Your questions about global warming

Dear Tiki: Could you supply more info on Carbon Footprint? I need to do a project. From Veronica

Dear Veronica: If you look at Twelve Really Important Things you can do to help stop global warming, and then at No. 2: Know what damage you’re doing and get to be an expert!, you should find out most of what you need to know. For more details, try carbonfootprint.com.
Good luck with your project!

hello(: how long has global warming been going on for? Jess xx

Hello Jess: Global warming and global cooling have been going on ever since the planet formed. Sometimes the planet has been very warm and at other times – what people call ‘ice ages’ – it has been very cold. What is different about the global warming that people are worried about today is that it’s happening very rapidly. The reason for this is pollution from humans burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

hey tiki ur website was a great help but i dont want to copy it but i need some help with climate change. i know its like a machine but i dont know how to put it in my own words

That’s a puzzle! If you don’t want to copy my words, you have to use your own words, don’t you? I think the secret to putting things in your own words is to get to understand what it is you want to write about. When you really ‘get it’ – and you can use other websites from my links page too – the words should come easily. I wish you luck.

Hi. I am concerned over this global warming and climate in antarctica issues. As it seems, it is only getting worse and it was said that penguins can be extinct in circa 10 years. I am wondering, do you know of any effective ways of fighting against these issues? e.g. donation, e-mails etc. Thanks.

I wish I could answer this in a more helpful way than I can. I really don’t know what you can do except to battle against the root cause of the problem: rapid climate change caused by people burning fossil fuels. All I can suggest is that you look at my suggestions as to what to do about this and do your best to act on them and get your friends and family to do the same. Good luck! We penguins need help.

Hello Tiki, My name is Mythili and I am thirteen years old. I have been doing a lot of research on Global Warming because I want to create awareness and tell people all around me about the dangerous effects of global warming. I have gone through all your suggestions. But a question does circle in my mind and that is:
A few people are just not interested in helping, therefore what method can I use to get their interest and concern for mother earth? Thank you for your help, Mythili

Hello Mythili: It’s very encouraging to hear that you’re doing what you can to create awareness about global warming. Like you, I have wondered how on earth to ‘engage’ people who just don’t seem to care. Conspiracy theories are becoming a serious problem. So many people are gullible and there is a mass of fake news stories make which makes it difficult for kids to know what is truth and what isn’t. Sometimes it seems that the more ludicrous the story, the more people want to believe it.

Like you, I haven’t come up with any answer for engagement. Nobody has. If anyone knew the answer to your vital question, there soon wouldn’t be a problem any more. All we can do is keep pushing out the message, backed up by more and more evidence. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful. Please keep up your good work! You might like this website.

Hi tiki!!! I am Danika, I am 11 years old. I am doing a speech on global warming. Do you have any pointers or tips I could use in my speech? P.S. Your site is really informative and fun at the same time. I love it!!!!!!!

Hello Danika: I’m not sure what to suggest. All I can think of is that you use the main topics that I’ve written about in my guide and make sure you end up with something like my What You Can Do because if people think there’s nothing they can do, they don’t even try — even if they can see that warming is happening. I wish you luck with your speech! I’m glad you like my site.

dear tiki,, my name is Nell, i was wondering what life would be like if global warming woudn’t stop. because i am scared that any day global warming could rise so much that our lives will be destroyed. is there nothing i can do to help?

Dear Nell: If global warming wouldn’t stop, then life would end. That would be called runaway global warming and something like that happened on the planet Venus which is so hot at its surface that the lead metal would melt. But Venus is a rather different planet to Earth and is much closer to the Sun.
There’s no evidence that this will happen on our planet. Earth has in the past, tens of millions of years ago, been hotter than it is now and then cooled down at the start of the great Ice Age over 2 million years ago. It seems that we are at present in a warm stage in the Ice Age. There have been many of these in the past: warm flips to cold and after a few tens of thousands of freezing years, temperatures flip back again to warm. So the stage we’re in now (called the Holocene which has lasted 11,500 years so far) would normally be expected to flip back to cold again in a few thousand years.
For you and me, these periods of time are immensely long. Our descendants may experience them but not us or our children or grandchildren. The worry for us in the 21st century is that because of pollution from industry, traffic, home heating and cooling and other energy use, the climate will warm quite quickly and flip into a much warmer stable state. Nobody knows for sure. All we know is that it is warming. This would be bad news for many animals and plants which could become extinct. It will spell trouble for humans because there won’t be enough food, low-lying lands and megacities will be flooded and many parts of the world will become so hot that no human could live there.
So I can’t tell you there’s nothing to worry about. Almost all of the world’s climate scientists see evidence that there is trouble ahead. They are trying to get politicians to start doing something to slow the rate of warming by making laws to stop people burning so much fossil fuel, the cause of the trouble. And at last this is beginning to happen so things are looking a little brighter than a year or so ago.
What can you do, you ask? Have you seen my page of 12 ideas for action? There is, you see, plenty you can do!

To tiki the penguin, I am making a web site about global warming and climate change for a school assignment and was wondering if you know any good sites about the future weather because of global warming. From Claire

Dear Claire: There are sites but they are really aimed at climate scientists. You could start with this page and then there’s the IPCC. See what you make of them anyway. There’s also Future Climate Australia which I’m sure you’ll find interesting since you presumably live there.

dear Tiki, I would like to know if penguins are getting wiped out and their food (fishes) die because it is getting freezing cold? Is it true? From Kicks Please write back

Hello Kicks: Some penguins are in trouble, yes. They aren’t getting wiped out, but their food is in short supply in some places. But this is not because it’s getting freezing cold. It’s the opposite: it’s getting too warm. Surprising, isn’t it, but many sea creatures actually need cold water to survive. The seawater is warming because the whole planet is warming. It’s called global warming and you can find out more about what’s going on in my guide called Hot Earth.

I’d like to know how many kinds of animals are affected with global warming

Just about all animals are and will be affected in some way by global warming. In fact, almost every living thing everywhere will be affected. Some will do well but many will not.

Dear Tiki the Penguin, My name is Jennifer, a 6th grader in West Hartford, Connecticut, USA and I am concerned about global warming. According to your website, it says that you know about global warming. I would like to prevent it. My goal is to persuade the elected officials to actually do something instead of just watching global warming like a movie. So could you please send me some resources and information so I can prevent global warming. I will be sure to mention you and your website in my work cited.
Info that would be useful are in the following: Reseach articles, Newspaper articles, reports by people and scientists, and more people I can contact.

Dear Jennifer: I completed a new list of ways to combat warming recently. You can see it at the end of my climate change guide. I hope this will help you. I think your idea or contacting elected officials is excellent. I’m sorry I have nothing on paper about climate change. Everything is online these days.
Congratulations on your efforts. The planet needs people like you!

Hello:What will happen in lots of years when the temperature changes? Will people still live or will they die? Best wishes, Susie.

Hello Susie

I think you must be asking about what will happen if the planet warms as scientists are warning: global warming. What you’re asking me is quite difficult for me to answer because what I would like to tell you is that people will be just fine. Sadly, that seems rather unlikely and many scientists now think that lots of people – particularly poor people in poor countries – will die. Nor will it be very nice for everyone else. But, at present, nobody knows for sure. I think there’s no question that some people will survive even if the worst possible things happen. People are clever which is why they’ve been so successful – so far.

But the worst may not happen, especially if people do their best to change the way they live starting right now. You can find out what you and your friends can do by clicking this link.

So please don’t be sad! You and others like you can do lots to help try to make things better, not worse.

How does global warming effect Antarctica?

The simple answer to your question is badly!

Until recently, scientists thought the Antarctic continent was immune to serious warming because it’s surrounded by ocean and atmosphere currents that isolate it from the rest of the world. Now we know that this isn’t correct. People have known for some time that the Antarctic Peninsula, the long thin bit that almost connects to South America, is warming fast. Glaciers are melting and retreating and whole ice shelves the size of small countries have broken off in the last few years. The East Antarctic ice sheet is melting rapidly and the enormous Pine Island Glacier is moving ever more quickly and thinning at the same time. This glacier and others like it have always been grounded on the seafloor so they couldn’t move fast but that is all changing now as warmer ocean waters get up underneath the ice and melting becomes rapid. The base of the glacier ceases to be grounded so there’s nothing to stop it flowing fast out into the ocean and quickly breaking up into giant icebergs. This is already happening!

But now we also know that the main continent of Antarctica is losing ice fast. The first survey of gravity changes caused by the Antarctic ice sheet has confirmed that it is shrinking at an alarming rate (reported in New Scientist, 11/3/06); something like 150 cubic kilometres each year!

How long will it be before there is not enough permafrost in the Antarctic for all the animals there to live on?

I’m puzzled by your question. Permafrost is what you find in the high Arctic (northern Canada and Russia). It is not ice, like that which covers almost the whole of Antarctica, but frozen soil. The surface of this melts every spring, allowing lots of plants to grow during the short Arctic summer. Lots of animals like cariboo (reindeer) take advantage of this temporary food bonanza and migrate north during the summer, eating as they go. They head south again when everything freezes up in the winter. The concern today is that the Arctic is warming so fast that the floating sea ice is melting and the permafrost is unfreezing more and more, releasing lots of bad greenhouse gases like methane. Polar bears are already suffering because they rely on sea ice to reach their prey: seals which live under the ice and come to the surface to breathe and have their pups.
This is all happening very fast, even faster than the gloomiest predictions of climate scientists. Within 10 or 20 years, there will be no sea ice in the Arctic during the summer.
I don’t know if this answers you question but it may have done.

Hi. I read in the news paper that some forests grow better into areas that were too hot in the past, “thanks” to air polution.This is because there is more CO2 in the air. If I understood coreectly, the plant has to open up to get take in the CO2 but then it looses water. When the air is rich with CO2 the plant hardly needs to open itself in order to absorb enough CO2. Therefore it doesn’t loose water and can grow in warmer areas. I am prepairing a poster for school on the topic (first grade age 6) and wanted to know if you could help me explain this better, or find out more or more pictures/sketches to illustrate this. Thank you, Omry

Hello Omry: I think what you describe is about high CO2 atmospheres being good for plant growth which is what many who deny climate change would like everyone to believe will happen with global warming. But it’s not as simple as that.  It seems that more CO2 — after initial increase – actually makes plants grow more slowly. This has worrying implications for global food supply. Hope this helps.

Hi. My name is katie and i am doing a research paper for my classroom on global
warming. If i could ask you about five questions and send them back to me
(if possibly soon) then i would be more then gratefull. Thank you, kate.
P.S. questions are below.

Hello Katie: I have little time to answer so many questions but I’ll try – quickly –
below.

1. How long do you think global warming has been a threat?

Since humans began to burn fossil fuels.

2. If we start cutting down on the amounts of fossil fuels, will the ozone
cure itslef?

No. That’s a different issue.

3. If the ice at the north pole melts how would it effect the U.S.?

Nobody knows for sure. It could dramatically change the climate.

4. Do you believe global warming is true?

Yes.

5. Have the temperatures really been rising?

They certainly have, yes.

Hi I’m really worried about are the problems with global warming and want to know more that a kid at my age can do to help I’m also doing my speech on it do you have any hints if so put the up and I will thank you later got to go cu later ?????????

Well I don’t know what your age is so I can’t really answer properly! The sorts of things you can do you can find at the end of my Eating the Planet guide. You could get your friends to try the quizzes in that guide to see how much damage they are doing – or not doing. Have you tried them? As for your speech, all I can suggest is that you follow the main points I’ve made in my Hot Earth guide. Hope that helps.

hello Mr. Tiki i’m a young girl in grade 7. i’m doing a school reasearch project and my question is does global warming effect penguins could you please please please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze write me back!!!! thank you !!!!

The short answer is yes. Global warming does affect penguins (and many other creatures). This is because it affects the temperature of the oceans, the deep ocean currents and the amount of ice around the Antarctic. It’s all very complicated.

Hello Mr. Tiki i’m a young girl in grade 7. i’m doing a school reasearch project and my question is does global warming effect penguins could you please please please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze write me back!!!! thank you !!!!

The short answer is yes. Global warming does affect penguins (and many other creatures). This is because it affects the temperature of the oceans, the deep ocean currents and the amount of ice around the Antarctic. It’s all very complicated.

Hi Tiki, My name is Ana and I’m 10 years old. I have some questions that I could not possibly find in your website. I have to answer these questions for my project. My questions are: What do Humans think about Global Warming? Do they care about it? How much percent does and how much does not? Do they even know about it?

Dear Ana: There are not many people who haven’t heard of global warming (also called ‘climate change’). But there are many people who don’t believe it’s happening because of what humans are doing, chiefly burning fossil fuels.They say global warming is natural and there’s nothing people can do about it. There are others or who simply don’t care. I don’t suppose anyone knows how many people care or not, partly because people are always changing their minds. So far as I’m concerned, I think the evidence is overwhelming… which is why I wrote my guide!