Instructor Mohd Muzhafar Idrus
Writing Gold A2
17 April 2010
Global Warming
Global Warming is one of the most important environmental problems throughout the world. What is Global Warming? Why people are worried about this environmental issue? Global Warming in different words is an increase in the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. The earth’s atmosphere becomes warmer than before. The research proved that human activities are the main reason of the problem of global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its report in January 2001, states that "there is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities". Greenhouse gases and deforestation are considered as the main causes of global warming. As result of global warming, we have a higher ice melting rate in the frozen areas and change in climate such as having higher temperature in some areas.(http://www.ipcc.ch/)
The main cause of global warming is greenhouse gases. What are greenhouse gases? It is a mix of gases present in the atmosphere that absorb heat from the sun to warm the earth. The main Greenhouse gases in the earth atmosphere are: Water Vapor, Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O). However, human activities increased the concentration of carbon dioxide and other Greenhouse gases. Plants power, Auto Mobiles and Air planes all use fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels increases the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Methane also has an effect 20 times more than carbon dioxide. Methane gas is release during the processing and preparation of fossil fuels. Nitrous oxide is naturally found in the atmosphere because of the chemical reactions that occur with sunlight. Some of the most common nitrous oxide sources like agricultural fertilizers, nylon, catalytic converters, nitric acid, and the burning of organic matter are man-made.
Deforestation is another common cause of Global Warming. Deforestation according to NASA, “besides, human caused carbon dioxide emissions released to the environment, deforestation actually now is the second most prolific cause of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere”. Deforestation is the source to 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions released to the atmosphere. Around 33 million acres of trees are cut and burned each year. Deforestation bad side is raising the carbon dioxide by cutting trees. That doubles the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The plants and trees by its nature absorbed the carbon dioxide and produce clean, pure and breathable oxygen as free to our environment. Therefore, the amount of carbon dioxide will just accumulate more and more in atmosphere by time. (http://www.nasa.gov/)
Greenhouse and Deforestation are the causes which concern the world nowadays. That’s all because of dangerous effects to our environments and life’s. There are different effects caused by Global Warming such as melting of frozen areas and change in climate.
Melting of frozen areas such as, North Pole and South Pole is the main effect from the increase in temperature, it will raise sea levels. There are around 5,773,000 cubic miles of water in glaciers, permanent snow and ice caps. According to National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), “if all frozen area melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet”. Global Warming will increase if the frozen areas are gone. The frozen areas are white, and reflect sunlight, cooling the earth and most of the sunlight is reflected back to space. If the frozen area melts, the only reflector for sunlight is the ocean. Dark colors absorb sunlight and warm the earth. (http://www.nsidc.org/)
Melting of frozen areas such as, North Pole and South Pole is the main effect from the increase in temperature, it will raise sea levels. There are around 5,773,000 cubic miles of water in glaciers, permanent snow and ice caps. According to National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), “if all frozen area melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet”. Global Warming will increase if the frozen areas are gone. The frozen areas are white, and reflect sunlight, cooling the earth and most of the sunlight is reflected back to space. If the frozen area melts, the only reflector for sunlight is the ocean. Dark colors absorb sunlight and warm the earth. (http://www.nsidc.org/)
The second main effect of Global Warming is Change in climate. Change in climate lead to dangerous effects. When the climate changes, there will be deadly storms like the Katrina hurricane and this change will affect agriculture. New crops will be able to be grown in areas that are currently too cold or too hot to support them. However, more diseases may substitute any benefits higher temperatures may have. Water resources will also be affected. Some reservoirs may dry if temperature increases, especially if rainfall also decreases or maybe the change lead to heavier rainfall causing flooding in some areas. Change in climate will effects human health, there will be more allergy attacks because the pollen season become longer and more deaths because of heat waves. More diseases will start to appear, since raise in number for some animals which carry these diseases. For example, Mosquitoes will raise the number of people who have Malaria. These animals discussed earlier will travel from their environment to new areas.
In conclusion, we must control the concentration of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide to prevent the increasing of the temperature by decreasing the using of fossil fuel. Also we need to grow more trees and plants, and reduce the process of cutting and burning trees.
Work-Cited
www.planetsave.comwww.timeforchange.org
www.wikipedia.org
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com
www.encyclopedia.com
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