Essay On Greenhouse Gases

Emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, are among the major threats to sustainability. The damages they cause to the environment, represent serious external costs to society i.e. a negative externality. The impact of these emissions does not directly fall on those who conduct the production activities responsible for the emissions but on the entire society, especially the future generations. Diagrammatically, this situation can be represented by a marginal social cost (MSC) higher than the marginal private cost (MPC), figure 1. Meaning that the costs of production of the polluting firms are less than the costs that spill over onto the society due to polluted air, consequences for the health etc..Thus if the market forces

[1] Over the last century, the Earth's average temperature has risen by 1.4 °F. Over the next century, that average is expected to rise an additional 2-11.5 °F. This change has shown a strong correlation with the increase of greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transportation. In fact, every year, human activity releases over

It is largely known that the most significant issue facing the planet today is global warming. There is no doubt it is one of the biggest environmental issues throughout time, though it is widely debated among scientists and environmentalists what the main causes are. Global warming isn’t a new issue, in only 1989 the UK Prime Minister at the time warns that the increasing emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere are going to have a significant impact on the earth in the future (BBC News, 2013). The warming of the earth is caused by greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide that trap long-wave radiation in the atmosphere. This warming of the earth surface is referred to as the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases are the gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapour which accumulate in the atmospheric layers prevent heat being radiated from the earth to escape. Without greenhouse gases the earth would be considerably cooler but with increased human activities, temperatures are rising to an unstable level (Arbogast, 2011).

2) (Sub-sub-subpoint) From 1990 to 2014 we have seen an increase in manmade greenhouse gas levels by 7 percent. There are 4 main greenhouse gases that we are producing: Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, and Fluorinated gases.

By driving vehicles, using plants that burn coal, humans are harming the natural system created by the earth. This is causing more CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide to be released. When nitrous oxide is in the atmosphere, it has a lifespan of about 114 years. Methane is approximately 12 years spent in the atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide is a little more difficult to determine its lifespan in the atmosphere due to there being several processes that remove it. About 80% of carbon dioxide is dissolved into the ocean, and can take between 20 and 200 years to do. The other 20% can stay in the atmosphere for possibly hundreds of thousands of years. Methane is created and released by fossil fuels, rice patties, waste dumps, and cow farms. Nitrous Oxide is created and released by the using of fertilization, industrialization, and combustion.

fossil fuel combustion– has increased carbon dioxide concentrations from °280 to 355 mL/L since 1800; the increase is unique, at least in the past 160 000 yr, and several lines of evidence demonstrate unequivocally that it is human—causedRead More: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.2307/1941591

· When the sun’s energy reaches the earth, some of that energy is absorbed and some is radiated back, energy balance. Greenhouse Gases absorb the energy that is radiated back into space, intern warming the atmosphere.

Human activities as a direct result of global climate change, and population increases, according to factors is a part of the leading causes of global climate change. Also there is a serious threat to the balance of natural ecology and the environment. Because the world 's growing population has resulted in such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, agriculture expansion activities such as intensifying, gathered in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased substantially. Natural events and human activities are considered to lead to an increase in global mean temperature. This is mainly composed of a gas such as carbon dioxide (CO2) is increased "greenhouse" caused. This is because the

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution in recent centuries, the Earth’s temperature increases steadily due to the high concentration of carbon dioxide. The use of energies for transportation, manufacturing, and electricity generation involve in the burning of fossil fuel. These activities produce carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and warm up the Earth. As stated by World Meteorological Organization, “The use of fossil fuel currently accounts for 80 to 85% of the carbon dioxide being added to the atmosphere” (United Nation Evironment Programme - World Meteorological Organization, 2006). In fact, the amount of man-made carbon emission to the atmosphere continues to grow everyday although people acknowledge the danger of the extreme carbon emission. World Meteorological Organization said that the carbon emission rose significantly from just less than 1 billion tons in 1860 to more than 20 billion tons in 1990 (United Nation Evironment Programme - World Meteorological Organization, 2006). As a result, the Earth’s temperature continues to increase over time. Steffen clearly stated “The global average air temperature has risen by about 0.85°C since the beginning of the 20th century, and continues to rise. The period 2001–2010 was the hottest decade on record” (Steffen, 2013).

The human activity which causes climate change is the increase in production of the carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide. This gas absorbs the sunlight which hits the earth and makes the planet warm through the process called the greenhouse effect. Human activity has increased the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels and cement production. Human activity like agriculture and fossil fuel production increase the Methane level in the atmosphere. Human activity like agriculture also increases the level of nitrous oxide. All the greenhouse gases have increased in the atmosphere which makes the earth warmer. Human activity like burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests for making farms, cities, and roads. All the human activity which produce greenhouse gases are responsible for climate change. The level of carbon dioxide is increasing more because of the industries, vehicle and other human activities. The level of carbon dioxide which is increasing comes from human activity and we know that because of its isotopic ratio. The isotopic ratio also shows that the carbon dioxide is not from the natural process of the volcanic activity, ocean outgassing, etc.

Greenhouse gases come from such mainstays of modern life as electrical power plants, automobiles, and heavy industry. Growing consumption of fuel by less efficient cars and light trucks suggests that motor vehicles may soon overtake industry as the largest source of gases suspected of causing global warming by effectively creating a greenhouse around the Earth. Many people do not want to decrease their standard of living by reducing their consumption of fossil fuels. These people do not realize that if they reduce their consumption, there will be a reduction in the amount of greenhouse gases. If this does not happen and global warming continues, the long-term effects may be catastrophic.

According to Karl and Trenberth (2003), earth is habitable largely due to its relative location to the sun, and its natural greenhouse effect on the atmosphere. Various gases found within the atmosphere contribute to a greenhouse effect including: water vapour contributing about ~60%, carbon dioxide at ~25%, ~8% from the ozone and the rest from traces of other gases including methane and nitrous oxide. On average, solar energy achieved at the top of the planet’s atmosphere is ~175 petawatt (an equivalent to 1015 watts) with about 31% reflected by clouds from the surface. The rest of the energy is absorbed by the atmosphere, land, and ocean, ultimately emitted back as infrared radiation.

A balance between energy coming in from the sun in the form of visible radiation (sunlight) and energy constantly being emitted from the surface of the earth to space determines the temperature of the earth. The energy coming in from the sun can pass through the atmosphere almost unchanged and warm the earth, but the infrared radiation emanating from the earth's surface is partly absorbed by some gases in the atmosphere and some of it is re-emitted downwards. This further warms the surface of the earth and the lower atmosphere. The gases that do this naturally are mainly water vapour and carbon dioxide. An analogy is made with the effect of a greenhouse, which allows sunshine to penetrate the glass that in turn keeps the heat in, hence the greenhouse effect.

thought to only warm the earth also has a cooling tendency on the stratosphere (Peixoto

Businesses will also have a great interest in our batteries. Imagine that all the major transit and public transportation companies had vehicles that instead of needing fossil fuel energy to run their vehicles used our batteries. From a business standpoint they would be saving so much money which will do them very well, while at the same time having a very good impact on the environment.