Owing to the development of industry and the use of fossil fuels, the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere has produced and the average global temperature seems to have risen. What’s more, deforestation can affect climate changes. The growing of trees and plants can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere because of photosynthesis, however, deforestation lead to carbon dioxide emissions. Both of these can lead to global warming of the atmosphere. The report (UNEPWMO, 2004, P10) also pointed out, the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are altering the composition of the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.
Unfortunately, the activity of burning or combusting fossil fuels releases various kinds of hazardous substances and pollutants which eventually leads to changes in the environment; such as climate change, global warming, and changes in environmental health. Let us start with the change in climate or climate change. For over the past 150 years, the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil have caused the concentrations of heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" to increase significantly in our atmosphere. These gases prevent heat from escaping to space, somewhat like the glass panels of a greenhouse. It would change our climate, but it would not bring us close to the level of uninhabitable Venus.
There is another type of organism that cleans up after the others, and they are called detritivores. Detritivores (or decomposers) use energy from waste or dead organisms, and they complete the cycle by returning nutrients back into the soil or carbon dioxide to the air. The number of trophic levels is limited by the amount of energy available, which is always set. Trophic levels can include tertiary consumers, quaternary consumers, and so on until there is no longer any more energy available for the biggest and neediest consumers. Energy starts from the resource, which would be the sun in almost all cases.
In reality, there is likely to be a subset of the country population which is dependent on charcoal fuel and charcoal consumption rates may differ from the FAO rates. Even in countries where charcoal is regulated and taxed, illegal charcoal production makes governmental figures inaccurate. In Rwanda, Karenzi [1994] found that the charcoal use calculated from ground surveys was much greater than recent energy statistics published by governmental Ministry of Public Works, Water and Energy (MINITRAPE). He found annual charcoal consumption in Rwanda to be 9.1 GJ, compared to the 1.2 GJ determined by MINITRAPE. In Senegal, official harvest levels are often exceeded through the use of special contracts which may increase total charcoal production by 30-100% [Ribot, 1993].
Today, climate change is being driven by the addition of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the earth's atmosphere at rates faster than the planet's normal mechanisms can adjust to. The result is increasing concentrations of these gases in the atmosphere, and because they trap heat, increasing temperatures. This hurts people, animals, and plants. How do we know this? Scientists predict that if the increase in greenhouse gas emissions continues unabated, temperatures will rise by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century, potentially causing dramatic and irreversible changes to the climate.
I will be covering the aspects, causes and effects of Global Warming. There are many definitions of Global Warming. One of these is that “ Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth's temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate.”(EPA) The temperature increase can lead to changes in the average rainfall results, the sea levels can rise, and it may have many impacts on wildlife, plants of humans. The Global Warming is mainly cause by humans. The Green House Effects is one of the main causes of this warming.
Although the issue did not start to gain national attention until the early 2000s, scientists have been studying atmospheric gases and the effect that human consumption of fossil fuels has on the atmosphere and climate since the early nineteenth century (Rich). The overwhelming consensus among scientists today is that the climate is changing drastically and humans are causing it through specific, preventable actions (Rich). Global warming is caused by an increase in greenhouse gases, which, under normal conditions, it (the greenhouse effect) is what makes life sustainable by keeping the earth within a constant range of temperatures (Gore). About 30 percent of the light and the heat of the sun is reflected back into space, either by clouds, or by the earth’s surface (especially ice, which is particularly reflective.) About 20 percent of the light and heat from the sun is
Carbon dioxide concentrations were about five times higher than they are today and the average global temperature was 6 – 8 degrees higher than it is today. The earth’s temperature depends on the balance between energy entering and energy leaving the planet’s system. Electromagnetic radiation enters the planet’s system, and much of it is converted to infrared radiation (heat) which warms our planet, and sunlight is used by plants for photosynthesis. One has to only look at the example of the Moon to see how vital the Earth’s atmosphere is for the existence of life. The Moon has no atmosphere to block some of the sun’s rays in the day or to trap heat at night, and this is why temperatures on the Moon range from -233 degrees Celsius to 123 degrees Celsius at those respective times.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) “estimates that the annual rate of deforestation is about 1.3 million square km per decade, with the main deforestation occurring in the tropics where a wide variety of forest exist”. (“Deforestation”). Forest provide the planet with a wide variety of benefits, one being the absorption of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that in large amounts has a potential to alter the climate of the earth. With the depletion of the forest that converts the carbon dioxide into oxygen it has monumental negative effects on the planet as a whole.
For developing countries, the overall' projected potential was estimated at 400x1018 joule for geothermal energy with the projected capacity in 1990. Efforts are being made to use this energy for generating power and creating refrigeration. Geothermal energy can either be used to produce electricity in power station or can be used directly as primary heat. Advantages: The green house gas emissions of geothermal stations are much less than that of coal burning power stations. In Ohaake in New Zealand about 320 gm of C02 is produced for each KW hour of electricity produced against 950 to 960 gm.