Stay Cool

Vitamin Loading

Stay healthy during the exam period
Load up on vitamins!

Make yummy smoothies, shakes,
yoghurt or lassi
for energy and nutrition

while you study.

Greenhouse Gases

Source: http://www.climatechangenorth.ca/section-BG/BG_HS_03_O_E.html

The Carbon Cycle

Source: http://www.climatechangenorth.ca/section-BG/BG_HS_03_O_E.html

Sinks are for cleaning up

Areas that absorb and hold onto lots of carbon dioxide are called carbon “sinks”. There are three main carbon sinks in the world:

Sink 1: Oceans

The oceans take up carbon dioxide by absorbing and dissolving it into the water, the way that carbon dioxide is stored in a bottled soft drink! Much of this ends up in the deep ocean.

Sink 2: Soil

Dirt is more than just dirt. Pick up a handful and you will be holding billions of micro organisms and bacteria. These microscopic things nibble on plants and trees as the vegetation dies and break the plants and trees down into carbon and nutrients. This carbon is stored in the ground everywhere in the world, even in permafrost areas. But when we disturb the soil, we speed up the release of the stored carbon. Logging and farming are two large-scale ways we disturb the soil. Melting permafrost will also release carbon dioxide.

Sink 3: Forests and Vegetation

Plants and trees breathe in and absorb carbon dioxide as they turn the sun’s energy into food through a process called photosynthesis. When trees and plants die or burn in fires, they release this absorbed carbon to the soil and to the atmosphere.

Source: http://www.climatechangenorth.ca/section-BG/BG_HS_03_O_E.html

More Healthy Sandwiches

Now, let's get creative.... after the exams.
These are suggestions for your little sister or your mum
to make for you.

Extreme sandwiches!

Ordinary sandwiches

Healthy Sandwiches

Need a nibble while you study for next week's SPM?
Here are some ideas for healthy snacks:

Get your little sister or your mum to make them for you while you study :D

Why Are Trees Important

Can we actually combat global warming and climate change with more trees?

Trees are important, valuable and necessary to our very existence. It's not too hard to believe that, without trees we humans would not exist on this beautiful planet. Our existing forest and the trees we plant work in tandem to make a better world.

1. Trees Produce Oxygen

Let's face it, we could not exist as we do if there were no trees. A mature leafy tree produces as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year. What many people don't realize is the forest also acts as a giant filter that cleans the air we breath.

2. Trees Are Carbon Sinks

To produce its food, a tree absorbs and locks away carbon dioxide in the wood , roots and leaves. Carbon dioxide is a global warming suspect. A forest is a carbon storage area or a "sink" that can lock up as much carbon as it produces. This locking-up process "stores" carbon as wood and not as an available "greenhouse" gas.

3. Trees Clean the Air

Trees help cleanse the air by intercepting airborne particles, reducing heat , and absorbing such pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Trees remove this air pollution by lowering air temperature, through respiration, and by retaining particulates.

4. Trees Clean the Soil

The term phytoremediation is a fancy word for the absorption of dangerous chemicals and other pollutants that have entered the soil. Trees can either store harmful pollutants or actually change the pollutant into less harmful forms. Trees filter sewage and farm chemicals, reduce the effects of animal wastes, clean roadside spills and clean water runoff into streams.

5. Trees Control Noise Pollution

Trees muffle urban noise almost as effectively as stone walls. Trees, planted at strategic poin ts in a neighborhood or around your house, can abate major noises from highways and airports.

6. Trees Slow Storm Water Runoff

Flash flooding can be dramatically reduced by a forest or by plant ing tre es. Underground water-holding aquifers are recharged with this slowing down of water runoff.

7. Trees Act as Windbreaks

During windy and cold seasons, trees located on the windward side act as win dbreaks. A reduction in wind can also reduce the drying effect on soil and vegetation behind the windbreak and help keep precious topsoil in place.

8. Trees Fight Soil Erosion

Erosion control has always started with tree and grass planting projects. Tr ee roots bi nd the soil and their leaves break the force of wind and rain on soil. Trees fight soil erosion, conserve rainwater and reduce water runoff and sediment deposit after storms.

9. Trees Shade and Cool

Shade resulting in cooling is what a tree is best known for. Shade from trees reduces the need for air conditioning.

10. Trees Increase Property Value

Real estate value increase when trees beautify a property or neighborhood.

Source: http://forestry.about.com/od/treephysiology/tp/tree_value.htm

Plant Trees

Trees and plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere so it makes sense that the more trees we have, the better the planet will be. Despite this, we are cutting down more trees per year than we replace. You can help to turn this around by supporting tree planting or forest protection programmes.

Plant trees to offset our carbon output.


Source: http://sustainabledirections.com.au/page/carbon_credits.html

What is a Carbon Credit?