Reflective Summary

My conclusion is, the polar bear and penguin population are currently facing the problem of the decreasing in their own population.

We humans, are one of the main culprits. We may think that what we do in our daily lives does not affect those cute and innocent animals out there, but we are wrong. Global warming, being a threat not only to us humans but also the animals. The littlest things we do in our daily lives contributes to global warming. Not only us, but the penguins and polar bears are threatened by global warming. Global warming threatens rising sea levels along the coasts which may result in floods or natural disasters.

We can play our part by doing the following. (Please refer to Reflective Journal 3)

Climate change could also bring harm to the polar bears and penguins.

In the Arctic, hungry polar bears, unable to sustain themselves on the melting ice, are increasingly making their way inland to such towns as Noorvik, Alaska, and Churchill, Manitoba, where they sniff out garbage bins and scavenge for dinner. And in the Antarctic, wet baby penguin chicks shiver in the rain; warming temperatures mean less snow but more rain, which soaks them through, putting them at risk of freezing to death. These are the consequences of climate change, scientists say.

Polar bears and penguins may live poles apart, with the great white mammals ruling the Arctic areas near the North Pole and the best-known penguin varieties inhabiting the southernmost regions of the globe, in or near Antarctica. But they both depend on ice and cold for survival—a problem in a world that's warming and where temperature increases are most pronounced at the planet's northern and southern extremes.

Even the littlest things we do can help to play a part in conserving these animals, why not do somthing rather than nothing.

Cheers!

Reflective Journal 5

Imagine yourself as a killer whale. You are swimming around when you decide to stick your head out of the water to take a breath. As you are taking a breath, you see a large stream of thick black oil heading your way. You go back under water only to find other animals dying one by one because the oil is damaging their bodies.
This is the way some animals must die in the ocean. They die because of an oil spill occurring in their habitat.

Oil spills happen when people make mistakes or are careless and cause an oil tanker to leak oil into the ocean. There are a few more ways an oil spill can occur. Equipment breaking down may cause an oil spill. If the equipment breaks down, the tanker may get stuck on shallow land. When they start to drive the tanker again, they can put a hole in the tanker causing it to leak oil.

What You Can Do To Reduce Oil Spill:
It may seem like you cannot do anything to stop oil spills. But you can. If you see an oil spill, report it to the government as soon as possible. Less oil is used when people conserve energy by driving smaller cars, using public transportation or alternatively-fueled vehicles or other ways of travel, like walking and bicycling. Instead of dumping used car oil on the ground or down a sewer, people can take the oil to certain service stations to be disposed of properly or recycled. If you change you own oil in you car, make sure you place a container on the ground under the engine to catch any spills. An old cookie sheet works well. Also, people can conserve energy in their homes, too.
If everyone used less oil, fewer tankers would sail the seas. This could reduce the risk of oil spills.

Reflective Journal 4

"An endangered species is an animal that is dying out (their total population is decreasing). Penguins are being classified under endangered species. Some reasons make complete sense, for instance, man-made pollution destroying food sources. Others are surprising, such as deforestation. But there are also a lot of ways people are trying to prevent penguins from becoming extinct."

"Oil spills are probably the biggest problems for penguins. The oil gets on their feathers and they get it in their beaks when they preen. Since they don't fly and must surface often to breathe, penguins are unable to avoid being coated if oil is on the surface of the water. Also their eggs will contain traces of oil in them too. This is a problem because it either kills the embryo inside or the oil deforms the developing chick. Penguins cannot see the oil coming and neither can most humans. On July 23, 2000, the oil tanker "The treasure" sank, leaving a huge mass of oil. The company SANCCOB, a rehabilitation organization, immediately started helping the penguins. Still, almost 40% of the African Penguin population was oiled.
Along the coast of Argentina, Magellanic penguins are killed, not by oil accidents, but by the routine operations of large oil tankers. Empty tankers must fill their tanks with water for (to act as weight) purposes. Then, within about two miles before filling with oil, the oily water must be discharged -- directly into the ocean."

"Deforestation is one way people continue to destroy penguins' habitat. No one would think deforestation would hurt the penguin population, but many penguins can and do live in forests. People have many reasons to like penguins and penguins have many reasons not to like us too."

Reflective Journal 3

Top 10 things that can be done to help reduce global warming-

"Burning fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal, oil and gasoline raises the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and carbon dioxide is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect and global warming."

"You can help to reduce the demand for fossil fuels, which in turn reduces global warming, by using energy more wisely. Here are 10 simple actions you can take to help reduce global warming. "

1. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Do your part to reduce waste by choosing reusable products instead of disposables.

2. Use less heat and air-conditioning.
Adding insulation to your walls and attic, and installing weather stripping or caulking around doors and windows. Turn down the heat while you're sleeping at night or away during the day, and keep temperatures moderate at all times.

3. Change a light bulb.
Wherever practical, replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs.If every U.S. family replaced one regular light bulb with a CFL, it would eliminate 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gases, the same as taking 7.5 million cars off the road.

4. Drive less and drive smart.
Less driving = Fewer emmisions

5. Buy energy-efficient products.
Avoid products that come with excess pakaging, especially molded plastic and other pakaging that cannot be recycled.

6. Use less hot water.
By washing clothes in warm or cold water helps to reduce the use of hot water and the energy required to produce it. By doing that can save at least 500 pounds of carbon dioxide annually in most households.

7. Use the "Off" switch.
Save electricity and reduce global warming by turning off lights when you leave a room, and using only as much light as you need. And remember to turn off your television, video player, stereo and computer when you're not using them. It's also a good idea to turn off the water when you're not using it.

8. Plant a tree.
If you have the means to plant a tree, start digging. During photosynthesis, trees and other plants absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. They are an integral part of the natural atmospheric exchange cycle here on Earth, but there are too few of them to fully counter the increases in carbon dioxide caused by automobile traffic, manufacturing and other human activities. A single tree will absorb approximately one ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime.

9. Get a report card from your utility company.
Many utility companies provide free home energy audits to help consumers identify areas in their homes that may not be energy efficient. In addition, many utility companies offer rebate programs to help pay for the cost of energy-efficient upgrades.

10. Encourage others to conserve.
Spread the message to everyone!

Reflective Journal 2

Global warming is also a threat to the survival for the polar bears. What exactly is global warming? "Global Warming is defined as the increase of the average temperature on Earth. As the Earth is getting hotter, disasters like hurricanes, droughts and floods are getting more frequent. Greenhouse gases are those gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect. The largest contributing source of greenhouse gas is the burning of fossil fuels leading to the emission of carbon dioxide. "

"When sunlight reaches Earth's surface some is absorbed and warms the earth and most of the rest is radiated back to the atmosphere at a longer wavelength than the sun light. Some of these longer wave lengths are absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before they are lost to space. The absorption of this longwave radiant energy warms the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases act like a mirror and reflect back to the Earth some of the heat energy which would otherwise be lost to space. The reflecting back of heat energy by the atmosphere is called the "greenhouse effect". "

"Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere act like a mirror and reflect back to the Earth a part of the heat radiation, which would otherwise be lost to space. The higher the concentration of green house gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more heat energy is being reflected back to the Earth. The emission of carbon dioxide into the environment mainly from burning of fossil fuels (oil, gas, petrol, kerosene, etc.) has been increased dramatically over the past 50 years."

http://knowledge.allianz.com/en/globalissues/climate_change/global_warming_basics/global_warming_definition.html
http://timeforchange.org/cause-and-effect-for-global-warming

Reflective Journal 1

Polar bears, the world's largest predators, can be found in countries like the Arctic, the U.S (Alaska), Denmark etc. Rules were being established to set a limit to the amount of polar bears being hunted within its boundaries in these countries. These helped to stabalize the polar bear population. However, humans, polar bears only predator, is one of the main cause of the decreasing of the polar bears population. Seals are preys of the baby polar bears. Baby polar bears often starve, due to the fact that seals are very rare, especially in summer when the ice has melted.

The polar bears had lesser place to live in when humans move in all across the Arctic to mine oil and coal there. Oil spills are also one of the causes of how human affects the polar bear population. It is very dangerous as "with oil on, the bears cannot regulate its body temperature properly" and also, if the bears were to eat the oil while grooming, it could die.

Man-made pollution has also caused the decrese in the amount of the polar bear population. Pollutants get more concentrated at every stage of the food chain. " By the end when the polar bear eats the seal, it could be lethal.