• Question: what do you think about global warming and do you think it is important

    Asked by lambolover97 to Duncan, Kiran, Paul, Sarah, Sharon on 25 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      Yes, I think that global warming is a really serious issue and the world as a whole needs to work together to slow it down. I think it’s a very important issue and although my scientific work does not directly impact on it, the university and buildings where I work are trying very hard to lessen the impact on what we do, so just simple things like replacing lightbulbs to energy saving ones, making sure we turn everything off when we are not using it and trying to find more environmentally friendly scources for the things we use.
      Last year, the university was awarded a grant to find ways of reducing our C02 footprint and this has proven really effective. Our planet is really precious and we should be doing all we can to help stop global warming.

    • Photo: Duncan Murdock

      Duncan Murdock answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      Yes, I think it’s very important. Global climate has changed a lot in the Earth’s history, it’s been a lot hotter and a lot colder than it is today. Even in relatively recent history; around 13,000 years ago there was ice as far south as Birmingham and it’s been warming up ever since. However, the big problem today is the rate of change. Since the industrial revolution the world has been warming up faster and faster than ever before because of changes we are making to the environment. If we don’t act now the rate of warming will get even faster. This causes a lot more problems than just heatwaves and hosepipe bans too – hot oceans don’t circulate properly which will cause extinctions in the sea and change whole weather patterns; monsoons, hurricanes and el nino will get worse; and melting ice will cause sea level to rise and flooding. Also, remember that different parts of the world are affected differently, and it’s an average global change of many years, so a snowy winter in Britain doesn’t mean climate change doesn’t exist.

    • Photo: Kiran Meekings

      Kiran Meekings answered on 25 Mar 2010:

      Yes very important. Global warming is an interesting, topical issue. There’s a lot of controversy at the moment about the role of fossil fuel burning in global warming and whether it’s actually an issue: our planet’s temperature normally oscillates quite a lot anyway and since we’re overdue for an ice-age, does it really matter if we warm it up a bit? My personal opinion is that it does. We only have one planet, I think it’s important we keep it clean and unharmed for our children and our children’s children. There’s so many alternative options for clean fuel now, I really believe governments should start to be made to use cleaner energy sources. what do you think?

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