Project title: Rainfall in Castleisland

Team: Rainfall in Castleisland

College Road   Castleisland   Ireland   5 Student’s age: 16-17 years old

Has The Rising Greenhouse Gas Emissions Affected the Rainfall in Castleisland?

We started this project as we were interested in how climate change has affected our local area. We decided to focus on and research the levels of rainfall in our local area in an attempt to find evidence of climate change. With that in mind, we set out to discover how it has affected our area over the last 23 years. We compared current rainfall to old data dating back to 1990 as well as data from 2000 and 2010 to see the effect climate change is having. We gathered this historical data using a weather station in the Castleisland area. To gather own data, we each made rain gauges and placed them in five different locations around the Castleisland area. We then delegated ourselves one week each and recorded the rainfall every day for a week. By all five of us gathering data we were able to acquire an average rainfall level over 6 weeks (about 1 and a half months). One of our group members took on the responsibility for an extra week of data. Every day we logged the results into a table and compared the current data with the old. We then clearly displayed the results on excel graphs. Overall, as a group we enjoyed getting our own data and displaying it. Climate change is a very relevant topic for our age group as it will affect us in the future. This is why we found it intriguing and are interested in discovering ways of combatting it.

The main result we gathered was that rainfall levels are noticeably higher in Castleisland now than they have been in the last 30 years because of climate change. The data dating back to 1990 supports our claim as there is an obvious increase in rainfall levels as time passes and as the levels of carbon emissions have increased. Our clear and concise graphs allowed us to easily read the results. The conclusion is climate change is now affecting us at a local level. Rainfall levels will likely continue to rise if action is not taken potentially leading to flooding and destruction of property. In another 30 years who knows how high rainfall levels could rise? Climate change is a very serious problem and needs to be treated as such. Thankfully it is a problem that can be tackled by small steps taken by every individual.

There is many ways to make a difference and help fight against global warming and climate change. People think small things won’t help but if everyone chips in it can help slow down climate change more than anything. Most people use nonrenewable energy sources like turf, coal, timber. Everyone should be using renewable energy sources like hydroelectricity and wind energy. Renewable energy sources are a lot more sustainable and overall cleaner and better for the environment. Renewable energy releases minimal or absolutely no greenhouse gases. If you are able to switch to an electric vehicle or else use public transport like bus, tram, train, or else walk/bike to where you need to go, then that is recommended. Also, recycling products can help prevent climate change. If you use different disposable water bottles everyday switch to using one bottle every day to reduce waste. For example, in our locality Castleisland some people get a drive to school when they could probably walk or cycle if they wanted to. Consider purchasing a travel mug that you can use for coffee or other hot beverages besides getting a disposable plastic cup. If the situation allows, you could also use a more sustainable form of energy to heat your house example: solar panels, ground source heat pumps, wind turbines, photovoltaic solar cells etc. When travelling, stay in environment friendly hotels, pack reusable items, eat local foods instead of imported foods, and try avoiding flying short distances, making use of trains or buses instead. Young people like us need to take responsibility because it will affect our generation at the end of the day.

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