Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming
The “Greenhouse effect” is an increase in the planets temperature caused by heat energy from the sun that has been trapped in the atmosphere. The energy is being trapped do to Greenhouse gases that are put into the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide and water vapors. When the greenhouse gases are released in to the air they allow more sun light to pass through them and also, absorb the heat that is reflected back from the earth causing the temperature rise. Because of these greenhouse gases there has been a large increase in the world’s atmospheres average temperature. This increase in temperature is called Global Warming. Global warming in large amounts could cause a planetary climate shift, changing life as we know it. There has been a large temperature increase in the world’s atmosphere in the last 50 years.
Currently icecaps in the artic are melting at fast rates because of the temperature change. The malting of this ice has already affected many that live in the artic area. Polar bears, walrus, and seals are changing their feeding and migration patters because the ice once kept a fresh water lake enclosed but now that fresh water is draining into the ocean. The change in the feeding and migration of wild life in the artic is making hunting for the native people harder. There are villages along the artic coast lines that have had to move their homes because of the danger of it turning to swamp. The artic temperature raising has also affected Alaska where the spruce bark beetles are breeding an extra generation each year and are eating a lot of the Alaskan forest. This artic ice melting will also affect the rest of the earth, because the ice reflected sunlight. The melting of this ice and snow will now make it possible for the earth to absorb that heat making the temperature of the earth rise to even greater lengths.
The main ice covered landmass in the world is Antarctica in the South Pole. The ice that covers Antarctica is about 7000 feet thick and if this ice ever melted sea levels would rise about 200 feet. Though, it would take large increases in temperature over the world in order for this ice to melt. There is a large amount of ice in the North Pole that will melt at quicker levels however. Greenland has a large amount of ice that covers it and if Greenland’s ice melted it would add a extra 20 feet to the ocean levels. Once again the more Ice that melts the less sun light will be reflected from the earth and the earth will absorb this heat raising the temperature even higher and melting even more ice.
Other then the burning of carbon fuels and gases, a large factor of global warming and the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is deforestation. Trees are 50 percent carbon and when they are cut and turned into paper or what ever else the carbon that is stored in them is released back into the air. Trees and plants are also one of the main things on earth that can remove the carbon from the air. There are about 34 million acres of trees cut and burned every year. The destroying of tropical rain forests is putting over a hundred million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. In Siberia we are losing about 10 million acres of temperate forest per year and the trees that we are losing are the same that absorb around two billion tons of carbon annually.
Scientists believe that because of global warming a large amount of our marine life will become extinct many before we ever even discover them. They say that this will effect many of our food crops such as nuts, grapes, and potatoes. The warming is effecting the weeds that grow around the world making them large and able to produce
This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Living Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
