Task
Investigate the use of "black balloons" as a visualisation tool for climate change awareness.
Questions
Some of the answers of these questions can be found on the Victorian Government Save Energy site: http://www.saveenergy.vic.gov.au/blackballoons.aspx
1. The Victorian Government introduced the idea of "black balloons" to raise awareness of climate change issues. What is a "black balloon"?
The Australian government Department of Climate Change lists the following "emissions rates" for electricity production in Australia.
| State | Emissions |
|---|---|
| Tasmania | 0.23 kg CO2-e/kWh |
| Northern Territory | 0.68 kg CO2-e/kWh |
| South Australia | 0.77 kg CO2-e/kWh |
| Western Australia (SW) | 0.84 kg CO2-e/kWh |
| Queensland | 0.89 kg CO2-e/kWh |
| New South Wales | 0.89 kg CO2-e/kWh |
| Victoria | 1.22 kg CO2-e/kWh |
2. How many black balloons does it take to make one kilowatt-hour of electricity in each state?
3. Why would it be different in different places?
4. Find the number of black balloons produced by some of the appliances in your home, if they were on for one hour.
Watch the featured ad on the http://www.saveenergy.vic.gov.au/blackballoons.aspx website.
5. Do you think the "Black Balloons" approach works? Does it make it easier to understand the impact of households on greenhouse gas production?
Projects
1. Either in pairs or as a class, develop an advertisement that encourages people to cut down on greenhouse gas production. Create this ad using a video camera.
2. As a class activity, make a display showing a range of appliances and the number of black balloons they produce. The display has to be suitable to be shown in the College Library.
