The Green House Effect and Global Warming

What is Global Warming?

Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans, which began to increase in the late 19th century and is projected to continue rising. Since the early 20th century, Earth's average surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F), with about two thirds of the increase occurring since 1980. Warming of the climate system is undeniable, and scientists are almost certain that most of it is caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human activities such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels.

 

What is the greenhouse effect?

The green house effect is when some infrared radiation passes through the atmosphere and some of the rays are absorbed into the earth and re-emitted in all directions by green house gas molecules and by clouds. The effect of this is to warm the earth’s surface and also the lower atmosphere.  It is mainly caused by a rise in the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels over the last two hundred years. The carbon dioxide and other green house gases trap the heat that reaches Earth from the Sun.  

 

Which Gases contribute to the greenhouse effect?

Carbon dioxide (CO2), the most significant Green House gas, directly affected by human activity, is the result of the corrosion of carbon in organic matter, either through combustion of carbon-based fuels or the decay of biomass. Other major gases that contribute to the green house effect are: water vapour-H2O that contributes to between 36-70% of the greenhouse effect, ozone-O3 which contributes to between 3-7%, Methane-CH4 3-9% and Nitrous oxide-N2O. Carbon dioxide contributes to between 9-26% of the greenhouse effect.

How could humans reduce the effect of global warming?

Instead of getting our energy supplies from  burning coal and other un-renewable fossil fuels in power stations, as this gives off carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides when they are combusted. We could instead use alternative, renewable energy sources such as solar power, wind power, hydro electric power and nuclear power; all these would be better alternatives as they do not give off green house gases. We could also reduce the need for energy by being energy efficient and so reducing the mass demand for it. We could do this by switching off lights when they are not being used and other small things that are generally overlooked but when they are regularly done they could make a large difference to the amount of energy that is wasted and so could reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere as a result of combustion.

Suggest economic, ethical/moral, social or cultural arguments for technological developments which reduce global warming.

Social support reasons for supporting technological developments which reduce global warming could include the people being happier with the environment that they would be living in less polluted areas. The catalytic converter cleans the emissions from car exhausts and so would create less pollution and give off less harmful gases.  This would benefit the population and if certain people are deeply affected by the clear up then it would be a social reason for supporting them. Also if there are less harmful gases being released in to the atmosphere it could mean that the taxes for driving in certain areas would decrease and so the social populous would benefit from technological advancements in that respect too as well as in an economic way as it reduces the amount that they have to pay on taxes.

Factories that also use fossil fuels as an energy source have to pay large amounts of money for their gas emissions to be cleaned before they can be released into the atmosphere. If science created a cheaper way for them to do this then these factories and power plant would benefit enormously in an economic way. Also if fuels that were as easily combusted and stored as fossil fuels were developed the businesses would again benefit if it was a cheaper amount than the fossil fuels that they would be using at present, as these fossil fuels are drastically rising in price due to lack of renewability and also lack of resources. In these respects people could benefit economically from technological developments that reduce global warming.