Kid's Page
The Future of Climate Change: How to Teach Children to Conserve
The Future of Climate Change: How to Teach Children to Conserve
By Diane Cole
Posted March 27, 2009
Sadie Louise Bernier of Seattle is 7 months old, but her parents are already showing her little things everyone can do to protect the environment. "We're leaving your room now, darling, and we're turning off the lights," says her mother, Kim Rakow Bernier. Then she'll point out the window and say, "There's Daddy getting on his bicycle to go to the office."
As outreach director for Facing the Future, a sustainability education organization, Kim says that modeling caring-about-the-planet behavior for her daughter is "almost unconscious," since "this is what we do as a family anyway." But it's indicative of the fact that, while high schools and colleges have included ecology and the environment in their curricula for years, conversations about environmental consciousness in general and global warming in particular are trickling down to students in kindergarten, and sometimes even younger. The children's section at Barnes and Noble, for instance, offers new books from Nickelodeon's Big Green Help series (published on recycled paper), with titles like SpongeBob Goes Green! and Save the Tree! And for the 2-year-old-and-up set, there's Choose to Reuse! (a green touch-and-feel book).
Climate Change Explained
Climate Change Explained
Planet earth relies on a natural greenhouse effect to keep us warm. Natural greenhouse gases are Carbon Dioxide, Methane and water vapor, which act as a trap to the warmth generated by incoming solar radiation. Without it our climate would be similar to that of Mars, with temperatures way below zero, unsuitable to sustain life.
In the past 200 years, man has discovered and freely consumed fossil fuels, at first during the Industrial revolution, and now with our ever increasing appetite for gas guzzling cars. Burning fossil fuels producesCarbon Dioxide (CO2) in great quantities, which, as a greenhouse gas, act to trap more of the earth's incoming heat.
Overall the effect has been to slowly heat up the earth and the seas, effectively adding more energy to the oceans. The result is that weather systems have more energy, creating more extremes such as heavy rain and winds, which cause flooding and structural damage.
What's the solution?
We must stop burning fossil fuels, be more energy efficient and use electricity from renewable sources.
Many governments around the world have signed the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement between countries to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases their countries produce. The wording of this agreement was written and voted on in Kyoto, Japan on December 11, 1997 and came into force on February 16, 2005 when Russia joined.
Each country's target is not totally rigid, because there are plans to allow countries who are well within their target to sell their 'carbon credits' to countries who were struggling to meet their targets. This is 'emission trading'.
Some countries have not signed up though, including the USA the biggest polluter in the world. The reductions agreed at Kyoto are not enough to stop climate change. This is too big a problem to leave to governments to sort out, we must all take responsibility for the pollution we are causing and find ways to reduce it.
It's not always easy to stop burning fossil fuels, but if we are damaging the environment we must put something back. By planting trees we can help nature soak up that extra carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere. Tropical rainforests are strongly beneficial in helping slow down global warming.
How We Replant the Rainforest
The Nursery
The rainforests are the lungs of the earth. Replanting rainforests is very important to the survival of our planet. Trees help the planet take a deep breath. The process begins by planting seedlings in the nursery.
8 month old Teak trees
Trees grow very fast in the rainforest. These are 8 month old Teak trees. They absorb a lot of carbon dioxide. Teak trees are planted first in order to provide shade for native species that will be planted thereafter. This process will result in a totally reforested rainforest.
18 month old Teak trees
In 12 to 18 months teak trees are already 20 feet tall. When they are about 6 or 7 years old, some of them will be ready to harvest to make room for other native species.
A rainforest
In 25 years, we will have removed all the Teak trees, leaving the native trees to create a new rainforest where all the birds and animals can return to live in their native environment.
