Global Warming Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Global Warming - Term Paper Example The term Global Warming refers to the continuous increase in earth’s average temperature since 1950’s due to human activity and environmental deterioration by various harmful chemicals which are being added to the environment, mainly due to the burning of the fossil fuels. Another term that needs to be defined along with Global Warming is the Green House Effect, which refers to the trapping of heat by the gases such as carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, water vapors and fuel particles etc. Green House Effect was first considered into study by S. Arrhenius during the last decade of the 19th century when the scientists first observed the changing global climatic conditions. Energy comes from the sun in the form of visible and invisible light rays; the desirable rays reach the surface of the Earth after getting filtered by the ozone layer. These rays are absorbed and reflected by the dark and light surfaces on earth. The reflected rays go back to the space whereas the absorbed rays heat up the substance by which they are absorbed and are thus converted into heat energy. This heat energy is radiated into the atmosphere and various gases in the atmosphere which include CO2, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides absorb a considerable amount of this energy before it returns to the space. These gases act as the screen of a Greenhouse which permits the energy to enter but does not allow it to return, thus the natural phenomena explained in the lines above is known as Green House Effect and the gases responsible for this effect are known as the Green House Gases (GHG’s). The Green House Effect is in fact a natural phenomenon because the Green House Gases are naturally present in the atmosphere. The presence of these gases is essential for the sustaining life on Earth because these gases keep sufficient amount of energy in the atmosphere which is needed for the presence of life on the Earth. The absence of these gases will result in a climate like the one on Ma rs (where there are no Green House Gases), on the other hand the presence of these gases in quantities greater than the required amount will result in temperatures so high as observed on Venus (where the concentration of GHG’s is much higher and the temperature is nearly 1000 degrees). Thus for the Earth temperatures to remain in the permissible limits the amount of these gases also need to be limited within a specified range, below which temperatures will become very low and above this range temperatures will become unbearably high. The GHG’s naturally exist in the environment however due to the recent advances in the technology, humans are emitting more and more GHG’s into the atmosphere and thus the concentration of these gases is being increased in the atmosphere resulting in an artificial Green House Effect (Houghton, 2004). The subject of this paper is to find out whether Global Warming is caused by the human activities? And what can humans do to stop Glob al Warming from taking place? There exists a consensus among the scientists over the fact that the temperature of the Earth has been rising over the past 150 years, however there was a difference of opinion among scientists about the correct cause of this change in temperature trend (Faust, 2008).