Vocabulary

Global warming is gradual, long term temperature increase due to the greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere.

Greenhouse gases are gases that while being in our atmosphere are heating the climate and increasing the climate change by trapping the heat. While the sunlight is hitting the Earth’s surface, some of the energy is let into the surface and some is reflected back to space. However, gasses in our atmosphere, like carbon dioxide (CO₂), trap the energy, which will heat the Earth even more. This is called the greenhouse effect. The name comes from the nature of the gasses, because they allow the light to go through, but trap the heat – like greenhouses made from glass.

Climate Change is referring to the changing weather and climate patterns which are now affecting our planet, like melting ice in the Arctic and rising sea levels. This also includes global warming.

Watch the video and answer the questions:

1. Can you explain, what is “global warming?”?
2. What can we humans do to reduce global warming?
3. How does global warming affect the Barents Sea?
4. Why is it important to take care of the Barents Sea?

Transcript

My name is Tora and I am from Norway. Norway and Russia share a border way up north, by the city of Murmansk. Above our border lies a big sea. The most beautiful see in the World in my opinion. It is called the Barents Sea. The Barents Sea has the world’s largest Cod-stock, “треска” in Russian. It also has a great variety of species like whale rosses, seabirds and in the Arctic we even have polar bears. In the Summer there are over 20 million seabirds living in the Barents sea.

The reason why I wanted to talk about the Barents Sea is because of the drastic changes we can see there due to global warming. The temperature in the sea is rising and this can have a huge negative impact on the species living there and for our future generation.

———

(Video clip: What is global warming?

This is Earth – the planet and a solar system we live on. However, our planet is not on a good path for continuing to sustain life. The Earth is facing an accelerating detrimental effect of climate change also referred to as global warming. Incoming light from the sun hits the Earth’s surface. The Earth absorbs some of that energy heating the surface of the planet. The rest of that energy gets reflected. Some of that energy goes back out to space but greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide trap the energy and send it right back to the Earth’s surface heating it up to even more. This is known as the greenhouse effect.

Now,  a little greenhouse effect is natural to the Earth and is good to have, but a large greenhouse effect can be catastrophic causing a lot of that energy to stay in our atmosphere and heat up the Earth at an accelerating rate.

Some of the main human activities that admit greenhouse gasses are fossil fuel burning, animal’s agriculture and deforestation, and waste and recycling pollution. Burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas as well as gasoline, are some of the largest pollutants of carbon emissions.)

———

If we want to take care of our climate, we have to make some changes in the way we live. Because I love nature and I am worried about the changes climate changes are causing. I have personally done some lifestyle changes. Whenever I’m traveling either to another country or to another city, I always try to take the most environmentally friendly way possible. If I can go by bus or by train instead of using airplane, I will. In the world today, transports are causing 24 percent of the global emissions. This is because modern transport relies heavily on petroleum to work. By choosing to go by bus instead of airplane, you will save 5 to 10 times less emissions. I have found it to be easy to cut back on plastic. I always carry a bottle with me in case I get thirsty, so I never have to buy plastic bottles. In Norway it is even illegal to buy disposable plastic. This shows that small changes can actually work.

You can also change your habits when it comes to clothes. I won’t buy clothes from Zara or H&M. I will always buy them from thrift shops. In fact, we buy 5 times as much clothes as our grandparents used to. And the clothing industry is responsible for 10 percent of the global emissions today.

When we see that the way we live in the World today is causing so much damage to nature and it causes global warming, we have to change the way we live little by little. Because global warming is not only an issue in the Arctic and the Barents Sea, but it is the reason behind the big forest fires in Siberia and huge floods in Germany. But for us in Norway and Russia it is very important that we take care of the nature and climate in the Barents Sea because our sea is so special. The sea is full of biodiversity and resources that our generation needs for the future.

The temperature in the Arctic is rising at double the speed than the rest of the world. And the rising temperature in the sea is a concern because it makes it unlivable for many of the species there, especially for the fish. If the fish will disappear then the birds will disappear. And for our future generations this is very bad because we need the fish and the resources of the Barents Sea to survive. Us humans are not the only species living on the planet, and global warming is not only bad for us but bad for all species living among us. I think that if we make a few changes to the way we live everyday and if we are all aware of the consequences global warming has on our planet, we can have a chance of saving the environment.