Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Outline

Introduction:
Attention Getter: ?currently working on this?
State Problem: Global temperatures are rising, causing worse tropical storms and hurricanes, rising ocean levels, more droughts and fires, as well as other problems.
GSPE: Nineteen of the twenty hottest years in recorded history, have been in the years since 1980, showing that in recent years temperatures have been going up on average.
GSCF: There are multiple causes to this rise of temperatures. One of the largest is that the amount of fossil fuels being burned, and other polluting activities, is higher than ever, sending more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
Thesis: Bad problems are stemming from global warming, and unless we find a solution soon, the problems will only get worse.
Body:
Paragraph 1(E): There is a lot of evidence showing that global warming not only can exist but also that it is happening right now. Many scientists have shown that CO2, also known as carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gasses trap heat next to the earth. This heat would normally be reflected back out into space. Recently the amount of carbon dioxide has gone up considerably. Scientists have measured the air content and have found that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air has gone up from about 280 parts per million to approximately 381 parts per million in the last century and a half. Nineteen out of the twenty hottest years in recorded history have been in the years since 1980, showing that the increased greenhouse gasses are actually raising the temperature. Also the ocean temperature has been raised one whole degree centigrade since 1970.
Paragraph 2(E): There is also plenty of evidence showing that the rising temperatures from global warming are causing many problems that most likely get worse if nothing is done to stop global warming. One problem it is causing is that the raised temperatures are melting glaciers and the polar ice caps. Scientists have found that the ice shelf over Greenland is now melting twice as fast as it was melting in 1996. Also, scientists have measured the shrinking of a major glacier in western Antarctica. In seven years alone the glacier had lost 31 cubic kilometers. That glacier alone is raising the ocean level by a little more than a millimeter every hundred years. Many other glaciers and the polar ice caps themselves are also adding to the rising ocean level. Since the ocean temperatures are rising tropical storms and hurricanes are getting stronger since the flourish in warmer water. The amount of level four and level five hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. Also, hurricanes will be able to occur further away from the equator as the temperature of waters further north and south become warm enough to maintain these storms. Also, the percentage of the earth’s surface suffering from droughts has doubled since the 1970s. This is probably because the heat is drying up more areas causing more droughts.
Paragraph 3(CF): People are burning more fossil fuels, and not just for automobiles either, than any time in the past, releasing more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Cars do play a large part causing about 30 percent of the emissions. Every gallon of gasoline burned puts twenty pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Since burning coal is on of the major ways people generate electricity, the more electricity people use in their daily lives the more carbon dioxide emissions that go into the air. Also, the amount of garbage people throw away effects the carbon dioxide emissions as well. The more people throw away, the more carbon dioxide. However, large businesses contribute the most to greenhouse gas emissions. This is because they do all of the previous causes, and usually in large amounts.
Paragraph 4(CF): Also, people are chopping down forests, therefore killing many plants, for paper, wood, and land. This contributes to global warming because plants take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and put oxygen back into it. If plants are being killed we are eliminating natures way of getting carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Adversely, if people are planting more trees and other plants it will help lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. A single, mature tree absorbs about 48 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. An acre of trees in a forest will, absorb about 2.3 tons of carbon dioxide each year.
Conclusion:
Restate Thesis: Bad problems are being crated by global warming, and we need to find a solution soon or the problems will continue to get worse.
SKE+CF: Scientists have found out that there are higher amounts of greenhouse gasses now than ever before. They have also found that it is causing problems like melting the ice caps, worse hurricanes, and more droughts. People are contributing to this by burning more fossil fuels, putting more carbon dioxide into the air, and chopping down trees, eliminating a way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Propose Solution(s): In order to eliminate the problems caused by global warming we need to control the ways that we contribute to it. We need to find better ways of generating electricity, and better fuels to run cars on. Preferably ones that put little or no greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Also, we should get the governments of countries around the world to pass laws that put limits on the amount of fossil fuels we are allowed to burn. We should also plant more trees and plants, since they take carbon dioxide out of the air. Other than that we can just hope, or pray if you are a religious person, that nature can heal it self.
Attention Leaver:?working on this as well?

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Day 5

Problem(s):
Global temperatures are beginning to rise. This is most likely going to lead to problems such as worse tropical storms and hurricanes, rising ocean levels, as well as more droughts and fires.

Evidence:
Scientists have shown that CO2, or carbon-dioxide, traps the heat, that would normaly be reflected back into space, right next to the earth. Teperatures of the ocean water has risen one degree since 1970. Of the twenty hottest years nineteen of them have been in the years since 1980. The amount of carbon-dioxide in the air has gon up from 280 parts per million a to 381 parts per million in the past century and a half. The ice shelf of greenland is melting twice as fast as it was in 1996. The percentage of the Earth's surface suffering from droughts has doubled since the 1970s. Also, scientists have measured the shrinking of a major glacier in west antarctica. In 7 years alone, it had lost 31 cubic kilometers, which is, by itself, raising the ocean level one millimeter every hundred years. There has been a rise in the amount of high level hurricanes.

Contributing Factor's:
The people in the world are burning more fossil fuels than any time in the past, releasing more carbon-dioxide into the atmosphere. People are still destroying the forests which doesn't help keep greenhouse gasses low since plants, like trees, change carbon-dioxide into oxygen.

Solution(s):
We need to plant more trees and plants since they take CO2 out of the atmosphere.
We also need to find better energy sources that don't put as much, if any, CO2 or other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
While we are working at those we need the government's of nations around the world to put limits on how much fossil fuels we are allowed to burn.
Other than that, we can just hope, or pray if you are a religious person, that nature can heal itself.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Day3

Problem
Kids are sometimes late to their classes.

Evidence
Every day I see some kids come in slightly after the bell in almost every class. Also, having too many tardies is the leading reason why kids are stuck in detention after school. My brother has told me that he has been late to some of his classes as well.

Contributing Factors
In Tartan the circle entrances are too narrow, which causes a huge slow-down at the entrances to the circles. Also, some kids have bad scheduals in which their classes take them from one end of the building to the other, plus the stop at the locker in between. The passing times also may be a little shorter than they should.

Solution(s)
The best solution would be to lengthen the passing time by just a minute or two. Making the circle entrances wider would also help significantly.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Day 1

The problem is that the family isn't spending enough time together even though they want to. A cause of this would be that we all want to do different things. For example I enjoy playing board games. However my brother wants to watch a movie. Also my sister wants to play card games. Most of the time we just sit there trying to decide what to do that we use up all of our free time trying to decide. One way to solve this problem would be to just take turns. Another way would be to decide by playing a game of rock-paper-scissors. That way we could actually enjoy doing things together.