| Overview |
| General background - market economy |
| General background - carbon trading |
| Brief notes on "comments on the Stern Review by leading economists" and links to them |
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| Overview |
| Basic science of Carbon including the carbon cycle |
| Photosynthesis & Respiration |
| Combustion - Energy production from carbon based fuels - the science |
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| Overview |
| Energy production from carbon based fuels (technology) |
| Alternative sources |
| Innovation and development |
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| Overview |
| Forest, Ice and Ocean |
| Land usage and impact on climate |
| Developing nations, including political aspects |
| Social change, population and industry |
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| Overview |
| Lesson plans, guides and pedagogy |
| Activities, tasks and assignments |
| Questions & Discussions |
| Software, Web 2.0 tools and data including images etc |
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| Glossary of terms, acronyms etc |
| Links to relevant sections in main National curriculum, GCSE and GCE syllabuses |
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| Overview Science provides the data, the hypotheses, the models and the predictions that led to the Stern review and Stern indeed commissioned some of these (see 1st link right). In the context of this site, the focus is on carbon derived energy and its production and use both by nature itself and through human activity. There are some excellent resources supporting this section hence the significant number of links provided.  For
practical purposes, the law of conservation of mass states that matter cannot
be created or destroyed; it can only be redistributed. Similarly the law
of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed,
it can only be converted from one form to another(s) e.g heat, light, sound
etc.With advances during the last century, particularly space exploration, we can now view the earth as an holistic system with four interacting components (atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere). The interactions between these components account for the matter and energy flows in the system, given the conservation laws. Key natural processes lie behind these interactions and in terms of carbon include photosynthesis, respiration, sedimentation, combustion, decomposition etc. Human activity adds through the processes of de- and re-forestation and other changes in land use, and in particular by many forms of combustion. There are several reasons why a focus on carbon is so significant. Life on earth is predominantly carbon based and many of the processes above involve carbon dioxide and methane. Carbon dioxide is the major (>80%) component of the so called greenhouse gases (followed by methane). These are both very NATURAL but human activity alters their concentrations and through the greenhouse effect (follow link for animation) changes the balance between absorbed and re-radiated energy e.g. causing global warming. |
  Stern
supporting commissioned researchLaws
of conservation of energy and matter Earth
system science componentsGreenhouse
effectGreenhouse
effect animationGreenhouse
gas data USGreenhouse
gas data UKAgreements
to Limit Greenhouse Gas EmissionsNew
scientist: environment FREE
ASE 14-19 RESOURCES as of Jan 07
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