High-Level Project Summary
The very important reason for the "climate change", which has been frequently mentioned recently, is the depletion of the "ozone layer". In order to help our World, we researched trees that absorb the greenhouse gases released at a higher rate compared to other trees. We wondered how its broad leaves would contribute to us. We want to regain the millions of trees we lost in forest fires caused by climate change. We said less carbon dioxide, more oxygen! We promised that we will reduce our use of plastic, save water and electricity, give importance of recycling, be sensitive to the environment and join hands in greening our World.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
A GREENER WORLD, A MORE LIVABLE HOME!
Many definitions and scenarios related to climate change, have started to show their effects even more in the last century; It is formed by scientists, researchers, and many national and international institutions and organizations.
Climate change may be caused by natural processes and external forcing factors, and by ongoing anthropogenic (human-induced) differences in the composition of the atmosphere or land use. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defined climate change as: “A change in climate as a result of human activities that directly or indirectly destroys the composition of the global atmosphere, in addition to natural climate change observed over a comparable period.”.
When we look at the anthropogenic causes of climate change; These can be listed as changes in land use, especially with the industrial revolution, excessive consumption of fossil fuels, and the destruction of forests to create agricultural and residential areas. Anthropogenic causes strengthen the natural greenhouse effect and cause an increase in the surface temperature of our World with the effect of urbanization.
In addition to reducing the use of excess water, plastic, electricity and harmful chemicals that play a role in increasing carbon dioxide emissions, we wanted to bring back our forests that we lost in forest fires caused by the increasing global temperature.
A recent study published in the journal Science sought to provide answers by estimating the global potential of restoring forested lands as a possible strategy for mitigating climate change. The international research team, led by Jean-Francois Bastin of ETH-Zurich in Switzerland have researched the subject and they found Earth’s ecosystems could support another 900 million hectares (2.2 billion acres) of forests, 25 percent more forested area than we have now. By planting more than a half trillion trees, the authors say, we could capture about 205 gigatons of carbon (a gigaton is 1 billion metric tons), reducing atmospheric carbon by about 25 percent. That’s enough to negate about 20 years of human-produced carbon emissions at the current rate, or about half of all carbon emitted by humans since 1960. Sassan Saatchi, a senior scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, also adds that it would never be a certain solution to decrease carbon dioxide emissions by planting. He says: “I feel there’s a strong possibility a significant portion of these lands can be reforested to their original forest cover,” said Saatchi, an expert in global forest carbon stocks and dynamics. “It’s definitely not a solution by itself to addressing current climate change. To do that, we need to reduce human emissions of greenhouse gases. But it could still have some partial impact on our ability to reduce climate change.”
By reading those informations, we have thought that it would be a great idea if we start a campaign about planting trees, which have higher carbon dioxide emissions, into the areas with high air pollution. Forests are important terrestrial ecosystems in reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While forests increase their biomass by producing organic matter through photosynthesis, they also produce oxygen. To help reduce those harmful gases, we searched for tree species with high gas emissions.
1. Small Leaf Linden (Tilia Cordata)
2. Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)
3. Ulmus minor (Plain Elm)
We have chosen the “Ulmus Minor (Plain Elm)”.
There are 3 species of Elm from the Ulmaceae family in Turkey:
1. Mountain Elm
2. Lowland Elm Tree
3. Pansy Elm
Lowland Elm is mostly the tree of Central and Southern Europe and Anatolia. Compared to the mountain elm, it is resistant to the continental climate. Elm can also grow in dry humus, especially in deep, moist, and calcareous soils.
As in the rest of the World, elm trees in our country have been exposed to intense deaths since the 1940s by being under the influence of the "elm death disease". With the spread of the fungus named Ceratocystis ulmi, which causes the disease, with the insects named Scolytus Scolytus and S. multiseriate, the disease caused intense elm deaths all over our country. Turkey's quality of elm wealth is declining rapidly from year to year with elms’ dying.
Therefore, in one of the articles we reviewed, we came across the report of scientists who went through a laboratory process to examine trees damaged by this disease and grow them better and more durable. In this report, unlike the MS and other media used in Ulmus Mill's studies on tissue culture, the Modified MS media method was tried for the first time and was successful. This method was tried and these new seeds created both became more resistant to disease and it was observed that the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed was higher.
For the trees we will plant in the campaign, we concluded that we need people's donations in order to be able to meet the seeds that have sprouted and turned into saplings, which have undergone the laboratory process. First of all, since we are aware that people will not donate to people they do not know, we searched for brands that aimed at sustainability and changed their working methods in this direction. After finding many Turkish clothing, detergent, and white goods brands; we have recently decided on a white goods company that states in its reports that it uses both water and plastic less instead of the plastic products it used to use in the past. We talked to this company, stated our project, and received sponsorship. Collaborating with a more well-known and reliable brand has made it easier for people to gain their trust and support us.
With the support of people who contributed to us, we planted our saplings in regions suitable for the climate they will live in. less carbon dioxide; means more oxygen, more green, more clean Earth. The spread of our posts on social media has also attracted the attention of people abroad. We are sure that this tree species and the other trees with the high photosynthesis rate that I have mentioned will be planted more in places suitable for the climatic conditions in which they must live. In regions with unsuitable climates, we agree that by raising awareness among people, they will also pay attention not to use water, plastic, non-recyclable waste, and harmful chemicals. A greener World, a more livable
home!
Space Agency Data
We mostly used NASA datas and education datas on internet. The data we received from NASA helped us a lot in explaining certain information and obtaining concrete data in our project. We have mentioned the sources we used in the bibliography section.
https://climate.nasa.gov/
https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/139/video-global-warming-from-1880-to-2021/
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3102/nasa-study-finds-tropical-forests-ability-to-absorb-carbon-dioxide-is-waning/
https://climate.esa.int/en/
https://climate.esa.int/en/projects/biomass/news-and-events/news/esa-launches-cci-biomass/
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2927/examining-the-viability-of-planting-trees-to-help-mitigate-climate-change/
Hackathon Journey
Thanks to our project, we gained a lot of information about the field we were researching and learned to use science as a solution to problems. The biggest reason we chose this topic in our project is about the effect of trees on the climate and how important they are. This was an idea that came out of our sustainability project, which we also continued in our own school. We sincerely hope that our project will inspire many people and raise their awareness. Also, we thank to our teachers and consultants who directed and helped us.
References
https://climate.nasa.gov/
https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/139/video-global-warming-from-1880-to-2021/
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3102/nasa-study-finds-tropical-forests-ability-to-absorb-carbon-dioxide-is-waning/
https://climate.esa.int/en/
https://climate.esa.int/en/projects/biomass/news-and-events/news/esa-launches-cci-biomass/
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2927/examining-the-viability-of-planting-trees-to-help-mitigate-climate-change/
http://nek.istanbul.edu.tr:4444/ekos/TEZ/ET001853.pdf
https://icanadolu.ogm.gov.tr/Yayinlar/Teknik
https://icanadolu.ogm.gov.tr/
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change
http://climatechange.boun.edu.tr/ozon-tabakasi/
Tags
#climate #carbonfootprint #climatechange #trees