Environment Education : Sustainability Is Environmental Education?

In the late 1970’s scientists concluded that products releasing carbonflourochloride (CFC) was causing the ozone to deplete. The ozone layer is a protective layer from the sun’s rays and depleting the ozone layer allowed the stronger, harmful to health on earth, rays to get through. International action was taken in 1987 and the Montreal Protocol came into being. It was an international treaty to phase out CFC producing products. It went into effect in 1988 and has achieved international success. Once the Montreal Protocol had been agreed to the World Health Organization released information on the harmful effects CFC’s were having on the ozone

The greenhouse effect is how the Earth naturally warms up. During the greenhouse effect, the sun radiates it heat into our atmosphere. From there, most of the heat gets trapped in the Earth’s surface, which is later released back into our atmosphere. At the lower atmosphere, water vapor and carbon dioxide are the gases that absorb most

The ozone layer is in the Earth’s stratosphere and the necessity of this layer is to protect the Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation rays. “Since the late 1970s, an ozone hole has formed over Antarctica each austral spring (September / October), in which up to 66 percent of the total ozone is depleted” (Ozone Layer Protection). What directly causes holes in ozone are Chloroflourocarbons (CFCs), which rapidly damage the ozone layer. However, with the rising global warming temperature the CFCs’ process is catalysed, further damaging the ozone layer. “According to the estimates made by Dasgupta and Bhaumik (1995), it is likely that 10% decrease in ozone will lead to 20% increase in UV irradiance” (Gangul and Iyer 2006). Once an uncontrolled amount of UV radiation is exposed to lifeforms, especially to humans, “According to the estimates made by Vander Leun and De Gruijl (1993), 1% decrease in total stratospheric columnar ozone (SCO) will lead to 2.3% increase in non-melanoma skin cancer, 2% increase in cutaneous melanoma and 0.5% increase in the incidence of cataracts” (Gangul and Iyer 2006). More devastating effects from the depleting ozone layer are more destruction to agricultural fields, warming of oceans and increased acidity which is diminishing the amounts of phytoplankton, which can immensely affect the stability of the food chain. Therefore, the depletion of

Ultraviolet radiation is invisible rays that are part of the energy that comes from the sun. For example; Ultraviolet radiation can burn the skin, such as a sunburn and cause skin cancer (Medicinenet). The ozone layer is a layer of ozone (a colorless unstable toxic gas) in the upper atmosphere that prevents dangerous radiation from the Sun from reaching the surface of the Earth (Merriam-Webster). In correlation of the two together, we need the ozone layer to protect or animals and our plants from the ultraviolet radiation. Without the ozone layer being there it could damage the immune system to animals and humans, leaving many with skin cancer and eye cataracts (eco-action). The ozone layer is also important because it will have a negative

The greenhouse effect on earth results from a higher concentration of carbon dioxide, water vapor and methane in the atmosphere.

The greenhouse effect is when the heat from a planet's air warms the planet's surface to a temperature above what it normally would be without its air. What causes the greenhouse effect is that energy comes from the sun and reflects off of the earth’s surface and then goes back to the atmosphere as a bunch of heat. It affects the Earth by making the atmosphere warm.

Greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, absorb energy radiated by the Earth and then send it back into our atmosphere as heat. This is called the greenhouse effect. During the last

Humans are polluting our atmosphere causing the Greenhouse Effect.  What’s the Greenhouse Effect?  “The Greenhouse Effect can be visualized as follows: imagine that Earth has been encircled by a giant glass sphere.  The heat of the sun penetrates through the glass.  Some of the heat is absorbed by the Earth, and some is radiated back towards space.  The radiated heat reaches the glass sphere and is prevented from dispersing any further”(Global Warming The Facts).  This makes the heat bounce back towards the Earth, which heats it up tremendously.

Sustainability is a topic that has become very important in recent years. Sustainability is defined as, “the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.” ("Finding and Resolving the Root Causes of the Sustainability Problem", 2014)

Sustainability development has three components: environment, society, and economy. If you consider the three to be overlapping circles of the same size, the area of overlap in the center is human well-being. As the environment, society, and economy become more aligned, the area of overlap increases, and so does human well-being. Therefore, education for sustainable development (ESD) is the use of education as a tool to achieve sustainability. Simply put, ESD is a way to make the world a safer, healthier, and more livable place for us and future generations (McKeown, 2002, pgs 7-9).

Greenhouse gasses are the gasses created by humans; these gasses supposedly reduce the protection from powerful sun rays. Without the protection from these rays, the temperatures rise. There are many problems with the idea of the greenhouse effect. One major one being that greenhouse gasses are needed to sustain a habitable world. If we did not have greenhouse gasses, we would not be able to sustain life. For example the moon has no source of greenhouse gas. Because of this, the moon’s temperature fluctuates, not allowing life to form. You might be saying, only some will be okay. Not so fast! (“Global

Ozone molecules absorb ultraviolet radiation that’s radiated from the Sun and this occurs in the upper atmosphere at where the ozone layer lies. This prevents the majority of ultraviolet radiation emitted from reaching the Earth’s surface which is beneficial for human life as it decreases the risk of skin cancer, damage to the eyes and immune system (Kovats, S. and Menne, M. 2002). Ozone is considered to be a protective layer around the

The greenhouse effect is what allows life on Earth and the atmosphere contains trace gases which are designed to retain heat. The gases that are present in the atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, and nitrous oxide. These gases act as a global insulator and help control the Earth’s atmosphere. It all begins with sunlight which is a form of energy that is mostly absorbed by land, oceans, and a portion of the sunlight is reflected back to the atmosphere. Once the earth warms up, it then gives off energy in a different form which is called infrared radiation or electromagnetic radiation. The planet need some of the greenhouse gases because without them the

Greenhouse gases are compounds in the atmosphere that can trap and hold extra heat, which increases the temperature in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases is the cause of the greenhouse effect that leads up to global warming. The greenhouse effect is the trapping of the sun’s warmth in the lower atmosphere that is due to the visible radiation from the sun. The solar radiation reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, then the rest of the sun's energy is absorbed by the oceans and lands which result in the heating of the Earth. After that the heat from the Earth goes towards space, some of the heat is trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouses gases which make the Earth warm enough to tolerate living life. The burning of fossil fuels and land clearing start to increase the number of greenhouse gases which travels into the atmosphere. The result of trapping extra heat cause the Earth’s temperature to rise. Scientist's has proven that the constant increase of heat in the atmosphere is caused by humans. The reason humans are proven guilty for the increase of global warming is because of the amount of carbon that is put into the atmosphere. Carbon is released from burning coal, oil, and gas or cutting down and burning forests. Carbon (CO2) is known as the main source of heat-trapping gas which is mainly responsible for the increase of warming over the years. The removal of trees is another cause of global

There are two meanings of the term "greenhouse effect". There is a "natural" greenhouse effect that keeps the Earth 's climate warm and habitable. There is also the "man-made" greenhouse effect, which is the enhancement of Earth 's natural greenhouse effect by the addition of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels (mainly petroleum, coal, and natural gas). In order to understand how the greenhouse effect operates, we need to first understand "infrared radiation". Greenhouse gases trap some of the infrared radiation that escapes from the Earth, making the Earth warmer that it would otherwise be. We can think of greenhouse gases as sort of a "blanket" for infrared radiation-- it keeps the lower layers of the atmosphere warmer, and