Greenhouse Gases
Increased greenhouse gases will have a significant effect on the earth in the coming 10-20 years. Greenhouse gases are emitted through a number of activities, including the combustion of fossil fuels and from the flatulence of livestock. The gases rise in the atmosphere and form a layer that traps heat into the lower levels of the atmosphere. The greenhouse effect results in a warming of the surface-level air, which causes an increase in temperature. The greenhouse effect also spurs a feedback loop in which polar ice melts, reducing the ability of the earth to cool itself. Also, when subarctic tundra melts due to the increased temperature, it releases more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, further accelerating the warming.
The melting of the sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic regions is one of the most significant outcomes of increased greenhouse gases. This is already occurring, and the Arctic could experience its first entirely ice-free summer within the next 10-20 years. There are a number of impacts that this will have, from threatening the feeding grounds polar bears thereby putting them at , a rise is seal levels represents an existential threat not only to billions of people but also to significant portions of the infrastructure that we have developed for our world. In addition, warmer Arctic areas are changing the balance of species, with northern species becoming threatened and southern species moving into that territory.
Another significant impact of global warming is an increase in precipitation around the world, on average, and an overall change in most climates. Some areas that are currently prone to dryness will become increasingly dry. In the United States and India, this dryness threatens critical grain-growing regions. Thus, it is felt that food shortages might increase if grain harvests begin to suffer. Some areas of Russia and Canada, however, may…
Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming The modern world, while no doubt has provided us with immense luxuries and facilities, it has also come at a cost that our future generation will have to pay. The modernization of our world has meant that our towns and cities expand more and more, and increasingly greater pressure is being put on our planet; this is true, not only in terms of the demands for
He further protested that exempting many developing countries from the five percent reduction clause would place many American industries at a disadvantage in the world market. For the past decade, the United States government has tried to lower air pollution levels through legislation. Because car emissions are probably the greatest contributor to air pollution, states like California have initiated strict "zero emission vehicle" policies in 1990. Under this mandate, all
There are several models using the scientific method used to measure and support the concept of global warming. Scientists are measuring items that have remained on Earth for millions of years, such as the ice core samples, but they are also measuring tree rings and other living indicators of the Earth's temperature. Scientist Johansen continues, "By 1998, the Earth had sustained 20 consecutive years above the 1961 to 1990 average
According to Knowlton, “we realize now like never before that our human activities affect the biosphere, the environment, and in turn what happens in the environment affects our human health in a very intimately connected way” (Lila Films, 2011). It therefore follows that the continued emission of greenhouse gases does indeed threaten public health both in the short-run and in the long-term. For instance, the emission of greenhouse gases has
Earth's Climate System is a complex system that is influenced by many different factors. The manner in which the climate is maintained, and makes life on Earth possible, is a culmination of the atmospheric conditions and the Earth's energy balance that is determined primarily by energy introduced into the system as well as its ability to trap energy in the greenhouse layer. The Earth resides in the "Goldilocks Zone", or
Risk of on Floodplains Flooding is a natural phenomenon, occurring when the build-up in a body of water leads to a discharge which is greater than containment capacity (Paul and Rashid 13). A floodplain is an area located next to the body of water which is usually dry but prone to flooding when the water levels rise beyond the capacity of the river, stream, or other body of water (OAS
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