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... to be correct." I think this is very foolish considering that the earth will naturally warm up again, and when it does that it will warm up a little more than it was before. But what I think Dr. Landscheidt is are saying is that it does not need to be dealt with so fast because the planet will cool down more. So we can do it slower and spend less money on it. But we do not know if the greenhouse effect will overpower the natural effects.
Unfortunately, this scenario of normal raise in temperature might not be the case. If it isn't, scientists estimate that the global temperature will rise between five and nine degrees by the middle of the 21 st century accompanied by a sea-level rise of one to four feet. Once the temperature reaches a certain threshold, the polar ice caps will began to melt. While those living in the Arctic may find that a nice surprise, the implications for the rest of the world are serious. Even a partial melting of the polar ice caps will cause sea levels to rise so much as to completely wipe out most coastal cities. This includes such big cities such as San Francisco and New York.
Those cities that are not totally wiped out by the water will eventually be hit with hurricanes much more severe than any other one in history. Of course, inland cities are not safe either. Rather than surging seawater's and hurricanes, they will face drought. So what can be done in order to keep all of that from happening?
We need to stop putting so much pollution into the air. No matter what, there will always be carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. If we could just limit all the coal and fossil fuels that we burn, there will not be as much "greenhouse gases" created and it would keep greenhouse effect disasters from happening so quickly. Coal and fossil fuels are not the only culprits, we need to cut down on household carbon dioxide emissions. McManus and Melanie Radzicki (OCT/NOV 2000 p 1) say that "One household is already taking a stand." This family is the Foley family. They also say that: Carbon dioxide is considered the primary cause of global warming, and is released in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels such as coal or gasoline.
The average American household produces 23, 000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year from the use of electricity, natural gas, heating oil, propane and wood according to figures from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a Colorado-based environmental research group. Another 21, 000 pounds is produced annually from the average households 1. 8 automobiles. The Foley's have made a extraordinary goal of cutting their net household carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2001. Which is not to far off. But at the time this article was written the Foley's had already slashed their carbon dioxide emissions by about 66 percent. They cut it down to an estimated 14, 000 pounds from the 42, 600 pounds they once produced.
They also say that it is really not that hard to do. But to do something like that it takes pure dedication to what you are doing. Which most people are not willing to do because of the average person life style. But you still can make a difference by cutting down on driving and on other household things that produce carbon dioxide. CMDL Chemist Stephen Montzkas' latest review shows that in 1994 the ozone-depleting compounds in the lower atmosphere fell by about 3 percent.
The biggest problem gas that is being released into that atmosphere at this time is CFC- 12. CFC- 12 is sometime referred to as the "sleeping Giant." CFC- 12 has an average lifetime in the atmosphere of 100 to 110 years. So in other words this gas is going to creep up on us. At least that is the way most feel that are well educated in this area. There is another problem gas this one is called halon- 1211, emissions of this gas have not eased, even though production was supposed to have ceased in developed countries in 1994. The main reason why these gases still show up as readily as they used to is because they both lie in unused "banks" of equipment whose slow leakage could sustain a relatively high level of emission for as many as 12 more years.
This still occurs even though the production has almost stopped. There is really nothing we can do about that either because there is not any way of getting rid of these gases that don't harm the environment. I think that is a really big problem. Now, lets look at another chemical that does just as much damage as chlorine. This chemical does up to 30 to 50 times more damage than chlorine to the atmosphere.
This chemical is bromine. The bromine is still in wide use. It is used as a fire-fighting compound. I find this really ironic because we are trying to save our environment by dumping the chemical on the forest fires, but we are actually doing much more damage to the ozone. Just picture the amount of bromine being dumped at one time.
It is hundreds of pounds each time they dump a load. This does a significant amount a damage to the ozone. Therefore, it is contributing to the occurrence of forest fires because along with global warming comes warmer dryer periods of time. These droughts will make for more severe fires. I also find that really ironic. Bromine is used in the place of chlorine more and more these days.
It is replacing chlorine because it is not as harmful to us. For example bromine is being used in pool and hot tubs instead of chlorine because it's not as bad for us. I can say my family is even at fault for this one, we use bromine in our hot tub. But our hot tub is a more efficient one. It does not use very many chemicals, it uses about as much as the average hot tub. But I can tell you that we still use a fair amount of bromine.
I think that fact that humanity is switching the use of chlorine for bromine shows the more selfish side of the human race. Methane is also one of the gases that pays a role in global warming. Methane is a natural gas. It is the second-biggest player after carbon dioxide. Methane traps the heat itself in the atmosphere. 10 percent of the methane gas that is emitted into the atmosphere gets into the stratosphere, which is the second lowest layer in the atmosphere.
In the stratosphere the methane is oxidized into water vapor - another powerful heat-trapping gas. There are many places that the methane comes from. Landfills, rice paddies and cattle farms give off methane. These are just a few of the locations that you will find that give off a lot of methane.
Methane is really not that hard to catch and burn off, so this would be an easier area to solve. Now that we know what global warming is and how it works, let's try to see what is being done about it. First off you need to know what the government thinks about global warming. So what do they think? They really do not know what to think.
Roy W. Spencer, a senior scientist for climate studies with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (10 / 17 / 00 p. 1) said "There is more uncertainty [among scientists] about the magnitude of future global warming than the public has been led to believe by the media. There is a lot of uncertainty. " The Leipzig Declaration has raised a serious doubt about global warming and advising against imposing costly restrictions on oil, gas and coal use to fight the problem. There have also been many other attempts by the United States Presidents' Administrations in order to help slow down the effect. Now that you have read my paper I hope you agree with me. Because I am certain that global warming is our reality!
Now that you know that I am more on the side of the greenhouse theory. I think that global warming is definitely a fact that has to be dealt with in the right way. I feel the right way is to try to restrict the gases and the chemicals that are causing global warming even more than they already are. I know this is not fair to many companies ECT. But global warming is more serious than most people realize. They don't realize how much global warming could affect their lives in the future.
They may not be able to spend extended periods of time outside and many other things because of UV Radiation. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Carbon Dioxide Emissions Polar Ice Caps
