| Research Motive | Project Description |

| Local Description | Research Progress | Titbits |

Icebergs melting, sea levels rising!

1

Figure:Cindy

In the recent years, the Earth’s climate has undergone dramatic changes. In the year 2001, Taipei city was hit by Typhoon Nari, the worst in a hundred years. Then in 2002, the city was struck by a drought and the hottest summer in 50 years. International studies point out that in the last 200 years, human produced greenhouse gases accumulating is a reason for unusual global climates that we cannot neglect. Because of this, the UN, under the general ideal of international cooperation on environmental protection, has produced the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol, to proclaim that all developed countries be responsible for lowering the amount of greenhouse gases produced. Now, the details of the Kyoto Protocol have reached international consensus, and has been put into force as of February 16^th, 2005. The world is now entering a new era where greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide will be controlled.

We are the “Environmental Scouts”, and we are making plans and actively trying to lower the amount of greenhouse gases. This activity is also integrated with Bin Jiang Elementary School’s “Bin Jiang Learning” program, to use the spirit of caring for our environment in a themed educational project. This will allow students to directly take notice of the greenhouse gas produced by everyday activities, to understand the relationship between personal behavior and the amount of gas released, and to try to make plans to achieve reduction. Further more, a self consciousness of “taking action for reduction” should be developed, and should help build a role model for younger grades, further influencing parents, families, and communities through these classes. We hope that through this research project, we can accomplish reduction of greenhouse gases to do what we can for the Earth that we all live on.