Consequences of Abnormal Remission of Greenhouse Gases - Research Paper Example

Global warming Human being is the most dominant specie on earth. The human civilization was primarily agricultural in terms of occupation but to embrace growth and development in order to realize a better life it became industrial. Without any ambiguity such a transformation has led to a rise in per capita income that eventually increased the livelihood of the human beings; however it is also associated with a cost namely “global warming”. Undoubtedly the world has gradually become far more industrialized over the past 100 years and adding to the concern “Globally averaged temperatures as measured by surface thermometers have warmed by about 0.6 degrees C (about 1 degree F) over the last one hundred years.” (Spencer, 2006, p. 2) The term Global Warming refers to the rise in average annual temperature of the earth near its surface due to anthropocentric activities. A sustained rise in temperature causes climatic change. Though this warming process of the earth’s environment has started for long, yet it has caught our attention only before a few decades. However at present awareness regarding global warming has increased as referred by Taylor (2006), “Fully 85% of Americans believe global warming is happening now, according to a recent Time/ABC/Stanford poll. We know we're in the midst of some serious climate change, and don't need pictures of polar bears stuck on fragmenting ice caps to drive the point home”. Oxygen and nitrogen are the two most prime gases of earth’s atmosphere. Both of these gases are transparent to terrestrial radiation and are not responsible for green house effect. The green house effect is the result of the concentration of water vapor, carbon dioxide and other trace gases, present in the atmosphere that absorb the terrestrial radiation reflecting from the surface of the earth. A change in the atmospheric concentration of the green house gases disturbs the balance in the energy transfer among the atmosphere, space, land and the ocean. An increase in the concentration of atmospheric green house gas increases the net absorption of energy by the earth. Among the green house gases carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone are considered as naturally occurring green house gases. A number of halogen such as fluorine, chlorine and bromine are also classified as green house gases. But unlike the naturally occurring green house gas they are profoundly the product of industrial activities. As an example chlorofluorocarbons and hydro chlorofluorocarbons are halocarbons containing chlorine with a strong ozone-depleting characteristic. Also there are some gases in and around troposphere indirectly influencing the global radiation. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone in the troposphere are such gases. The effect of industrialization on the composition of green house gas can be well grasped through the changed concentration of carbon dioxide in atmosphere; it was 280 parts per million in pre industrial level and now it is 400 parts per million. Whereas the direct contribution of carbon dioxide is estimated to be 1 degree centigrade it gets three to four fold amplified from other changes occurring in “clouds, water vapor, snow cover, and sea ice” (Spencer, 2006, p.1) Climate change refers to the change of season owing to the difference in earth’s distance from the sun while revolving around together with its changing inclination to its axis. However apart from this, cold or hot wind and sea currents are often held responsible for climate change. All these are natural but in recent times rapid and erratic change in climate has been witnessed. Shortening of winter in tropical is considered as one such abrupt change. Again in some region autumn or spring has totally gone astray. At those places of the world a stretched summer and a short winter typify the climate with occasional untimely rainfall all over the year. These changes in climate are mostly owing to the abnormal emission of green house gases resulting in global warming that eventually leads to erratic changes in the climatic condition. As mentioned earlier that average global temperature is on a rise. Satellite pictures have shown that area under ice cover at both the poles is reducing over the time. The sea, indicating a rise in the sea water level most likely from melting ice from the poles, has swallowed some of the seashore areas. Scientists have also observed that the peak of Kilimanjaro, mountain in Africa is experiencing a reduction in snow deposition in each year. The Gangotri glacier in India is moving back by 25 meters on average each year. At this rate by 2035 it will be history. Moreover the size of the Sahara desert is increasing each year. (Meehl, 2005) All the above incidents clearly indicate a rise in global temperature. Some other grass root indicators also point to the same fact. The deteriorating health of the Penguins and the declining number of the Polar Bears clearly indicate the worsening of ecological condition of the Polar Regions. This ecological deterioration is obviously owing to the rise in global temperature. As a consequence of this rise in temperature the seasonal cycle gets hindered and ecological balance of the earth gets dismantled. Agriculture that solely depends on seasonal cycle becomes the first victim of this both in terms of quality and quantity. (Ramankutty and Foley, 1999) Due to disrupted ecological balance the health of the animal including human beings gets affected. Again extinction of an animal or plant will affect the food chain and thereby will affect some other species. This is what happening in Polar Regions; the rise in temperature affecting the population of seals by melting their habitat and the polar bears are suffering from that through reduced volume of food. The rise in sea’s water level can easily submerge large areas along the coastline and this will lead to homelessness for millions of human beings. The increasing Sahara desert might well turn a populated city like Kyro into desert and severely distort the human life. The Gangotri glacier in India is the origin of river Ganges. As mentioned earlier if following the predictions of the scientists it vanishes by 2035 then the river might follow suit as well endangering life of the people in India. Following the natural law of interdependency among species; if the climate gets warmer and certain specie fall prey to that, it may initiate a chain effect eventually leading to a mass extinction. Already owing to global warming, species like Seal, Penguin, Polar Bears, Snow leopard, Siberian Tigers and so many others have been threatened. Unless such warming of earth’s atmosphere can be tamed, it might lead to a mass extinction like the ice ages. However, during the ice ages the mass extinction came according to the nature’s law and the plant species managed to survive that eventually played an important role in reintroduction of life form in earth. But this new mass extinction will be due to anthropocentric activities where even the plant species will succumb to the consequences and that might end life forever on earth. The green house gases are considered as the prime cause of global warming. These gases go to the upper atmosphere and make an umbrella like shield, which does not prevent the sunrays to enter the earth’s atmosphere but when the earth’s surface reflects back a certain portion of that ray that umbrella like cover re reflects it into earth’s atmosphere. The partial reflection of sunray enables earth to maintain its temperature. The green house gas distorts this mechanism and earth’s temperature rises over the normal. (Houghton, 1997) Moreover the ozone layers in and around the ozonosphere of earth’s atmosphere plays a vital role by preventing the Ultra violet rays from penetrating the earth’s atmosphere. Some green house gases, especially chlorofluorocarbon deplete the ozone layer and make it permeable. A porous ozone layer lacks the effectiveness in preventing Ultra violet rays and it reaches the earth’s surface. These rays are characterized with a very strong oxidizing character. It warms earth’s atmosphere through the same process something gets cooked in a micro oven. Again these rays are high risk factor to the skin. Open exposure to these rays might lead to diseases like skin cancer. Some parts of the Australian bay, the polar region and most of the sea side areas of the world are subject to these porous ozone layers and thereby exposed to ultra violet ray infiltration. This might be also the cause behind the rise of the sea surface temperature in Australian bay of the Indian Ocean “Apart from varying seasonally and interannually, the basin-averaged Indian Ocean SST has increased since 1970 at a rate of 0.93C per century, with local rates as high as 2.92C per century” (Luffman, 2010, p.1) The above explanation clearly portrays a direct correlation between global warming and green house gases. The causes of the current global warming are mainly anthropocentric. The emission of carbon dioxide from power plant is one of the main reasons of global warming. Carbon dioxide is the main green house gas that is released by coal that is most heavily used raw material in power plants. Carbon used per unit of energy produced is 80% higher in coal than gas. The vehicle emission is another cause for global temperature rise. It has been estimated that 3.5% of global warming is caused by the airplane emission. After the human civilization gave priority to industry over agriculture as a vehicle of growth, the global temperature went on increasing at an alarming rate. Increased urbanization and population explosion resulted in abrupt logging, to provide more land for housing and food production. Trees are the highest consumer of carbon dioxide, moreover they also emits oxygen and excess water in the air that cools the environment. Reduced number of trees resulted in less number of natural purifier of air and it has definitely contributed to the global warming. The changed life style of the human population has also contributed to the global warming. The air conditioner and refrigerator is the main contributor of chlorofluorocarbons, which is a green house gas largely responsible for ozone depletion and nowadays both of these machineries are used at an increasing number than before. The nuclear competition among countries has also disturbed the environment through radiation emitted in test explosions and is responsible for the sudden rise in global temperature. Frequent changes of atmosphere during the jet flight, repeated penetration of atmosphere for scientific experiments with artificial satellites are also responsible for ozone depletion and thereby global warming. (Philander, 1998) Under this circumstance being a responsible human being each of us should think and act in a rational way. Since we know “Prevention is better than cure”, we should take some precautionary measures so that ecological balance is maintained throughout the whole world. We should plant trees instead of cutting them and this plantation and nurturing of trees should be carried on throughout the year. It will be of great use if new law regarding plantation and nurturing of trees can be formed and implemented as well. Another cause of green house gas and global warming is the emission of cars using fossil fuel. To get out of this problem we should start using solar energy for driving car and other vehicles. Apart from this we can start using battery driven vehicles and it would reduce the emission of green house gases from vehicles to zero level. For the time being use of gas instead of petrol or diesel seems to be a ready to adopt option for running vehicles. The use of refrigerators and air conditioners has to be reduced to decrease the emission of chlorofluorocarbon gas. The countries should abstain from indulging any kind of nuclear competition with each other. Along with reducing the global warming; it will also reduce the volume of nuclear waste storage. Again nuclear reactors are accident-prone and reduction of nuclear related experiments will definitely reduce the risk of any related accidents. Strict monitoring of the grass root indicators will definitely provide prior alarm of any abrupt change in environment. Using global positioning system or GPS technology to monitor the rain forests and the Polar Regions will definitely help to prepare for emergency situations. The international law regarding carbon emission and waste, climate change and green house gas emission is pretty loosely formed and implemented. They are rather noble ideas than strict law and legislature; adherence to them often depends on the benevolence of the participants. As referred by Badrinarayana (2010) “Of the 190-plus nations in the international community, only about twenty core nations effectively control climate-change action—even though climate change threatens the lives of millions of people.” (Badrinarayana, 2010, p.256) this is mainly because “the international community is primarily a product of trade and economic relations based on the pursuit of material interests, as opposed to the pursuit of common, legally enshrined rights and power-sharing mechanisms” (Badrinarayana, 2010, p.264) In this scenario rethinking of the international law regarding the aforementioned subjects and governing it in a meaningful way is in utmost need. A strict law both at national and international level safe guarding the earth from the risks of global warming, implemented with efficiency would generate a public awareness that eventually might help in combating global warming. Previously it was the developed countries like USA, UK former Soviet Union and Japan together with the international business community opposed to cap the emission level to 1988 levels by 2005. Unless a spontaneous adherence to this law can be guaranteed; it will all be futile. (Badrinarayana, 2010) Global warming is the most alarming problem over our horizon and a threat to our existence. Scientists have identified that green house gases are most responsible for the global warming. Though the sources of their emission have been known yet substantial steps are still to be taken to prevent them. (Broecker, 2004) A culmination of political compulsion and so-called economic necessity makes the sources of green house gas emission hard to tame. The lion’s share of the mass seems to be stupor about the devastating outcome of global warming. A sustainable development refers to benefiting the present without compromising the future. Mother Nature can endure environmental degradation up to a reversible level. If environmental degradation is stopped at that point, nature will automatically restore itself to the initial position. However if this point is breached; the level of environmental degradation is irreversible i.e. nature cannot compensate it automatically and neither any measure can restore it to its initial level. According to Weston (2009) “even the most aggressive and immediate CO2 mitigation steps can only limit further additions to the warming that is already committed to. It now cannot reduce the already inevitable greenhouse gas warming of 2.4°C….climate change that occurs as a result of the increased carbon dioxide emissions is that it is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after the emissions stop.” (Weston, 2009, p.308) To ensure sustainable development it is necessary that environmental degradation must not cross the reversible level. However the kind of economic growth witnessed so far violates the rules of sustainable development. If the earth worthless of living owing to our action then we are putting the life of our future generation at risk for our own benefits. It is worth hearing DiPeso’s advice while thinking and getting our acts together against global warming with the available information on it “Will a surprise bail us out if we do not act on what climate scientists are telling us? Maybe. But with the global life-support system at stake, it’s a bet not worth taking.” (Dipeso, 2006, p.102) If not a proper awareness campaign is initiated and the international political class together with the industrialists comprehend the situation and take appropriate precautionary measures to initiate a positive change, in near future earth might turn into a deserted planet reigned by absolute silence. References: 1. Badrinarayana, D. (2010) “Global Warming: A Second Coming for International Law?”, Washington Law Review, 85 (255) 2. Broecker, W.S. (2004) "Future Global Warming Scenarios." (Letter) Science 3. DiPeso, J. (2006), Media Coverage and the Environment: Why Isn’t Global Warming Hot News?, Environmental Quality Management, Autumn 4. Houghton, J. (1997), Global Warming: The Complete Briefing, second edition, Cambridge University Press 5. Luffman, J.J. (2010), “Regional climate response to late twentieth century warming over the Indian Ocean”, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, XXXX 6. Meehl, G. A.; et al. (2005) "How Much More Global Warming and Sea Level Rise". Science 307 (5716). March 7. Philander, G. (1998), Is the temperature rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming, Princeton University Press 8. Ramankutty, N. and Foley, J. (1999) Estimating Historical Changes in Global Land Cover: Croplands from 1700 to 1992, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Jan. 9. Spencer, R. (2006), “How Serious is the Global Warming Threat?”, ISEE, Lindewood, University of Alabama 10. Taylor, C. (2006), “Why global warming is good for business”, Available at: http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/13/technology/business2_futureboy0413/index.htm [accessed 18th October 2010] 11. Weston, D. (2009), “Policy on global warming: fiddling while the globe burns?”, AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, 33(4), 307-11 Read More