REFLECTION FOR 9th FEBRUARY GEOGRAPHY LESSON
by Ng Shou Jin.

So today we just got a new 8 mark assignment with the question as: To what extent should we be concerned about carbon dioxide emissions? After which, we watched a DVD on Al Gore and his dedication to climate changes and due to that, he won a nobel prize due to his works.

Now, who is Al Gore? He is an American environmental activist who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States, and has been in the political line for quite a long time. He presented a documentary on global warming and climate change called An Inconvenient Truth; one that was inevitable yet is the cold, hard reality of the state of the world which is falling. He was working to try to get the message across to as many people as possible about the falling state of the world, and that we humans are the major factor of its impending downfall.

Atmosphere
The atmosphere that protects the Earth is actually vulnerable as it is a thin film over the Earth, and the major disadvantage of ts thin-ness is that it is actually thin enough for human beings to change its air composition. Up above is a picture I have amateurly drawn on paint to illustrate how the atmosphere traps heat as well as reflect heat to keep the Earth's temperature just right for us to live in. Ive added in the text in the picture as well to explain how the atmosphere ensures a desirable environment for us to live in as well, as explained by Al Gore.

What air pollution is doing to the atmosphere is actually to THICKEN the atmosphere, and thus the infrared radiation trapped in the Earth does not easily escape to space, and this would then cause our problem of global warming. He also gave an analogy where the leaves also contribute to the carbon dioxide cycle which maintains the carbon dioxide cycle. During Spring and Summer, when the sun is at it brightest, the leaves of trees would 'inhale' carbon dioxide for photosynthesis; but they would 'exhale' carbon dioxide as well in Autumn and Winter where light is scarce, and the leaves would be decomposing to form carbon dioxide. Through this, carbon dioxide is repeatedly maintained at around the same levels.

However, now that the carbon dioxide level is much higher than those expected of from the last few centuries [where 300 parts per million is way too high already]. Al Gore also provided us with one of the most important concept, where

More CO2 = higher temperature,

because CO2 traps heat in Earth

That's about it for today's lesson! My conclusion for this is that we have to be concerned about carbon dioxide emissions to a high extent.

REFLECTION:

If I hadn't attend this lesson, I would not be aware that such a dedicated and passionate environmental activist called Al Gore existed. In addition, I had not really been clear of what negative things greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide do to the atmosphere as well as how it contributes to global warming. It makes me more aware for what we humans are constantly doing to promote further global warming in the Earth, like the careless burning and usage of fossil fuels or the neglection of the negative impacts of deforestation for cultivation in Indonesia etc. Greenhouse gases, in fact, are the ones responsible for trapping heat in the Earth and if it thickens the atmosphere, our Earth would get heated up.

-End.