Changes Of The Earth: Global Warming

While the effect of human activity on the global climate is hotly debated, physical signs of environmental changes are showing all around us.

Fig. 1 shows the increase in temperature

The troposphere is the lower part of the atmosphere which is about 10-15km thick. Within the troposphere there are gases called greenhouse gases. When sunlight reaches the earth, some of the heat are absorbed and trap near the earth's surface. This process is also known as greenhouse effect. The amount of heat trapped in the troposphere determines the temperature on earth. The amount of heat trapped in the troposphere depends on concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases which consist of carbon dioxide, CFCs, nitrogen oxides and methane. Hence by producing more carbon dioxide, more heat will be trapped on earth. The increase in the world’s temperature is part of global warming.

Carbon dioxide is increased mainly during the production when coal, oil and natural gas are burned. This is to produce energy for transportation, manufacturing, heating, cooling, electricity generation, and other applications. Vegetation contains carbon that is released as carbon dioxide when the vegetations decays or burns. So deforestation also affects the temperature of the world and contribute to global warming.

This shows that our unlimited wants are altering the composition of the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. As a result of global warming, it will then cause melting of ice caps on the poles, which can cause flooding of the inhabited continents.