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Old Sunday, December 11, 2011
shakeel ghori shakeel ghori is offline
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This is a well effort. There is a lack of some material such as; causes, consequences, and suggestions.
I am sharing some stuff relevant to this topic, check it and correct me if you find me wrong.





"Global warming threatens our health, our economy, our natural resources, and our children's future. It is clear we must act." (Eliot Spitzer)

The earth's temperature is increasing from its average limits and it is known as golobal warming. Before taking about why is it increasing and what may likely be its consequences, I would like to define two terms which are deeply related with it in logical sense. These two terms are environment and pollution.

Environment:
Any external factor that has effects on living organisms is known as environment. As oxygen present in air is not the part of our body but it plays such vital role for us that we can not survive without it. likewise water which we drink is not the part of our body before drinking but we can not sustain ourselves without it. It should be borne in mind: it is not necessary that enviornment has only the positive impacts on living beings as there are some instances where environment play a negative role. This will be clear with our coming description of pollution, here it would be enough to know that environment is something which is the surrounding of organisms and play some effect on their living behaviours.

Pollution:
Almost whole part of our environment which nature has set itself has fixed values. for example, amount of oxygen is fixed, composition of soil and water is particular, and everything which is the part of natural envionment has its specific nature, amount or behaviour. Anything which is added to natural environment by either human activities or climatic changes is known as pollution. pollution is an undesirable and additional material in natural balance, which distrub and disbalace its fixed values and thereby effect the all living beings who are associated with that particular part of environment. It distrubs our surrounding which we depends upon, thus in this sense our environment play a negative role which I have mentioned above.

Main causes of global warming:
Now, we turn towards our topic that is what are the causes and consequences of global warming. As it is true that development in science and technology has made our lives much sophisticated and luxurious, but it is also equally true that this development has brought about many complications and troublesome for us. increase industrialization and automobiles' usage eliminate many undesirable materials (pollutants) along with CO2 (Carbon dioxide). In our discourse we are only concerned with CO2, which is a leading cause of global warming. Although, some other materials (gases) such as Methane, Nitrous oxide and Chlorofluorocarbons also take part for increasing the earth's temperature, but they do not contribute as much as Carbon dioxide.
One thing should also be taken into account that: Although per unit of mass, Methane has 25 times the greenhouse effect as carbon dioxide, but there is more than 50 times as much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as methane, so carbon dioxide has the larger overall greenhouse and global warming effect.
Another interesting thing in this regard is this that Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant material, rather it is something which is a part of nature. but as it is fact that when something exceeds its natural limits and boundaries it becomes dangerous and harmful for us, same is the case here.

Our atmosphere ( the mixture of gases around us) is a complex mixture of such gases as Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon dioxide and others. each gas has its specific function, but since global warming is caused by Cabon dioxide so we shall lay our focus only on the significance of this gas. it has two functions in our natural environmenal balance:
1> It is an essential material for the nourishment of plants. plants absorb carbon dioxide from atmosphere and utilize it for manufacturing the food materials vital for their sustainence. This is why this gas is also called green house gas which means that all the greenery on earth depend upon it.
2> Carbon dioxide has tendency to absorb heat energy which comes from sun. The light when strikes with and enters in atmospheric gases some part of it is reflected back to space and some is absored by Carbon dioxide, the remaining light reaches to the earth's surface where it is absorbed by earth. after a due period of time this absorbed heat is re-emitted from earth's surface and again some part of it is aborbed by CO2 and remaining escapes in space. CO2 --which has a fixed quantity in atmosphere--has a capacity to absorb heat and regulate the earth's temperature to an average limits. Thus temperature remains average at different parts of world during different seasons. But now this is getting distrub by regular increase of CO2 in atmosphere through human activities.

If CO2 did not present on earth, our earth would not too warm for life. because most of heat would escape from earth and it would become cold. so it is blessing for us. but unfartunately its increase concentration has also created a problem of global warming which caused many problems for us and many are still on the way. If we do not control on the situation it will likely to turn into destruction.

Likely consequences of global warming in future
>Melting of the Polar Ice Caps
One of the most obvious effects of global warming involves the melting of the polar ice caps. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, there are 5,773,000 cubic miles of water, ice caps, glaciers, and permanent snow on our planet. As these continue to melt, sea levels rise. Rising sea levels are also caused by expanding ocean water, melting mountain glaciers, and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica melting or sliding into the oceans. Rising sea levels result in coastal erosion, coastal flooding, increased salinity of rivers, bays, and aquifers, and shoreline retreat.

Melting ice caps will desalinize the ocean and disrupt natural ocean currents. Since ocean currents regulate temperatures by bringing warmer currents into cooler regions and cooler currents into warmer regions, a halt in this activity may cause extreme climate changes, such as Western Europe experiencing a mini-ice age.

Another important effect of melting ice caps lies in a changing albedo. Albedo is the ratio of the light reflected by any part of the earth's surface or atmosphere. Since snow has one of the highest albedo level, it reflects sunlight back into space, helping to keep the earth cooler. As it melts, more sunlight is absorbed by the earth's atmosphere and the temperature tends to increase. This further contributes to global warming.

>Spread of Diseases Due to Global Warming
Global warming will also enhance the spread of diseases. As northern countries warm, disease-carrying insects migrate north, carrying viruses with them that we have not yet built immunity for. For example, in Kenya, where significant temperature increases have been recorded, disease-bearing mosquito populations have increased in once cooler, highland areas. Malaria is now becoming a nation-wide epidemic.
In other way we may say:
# Diseases under control by the cold will become uncontrollable. West Nile virus spread in just 5 years across the United States.
# Parasites that cause diseases will be able to survive at higher elevations.
# Parasites will be able to survive for a longer periods of time during the year, and year round in some places.
# Heat waves will kill the weak, the old, and small children.

>Floods and Droughts and Global Warming
Strong shifts in precipitation patterns will ensue as global warming progresses. Some areas of the earth will become wetter, while others will experience heavy droughts. Since warmer air brings heavier storms, there will be an increased chance of stronger and more life-threatening storms. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate, Africa, where water is already a scarce commodity, will have less and less water with warmer temperatures and this issue could even lead to more conflict and war.

Global warming has caused heavy rains in the United States due to warmer air having the ability to hold more water vapor than cooler air. Floods that have impacted the United States since 1993 alone have caused over $25 billion in losses. With increased floods and droughts, not only will our safety be affected, but also the economy.

>Economic Disaster
Since disaster relief takes a heavy toll on the world's economy and diseases are expensive to treat, we will suffer financially with the onset of global warming. After disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans(name of storm), one can only imagine the cost of more hurricanes, floods, and other disasters occurring worldwide.

Studies performed by the British government show that to avert potential disaster in relation to global warming, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by approximately 80%. But how can we preserve this vast amount of energy that we are so accustomed to using? There is action in every form from governmental laws to simple everyday tasks that we can do ourselves.

Future policy and measures which must be taken to control this effect:

>Climate Policy
In February 2002, the United States government announced a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 18% over a 10-year period from 2002-2012. This policy involves reducing emissions through technology improvements and dissemination, improving the efficiency of energy use, and voluntary programs with industry and shifts to cleaner fuels.

Other U.S. and international policies, such as the Climate Change Science Program and the Climate Change Technology Program, have been reinstated with a comprehensive objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through international cooperation. As the governments of our world continue to understand and acknowledge the threat of global warming to our livelihood, we are closer to reducing greenhouse gases to a manageable size.

>Reforestation
Plants absorb the greenhouse gas Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere for photosynthesis, the conversion of light energy into chemical energy by living organisms. Increased forest cover will help plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere and help alleviate global warming. Although having a small impact, this would help reduce one of the most significant greenhouse gases contributing to global warming.

Personal Action

Reduction can also be made through improving vehicle-fuel efficiency. Driving less than needed or buying a fuel-efficient car will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Although it's a small change, many small changes will someday lead to a bigger change

Scientists are pondering to ascertain a new sort of technology; that can generate energy without affecting the natural ecosystem. But for we it would be a more than ordinary advice that instead of waiting for the advancement in technology we should do something by ourselves to contribute our part to control the situation.
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