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Global Warming Debate The global warming is caused by emissions of over 20 gases into the atmosphere. The major contributors are carbon dioxide (CO 2), ozone, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Although these gases are produced by many industrial processes, the major source is the burning of fossil fuels in boilers, furnaces and automobile engines. When released into the air in large quantities, these gases cause the earths atmosphere to warm by trapping the suns heat. Infrared radiation that would normally be reflected back into space hovers in the atmosphere, like thick blanket over the earth.
Author Brian Hanwerk of National Geographic News maintains that the arctic is melting fast. Studies are now being done on the Arctic climate. The 300 scientists involved here used climate models and made moderate estimates of future emissions of carbon dioxide. It is a revelation that the Alaska, western Canada and eastern Russia average temperatures that have already increased considerably. And then in the next hundred years, temperatures will rise to 7 to 13 degrees Fahrenheit. This spells disaster in terms of the health of people and challenge the survival of some cultures. (Warming to Cause Catastrophic Rise in Sea Level? ).
Scientists claim that "Sea ice is retreating, glaciers are reducing in size, permafrost is thawing, all [these indicators] provide strong evidence that it has been warming rapidly in the Arctic in recent decades. " This means that climate will be changed globally (Warming to Cause Catastrophic Rise in Sea Level? ). The solution: Slow climate change. When: as soon as possible. However, people seem to be oblivious to the problem even if the Arctic is already showing signs for people to be alarmed. (Warming to Cause Catastrophic Rise in Sea Level? ). Similarly, author Stefan Lovgren says that the biggest danger in global warming is caused by sea levels that rise dramatically. The thermal expansion raises oceans to 4 8 inches.
However, scientists still feel that Greenland's massive ice sheet is dangerous if it starts melting. Some scientists have even drawn computer models to show how vulnerable coastal cities are to sea rising. It can submerge and completely wipe out entire cities (Warming to Cause Catastrophic Rise in Sea Level? ). It is appalling to know that the current rate of warning is warming at the fastest rate in millions of years. Meanwhile, a compilation of paleo climate records from lake sediments gives a view of the Arctics environmental variability over the last 400 years. There were retreats of glaciers and melting of permafrost and the warming of the atmosphere.
Indeed the data on the effect of carbon dioxide on the earths atmosphere have several issues that need clarity. Some of Arrhenius calculations were oversimplified. He failed to consider how cloudiness might change if the Earth got a little warmer and more humid. Other experiments such as the effect of water vapor also provided an issue for clarification. It states that water vapor, which is afar more abundant in the air than carbon dioxide, also intercepts infrared radiation. Ina the spectrographs of the time, the bands of the two gases entirely overlapped one another.
It seems that more CO 2 could not affect radiation in bands of the spectrum that water vapor, as well as CO 2 itself, were already blocking entirely. Thus, studies on the effect of carbon dioxide stagnated for decades. There were scientists who claimed that doubling or halving CO 2 would bring s 4 degree Centigrade rise or fall of surface temperature, and thus the carbon dioxide theory of the ice ages is a possible theory. (Hulburt, 1931). Several explanations about the earth regulating itself of the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and other theories evolved. Yet the theory that atmospheric CO 2 variation could change the climate was never altogether forgotten. The persistence of the efforts of and English engineer, Guy Stewart Calendar, proves that over the last hundred years, the concentration of CO 2 had increased by 10 %.
The rise explains the global warming. Callendar's conclusions were clear: Even if the CO 2 in the atmosphere did already absorb all the heat radiation passing through, adding more gas would change the height in the atmosphere where the absorption took place (ibid). Works of Calendar were brushed aside and many other issues about the true behavior of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were discussed. Much of the discoveries now about global warming come from Callendar's courage. His claims rescued the idea of global warming from obscurity. In the 1950 s, some American scientists began informing the public that greenhouse gases might become a problem within the next few centuries.
Men figured that industrial production would climb exponentially, and figured that atmospheric CO 2 would rise some 25 % by the end of the century. As to the effects of air pollution on human health, it was revealed that long-term exposure to low-concentrations of air pollutants are supposed to be subtle (for example, shortening life expectancy by about one year). Thus, laboratory methods are of little help in estimating the dose-response, even though they may be powerful in exploring the underlying physiological mechanisms. The difficulties in being able to estimate the effect of air pollution on mortality must be controlled. It must be concluded that simple models are preferred. Extensive sensitivity analyses and replications are needed if one is to have confidence in the results.
Perhaps the most serious deficiency that one encounters in investigating the air pollution-mortality relationship is that of obtaining adequate air quality data. Air quality measurements from a single sampling station are taken to represent a large geographical area. Very often, faulty equipment is used to take infrequent readings of only a few pollutants. If we are to get better answers in the future to the question of which air pollutants should be abated and by how much, better air quality data are essential. Not only should a wider array of air pollutants be monitored but, where possible, the measurements should also be tailored to what is presently known about the physiological effects of each pollutant. A minimum set of pollutants to be monitored include those that are known to be associated with mortality or other measures of health status.
These include suspended particulates, sulfur dioxide, sulfates, total oxidant, and even nitrogen oxides. There are also a number of pollutants that appear in specific locations and thus should be monitored at those locations. WORKS CITED Arctic Melting Fast: May Swamp US Coasts by 2099. In National Geographic By B. Handwerk. Nov 9, 2004 Accessed 2 May 2006 at: web Arctic Environmental Change of the Last Four Centuries Accessed 2 May 2006 at: web Warming to Cause Catastrophic Rise in Sea Level?
Stefan Lovgren, National Geographic News. Article Accessed 2 May 2006 at: web
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Research essay sample on Rise In Sea Level Atmospheric Co 2
