Karishma

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Hi, my name is Karishma and welcome to my wikipage. I go to Pukekohe Intermediate and I am in Rm 11. We are now at the end of term 3 and I can't believe how fast the year has gone. Lately I have handed in my Science Fair which got an excellence! My speech got into the school finals and my ancient civilization project is still being marked.



__My Goals:__



__My Science Fair Assesment:__

__Reduce Your Carbon Footprint!__

Does this sound familiar to you? It may sound like your parents are nagging you – **again!** Well, they probably are. But have you have ever asked yourself, **why?** Could it be that they are trying to save money? Or are they trying to reduce your carbon footprint? Maybe even both.
 * “Turn off the light! Get out of the shower! Close the door – the heat’s getting out! How many times do I have to tell you?”**

Have you ever, **even heard** of a carbon footprint? And no, it’s not what you leave behind after you have stepped in something messy like sand or mud. Your carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide you produce by doing everyday things like using electricity, using spray cans, and driving the car. Did you know, our rubbish, and **even cow poo** produces carbon dioxide! You may be thinking “So what!”

Well, carbon dioxide is a gas which we cannot see, but in large amounts it is very harmful to our planet Earth. When carbon dioxide floats high up into the air, it makes a hole in the ozone layer. This hole is getting bigger and bigger. This is really bad because the ozone layer protects the Earth from harmful UV rays. When these harmful sunrays reach the Earth, they can cause skin cancers which can kill people.

Without the ozone layer, the Earth would get **way** too hot, and the plants would die. The animals that eat plants would not have enough food. They would eventually **die too.** Without plants there would also not be enough oxygen being produced. And we all **know** what happens to us humans if we don’t get enough oxygen. So basically our **whole** planet could come to an end. **Scary!!**
 * ---**!! //(Hand gesture)//

Here in New Zealand, it is even worse! There is about 7% **less** protective ozone over New Zealand than in all the other countries. In fact the very first holes in the ozone layer were formed on this side of the world, due to the cooler temperature in our atmosphere.

But **wait**! There **is** hope. There are some things we can **all** do to help save our planet. For a start, you could get out of the shower, turn off the lights and shut the door when your mum tells you to! But seriously, you don’t need your mum to tell you what to do. Turn off the lights and the power when you’re not using them. Take shorter showers. Instead of driving the car everywhere you could walk, bike or scooter. Car-pooling is another great way to get around.

To cut down on the amount of rubbish in our landfills, you could recycle plastic, paper and glass. What you cannot recycle, you may be able to turn into compost. Fruit and vegetable scraps are great for this. You all look like a smart bunch. So put your thinking caps on and see what creative ideas **you** can come up with **yourselves**.

Now you know, everyday things that create carbon dioxide are extremely harmful to our ozone layer. We desperately **need** our ozone layer, and there are things we can **all** do to reduce our carbon footprint.

So go on, save yourself and your parents a few dollars, but **even more** than that – **be a superhero and save our planet!**