DESCRIPTION:
In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us the effects that climate
change can have and how one small change in an ecosystem can throw everything off.
TRASCRIPT:
Hey, what's the difference between weather and climate? You can't weather
a tree but you can climate but you already know the difference between weather
and climate and if it slipped your mind the definitions are right there you know that
the weather can change quickly but climate can also change just more slowly and
if you're good at putting two and two together and I know you are you probably
already noticed that we use some of the same words when we talk about climate
and environment words like temperature and rainfall coincidence I think not but
science demands evidence my friends and while we've already seen that living
things can change when environments change we need to ask how might a change
in climate affect an ecosystem first let's talk climates through little nice travels
we found out that Yuma Arizona had a hot and sunny climate we decided this
after finding out that although it rained once or twice during my long state most of
the days were hot and dry now the plants and animals that live in Yuma's hot dry
sunny climate have adaptations that help them live in that desert environment if
we took a hike around Yuma we might see a cactus and if we took a closer and
careful look at the cactus we'd see that its outside is kind of waxy and tough this
adaptation helps the cactus save water by keeping the water from evaporating into
the dry air now see something happened to you miss climate say over the course
of about 20 years there were even hotter days and less rainfall than before when
weather patterns change over a long period of time we call it climate change what
the cactus has adaptations be enough then let's find out let's look at some
organisms that are part of a desert ecosystem we have our friend the cactus
a kangaroo rat a rattlesnake and a desert fox we can use a handy dandy food
chain model to see how energy flows between living things in this ecosystem it
would probably look something like this the cactus makes energy by
photosynthesis and the energy goes from the cactus to the rat then to the
snake and then to the Fox now although the cactus has adaptations that help
it store and save water it still needs rain if it doesn't get enough in a drier
climate it's not going to have anything to store and it's not going to be able
to survive and you know what happens when we take out the bottom of the
food chain it's like taking the wrong block and Jenga we throw the rest of the
ecosystem off-balance but that's not the only problem less rain and hotter
temperatures mean less water to drink for all of the animals and although they
have adaptations to like scales to help them retain water that won't be enough
to let them fit into a much hotter and drier climates and globally the climate is
changing scientists who study climate change think that it's caused in part by
changes to the Earth's atmosphere an increase in gases like carbon dioxide is
trapping more heat close to the earth acting like a blanket and making the earth
warmer but scientists are hard at work trying to find solutions to climate change
for example they're looking at ways to keep too much carbon dioxide from
entering the atmosphere so all living things that make up the Earth's biosphere
have adaptations characteristics that help them fit into their environment long-term
changes in the Earth's weather patterns called climate change may have effects
on the living things that make up ecosystems now if only I could change that joke
I told at the beginning of this video.
QUESTIONS:
1. How does climate change?
What happens to environments and ecosystems when it does?
2. How do you feel about climate change?
3. What do you think the world¡¯s climate will be like 50 years from now?