an interview for a middle school student

Hello!

I am writing a story about global warming and I knew you were doing energy
project so I thought you would know a lot about the subject. Here are some
questions I would like to ask you.:



1)Explain a little please about global warming.
Global warming is the effect of increases in the overall global temperature caused by "the greenhouse effect." The greenhouse effect is best described by Al Gore in his movie "The Inconvenient Truth." Basically, carbons in our atmosphere that are the product mostly of our burning of fossil fuels like oil and coal, trap the earth's heat. These carbons in the atmosphere prevent the release of heat from the atmosphere. So it is as if our planet is living in a greenhouse where the heat of the sun as it reflects on the earth is retained rather than released into space. Now because the planet is heating up, glaciers and polar ice caps are melting. The ice of glaciers and polar ice caps actually absorbs heat a lot better than water, so ice melt further complicates matters. And then add the carbons released when tundra, or frozen earth , melts and you see how a tipping point can occur. More global warming caused by the greenhouse effect leads to a natural release of more carbon from decaying plant matter, and this carbon further seals in heat in the outer atmosphere.
2)How can the government help us to stop this problem and are they doing
anything right now?

The government as well as individuals and individual institutions (like schools and businesses!) can reverse global warming if we act quickly. The U.S. and state governments and private institutions like our school need energy policies that show a commitment to reducing our carbon footprint. The government needs to commit to a long-term strategy of substituting oil and coal for sustainble energy sources like wind, biofuels, solar, geothermal and hydoelectric and tidal energy sources. We as citizens need to choose responsible leaders who are not afraid to make some radical changes. Our country and economy requires massive consumption of manufactured goods to compete in the world economy and to be successful. We have to figure out a way to change this equation so that consumption is not what principally drives the economy.
3)What do you think we can do about it? We can do a greenhouse gas inventory at our school and recommend and campaign for a more a green school-- that is a school (like Prospect Sierra) that is a green business. How can our school be a green business? We can buy sustainable energy credits that offset our use of fossil fuels burned whenever we use electricity to power our laptops, our printers and our lights. We can help our school's landlord to make our buildings more energy efficient with time synchronized lights and heat. We can campaign to design and build a green school building with solar panels and other principles of green architectural design. Teachers can apply for grants to buy solar panels for our building so that we begin to study how solar panels work while also helping to offset our school's carbon footprint.

At home, we can buy less consumables like clothes, video games-- anything made of plastic. Nearly everytime you throw something out which can not be easily recycled (and that includes your lunch!) you are contributing to global warming because what you consumed required manufacturing and trucks, boats or planes to move it to a store. Just buying the product you probably had to drive or get on the internet to buy it-- both of which consume fossil fuels. Bike more, get outside and plant some food that you can harvest from your backyard. Use Moodle and upload your homework so that we don't waste paper. Change your attitude and what it means to have fun. Are 2 hours of Ichat or shopping always really more satisfying than meeting a friend to play soccer or to hang out at the beach? If so, why?? When is your personal conservation of energy (ie. laziness) draining the resources of the planet? How consistently inspiring is laziness really? Do you see where I'm going here? Passion for doing something healthy for yourself and others can translate into both energy conservation and inspiration.

4)Is there any possibility right now that it doesn't exist? Not that I know of.

5)What do you suggest we as students do about it? Educate yourself and take action.

6)If we don't do anything, what will happen? Watch Inconvenient Truth again if you want a reminder of the consequences. A quick review: we will lose biodiversity, plants, animals and insect species will die, sea levels will rise, subsequently, millions of people will need to be relocated because of changes in climate and sea-levels-- and here, you need to worry about people in very poor countries and not simply a few hundred thousand in San Mateo and downtown Manhatten.
7)What is happening to the animals right now? Species are dying. Imagine a mountain where a certain species of plant or butterfly lives a particular elevation, say at 3000 ft. That species will have to migrate upward to survive. But the circumfrance of the mountiain gets smaller as they migrate upward towards it peak. With less surface area, fewer species can survive. Here's a quote from a good website about the cloud forests of Central America:
"Climate change and severe El Niño events have already been found to increase the height at which clouds form. As clouds move up the mountains, forests are left exposed and become drier. If the forests are already at the mountain top, they will have nowhere higher to go and will become extinct.

Felling rainforests for pasture in nearby lowlands poses a similar threat to cloud forests. Cattle pastures are warmer and drier than rainforests and so less clouds form above them.

These two process have been linked to the drying out of the Monteverde cloud forest in Costa Rica, causing the extinction of species which need water. Half of the of 50 frog species, including the golden toad, disappeared during an El Niño event in 1987: only five have re-appeared." Philip Bubb, "Cloudy Future" http://www.ourplanet.com/imgversn/131/bubb.html

8)Is there any immediate action we can take to stop this? YES! Changing light bulbs is a great first step. Carpooling and biking are also critical choices to make. Turn off your electrical appliances when you aren't using them. Shop less and waste less. Examine yourself and your world: your greed, your ignorance, your apathy and why you throw out 50% of your lunch daily-- especially when most of that waste is packaging.

9)Do you think enough people are paying attention to this problem? I hope so.
10)How can we get the word out and show people that this is a problem? Al Gore did a wise and great thing by working with a huge team of people to create the movie The Inconvenient Truth. Leonard di Caprio has just made another movie called the 11th Hour that will hopefully be as popular and important. See these movies more than once so you learn what is going on then team up with other interested friends and family members to write, talk and do something about the problem. Personally, I started a blog called "Blossom Jack" that is meant to be a brainstorming and educational tool-- plus I get to write about things I care deeply about like the species of hummingbirds that visit my edible Pineapple Sage bush in my garden. If you like to make movies, make one about global warming or sustainable energy and show it to friends and family. Next year, I want to make a movie about garbage with a bunch of students-- I think it could be a super cool topic. We could interview bottle collectors, dumpster divers and other radical recyclers. A teen version of Oscar the Grouch could have a cameo. Now you know why he's grouchy, right?