Sustaining Our Planet for Future Generations

There is concern worldwide that environmental issues we face today will have an impact on future generations. Your challenge is to create a way to communicate the importance of environmental responsibility to people of all ages.

Altai

Summary

Altai tells children and adults who were not previously aware of environmental problems or simply did not want to protect the environment, about the importance of saving nature. This attracts people to start working in a team and also help nature by planting trees, collecting garbage, consuming less energy, not using fuel-powered cars, etc.. Thus, each person becomes a hero and ensures a happy future for their children and grandchildren

How We Addressed This Challenge

Why is it important?


The environmental problem concerns such objects as:




  • atmosphere;
  • biosphere;
  • hydrosphere;
  • soil;
  • the earth with its subsoil and minerals;
  • landscape.


As a result of anthropogenic impact, the structure of natural and territorial complexes deteriorates, and there is a shortage of natural resources.


There are the following types of environmental problems: 



  • regional;
  • global.

Regional problems are related to changes occurring in each country and within a particular territorial unit. They are resolved at the level of local legislation. Global environmental problems are caused primarily by large-scale pollution of the ecosphere. Local and regional problems grow into global ones, so among the tasks that humanity faces, we can single out the maintenance of a normal environmental situation in every part of the world.


Modern world environmental problems


All modern problems are divided into those caused by the scientific and technological revolution and those related to the depletion of resources. Global environmental problems lead to climate change. Global warming occurs – the temperature of the upper atmospheric layer gradually increases, causing the melting of glaciers. The level of the World's oceans is rising, which creates a greenhouse effect. Today, scientists from all over the world are taking measures to prevent the harmful effects of man-made and anthropogenic factors on the environment.

 

Climate Change: How Do We Know?

 

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

he current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia.

Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. This body of data, collected over many years, reveals the signals of a changing climate.

The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century.Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in response.

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.

 

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling:

Global Temperature Rise

The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2.05 degrees Fahrenheit (1.14 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere. Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the six warmest years on record taking place since 2014. Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year — from January through September, with the exception of June — were the warmest on record for those respective months.


Warming Ocean

The ocean has absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 100 meters (about 328 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.Earth stores 90% of the extra energy in the ocean.


Shrinking Ice Sheets

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019, while Antarctica lost about 148 billion tons of ice per year during the same time period.


https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/JASMES/daily/GLmonitor/index.html



Decreased Snow Cover

Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and that the snow is melting earlier.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MOD10C1_M_SNOW


Sea Level Rise

Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and is accelerating slightly every year.








What does Altai do?


There are the following ways to solve global and regional eco-problems:




  • proper disposal of industrial waste;
  • the development of more environmentally friendly production methods;
  • use of clean fuel.

Building nature reserves and national parks will help solve global eco-problems. Dispersal of large settlements and cities will help to preserve the biosphere. Proper disposal of garbage will allow you to clear megacities. The construction of homes should use natural materials. Planting trees will help conserve oxygen. 


But many people do not even know about the existence of these problems, there are also many people who do not do anything and even on the contrary spoil the work of people who save our world.


And we with the Altai project want to convey to people the importance of Protecting the earth.






Importance of problem solving and Altai's potential?


Environmental degradation leads to the following consequences:




  • appearance of mutations, deterioration of the gene pool;
  • increase in the number of congenital pathologies and hereditary diseases;
  • increase in the number of chronic and oncological diseases among the population;
  • increased mortality, including infant mortality;
  • epidemics.


If you do not take the necessary measures to preserve human resources, the number of sick people will increase. In this regard, the population in cities will begin to decline at a rapid pace.


 Altai will show people the importance of preventing this. And people will come together to make the world a better place.




What do we hope to achieve?




  • inform all people about environmental problems;
  • get people interested in helping nature;
  •  attract volunteers;
  •  and improve the ecology of the planet.




How does it work?



Interested organizations register on our website, then they appoint responsible people for conducting environmental training based on our data and present the whole protection of nature within the organization. Then they do some work for the benefit of nature(collect garbage or plant trees, etc.) send us photos by email, we send certificates to volunteers and a thank-you letter to the organization for participating in our activities

How We Developed This Project

We saw the consequences of our own carelessness, and then explored what might happen in the future. We were horrified by what we learned and began to look for a way out of this difficult global situation

How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project

They made it possible to study environmental problems much more globally and accurately because we had accurate data about for example rising water levels

Project Demo

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SDsBAh4JS96U9ancMQ50Pn3eiqupZSQx/view?usp=sharing

Data & Resources

Data and resources:



  1. IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, Summary for Policymakers
  2. B.D. Santer et.al., “A search for human influences on the thermal structure of the atmosphere,” Nature vol 382, 4 July 1996, 39-46
  3. Gabriele C. Hegerl, “Detecting Greenhouse-Gas-Induced Climate Change with an Optimal Fingerprint Method,” Journal of Climate, v. 9, October 1996, 2281-2306
  4. V. Ramaswamy et.al., “Anthropogenic and Natural Influences in the Evolution of Lower Stratospheric Cooling,” Science 311 (24 February 2006), 1138-1141
  5. B.D. Santer et.al., “Contributions of Anthropogenic and Natural Forcing to Recent Tropopause Height Changes,” Science vol. 301 (25 July 2003), 479-483.
  6. In the 1860s, physicist John Tyndall recognized the Earth's natural greenhouse effect and suggested that slight changes in the atmospheric composition could bring about climatic variations. In 1896, a seminal paper by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius first predicted that changes in the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could substantially alter the surface temperature through the greenhouse effect.
  7. National Research Council (NRC), 2006. Surface Temperature Reconstructions For the Last 2,000 Years. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.

  8. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/page3.php
  9. https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-references/faq/indicators.php
  10. http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature
  11. http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp
  12. https://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20170118/
  13. Levitus, S.; Antonov, J.; Boyer, T.; Baranova, O.; Garcia, H.; Locarnini, R.; Mishonov, A.; Reagan, J.; Seidov, D.; Yarosh, E.; Zweng, M. (2017). NCEI ocean heat content, temperature anomalies, salinity anomalies, thermosteric sea level anomalies, halosteric sea level anomalies, and total steric sea level anomalies from 1955 to present calculated from in situ oceanographic subsurface profile data (NCEI Accession 0164586). Version 4.4. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. doi:10.7289/V53F4MVP
  14. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7159
  15. National Snow and Ice Data Center
  16. World Glacier Monitoring Service
  17. National Snow and Ice Data Center
  18. Robinson, D. A., D. K. Hall, and T. L. Mote. 2014. MEaSUREs Northern Hemisphere Terrestrial Snow Cover Extent Daily 25km EASE-Grid 2.0, Version 1. [Indicate subset used]. Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/MEASURES/CRYOSPHERE/nsidc-0530.001. [Accessed 9/21/18].
  19. http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/sotc/snow_extent.html
  20. Rutgers University Global Snow Lab, Data History Accessed September 21, 2018.
  21. R. S. Nerem, B. D. Beckley, J. T. Fasullo, B. D. Hamlington, D. Masters and G. T. Mitchum. Climate-change–driven accelerated sea-level rise detected in the altimeter era. PNAS, 2018 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1717312115
  22. https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/sotc/sea_ice.html
  23. USGCRP, 2017: Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I [Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A. Hibbard, D.J. Dokken, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock (eds.)]. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, 470 pp, doi: 10.7930/J0J964J6
  24. http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F
  25. http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification
  26. C. L. Sabine et.al., “The Oceanic Sink for Anthropogenic CO2,” Science vol. 305 (16 July 2004), 367-371
  27. Copenhagen Diagnosis, p. 36. 
  28. https://gportal.jaxa.jp/gpr/notice/case/view/991
  29. https://2020.spaceappschallenge.org/challenges/
  30. https://www.renderforest.com/ru/
  31. https://zvukogram.com/speech/
  32. https://filmora.wondershare.net/ru/filmora-video-editor.html?yclid=5832139807655756772
  33. https://nearpod.com/
Judging
This project was submitted for consideration during the Space Apps Judging process.