By John A. and Natalie H., 5th grade

We are studying the trillionth tonne in Carrie Ann’s 5th grade class. We thought we needed to share it with the entire world. It is a serious situation that needs to be resolved now! The trillionth tonne goes back to global warming. As you may know, the sun’s heat gets trapped on the Earth from carbon dioxide covering the atmosphere and not letting it escape. That doesn’t sound so bad, right? Better weather, less rain, more vacations!

Wrong. The problem is, there is too much carbon dioxide! Good weather can be enjoyable, but too much can be devastating. The trillionth tonne is a website showing just how much carbon dioxide is in the air. We already have over half a trillion tonnes in the atmosphere! Once we get a trillion tonnes in the atmosphere, the entire world will go up 2˚! It doesn’t sound like much, but that difference will cause glaciers in the mountains to melt and go into the ocean. The ocean levels will rise and cover the shorelines and past the land, flooding houses all over the coast and destroying property through Oregon, Washington, and California on the west coast of the United States. So that sounds pretty bad, but how does the carbon dioxide get into the atmosphere? Well, factories all over the world are burning coal to use as fuel. This releases carbon dioxide in the thousands. Cars, trucks, and planes make carbon dioxide. Also, the military makes A LOT of carbon dioxide!

So we can deal with these problems by relying on walking or biking as transportation. We have started a movement here in Eugene, Oregon to stop this, but it needs to get wider. So spread the word and do your part!