8.2 3.1.3 environment  (Page 5/8)

Watch for 4 minutes. How many people were born in that time? How many people died?

If the current grade 9’s repeated this exercise exactly one year from today, at exactly the same time of day, by how much will the world’spopulation have grown? Do you think this is a problem? Why?

How much CO2 will have been added to the atmosphere by that time? How does South Africa compare to the rest of the world? Do you think all South African’scontribute equally to CO2 emissions in our country?

Discovering your impact

What Is A Carbon Footprint?

A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment, and in particular climate change. It relates to the amount ofgreenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation etc.

The carbon footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases we individually produce and has units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent.

A carbon footprint is made up of the sum of two parts, the primary footprint and the secondary footprint.

The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g. car and plane).We have direct control of these.

The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use - those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown. To putit very simply – the more we buy the more emissions will be caused on our behalf.

To work out what your carbon footprint is visit: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

To discover how to reduce your carbon footprint visit: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/minimisecfp.html

Climate change

Student’s guide to climate change

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/index.html

http://climate.nasa.gov/

http://climate.nasa.gov/imagesVideo/climateReel/index.cfm

Assignment

Identify the ABC’s (abiotic, biotic and cultural characteristics) of a natural environment near you. To make your ABC profile, follow the instructionsbelow.

1. Select an area that is undeveloped (i.e. no buildings, no pavement, no bulldozing, no spraying of pesticides, no farming, no grazing, etc.). Your areamust be at least the size of a soccer field. For some this will be an easy walk from their homes. Others will have to travel quite adistance‑‑lucky you! You can think of it as a field trip. Make a map of your province and show, approximately, where your area is located.

2. Identify the at least 10 “A” (abiotic) features of your area. Consider factors such as:

• Landforms (mesa, mountain, valley, bench, etc..
• Altitude

3. Identify at least 15 “B” (biotic) features of the area. (You may use common names.) Consider things such as:

• Plants (trees, shrubs, grasses, flowers, etc.)
• Insects (ants, bees, praying mantis, etc.)
• Amphibians, reptiles, and/or fish

4. Identify at least 3 “C” (cultural) components. Look for evidence of human influence. Consider things such as:

• *Recycling, conservation efforts
• *Pollution
• *Introduced species