Laura Ciupitu

Romania
Co-teacher: Teacher

 

Follow me on Twitter: Twitter


School: Scoala Gimnaziala Gheorghe Magheru 63 students are involved The average age of the students: 12-15 Year

Projects 2022

Causes of climate change

Burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests and farming livestock are increasingly influencing the climate and the earth’s temperature.

This adds enormous amounts of greenhouse gases to those naturally occurring in the atmosphere, increasing the greenhouse effect and global warming.

An increase of 2°C compared to the temperature in pre-industrial times is associated with serious negative impacts on to the natural environment and human health and wellbeing, including a much higher risk that dangerous and possibly catastrophic changes in the global environment will occur.

For this reason, the international community has recognised the need to keep warming well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.

The main driver of climate change is the greenhouse effect. Some gases in the Earth's atmosphere act a bit like the glass in a greenhouse, trapping the sun's heat and stopping it from leaking back into space and causing global warming.

Many of these greenhouse gases occur naturally, but human activities are increasing the concentrations of some of them in the atmosphere, in particular:

  • carbon dioxide (CO2)
  • methane
  • nitrous oxide
  • fluorinated gases

CO2 produced by human activities is the largest contributor to global warming. By 2020, its concentration in the atmosphere had risen to 48% above its pre-industrial level (before 1750).

Asevery tonne of CO2 emitted contributes to global warming, all emissions reductions contribute to slowing it down. In order to stop global warming completely, CO2 emissions have to reach net zero worldwide. In addition, reducing emissions of other greenhouse gases, such as methane, can also have a powerful effect on slowing global warming – especially in the short term.

PlantEd - Gheorghe Magheru Gymnasium School

The students of Gheorghe Magheru Secondary School participated in Climate Action Day, and initiated the PlantED global planting campaign where they planted the first tree.

Potential effects of climate change

Climate change is already effecting the global environment in a variety of ways. Glaciers are melting, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner. Impacts that were predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring: loss of sea ice, enhanced sea level rise and longer, more severe heat waves.Climate change is already effecting the global environment in a variety of ways. Glaciers are melting, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner. Impacts that were predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring: loss of sea ice, enhanced sea level rise and longer, more severe heat waves. Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gasses produced by human activities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists from around the world, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century. According to the IPCC, the level of climate change effects on different regions will differ over time and with the ability of different societies and environments to alleviate or adapt to change.

These changes are not easily predicted for any given region, but experiments and computer simulations provide evidence that an increase in the average global of only 5 degrees F would result in the following changes:HIGHER TEMPERATURES, SEA LEVEL RISE, ECOSYSTEM and BIODIVERSITY LOSS, AGRICULTURE, WATER RESOURCES, EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS, DROUGHTS AND FOREST FIRESHUMAN HEALTH.


Impressions

ant
ant