The Fight Against Global Warming
Uploaded by spootyhead on Mar 20, 2007
The Fight Against Global Warming
Imagine that all the coastal areas in the world were completely submerged in water and the national parks and rangelands of the world were nothing but barren disasters. This scenario will become a reality if global warming continues to occur. Ecosystems will be severely damaged due to the change in weather it causes. Studies show that the change in weather can also spread contagious diseases that are carried by mosquitoes and other virus carrying animal that dwell in warm areas. The cause of this? The rising amount of heat trapping air pollutants, more specifically, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane. If the effects of global warming continue it will prove to be disastrous.
Global warming is a fairly newly discovered problem, considering it will take decades to accurately measure the effects of it. Over the last century the average land surface temperature has risen .8-1.0°F. The cause of global warming is known as the “Greenhouse Effect”. The greenhouse effect is when the air pollutants prevent the suns energy from escaping back into outer space, thus creating the greenhouse effect. Each year people put six billion tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air. 32 percent of carbon dioxide comes from cars and other forms of transportation. Carbon dioxide doubled the beginning of the pre-industrial revolution era to the end of the 21st century.
The International panel on climate change has concluded that the surge in greenhouse gases will cause the fastest rate of warming to occur in the past 10,000 years. Other organizations have predicted that the level of arid deserts will increase and the amount of forests will decrease dramatically over the next 100 years. One less prominent but more threatening type of gas are the chlorofluorocarbons. They cause the ozone layer that shields the earth from the harmful rays of the sun to become thinner. Damage to the ozone layer has been so great that a hole in the ozone appears over the Antarctic each year. Chlorofluorocarbons are also believed to have a part in global warming.
Recent studies have shown that there is likely to be an overall trend towards increased precipitation, evaporation, more intense rainstorms and drier soils. Changing regional climate could alter forests crop...