What Is Global Warming in Reality and How We Can Reduce Its Harmful Effects

What is global warming in reality

and how we can reduce its harmful effects

Centuries ago the earth was envisaged in a flaming explosion of volcanoes and melted lava. The earth cooled and life was reproduced.

since the industrialization of civilization, the climate of the earth has faced an ever growing foreign factor. This factor is the emissions of the so called "greenhouse gases" that have caused the rapid increase in world temperatures. This phenomena has been given the title global warming, and has sparked a new debate in local, state, national, and world policy.

The beginning of the Industrial Revolution brought many new, exciting inventions into our lives to simplify our lives and made them more efficient. Such inventions included cars, household appliances and plants that burn solid waste, fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas, and coal, and wood and wood products for fuel. Before the Industrial Revolution, human activities caused very few gases to be released into the atmosphere, but now scientists say, through the burning of fossil fuels, a large population growth and deforestation, humans are affecting the mixture of gases in the atmosphere. This mixture of gases in the atmosphere is causing the worldwide problem known as Global Warming.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the earth has a natural "greenhouse effect" which is caused by energy from the sun controlling the earth's weather and climate, and heats the earth's surface. In response to the sun, the earth radiates energy back into space. Atmospheric greenhouse gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases, trap the energy leaving the earth and retaining it as heat, much like a greenhouse ceiling. This is a natural and necessary effect, without it temperatures on earth would be much lower than they are now and life as it is today would not be possible, but with the greenhouse effect the earth's average temperature is a more comfortable and life-supporting 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

The problems that have arisen with the greenhouse effect have occurred due to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases. The EPA reports that data collected over the last 100 years shows that the average land surface temperature has risen between .8 and one degree Fahrenheit, precipitation has increased around one percent over the globe and the sea level has risen approximately 6-8 inches, approximately 1-2 inches of the rise caused by melting mountain glaciers and another 1-4 inches has resulted from the expansion of the ocean water as a result of the warmer ocean temperatures.

Scientists believe that the increase in greenhouse gas concentration, especially of carbon dioxide, is being caused by the combustion of fossil fuels and other human activities. There are many causes of the greenhouse effect.

The most prevalent greenhouse gas is Carbon dioxide or CO2. Carbon dioxide and it's fellow greenhouse gases are released in agricultural practices world wide. They are released by the burning of fossil fuels. There are many invaluable methods in each of these areas to produce Carbon dioxide.

In agriculture there are dozens of ways that greenhouse gases are produced world wide. The clearing of land and the subsequent burning of the vegetation releases a green house gas. Add to that the vegetation they removed is also what removes Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and a lethal cycle can be scene. Methane another greeenhouse gas is released by the decomposing of manure for fertilization. Methane is also released by cattle in high amounts. These are the most prevalent ways agriculture creates greenhouse gases.

The burning of fossil fuels is another leading cause of greenhouse gases. These emissions can be seen when you start your car on a cold early morning and the muffler smokes the pavement behind it. It can be seen in the form of smog in the heavily populated cities throughout the world. The gases are also released by the industries that require furnaces to burn the toxin that they create. In addition the landfills releases other greenhouse gases and increase the total emission that are produced.

The Green house effect poses many dangers. First the melting of the polar ice caps would increase sea level and flood coastal areas. Second it poses a threat to agriculture. Third it threatens the environments and ecosystems of the world. These are the true dangers that the next generation will be forced to bare the brunt of if we do not decrease world wide emissions of green house gases.

Increased tempertures are believed to be the cause of rising tide waters around the world. By increasing the average temperature we melt the ice caps more rapidly then it has even been done before. We also permanently change the make up of the ocean. We are endangering the largest ecosystem the oceanic system by altering the waters and releasing ice that has been in a frozen state for eons. With the ice melted we are also losing one to the best measurements to study climate changes since the ice rarely melts enough to change its make up drastically.

Agriculture is also at risk in these changes. Higher temperatures could effect he growth and yields of plants. Increased carbon dioxide has already proven to create higher yields, but we don't know if it also depletes the soil while in the process. Add to this the last drastic change in climate sparked the dust bowl agriculturalists world wide must be prepared to adapt t new rules. Even as biotechnology creates heat resistant strains of crops there is always a natural limit to tampering with the original.

The final and most deadly danger comes in the environmental changes. As temperatures go up evaporation is increased. So now face the prospect of increased rain fall, but we will also see drier soils. In many areas this would destroy the agrarian way of life. The temperatures would also lead to stronger and more prevalent rain storms, the violence of which cannot be estimated. These changes world wide could create vast deserts in ecosystems already teetering on the brink of collapse and turn strong ecosystems into death traps.

Fossil fuels burned to run cars and trucks, heat homes and businesses, and power factories are responsible for about 98% of the total U.S. emission of carbon dioxide, 24% of the methane emissions and 18% of nitrous oxide emissions. Also contributing a significant share of emissions is the increase in agriculture, deforestation, landfills, industrial production, and mining.

The computer models can't predict exactly that the climate is going to be in the future, but they can come