Submerged Lands

We have all heard about global warming and the effects it is having on the earth.  People talk about the consequences of our actions and how the planet is affected by our choices and the way we choose to live our lives.  There are so many reasons for global warming and so many solutions, only if we act on it.  If we fail to recognize the dangers, there is no turning back the clock.  We have heard people discuss greenhouse gases and greenhouse effects.  We will discuss this in this article to give you a better understanding of what it means and what we can do to help.

How Does the Greenhouse Effect and the Greenhouse gases lead to Global Warming?  

During the entire process of greenhouse effect, the concentration of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere determines the quantity of energy being added to the atmosphere. However, man through his activities on earth causes the concentration of the greenhouse gases to increase. This means that more energy will be added to the atmosphere. When more energy is added to the atmosphere, the possible outcome is that the earth’s surface temperature will increase quickly. The increase in the earth’s surface temperature is what is known as global warming.

From the above you can understand why greenhouse effect and greenhouse gases are associated to the global warming. In fact they are regarded as the causes of global warming. In a sense, they are the cause of global warming but in another sense they are not. It is man that is causing global warming through his activities.

How do the Activities of Man lead to the Higher Concentration of Greenhouse Gases?

This is a question that should be properly addressed. Many people do not know that they are contributing to the problem of global warming facing the earth today. Though, it seems that it will be difficult for man to avoid these activities because some of them make life easier and enjoyable on earth but they rate can be reduced with caution.

Owing to the industrial revolution, more fossil fuel is being burnt on daily basis. This increase the emission of more of the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.  Some of the agricultural methods applied by some farmers lead to the emission of more methane and nitrous oxide to the atmosphere.

Today, owing to the economic importance of timbers more trees are felled on daily basis. Deforestation increase the amount carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere on daily basis. This is because trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. If a large portion of the world’s forests are cleared as trees are being felled, more carbon dioxide will be released to the atmosphere.

Other human factors which can lead either directly or indirectly to the increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases include overpopulation, automotives and others.

Countries like Britain have enjoyed a much milder climate thanks to the Gulf Stream current. It has a profound effect on British climate and many believe the harsher winters experienced over the last two years are already a sign that the current’s temperature has already undergone a cooling process.

North of the equator the monsoon rains are essential for countries like India, which depends on the rains for its crops, animals and people. A change in climate could either see excessive rain fall flooding the countries in the monsoon’s path or a reclining rain fall, causing widespread draught, resulting in death of livestock and human starvation.

What can we do to Reduce Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere?

Reducing the individual carbon footprint is not that difficult: We can do so by cutting down energy consumption such as walking instead of using cars for short journeys, recycling and cutting down on unnecessary packaging, using energy efficient light bulbs and electrical appliances. We can also cut down on red meat consumption especially since it has been clinically proven red meat is one of the factors responsible for bowel cancer.

Putting a stop to deforestation and increasing the planting of trees worldwide is another method to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, but there are also factors such as more heat insulation efficiency of housing stock and better manure management. In Germany for example the humble cow dung is being turned into methane gas which lights up homes providing electricity for small communities. More than 90% of all Germans recycle their waste and energy efficient house building has long been part of the construction methods used for new housing stock. Introduction of solar panels and better methods of water heating will also be required to wean us off fossil fuels.

For those people who cannot be without their beloved car, choosing more energy efficient cars, perhaps electric cars will be the solution. More needs to be done to improve public transport and to make it more affordable to encourage more people to take the bus or underground train to work.

Recycling also helps to cut down on greenhouse gas emission from landfill sites. There are a number of technological advances which will allow us to produce negative emissions of greenhouse gases, namely those which remove CO2 from the air.

Cutting down on greenhouse gases is a major issue but it will only be solved if people living in developed countries will start making some sacrifices, such as American’s learning to walk instead of using the car for absolutely everything, Britain must learn to recycle and developing countries should not follow bad examples of former days. China in particular has been the major producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the last decade. More must be done to hold countries to account for their recklessness and inability to introduce more control on industry’s CO2 emissions.

The heat from the sun does not get to the earth directly.  The rays from the sun are deflected before they get to the earth by the out atmosphere and they diffused into the space. However, there is some portion that gets to the earth surface. But they are reflected back to the atmosphere again in the form of energy known as infrared radiation. But as we all know, life on earth will become moribund without the energy from the sun. The greenhouse gases like water vapor, ozone, methane, carbon dioxide take up these radiations thereby preventing them from escaping from the earth.  The above process is what it is referred to as greenhouse effect by the scientists.

This process is very essential for life on earth not to become moribund. The earth would have become excessively cold thanks to this process. It has been postulated by scientists that the temperature of the earth would have fallen to 30^o Celsius and this temperature is too low for life to move on in this our ecosystem. However, greenhouse effect turns out to be problematic to man owing to the activities of man. Greenhouse effect is a natural process but man through his activities has altered the natural process by causing the release of more quantity of these greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Owing to the consumption of more quantity of fossil fuel by man, deforestation and others, the atmosphere is becoming unduly warmer. This leads to global warming.

Climate Models

Climate models refer to the computer system developed by the scientists that can imitate climate system. With these climate models scientists are able to explain more the causes and effects of the global warming on earth and its inhabitants. They also help them to postulate the future effect of global warming on man and other animals. The effect of global warming on ocean and marine life can also be determined through these climate models.

Feedback

Feedback refers to other secondary changes brought about global warming. The alteration in the temperature of the earth surface as a result of overexposure to the heat of the sun has other changes that it sparks off. One of the changes that global warming brought about is the melting of sea ice. Sea ice prevents the sea from being warmed up unduly. But when the ice melts away, the see will definitely become warm. This has dangerous effect on the marine lives. Each marine life has certain temperature that suits it in the sea. Those marine lives that prefer cold region of the sea will suffer the consequences of this process. They will be displaced from their natural habitat. Some will migrate far to cooler region of the sea. Some will adapt and some that cannot cope will simply die off. There are other feedbacks like cloud and water vapor.

Mitigation of Climate Change

The term mitigation of climate change is self-explanatory. It refers to the activities carried out in order to lessen the effect of climate change in the future. In the line with the above any action that helps to reduce the release of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere can be called mitigation.

How much a greenhouse gas contributes to the greenhouse effect depends on its own characteristic and its abundance in the atmosphere. Methane gas is nearly 80 times stronger than CO2, but because it exists in far smaller concentration in our atmosphere its total effect is smaller. Having said that, recently methane gas has come under scrutiny, when it was discovered that our obsession with red meat has added a great deal to increased levels of methane gas being present in the atmosphere.

Cows munching on grasses across vast expanses in South America for example spend a great deal of their spare time letting off “steam” – or releasing gas to be more precise. These gentle creatures have unwittingly caused an increase of the greenhouse effect on our planet’s atmosphere and temperature. The huge increase in cattle farming across many regions of the world has led not only to deforestation as land was cleared for grazing, it led to increases in the greenhouse effect on two fronts, namely less absorption by trees of CO2 gas and therefore an increased level of CO2 in our atmosphere together with an increased level of methane gas caused by cows’ digestive processes.

Water vapours (H2O) have a 36 – 72% contribution to the greenhouse effect, followed by 9 – 26% CO2, 4 – 9% methane gas and 3 – 7% of ozone. Volcanic activity can raise the CO2 levels dramatically, while plant coverage of our planet can reduce the levels of CO2 just as dramatically.

Dangers of Global Warming

Greenhouse gas emissions continue to be a headache to politicians and scientists around the globe, who do not seem to be able to agree on any practical solution to the problems our planet faces. Climate change and global warming is already occurring and the ice caps at Earth’s pole are beginning to melt.

This will eventually result in rising water levels with whole coastlines disappearing, loss of fresh water sources, cooling down of major currents in our oceans (such as the Gulf Stream for example, responsible for the milder climate in Northern Europe), freak weather conditions such as the excessive rain fall seen in Australia and the masses of snow last year in Britain and Germany. Industry across the globe will be affected, so will agriculture, as freak weather conditions and draughts will wipe out crops and widespread starvation will follow.

What can we do to Halt this Devastation?

Reforestation around the globe is an absolute priority along with halting the destruction of wetlands, ancient woodland and meadows. Deforestation is responsible for up to one third of total CO2 increases, as remaining forests cannot offset the CO2 emissions we produce by fossil fuel burning. Our reluctance to reduce our energy consumption and our craving for motor cars has cost us dearly. The increase in temperature causes greater cloud cover, which means a greater contribution of water vapours to our greenhouse gas effect.

Consuming less meat and reducing the amount of land given over to grazing is another way to reduce greenhouse gas effects, as fewer cows produce less methane gas emissions. Sewage treatment needs to improve across the globe and we must find different ways to refrigerate as the gases used for cooling systems are also harmful.

Pollution levels of air and oceans must be reduced by at least 50% over the next decade if not sooner.