What's the cause of global warming?
First of all, let's start by understand what stirs up global warming.
- Almost 100% of the observed temperature increase over the last 50 years has been due to the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas concentrations like...
- water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and ozone.
- The green house effect.
- Greenhouse gases are those gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect.
- The largest contributing source of greenhouse gas is the burning of fossil fuels leading to the emission of carbon dioxide.
- When sunlight reaches Earth's surface some is absorbed and warms the earth and most of the rest is radiated back to the atmosphere at a longer wavelength than the sun light.
- Some of these longer wavelengths are absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before they are lost to space.
- The absorption of this long wave radiant energy warms the atmosphere.
- These greenhouse gases act like a mirror and reflect back to the Earth some of the heat energy which would otherwise be lost to space.
- The reflecting back of heat energy by the atmosphere is called the "greenhouse effect".
- water vapor- 36-70% of the greenhouse effect on earth (excluding the clouds)
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) 9-26%
- Methane - 4-9% N lastly...
- Ozone - 3-7%.
Other greenhouse gases include... (but are not limited to)
- nitrous oxide.
- sulfur hexafluoride.
- hydrofluorocarbons.
- perfluorocarbons.
- chlorofluorocarbons.
What does green house effect do to the environment?
- The higher the concentration of green house gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more heat energy is being reflected back to the Earth. (as said in the previous paragraph)
- The emission of carbon dioxide into the environment mainly from burning of:
- fossil fuels which is oil, gas, petrol, kerosene and more.
- It has been increased dramatically over the past 50 years, see graph below.
- The increase of greenhouse gas concentration (mainly carbon dioxide) has led to a substantial warming of the earth and the sea, called global warming.
- In other words: The increase in the man-made emission of greenhouse gases is the cause for global warming. For the effects of global warming see below.
There are two major effects of global warming:
- Increase of temperature on the earth by about 3° to 5° C (5.4° to 9° Fahrenheit) by the year 2100.
- Rise of sea levels by at least 25 meters (82 feet) by the year 2100.
- Which also means that more polar bears and other creatures in the icy parts of the world would eventually drown due to the rising of the sea levels.
A more detailed explanation...
- Increasing global temperatures are causing a broad range of changes.
- Sea levels are rising due to thermal expansion of the ocean, in addition to melting of land ice.
- Amounts and patterns of precipitation are changing.
- The total annual power of hurricanes has already increased markedly since 1975 because their average intensity and average duration have increased (in addition, there has been a high correlation of hurricane power with tropical sea-surface temperature).
- Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns increase the frequency, duration, and intensity of other extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and tornadoes.
- Other effects of global warming include higher or lower agricultural yields, further glacial retreat, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions.
- As a further effect of global warming, diseases like malaria are returning into areas where they have been extinguished earlier.
Are cows the cause of global warming?
"Methane is one of the greenhouse gases that contributes to global warming"...
- A cow does on overage release between 70 and 120 kg of Methane per year.
- Methane is a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide (CO2).
- But the negative effect on the climate of Methane is 23 times higher than the effect of CO2.
- Therefore the release of about 100 kg Methane per year for each cow is equivalent to about 2'300 kg CO2 per year.
| 1 kg of meat from | produces kg CO2e |
| beef | 34.6 |
| lamb | 17.4 |
| pork | 6.35 |
| chicken | 4.57 |
Farming is basically serving the consumer's demand for food, we should look at our nourishment.
- With increased prosperity, people are consuming more meat and dairy products every year.
- Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes.
- We can also re use plastic bags OR we could get paper bags.
- Re-use paper, do not waste paper OR tissues or anything produced by a tree.
Deforestation and climate change are intimately connected:
- Globally, deforestation releases nearly 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, and is responsible for nearly 25 percent of man-made CO2 emissions.
- The destruction of the world's forests not only harms the communities that depend on them, but increasingly affects us all.
- The cars only take up solar energy to move and no fuel requirement is needed for it to move.
- Therefore if you get that car, it'd help you save the earth because you need not burn fossil fuels anymore! Thus not contributing to carbon dioxide.
- The most important conclusion for ourselves is: Eat much less meat and dairy products. This is one of the most effective ways to reduce our personal carbon footprint and to generally reduce our personal negative impact on the environment.
