Classmate Facts # 119 - Global Warming

1. While their mothers hunt for food walrus pups rest on sea ice. Now as ice melts, walrus pups are being stranded!

2. Grass has started to grow in Antarctica in areas that were covered by ice sheets and glaciers previously. Warmer temperatures are allowing grass to survive through winter for the first time!

3. In the Swiss alps, a rock twice as big as the Empire State Building collapsed on the canyon floor, nearly 700 feet below. The reason? Melting glaciers!

4. In 2002, a chunk of ice in Antarctica, larger than the state of Rhode Island, weakened by warm winds, collapsed into the sea!

5. Up to 72% of bird species in Australia and more than a third in Europe could go extinct due to global warming!

Classmate Facts # 118 - Global Warming

1. The entire species of Aldabra banded snail died out after warmer weather cut off rainfall in its habitat!

2. The pine beetle, which feeds on pine trees spread through an area as big as Ireland, and killed off entire Canadian forest within a year! The beetles have been present in these forests for thousands of years, but their population was checked by the winter cold!

3. If all of the ice in Antarctic melts, sea levels around the world would rise about 61 metres!

4. 22% of world’s carbon emissions is produced by 5% of the world population.

5. 1% of India’s land area for solar power could meet all its electricity needs.

6. Humans are pouring Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans can absorb it.

Classmate Facts # 117 - Global Warming

1. More than half of the 110 known Harlequin frog species have vanished due to climate change and global warming!

2. Globally, the 1990s were the warmest decade and the year 1998 was the warmest year recorded since 1861.

3. 14.6 million hectares of natural forest are lost each year – an area larger than England. This is a rate of 30 hectares every minute!

4. Because of rising temperatures, polar bears are waking up early from their winter slumber. When they are not able to hibernate, they become grouchy and increasingly aggressive.

Classmate Facts # 116 - Chemistry Facts

Happy Christmas to all our Readers!

1. Every atom of an element contains the same number of protons. For example, Carbon has 6 protons. Bu sometimes the number of neutrons in elements varies and this results in isotopes. Sometimes, Carbon atoms have 8 neutrons and we get Carbon 14, an Isotope of Carbon 12.

2. Fission occurs when one element breaks into several others, releasing energy in the process. When a neutron strikes Uranium it disintegrates into Krypton, Barium, a few neutrons and lots of energy. This energy is also used by nuclear reactors. In fusion, two elements fuse together to form another element and also release energy. Tritium and Deuterium fuse to form Helium and release enormous amounts of energy in the bargain! That's fission and fusion for you!

Classmate Facts # 115 - Global Warming

1. One person travelling by plane for one hour produces as much as carbon dioxide as an average Indian produces in one year!

2. The airplane meadows are disappearing due to higher temperatures. Bighorn sheep, mountain goats, and grizzly bears are becoming homeless!

3. The plastic bottles that you use today will break down completely in your great-great-great grandson’s time! (It takes about 450 years just for one plastic bottle to break down in the ground.)

4. Between 34 to 80 fish species have become extinct since the late 19^th century. 6 since 1970. The reason: Global Warming!

5. If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!

6. In 1999, just eight nations were responsible for nearly 50% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Classmate Facts # 114 - Global Warming

1. If you lined up all the polystyrene foam cups made in just one day, they would circle the earth. Can you calculate the amount of waste generated in a year?

2. In Glacier National Park, the number of glaciers has dropped from 150 to 26. None will be left within the next 30 years!

3. Warmer winters mean skiers have more trouble finding places to train!

4. The present Carbon Dioxide concentration is the highest in the past 420,000 years and possibly in the past 20 million years.

5. The Mediterranean Sea is quickly turning into a stagnant sea affecting many of the sea’s plant and animal species!

6. Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60W bulb for up to 6 hours.

Classmate Facts # 113 - Global Warming

1. By eating less meat you can reduce the amount of methane that is sent into the atmosphere! Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas. Cows exhale methane with every breath because of their grassy diet and multiple stomachs.

2. At the rate our climate is changing, the world will soon be warmer than it has ever been in the last 10,000 years.

3. The amount of oxygen produced by an acre of trees per year equals the amount consumed by 18 people annually.

4. Do you know that if our earth gets any warmer, forty years from now we will only be able to grow half the almonds and walnuts that we are growing now! Wouldn’t we miss our crunchy, nutty ice-creams?

5. You can stop the release of 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide gas, if you cut down your garbage by 10%.