Ressources

Matières:	Geography, Physics, Science
Âge:	15-19 years
Duration:	45 minutes per activity

Documents

Causes and consequences in Luxembourg

Using the Luxembourg context, this set of activities includes the interpretation of satellite images to better understand the global effects of global warming on the country’s main sources of greenhouse gases.

Learning objectives

• Propose classroom activities to study climate-related issues in Luxembourg using Sentinel satellite data.
• Explain Luxembourg’s main current contributions to climate change.
• Explain Luxembourg’s current actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Past and present climate in Luxembourg

Water reflects much of the sun’s energy back into the atmosphere, while the earth absorbs much more.
This means that it takes more added heat to raise the temperature of the oceans than of the land.
That’s why most of the warming we’re seeing today is taking place on the continents rather than over the ocean.

The effect is even more marked near the poles, where rising temperatures have melted large quantities of snow and ice – white surfaces that normally reflect the sun’s rays back into the atmosphere and keep the areas they cover cool.

In Luxembourg, it has been measured that local warming is about twice as fast as the global average.

MeteoLux has a meteorological park at Findel-Luxembourg airport, with an observation station that has been continuously measuring various atmospheric parameters since January 1, 1947.

Since 1950, the average temperature in Luxembourg has risen by +1.5°C.
Since 1850, the average temperature in Luxembourg has risen by +2.2°C.