Special Investigation
Sustainability ' The Greenhouse Effect' text by Emily BT picture by Thomas H
by Year 6 (6)

Factories, Chimneys our City Skyline The Earth is 94 million miles away from the sun. As we are only 94 million miles away from the sun the climate is stable. Every year the temperature only changes slightly. Some of the Earth is rich in food some countries like India and Bangladesh are very poor in food. The even temperatures, controlled by protective gases, are surrounding the planet, they are called the ozone layer. The ozone layer lets in some heat from the sun, the rays were not harmful rays. It also stopped too much heat escaping. The pollution has damaged the ozone layer, it has also made holes in the ozone layer. Only a few degrees change in the temperature and it causes massive changes to the Earth e.g. the Ice Age was only 5 degrees colder than now. Methane is given off from rice fields and cows. The rice and cows are the only means of survival left for some of the small communities. CFC's are found in some aerosols such as fridges and plastic foam. These must be avoided because they are the ones which stay longest in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide also known as CO2 causes 50% of the damage, it is given off by industry and cars. The gases were soaked up by forests but now the forests are destroyed. Different foods and crops will now need to be moved and grown in different places. It's easy for the people to change the crops because they can buy the food from different countries. The animals can't buy food from different countries. For example the caribou they will have to find another place to find food before they starve. Droughts will get more severe. They are already a great problem for dry countries e.g. Rajastan in India. Already their crop failure has happened 3 out of 4 years. If the situation gets any worse for them that will be the end of their community. The floods will get worse because the rise in temperature of the sea will lead to greater volume of sea and higher sea level. This is a threat to low lying land e.g. Holland. 8 million people are in danger from flooding but huge engineering projects protect people because it is a rich country. The floods are worse in poor countries e.g. Bangladesh. They have no money for defence. Millions of people face losing their homes or drowning. In 1987 24million people lost their homes. The USA is a wealthy country but they have given little support. 50% of the USA's electricity is from coal and the car is the most common form of transport. It's reluctant to restrict CO2 emissions because it will effect its economy. Poor countries are trying to catch up with the industrial world e.g. India has plenty of coal, very poor, debts etc. Eastern Europe are developing industries causing massive pollution but it's an important part of their economy. We must start to care for the atmosphere and reduce pollution. Global warming will be disastrous for our world. The people from Earth can't live on any other planets. We must protect this planet or die. We are entirely dependent on this planets thin layers of air, soil and water. We must protect them for our survival.