The Day After Tomorrow - trailer

The movie 'The Day After Tomorrow' shows how destructive nature can be if we don't respect it.

Natural Catastrophes

Our World is at constant unbalance. This unbalance is caused by the scarce of energy resources, by pollution and by global warming. These aspects will origin other global problems like the desertification and the ice melting, which in turn will unbalance even more the Earth and finally lead to Natural Catastrophes.

Different kinds of Natural Catastrophes:

- Hurricanes

- Earthquakes

- Volcanic Eruptions

- Tsunamis

- Typhoons

- Floods

Natural Catastrophes are growing with climate change and if we don't do all we can to take care of mother Earth like it did with us for all these years, the nature most destructive force will ensure the disappearence of many earthling lifes and respectives habitats.

It's time to act, don't wait for tomorrow because there may be no tomorrow! Mother Earth is counting on us!

Curiosity:

Difference between Typhoons and Hurricanes: Although both are destructive nature forces driven by the wind, Typhoons come from the oceans, while Hurricanes are generated on the soil.

Desertification

Desertification is the degradation of land in arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting primarily from human activities and influenced by climatic variations. It's also a failure of the ecological succession process. A major impact of desertification is biodiversity loss and loss of productive capacity.

Causes:

- Overcultivation;

- Overgrazing;

- Desforestation;

- Poor irrigation practices.

Energy Resources

Nowadays people use electric power to almost everything. To generate that electrical power, Energy Resources are needed.



There are two different kinds of energy resources:


- Renewable Energy Resources:



- Wind Energy

- Solar Energy

- Water Energy

- Biomass Energy

- Geothermal Energy





- Non-Renewable Energy Resources:



- Coal

- Natural Gas

- Oil

- Nuclear Energy

In our days, the non-renewable resources are scarce and to prevent its disappearance, people should replace the non-renewable resources by renewable resources. The non-renewable resources are being excessively used and that will unbalance the Earth, because its slow regeneration process isn't enough to prevent its disappearence, and will increase the pollution too. On the other hand, renewable resources aren't as pollutive as the non-renewable and they regenerate themselves much quicker. So it's time to act, our World needs us. If we act this way, we'll ensure the balance of our world and the well being of life on it.

Recycling

Recycling involves processing used materials into new products in order to prevent the waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production.

Recycling is a key component of modern waste management and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" waste hierarchy.

Advantages of recycling:

- Save essential raw materials;

- Reduction of pollution;

- Reduce the amount of non-biodegradable waste;

- Provide secondary raw materials;

- Save energy;

- Removal of hazardous materials;

- Reduce the environmental impact caused by the extraction of resources;

- Creating jobs;

- Contribution to a sustainable development;

- Reduction of the waste put into landfill.

Global Warming... What's this?

Global warming is the increase of the average temperature of the oceans and the air near earth's surface that has been experienced over the years.

Greenhouse Effect

The greenhouse effect is a characteristic of the earth's atmosphere, without the greenhouse effect the temperature would be much lower. The current imbalance is because this is increasing steadily. The main gases that cause the greenhouse effect are:

- Carbon dioxide (CO2)

- Methane (CH4)

- Nitrous oxide (N2O)

- CFC's (Chlorofluorocarbons).

Today the concentration of these gases is increasing rapidly. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases due to his release by industry (factories), transport and deforestation (plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere). The main evidence of global warming comes from measures of temperature, weather stations across the globe since 1860. The data show that the average increase in temperature was 0.5 ° C during the twentieth century. The largest increases were in two periods: 1910 to 1945 and 1976 to 2000.

Global Warming and Greenhouse Effect

A big part of the scientific community says that the increase of the concentration of pollutants, originated by humans, in the atmosphere is causing the greenhouse effect. The Earth receives radiation emitted by the sun and returns most of it into space by the form of heat radiation. The air pollutants retain a part of that radiation that would be reflected into space, under normal conditions. That retained part cause a significant increase of the global warming. It is called the greenhouse effect by absorption, that by air, will prevent infrared emissions of escaping into outer space.

Some Endangered Species

Blue Whale:

- The Blue Whale is the largest animal on Earth. They exist in the Pacific Ocean and it is believed that at one time there were more than 200.000 blue whales. There are only about 10.000 blue whales now. They've been on the endangered list since the mid 1960s and the population is not expected to recover.





Snow Leopard:

- The Snow Leopard is a moderately large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia. They're adapted to live in cold mountainous environments. The number of snow leopards since they were discouvered is unknown, but its total wild population is estimated at between 4.000 and 7.500.






Tucano

- The Ramphastos toco, also known as Tucano, is an omnivorous bird that feeds of animals and vegetables. It has its existence threatened in their natural habitat, the Amazon jungle, but the Brazilian government's efforts already show an increase in the number of these birds. Although it is already extinct in its federal state, São Paulo.

Ways To Help The Endangered Species

In order to save the endangered species of our plant, we need to:

- Conserve Habitats;
- Make Spaces For Our Wildlife;
- Recycle, Reduce, and Reuse;
- Plant Native Plants That Are Local To The Area;
- Control Introduced Plants And Animals.


If we all contribute, even only a little bit, this is the result that we and our world will see...



... the happiness and well being of the wildlife!

Endangered Species

Causes of Endangerment:


- Habitat Destruction:

Our planet is constantly changing, causing habitats to be altered and modified.
Natural changes tend to occur at a gradual pace, usually causing only a slight impact on individual species. However, when changes occur at a fast pace, there is little or no time for individual species to react and adjust to new circumstances. This can create disastrous results, and for this reason, rapid habitat loss is the primary cause of species endangerment. The strongest forces in rapid habitat loss are human beings.

- Introduction of Exotic Species:

Native species are those plants and animals that belong to a specific geographic area, and have been a part of that particular biological landscape for a long period of time. They are well adapted to their local environment and are accustomed to the presence of other native species with the same general habitat. These species are introduced into new environments by way of human activities, either intentionally or accidentally. This sudden change will lead to the contraction of some diseases that will endanger these species.







- Overexplotation:

The species that face the overexplotation may become severely endangered or even extinct due to the rate in which the species is being used. The overexplotation consists in killing animals to get some parts of their bodies, such as rhino horns or tiger bones, to sell, make clothes or traditional medicines.






- Other Factors:

Diseases, pollution, and limited distribution are other factors that threat many kind plants and animal species. If a specie does not have the natural genetic protection against particular pathogens, an introduced disease can have severe effects on that specie.

RECYCLE NOW!

Be yourself the first to make a difference!

What is pollution?

Pollution means dirt, degradation, contamination, disease.

The action of man on the environment almost always has negative effects, because they are not used the proper precautions.

It happens often that pollution, in proper locations, either in water, air or on land, requires that many species of animals and plants living there create conditions so that they can adapt themselves to survive in their environment.

In other cases, the contamination is so strong that many species will die and be extinguished forever.

However, there are various types of pollution such as:

- Soil pollution, caused by debris and garbage;

- Water pollution, caused by the accumulation of rubbish and debris; domestic sewers, toxic waste, chemicals, fuel, radioactive nuclear waste; poured oil on the sea;

- Air pollution, caused by the smoke of the factories, smoke from the means of transport, rubbish incineration, use of insecticides and other sprays.