Global Warming is a World Wide problem that has "heated up" some controversy lately. Some people don't know what it is, but Global Warming is a rise in the average yearly temperature of the Earth. This site will tell you the Causes, Effects, Solutions, and What the Government is Doing about the Global Warming Problem.
CAUSES:
Some of the causes of global warming are Water Vapor, Ozone, Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Factory Smoke, Car Exhaust,and Nitrous Oxide.The carbon dioxide comes mainly from burning fossil fuels in power stations, which also causes acid rain. It is also created by living animals breathing, and is naturally converted by plants back to oxygen. However, deforestation is reducing the planet's carbon dioxide absoring capability. Nitrous oxide is a by-product of nylon production, and is also released by fertiliser use in agriculture. The extra methane is produced in coal mining, natural gas production and distribution (natural gas is methane), and waste disposal. One fifth of all methane generated by human activity comes from microbial decay of organic material in flooded rice fields.
A new type of chemical, the chlorofluorocarbon, or CFC, has been introduced as a refrigerant, solvent and aerosol propellant, but it is also a very powerful greenhouse gas, because it can trap a lot of radiation. One molecule of CFC is 12,000 to 16,000 times as effective at absorbing infra-red radiation as a molecule of carbon dixide.
EFFECTS:
Global Warming has many affects like an increase in Skin Cancer, Melting of the Ice Caps, Climate Changes, Extinction of Animals, Crop Failure in some areas , and some areas will become Fertile.The greenhouse effect causes trouble by raising the temperature of the planet. The actual rise is not very much, but the Earth's ecosystem is very fragile, and small changes can have large effects:
The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that this rise of one degree will happen by the year 2025. This could potentially cripple the North American corn belt, which produces much of the world's grain, leading to much higher food prices, and even less food for the Third World than they already have. However, it would also mean that some countries which are further north would be able to grow crops they had never been able to before, although there is less land as you move north from the corn belt.
The other serious worry is that rising sea levels from the melting of the polar ice caps could severely flood many countries. A rise in sea levels of one metre, which many experts are predicting by the year 2100 (and some as soon as 2030), would flood 15 percent of Egypt, and 12 percent of Bangladesh. The Maldives in the Indian Ocean would almost completely disappear. Most of the countries which would suffer most from a rise in sea levels are the poor island states, so the islands in the Caribbean, South Pacific, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean have formed the Alliance of Small Island States, AOSIS, so they have a louder voice in internatioanl politics and can make the richer developed world listen to their problems. Closer to home, Britain would lose most of East Anglia, and to protect the coast line would cost an estimated 5 to 10 billion pounds.
SOLUTIONS:
Reducing use of fossil fuels would considerably reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced, as well as reducing the levels of the pollutants which cause acid rain. This can be achieved by either using less energy altogether, or using alternative energy sources. You can help save energy in lots of ways:
Turn off lights when you leave a room
If you have a car, don't use it for short journeys
Get your parents to insulate their house properly
Basically, anything at all that uses less energy
Here are some other solutions to Global Warming. Eliminating the use of CFCs is something we can actually do. New refrigerants have been developed, and new aerosols use other propellants such as butane, so it is now actually quite difficult to get hold of CFCs (assuming you wanted to get some for something anyway). Use of better filters on smoke stacks. Removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Use of natural gases . Make houses more energy efficentBlock out drafts coming into houses.Stopping deforestation by using renewable forests and planting a new tree whenever possiblewould help to raise the carbon dioxide absorbing ability of the planet.
This graph shows how much each gas contributes to the greenhouse effect, taking into account how much of it there is and how much radiation it can absorb.
This shows how the levels of carbon dioxide have risen in Hawaii since 1958:
SO WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT DOING:
In 1993, the EC proposed that a tax on energy consumption should be imposed on all the member states, with the tax rate being based on how much carbon was in each fuel taxed (if a fuel contains more carbon, burning it will produce more carbon dioxide, increasing global warming). However, no agreements have been reached on this proposal as yet.
Every country in the world has agreed to completely stop using CFCs by the year 2000.
In 1992, the Earth Summit was held in Brazil, where developed nations were asked to make sure their emissions of greenhouse gases stayed at their 1990 levels until the year 2000. However, this was not a legally binding request, and while the EC has agreed to the proposals, not all the other developed nations have.
REFERENCES:
www.schwaben.de/home/kepi/green3.htm
www.sierraclub.org/global-warming/home.html
Earth Science Links
Mr. Deker's Earth Science Homepage
Chris W's and Brian O's Global Warming Homepage
