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Global warming, climate change, environment and water

You have been warmed

Britain will see more flooding and storm damage unless greenhouse gas emissions are drastically cut, says a key energy organisation.

The Energy Saving Trust (EST) called on the British government to dramatically reduce carbon emissions to combat the threat of global climate change. Topping their bill for action was improving energy efficiency in the UK, which the Trust says will deliver huge reductions in CO2 emissions and big economic benefits.

'If we are to bring about the 60% cut in CO2 emissions the Prime Minister signalled at Johannesburg, environmental concerns must be at the heart of the government's new energy policy,' said Eoin Lees, EST's chief executive.

Without these cuts, EST claim that there's a risk of a 3% rise in global temperatures and increased damage from storms, gale-force winds and sea level flooding in the UK. EST warned that storm damage from climate change could affect over 1.8 million UK homes and 180,000 business properties, impacting on 5 million people. We have already seen considerable flooding in the UK during the summer 2007.

See the Energy Saving Trust website at: www.est.org.uk

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Reality bites

It sounds like a storyline from a Hollywood movie but, according to a recent United Nations survey, malaria - spread by mosquito bites - could return to the south of England for the first time in 300 years. Top scientists predict that changes in our weather due to global warming are happening much faster than expected, giving us hotter summers, colder winters and more storms. This is already leading to flooding and other problems.

As a result, over the next 50 years we can expect to see an extra:

*Source: Daily Mirror, October 28, 2002

For further information on this topic, you might like to read:
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=3020

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Water, water everywhere?

A new Water Poverty Index has been developed to highlight the differences between water-rich and water-poor nations.

The index, developed by a team of researchers at Britain's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and experts from the World Water Council, ranks a total of 147 countries.

Not surprisingly, almost all the most water-rich nations are in the northern hemisphere and most of those with the least water are in Africa.

Experts calculate that 20% of the world's population in a total of 30 countries faced water shortages in 2000. This figure is expected to climb to 30% or 2.3 billion people in a total of 50 countries by 2025. For further information, please refer to:
http://www.ceh.ac.uk/sections/ph/WaterPovertyIndex.html

Source: WaterAid

This will also provide you with some further exciting resources:
http://www.wateraid.org/uk/learn_zone/pupils_1518/default.asp

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Climate change - Taken to extremes

Some tipping points for climate change could be closer than previously thought. Scientists are predicting that the loss of the massive Greenland ice sheet may now be unstoppable and lead to catastrophic sea-level rises around the world.

In drawing together research on tipping points, where damage due to climate change occurs irreversibly and at an increasing rate, the researchers concluded that the risks were much greater than those predicted by the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

If the Greenland ice sheet melted completely, for example, it would raise global sea levels by seven metres. According to the IPCC report, the melting should take about 1,000 years. But the study, by Tim Lenton of the University of East Anglia, showed the break-up could happen more quickly, in 300 years. Professor Lenton said: "We know that ice sheets in the last ice age collapsed faster than any current models can capture, so our models are known to be too sluggish."

Source: The Guardian, August 16, 2007

Rising sea levels, desertification and shrinking freshwater supplies will create up to 50 million environmental refugees by the end of the decade, experts warn today. Creeping environmental deterioration has already displaced up to 10 million people a year, and the situation would get worse.

Source: The Guardian, 12 October, 2005

You might also like to check out the climate change blogs on the following site:
http://www.marklynas.org/

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Stormy weather

The main impact of global warming will be a more violent weather pattern. Storms, heat waves, hurricanes - these are all likely to become common as more energy is fed into the world's atmosphere by the rising temperatures.

We have seen extremes of weather all over the world in the past few years including the record temperatures and deaths in Southern Europe in the summer of 2007, floods in Bangladesh, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Dean. Even the UK has been severely affected with 2007 seeing a worrying amount of flooding across the UK.

In June, England had its very own tornado sweeping through Wellington in Shropshire, highlighting the " amount of energy in the rain clouds," the Met Office said. The first day of the Wimbledon tennis tournament was also badly disrupted with 10 matches cancelled. At Glastonbury music festival, police handed out thousands of emergency foil blankets to people whose journey home was delayed by mud and rain.

The worst hit area was Humberside where divers battled unsuccessfully to save a young man. Elsewhere in Hull, which received 4in of rain according to the Met Office, sewage overflowed, manholes floated away and emergency services were called to deal with hundreds of homes being flooded. Hundreds of motorists were stranded.

With much of England and Wales having received twice the average monthly rainfall for June, rivers were running dangerously high. The Environment Agency issued 18 severe flood warnings - mostly in the North and East. Warnings were also issued in connection with more than 200 rivers in the Midlands, East Anglia, London, the South-east and the South-west.

Even though the downpours seem very much out of the ordinary, no scientist is going to say that in themselves they prove the climate is changing. There have always been floods; there have always been severe floods. The natural variability of the climate has always included extremes. However, if the predictions of supercomputer climate models are correct, rain of the unusual intensity experienced in many places yesterday is going to become a much more commonplace feature of the weather in Britain as the century progresses.

Furthermore, this summer’s torrential storms do fit an emerging pattern of "extreme events" in rainfall in Europe which is consistent with predictions of climate change, and which has started to become clear since the Millennium.

Sources: The Independent 26 June 2007.

Engineers and geologists have discovered that the problem is the increasing air temperature caused by climate change. But the underground temperature is rising as well, because of increased snowfall! Increased evaporation caused by warmer summers is triggering thicker falls of snow which insulate the soil and keep it warm in winter. Find out more at www.tornadoproject.com

Sources: The Tornado Project 22 June 2003. The Observer, 20 July 2003.

In the UK the temperature officially went above 100°F (38.1°C) for the first time in August 2003.

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Get digging

Digging a trench and planting a tree may seem like odd ways to save energy, but conservation work not only makes the environment more attractive, it also helps us work towards a more sustainable future.

Schools can get involved through the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV), the UK's largest practical conservation charity. Every year it helps over 130,000 volunteers take hands-on action to improve their environment.

'I've seen at first hand the work that BTCV does in communities from London to Londonderry,' says TV gardener Charlie Dimmock. 'Wastelands have become wildlife areas and concrete turned into community gardens, all thanks to the effort and enthusiasm of the volunteers.'

Go to www.btcv.co.uk to find out more.

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Congestion charging - Nose to tail

Official figures show cuts in traffic delays, congestion, and numbers of accidents since congestion charging was introduced in 2003 in Central London.

Traffic has been reduced by some 20% since charging began - preventing the gridlock that would most likely have been a regular feature for the capital.

This has brought many benefits to London, including more reliable journeys, a significant cut in carbon dioxide, and a reduction of up to 15% in the most harmful vehicle emissions within the zone.

Independent research demonstrates road safety has also improved, with up to 70 fewer personal road injuries per year as a direct result of congestion charging.

And more people than ever before are feeling safe enough to cycle on London's roads. There has been a 72% increase in the number of cyclists on London's major roads since 2000, with around 450,000 cycle journeys a day.

Due to the success, that the scheme was extended to West London in the Spring of 2007. It was hoped that congestion would be reduced by 15% with this extension.

Transport for London is looking at taking the initiative even further, by varying the Congestion Charge based upon CO2 emissions; high emission cars would pay more, low emission cars would pay less. You can provide your own comments by visiting: www.tfl.gov.uk/5667.aspx

Other UK cities are watching the scheme with interest: Manchester has already followed suit. Bristol and Edinburgh are looking at charging, but other cities want to improve their bus, metro, train or tram services before they consider congestion charging.

Sources: BBC; Transport for London

Go to the Transport for London website at www.tfl.gov.uk to find out more.

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Eco School: Ravenscraig Primary, Greenock, Scotland

The aim of the Eco Schools programme is to make environmental awareness and action an intrinsic part of the life and ethos of the school for both pupils and for staff and to engage the wider community.

The Eco Schools programme can help schools to:

One Eco School is Ravenscraig Primary in Greenock, Scotland, which has a whole school approach including initiatives such as:

The Eco Schools programme first came to the UK in 1995. It is managed in the UK by ENCAMS (formerly the Tidy Britain Group) and in Scotland by Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB).For more information go to www.eco-schools.org.uk

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