Global Warming Debate Essay - 1,113 words

Global Warming Debate The global warming is caused by emissions of over 20 gases into the atmosphere. The major contributors
are carbon dioxide (CO2), ozone, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Although these gases are produced by
many industrial processes, the major source is the burning of fossil fuels in boilers, furnaces and automobile engines. When released
into the air in large quantities, these gases cause the earths atmosphere to warm by trapping the suns heat. Infrared radiation that
would normally be reflected back into space hovers in the atmosphere, like thick blanket over the earth. Author Brian Hanwerk of
National Geographic News maintains that the arctic is melting fast. Studies are now being done on the Arctic climate. The 300
scientists involved here used climate models and made moderate estimates of future emissions of carbon dioxide. It is a revelation
that the Alaska, western Canada and eastern Russia avcrage temperatures that have already increased considerably.

And then in the next hundred years, temperatures will rise to 7 to 13 degrees Fahrenheit. This spells disaster in terms of the health
of people and challenge the survival of some cultures .(Warming to Cause Catastrophic Rise in Sea Level?). Scientists claim that
"Sea ice is retreating, glaciers are reducing in size, permafrost is thawing, all [these indicators] provide strong evidence that it has
been warming rapidly in the Arctic in recent decades." This means that climate will be changed globally (Warming to Cause
Catastrophic Rise in Sea Level?). The solution: Slow climate change. When: as soon as possible. However, people seem to be
oblivious to the problem even if the Arctic is already showing signs for people to be alarmed.(Warming to Cause Catastrophic Rise in
Sea Level?).

Similarly, author Stefan Lovgren says that the biggest danger in global warming is caused by sea levels that rise dramatically. The
thermal expansion raises oceans to 4 8 inches. However, scientists still feel that Greenlands massive ice sheet is dangerous if it
starts melting. Some scientists have even drawn computer models to show how vulnerable coastal cities are to sea rising. It can
submerge and completely wipe out entire cities (Warming to Cause Catastrophic Rise in Sea Level?). It is appalling to know that the
current rate of warning is warming at the fastest rate in millions of years. Meanwhile, a compilation of paleoclimate records from
lake sediments gives a view of the Arctics environmental variability over the last 400 years. There were retreats of glaciers and
melting of permafrost and the warming of the atmosphere. Indeed the data on the effect of carbon dioxide on the earths atmosphere
have several issues that need clarity.

Some of Arrhenius calculations were oversimplified. He failed to consider how cloudiness might change if the Earth got a little
warmer and more humid. Other experiments such as the effect of water vapor also provided an issue for clarification. It states that
water vapor, which is afar more abundant in the air than carbon dioxide, also intercepts infrared radiation. Ina the spectrographs of
the time, the bands of the two gases entirely overlapped one another. It seems that more CO2 could not affect radiation in bands of
the spectrum that water vapor, as well as CO2 itself, were already blocking entirely.

Thus, studies on the effect of carbon dioxide stagnated for decades. There were scientists who claimed that doubling or halving CO2
would bring s 4 degree Centigrade rise or fall of surface temperature, and thus the carbon dioxide theory of the ice ages is a possible
theory. (Hulburt, 193
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