• Question: Does your work help reduce global warming?

    Asked by 888cmte48 to Cat?, Elaine, Helena, Iain, Gabriel on 17 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Helena Quilter

      Helena Quilter answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      Hi there!

      I think that my work will help reduce global warming! I think bioplastics are really important. We use lots of plastics every day an most of them are made from oil. When we use oil we produce carbon dioxide gas (CO2) – that’s the gas that has caused a lot global warming!

      Plastics also don’t break down for hundreds of years so they cause lots of pollution. We can recycle them but it takes a lot of every and a lot just gets thrown away. Some scientists think there will be more plastic in the world’s oceans than fish by 2050!

      The new materials I’m working on are made from chemicals from plant waste instead – things like orange peel, pine trees and corn starch! ??? The things I use would normally be thrown away and I’m not producing CO2 when I use them – not like when we use oil!

      I also hope my plastics will be biodegradable – so they will break down naturally into compost when we had finished with them!

    • Photo: Cat Scott ?

      Cat Scott ? answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      Hopefully yes!!

      My work helps us to understand the impacts different things have on the climate (because we don’t understand it all properly yet!) – we need to do this so that we can make the right laws and regulations to make sure that the actions we take have a beneficial impact on the climate (because we don’t want to accidentally do something that makes it worse!) ? I am studying forests and how they affect the climate, so that we can make sure we protect them. ? ?

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