Climate change is a BIG problem. Raise your hand if you heard of this Climate change is a BIG problem. Raise your hand if you heard of this. Lots of people also call it Global Warming, but most scientists prefer to say climate change because not only is the average temperature of the Earth getting higher, the climate in many areas is changing to being rainier or dryer or more unpredictable. Climate Change

This graph shows time (in year) on the x-axis, and Carbon Dioxide gas in the atmosphere on the y-axis. Is Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere going up or down? Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which means it contributes to global warming and climate change. Is there something you do that emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere? (besides breathing)

FOSSIL fuels Now: ~300 million years ago (before dinosaurs!): Coal Oil To drive our cars and heat our homes, most of us use FOSSIL FUELS like coal, oil, and natural gas. Whenever you burn a fossil fuel (like when you drive your car), carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. These are called “FOSSIL” fuels because hundreds of millions of years ago they were plants on land and in the ocean. Slowly between then and now, geological processes converted them into the coal, oil, and natural gas we use today. Coal Oil

Burning Fossil Fuels puts EXTRA carbon dioxide into the atmosphere CO2

Carbon dioxide cycles naturally Carbon from grass is converted to CO2 by herbivores and decomposers CO2 CO2 The CO2 put in the atmosphere from this pathway is in addition to the CO2 that is added to the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels.

Climate Change SOLUTION? Bioenergy or Biofuels or Grassoline When using grassoline as a fuel, CO2 that is produced would have been released into the atmosphere naturally through other processes CO2 CO2 Grassoline uses energy from grass to fuel cars that would otherwise be used by herbivores (like a zebra) to move around or by decomposers like fungi to grow. This is opposed to fossil fuels that add additional CO2 to the atmosphere that would otherwise not end up there. Thus, if we get our fuel from grassoline then we will eliminate the fossil fuel pathway, which means less CO2 going into the atmosphere

BioEnergy SusTainability Experiment The BEST Experiment Question: Is Grassoline Sustainable? Or How green is grassoline?

The BEST Experiment Question: Is Grassoline Sustainable? What kind of grass to make grassoline from?—lots of species (prairie) or just one species (switchgrass)? Should we fertilize to make the grass grow bigger? Will doing this create other kinds of pollution? What will happen to the ecosystem when we cut the grass (to make fuel)? or

Other schools are doing the exact same experiment Other schools are doing the exact same experiment. This way we can compare and contrast our data and have more certainty in our results. Research Plots

Block Layout FERTILIZED PRAIRIE HARVESTED SWITCH

Harper Creek school district Planting the plots! Harper Creek school district

Olivet school district Planting the plots! Olivet school district

Biofuel Video http://www.ndep.us/Biofuel