The Kyoto Protocol

As I had said in my last post, the next thing that I would like to research on is organizations that fight against global warming. One important organization that I founded interesting to research on is the Kyoto Protocol. This are two cool links that I found about the Kyoto Protocol: To visit the first web page click here. To visit the second web page click here.

In my research I found cool facts that I would like to state. The 160 countries that are involved with the Kyoto Protocol need to reduce their carbon dioxide and greenhouse emissions; that is their goal. This is the professional way to describe their goal or objective: "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." This agreement was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan. That's where the Kyoto Protocol's name came from. Australia nor the United States have worked to reduce the greenhouse emissions event though they have signed up for the protocol. I think this is really bad because the United States is one of the largest countries in the world and also has a lot of population so they send a lot of greenhouse gas emissions which produce global warming. In the BBC News web page I found that the United States is the world's top polluter!!! At least the United States has a group of students that want to be part of the Kyoto Protocol. This group is called the Kyoto Now!. Canada has increased 20% of it´s emissions during the last 17 years. When Russia signed up for the Kyoto Protocol it strengthen the protocol and made that 55% less greenhouse gases were sent into the atmosphere. Each country's goal must be achieved by 2008 to 2012. The actual reduction of greenhouse gas emissions must be higher than the 5%. The most developed and industrialized countries must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by a 10%. Some countries use a particular way of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. They practice "emissions trading" which is the buy and sell (trading) of emission credits among the countries themselves.

What I thought about all this information about the Kyoto Protocol is that it's really good to know that at least 169 countries around the world are working against global warming. I think that this 169 countries should convince the remaining countries so they also help reduce global warming. I think that even a small group of people from the remaining countries should convince their own country to sign up for the Protocol. It would be great if the United States and Australia sign up. This would help a lot because the United States is one of the biggest polluters of the world. I think that if the United States ever signs up, it would happen the same as when Russia sign up; it strengthen the Kyoto Protocol. I don't think that Australia pollutes a lot because it is well known for it's fauna and not for it's industries. Sydney could probably pollute. I also don't think that "emissions trading" is a fair neither good thing to do. I think that the Kyoto Protocol would not get anywhere if this continues because there are some countries that send less greenhouse gases than others so these countries would sell their credits to other countries that do send a lot more of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

What I would like to research on next is about the United States and Australia. Why haven't they signed up for the Protocol? Do they have any small groups that are working against global warming? Do they send a lot of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere or not?

How To Reduce and/or Prevent Global Warming

I found a very interesting article called How To Reduce Your Greenhouse Gas Emissions on del.icio.us in a page called wikiHow. This article gives steps of how to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse gas emissions are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone. This are the main causes of global warming. The adding of carbon dioxide or methane in the atmosphere will increase the temperature on Earth's surface. The greenhouse gases could also produce the greenhouse effect which can lower 30 degrees Celsius of temperature on Earth. Earth would be uninhabitable if something like this happens. This web page gives steps of how to reduce global warming around the house and garden, on transportation, during a diet, at the cash register, and in your community. Water conservation can also reduce and prevent global warming.

Here are some steps on how to prevent and reduce global warming around your house and garden. Don't use a leaf blower because it would make your get a little of sun and oxygen.Also avoid using other yard work tools. Soil fertilizers are made from fossil fuels so don't use them either. Plant a tree or trees because they will store carbon dioxide. Repaint your house with latex paint instead of oil-based paint because it will release fewer harmful fumes while drying. Buy appliances that use less energy (ex. Energy Star label.) Sign up for renewable energy and if it is not available ask why not. Get a home energy examination. Move your thermostat 2 degrees down in winter and 2 up in summer. Unplug your things when you are not using them. Turn off lights when they are not in use. Replace your light bulbs with fluorescent ones. They will save carbon dioxide. If you are not going to use the computer for a while put it on stand by and don't shut it down. Buy durable products. The last step on how to prevent and/or reduce global warming is to try your best to save water.


You can also prevent global warming by transportation methods such as buying a bike. A bike is helpful because it conserves the oil resources and it doesn't pollute. Walk to nearby places instead of driving. When you are on a trip to far away places use public transportation or travel with someone else, as in a carpool. Organize your labors so you do every one of them on one day. Use less gas because they come from fossil fuels and fossil fuels can send emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Use new ways of diesel, such as bio diesel which comes from animal fat.

During diets, buy local-produced foods and use reused bags. Use organic foods because inorganic foods can be produced with the help of chemicals or fertilizers that come from fossil fuels.

When buying something you should buy recycled paper products and certified wood. "The paper industry is the third greatest contributor to global warming emissions."

In your community you can also do things to help prevent global warming. Such things are writing a letter to the editor of your community's newspaper, join a group that is fighting against global warming so they have more force, write to the council and ask for a recycling collection. There are much more things that you can do with the community to help prevent global warming. If you are into this you can get a greenhouse gas calculator to keep track of your greenhouse gas emissions.

I think that there are also many things more that you can use to prevent global warming. You just have to think about it and ask yourself; Is this good for the environment? More questions that you could ask yourself are: Do I want Earth to collapse? Do I want human life to exctint? Do I want to give the opportunity to live happy to other people in the future? Do I want to live longer? Do I want to live the rest of my life happily? Then of asking yourself this questions you should try to answer them and at the same time try to meditate about them. This will help you a lot in the big project of how to save Earth from "melting".

I would like to expand the understanding of my topic by hearing or reading people's opinions on global warming. I would also like to interview people and ask them what they think about global warming and what would they do to prevent it. I would also like to research on the internet for groups or organizations such as the Kyoto Protocol that are fighting against global warming and that are on present day working on the project. It would also be fun to research about groups of students that are working against global warming. It would be super cool to learn their opinions and their methods of how they fight against global warming.

Global Warming Research

My theme for the Teen Life Project is Global Warming in general. As I was looking for some web pages to research on, I found this Wikipedia Global Warming Web Page.

I learned many things in this web page. Some of the things I learned is that global temperatures will be increasing from 1990 to 2100. I also learned that global warming can increase the rise of sea level and can change the pattern of precipitation. Global Warming can also have other causes such as the increases in frequency and intensity of weather events such as floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, and tornadoes. In this web page I also learned that global warming is the term used for climate change and in this case it is used for recent warming. 1998 was the warmest year on history and the second warmest was 2005. The main cause of global warming are the greenhouse gases which are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone. The adding of carbon dioxide or methane in the atmosphere will increase the temperature on Earth's surface. The greenhouse gases could also produce the greenhouse effect which can lower 30 degrees Celsius of temperature on Earth. Earth would be uninhabitable if something like this happens. The ice-albedo feedback is an important feedback process which happens when carbon dioxide warms earth's surface and then ice near the poles begin to melt. Land or water takes the ice's place but land or water absorb more solar radiation than ice. This causes more warming and this warming causes more melting so the feedback process continues. The Kyoto Protocol is an organization that works against global warming. The science of nanotechnology could also help to defeat global warming. Global warming can also produce ocean acidification which is when carbon dioxide mixes with ocean water and makes carbonic acid. Global warming can also lead to ozone depletion which means that the ozone layer is getting thinner and there are some holes called ozone holes appearing on the ozone layer. Aerosols can also cause global warming by global dimming.

Now that I had read this web page about global warming, I think that global warming can really destroy our Earth. Global warming cannot destroy Earth only by causing the rise of temperature but by the increase of frequency and intensity of weather events. What really grabbed my attention is that there are so little things that we can do to fight against global warming. Not using aerosols could be one way of preventing global warming. Not using refrigerators that produce CFC's could also be a possible alternative of preventing global warming. When I think about this I feel like crying because Earth is so beautiful that I don't want it to destroy. I don't want human life to extinct and I don't want to die either! I think that if every one of us, residents of Earth, would help against global warming, we could save ourselves our at least save Earth.

I want to expand my topic by watching some interesting documentaries and by reading some more articles. Another way I could expand the understanding of my topic would be reading other people's posts. The last idea I would use to understand more my topic would be watching discovery channel programs about global warming or anything related to it.

"Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in arthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations." This is the scientific opinion on climate change.

Respond to Sarah's Blog

For this week's post, I decided to write a respond to a blog. I was looking for a blog to respond to and I saw one that really grabed my attention. It was Sarah's blog. She wrote about poverty, terrorism and stress/pressure. Well, I am mostly interested in poverty and terrorism but in this post I want to focus on terrorism, which is very serious in Colombia.

In Colombia, we have several terrorist groups that make our lives almost impossible. They want to change they way of governing Colombia. Several people that thought this way began forming groups that later ended in a real terrorist group. More and more people began to enter the group so they had more power. They wanted money to take over the government so they started kidnapping people, putting bombs on places, killing people, etc. Practically, terrorist groups are doing such things for fun.

In Cartagena, a counselor was kidnapped for six years while he was jogging on the street in front of his building. He escaped during an attack between the military forces from Colombia and the terrorist groups. He classified himself as someone lucky because he would have probably been killed during the attack and he survived 5 days without food, running in high grasslands where many terrorist camps are. In fact, that man is part of my family.

Now, the biggest preoccupation is that this terrorist group called the "FARC" would take revenge against the man's family and against the country, especially, the military forces, the police, or the government. An attack occurred in a place near Cali, Colombia, called Buenaventura in a police station. This attack was made bu the "FARC" because they wanted revenge. During the attack several polices were killed and also other people.

I don't only know stories about terrorism in Colombia but also in other countries such as the United States and Venezuela. Venezuela is one of Colombia's bordering countries. Right now, Venezuela is in a crisis because they have the worst president in history. His name is Hugo Chavez, and he wants to ally with Latin American countries to fight against the United States. He is spending all the money gained by petroleum on buying weapons and he is giving money to all the people that vote for him and like him. Instead, all the people that don't like him are poor.

My grandfather was once kidnapped in Venezuela. Him, my grandmother, my uncle, and my mom, were coming from vacations in the United States. They were leaving my other uncle in his school in Florida. My grandfather worked in Nelson Rockefeller's farm and they lived in a huge house there. Someone knocked at the door, it was a captain. My grandpa went to open the door and my uncle went after him. The "captain" was not any captain, he was the ELN captain. The ELN is a terrorist group from Venezuela. The captain took my grandpa but my uncle heard everything he told what had happened to my grandma. The captain wanted money but my grandpa didn't have so they said that they wanted Nelson's money.My grandpa was took to the house of the man that fixes the garden and he asked the man for the keys of his jeep. The captain and the rest of the group took the jeep. My grandpa and the accountant, which was also kidnapped, sat in the back of the jeep. Both of them were took to where the safety box was but neither the accountant nor my grandpa knew the code to open it.They had a shotgun in their stomach and they were very scared. My grandpa told the captain that the only person that knew the code was the secretary so they went to find the secretary. The secretary was so scared that she gave the wrong code and the ELN couldn't open the safety box. Finally, my grandpa and the accountant were left free. Fortunately they were only kidnapped for four hours. This kind of things can leave marks on people as they did to my uncle who was about seven years old. Every night he went crying to my grandma's bed because he was scared.

I also know another terrorist story that happened in the USA. A boy was with a friend in a car and they stopped in a groceries store to buy something. There was another girl which the boy already knew so he went to talk with her. She was in a van with some other guys. The van's door opened and someone took the boy inside. The van left. The boy´s friend thought that the boy had gone with the girl and that he would come again. The boy´s friend was preoccupied so he went to the boy´s house and told the boy´s family about the situation. The boy´s family decided to separate and look for the boy. One of the boy´s brothers received a call from the kidnappers and they told him that they wanted 30 thousand dollars for the boy. The boy's family contact the FBI event though the kidnappers told them not to. The FBI had organized everything with the boy´s family to capture the kidnappers. The boy´s brother would leave the money in a empty parking lot and then the FBI will capture the kidnappers or at least some of them. That was what happened but the boy didn't appear. The boy was in an apartment with the rest of the kidnappers and he was shot. The FBI and some detectives couldn't fin the boy. One day the boy was found laying on a street and badly hurt. The ambulance came for him and took him to the hospital but he was so hurt that he died. Later, the FBI could capture some of the other kidnappers but there was one missing. The FBI is still looking for him on present day.

Now that you have read my post, you know how serious could terrorism be.