Greenhouse Gases Affecting Global Warming
Essay by review • February 18, 2011 • Research Paper • 1,031 Words (5 Pages) • 1,275 Views
Greenhouse Gases Affecting Global Warming
As everyone in the world knows, global warming is an increasing threat to the planet, but what makes global warming so terrible is that no one is doing anything about it. Global warming has been a listed environmental problem for decades and little action has been made to fix this ever growing problem that slowly is ruining our atmosphere. Many people theorize why little is being done to take action is because the problem affects the future and evidence of this, taken up in a film by Al Gore called "An Inconvenient Truth," where Gore states why such disregard is occurring because of administrative lag between governments and countries and that there are so many more issues at hand. Greenhouse gases caused from human activities are fossil fuels, refrigeration and spray cans, carbon dioxide from burning carbon based fuels, and anaerobic bacteria which can be found in rice fields, cows, and sewage. The one, which mostly contributes to greenhouse gases, is CFC's which fall under the category of spray cans and refrigerators. What make CFC's so detrimental to our environment is because they are used everywhere and account for 5 percent of the earths atmosphere. Greenhouse gases are a bad thing because they trap long waves of radiation that should be passed through the atmosphere but instead are held in by greenhouse gases and which ultimately result in larger amounts of greenhouse gases which then heat up the planet. Action needs to be taken far before the earth falls apart and the only way to do so is to ask questions like Al Gore did to further illustrate his message and to heighten global awareness to the cause of global warming and in time create more effective ways to combat global warming.
Global warming due to greenhouse gases is a natural process of the world. The earth needs greenhouse gases, but the increasing evidence of too much greenhouse gases could have very serious repercussions. That's what the world is wondering if the enhancement of greenhouse gases is causing too much heat to remain in our environment. The answer is clear at this point because so much global activity has represented that global warming is affecting the earth. Huge temperature changes around the world such as north American states all getting record high annual heat indexes for the past decade and evidence of more hurricane activity. The constant depletion of our polar caps which are slowly deteriorating into the ocean are also evidence of global warming which raises caution that the world is due for another ice age or extreme earth activity that could inadvertently cause the deaths of millions even billions if ignored.
The world though needs a stable level of natural greenhouse gases because if not the world would be a very frigid place to live and the temperature would be close to zero degrees Fahrenheit. So this solidifies the global warming question of whether the augmentation of greenhouse gases is causing an adverse affect because its not that people want to eliminate greenhouse gases but to reduce them to a safe level so future generations do not have a huge global disaster and harmful UV rays do not remain causing diseases such as skin cancer more rapidly.
Water vapor is the most natural of all greenhouse gases, which is condensed water molecules evaporating from earth turning into a vapor then stored in clouds. Second most in the atmosphere is the presence of CO2 or carbon dioxide because it is naturally produced by the planet but since the revolutionary period in the late seventeenth century human activities such as burning coal, oil, wood, and other natural resources cause higher CO2 levels. Another factor contributing to global warming is the increase of methane gas in the atmosphere even though methane does not last long in the atmosphere, only about ten to twelve years, it is still a lead contributor. Methane is caused
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