First we talked about free speech and the rights that students have at school after someone brought up the topic about one of our fellow students who decided to where a tutu to school today and got sent to the office for it. Chelsea told us about her assigned blog which was about the Polish president who was riding in a plane on his way to a memorial ceremony for Polish soldiers who were killed in World War 2. The plane crashed into trees and blew up, killing every person on board. There were 96 other people inside the plane including the president's wife. Next we continued with our Planet in Peril video that we started yesterday.
Greenland:
- Greenland is the world's largest island and 80% of it is covered in ice.
- The ice sheet is melting fast because the island is warming up
- 100 billion tons of ice is melting every year because the ice warms up and breaks off, exposing water. The water then continues to warm up the remaining ice and the cycle goes on
- All that melting water could flood coastal cities and displace thousands of people
- Moulons are big cracks that form when the ice begins to warm. The cracks can get to up to 40 feet deep. Water begins to flow through them, making the cracks bigger.
- Even if we stop CO2 production the sea levels will still rise
- The retreating ice exposes new islands that were once connected by peninsulas
- In some places, ice thickness has been reduced by 40% in the last 40 years.
Alaska
- Climate change is also melting the ice in Alaska too
- Scientists test polar bears to see how climate change is affecting them
- There has been a decline in their numbers as the ice melts, exposing more and more water
- The sizes of the polar bears' bodies are getting smaller too as it becomes harder for them to find food
- Some polar bears are actually drowning because they try to swim across vast distances of water in search of fish, seals, and other food sources
- Ice is melting faster than anyone thought and the projected ice loss has surpassed predictions for 2050 already
- Many polar bears are starting to disappear, along with their habitat
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