hundred of families have to be displaced as their houses disappear under water. And it's not like it's an area where only few people live: four million people live here on the Indian side of the border alone! (On the other side of the border it is Bangladesh).
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming, spurred by the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could raise the ocean’s surface as much as 23 inches by 2100. [According to the panel’s latest report, released in early April, the ecology and people of this river delta system are among the most vulnerable in the world.]"
And as highlighted several times recently on this blog, the inhabitants of Ghoraman (farmers and fishermen) and the other Sundarbans islands are far too poor to produce much carbon emissions, but they are the ones who "feel the assault already"!
Read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/world/asia/11india.html?th&emc=th
Posted by ALF on April 11, 2007 at 11:17 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 07, 2007
Second scientific report presented in Brussels: more details on climate change, from Poles to Tropics
In Brussels, yesterday more than 200 scientists presented a second report on climate change (the first one was presented in February in Paris). This report insists on the impact of climate change. It predicts "widening droughts in southern Europe and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, the American Southwest and Mexico, and flooding that could imperil low-lying islands and the crowded river deltas of southern Asia".
This panel of scientists also stressed that many of the regions facing the greatest risks were among the world’s poorest.
“It’s the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit,” said Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the panel. “People who are poor are least-equipped to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and therefore in some sense this does become a global responsibility in my view.”
The report written was 1,572 pages! There was also a 21-page summary, which was endorsed by officials from more than 120 countries, including the United States. One of the aim of this meeting was to make the governments and political leaders more aware and committed to take action. The scientists insisted on the need for governments to organize and plan in order to address these changes. The report is expected to be discussed at a summit meeting of the Group of 8 industrial powers in Germany in June.
Read the whole article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/science/earth/07climate.html?th&emc=th
Posted by ALF on April 07, 2007 at 12:17 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 06, 2007
In France ...
A whole week of demonstrations, open days, etc to promote interest and awareness of environmental issues has been taking place in France. To find out what's been going on in France, check this site out:www.semainedudeveloppementdurable.gouv.fr
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 06, 2007 at 03:04 PM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
April 05, 2007
Transport! Shopping! Animals!
We need to stop polluting the earth because it will damage the ozone layer! We need to use cars less than we do now, and use bicycles more often. We should stop all that food transport, for example selling strawberries in winter - we have to bring them from hot countries.
We should all be careful of what we buy, like eat certain fruits when when it is winter for example strawberries, it is not good!
They have been brought from very very far away! We should think to buy Bio (organic) food also.
We need to stop taking plastic bags because when you don’t need them any more they will be trashed, and they don’t decompose! So we need to buy big bags (very cheap) and the good thing is that they are reusable.
All this we need to stop, you should know by know that some animals almost die or have a hard time to live! For example, a lake has been polluted, so the fishes in it will die.
Then the birds that eat those birds come.
There are no more fishes so they don’t have any food to eat and they will die! This is happening “almost” for all animals! We should stop cutting down trees because this will destroy some of the animals’ habitats.
Iscia
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:59 AM Permalink Comments (2) TrackBack (0)
GLOBAL WARMING CAUSES CLIMATE CHANGE
Global warming causes climate change. Why? Because the gases we are releasing from pollution, bad shopping, transport, animal waste and power stations make the ozone layer (a sort of shield protecting us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays) weaker, allowing the boiling heat of the sun come to earth. Because of this Californian, Florida and Carolina beaches will be nothing but wilderness in a few years time.
The sea temperatures are key ingredients to windstorm formation. The hurricane season and Typhoon season exist because the sea is at the right temperature for a few months each year to allow a few storms to form. Overall sea surface temperatures have risen between 0.2° to 0.6°c over past centuries according to climate models and observations. Also, in addition to sea temperatures, land and air temperature provide an important measure of climate variation, and have been reliably monitored for many decades. It is generally agreed that the 1990’s was the warmest decade, and 2005 the warmest year in a millennium. The projected rate of increase in global temperatures for the 21st century is likely to be the fastest of a century in the past thousand years.
Some of the causes of the trends are natural. However, scientists have now shown beyond reasonable doubt that global warming caused by human activities is also a key factor. Forest fires are expected to increase in frequency and severity. In some areas, it is estimated that fire frequency could double by 2069.
Changing patterns of precipitation (rainfall) are likely to be a further result of climate change, with a potentially significant impact on society and the environment. Urban drainage systems were designed on historic climate data and will not meet the challenges of the future. Leaving inevitable to significant increases in insurance claims costing lots of money and damaging the economy. Long-term historic climate patterns are now known to be much more volatile (varying extremes) than the stability of the last few hundred years. Until 30 years ago, most experts agreed that climate change occurs slowly.
Conclusion: We do not know what impact climate changes will have. But we do know that it presents society and the economy with increasing levels of risk and uncertainty as it seeks to manage risk.
As Earth gets hotter, these are some of the important changes that could happen:
Sea levels could also rise.
Cities on coasts would flood (e.g. The Netherlands and the whole of Bangladesh!)
Places that usually get lots of rain and snowfall might get hotter and drier.
Lakes and rivers could dry up.
There would be more droughts making hard to grow crops.
Less water would be available for drinking, showers and swimming pools.
Some plants and animals might become extinct because of the heat.
Acid rain could destroy forests and lake life (fish)
More hurricanes, tornadoes and other storms
More evaporation of water from the land.
by Louis
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:56 AM Permalink Comments (4) TrackBack (0)
Endangered Species
I think you should know what is happening to animals no: they are dying because of us. They have a hard time finding food because the food they live on is becoming rare. This is just the start of a food chain.
Here are some ways to save endangered species :
Don’t pollute forests and streets with plastic or cans because animals may think it is food, they will eat it and maybe die. Don’t pollute waters because animals drink from these and if the water they drink from has been polluted they will get ill. It will also kill fishes which means that birds that live on fish will die because there will be no more food for them.
Don’t use too much electricity (for example don’t watch too much TV and turn off lights when you don’t need them) because this creates global warming and is very bad for polar bears because their lands (the polar ice caps) are melting which means that polar bears will soon start drowning.
Put out food and water for birds, especially in winter.
Please follow these instructions and if you want to help even more, learn more about how you can save animals and share this information with everyone. To do that you can write blogs, make posters and write articles (just like me!).
Tess
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:52 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
Pollution
We should stop polluting the world. We don’t realise how much we are polluting. If we want to live longer and the world to stay good, we mustn’t give up . One country pollutes, not only their country is affected but others also. We won’t give up; we have to work for everything we gain. Stopping polluting is a hard job. Try not to take plastic bags or take only one huge bag when you go shopping!. Try to take stuff that are ozone friendly. Try your best not to buy things which are not good for the ozone layer or which come from other countries or which are out of season; it makes a lot of pollution to transport them from one country to another.
If there are any waste things you see on the road. I request you to pick it up. If you leave some plastic things on the road it will stay forever which will make pollution. We should stop killing animals because after it has to go in some specific factories to be disinfected and processed; then we have to pack it; all of which makes pollution.
Ishan
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:18 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 04, 2007
The Climate divide: Two billions of people threatened of "food insecurity"
This week in Brussels there is a meeting of a group of experts to discuss climate change. The aim of this meeting (which is a follow up of the meeting that took place two months ago in Paris where the scientists discuss the results of the research on climate change and agreed on the reality of the change and on the responsibility of human beings in the change) is to agree on a "summary for political leaders" to help them make decisions.
Today in Liberation, a French newspaper, there was an interview of a French agronomist, Jean-Francois Soussana (INRA) who was saying that although the impact of climate change are still not clear, there are yet enough data showing that climate change have an impact of food resources and potential risks of starvation - due to the extreme changes in climate, droughts and changes in rain falls during the year. The main impact is on crops. The impact started to be noticed in tropical areas, but it also now starts to show in temperate and cold countries.
The region the most at risk is Africa (both because of climatic but also socio-economic reasons) [ see posts of February 12 and 22nd] but it also has an impact in other regions of the world. Soussana says that agriculture can evolve and adjust to the changes. The problem is that it all depends on how fast the change will be.
More at http://www.liberation.fr//actualite/terre/245419.FR.php?utk=00779aa6
As noted above, and also in previous posts, Africa and developing countries at large seem to be paying a higher price, while contributing the least in the production of carbon dioxide. These countries, which “suffer” more, are also the poorest.
Therefore some academics and politicians are now suggesting "the first world owes the third world a climate debt"" “We have an obligation to help countries prepare for the climate changes that we are largely responsible for,” said Peter H. Gleick, the founder of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Berkeley, Calif. His institute has been tracking trends like the burst of new desalination plants in wealthy places running short of water.
“If you drive your car into your neighbor’s living room, don’t you owe your neighbor something?” Dr. Gleick said. “On this planet, we’re driving the climate car into our neighbors’ living room, and they don’t have insurance and we do.” " (quoted in NY Times)
The children in the Philosophy Lunch Club (PS58) mentionned several times (Posts of February 2nd and March 16) the inequalities in terms of impact (bigger or smaller, droughts or floods) as well as who was concerned (human beings vs. animals, and differences among countries). They might want (and you might want to) to read 4 stories about the "climate divide" that show how people in different parts of world are affected by global warming.
More on the climate divide at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/earth/03clim.html?ref=science
Posted by ALF on April 04, 2007 at 10:14 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 03, 2007
An island disappearing in the Pacific
A friend of our mummy sent her a video about an island in the middle of the Pacific - very far away - nearby Australia and New Zealand, and Singapore... This island is not even as big as New York. It is very beautiful and people look happy. It is disappearing because of global warming. This is very sad. One of the teachers on the island says she believes in God and that he promised he would not flood the Earth, but the President of this island does not believe in that and he is very worried for his island. He says that in 50 years from now the island will be under water. When there is a storm, the waves go very far inside the land. Some people are scared and they took the plane to go and live somewhere else. It is sad.
You can read the whole story or see the video at:http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3002425http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=3001691&page=1
jyoti and melchior, PS58
Posted by ALF on April 03, 2007 at 09:21 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 02, 2007
A video to save polar bears
I like polar bears and I'm interested in them. I don't want them to die. If they do, they will become extinct. They are in danger because of global warming, so we need to stop global warming.
There are many people that I know who like polar bears, and like me they don't want to see them dying.
Maybe it will take time to stop global warming but if we stop rigth now, we will be able to stop it. It's just like when you hurt yoursefl. If you hurt yourself, you don't keep doing what you did to hurt yourself. You stop. If not, it keeps getting worse and worse.
Here is a video on polar bears.
April 25, 2007
The Kids maybe be alright after all
Here is a post on a the Lantern blog by Mia MacDonald who was attending the Eearh Day celebration at PS58 last Friday:
"The Friday before I had an unusual experience: attending an Earth Day fair organized by my local grade school, P.S. 58. I was there to represent the Carroll Gardens Community Supported Agriculture program but a side benefit was getting to see a bunch of little kids have serious fun raising awareness of the need for us to protect and respect the Earth. The 5, 6 and 7 year-olds sang their hearts out and they, and the lyrics, were very good (it put my grade school renditions of "Feeling Groovy" to shame). Here's an excerpt from two:
"Song of the Polar Bears"
...Their icebergs are meltingBecause of the ways we've been living...Here's what we have to doWe need to drive lessWe need to be less careless...We need to plant a tree or two
"Animals Need Our Help"
What does it mean to be endangered?It means there are very few left...How does it happen?Because of our actions...We need to help themWe need to save them...We should stop spreading outAnd share the EarthWe should stop wearing furI think that will help
As I heard the kids sing, destined like us adults to be serious greenhouse gas emitters over their lifetimes unless the U.S. changes course radically, I couldn't help but feel that here, despite that, something good and important was taking place. When little kids are singing words like "ozone" and "extinction" and "peril" it can't be all bad, unless it's only one day a year. Somehow, I got the sense it wouldn't be that. The kids may be alright after all."
http://lanternbooks.com/blog/entry.php?id=516
Posted by ALF on April 25, 2007 at 12:09 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 23, 2007
Earth Day Celebration at PS 58
Please go and check the pictures from the Earth Day Celebration in the photo album... As you will see it was a great success!
Thank you to Ms Marsh who started this project with the First Graders and got all the other teachers involved.
Thank you also to the First Grade teachers- Ms. Young, Dello Stritto Ardito and Dunford, Mr Nick (the Music teacher, who wrote the songs with the children), Ms Dold for the sculptures with recyclable materials.
Thank you also to Mr Wynne, the Science teacher for grades 2-5 who helped and got the upper grades involved in the project.
And of course, thank you to the First Graders for their interest, commitment, questions and ideas... and to all the other children at PS 58 and their parents...
The Earth day was not the end of Little Grassroots, but a celebration!
Soon pictures of some of the science projects of the First Graders!
Posted by ALF on April 23, 2007 at 12:54 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 21, 2007
A One Planet Life
care2.com are encouraging people to sign a petition to live a one planet life. If you want to know what this means, watch their video:http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/666393111?ltl=1177184892
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 21, 2007 at 03:54 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 20, 2007
Earth Day
Earth Day
At KinderCorner we have been reading stories about our beautiful Earth and how all of us can help take care of our Earth. This week we went to
KentRidge Park for a long ‘Nature Walk’ and looked at all the different trees and living things. We saw squirrels eating the fruit on the trees; turtles and fishes swimming in the small lake; a monitor lizard and lots of different ants. We also saw a bird’s nest high up in a tree. This reminded us of the little sunbird that made a nest outside the Nursery class. We watched the small bird collect twigs and anything it could find to make its nest (in just four days). The next week, after Easter, the little bird sat in the nest often. This week we peeped in and saw that there were two very small eggs. The little bird stayed in the nest most of the time after that. On Wednesday we felt very sad because when she was away from the nest for a little while a bigger bird came and stole the eggs. Our teacher saw the bird but was unable to save the eggs. Later the little sunbird came back and flew around and around in an agitated way making a ‘call’. She hasn’t come back anymore.
We have shared some thoughts and had some discussions about the harmful effects of pollution, extinct and endangered animals and why we should try and save electricity and water. We have been drawing and writing about this.
Many of the shops in
Singaporeare now encouraging people to use their own reusable bags, not plastic bags. We think this is good.
We have been singing the song ‘A Song for Earth’ at school, you might like to sing the song too.
The stories we have been reading this week are:
Dear Children of the Earth – A letter from Home
The Lorax
The Mountain that Loved the Bird
The Great Outdoors – Saving Habitats
Have a great Earth Day everyone.
The sunbird's nest.
The eggs.
The bird sitting on her eggs.
Bamboo.
A nest in the tree. can you spot it?
Walking further into the park.
We found a small frog.
Posted by Kindercorner @ Singapore on April 20, 2007 at 05:25 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
April 18, 2007
EARTH DAY!
Earth Day is almost here! We are getting ready for our celebration on Friday. The school is filled with projects on endangered animals, water conservation, global warming, recycling and many other topics! On Friday our school community will gather together to sing songs about the Earth (that we wrote!), read poems, share reports and even show a movie that a second grader made. The movie can be viewed on you tube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ckxynzs1zu. I encourage everyone to view it!
The festivities will continue after school when guest speaker Colin Beavan, "The No Impact Man," will be visiting to tell us about his environmental experiment. We will also kick off the gardening season by opening a new school garden! Other activities include garden rock painting, making bird feeders, building recyclable structures and reading classic stories about the Earth, like The Lorax. If you are in the area, I encourage you to come on over to PS 58 from 3-5 in Brooklyn! Have a great Earth Day everyone!
Posted by PS 58 on April 18, 2007 at 04:37 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
From Fulham Prep
The children from Fulham Prep posted comments on different posts.
Plastig bags:
- I think that it's ok to have plastic bags. How else would u carry them. And if u try to stop airoplane flights how would we get to these other lovely country's. Charlie Cassey
- I think it is a good idea that people in U.S.A and France. In my family we save are plastic bags so we don't need to wastse the Sainsury's plastic ag and i do think it is a good idea to charge plastic bags in the U.S.A and France, it is a brilliant idea according to my family and I. Itamar Rashkovsky
-in Australia in the stores u have to pay for the plastic bags and also they provid reusable ones. Amelia
-in France you have to pay for bags to carry your food and things that you have bought in.Also when i went to Ikea you also had to pay for bags to carry your things in. Catriona Bruce
- i think that people should bring their own bags to go shopping whith then they will be helping the world ,also because the shop will not have to spend money on the bags anymore they will be helping the shop. Eloise Fuller
-hello i always reycicle my plastic bags and bottles bertram m
- I think that we should do something about plastic bags. i think that paying for them is a very good idea, because it makes people use less of them each day. billions are wasted every day.DO SOMETHING TO HELP!!!! Ella Ross
What else could we do to stop global warming:
- i think u should have a certant amount of petrol a day. Amelia
- i think petrol cars should be banned for a long time because if we did not have invented petrol cars nobody would think there was anything better than electric cars. Lucy Penswick
-In Sainsburys (A big supermarket in the UK) are now encouraging people to buy a special bag that you use again and again. Sam W
-I think it is silly if we use materials and then just put them in the bin and forget about them. We should use them more than once. Ludo M
-I think people should not use big fancy cars just to show off its a waste of money and it damages the environment a lot. Matthieu Ortiz
- on earth day last year I planted 12 new plants in my garden, ate only organic fruit.this my sound crazy but it was quite fun. Lucy Penswick
Posted by ALF on April 18, 2007 at 08:15 AM
April 16, 2007
Getting rid of plastic bags?
After discussing the No Impact experiment, the First graders of PS 58 started thinking about what they could concretely do, what they could give up ... Colin Beaver aka No Impact Man in his reply to them suggested that we could think not only of giving up, but also of doing things... One of his examples was: pick up a plastic bag if you see one of the ground... This example sadly resonated to me as I remembered the plastic bag stuck in the branches of a tree in front of our house, or as I thought of these windy mornings where plastic bags are flying in the streets in our neighborhood.
Yesterday there was an editorial article in the New York Times on Plastic Bags:
"Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags every year, mountains of plastic that can last for 1,000 years, give or take a few centuries. And when they are not properly thrown away, they litter the countryside, killing birds or choking creatures like sea turtles. The bags now flap from so many bushes and trees that some South Africans started calling them their national flower."
Several children in fact told me about how dangerous plastic bags were for sea turtles and other animals! But do we, as parents, think about it? I found myself in the last week being asked a few times if I wanted a plastic bag and replying "no, thank you".
It seems that "San Francisco has become the first major city to start banning nonbiodegradable plastic bags in its larger grocery stores and pharmacies."... And I remember this little supermarket in Paris where two years ago management decided to ban plastic bags. The first week they gave each of their customers one carryall and then started selling them...
Ikea has started a campaign "Bag the Plastic Bag" in America, charging customers for plastic bags (the money goes to a conservation group) and encouraging them to bring their own. The good news is that while their aim "was to cut plastic bag use in half — from 70 million per year to 35 million — but it has already done far better than that, cutting use by 80 percent."
So let's try to educate people so that they don't throw plastic bags, let's pick them up if we see them on the ground, and let's try to stop using them as much as we can... Reading all the recent posts from PS58 and the Leonard De Vinci School, I feel quite positive... and I think we, as adults will have a harder time than children! :-)
Read the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/opinion/15sun3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Posted by ALF on April 16, 2007 at 02:36 PM
Flight of the Future
Windream One is an attempt to fly a sail balloon driven only by natural and renewable energy sources (wind and solar power) across the Atlantic Ocean. The ten day flight is scheduled for next year. Will this be the way to travel in the future? To find out more: http://www.teamtheolia.com/index_uk.php
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 16, 2007 at 12:51 PM April 13, 2007
Could You Lower YOUR Impact?
We are getting ready and excited for our Earth Day celebration at PS 58! This week we were talking about our guest speaker, the "No Impact Man." We discussed what it means to make an impact on the Earth and what Mr. Beavan is doing in order to make no impact. After listing some of the things that Mr. Beavan was doing- no garbage, no TV, no subway, we asked ourselves, "What would we be willing to give up in order to help the Earth?" We struggled with this question. Some were willing to give up many things, but others were more hesitant. This is the list of things that the first graders thought they could give up for a year, if it would help the Earth:
-Cars- "Even though my mom wouldn't like it, I could ride my skateboard instead."
-Video games/ Gameworks (this item was heavily disputed!)
-Avocado
-Trains "I would ride my bike or scooter instead!"
-Radio- "We could read or play games with our families instead."
-TV (many students disagreed on giving this up)
-Paper towels- "We would use rags instead and wash them."
-VCR
-Toilet paper- "But I wouldn't let my mom find out."
One student pointed out that many people are, "just plain lazy and drive their cars one block. People need to THINK before they ACT!" This discussion gave us a new respect for the No Impact Man's experiment. Most agreed that it would be extremely hard to give up these things. We decided that it would be more realistic to USE LESS. We can't wait to meet the No Impact Man. What would YOU be willing to give up for the Earth?
Posted by PS 58 on April 13, 2007 at 05:15 PM April 12, 2007
Can one person slow global warming?
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20070409,00.html
A special issue of the Time Magazine on global warming, with an article on how the most vulnerable coastal communities are taking actions to avoid floods and consequences of the sea's rise, and an article providing a big picture of climate change, its causes (there are many) and different ways of trying to fix it. As the journalist wrote "There's a role for big thinkers, power players, those with deep pockets--and the rest of us"...
And as they claim that we can all do something to make things better, they provide us with a guide of 51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment - several have already been suggested by the children posting on Little Grassroots, but you might still want to have a look, especially as the Earth day celebration is coming soon. Check it out at http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/article/0,28804,1602354_1603074,00.html
Posted by ALF on April 12, 2007 at 02:53 PM
Earth Day
April 22 is Earth Day! Everyone can participate by doing something for the planet on that day - not driving the car, planting flowers or trees, buying local, preferably organic produce, etc. Check out the WWF site and this link for more ideas!http://www.worldwildlife.org/earthday/index.cfm?enews=T4CfinalT
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 12, 2007 at 06:37 AM Permalink Comments (3) TrackBack (0)
April 11, 2007
Sea’s Rise in India Buries Islands
Today there was an article in the New York Times on Ghomara Island in India that reminded me of the article posted by Melchior and Jyoti on April 3rd on an island disappearing in the Pacific. The article tells the story of Ghomara, a fragile delta island near the Bay of Bengal. Half of it has sunk into the river.The sinking of Ghoramara can be attributed to several causes, one of them being the rising sea and the rivers pouring down from the Himalayas. Of course, islands erode and shift size and shape and there is nothing abnormal about change. Yet, "there is little doubt, scientists say, that human-induced climate change has made them particularly vulnerable. A recent study by Sugata Hazra, an oceanographer at Jadavpur University in nearby Calcutta, found that in the last 30 years, nearly 31 square miles of the Sundarbans have vanished entirely."
Ghomara's size is half of the size it was in 1969 and two other islands have vanished. Hundred of families have to be displaced as their houses disappear under water. And it's not like it's an area where only few people live: four million people live here on the Indian side of the border alone! (On the other side of the border it is Bangladesh).
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming, spurred by the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could raise the ocean’s surface as much as 23 inches by 2100. [According to the panel’s latest report, released in early April, the ecology and people of this river delta system are among the most vulnerable in the world.]"
And as highlighted several times recently on this blog, the inhabitants of Ghoraman (farmers and fishermen) and the other Sundarbans islands are far too poor to produce much carbon emissions, but they are the ones who "feel the assault already"!
Read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/world/asia/11india.html?th&emc=th
Posted by ALF on April 11, 2007 at 11:17 AM
April 07, 2007
Second scientific report presented in Brussels: more details on climate change, from Poles to Tropics
In Brussels, yesterday more than 200 scientists presented a second report on climate change (the first one was presented in February in Paris). This report insists on the impact of climate change. It predicts "widening droughts in southern Europe and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, the American Southwest and Mexico, and flooding that could imperil low-lying islands and the crowded river deltas of southern Asia".
This panel of scientists also stressed that many of the regions facing the greatest risks were among the world’s poorest.
“It’s the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit,” said Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the panel. “People who are poor are least-equipped to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and therefore in some sense this does become a global responsibility in my view.”
The report written was 1,572 pages! There was also a 21-page summary, which was endorsed by officials from more than 120 countries, including the United States. One of the aim of this meeting was to make the governments and political leaders more aware and committed to take action. The scientists insisted on the need for governments to organize and plan in order to address these changes. The report is expected to be discussed at a summit meeting of the Group of 8 industrial powers in Germany in June.
Read the whole article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/science/earth/07climate.html?th&emc=th
Posted by ALF on April 07, 2007 at 12:17 PM
April 06, 2007
In France ...
A whole week of demonstrations, open days, etc to promote interest and awareness of environmental issues has been taking place in France. To find out what's been going on in France, check this site out:www.semainedudeveloppementdurable.gouv.fr
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 06, 2007 at 03:04 PM
Transport! Shopping! Animals!
We need to stop polluting the earth because it will damage the ozone layer! We need to use cars less than we do now, and use bicycles more often. We should stop all that food transport, for example selling strawberries in winter - we have to bring them from hot countries.
We should all be careful of what we buy, like eat certain fruits when when it is winter for example strawberries, it is not good!
They have been brought from very very far away! We should think to buy Bio (organic) food also.
We need to stop taking plastic bags because when you don’t need them any more they will be trashed, and they don’t decompose! So we need to buy big bags (very cheap) and the good thing is that they are reusable.
All this we need to stop, you should know by know that some animals almost die or have a hard time to live! For example, a lake has been polluted, so the fishes in it will die.
Then the birds that eat those birds come.
There are no more fishes so they don’t have any food to eat and they will die! This is happening “almost” for all animals! We should stop cutting down trees because this will destroy some of the animals’ habitats.
Iscia
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:59 AM GLOBAL WARMING CAUSES CLIMATE CHANGE
Global warming causes climate change. Why? Because the gases we are releasing from pollution, bad shopping, transport, animal waste and power stations make the ozone layer (a sort of shield protecting us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays) weaker, allowing the boiling heat of the sun come to earth. Because of this Californian, Florida and Carolina beaches will be nothing but wilderness in a few years time.
The sea temperatures are key ingredients to windstorm formation. The hurricane season and Typhoon season exist because the sea is at the right temperature for a few months each year to allow a few storms to form. Overall sea surface temperatures have risen between 0.2° to 0.6°c over past centuries according to climate models and observations. Also, in addition to sea temperatures, land and air temperature provide an important measure of climate variation, and have been reliably monitored for many decades. It is generally agreed that the 1990’s was the warmest decade, and 2005 the warmest year in a millennium. The projected rate of increase in global temperatures for the 21st century is likely to be the fastest of a century in the past thousand years.
Some of the causes of the trends are natural. However, scientists have now shown beyond reasonable doubt that global warming caused by human activities is also a key factor. Forest fires are expected to increase in frequency and severity. In some areas, it is estimated that fire frequency could double by 2069.
Changing patterns of precipitation (rainfall) are likely to be a further result of climate change, with a potentially significant impact on society and the environment. Urban drainage systems were designed on historic climate data and will not meet the challenges of the future. Leaving inevitable to significant increases in insurance claims costing lots of money and damaging the economy. Long-term historic climate patterns are now known to be much more volatile (varying extremes) than the stability of the last few hundred years. Until 30 years ago, most experts agreed that climate change occurs slowly.
Conclusion: We do not know what impact climate changes will have. But we do know that it presents society and the economy with increasing levels of risk and uncertainty as it seeks to manage risk.
As Earth gets hotter, these are some of the important changes that could happen:
Sea levels could also rise.
Cities on coasts would flood (e.g. The Netherlands and the whole of Bangladesh!)
Places that usually get lots of rain and snowfall might get hotter and drier.
Lakes and rivers could dry up.
There would be more droughts making hard to grow crops.
Less water would be available for drinking, showers and swimming pools.
Some plants and animals might become extinct because of the heat.
Acid rain could destroy forests and lake life (fish)
More hurricanes, tornadoes and other storms
More evaporation of water from the land.
by Louis
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:56 AM Permalink Comments (4) TrackBack (0)
Endangered Species
I think you should know what is happening to animals no: they are dying because of us. They have a hard time finding food because the food they live on is becoming rare. This is just the start of a food chain.
Here are some ways to save endangered species :
Don’t pollute forests and streets with plastic or cans because animals may think it is food, they will eat it and maybe die. Don’t pollute waters because animals drink from these and if the water they drink from has been polluted they will get ill. It will also kill fishes which means that birds that live on fish will die because there will be no more food for them.
Don’t use too much electricity (for example don’t watch too much TV and turn off lights when you don’t need them) because this creates global warming and is very bad for polar bears because their lands (the polar ice caps) are melting which means that polar bears will soon start drowning.
Put out food and water for birds, especially in winter.
Please follow these instructions and if you want to help even more, learn more about how you can save animals and share this information with everyone. To do that you can write blogs, make posters and write articles (just like me!).
Tess
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:52 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
Pollution
We should stop polluting the world. We don’t realise how much we are polluting. If we want to live longer and the world to stay good, we mustn’t give up . One country pollutes, not only their country is affected but others also. We won’t give up; we have to work for everything we gain. Stopping polluting is a hard job. Try not to take plastic bags or take only one huge bag when you go shopping!. Try to take stuff that are ozone friendly. Try your best not to buy things which are not good for the ozone layer or which come from other countries or which are out of season; it makes a lot of pollution to transport them from one country to another.
If there are any waste things you see on the road. I request you to pick it up. If you leave some plastic things on the road it will stay forever which will make pollution. We should stop killing animals because after it has to go in some specific factories to be disinfected and processed; then we have to pack it; all of which makes pollution.
Ishan
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:18 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 04, 2007
The Climate divide: Two billions of people threatened of "food insecurity"
This week in Brussels there is a meeting of a group of experts to discuss climate change. The aim of this meeting (which is a follow up of the meeting that took place two months ago in Paris where the scientists discuss the results of the research on climate change and agreed on the reality of the change and on the responsibility of human beings in the change) is to agree on a "summary for political leaders" to help them make decisions.
Today in Liberation, a French newspaper, there was an interview of a French agronomist, Jean-Francois Soussana (INRA) who was saying that although the impact of climate change are still not clear, there are yet enough data showing that climate change have an impact of food resources and potential risks of starvation - due to the extreme changes in climate, droughts and changes in rain falls during the year. The main impact is on crops. The impact started to be noticed in tropical areas, but it also now starts to show in temperate and cold countries.
The region the most at risk is Africa (both because of climatic but also socio-economic reasons) [ see posts of February 12 and 22nd] but it also has an impact in other regions of the world. Soussana says that agriculture can evolve and adjust to the changes. The problem is that it all depends on how fast the change will be.
More at http://www.liberation.fr//actualite/terre/245419.FR.php?utk=00779aa6
As noted above, and also in previous posts, Africa and developing countries at large seem to be paying a higher price, while contributing the least in the production of carbon dioxide. These countries, which “suffer” more, are also the poorest.
Therefore some academics and politicians are now suggesting "the first world owes the third world a climate debt"" “We have an obligation to help countries prepare for the climate changes that we are largely responsible for,” said Peter H. Gleick, the founder of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Berkeley, Calif. His institute has been tracking trends like the burst of new desalination plants in wealthy places running short of water.
“If you drive your car into your neighbor’s living room, don’t you owe your neighbor something?” Dr. Gleick said. “On this planet, we’re driving the climate car into our neighbors’ living room, and they don’t have insurance and we do.” " (quoted in NY Times)
The children in the Philosophy Lunch Club (PS58) mentionned several times (Posts of February 2nd and March 16) the inequalities in terms of impact (bigger or smaller, droughts or floods) as well as who was concerned (human beings vs. animals, and differences among countries). They might want (and you might want to) to read 4 stories about the "climate divide" that show how people in different parts of world are affected by global warming.
More on the climate divide at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/earth/03clim.html?ref=science
Posted by ALF on April 04, 2007 at 10:14 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 03, 2007
An island disappearing in the Pacific
A friend of our mummy sent her a video about an island in the middle of the Pacific - very far away - nearby Australia and New Zealand, and Singapore... This island is not even as big as New York. It is very beautiful and people look happy. It is disappearing because of global warming. This is very sad. One of the teachers on the island says she believes in God and that he promised he would not flood the Earth, but the President of this island does not believe in that and he is very worried for his island. He says that in 50 years from now the island will be under water. When there is a storm, the waves go very far inside the land. Some people are scared and they took the plane to go and live somewhere else. It is sad.
You can read the whole story or see the video at:http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3002425http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=3001691&page=1
jyoti and melchior, PS58
Posted by ALF on April 03, 2007 at 09:21 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 02, 2007
A video to save polar bears
I like polar bears and I'm interested in them. I don't want them to die. If they do, they will become extinct. They are in danger because of global warming, so we need to stop global warming.
There are many people that I know who like polar bears, and like me they don't want to see them dying.
Maybe it will take time to stop global warming but if we stop rigth now, we will be able to stop it. It's just like when you hurt yoursefl. If you hurt yourself, you don't keep doing what you did to hurt yourself. You stop. If not, it keeps getting worse and worse.
Here is a video on polar bears.
April 25, 2007
The Kids maybe be alright after all
Here is a post on a the Lantern blog by Mia MacDonald who was attending the Eearh Day celebration at PS58 last Friday:
"The Friday before I had an unusual experience: attending an Earth Day fair organized by my local grade school, P.S. 58. I was there to represent the Carroll Gardens Community Supported Agriculture program but a side benefit was getting to see a bunch of little kids have serious fun raising awareness of the need for us to protect and respect the Earth. The 5, 6 and 7 year-olds sang their hearts out and they, and the lyrics, were very good (it put my grade school renditions of "Feeling Groovy" to shame). Here's an excerpt from two:
"Song of the Polar Bears"
...Their icebergs are meltingBecause of the ways we've been living...Here's what we have to doWe need to drive lessWe need to be less careless...We need to plant a tree or two
"Animals Need Our Help"
What does it mean to be endangered?It means there are very few left...How does it happen?Because of our actions...We need to help themWe need to save them...We should stop spreading outAnd share the EarthWe should stop wearing furI think that will help
As I heard the kids sing, destined like us adults to be serious greenhouse gas emitters over their lifetimes unless the U.S. changes course radically, I couldn't help but feel that here, despite that, something good and important was taking place. When little kids are singing words like "ozone" and "extinction" and "peril" it can't be all bad, unless it's only one day a year. Somehow, I got the sense it wouldn't be that. The kids may be alright after all."
http://lanternbooks.com/blog/entry.php?id=516
Posted by ALF on April 25, 2007 at 12:09 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 23, 2007
Earth Day Celebration at PS 58
Please go and check the pictures from the Earth Day Celebration in the photo album... As you will see it was a great success!
Thank you to Ms Marsh who started this project with the First Graders and got all the other teachers involved.
Thank you also to the First Grade teachers- Ms. Young, Dello Stritto Ardito and Dunford, Mr Nick (the Music teacher, who wrote the songs with the children), Ms Dold for the sculptures with recyclable materials.
Thank you also to Mr Wynne, the Science teacher for grades 2-5 who helped and got the upper grades involved in the project.
And of course, thank you to the First Graders for their interest, commitment, questions and ideas... and to all the other children at PS 58 and their parents...
The Earth day was not the end of Little Grassroots, but a celebration!
Soon pictures of some of the science projects of the First Graders!
Posted by ALF on April 23, 2007 at 12:54 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 21, 2007
A One Planet Life
care2.com are encouraging people to sign a petition to live a one planet life. If you want to know what this means, watch their video:http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/666393111?ltl=1177184892
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 21, 2007 at 03:54 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 20, 2007
Earth Day
Earth Day
At KinderCorner we have been reading stories about our beautiful Earth and how all of us can help take care of our Earth. This week we went to
KentRidge Park for a long ‘Nature Walk’ and looked at all the different trees and living things. We saw squirrels eating the fruit on the trees; turtles and fishes swimming in the small lake; a monitor lizard and lots of different ants. We also saw a bird’s nest high up in a tree. This reminded us of the little sunbird that made a nest outside the Nursery class. We watched the small bird collect twigs and anything it could find to make its nest (in just four days). The next week, after Easter, the little bird sat in the nest often. This week we peeped in and saw that there were two very small eggs. The little bird stayed in the nest most of the time after that. On Wednesday we felt very sad because when she was away from the nest for a little while a bigger bird came and stole the eggs. Our teacher saw the bird but was unable to save the eggs. Later the little sunbird came back and flew around and around in an agitated way making a ‘call’. She hasn’t come back anymore.
We have shared some thoughts and had some discussions about the harmful effects of pollution, extinct and endangered animals and why we should try and save electricity and water. We have been drawing and writing about this.
Many of the shops in
Singaporeare now encouraging people to use their own reusable bags, not plastic bags. We think this is good.
We have been singing the song ‘A Song for Earth’ at school, you might like to sing the song too.
The stories we have been reading this week are:
Dear Children of the Earth – A letter from Home
The Lorax
The Mountain that Loved the Bird
The Great Outdoors – Saving Habitats
Have a great Earth Day everyone.
The sunbird's nest.
The eggs.
The bird sitting on her eggs.
Bamboo.
A nest in the tree. can you spot it?
Walking further into the park.
We found a small frog.
Posted by Kindercorner @ Singapore on April 20, 2007 at 05:25 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
April 18, 2007
EARTH DAY!
Earth Day is almost here! We are getting ready for our celebration on Friday. The school is filled with projects on endangered animals, water conservation, global warming, recycling and many other topics! On Friday our school community will gather together to sing songs about the Earth (that we wrote!), read poems, share reports and even show a movie that a second grader made. The movie can be viewed on you tube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ckxynzs1zu. I encourage everyone to view it!
The festivities will continue after school when guest speaker Colin Beavan, "The No Impact Man," will be visiting to tell us about his environmental experiment. We will also kick off the gardening season by opening a new school garden! Other activities include garden rock painting, making bird feeders, building recyclable structures and reading classic stories about the Earth, like The Lorax. If you are in the area, I encourage you to come on over to PS 58 from 3-5 in Brooklyn! Have a great Earth Day everyone!
Posted by PS 58 on April 18, 2007 at 04:37 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
From Fulham Prep
The children from Fulham Prep posted comments on different posts.
Plastig bags:
- I think that it's ok to have plastic bags. How else would u carry them. And if u try to stop airoplane flights how would we get to these other lovely country's. Charlie Cassey
- I think it is a good idea that people in U.S.A and France. In my family we save are plastic bags so we don't need to wastse the Sainsury's plastic ag and i do think it is a good idea to charge plastic bags in the U.S.A and France, it is a brilliant idea according to my family and I. Itamar Rashkovsky
-in Australia in the stores u have to pay for the plastic bags and also they provid reusable ones. Amelia
-in France you have to pay for bags to carry your food and things that you have bought in.Also when i went to Ikea you also had to pay for bags to carry your things in. Catriona Bruce
- i think that people should bring their own bags to go shopping whith then they will be helping the world ,also because the shop will not have to spend money on the bags anymore they will be helping the shop. Eloise Fuller
-hello i always reycicle my plastic bags and bottles bertram m
- I think that we should do something about plastic bags. i think that paying for them is a very good idea, because it makes people use less of them each day. billions are wasted every day.DO SOMETHING TO HELP!!!! Ella Ross
What else could we do to stop global warming:
- i think u should have a certant amount of petrol a day. Amelia
- i think petrol cars should be banned for a long time because if we did not have invented petrol cars nobody would think there was anything better than electric cars. Lucy Penswick
-In Sainsburys (A big supermarket in the UK) are now encouraging people to buy a special bag that you use again and again. Sam W
-I think it is silly if we use materials and then just put them in the bin and forget about them. We should use them more than once. Ludo M
-I think people should not use big fancy cars just to show off its a waste of money and it damages the environment a lot. Matthieu Ortiz
- on earth day last year I planted 12 new plants in my garden, ate only organic fruit.this my sound crazy but it was quite fun. Lucy Penswick
Posted by ALF on April 18, 2007 at 08:15 AM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
April 16, 2007
Getting rid of plastic bags?
After discussing the No Impact experiment, the First graders of PS 58 started thinking about what they could concretely do, what they could give up ... Colin Beaver aka No Impact Man in his reply to them suggested that we could think not only of giving up, but also of doing things... One of his examples was: pick up a plastic bag if you see one of the ground... This example sadly resonated to me as I remembered the plastic bag stuck in the branches of a tree in front of our house, or as I thought of these windy mornings where plastic bags are flying in the streets in our neighborhood.
Yesterday there was an editorial article in the New York Times on Plastic Bags:
"Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags every year, mountains of plastic that can last for 1,000 years, give or take a few centuries. And when they are not properly thrown away, they litter the countryside, killing birds or choking creatures like sea turtles. The bags now flap from so many bushes and trees that some South Africans started calling them their national flower."
Several children in fact told me about how dangerous plastic bags were for sea turtles and other animals! But do we, as parents, think about it? I found myself in the last week being asked a few times if I wanted a plastic bag and replying "no, thank you".
It seems that "San Francisco has become the first major city to start banning nonbiodegradable plastic bags in its larger grocery stores and pharmacies."... And I remember this little supermarket in Paris where two years ago management decided to ban plastic bags. The first week they gave each of their customers one carryall and then started selling them...
Ikea has started a campaign "Bag the Plastic Bag" in America, charging customers for plastic bags (the money goes to a conservation group) and encouraging them to bring their own. The good news is that while their aim "was to cut plastic bag use in half — from 70 million per year to 35 million — but it has already done far better than that, cutting use by 80 percent."
So let's try to educate people so that they don't throw plastic bags, let's pick them up if we see them on the ground, and let's try to stop using them as much as we can... Reading all the recent posts from PS58 and the Leonard De Vinci School, I feel quite positive... and I think we, as adults will have a harder time than children! :-)
Read the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/opinion/15sun3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Posted by ALF on April 16, 2007 at 02:36 PM Permalink Comments (6) TrackBack (0)
Flight of the Future
Windream One is an attempt to fly a sail balloon driven only by natural and renewable energy sources (wind and solar power) across the Atlantic Ocean. The ten day flight is scheduled for next year. Will this be the way to travel in the future? To find out more: http://www.teamtheolia.com/index_uk.php
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 16, 2007 at 12:51 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 13, 2007
Could You Lower YOUR Impact?
We are getting ready and excited for our Earth Day celebration at PS 58! This week we were talking about our guest speaker, the "No Impact Man." We discussed what it means to make an impact on the Earth and what Mr. Beavan is doing in order to make no impact. After listing some of the things that Mr. Beavan was doing- no garbage, no TV, no subway, we asked ourselves, "What would we be willing to give up in order to help the Earth?" We struggled with this question. Some were willing to give up many things, but others were more hesitant. This is the list of things that the first graders thought they could give up for a year, if it would help the Earth:
-Cars- "Even though my mom wouldn't like it, I could ride my skateboard instead."
-Video games/ Gameworks (this item was heavily disputed!)
-Avocado
-Trains "I would ride my bike or scooter instead!"
-Radio- "We could read or play games with our families instead."
-TV (many students disagreed on giving this up)
-Paper towels- "We would use rags instead and wash them."
-VCR
-Toilet paper- "But I wouldn't let my mom find out."
One student pointed out that many people are, "just plain lazy and drive their cars one block. People need to THINK before they ACT!" This discussion gave us a new respect for the No Impact Man's experiment. Most agreed that it would be extremely hard to give up these things. We decided that it would be more realistic to USE LESS. We can't wait to meet the No Impact Man. What would YOU be willing to give up for the Earth?
Posted by PS 58 on April 13, 2007 at 05:15 PM Permalink Comments (3) TrackBack (0)
April 12, 2007
Can one person slow global warming?
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20070409,00.html
A special issue of the Time Magazine on global warming, with an article on how the most vulnerable coastal communities are taking actions to avoid floods and consequences of the sea's rise, and an article providing a big picture of climate change, its causes (there are many) and different ways of trying to fix it. As the journalist wrote "There's a role for big thinkers, power players, those with deep pockets--and the rest of us"...
And as they claim that we can all do something to make things better, they provide us with a guide of 51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment - several have already been suggested by the children posting on Little Grassroots, but you might still want to have a look, especially as the Earth day celebration is coming soon. Check it out at http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/article/0,28804,1602354_1603074,00.html
Posted by ALF on April 12, 2007 at 02:53 PM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
Earth Day
April 22 is Earth Day! Everyone can participate by doing something for the planet on that day - not driving the car, planting flowers or trees, buying local, preferably organic produce, etc. Check out the WWF site and this link for more ideas!http://www.worldwildlife.org/earthday/index.cfm?enews=T4CfinalT
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 12, 2007 at 06:37 AM Permalink Comments (3) TrackBack (0)
April 11, 2007
Sea’s Rise in India Buries Islands
Today there was an article in the New York Times on Ghomara Island in India that reminded me of the article posted by Melchior and Jyoti on April 3rd on an island disappearing in the Pacific. The article tells the story of Ghomara, a fragile delta island near the Bay of Bengal. Half of it has sunk into the river.The sinking of Ghoramara can be attributed to several causes, one of them being the rising sea and the rivers pouring down from the Himalayas. Of course, islands erode and shift size and shape and there is nothing abnormal about change. Yet, "there is little doubt, scientists say, that human-induced climate change has made them particularly vulnerable. A recent study by Sugata Hazra, an oceanographer at Jadavpur University in nearby Calcutta, found that in the last 30 years, nearly 31 square miles of the Sundarbans have vanished entirely."
Ghomara's size is half of the size it was in 1969 and two other islands have vanished. Hundred of families have to be displaced as their houses disappear under water. And it's not like it's an area where only few people live: four million people live here on the Indian side of the border alone! (On the other side of the border it is Bangladesh).
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming, spurred by the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could raise the ocean’s surface as much as 23 inches by 2100. [According to the panel’s latest report, released in early April, the ecology and people of this river delta system are among the most vulnerable in the world.]"
And as highlighted several times recently on this blog, the inhabitants of Ghoraman (farmers and fishermen) and the other Sundarbans islands are far too poor to produce much carbon emissions, but they are the ones who "feel the assault already"!
Read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/world/asia/11india.html?th&emc=th
Posted by ALF on April 11, 2007 at 11:17 AM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 07, 2007
Second scientific report presented in Brussels: more details on climate change, from Poles to Tropics
In Brussels, yesterday more than 200 scientists presented a second report on climate change (the first one was presented in February in Paris). This report insists on the impact of climate change. It predicts "widening droughts in southern Europe and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, the American Southwest and Mexico, and flooding that could imperil low-lying islands and the crowded river deltas of southern Asia".
This panel of scientists also stressed that many of the regions facing the greatest risks were among the world’s poorest.
“It’s the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit,” said Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the panel. “People who are poor are least-equipped to be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and therefore in some sense this does become a global responsibility in my view.”
The report written was 1,572 pages! There was also a 21-page summary, which was endorsed by officials from more than 120 countries, including the United States. One of the aim of this meeting was to make the governments and political leaders more aware and committed to take action. The scientists insisted on the need for governments to organize and plan in order to address these changes. The report is expected to be discussed at a summit meeting of the Group of 8 industrial powers in Germany in June.
Read the whole article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/science/earth/07climate.html?th&emc=th
Posted by ALF on April 07, 2007 at 12:17 PM Permalink Comments (0) TrackBack (0)
April 06, 2007
In France ...
A whole week of demonstrations, open days, etc to promote interest and awareness of environmental issues has been taking place in France. To find out what's been going on in France, check this site out:www.semainedudeveloppementdurable.gouv.fr
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 06, 2007 at 03:04 PM Permalink Comments (1) TrackBack (0)
April 05, 2007
Transport! Shopping! Animals!
We need to stop polluting the earth because it will damage the ozone layer! We need to use cars less than we do now, and use bicycles more often. We should stop all that food transport, for example selling strawberries in winter - we have to bring them from hot countries.
We should all be careful of what we buy, like eat certain fruits when when it is winter for example strawberries, it is not good!
They have been brought from very very far away! We should think to buy Bio (organic) food also.
We need to stop taking plastic bags because when you don’t need them any more they will be trashed, and they don’t decompose! So we need to buy big bags (very cheap) and the good thing is that they are reusable.
All this we need to stop, you should know by know that some animals almost die or have a hard time to live! For example, a lake has been polluted, so the fishes in it will die.
Then the birds that eat those birds come.
There are no more fishes so they don’t have any food to eat and they will die! This is happening “almost” for all animals! We should stop cutting down trees because this will destroy some of the animals’ habitats.
Iscia
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:59 AM Permalink Comments (2) TrackBack (0)
GLOBAL WARMING CAUSES CLIMATE CHANGE
Global warming causes climate change. Why? Because the gases we are releasing from pollution, bad shopping, transport, animal waste and power stations make the ozone layer (a sort of shield protecting us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays) weaker, allowing the boiling heat of the sun come to earth. Because of this Californian, Florida and Carolina beaches will be nothing but wilderness in a few years time.
The sea temperatures are key ingredients to windstorm formation. The hurricane season and Typhoon season exist because the sea is at the right temperature for a few months each year to allow a few storms to form. Overall sea surface temperatures have risen between 0.2° to 0.6°c over past centuries according to climate models and observations. Also, in addition to sea temperatures, land and air temperature provide an important measure of climate variation, and have been reliably monitored for many decades. It is generally agreed that the 1990’s was the warmest decade, and 2005 the warmest year in a millennium. The projected rate of increase in global temperatures for the 21st century is likely to be the fastest of a century in the past thousand years.
Some of the causes of the trends are natural. However, scientists have now shown beyond reasonable doubt that global warming caused by human activities is also a key factor. Forest fires are expected to increase in frequency and severity. In some areas, it is estimated that fire frequency could double by 2069.
Changing patterns of precipitation (rainfall) are likely to be a further result of climate change, with a potentially significant impact on society and the environment. Urban drainage systems were designed on historic climate data and will not meet the challenges of the future. Leaving inevitable to significant increases in insurance claims costing lots of money and damaging the economy. Long-term historic climate patterns are now known to be much more volatile (varying extremes) than the stability of the last few hundred years. Until 30 years ago, most experts agreed that climate change occurs slowly.
Conclusion: We do not know what impact climate changes will have. But we do know that it presents society and the economy with increasing levels of risk and uncertainty as it seeks to manage risk.
As Earth gets hotter, these are some of the important changes that could happen:
Sea levels could also rise.
Cities on coasts would flood (e.g. The Netherlands and the whole of Bangladesh!)
Places that usually get lots of rain and snowfall might get hotter and drier.
Lakes and rivers could dry up.
There would be more droughts making hard to grow crops.
Less water would be available for drinking, showers and swimming pools.
Some plants and animals might become extinct because of the heat.
Acid rain could destroy forests and lake life (fish)
More hurricanes, tornadoes and other storms
More evaporation of water from the land.
by Louis
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:56 AM Permalink Comments (4) TrackBack (0)
Endangered Species
I think you should know what is happening to animals no: they are dying because of us. They have a hard time finding food because the food they live on is becoming rare. This is just the start of a food chain.
Here are some ways to save endangered species :
Don’t pollute forests and streets with plastic or cans because animals may think it is food, they will eat it and maybe die. Don’t pollute waters because animals drink from these and if the water they drink from has been polluted they will get ill. It will also kill fishes which means that birds that live on fish will die because there will be no more food for them.
Don’t use too much electricity (for example don’t watch too much TV and turn off lights when you don’t need them) because this creates global warming and is very bad for polar bears because their lands (the polar ice caps) are melting which means that polar bears will soon start drowning.
Put out food and water for birds, especially in winter.
Please follow these instructions and if you want to help even more, learn more about how you can save animals and share this information with everyone. To do that you can write blogs, make posters and write articles (just like me!).
Tess
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:52 AM
Pollution
We should stop polluting the world. We don’t realise how much we are polluting. If we want to live longer and the world to stay good, we mustn’t give up . One country pollutes, not only their country is affected but others also. We won’t give up; we have to work for everything we gain. Stopping polluting is a hard job. Try not to take plastic bags or take only one huge bag when you go shopping!. Try to take stuff that are ozone friendly. Try your best not to buy things which are not good for the ozone layer or which come from other countries or which are out of season; it makes a lot of pollution to transport them from one country to another.
If there are any waste things you see on the road. I request you to pick it up. If you leave some plastic things on the road it will stay forever which will make pollution. We should stop killing animals because after it has to go in some specific factories to be disinfected and processed; then we have to pack it; all of which makes pollution.
Ishan
Posted by Anglophone Section Ecole Primaire Internationale on April 05, 2007 at 08:18 AM
April 04, 2007
The Climate divide: Two billions of people threatened of "food insecurity"
This week in Brussels there is a meeting of a group of experts to discuss climate change. The aim of this meeting (which is a follow up of the meeting that took place two months ago in Paris where the scientists discuss the results of the research on climate change and agreed on the reality of the change and on the responsibility of human beings in the change) is to agree on a "summary for political leaders" to help them make decisions.
Today in Liberation, a French newspaper, there was an interview of a French agronomist, Jean-Francois Soussana (INRA) who was saying that although the impact of climate change are still not clear, there are yet enough data showing that climate change have an impact of food resources and potential risks of starvation - due to the extreme changes in climate, droughts and changes in rain falls during the year. The main impact is on crops. The impact started to be noticed in tropical areas, but it also now starts to show in temperate and cold countries.
The region the most at risk is Africa (both because of climatic but also socio-economic reasons) [ see posts of February 12 and 22nd] but it also has an impact in other regions of the world. Soussana says that agriculture can evolve and adjust to the changes. The problem is that it all depends on how fast the change will be.
More at http://www.liberation.fr//actualite/terre/245419.FR.php?utk=00779aa6
As noted above, and also in previous posts, Africa and developing countries at large seem to be paying a higher price, while contributing the least in the production of carbon dioxide. These countries, which “suffer” more, are also the poorest.
Therefore some academics and politicians are now suggesting "the first world owes the third world a climate debt"" “We have an obligation to help countries prepare for the climate changes that we are largely responsible for,” said Peter H. Gleick, the founder of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Berkeley, Calif. His institute has been tracking trends like the burst of new desalination plants in wealthy places running short of water.
“If you drive your car into your neighbor’s living room, don’t you owe your neighbor something?” Dr. Gleick said. “On this planet, we’re driving the climate car into our neighbors’ living room, and they don’t have insurance and we do.” " (quoted in NY Times)
The children in the Philosophy Lunch Club (PS58) mentionned several times (Posts of February 2nd and March 16) the inequalities in terms of impact (bigger or smaller, droughts or floods) as well as who was concerned (human beings vs. animals, and differences among countries). They might want (and you might want to) to read 4 stories about the "climate divide" that show how people in different parts of world are affected by global warming.
More on the climate divide at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/earth/03clim.html?ref=science
Posted by ALF on April 04, 2007 at 10:14 AM
April 03, 2007
An island disappearing in the Pacific
A friend of our mummy sent her a video about an island in the middle of the Pacific - very far away - nearby Australia and New Zealand, and Singapore... This island is not even as big as New York. It is very beautiful and people look happy. It is disappearing because of global warming. This is very sad. One of the teachers on the island says she believes in God and that he promised he would not flood the Earth, but the President of this island does not believe in that and he is very worried for his island. He says that in 50 years from now the island will be under water. When there is a storm, the waves go very far inside the land. Some people are scared and they took the plane to go and live somewhere else. It is sad.
You can read the whole story or see the video at:http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3002425http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=3001691&page=1
jyoti and melchior, PS58
Posted by ALF on April 03, 2007 at 09:21 PM
April 02, 2007
I like polar bears and I'm interested in them. I don't want them to die. If they do, they will become extinct. They are in danger because of global warming, so we need to stop global warming.
There are many people that I know who like polar bears, and like me they don't want to see them dying.
Maybe it will take time to stop global warming but if we stop rigth now, we will be able to stop it. It's just like when you hurt yoursefl. If you hurt yourself, you don't keep doing what you did to hurt yourself. You stop. If not, it keeps getting worse and worse.
Here is a video on polar bears.
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