April 24, 2013
Global Warming
What is Global Warming? Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. I will explain to you how humans add to global warming.
There are a number of human activities that contribute to global warming such as adding excessive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. What are greenhouse gases you may ask? Greenhouse gases are gases that absorb and emit radiation. They contribute to the warming of the earth‘s atmosphere by absorbing the sun’s energy and reflecting it back toward the earth’s surface, which is called the greenhouse effect. These gases are needed to help determine the temperature of the earth. Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are greenhouse gases, there are more but these are the ones I am going to discuss.
Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when we burn wood or wood product or when we use fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal. Carbon dioxide does not absorb the energy of the sun, but it does absorb heat energy from the earth, some of the energy goes back the earth and some of it goes into space.
Nitrous oxide is produced by fertilizer use, animal waste management, fossil fuel combustion and industrial activities. The use of livestock manure and urine to help fertilize the soil is way of using nitrous oxide. When we use any kind of transportation vehicle, we are burning transportation fuels. The industrial activities would be things like burning fuel for power or heat, through chemical reactions.
Methane is one of the components of natural gas and is produced when we use natural gas, oil or coal. It also comes from the stomachs of grazing animals like goats, sheep and cows.
Now that we know about some of the greenhouse gases that we as humans use to help create global warming, let’s talk about what we can do to minimize our contribution. Here are some of the things that we as humans...