Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
The global average air temperature near the Earth's surface rose 0.74 ±
0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the 100 years ending in 2005. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes "most of the
observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th
century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic
greenhouse gas concentrations" via the greenhouse effect. Natural
phenomena such as solar variation combined with volcanoes probably had a
small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling
effect from 1950 onward. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by at
least 30 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the
national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. While
individual scientists have voiced disagreement with some findings of the
IPCC, the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change
agree with the IPCC's main conclusions.
Increasing global temperature will cause sea level to rise and is expected to
increase the intensity of extreme weather events and to change the amount
and pattern of precipitation. Other effects of global warming include changes
in agricultural yields, trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and
increases in the ranges of disease vectors
Almost 100% of the observed temperature increase over the last 50 years
has been due to the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas
concentrations like water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and ozone.
Greenhouse gases are those gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect
(see below). The largest contributing source of greenhouse gas is the burning
of fossil fuels leading to the emission of carbon dioxide.
When sunlight reaches Earth's surface some is absorbed and warms the
earth and most of the rest is radiated back to the atmosphere at a longer
wavelength than the sun light. Some of these longer wavelengths are
absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before they are lost to
space. The absorption of this longwave radiant energy warms the
atmosphere. These greenhouse gases act like a mirror and reflect back to the
Earth some of the heat energy which would otherwise be lost to space. The
reflecting back of heat energy by the atmosphere is called the "greenhouse
effect".
The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about
36-70% of the greenhouse effect on Earth (not including clouds); carbon
dioxide CO2, which causes 9-26%; methane, which causes 4-9%, and ozone,
which causes 3-7%. It is not possible to state that a certain gas causes a
certain percentage of the greenhouse effect, because the influences of the
various gases are not additive. Other greenhouse gases include, but are not
limited to, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons,
perfluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons.
From which sectors do the major greenhouse gas emissions come from? The lower
part of the picture shows the sources individually for the gases carbon dioxide,
methane and nitrous oxide, respectively.
Global warming caused by greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (see above) act like a mirror and reflect
back to the Earth a part of the heat radiation, which would otherwise be lost
to space. The higher the concentration of green house gases like carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere, the more heat energy is being reflected back to
the Earth. The emission of carbon dioxide into the environment mainly from
burning of fossil fuels (oil, gas, petrol, kerosene, etc.) has been increased
dramatically over the past 50 years, see graph below.
Cause for global warming: Carbon dioxide emissions in million tons per year over the
last 200 years.
Motor vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of air pollution. China,
United States, Russia, Mexico, and Japan are the world leaders in air
pollution emissions; however, Canada is the number two country, ranked per
capita. Principal stationary pollution sources include chemical plants, coal-
fired power plants, oil refineries, petrochemical plants, nuclear waste disposal
activity, incinerators, large livestock farms (dairy cows, pigs, poultry, etc.),
PVC factories, metals production factories, plastics factories, and other heavy
industry.
In the case of noise pollution the dominant source class is the motor vehicle,
producing about ninety percent of all unwanted noise worldwide.
Effects
Ecosystems
• Sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen can cause acid rain which
reduces the pH value of soil.
• Soil can become infertile and unsuitable for plants. This will affect
other organisms in the food web.
• Smog and haze can reduce the amount of sunlight received by plants
to carry out photosynthesis.
• Invasive species can out compete native species and reduce
biodiversity. Invasive plants can contribute debris and biomolecules
(allelopathy) that can alter soil and chemical compositions of an
environment, often reducing native species competitiveness.
• Biomagnification describes a situation where toxins may be pass
through trophic levels, becoming exponentially more concentrated in
the process.
Deforestation is a major setback for the global warming solution approaches
This map shows where deforestation is at its peak in the world with so much focus
on the Amazon Region it is also best to know that some places in Europe, Asia, and
Mexico also contribute.
Deforestation
Environmental issues effect every life on this planet from the smallest
parasite to the human race. The reason for this is simple. A single disruption
in the Earth?s delicate balance can mean certain destruction of the very place
that cradles the lives of many species. What is not so simple is finding
alternatives to the now dangerous and confronting acts of planet degradation
that have been afflicted on the planet over recent years. One such issue that
requires consideration is deforestation. Trees have been or are being cut
down at increasingly high rates. If this is not stopped many unfavorable side
effects could result.
Climate Change
Although all consequences of deforestation are potentially serious, perhaps
the most serious consequence is that of climate change due to the loss of
trees. Earth has an atmosphere which contains a variety of gases, all in a
delicate balance, to ensure life on Earth. One of these gases in Earth?s
atmosphere is carbon dioxide; a gas which helps moderate heat loss to outer
space. Insulating gases such as carbon dioxide are called "greenhouse gasses
because their function is much like that of the glass in a greenhouse: they
allow solar heat into the system, but discourage its escape" (GFF 3). Other
greenhouse gases include methane, chlorofluorocarbons, nitrous oxide, and
ozone. If there are additional greenhouse gases, there will be a gradual
increase in temperature on Earth?s surface. This could lead to changes in
weather patterns, sea levels, and other cycles in nature that directly affect
life on Earth (GFF 3).
The process of greenhouse gas increase is quite simple. Carbon dioxide levels
increase for a number of reasons; but one of the main factors contributing to
the increase of carbon levels is decay of woody material. The only way to
help moderate the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is through
plant life. Alive plants and trees absorb the carbon dioxide from decaying
plants and trees. With a decrease in trees and plant life (due to
deforestation) it is much harder to moderate these levels. Ultimately, the
amount of carbon will increase due to a lack of plant life present to keep the
carbon dioxide levels in check. This whole process leads to an "albedo effect
which reflects more heat and light back into the atmosphere than would be
the case if the sun shone on green trees?" (Dudley 23). The bottom line is
that the increase in the carbon level and other greenhouse gas levels into the
atmosphere leads to an increase in temperature, and eventually a change in
climate and weather.
Conclusion
(1)Forest fires
A wildfire, also known as a wildland fire, forest fire, brush fire, vegetation
fire, grass fire, peat fire, bushfire (in Australasia), or hill fire, is an
uncontrolled fire often occurring in wildlan areas, but which can also
consume houses or agricultural resources. Common causes include lightning,
human carelessness, arson, volcano eruption, and pyroclastic cloud from
active volcano. Heat waves, droughts, and cyclical climate changes such as El
Niño can also have a dramatic effect on the risk of wildfires.
The word "wildfire" was once a synonym for Greek fire as well as a word for
any furious or destructive conflagration. According to the Oxford English
Dictionary, the earliest known usages are specifically for lightning-caused
conflagrations. The modern usage may have arisen in part from people
misunderstanding the expression "spread like wildfire".
Atmospheric effects
Most of the Earth's weather and air pollution reside in the troposphere, the
part of the atmosphere that extends from the surface of the planet to a
height of between 8 and 13 kilometers. A severe thunderstorm or
pyrocumulonimbus in the area of a large wildfire can have its vertical lift
enhanced to boost smoke, soot and other particles as high as the lower
stratosphere (Wang, 2003).
Previously, it was thought that most particles in the stratosphere came from
volcanoes or were generated by high-flying aircraft. Collection of air samples
from the stratosphere in 2003 led to detection of carbon monoxide and other
gases related to combustion at a level 30 times higher than can be accounted
for by commercial aircraft.
(2)Glaciers Melting
The swift retreat of these great ice streams is helping to raise ocean levels
and is threatening significant changes in human, animal, and plant life—some
good, but mostly bad.
Like a canary in a coal mine, the dwindling of the glaciers is visible evidence
that the earth really is getting hotter.
"Receding and wasting glaciers are a chief telltale sign that global climate
change is real and accelerating," said Jeffrey Kargel, a glacier expert with the
U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Most of Earth's 160,000 glaciers have been slowly shrinking and thinning for
more than a century as the climate warms up from both natural causes and
human activity.
But scientists say the melt rate has accelerated dramatically since the mid-
1990s, which was the hottest decade in a thousand years, according to data
from ancient ice cores and tree rings.
A glacier in the Peruvian Andes, Qori Kalis, is losing as much ice in one week
as it used to surrender in a year, according to Lonnie Thompson, a geologist
at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University in Columbus.
"You can literally sit there and watch it retreat," Thompson told a meeting of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
"As the Peruvian ice fields disappear, sources of irrigation and hydroelectric
power will dry up," he said. Other consequences include a more rapid rise in
sea levels, speeding the flooding or even destruction of low-lying islands and
coastal areas.
Glaciers are shrinking not only in area but also in thickness. In Alaska, they
are losing an average of 6 feet (1.8 meters) of thickness a year, Anthony
Arendt, a glaciologist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, reported last
month in the journal Science. That's more than twice the annual rate
observed from the 1950s to the mid-1990s.
By the middle of this century, the Rockies, the Cascades, and Glacier
National Park will have lost almost all their ice, Kargel predicted.
(3)Temperature changes
Sea temperatures increase more slowly than those on land both because of
the larger effective heat capacity of the oceans and because the ocean can
lose heat by evaporation more readily than the land. The Northern
Hemisphere has more land than the Southern Hemisphere, so it warms
faster. The Northern Hemisphere also has extensive areas of seasonal snow
and sea-ice cover subject to the ice-albedo feedback. More greenhouse gases
are emitted in the Northern than Southern Hemisphere, but this does not
contribute to the difference in warming because the major greenhouse gases
persist long enough to mix between hemispheres.
(4)Climatic issues
Ozone depletion, the steady decline in the total amount of ozone in Earth's
stratosphere, is frequently
Prevent Global Warming
(4)Kyoto Protocol
Japan will strive to implement the following measures in the short term to
meet the 6% reduction targets for Japan as stated in the Kyoto Protocol.
No one can turn his face to this challenge and we students are required to
take up the initiative.