Global Warming and Energy - Essay Example

The global warming issue is divided by 1) spreading process, 2) spreading locations, and 3) principal causes. Global environmental issues include a wide range of environment related issues, such as, global warming, depletion of the ozone layer, acid rain, rain forest phenomenon, desertification, reduction of wildlife species, pollution problems in developing countries, water life pollution, hazardous wastes, etc. Among all of these issues, the global warming issue, which is caused due to the increased consumption of energy derived from the fossil fuels, draws an increasing attention of the whole world.

Mechanisms of Global Warming Mechanism of Warming The surface of planets including Earth is heated by solar radiation energy, which is a visible light with short wavelength, whereas it is cooled by releasing energy, which is an infrared ray with long wavelength. The temperature of the planet surface is determined by the balance between the incoming and outgoing energies. A. Cooling Effect Not all solar rays that are radiated towards the earth reach the surface of the earth. There are substances around the earth that reflect the solar rays.

The reflected radiation energy does not reach the surface of the earth. . e are certain gases present in the atmosphere, which do not have the tendency to absorb the visible light with short wavelength, such as, solar radiation energy but they can absorb the infrared radiation with long wavelength, such as, the energy that is released from the earth. Once these gases absorb the released energy from the earth's surface, they re-radiate the energy in all directions. Some energy is directed upwards, whereas some energy is directed back towards the earth's surface.

As a result, the temperature of the earth's surface starts increasing due to the energy which is directed towards the surface of the earth. Types of Greenhouse Gases The greenhouse gases which occur naturally include methane, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and ozone, whereas the artificial greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbon. Among these greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide is the type of gas, which contributes most to the issue of global warming. If we analyze the rate of emissions of the last decade, we find that the global warming caused due to carbon dioxide accounts for approximately seventy percent, which is really a great percentage.

Before the industrial revolution, the greenhouse gas concentration was relatively stable, but when the world’s population started to increase rapidly along with industrialization and agricultural modernization, the greenhouse gas concentration increased up to a great extent. Japan's Carbon Dioxide Emissions Since the first oil crisis, which occurred in 1973, Japan's carbon dioxide emissions had remained unchanged until the mid 1980s. Then, due to strong economic growth during the bubble period and the low energy cost, it faced an upward trend.

Thereafter, the increase rate became slow, but in 2008, 1187 million tons