What can we do?
We can start by altering our usage of electricity around the home. Gas and electric water heaters are one of the single biggest domestic energy users and can be responsible for up to a third of greenhouse gas emissions around the home. Simply by converting to a solar hotwater unit you can reduce your annual household greenhouse gas emission by as much as 4 tonnes which translates to a saving of 50 – 90% in energy costs.

The Water Cycle
For a lot of people water seems to just appear when we turn on the tap. Understanding how this precious resource moves through the environment is key to recognising the importance of water conservation within industry and around the home. The amount of water in the Earth’s environment never changes, however it is the impacts of development that alter how water is circulated in its cycle that can result in a changed distribution. For example, The construction of dams to service cities reduces downstream flows and redirects water into other stages of the water cycle.

How the water cycle works
Water falling as rain to Earth is received in a number of ways. A percentage falls to ground where it infiltrates to recharge water tables or seeps out to wetlands, streams or oceans. Plants also take up water from ground supplies and in doing so release water vapour back to the atmosphere in a process known as evapotranspiration. Groundwater that flows towards rivers, wetlands and the ocean is heated by the sun converting water to a gas, or vapour through the process of evaporation. Warming of the Earth’s atmosphere propels the vapour upwards. In rising up through the atmosphere the water vapour cools and condenses to form tiny drops forming clouds which when saturated releasing water back to Earth as rain, hail or snow.

The Carbon Cycle
The carbon cycle is a complex series of processes through which all carbon atoms in existence rotate. The carbon atoms in your body today have been used in countless other molecules since the beginning of time. It is extremely important to understand how the carbon cycle works in order to understand the danger of it not working.

How the carbon cycle works

Each year in excess of 120 billion tonnes of carbon is exchanged between plants, animals and soil. In the carbon cycle plants absorb carbon dioxide for growth through a process known as photosynthesis. Animals, such as the kangaroo will eat the plant and use the carbon to build their bodies. Humans may then eat the kangaroo and use their carbon to fuel their own needs. Animals then return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere when they breathe, and when they die return carbon to the soil through decomposition. Ultimately, the same carbon atom can be recycled for millennia as it moves through many organisms. It is this intricate balance of carbon dioxide within the Earth’s atmosphere that has essentially kept the global average temperature constant over time.

Since the industrial revolution the burning of fossil fuels by humans to produce energy for home and industry has accelerated. Atmospheric levels have increased by over 30% since the early 1700s. We now are producing around 6.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Furthermore erosion of topsoil through land clearing can account for a further 1-2 billion tonnes a year. This increase in carbon dioxide into the atmosphere has altered the carbon cycle resulting in increase temperatures as carbon dioxide gases trap the sun’s warmth causing Earth’s atmospheric temperature to rise through a process known as the greenhouse effect.