Switched Off - St Mary's School Ascot

How can a rapidly accelerating warming of the Earth – known as ‘Climate Change’ - result in the onset of a new Ice Age? Students at St Mary’s Ascot used the Roots & Shoots resource ‘Iceworld’ as a guide to their study of the link between a rise in temperature on Earth and the link to a potentially frozen UK in the future. They found out that the problem might be caused by a shift of the warm water current known as the Gulf Stream. This current originates in the Caribbean and bathes the UK and north-west Europe in warmer waters which even permits palms to flourish in Cornwall. Some evidence raises concern that melting glaciers in the Arctic will send cold water into this current and disrupt the flow of the Gulf Stream. It is then quite likely that without the warmth delivered by the current, the UK could enter a new Ice Age.Year 7 students designed posters to explain this link and also worked on the design of houses that would save energy and hence reduce the production of greenhouse gases, those gases ultimately responsible for climate change. The exercise made the whole year group much more aware of the energy wasted in our daily routine and many pledges were made to help to stop global warming.