Global Warming
First discovered at the turn of the century by the Swedish scientist Arrhenius, global warming was initially thought to only cause increased greenhouse gases from coal combustion emissions. It wasn’t until fifty years later that the real causes and effects of global warming would be discovered. A British scientist by the name of Calendar correlated the 10% increase of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide between 1850 and 1940 with the observed warming of northern Europe and North America, which began in the 1880's. As for the cause of global warming, scientists generally believe that both the combustion of fossil fuels and other human activities are the primary reason for the increased concentration of carbon dioxide. Human activities such as the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas contribute heavily to global warming. Other major causes include deforestation, methane gas emissions, and the release of nitrous oxide chemicals into the atmosphere. The gasses are released primarily by rice cultivation, cattle and livestock populations, gas pipelines, and landfills. Deforestation is a big problem as far as global warming because trees remove Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere, but release large quantities when burned. Methane gas emissions contribute because they are trapped in the earth’s atmosphere and reflect light, which is usually released in a clean, healthy atmosphere. The energy burned to run cars and trucks, heat homes and businesses, and power factories is responsible for about eighty percent of society's carbon dioxide emissions, about twenty-five percent of U.S. methane emissions, and about twenty percent of global nitrous oxide emissions.
The evidence of global warming has been a care and concern ...
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...problem will only garner with time. New and more efficient programs need to be developed as well as alternate methods of energy production because the methods now are not efficient enough to be able to cut pollution and waste by a significant amount. Possibly over time, such changes can be made and goals achieved so that we can live in a cleaner, healthier world.
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The emission of carbon dioxide has contributed to 80% to the heating of the earth atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is produced due the burning of fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal and oil. The burning of fossil fuel is very important in our society today, because it is used for cooking, used to produce electricity, for heating, for cooling and also for transportation. The industrialization has led to the use of fossil fuel for running machines and driving cars. The building of fossil fuel contributes towards 80-90% of the carbon dioxide we find in our atmosphere today. When the ecosystems are altered and vegetation is either burned or took out, the carbon stored in them is relinquished to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (What causes global climate change, 2005). Methane is another gas being produced in the process which all have served to increase the greenhouse effect in our atmosphere. Methane is produced from the cultivation of rice, from the burning of coal and from cattle, it has increased by 145% due to human
With every passing year, human beings are emitting more and greenhouse gases than the previous year. The world right now is at a stage where there is no time to look back and wait for things to happen on its own. We should try everything possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that enough opportunities are made available for future generation and there is scope for sustainable development by proper utilization and not by exploitation. The poorest of all should have hope for a better future.
Over the years, the EPA has made many significant accomplishments in its ultimate quest of environmental protection. Some of the EPA’s best accomplishments are reducing acid rain, banning DDT, superfund, and reducing air pollution. Power plants were a great cause of acid rain but the EPA had an effective way to fix it. “The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act gave EPA the authority to regulate sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the pollutants causing acid rain, from power plants (GRIST.ORG).” As mentioned earlier the EPA was also responsible for the banning of DDT which was a pesticide used on crops but was harming lots of wildlife due to the chemicals it contained. DDT is what almost caused our beloved bald eagle to become extinct! Also previously mentioned the EPA has had a significant impact on the reduction of air pollution in the United States. One final accomplishment of the EPA is the superfund program, which was used to clean up various polluted sites in its early years; it’s basically
David Cuff and Andrew S. Goudie. “Encyclopedia of Global Change”. Oxford University Press. Cronon, Changes in the land
over the past century primarily due to green house gases released as people burn fossil
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...huge global problem, caused by human waste, but which can be solved by going green and reducing human impact on the environment.
The commonly debated “greenhouse effect” refers to “the global average temperature increase that has been observed over the last one hundred years or more” (Spencer). President Barack Obama addressed the issue in an effort to highlight its severity, "We have to all shoulder the responsibility for keeping the planet habitable, or we’re going to suffer the consequences – together” (Leader). The earth’s increasing atmospheric and oceanic temperatures result in climate changes due to cumulative amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. As an outcome, researchers around the globe have established that the by-product of burning fossil fuels is the main culprit of the increasing temperatures. Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have significantly increased since 1900, as shown above from a study carried out by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center.
In talking about global warming, we need to learn what causes the greenhouse effect. Rays from the sun are taken up and absorbed by water vapor that is natural in the atmosphere. The United States emits the largest man made greenhouse gases in the world. As Americans we must realize the responsibility to reduce the emissions. (Gore, Albert) Water Vapor is eighty percent of greenhouse warming. The last twenty percent results from other gases that are in very little amounts. A huge absorber of the sun’s heat rays is carbon dioxide. Us as humans release a lot of carbon dioxide. When fossil fuels are burned, they release big amounts of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is on the increase in our atmosphere due to car emissions. Approximately eighty percent of CO2 increases because of man’s use of fossil fuels. When there is more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere the more sun rays are absorbed. In result to this happening this will cause the earth and the earths atmosphere to warm. When the earth is warming, water temperatures will start to get warmer. Oceans and lakes will get warmer in result f...
As we approach the future we are faced with many global problems. Most of these problems arise because we have caused them ourselves. We need to face these problems and find a solution. Global warming, although most often overlooked in importance, is a crucial problem of the future directly related to human activities. Global warming is caused by gases humans release into the atmosphere called anthropogenic gases and by deforestation. Anthropogenic gases include carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofl...
The issues surrounding Global Warming or Anthropogenic Warming introduce several different hypotheses. One is the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) hypotheses which has become the most looked at theory. It supports the claim that climate change is due largely in part because of human activities. It also claims that human activity will eventually bring the world to an end. While the AGW is being argued there is also the issue of what is called the Kyoto Protocol which many scientists have urged the U.S. government “not to sign”, saying that the increase in Greenhouse Gases is a result of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide caused environmentally. These scientists have signed a petition to stop the Kyoto Protocol on the basis that there is no scientific evidence to support the claims that human activity and the release carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases are causing the climate change. Focusing on the argument; is it natural greenhouse gases causing the climate change or is it a direct result of human interference; or is it in part caused by both phenomenons? The earth has been going through a rotating cycle of warming and cooling since time began. This is a supported fact. The amount of Carbon Dioxide that human involvement contributes to this cycle has yet to be proven; although some Carbon Dioxide is entering the atmosphere from man-made industry it is most likely that our global warming is still part of the natural process.