Important TREE facts!!!

Today we shared a LOT of facts about trees. What is your response to those facts? How does learning about the important contributions of trees help make you feel about paper production? about recycling? about the article below on Amazon deforestation?

Review the tree facts from our activity listed below. Then post a comment in response to the questions listed above.


********* TREE FACTS ************

• A mature tree removes 48 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year from the air (that’s nearly 10 TONS per acre)!!

• The amount of carbon stored yearly by an acre of trees (about the area of a baseball field) is almost equal to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) released by burning 1,000 gallons of gasoline.

• A tree that provide shade and wind protection to buildings can reduce the amount of energy that building will need to stay warm in the winter, or cool in the summer (energy conservation). Because of this, trees next to buildings reduce CO2 emissions 15 times more than just the amount of CO2 that the tree actually stores.

• In ONE year, an acre of trees consumes the amount of CO2 that is produced by a car driving an average of 26,000 miles.

• In ONE year, an acre of trees produces enough oxygen for 18 people to breathe for a year.

• A healthy tree stores about 13 lbs of carbon each year. An acre of trees can store about 2.6 TONS of carbon in a year.

• It takes the wood from a 100 Foot tree to keep the average American supplied for a year with newspaper, books, magazines, tissues, paper towels, housing materials, furniture, desks, fences, boxes and other wood products.

• It takes wood from 100 foot tree to make 613 lbs of paper products

• Over its lifetime, a 100 ft. tree will transpire nearly FIVE MILLION gallons of water (5,000,000) back into the air as part of the water cycle!!!

• Over its lifetime, a 100 ft. tree will keep 100 lbs of nutrients in its wood, and return 200 lbs of nutrients to the soil.

• Over its lifetime, a 100 ft. tree will produce over 6,000 lbs of oxygen!!

• 30% of EVERYTHING we throw away is paper, and 15% of that is newspaper! ONE issue of the Sunday New York Times uses 65,000 Trees!!!!!!!!


Source: The NC Forest Stewardship
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/forest/plt/pdf/branching_out/branch4.pdf

DONT FORGET TO POST A COMMENT!!!

Deforestation of the Amazon... even today!!!

Brazil: Surprise rise in Amazon destruction, AP Sept. 29, 2008

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - The Amazon is being deforested more than twice as fast as last year, Brazilian officials said Monday, acknowledging a sharp reversal after three years of declines in the deforestation rate.



Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc said upcoming nationwide elections are partly to blame, with mayors in the Amazon region turning a blind eye to illegal logging in hopes of gaining votes locally.

Environmentalists blame the global spike in food prices for encouraging soy farmers and cattle ranchers to clear land for crops and grazing.



Amazon destruction jumped 228 percent in August when compared to the same month a year ago, according to a report from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. Some 292 square miles of Amazon was destroyed last month, compared to 89 square miles in August 2007.

The institute, which uses satellite imagery to track illegal logging, said the destruction was likely even worse than its figures show, since no information was available for about 26 percent of the Amazon covered by clouds during the tracking.



Aerial View of Sediment Run-off Caused by Massive Amazon Deforestation. This entire area has been stripped bare of forest, so there are no longer any plants, bushes or tree roots to hold soil...which runs off into rivers and streams, killing marine life, even after the animals on land have been killed due to deforestation.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26944664/wid=18298287

THINK AND POST:

What is your response to this article?

Why is it a bad idea to increase the rate at which we are cutting down the rainforest?

How can we get people to stop?

Please post your reponse in the comments section.

Learning About Paper Production...

Hello MASTERS Students!!

For your homework this week, you've been asked to learn a little bit more about paper production. We have collected MANY different resources that you can take a look at to learn more. You do NOT have to read every single one. We just wanted to give you some choices.

Take a look through the websites and read those that seem interesting to you. We have also included as part of this blog post a couple of videos that you can watch on paper production.

While you read, or watch the videos, please think about:

How is paper production affecting the environment?

How much energy does it take to make paper?

What is better, recycle paper or use less paper?

What takes more energy, recycling paper or making electricy to power computers?

After you have read through a couple of the articles and maybe watched a video or two, please post your comments in response to this blog post. In your response, please share what you have learned about paper production so far, and whether or not you have any feelings about how we use paper at our school, in our homes, and even in our community.

Websites (you may have to copy and paste them into a new window):


http://www.ecstaticrelations.com/booksintotrees/


http://www.livingtreepaper.com/about_pulp.html


http://www.idahoforests.org/paprmake.htm


http://www.paperrecycles.org/paper_environment/index.html

How Copy Paper is Made!!


via videosift.com

How Toilet Paper is Made!!


via videosift.com

If for some reason you don't see the button to post your comment -- click on the title of this post. It will take you to a new window and you should see the "post comment" button there.

An Inconvenient Truth

For the past two sessions you have been viewing the documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth", and answering questions based on what you have learned.

Out of all the questions on the handout that you have answered -- which ones seemed particularly important?

Please choose between 4-7 questions on the handout that seem particularly important, and answer them here in the blog.

Please make your responses thoughtful and thorough.

Thanks!

MASTERS End of the Year Survey

Well, its hard to believe but its nearly the end of the school year.

We are very interested in getting your opinion about things that have gone well, and things that haven't gone so well this year.

So, we have a survey for you to complete! Please go to the following link and complete the survey. Be as SPECIFIC and DETAILED as possible! Thanks!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3eAWvnKUjnTzo9NaTnpjFA_3d_3d

Earth Day ECO-FAIR

Boy -- what a lot of work it was to prepare and host the first ever Earth Day ECO-FAIR!! But you know what? You guys did an AMAZING job!!

Here are some pictures of your wonderful presentations:

Creating Our Power Point Presentation

Hello everyone!

Today we are going to be working on developing our PowerPoint Presentation slides. At the end of the year we will be doing a presentation for some special guests. So, we need to start developing those slides!

If you are reading this blog post, then you should already have picked out the slide(s) that you and a partner are going to be working on. Pairs of students are going to be working on different slides -- every pair has a different topic. You can make just one slide for your topic, or, you can make 2-3 if you feel you need that many to explain.

To get the information that you will need to make your slides, you will have to remember all that you have learned, and you may have to do some research. Here are some links to websites that will be very helpful as you make your slides:

Global Warming & Climate Change
http://tiki.oneworld.net/global_warming/climate_home.html


Global Warming & Climate Change
http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/index.html


GREAT CHARTS AND GRAPHICS on fossil fuels
http://www.solcomhouse.com/fossilfuels.htm


There are also some websites to the right ------>
in the "Important Links" section that you can visit to get more information (like the Wind Energy Page).


Remember:
Effective PowerPoint slides get to the point (are not wordy), and usually include images or charts.

If you have questions, just ask!

When your slides are complete, EMAIL THEM TO Ms. BETTS @ abetts@sevenarrows.com.

Thanks!