18 facts that we should know:
1. According to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, average temperatures have climbed 0.8 degree Celsius around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades.
2. The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.
3. According to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004, the Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average
4. Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss.
5. Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.
6. Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching—or die-off in response to stress—ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent. Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise.
7. An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts.
8. Humans are pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans can absorb it.
9. These gases persist in the atmosphere for years, meaning that even if such emissions were eliminated today, it would not immediately stop global warming.
10. Some experts point out that natural cycles in Earth's orbit can alter the planet's exposure to sunlight, which may explain the current trend. Earth has indeed experienced warming and cooling cycles roughly every hundred thousand years due to these orbital shifts, but such changes have occurred over the span of several centuries. Today's changes have taken place over the past hundred years or less.
11. Other recent research has suggested that the effects of variations in the sun's output are "negligible" as a factor in warming, but other, more complicated solar mechanisms could possibly play a role.
12. Sea level could rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 to 59 centimeters) by century's end, the IPCC's February 2007 report projects. Rises of just 4 inches (10 centimeters) could flood many South Seas islands and swamp large parts of Southeast Asia.
13. Some hundred million people live within 3 feet (1 meter) of mean sea level, and much of the world's population is concentrated in vulnerable coastal cities. In the U.S., Louisiana and Florida are especially at risk.
14. Glaciers around the world could melt, causing sea levels to rise while creating water shortages in regions dependent on runoff for fresh water.
15. Strong hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and other natural disasters may become commonplace in many parts of the world. The growth of deserts may also cause food shortages in many places.
16. More than a million species face extinction from disappearing habitat, changing ecosystems, and acidifying oceans. The ocean's circulation system, known as the ocean conveyor belt, could be permanently altered, causing a mini-ice age in Western Europe and other rapid changes.
17. At some point in the future, warming could become uncontrollable by creating a so-called positive feedback effect. Rising temperatures could release additional greenhouse gases by unlocking methane in permafrost and undersea deposits, freeing carbon trapped in sea ice, and causing increased evaporation of water.
Adapted from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming_2.html
Some Facts about Global Warming
Task B Part I
Write a poem on the Tom Robinson Trial / life in Maycomb/ any other incident.
Tom Robinson Trial
He who was innocent
Was wrongfully charged
But there was no search
And got sent to prison
She who was guilty
Had did an awful sin
She had no choice
But to push the blame
He who had ordered
Had forced her to lie
For the sake of his face
For the sake of his position
He who had helped
To let justice prevail
But his effort was fruitless
Because of the prejudice within
He who had judged
Had no choice but follow
The racist jury
Who had voted for the kill
Task A
This is the graph of my MI intelligence. It was different from last year's one but I find this more accurate, so I will be using this result for this task. As you can see in the picture, the yellow bar, Interpersonal is the highest! Yay! When I did the test last year, I had a very high score too. I think that my Interpersonal skill is overall quite good. I am good at understanding others and I am sensitive to their feelings. Therefore get along well with others. I think that this is quite a useful skill as it is important to understand others, and communicate with them well. Last year, I was selected for a talk by Dr. Braton Shearer where he developed more on the M.I profile. According to him, suitable careers for a person with high Interpersonal Intelligence is a psychologist, or any career that requires us to persuade or counsel. This, I think is quite useful as there are many job sectors requiring this. He also mentioned that this skill is very important for leadership too. As a leader, we serve others. We have to understand others and their needs to be a successful leader and be able to serve effectively. Hence, I feel that Interpersonal Intelligence is very important for my leadership skills and future.
Another intelligence I am good at is Musical. This is quite surprising for me! Last year's test showed that I scored very low for music. I am not skilled in any kind of musical instrument. I am also unable to read music scores. I do not think I am very musically intelligence. Different points of view maybe?
As expected, my Visual Intelligence is the lowest. I find it quite hard to visualise an object I have seen before. Although I remember what the object looks like, I am unable to make myself visualise it in front of me. This is a physical type intelligence. Looks like I am not very physically intelligent.
I am not very satisfied with the results, although most of them are better than expected. I feel that my Logic Intelligence is too low, lower than I expected. But, we must not lose our faith over a test. We must learn to trust ourselves.
How I have Changed
There are indeed many changes in us, along with our different environment, from Primary School to Secondary 1, from Secondary 1 to Secondary 2. Though we may not notice it, when we look back and reflect, we can really find a large gap between these two periods. I will highlight some of the changes in this blog post.
Time flies when you are having fun. But time FLASHES by when you are rushing for time. That is how my first year in Hwa Chong Institution went by. In Primary School, I had no problem keeping up with my studies. But the problem nowadays, is the habit of Procrastination. “It’s not hand in tomorrow one, tomorrow then do” This is the common thought among Secondary School students. Why is that so? One of the reasons is because of the significantly increased workload. In Secondary School, the amount of homework we receive a day may as well be equivalent to a week of primary school work. Therefore, teachers are giving longer deadlines for the work. This lets the students take this time to slack and procrastinate. This causes a decrease in quality of work done and also the things learnt, due to the last minute work handed up.
It is hard to imagine how enthusiastic we all were when we were in Primary School. Students were shooting up their hands at the very first sign of teacher’s query, without expecting any form of reward. Now, in Secondary School, students will not bother to answer any questions, unless of course, their favorite OP points come in. This is a huge change of our thought and attitude towards our learning. Through this OP system, students expect a reward or gain for every effort that they put in, even though we fairly well know it’s for our own good. Students are active in class, not with the aim to learn, but the aim to get better marks for their exams. This is not a very good learning attitude. Does that mean that without OP, we are not going to learn?
But despite these negative points, we also have some positive changes. One of them is Maturation. The first words that come to mind when we think of Secondary 1s are words like ‘noisy’, ‘irritating’, ‘childish’. Now, as I embark on my Secondary 2 journey, I realized the great difference between Secondary Ones and Twos. Even though it is only a 1 year difference, it can be a very large change. We are now more sensitive to how others look on us. We no longer go running around the bus stop and shame ourselves in front of the public. We now hold ourselves with pride. We are now no longer the little Secondary One Juniors who need constant guidance.
These are some important changes that I have undergone. Though with some negative sides, it is still required for us to grow and learn.
Picture source:
http://www.goworkoutmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/time.jpg
