Global Warming

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Causes of global Warming

By Manav Aggarwal

Over the past few years scientists have been working on finding about what really has caused Global Warming. They have looked at many natural cycles and conditions, the main cause they blame for this natural hazard is the Greenhouse gases.

One of the first things scientists learned is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Other contributors include methane released from landfills and agriculture (especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals), nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes, and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2.More than 80% of the worldwide energy demand is currently supplied by the fossil fuels coal, oil or gas. It will be impossible to find alternative sources, which could replace fossil fuels in the short or medium term. If we even find any replacement, it will may bring only more further damage to Earth and may last up to 50 years. Even if we try using renewable sources like water and oxygen, they won’t be efficient in terms of their usage. The energy demand is simply too high. Most of the greenhouse gases come from the burning of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production.

Different greenhouse gases have different heat-trapping abilities. Some of them can even trap more heat than CO2. A molecule of methane produces more than 20 times the warming of a molecule of CO2. Nitrous oxide is 300 times more powerful than CO2. This is what has resulted in the warming of Earth over the past few years. It may not sound much but almost 1% of these gases have increases. Other gases, such as chlorofluorocarbons, which have been banned in much of the world because they also destroy the ozone layer. Ozone layer is the layer which protects the Earth from UV rays as well as Meteors.

On Earth, human activities are changing the natural greenhouse. Over the last century the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This happens because the coal or oil burning process combines carbon with oxygen in the air to make CO2. To a lesser extent, the clearing of land for agriculture, industry, and other human activities have increased concentrations of greenhouse gases. This has affected the Earth very much and if it continues it may earth and everything on it a lot. If the usage of these resources is not decreased, there may come a day when the planet may get destroyed.

IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING

By Rahul

The diagram above shows the impacts of global warming. It shows that many animals are getting extinct, some parts of countries are getting under water and the temperature is rising up fast which results in melting of glaciers.

Source:

Global warming is already underway with consequences that must be faced today as well as tomorrow. Evidence of changes to the Earth's physical, chemical and biological processes is now evident on every continent.

To fully appreciate the urgency of climate change, it's important to understand the ways it affects society and the natural environment. Sea levels are rising as ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice because of the rising of temperature. Glaciers are shrinking; record high temperatures and severe rainstorms and droughts are becoming increasingly common. Changes in temperatures and rainfall patterns alter plant and animal behaviour as they cannot survive in the hot surroundings and have significant implications for humans.

The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole, and everywhere in between. Globally, the mercury is already up more than 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius), and even more in sensitive Polar Region. They’re happening right now. Signs are appearing all over, and some of them are surprising. The heat is not only melting glaciers and sea ice, it’s also shifting precipitation patterns and setting animals on the move because the animals cannot survive in the hot surroundings so they are all migrating. For eg. The Aedile penguins in Antarctica, their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years, spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees, some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.

Other effects could happen later this century, if warming continues.

· Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59 centimetres) by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimetres).
Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
Floods and droughts will become more common. Rainfall in Ethiopia, where droughts are already common, could decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years.
Less fresh water will be available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues to melt at its current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people who rely on it for drinking water and electricity. This means that many people can die because of the lack of resources and also some parts of countries can be underwater.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Solutions

Solutions of Global Warming

By Sabina

As humans we have created many machines that have helped us in many ways, but there have been many negative effects on the environment- global warming. A few solutions that you can personally use of this problem are:

1) Your car: Instead of buying a car that is a fuel guzzler, buy a car that has the best fuel economy, it is environment friendly, cheap and it doesn’t use that much fuel with heaps of mileage; this will save your money and will help in slowing down global warming.

2) Using an automatic thermostat Air Conditioner: A thermostat helps in maintaining the temperature of your house; so as soon as you go out of your house it will set your house a temperature you want, for example as soon as you leave the house the temperature should be around 85 F and when you are in the house the temperature would be around 80 F. This will reduce your emissions by 15% and save your money.

3) Upgrade your refrigerator and air conditioner: After every few years more eco-friendly items have been released, but many of us still keep the old fridge and air conditioner because it saves us money from buying a new one. But in fact, as new technologies are developed they are cheaper as the item doesn’t require any fancy and expensive parts to build the item. Also older items give out more emissions compared to new ones. Adding to it is that these items save energy thus we save energy and money.

4) Light bulbs: It might seem weird that lights bulbs make a difference in our energy consumption, but believe it or not it does. New LED lights use 15% of the electricity the pervious bulbs used. If everyone starts using these lights, then the amount of energy used for 10 houses could be used for 30, thus decreasing the production of electricity and leaving a very small carbon footprint.

5) Meat consumption: How could meat consumption affect the environment? As our population increases the amount of meat consumed by the whole world increases and nowadays there is no limit of eating chicken, pork etc. But if we start decreasing your intake of such food, then many animals will not decompose at once and while decomposing the animal give out carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, leading to increase of global warming. As animals decompose they release carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas and if the consumption of meat increases more carbon dioxide will also increase because the more animals will decompose.

6) Reuse, reduce and Recycle: This is taught to everyone when they are in primary school and no one forgets it, but that doesn’t mean that we use it. All of us might say that it is a good thing to practice but most of us do not practice it. So reduce the amount of electricity used, reuse newspapers and recycle anything possible.

7) Making sure everyone is aware: If every one of us knows this we could apply these solutions to the daily world and help our Earth.

8) Renewable Resources: Building dams and using the flow of current to make electricity is a renewable resource, which India is very popular for doing this. Other countries such as Australia use uranium to make electricity, which is a process that pollutes a lot compared to the process of gaining electricity from building dams. Using wind mills can also create more electricity and it doesn’t pollute the environment. Solar panels could be used to heat the water during the winter or you could also use solar power for lighting purposes.

9) Stop Deforestation: There was a study where it was shown that plants and trees decrease the amount emissions by using the greenhouse gases for making their food by the process known as photosynthesis. If we plant more trees it will help us create a better place, pollution free and plant plant more trees (afforestation).

10) Electricity monitor: As they name suggests this monitor, monitors the amount of electricity used and it helps you be aware of the amount of energy you have used and how much you should use making you conscience of the amount you are meant to use.