Global warming Cause and effect-essay

One of the biggest issues facing us right now is global warming. Its effects on animals and on agriculture are indeed frightening, and the effects on the human population are even scarier. The facts about global warming are often debated in politics and the media, but, unfortunately, even if we disagree about the causes, global warming effects are real, global, and measurable. The causes are mainly from us, the human race, and the effects on us will be severe. Almost 100% of the observed temperature increase over the last 0 years has been due to the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas concentrations li!e water vapour, carbon dio"ide #$O%&, methane and o'one. (reenhouse gases are those gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect #see below&. The largest contributing source of greenhouse gas is the burning of fossil fuels leading to the emission of carbon dio"ide. )hen sunlight reaches *arth+s surface some is absorbed and warms the earth and most of the rest is radiated bac! to the atmosphere at a longer wavelength than the sun light. ,ome of these longer wavelengths are absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before they are lost to space. The absorption of this longwave radiant energy warms the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases act li!e a mirror and reflect bac! to the *arth some of the heat energy which would otherwise be lost to space. The reflecting bac! of heat energy by the atmosphere is called the -greenhouse effect-. The ma.or natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about /0120% of the greenhouse effect on *arth #not including clouds&3 carbon dio"ide $O%, which causes 41%0%3 methane, which causes 514%, and o'one, which causes /12%. It is not possible to state that a certain gas causes a certain percentage of the greenhouse effect, because the influences of the various gases are not additive. Other greenhouse gases include, but are not limited to, nitrous o"ide, sulfur he"afluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons. (reenhouse gases in the atmosphere #see above& act li!e a mirror and reflect bac! to the *arth a part of the heat radiation, which would otherwise

be lost to space. The higher the concentration of green house gases li!e carbon dio"ide in the atmosphere, the more heat energy is being reflected bac! to the *arth. The emission of carbon dio"ide into the environment mainly from burning of fossil fuels #oil, gas, petrol, !erosene, etc.& has been increased dramatically over the past 0 years, see graph below.

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