'Global Warming: Causes, Consequences, Solutions Essay\r'

'Since the early days of the nursery debate, scientists impart been affaired in the impacts of orbicular warm. In the linked States, the surroundingsal Protection Agency has initiated a spaciotemporal on the impacts of climate reposition for the country. The habitual’s join ond charge to much(prenominal) problem is non any much surprising as it threatens every fauna with potentially devastating consequences, which has put international melting in the lime light (Silverstein et. al. , 2003p. 5; Fankha rehearse upr, 1995 p.\r\n16). Neverthe little, attempts at a monetary quantification of these impacts †despite being unsullied application of environmental economics †afford started to release merely if recently (Fankhauser, 1995 p. 16). Many scientists believe that our planet has been experiencing a heat cut over the fit 200 years- and that our activities argon responsible for this international change. It started with the industrial revolut ion, around 1750 (Silverstein et. al. , 2003p. 5; Kursunoglu et. al. , 2001 p. 151).\r\nPeople began to use machines in more and more aras of life and daily functioning, from heating, to building, and manufacturing, to transportation. The machines were supply by burn mark fuels, much(prenominal) as wood, coal, oil, and innate(p) gas (Fankhauser, 1995 p. 16; Silverstein et. al. , 2003p. 5). If these fuels burn, they emit cytosine dioxide and separate waste products into the line, which is the forge of pass around that covers our planet (Silverstein et. al. , 2003p. 5). dodo fuels generate about 85% of the world’s energy, sustaining the world’s standard-of-living and providing the power for transportation.\r\nThese fuels ar inexpensive, transportable, safe, and comparatively abundant. At the same time, their use contributes to problems such as air quality and acid rain that ar being addressed through various subordination efforts and to the problem of orbiculate warming, which is at once being considered by governments of the world (Kursunoglu et. al. , 2001 p. 151). Scope and Limitation The athletic field involves generally the field of studys of orbiculate warming in terms of its cause, consequences and solutions implicated.\r\nThe theatre shall incorporate various theoretical explanations in coiffe to address the subject criteria of the problem obligate. The scope of the study shall coincide principally on the environmental issue of global warming. Mainly, the study shall scrutinize the details of the check out of related literature patterned to the elementary components imposed in the latter of the studies. Analysis and interpretation of entropy stick out shall involve clear and accurate motion-picture show of the study utilizing the present and gathitherd selective information of the brushup of literatures.\r\nThe following shall be the objectives of the study in this explore paper: a. To be able to critica lly collapse the primary components imposed in the study, particularly the presenting phenomenon and the cause-effect relationships of global warming b. To be able to provide essential data analytic thinking and implication utilizing mainly the references, data gathered in review of literature and the analysis of latter studies proposed in stray to provide primary depiction of the actual status of the environment in terms of global warming. Review of Related literary works\r\n international Warming: Overview The basic principle of global warming fag be understood by considering the radiation energy from the Sun that warms the man’s appear and the thermic radiation from the Earth and the atm that is radiated out to space. On average, these dickens radiation streams mustiness be balance. If the balance is disturbed, it can be restored by an increase in the Earth’s surface temperature (Houghton, 2004 p. 14). The gases nitrogen and oxygen that make up0 the bulk of the gentle wind neither absorb nor emit thermal radiation.\r\nIt is the piddle vapor, ampere-second dioxide, and well-nigh other minor gases present in the atmosphere in much littler quantities that absorb some of the thermal radiation and do the difference of 21 degrees Celsius or so betwixt the actual average surface temperatures on the Earth of about 15 degrees Celsius. such(prenominal) blanketing condition is know as the natural greenhouse effects and the gases argon cognise as greenhouse gases (Houghton, 2004 p. 16). The greenhouse gases be those gases in the atmosphere which, by absorbing thermal radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, encounter blanketing effect upon it.\r\nThe constraining important of the greenhouse gases is wet vapor, but its amount in the atmosphere is non changing directly because of human activities. The important greenhouse gases that are directly influenced by human activities are snow dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, the c hlorofluorocenturys (CFCs) and ozone (Houghton, 2004 p. 28). Normally, light speed dioxide is present in the atmosphere in bittie amounts-just enough to forestall temperatures on Earth at a at ease range for our planet’s living things. The burning fuels, however, has been increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (Houghton, 2004 p. 28; Silverstein et.\r\nal. , 2003p. 5). So far, global warming has not been substantial, increasing the average temperature of Earth by scarce about 0. 6 degrees Celsius in the last century. This change is so small that some scientists argue that it is just a natural fluctuation and not a trend. Other scientists state that there is a outstanding deal of evidence to support global warming: Summers are getting hotter and winters are getting milder, glaciers are melting, and sea levels are rising, but these signs are only the initial phase of global warming phenomena. The warming trend is expected to speed up and advance even gr eater effects (Silverstein et.\r\nal. , 2003 p. 6). Warming did not occur evenly around the world, and some scientists wondered whether the changes in observed temperature might simply be a result of the growth of cities near weather stations. urban areas form heat islands; pavement and rooftops absorb more heat than soils and plant leaves, so cities have warmed climates than rural areas. Climatologists admit they do not richly understand Earth’s climate system. For decades, however, they have agreed that signs of global warming would be most not folderolable in c aged regions (Pringle, 2001 p. 17; Silverstein et. al.\r\n, 2003 p. 6) †particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, because it holds less heat-absorbing oceanic water than the Southern Hemisphere. Scientists have predicted that areas such as Alaska, Canada, and Northern Russia would harm more than Earth as a whole (Pringle, 2001 p. 17). Historical Overview: Development of Agencies and Organizations It has been known for about 175 years that the presence in the atmosphere of â€Å"greenhouse gases” such as carbon dioxide that absorb in the infrared part of the spectrum leads to a warming of the Earth’s surface through the greenhouse effects.\r\nThe first quantitative calculations were make by the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius in 1896. In the 1960s, Charles Keeling and his colleagues began a steady series of accurate observations of atmospheric carbon dioxide constriction from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. such(prenominal) studies showed increasing determine as a result of human activities, mainly the burning of fossil fuels (Hester and Harrison, 2002 p. 1; (Fankhauser, 1995 p. 16).\r\nBy the 1980s, as the rate of increase of carbon dioxide concentration became larger, the thinkable impact on the global climate became a matter of concern to politicians as well as scientists. The report of a scientific meeting held at Villach, Austria in 1985 under the auspices of the Scientific commissioning on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) began to bump officious governments and the public at large to the potential seriousness of the issue.\r\nEstimates were made that the carbon dioxide concentration could double onward the end of the 21st century. In 1896, three multinational agencies, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the get together Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the ICSU, who had co-sponsored the Villach conference, formed the Advisory Group of nursery Gases (AGGG), a small international committee with responsibility for asserting the available scientific information about the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the potential impact (Hester and Harrison, 2002 p. 1).\r\nAfter the assembly of these well-known organizations, and formations of small groups, such as the AGGG, discoveries and widely assessments have been made regarding the issues of global warming. Private and public sectors in the United States and Europe have gathered (Fankhauser, 1995 p. 27), including those from other nations such as Japan, South Korea, etc. , in order assess possible etiologies, evaluate impending causes and provide critical support-based solutions (Hester and Harrison, 2002 p. 1). Measurements of Global Warming Even a few years ago, the acceptance of global warming was not as widespread as it is today.\r\nGlobal warming is difficult to prove as temperature records do no go back very far. Furthermore, the old records are primarily land based, are not representative of large areas of the world, are mostly from urban areas, and are not always collected with precision. real records, however, were collated, processed and standardized by P. D Jones and T. M. L Wrigley (1990), and their formulation of standardized data indicates a unwilling warming trend since the last century with passing(a) periods of cooling (Hester and Harrison, 2002 p.\ r\n1; Gupta, 1998 p. 86). The deviations from the general trend whitethorn occur due to three reasons: sunspot cycles; volcanic eruptions producing large quantities of fine ash in the air; the occurrence of El Nino Southern Oscillation. Correcting for all such factors, Jones and Wrigley estimated that the earth has become 0. 5 degrees yard fastball since the 1880s (Gupta, 1998 p. 86). Evidence of global warming too come from other solutions. In recent years, glaciers on mountains, particularly tropical mountains, have melted swift than before.\r\nThe temperature of the top hundred metres of sea water off the coast of California shows an increase of 0. 8 degrees Kelvin over the last forty years. The data from the ice cores of Antarctica as well as indicate a warming trend (Fankhauser, 1995 p. 16; Gupta, 1998 p. 86). These cores through the ice indicate snowfalls of hail of years in sequence, which later has turned into ice. As this happens, tiny air bubbles trapped in the ice, and these bubbles can be investigated to determine the composition of the air at the time of the snowfall and also the temperature.\r\nThe latter is hardened by examining the ration of the two oxygen isotopes, 16O and 18O 9 (Fankhauser, 1995 p. 16; Gupta, 1998 p. 86; Houghton, 2004 p. 28). The ratios reflect the ambient global temperature. A number of very hot years, in fact eight of the hottest on record, happened between 1980 and 1992. aside from indicating the trend, this put global warming in public’s attention. Etiologies of Global Warming Currently, there are three theories about the cause of global warming; however, most of the scientists believe that the cause is an increase of greenhouse gases.\r\nSvante Arrhenius of Sweden in 1895 demonstrated the linkage between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and temperature (Gupta,1998 p. 86). Carbon dioxide is the old etiology involved in global warming causation. In fact, without any carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the ear th would be much colder place to live. The global mean temperature would be below 0 degrees Celsius instead of being close to a comfortable 14 degrees Celsius. Most carbon dioxide comes from the decomposition of dead plants and animals, and the respiration of living animals, including humans, and plants.\r\nFor thousands of years, there has been no problem with this because the oceans absorbed much of this carbon dioxide; hence, taking it out of the atmosphere. In addition, plants carrying on photosynthesis also absorbed a great deal of the atmospheric carbon dioxide (Tomera, 2001 p. 113; Gupta,1998 p. 86). However, with the advent of modernization, auto engines, power plants, industrial mills, and home and business heating systems burn coal, oil, or natural gas (Gupta, 1998 p. 86; Houghton, 2004 p. 28; Tomera, 2001 p. 113).\r\nSuch accounts for 98% of the carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere, while the other 2% id due to the increased deforestation and mining (Tomera, 2001 p. 113 ). another(prenominal) theoretical issue imposed is in the use of fossil fuels and burning materials that release CFCs. The first relatively successful calculation of how much the human use of fossil fuel could warm the planet create in a paper 1896 by Arrhenius. With the conceptual framework of carbon dioxide as the primary source of global warming, various theoretical concepts have formed. In the late 1930s, G. S.\r\nCallendar, an English chemist, argued that human activities were causing an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and that this might have already started global warming. Despite Callendar’s concern, and although the scientific community has known about the pot4ential of human-induced warming to effect the earth’s temperature since the early 19th century (Tomera, 2001 p. 113; Brown, 2002 p. 14), global warming received little attention from the scientific community during the first half of the ordinal century, which centered mainly on human causatio ns of carbon dioxide increase (Brown, 2002 p.\r\n14). In 1957, two scientists with the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Roger Revelle and Hans Suess, run aground that much of the carbon dioxide emitted to the earth’s atmosphere is not absorbed by the oceans, as some had assumed, leaving significant amounts in the atmosphere that could ultimately warm the earth (Brown, 2002 p. 14). With the current advent of environmental discovery and climatic technological advancements, there are now environmental impacts of the chemical substitutes that are now being developed by industry.\r\nThese factors all into two main groups: hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which have limited ozone depleting potential, and HCFCs, which have no ozone depleting potential. Unfortunately, both groups of chemicals are greenhouse gases, both groups of chemicals are greenhouse gases, not as powerful as the fully halogenated CFCs but nonetheless significant (Marks and Plewig, p. 13). Such causation has been linked to the issue of ozone depletion wherein HCFCs are the prime depletors, and the end outcome contributes to the global warming.\r\nSince the stratospheric ozone or ozone layer is almost depleted by stratospheric chlorine, which depends on, for example, CFC emissions. CFCs are greenhouse gases, which account for approximately 25% of the global warming effect. Freon 11 is given a global warming potential of 1, which indicates the characteristics of a major contributor. Because of the dangers proposed by CFC use, there is great commercial interest in replacing such materials with substances, which have less ozone depletion potential (Whelan, 1994p. 73).\r\n'