By: Judith Cohen and Henry Schoenhoff

What’s Wrong? The earth’s natural cycle of heating and cooling is being hastened by human activity. This issue is commonly known as Global Warming. The delicate balance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is being thrown off by human actions. Between 1955 and 2005 the level of CO2 (a natural greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere has risen over 20%; CO2 levels are higher today than they have been in the past 420 thousand years! (and probably for the past 20 MILLION years!) Along with the rising levels of CO2, goes the overall temperature of the earth. Therefore since the levels are rising, so is the temperature

Solutions ARE out there! One way to help fix Global Warming is to use a geothermal energy system to heat and cool your house, school, office, or any building that uses air conditioning or heating.

Let’s shed some light on it…

A type of green energy used to heat and cool buildings as opposed to heating or air conditioning. Green Energy is energy that creates no waste when produced. Instead of working against the hot air to make the house cool compared to outside on a hot day in the summer, a geothermal pump is stationed under ground where it stays at a constant middle temperature; the pump then has to work only from that temperature to cool the house.

This is a geothermal air pump These are pipes leading to the house. They are filled with a water based solution that takes the natural heat from the earth to heat itself. It then runs into a heat exchanger which goes on to heat the house.

Using a geothermal heating system, it can be heated or cooled for a day for about $3. It costs $1 per 2000sq.ft. So it’s about $90 for a month Normally it costs about $250 to heat it for one month with our current heating source. Home Sweet Home This is my house…

Though it might cost more to buy and install the whole system in the beginning, it should start paying for itself in 2-3 years with all the money saved from heating bills.

Arms, Karen. Environmental Science. Orlando: Holt Rinehart & Winston, 2008.Henkenius, Merle, and Eugene Thompson. "Geothermal Heating - Popular Mechanics." Popular Mechanics. 18 Feb _clinic/ html?page=2. _clinic/ html?page=2 "How Geothermal Works." Tri- State. 18 Feb Rosengren, Curt. "So, How Does Geothermal Work Anyway? (geothermal energy calenergy power)." Triple Pundit - Business, Better.. 12 Sep Feb