Climate Detectives Projects 2020-2021

Topics

Project topic: Air pollution

Project title: Polluting transports

Team: Os Especialistas

Escola Básica e Secundária Mouzinho da Silveira   CORVO, Açores   Portugal   6 2Student’s age: 12-13 years old, 14-15 years old


Research question

How the excessive use of non-electrical transports in a small area, which leads to air pollution in Corvo island

Summary of the project

The local problem that we are presenting is the excessive use of non-electrical transports in a small area, which leads to air pollution. We chose to approach this theme because we are worried about air pollution as well as noise pollution caused by the excessive use of means of transportation. As an example, we can point out that in 15 days six new cars arrived to Corvo island. Having in mind the number of inhabitants and the means of transportation used on the island, we can state that some people own more than one car. By approaching this subject, we want to inform our community about the unnecessary cars and their consequences because if they continue using them in this way, they will cause more and more pollution, and the breathing air will be harmful for our health.

Main results and Conclusions

In order to check the amount of vehicles circulating around our island, we chose two different spots at different times.

Day Time Place Total of cars
08/04/2021
Thursday 15:15 – 16:00 Rua Jogo da Bola
Rotunda do Ribeirão 44
10/04/2021
Saturday 12:00 – 12.45 Rua Jogo da Bola
Rotunda do Ribeirão 26
24/04/2021
Saturday 12:00 – 12.45 Rua Jogo da Bola
Rotunda do Ribeirão 52
29/04/2021
Thursday 15:15 – 16:00 Rua Jogo da Bola
Rotunda do Ribeirão 55

Day Time Place Total of cars
08/04/2021
Thursday 15:15 – 16:00 Rua dos Moinhos
Rotunda do Porto da Casa 22
10/04/2021
Saturday 12:00 – 12.45 Rua dos Moinhos
Rotunda do Porto da Casa 24
24/04/2021
Saturday 12:00 – 12.45 Rua dos Moinhos
Rotunda do Porto da Casa 38
29/04/2021
Thursday 15:15 – 16:00 Rua dos Moinhos
Rotunda do Porto da Casa 40

On Corvo island there are 300 cars and we can circulate on 18km of road.
In average, one car releases from 130g to 250g of CO2 per km.
Cars release carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, hydrocarbons, methane, aldehydes and particulate material. From these carbon monoxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the ones that cause greenhouse effect.
We have explored Sentinel satellite and we have observed that on the 15th of each month throughout 2020 the amount of gases causing greenhouse effect was minimum. On Corvo island in 2020 no pollution from the three gases with greenhouse effect was registered (CO2, CH4 e NO2).

What’s Next? Actions to help lessen the problem

The team will organize information sessions for the population.

Project poster:

Download project poster PDF

Projects are created by the teams and they take the full responsibility of the shared data.
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