Global Warming Research Paper

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Global Warming Global Warming has become quite an alarming issue in the past decade. Although most people don’t find it directly affecting their everyday lives. This is the reason not much is being done about it. Some people are in complete denial of this phenomenon, while others are positive it is happening. I personally, believe global warming is happening. My argument is to prove global warming exists. It exists because of society’s everyday habits to use natural resources at an increasing rate. We must do something about it or our planet is “doomed” so to speak. Our world is a very finite planet on which we run a linear system (Annie Leonard). In other words, planet earth has limited natural resources; we are using those natural resources up more and more at a steady, increasing rate each year. By using these natural resources we contribute to global warming on the daily. Global warming has numerous effects on planet earth. These include rising temperatures throughout the globe, melting of the ice caps causing rise in sea levels, ecosystems experiencing dramatic change, and more frequent droughts and floods. You can see how these eventually could lead to the extinction to life on Earth as we know it. There are many reasons why global warming is happening but there are two primary reasons for it. Although some deny global warming and some are sure of it, the two major contributing factors to global warming are the emission of man-made greenhouse gases and deforestation across the globe. They are proving to increase the average global temperature of earth, therefore supporting the theory of global warming. The emissions of man-made greenhouse gases are the biggest contributing factor to global warming. It wasn’t until the Industrial Revolution when this all started. All of the major greenhouse gases have increased in concentration since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (Pidwirny). The Greenhouse Effect is a proven theory that is highly correlated with global warming. The Greenhouse Effect is the process where solar energy coming from the sun (in the form of visible light) passes though our atmosphere in short wavelengths and heats the planet by getting absorbed by the Earth’s surface. Not all the light is absorbed. Some is transformed into inferred radiation and bounces off earth’s surface. This inferred radiation (now with long wavelengths) then travels back though Earth’s atmosphere and gets absorbed by the greenhouse gases, which are mainly carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water. This in result causes excess heating of the planet. The more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the more heat energy will be absorbed, and therefore the more the earth’s temperature will rise. Ross Gelbspan, author of The Heat Is On, states that the .6 degree Celsius warming of the average global temperature over the past century correlates directly with the buildup of atmospheric carbon dioxide (Gelbspan). This brings me to the example of the biggest carbon dioxide (CO2) distributor on earth, automobiles. Motor vehicles burn gasoline to turn their wheels. When this happens, the product of the combustion in the engine produces carbon dioxide. CO2 then gets spit out the exhaust pipe and is released into the Earth’s atmosphere. With the amount of automobiles across the globe that are driven everyday, well, you do the math. To prove this statement, according to Larry West, Author of U.S Autos Account for Half of Global Warming Linked to Cars World Wide says Gasoline in the United States contains 5.3 pounds of carbon per gallon. All of that carbon ends up in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide in automobile exhaust when the fuel is burned. So the average car in the U.S. puts more than 1.5 tons of carbon into the air every year (West). This is clear-cut evidence that we are contributing to the greenhouse effect. Another prime example of a greenhouse gas contributor is the decomposition of waste in landfills. Methane is
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