Earth Hour 2013

Just by turning off electricity for 1 hour, it helps our earth a lot. Our individual actions add up to a great change. This "Earth Hour" also remind people about how serious the situation is and that the earth is dying, and will die soon if we don't act fast enough. In Uganda, the people are challenged to fill 2,700 hectares of land with 500,000 trees is order to replace the 6000 hectares of deforestation. Many people and community service groups have accepted the challenge. In Russia, a law was written to protect the country's seas from oil pollution in the winter. 120,000 Russians presented the I Will If You Will campaign during the Earth Hour 2012. In Botswana, a lot of environmental groups have recently launched a project "One Million Trees-Plant For Life", along with the I Will If You Will campaign. I Will If You Will campaign attracted 4,000,000 people to participate on the campaign and received more than 200,000 commitments from people all around the globe. This is exactly what we need right now- we, as people living on this planet, have the responsibility to restore the Earth's health by working together as a group. We have to be committed into this situation. Otherwise, there won't be any "us" or "I"s left, and finally, there won't be "human" left.

Earth Hour Poster

Reading Notes (pgs. 374 - 387)

Section 1: Earth's Oceans

• 71% of the Earth's surface is covered in ocean
• global ocean= divided by the continents into four main oceans
• Largest ocean is the Pacific ocean (Asia - the Americas)
• Second largest ocean is the Atlantic ocean (half the volume of the Pacific)
• Third largest ocean is the Indian Ocean
• Smallest ocean is the Arctic Ocean (much of its surface is covered with ice so it is not fully explored)
• About 245 million years ago the continents were connected as one and was called "Pangaea" and the oceans were one giant body of water called Panthalassa
• About 180 million years ago Pangaea slowly started breaking apart and the North Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean began to form
• About 65 million years ago the South Atlantic Ocean was much smaller than it is today
• Today, 2013, the continents continue  to move at a rate of 1 to 10 cm per year and the Pacific Ocean is getting smaller and smaller. On the other hand, the other oceans are taking its place and growing.
• The volcanic explosions 4.5 billion years ago created volcanic gases which formed Earth's atmosphere. Earth started cooling and 4 billion years ago water started to condense. This condensation created rain and the rain filled the deeper levels of Earth's surface and oceans began to form
• Ocean water is not safe to drink
• Ocean water is salty because of sodium chloride that dissolved when rivers and streams flowed to the ocean and carried small minerals.
• Salinity= A measure of the amount of dissolved salts in a given amount of liquid
• Salinity is usually measured as grams of dissolved solids per kilogram of water.
• Climate affects salinity
• hotter drier climates typically has a lower salinity
• heat increases the evaporation rate and evaporation removes water but leaves salts and other dissolved solids behind.
• Water movement affects salinity
• open ocean and slower-moving areas of water develop higher salinity
• temperature of ocean water decreases as depth increases slowly
• water cycle= continuous movement of water from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean
• Condensation= gas to liquid
• Evaporation= liquid to gas
• Precipitation= falling back to Earth's surface

Section 2: The Ocean Floor

• Sonar: SOund Navigation And Ranging
• based on echo-ranging behavior of bats
• send sound pulses from a ship down into the ocean
• sound moves through the water, bounces off the ocean floor, and returns to the ship
• longer time for the sound to return if the ocean is deeper
• about 1,500 m/s
• Oceanography via Satellite
• 1978 scientists launched the satellite "Seasat" which is focused on the ocean sending images back to Earth that allowed scientists to measure the direction and speed of ocean current
• Studying the Ocean with "Geosat"
• top-military satellite
• measure slight changes in the height of the ocean's surface
• maps are made
• world's largest mountain chain (64,000 km 40,000 mi and canyons deeper than the Great Canyon) is underwater
• continental shelf= the gently sloping section of the continental margin located between the shoreline and the continental slope
• continental slope= the steeply inclined section of the continental margin located between the continental slope and the abyssal plain
• continental rise= the gently sloping section of the continental margin located between the continental slope and the abyssal plain
• abyssal plain= a large, flat, almost level area of the deep-ocean basin
• mid-ocean ridge= a long, undersea mountain chain that forms along the floor of the major oceans
• rift valley= a long, narrow valley that forms as tectonic plates separate
• seamount= a submerged mountain on the ocean floor that is at least 1,000 m high and that has a volcanic origin
• ocean trench= a steep, long depression in the deep-sea floor that runs parallel to a chain of volcanic islands or a continental margin
• Piloted Vessels: Alvin and Deep Flight
• Alvin is 7 m long and can reach some of the deepest parts of the ocean
• Deep Flight is another modern vessel that scientists use to explore the deep ocean
• Transports pilots to the deepest parts of the ocean, which are more than 11,000 m deep
• Robotic Vessels: JASON II and Medea
• these robots are designed to withstand pressures much greater than those found in the surface and is used to explore above sea floor
• Jason II is "flown" by a pilot at the surface and is used to explore the ocean floor
• Medea is attached to Jason II with a tether and explores above the sea floor.

Diving into the ocean

Harbor Seals

Habitat: Coast of UK and Europe
Breed: Feb - Nov
Migration: Mostly New England and Canada
Food: Shell fish, etc.

Gray Whales

Habitat: Alaska
Breed: 13.5 months breed
Migration: South to Mexico to go through the winter (longest migration animal)
Food: Antipodes
Blood: Warm

Northern Fur Seal

Habitat: Robin island commander island etc
Speed of swimming: 2.5 meters per second
Food: Krill

Californian Sea Lions

Habitat: Southern California
Breed: sandy beaches 10 miles away from the ocean
Migration: May - June
Rare milk
Diving time: 15 mins max

Northern Elephant Seals (Mirounga Augustirostris)

Habitat: Eastern Pacific Ocean
Breed: Near America, Mexico, and Oregon
Weight: 1500 - 2300 kg male, 400 - 900 kg female
Height: 4 - 5 m male, 2.5 - 3.6 m female
Speed of swimming:  0.91-1.66 m/sec
Carnivores
Biggest seal in the world!!

Cindy and Anshuman's water cycle song

We Wish you a Merry Water Cycle

Eva-po-ra-tion

Con-den-sa-tion

Per-cipi-ta-tion

And the Water cycle

Good tidings to you, for you & your clouds

Good tidings for percipitation & the water cycle

[repeat chorus]

Good tidings to you, for you & your water

Evaporation & Condensation& have a safe flight!

[repeat chorus]

Thank you!!!! :)

By Cindy and Anshuman G7Y

Water Pollution E- Portfolio Entry

Assignment:
Use your textbook and internet as references, learn about different types of water pollution. Then, make a "water pollution entry" for your e-portfolio. The entry needs to include:

1. Basic information/ description of the type of water pollution (at least 4 different types of water pollution)
2. Real picture(s) of the kind of water pollution
3. Real-life example (a real place that has the kind of water pollution. Be specific! Location/ Name)

1. Water pollution is basically the pollution of the water in rivers and lakes. Water pollution occurs when pollutants, or the materials that pollute water (oil, plastic bags, chemicals, etc.), are directly or indirectly disposed in the bodies of water without proper treatment and permission. The types of water pollution are surface water pollution, oxygen depleting, groundwater pollution, chemical pollution, suspended matter, microbiological, and nutrients. The main water pollution are chemical, surface water, ground water, and suspended matter. 

Chemical pollution: Chemical pollution may cause many bad things. First of all, it causes many marine creature's deaths. Chemical pollution usually comes from the factories. Factories pour used chemicals down the river by sewers. Chemicals are acidic (usually) and they make the river turn in bad condition. So the chemical pollutions make the water turn toxic.I think chemical pollution is the worst. This is because it causes direct effect against the fishes and other creatures that live inside the river.

Surface Water pollution: This pollution is when the surface water is dirty. Surface waters are usually seas, ocean, rivers, etc. Surface water pollution's sources are usually groundwater or rain water. The sources of this surface water pollution is usually acidic. They occur when toxic substances dissolve inside the bodies of waters. They effect humans because if they have physical or direct contact to the water it may harm us.If the toxic substances have too much contact it may be deadly.

Groundwater pollution: This is one of the usual groundwater pollution. They are usually common and they are pretty much everywhere. This pollution occurs when the water underground becomes dirty. The dirty water enters the river and causes groundwater pollution. However, groundwater is fatal to our modern day life. So if the groundwater gets polluted, it might cause a great catastrophe on Earth. Most of the scientists and people say that the pollutants and the cause are same or similar as the surface water pollution. I saw this pollution is a river in Korea.

Suspended Matter pollution: This is also one of the bad type of pollution. This pollution happens when the molecules or the objects are too big to dissolve in the water. This can be a great problem because the substances float on the water. Because of this, the physical contacts may cause many things that may cause many bad things to humans. Many undissolved materials float on the rivers in Thailand.

2.                                                         Chemical Pollution

Surface Water pollution

Groundwater pollution

Suspended matter pollution

3.

• Cuyahoga River – Ohio, U.S.A.
• This river is also known as "the river on fire"
• This river was so polluted with oil that the river caught fire

• Lake Karachay – Russia
• This river was polluted because of the nuclear wastes
•  The radioactive dust from the lake is causing illness
• Engineers are trying to prevent this by adding stones and concrete into the lake which prevents the radioactive dusts to fly near the citizens

• Matanza-Riachuelo River – Buenos Aires, Argetina
• This river is so polluted by the plastic bottles and the plastic bags
• The river is also called "Slaughtered Creek" because 3.5 million people live in this particular contaminated basin.

• Citarum River – West Java, Indonesia
• This river is so polluted that the contact with the water and human skin will cause disease and illness
• The pollutants are also platic bottles, plastic bads, chemicals, etc.

• Buriganga River – Dhaka, Bangladesh
• This river is polluted by the sewers and medical wastes
• Bangladesh governments are trying their best to decontaminate the algae from the water

• Ganges River – Allahabad, India
• This river is known for the most holiest river in the whole world
• However, the Allahabad government realized that the pollution in the water may cause illness to the people that come to wash their sins away.

• Yellow River – Lanzhou, China
• The supposedly "Yellow" river is "Red" right now because of some unknown pollutant from the sewers.
• The "Red" river's pollutant is known to be very harmful to humans when directly contacted

• Yamuna River – New Delhi, India
•  As you can see in the picture, this river's pollutant is foam
• The whole river is contaminated with dangerous acidic chemicals and washing powder that cane out from the sewers

• Chaohu Lake – Anhui Province, China
• This river is an algae-filled river
• This river's pollutant cause is known to be the overpopulation of China and its citizens

• Jordan River – Israel
• This river is known to be the place of baptism of Jesus Christ.
• Gidon Bromberg, the EcoPeace/ Friends of the Middle East, says that the Jordan River is suffering from the diversion of 98 percent of its fresh water to Israel, Syria, and Jordan and from the massive amounts of untreated sewage and agricultural runoff discharged into the water.

Citations:
       "11 Most Polluted Rivers in the World." News, Lifestyle, and Social Action on TakePart. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.

       "Water Pollution." Water Pollution. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.

       "Water Pollution." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.

Alternative Energy Resource

Question: Why are fossil fuels cheap, in limited supply, and dirty? Each answer needs to be at least 1 paragraph (5-10 sentences)

Answer:
1. Why are fossil fuels cheap?

     Fossil fuels release bad things when they are burnt. For example, when you burn fossil fuel, it might release carbon dioxide (CO2), just like coal does when they are burnt.Carbon dioxide is a gas that we breathe out and the plants breathe in. The oxygen and carbon dioxide was balanced long time ago because there were many plants by then, however, people care cutting down the trees and plants so there aren't much plants that could keep up the process. Nowadays carbon dioxide is the main reason that is destroying the ozone layer in our atmosphere and is causing the global warming.  So regardless of how much fossil fuels may help us, all the countries in the world doesn't want to use fossil fuels so the fossil fuels are cheap.

2. Why are fossil fuels in limited supply?

     Fossil fuels are in limited supplies these days. This is because fossil fuels are non-renewable. This means once fossil fuels are burnt up, they won't be used again. They will just become a pile of ashes and just release carbon dioxide. They have to take a long process of million years in order to become an oil (fossil fuel) or a coal.

3. Why are fossil fuels dirty?

     Fossil fuels are dirty. This is because many things (such as chemical, etc.) are combined inside. Fossil fuels, just like human, releases dirty gas while they are decomposing and being made as a fossil fuel. When people dig up the fossil fuel, it is impossible to dig it without digging the dirty fossil fuel gas too. Another reason that people say fossil fuels are dirty is because just as I mentioned above, it releases gases that harm humans and are dirty.