Essay on Global Warming - Green House

Effect
Dinayak Shenoy
Essay
The age old proverb, "Everybody talks about weather, but nobody does anything about
it", is not valid in this century. A world-wide study shows that the average temperatures
o the earth has raised by as mush as !." degree #elsius every decade. The rise in
temperature is due to global warming, which has now become an imminent threat.
$ur earth daily absorbs large %uantity o solar energy rom the sun. &ost o this energy is
radiated back to atmosphere by the earth, and this process maintains the balance o heat
an energy on the earth. There are many gases present in the atmosphere, but only carbon
dio'ide and water vapor absorb this inrared radiation o the earth strongly and
eectively block the radiation o energy back to the atmosphere. (owever a considerable
part o it is re-emitted to the earth)s surace and conse%uently the earth)s surace gets
heated up. This increase in temperature o the earth is called the *reen-house eect.
The temperature eects o carbon dio'ide and water vapor combine together to have a
long range impact on the global climate. As the surace temperature increase, the
evaporation o surace water increase, thereby raising the temperature urther. +t is
estimated that this combined eect o rise o temperature will bring about ,! degree
#elsius in surace temperature, i the carbon dio'ide concentration is doubled in the
atmosphere. The most alarming act is that a slight increase in surace temperature say
around - degree #elsius can adversely aect the world ood production. As a result the
wheat growing .ones in the northern latitude will be shited rom /SS0 and #anada to
the northern poles, that means rom the ertile solids to the poor soils. The biological
productivity will also decrease due to warming o the surace layer, which in turn reduces
the transport o nutrients rom deeper layers to the surace by vertical circulation.
#arbon dio'ide gas, although a relatively insigniicant non-pollutant gas in the
atmosphere, is o serious environmental concerns. +t has the potential to be compared
with the nuclear wars in terms o massive irreversible damage to the environment.
+ncrease o carbon-dio'ide gas in the atmosphere is constantly occurring. 1rimarily
through natural causes but mostly by man himsel. 2olcanic eruptions and orest-ire are
some o the natural causes which cannot be checked. 3ut the current global trend in
deorestation, along with increase in carbon dio'ide content. 4orest are the areas where
the green leaves eiciently utili.e carbon-dio'ide to make their on ood. Deorestation
reduces this utili.ation o carbon-dio'ide. #onsumption o ossil uels and house-hold
uels like coal, irewood also gives o considerable amount o carbon-dio'ide.
0ise in global temperatures causes many climatic changes also, but the most drastic
change will be the increase in sea-level. Already, the rise in global temperatures have
resulted in cracks in the Antartic ice shel. &elting o even raction o the volume o
polar ice can result in looding o many low lying areas around the earth. $ther climate
changes include loods, droughts, storms and e'ceptionally warm summers. Europe and
American have already witnessed these changes considerably. The summer o -556
predicted to be the warmest in the century.
1revention is always better than cure. (uman contribution and eorts can certainly
prevent and control this global warming. +t can be best carried out by checking
atmospheric pollution. Deorestation should be stopped. 7ood should be used as little as
possible, because wood maintains vast reservoirs o i'ed but readily o'idi.able carbon.
3ricks houses should be encouraged as they retain less heat. Thus they are well suited to
+ndian climate.
/nnecessary combustion o uel should be checked. +n houses, combustion o uels like
wood, coal, kerosene should be controlled. +nstead 81* stove should be used which
results in greater eiciency in uel, utili.ation and less atmospheric pollution.
Encouraging bio-gas plants in village communities has &ultiood eect. +t decreases the
use o irewood, is less atmospheric pollutant and is a by-production o manure.
Development o more eicient vehicles would also result in less consumption o uel and
thereore less atmospheric pollution.
0enewable sources o energy should be used as it is non-polluting and very eicient.
These renewable sources o energy are solar energy and wind energy. (ydro-electricity is
also o considerable use. 8astly, treatment appliances should be applied on the sources o
green house gases which are carbon dio'ide and methane, so that they may not violate the
atmospheric balance.