non-fiction year 6, sequence 4 climate change, what climate … · 2020-05-11 · that’s why we...

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Non-fiction

Climate Change, What Climate Change?Year 6, Se quence 4

Hi Grandad 23 Jun

You know I told you about this project about climate change I’ve got to do at school – well I’m getting a bit confused. One of my friends said it’s all made up by journalists who like a good story to sell their newspapers and that the Earth isn’t really warming up. He says it was really cold last winter.

Josh x

My dear Josh 23 Jun

I know we had a cold winter, but that was just in our country and in one year – but we need to look at our planet Earth overall and over several years. Think of it like this. What happens when you go into a greenhouse on a sunny day? It’s hot isn’t it? That’s because the glass in the greenhouse traps the heat from the sun. This carbon dioxide gas (and some others as well) that is produced when we burn oil and coal does the same in the Earth’s atmosphere. That’s why we call them greenhouse gases! The atmosphere acts like glass in a greenhouse. But without them, we’d freeze, so we certainly need some, but not too much of them or the planet warms more than it should. So, with all the gases being pumped out of cars, aircraft, power stations and so on, we must be emitting more greenhouse gases and so climate change must be taking place.

Grandad x

Treasure House Y6 Anthology Final.indd 28Treasure House Y6 Anthology Final.indd 28 01/10/2015 17:0401/10/2015 17:04

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Year 6, Se quence 4

Yesterday

Thanks for your email Grandad, but my friend Pete, whose dad works for an oil company, says that the temperatures on Earth have always gone up and down. That’s why we had an ice age with woolly mammoths and polar bears roaming around. And now it’s warm.

Josh x

Hi Josh Yesterday

Pete has a point but the next ice age isn’t due here for another 10,000 years. At the rate the Earth’s climate and oceans are warming, the ice in the Arctic and Antarctic will have melted so much that many low-lying places will have flooded already. So we can’t hang about waiting for 10,000 years, can we?

Grandad x


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My dear Josh 10.30

I’ve been thinking more about the email you sent yesterday. Global warming? Phooey! There are some people, like Pete’s dad, who say it is not happening. Can you think who some of these might be? You guessed it! Those who use lots of fuel, who make things like cars that use lots of fuel, or actually get the fuel out of the earth – that’s heavy industry, car makers and the oil, gas and coal companies. This is what people call ‘vested interest’. These are people who depend on other people using lots of fuel if they are to continue making money. It’s not surprising that they don’t think there is any climate change. But it doesn’t make them right, does it! It makes me cross!

Grandad x

16:42

You’re right Grandad. I bet people from low-lying countries aren’t saying we needn’t be worried!

Josh x

Year 6, Se quence 4


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Year 6, Se quence 4

My dear Josh 17.23

Quite so, and as your grandfather I’m worried for you and all my other lovely grandchildren. I fear there’s worse to come. People who study the Earth’s climate have found that as it warms up, the weather is going to get more violent and unpredictable. Hurricanes, for example, will become more powerful – a big worry for people living in the tropical Pacific or Indian Ocean areas, like the Philippines and Bangladesh. Deserts are increasing and places where lots of the Earth’s food is grown, like the Great Plains of North America will get drier. Rain will be heavier in other parts of the world so there will be more floods. These things have already started to happen. So even if we think there might be some doubts about some of the science, I don’t think we should wait to find out, do you?

Grandad

17:41

No, Grandad, I certainly don’t think we should wait! Thank you for your help with this.

Josh x


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Non-fiction Year 6, Se quence 4

Human impact

The Earth is billions of years old. If this vast period of time was represented as a single day, humans would have been around for less than one second. Yet, in that brief time, we’ve had a huge impact on the planet and our growing population is causing a number of environmental problems.

The human population

The world’s human population is growing fast. From six billion in the year 2000, it’s expected to reach ten billion by the end of the 21st century. Half of us live in vast crowded cities, which gobble up more and more of the surrounding land. Our need for more homes, water, fuel and food is always increasing. This is placing a great strain on the Earth’s limited resources.

From forests to farms

All over the world, land that was once wild is now being used to cultivate food. Vast areas of tropical rainforests are being cleared to make room for plantations to grow foods like palm oil and soya beans. Rainforests are very important. They are home to around half of the world’s plant and animal species, which depend on them for life. The forests are vital in other ways too – they produce oxygen for us to breathe; they circulate water around the planet; and their roots help to bind the soil and protect it from blowing and washing away in the wind and rain.

From Fragile Earth by Claire Llewellyn


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Year 6, Se quence 4

What about water?

Water is another precious resource. We need water to grow crops and yet, sometimes, rains fail and rivers run dry. Many rivers have now been dammed, as we try to control water supply. A dam creates a vast reservoir of water, which prevents flooding further downstream. In deserts, where there are few rivers, water that collects underground is used to irrigate farmland. This provides local people with food, but the “greening” of the desert may cause problems in the future because more groundwater is being used than can be replaced by rain.

Repairing the damage

We take many good things out of the Earth. Sometimes it seems that we put back only harmful things like waste and pollution. However, we often change landscapes for the better by restoring them to their natural state. For example, by planting trees throughout the tropics we can gradually replace the forests we’ve plundered. We can repair the damage we’ve caused.


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Year 6, Se quence 4

From Global Warming by Seymour Simon

The Arctic is already showing the effects of global warming. Average temperatures in the northern regions of Alaska, Canada, and Russia have risen twice as fast as in the rest of the world. The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, the largest single sheet of ice in the Arctic, has been around for 3,000 years. It started to crack in 2000. By 2012, it had split. Now it is breaking into smaller pieces.

The Arctic Ocean is the great body of sea ice that covers the North Pole. Satellite photographs show that the ice pack has been shrinking and thinning in depth since the early 1990s. Scientists say that for the first time in human history, ice may disappear from the Arctic Ocean every summer.

Global warming has also changed the feeding patterns and behaviours of polar bears, walruses, seals, and whales. It may even impact their survival.

Non-fiction


Year 6, Se quence 4

Polar bears live only in the Arctic. They are completely dependent on the sea ice for all their life needs. In the winter, females give birth to cubs. The mother polar bear eats little or no food during the winter.

As spring approaches, the bear family makes a run onto the sea ice to feed on seals, their main source of food. If the ice melts, their food supply will be cut off and this will impact their survival.

Glaciers and mountain snow covers are rapidly melting. Almost every glacier in Alaska is receding. A few decades ago, huge rivers of ice stretched over the land. Now hundreds of feet or sometimes miles of bare rock and soil are exposed. In 1963, the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau opened, very close to the glacier. Today, it is a mile or more away from the frozen edge of the retreating glacier.

In the 1850s, there were 150 glaciers in Montana. By 1968, there were 37. In 2008, there were fewer than 24. Glaciers that have lasted for thousands of years may be gone in two decades. The icy coverings on tall mountain peaks are also disappearing. Each year, there is less snow remaining on the mountains during the summer. The snow melts earlier by a week or more in the spring, and snow falls later by a week or more in the autumn.

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non-fiction year 6, sequence 4 climate change, what climate … · 2020-05-11 · that’s why we...

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