Greenhouse Effect

The greenhouse effect is the trapping of excess heat by the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide strongly absorbs infrared and does not allow as much of it to escape into space. This in turn can lead to many disastrous consequences among all of us like the increased heat in the world or global warming. For example, it could be very disastrous to places that lay by the oceans. A projected sea level rise of five millimeters a year means coastal erosion, damage to ecosystems, loss of land, and will force people to move. Another consequence of the Greenhouse Effect is the rise and spread of diseases like Malaria and could lead to more heat related deaths. The Greenhouse effect is not something to push aside. Although it could take hundreds of years for it to take serious effect, if we act now we could slow it down to its natural pace.

Could we thank mankind for the rising threat of global warming? When we look at graphs and charts, they show that with our modern industry booming like it is, there is an increased amount of carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere which in turn, captures the infrared waves and increases the heat even more than ever. We build factories, we drive cars, we burn things up like fossil fuels of our earth, in which they all emit more and more carbon dioxide into the earth's atmosphere. "On average, we put up to 6 gigatons of carbon dioxide back into the earth's atmosphere a year, which includes the carbon dioxide that is emitted from the burning of forests, which contributes to the most carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere"(CNN 1). Another big way we are putting more and more carbon dioxide into the earth's atmosphere is the "conversion of forested land to agricultural use which redistributes carbon dioxide from plants and soil to the atmosphere"(Dharma Haven).

The fact of the matter is, is that global warming is disastrous. Increasing the surface temperature of the Earth by some amount doesn't merely increase the average low and high temperatures by that amount, evenly, all over the globe. The Earth's climate is a system which is driven by heat: Adding more heat gives the system more energy, which, in turn, results in more frequent, and more intense, severe weather events. I will give a few facts that occurred during 1998, the hottest year on record. "Severe drought affected 45 countries, intensifying already severe food and water shortages. Because of the mass

drought everywhere, things became dry, causing wildfires. Some of them lasted for months, devastated many areas, all over the globe, including many areas of rain forests" (CNN 2). The list of consequences of global warming can go on and on, but the truth is, is that if we keep going the way we are going, we will be the cause of our many problems.

So what do we do now? I believe that global warming can be slowed down to a normal, natural rate, if we were to just change the way we do things. With electricity, most of it is produced by the burning of fossil fuels, but we do have other ways of producing electricity without emitting carbon dioxide, like hydro electric plants and wind generators. But like I said, most of the electricity we have comes from the burning of the fossil fuels. So what can we do? We can start with reducing the amount of energy we use and the amount we waste. For example how many people watch TV everyday? The answer is millions. On average, between house to house TV usage, the average Kilowatt Hours per month is about 75. What does that mean? That means it will