Greenhouse gases play a vital role in the regulation of the Earth's energy balance. Greenhouse gases are a group of natural compounds such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone that are able to trap heat in the atmosphere, keeping the earth's surface warmer than it would if the compounds were not there. The natural gases are the essential reason of the greenhouse effect. An increase in the amount of gases in the atmosphere enhances the greenhouse effect, creating a global warming and consequently climate change. Climate change is one of the most significant threats facing the world today. However the concern and awareness regarding Green House Gases was not vital until Global Warming and Climate Change occurred affecting every living being in the plant along with our planet itself. Author William Nordhaus of Yale University conducted a consensus on the likelihood of substantial warming over the coming century.
Since 1997 after the first agreement in Kyoto, nations have taken very limited steps to reducing greenhouse gas emission. There are many reasons why greenhouse gasses have increased such as rainforest deforestation which is vital since trees absorb carbon dioxide. With fewer trees more carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere. Usage and burning of fossil fuel, releases greenhouse gases since it burns and emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere or even population growth which contributes to the high supply and demand for food, livestock, land, energy and water. However it is up to leading nations to change their eco-footprints to eliminate the increasing greenhouse gas affect. Author William Nordhaus of Yale University conducted a study which examines alternative outcomes for emissions, clima...
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...w 2 degrees Celsius may not be enough and to potentially aim for staying below 1.5 degrees. However the G8 leaders said to meet the 2-degree goal they would have to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.
The Copenhagen Accord allows global nations to contribute to the goal of having cleaner, safer and cooler living environment and planet. The Copenhagen Accord also requires all parties such as the US, UN, China, India, South Africa, Brazil and other countries to submit their individual emission reduction goals. These records will be classified by the two appendices attached to the agreement: the Annex I Parties and the Non-Annex I parties. The Annex I Parties will require submission on emission reduction objective for 2020. While the Non-Annex I parties will submit their individual plans for specifying their plan to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
from solid or not. He is going to conduct an experiment that will tell him if
The Kyoto Protocol was created to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are affecting Earth. The project is extremely expensive and lacks effectiveness. The protocol may benefit the world in the far future, but it is not worth a country going poor. Also, if tackling the issue involves the cooperation of our entire earth, developing countries should not be excluded. The Kyoto Protocol raises many concerns, and if something is going to impact our economy so greatly, it should not raise any concerns and should be foolproof. In order to demonstrate the lack of effectiveness, the economic consequences must first be discussed.
Antarctic’s ice melt and accelerating sea level rise, the growing number of large wildfires, intense heat wave shocks, severe drought and blizzards, disrupted and decreased food supply, and extreme storm events are increasing to happen in many areas world wide and these are just some of the consequences of global warming. The fossil fuel we burn for energy coal, natural gas, and oil plus the loss of forests due to disforestation, in the southern hemisphere are all contributors for climate change. In the past three decades, every single year was warmer then the previous year and the warmest 12 years were recorded since 1998. We are overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and trapping the heat and recently, the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere reached 400 pmm. Not just environmental issues are rising due to carbon dioxide increase but more and miscellaneous issues are appearing as climate change becomes more severe. For example, regional models and local analyses agree that Mongolia has become noticeably warmer and the climate change effect is damaging their millennial of historic nomadic lifestyle and even came to the peek of extinction. The Mongolian nomadic pastoralists became highly vulnerable to many an unusual climate impacts and extreme temperature fluctuation that have led to inadequate pasture land and loss of enormous number of livestock, often faces hostile environmental conditions that led o entrenched pastoral poverty. This essay focuses on how the climate change impacts the qualitative and quantitative value of indigenous culture and nomadic life style, and how the economy struggles in the magnitudes of massive migration of nomads to urban area while it fails to value t...
Look out your apartment/house window, a car window and what do you see? You see components of our planet, i.e., clouds, paved streets, buildings, patches of grass, rows of corn or soy beans, and business districts as well as temperate forests. And while what you do see is material and simultaneously simple and complex, it still represents a very limited picture of our planet. Unfortunately, there is strong reason to believe that what we don't see warrants our immediate and concerted attention.
Climate change was a topic developed by a Swedish scientist as far back as 1896 due to the combustion of fossil fuel. The first predicted global warming was in 1976. In 1988, the theory was finally acknowledged when the climate became the hottest within the century (Maslin, 2008). The greenhouse effect became a concern and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was founded. Damages from greenhouse gases could include severe climate changes, altered ecosystem, extinction and loss of biodiversity (Shogren, 2004). The Kyoto Protocol was introduced to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The main six chemicals that needed to be reduced were CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6 (Parker & Blodgett, 2010). The goal
Nearly 200 countries have signed the Kyoto Protocol and they must reduce four greenhouse gases, in order to struggle with global warming. There are several perspectives on the effects of global warming on the environment. In this essay, we will consider the impacts and consequences of global warming. In the process, it will be clarified that there are positive and negative impacts of global warming. Ecosystem
Air pollution and greenhouse gases are the reason for the planet as it is today; the reason why we see campaigns flooding the media informing us to ‘switch off’, ‘save the planet’ and ‘turn down the heat’ and the reason why the government is trying to develop a successful scheme, such as the carbon tax scheme, to reduce air pollution caused by major industries. Air pollution and greenhouse gases are the two immediate causes of global warming and climate change. Air pollution occurs when chemicals or particulate matter enter the atmosphere. They can cause damage to living organisms on the planet, as well as destruction to the natural and synthetic environment (Energy Environment.net 2008). Greenhouse gases are gases in the atmosphere that absorb infrared radiation emitted from the earth. They trap infrared radiation in the form of heat, and hence contribute to global warming. Anthropogenic greenhouse gases are a direct result of air pollution. They are the physical gases emitted that cause air pollution. Naturally occurring greenhouse gases also have an influence on the earth’s atmosphere, though it is not as conspicuous as anthropogenic causes. Together, air pollution and greenhouse gases are intensifying climate change and global warming on a world-wide basis.
Countries will aim to keep warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, and for the first time to pursue efforts to limit temperature increases to 1.5 degrees C. The nations involved in COP 21 agreed upon and required that they would all work towards making sure the Earth’s temperature doesn’t rise above 2 degrees Celsius; this degree change is usually agreed upon as being the tipping point to preventing massive effects of climate change. (However, it should be noted that more recent science indicates a change of even 1 degree Celsius could cause major threats and impacts to coastal communities and developing
The commonly debated “greenhouse effect” refers to “the global average temperature increase that has been observed over the last one hundred years or more” (Spencer). President Barack Obama addressed the issue in an effort to highlight its severity, "We have to all shoulder the responsibility for keeping the planet habitable, or we’re going to suffer the consequences – together” (Leader). The earth’s increasing atmospheric and oceanic temperatures result in climate changes due to cumulative amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. As an outcome, researchers around the globe have established that the by-product of burning fossil fuels is the main culprit of the increasing temperatures. Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have significantly increased since 1900, as shown above from a study carried out by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center.
"China Plans to Regulate Some of Its Carbon Emissions for the First Time Ever." Smithsonian. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2014.
The most destructive human contribution to climate change is fossil fuels combustion, which results in the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Increased carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and halocarbons levels in the atmosphere cause an imbalance in the earth’s energy. This is because the gases alter solar radiation and thermal radiation which regulate the earth’s energy. Research indicates that anthropogenic climate change is the cause of the increased global warming over the last fifty years. 57 % of the carbon dioxide emitted is absorbed into the atmosphere while the rest is absorbed into the oceans. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the most central greenhouse gas that is associated with global warming (Eby, Zickfield, Montenegro, Archer, Meissner, & Weaver,
all the time. The greenhouse effect is a natural process that keeps the earth at temperatures that
Global warming is the gradual rise in temperature and oceans due to recent human activity. This is created by the production of too much carbon dioxide that is released into the earth’s atmosphere. The carbon dioxide, also known as a greenhouse gas, remains in the air trapping heat and gradually warming the planet. Other greenhouse gases such as: methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor also contribute to this slow warming. According to Live Science, The state of these gases being trapped is called the greenhouse effect, which is one of the leading causes of global warming (Lallanillia). All the gases are created differently and have different effects on the earth. As for some greenhouse gases can be in the atmosphere for a short amount of time, other gases can remain in the atmosphere for thousands of
Climate changes occur in our earth's atmosphere due to a buildup of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases can occur naturally as well as a result of human activities. The greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. “Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when solid waste, fossil fuels, and wood are burned.” (2) The gases help to warm the surface of the Earth. Each greenhouse gas absorbs heat differently. If natural gases did not occur, the temperature of the earth would be considerably cooler. “Problems can occur when higher concentrations of greenhouse gases are present in our atmosphere because they have enhanced our earth's heat trapping capability.” (3)
Global warming is one of the most serious issues that the human species face today, yet the majority of the population does not pay attention to it. People are not aware of the dangers and do not care about it much because the main effects will affect the next generation and not themselves. Global warming is happening and it is the reason for changing weather and weather extremes such as earthquakes, floods and wildfires. Global warming is caused by societies lifestyle and these lifestyles destroy the environment and affect the whole world. The use of cars, trains, planes, as well as wasting energy for people’s entertainment has a price; this price is that society is in danger.