LEARNING OUTCOMES
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ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
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The basic idea with the greenhouse effect is that the earth absorbs energy coming from the sun. When the earth tries to re-radiate this energy back into space, specific gases can actually trap the heat in our atmosphere. Scientists are stating, with empirical data backing their claims, that by adding more greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere the earth has the ability to absorb more outgoing energy, which will make the planet get warmer. What scientists now know is that there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than in the last 1,000,000 years and by 2100 there will be more carbon dioxide than there has been in the last 65 million years.
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The Earth's interior is still extremely hot because of Earth's formation. A new technique being implemented is to use water and the internal heat the earth to produce steam, which can turn turbines to generate electricity. It requires using existing ground water or actually pumping ground water into the earth so the heat can evaporate the water into steam and turn a turbine. The image below is a geothermal plant in Iceland where they plan to use the heat from their volcano (Iceland is a volcanic island) to power their entire country.
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