(DID YOU KNOW?)

· The United Nations formed a group known as the International Panel on Climate Change or IPCC, which meets every few years to discuss and review the latest scientific findings and write a report summarizing all that is known about global warming.
· When humans burn fossil fuels, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are released into the atmosphere. These chemical gases react with water, oxygen, and other substances to form mild solutions of sulfuric and nitric acid. Winds may spread these acidic solutions across the atmosphere and over hundreds of miles. When acid rain reaches Earth, it flows across the surface in runoff water, enters water systems, and sinks into the soil.
· Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main pollutant that is warming Earth. Though living things emit carbon dioxide when they breathe, carbon dioxide is widely considered to be a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants, and other human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. In the past 150 years, such activities have pumped enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to raise its levels higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years.
· Gasoline and diesel are actually ancient biofuels. But they are known as fossil fuels because they are made from decomposed plants and animals that have been buried in the ground for millions of years. Biofuels are similar, except that they're made from plants grown today.
· Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to people’s need to provide for their families. The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often many small farmers will each clear a few acres to feed their families by cutting down trees and burning them in a process known as “slash and burn” agriculture.
· According to many experts, we may soon find ourselves using fuel cells to generate electrical power for all sorts of devices we use every day. A fuel cell is a device that uses a source of fuel, such as hydrogen, and an oxidant to create electricity from an electrochemical process.
· In the late 19th century, hydropower became a source for generating electricity. The first hydroelectric power plant was built at Niagara Falls in 1879. In 1881, street lamps in the city of Niagara Falls were powered by hydropower. In 1882 the world’s first hydroelectric power plant began operating in the United States in Appleton, Wisconsin.
· Today, there is widespread concern that the ozone layer is deteriorating due to the release of pollution containing the chemicals chlorine and bromine. Such deterioration allows large amounts of ultraviolet B rays to reach Earth, which can cause skin cancer and cataracts in humans and harm animals as wellExtra ultraviolet B radiation reaching Earth also inhibits the reproductive cycle of phytoplankton, single-celled organisms such as algae that make up the bottom rung of the food chain. Biologists fear that reductions in phytoplankton populations will in turn lower the populations of other animals. Researchers also have documented changes in the reproductive rates of young fish, shrimp, and crabs as well as frogs and salamanders exposed to excess ultraviolet B.Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), chemicals found mainly in spray aerosols heavily used by industrialized nations for much of the past 50 years, are the primary culprits in ozone layer breakdown. When CFCs reach the upper atmosphere, they are exposed to ultraviolet rays, which causes them to break down into substances that include chlorine. The chlorine reacts with the oxygen atoms in ozone and rips apart the ozone molecule.One atom of chlorine can destroy more than a hundred thousand ozone molecules, according to the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The ozone layer above the Antarctic has been particularly impacted by pollution since the mid-1980s. This region’s low temperatures speed up the conversion of CFCs to chlorine. In the southern spring and summer, when the sun shines for long periods of the day, chlorine reacts with ultraviolet rays, destroying ozone on a massive scale, up to 65 percent. This is what some people erroneously refer to as the "ozone hole." In other regions, the ozone layer has deteriorated by about 20 percent.
About 90 percent of CFCs currently in the atmosphere were emitted by industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere, including the United States and Europe. These countries banned CFCs by 1996, and the amount of chlorine in the atmosphere is falling now. But scientists estimate it will take another 50 years for chlorine levels to return to their natural levels.
· The rules surrounding hazardous waste are overseen in the U.S. by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as state departments of environmental protection. EPA requires that hazardous waste be handled with special precautions and be disposed of in designated facilities located throughout the United States, which charge for their services. Many towns have special collection days for household hazardous waste.

I Have Changed My Mind

I have changed my topic. I want the focus of my project to be on the environment. I will research environmental threats such as global warming and all of their effects, volunteer with the Student Conservation Association, and many other things that involve the environment. I have made up my mind, this is my final topic. I will re-post my essential and foundation questions as well as my key terms and collage.

And So it Begins...

Today I worked on the requirements Mrs. Savido assigned us. I am finished with the assignment, therefore I have my topic, essential question, and list of websites. Now I begin the actual project. I will be contacting various organizations today, scheduling times to volunteer. And so it begins....

Here is a list of different organizations that I looked up yesterday. These places represent possible topics for my project. But I may group them all together and do a super project. Notice that there are seven places.

1. Student Conservation Association
2. NEED- Negro Educational Emergency Drive
3. The Salvation Army
4. Homeless Family Shelter
5. The Jubilee Soup Kitchen
6. Habitat for Humanity
7. Humane Society

These are just ideas, I have not set a definte topic yet. I do not know if I want to do something personal or professional.

Possible Topics

I've been doing alot of thinking about choosing the perfect topic. I have ideas about things that I have an interest in and a true passion for. I want my project to memorable. I want it to be simple yet very profound and meaningful. I remain unsure, but I'm close to choosing a definite topic.

First Assignment

a. About the graduation project I have heard many different things from many different sources. I've heard that the graduation projects are difficult, time consuming, thought provoking, and a way to better understand yourself. I was told to take my time with the project, making sure that I am certain about my topic, and also to work diligently so that I am not putting a project together at the last minute.

b. Some intrests that I have that I may or may not structure a project around would be art, music, important social issues, historical events and figures, and different aspects of science.

c. The only concern about the graduation project I have is choosing a topic that is tangible.