Hello! this is our first post of 2009 and we are going to talk about the carbon cycle. Since carbon is one of the main important element for our survival today. And do you know that deforestation CAN affect the carbon cycle drastically???
What is a carbon cycle???
The carbon cycle is a biogeochemical cycle by which is carbon is exchanged. The cycle is usually thought of as four major reservoirs of carbon interconnected by pathways of exchange. The reservoirs are:
-The atmosphere.
Forests store 86% of the planet’s above-ground carbon and 73% of the planet’s soil carbon
fresh water systems and non-living organic material, which is called terresterial biosphere.
Oceans.
The sediments including fossil fuel.
In the atmosphere
Carbon exists at the Earth atmosphere in the form of CO2(Carbon Dioxide). It is a small % and still rising…
Carbon in taken through 2 main process:
-The photosynthesis of green plants.
-Forests store 86% of the planet’s above-ground carbon and 73% of the planet’s soil carbon.
Like what we have said, deforestation affect the carbon cycle, do you know that the carbon cycle is one of the factors to contributes live in living things? But with lesser trees available, more carbon dioxide will not be taken and stays in the atmosphere which results in global warming.
Therefore, there is this project organizations formed in the year 2001, called the “Global Carbon Project”. The main aim of the organization is to reduce greenhouse gases and its causes. Also, their main focus is to educate others about the carbon cycle.Their projections have indicated that we can expect climatic conditions to occur under the IPCC’s worst-case scenario, as CO2 emissions reach 500ppm sometime during the 21 st century.
Carbon cycle re-balancing
Here are some green movement to re-balance carbon cycle.
Sustainable energy – a shift from fossil fuels energy to wind power and solar power
Nuclear Power – as an alternative to fossil fuels
Sustainable design – to reduce inputs and outputs of energy
Sustainable transport – to reduce reliance on fossil fuels
Here’s a short update. From today onwards we will no be posting quite often due to the school has reopens and our final year exams and presentation will be coming up soon. So, all 3 members of the goup will be very busy at this very crucial time. But do visit this site, as we WILL surely make an update about twice/thrice per week. So, thank you for visiting our site
And by the way, it may be early but…Happy 2009!!! from us, 2M1C
-Experimentalist estimates that there are 137 plant types lost, animals of various sorts and insects species, thus, 50,000 live species lost per year.
-Currently, 121 drugs produced worldwide, came from tropical rainforests.
-25% are of humankind pharmaceuticals products came from tropical rainforest, while 1% of it is for research to find new cures for illness.
-Practically 50% of world’s flora,fauna and organisms are destroyed for the next few years due the fact of multi logging corporations, short-sighted administration and carelessly irresponsible land owners.
-Every year, the amount of cleared forest is the same as the size of Panama. With this rate,
-The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture.
-The method slash and burn is the fastest way of clearing forests.
Here’s an advertisement regarding Global warming. As you know, global warming is the effect from deforestation. Due to the fact that trees take in CO2 and release O2 which man needs. However, when trees are cleared, more CO2 will be formed and built up in the atmosphere resulting to increase the global temperature. CO2 can increase temperature. Also, do you know that the atmosphere has so little CO2 but when it rises to 1-5%, it could be fatal to living things! This is a research done in a documentary in Discovery Channel, Mythbusters.
After all that explaination, here’s an advertisement from youtube to warn the public on Global warming done by the Blue Man group. The blue man group consist of three bald men painted their heads blue, and they performed wacky arts performances worldwide! They are Well-known in the Europes for their performances. Without further ado, here’s the advertisement:
This are two videos done by one of our group member, Hafidz. The first one is titled,”Deforestation-Causes and effects” by man and the other one is “I love the whole world” . The first video is just to show the destruction and effects caused by deforestation and the other one is a “tribute” to our planet, Earth for what it has provide us for the past million years.
This videos will also be used in our final year presentation.
Hey, In this post, We will like to share about where and how can you make a donation for the environments and it’s wildlife.
World Wildlife Funds Inc (WWF)
It was since the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and The Conservation Foundation were trying to meet conservation needs. And a group of scientist and reasearches came in a group and set up a shop to raise funds for conservations. As time passes by, their team got recognized and several leaders reailzed that it is essential to make an internationall- known organization to help conserve the Earth.And WWF is formed in 1st December 1961. Their first president was Dwight D. Eisenhower and vice president, Russell E. Train. The 45-year evolution of WWF has entailed not only philosophical and organizational changes, but also has yielded a maturing and increasingly productive relationship with the international World Wildlife Fund Network.
If you are interested in helping them, feel free to click the link below, register as a member and make your donations =)
A cartoon series, “Captain Planet” is created in 1990. It is about a superhero which can be called upon with the 5 planeteers rings, i.e, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind and Heart. A superhero called Captain Planet is “summoned” to help prevent looting and polluting that is happening on Earth. we think that this is a good cartoon as it to not only entertains but educate especially the kids on saving the environments and how to use the 3Rs, that is Reuse,Reduce and Recycle.With the superhero’s favourite phrase,” The Power is Yours!” it means that the “power”, that is saving the Earth and its habitants lies in everyone’s responsibility.
If there is superhero, of course there eill be villain like Hoggish Greedly. He is a pig-like human which represents the dangers and harm n industrializations and greed. There are quite a number of villains too.
Everybody would think that deforestation is mainly caused due to population increase, economic purposes etc. But do you know that deforestation is caused due to war? As stated in Wikipedia, deforestation article under military section, it says that ” in the Vietnam war with Japan, forest are cleared to cease the enemy’s wrath.”
Why? The first reason was, it took many years to grow a forested area. Besides, Forest provide man with alot of benefits, such as timber, medical herbs and spices and also, a source of food too. The another reason was it is a easy and fast method to cease your opponent. As you know, It took many years to grow a tree, but it only took less than 1 minute to chop it down.
The forested area was heavily destroyed which only mud and maggots are left behind. Everything was gone in a matter of minutes! Due to the fact that war does not happen that frequent, that means deforestation that happens by war is only a small percentage.
Here’s a video from Youtube, a member has just posted it online to give us the impact and causes of deforestation. Also, the impact on how Carbon Dioxide, CO2 can affect our life.
Example of an Individual help to reduce deforestation is also shared in the video. Enjoy!
This is an image of an amazon forest that had all its vegetation removed…From 1984 to 2000 You can see how drastic the changes are! From a land full spread of greenery, to largely-scattered concrete areas.
Man’s selfishness have caused the Earth a huge consequence! Do you know that it took many years for a young shoot to grow and spread into a large forest area? And it takes only 20 years to clear it!
This is an image of an amazon forest that had all its vegetation removed…From 1984 to 2000 You can see how drastic the changes are! From a land full spread of greenery, to largely-scattered concrete areas.