The Earth Energy-Balance - Term Paper Example

The Earth Energy-Balance It is said that earth is a system with an energy budget that includes the equal gains of energy from the equal losses of energy on daily basis. The planet is almost in equilibrium so the amount of incoming energy is almost equal to the amount of outgoing energy. The energy that comes in and is used results in waste heat but in order to use more energy without increasing the earth’s temperature then other ways and sources are used to compensate for the energy that would have been wasted. The temperature of the planet stays stable when there is an energy balance between how much shortwave radiation emitted by the sun is absorbed by the earth and then how much long wave is reflected back in the space. During this whole process, some of it is absorbed by the earth heating the planet. This process is known as the green house effect it has been very important in maintaining the earth’s energy balance and its temperature making it livable for humans and animals. The atmosphere of earth is made out of many gases including nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide water vapors and little amounts of other gases and dust particles. The energy that comes into the earth’s atmosphere in the form of radiations is also called solar energy which travels at the speed of light, and enters the earth’s atmosphere from travelling 93 million miles from space in 8 minutes. If this energy didn’t leave the earth’s atmosphere then the earth would either heat up or cool down without having any balance. ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS Only by existing humans have made great changes in the environment and negatively affected the world’s living ecosystem. Ecosystem is the environment in which animals, humans and plants interact with each other. There are many reasons to the current environmental problems that we have in the world the main reason is the over use of resources that cannot be renewed such as gas, oil, metal and coal. The over consumption of these elements has increased in the past 30-40 years. Following are one of the many environmental problems causing misbalance in the world’s ecosystem: DEGRADATION OF THE LAND DEFFORESTATION Deforestation is a process in which the tree cover is reduced all over the world. it is also defined as the drastic change in the climate. Cutting down the forests all around the world threatens to change the climate pattern of the world. For example in Brazil the patterns of rainfall and also disturbing the winter and summer seasons. DESERIFICATION It is a process in which a piece of land that was once usable is turned into a desert which happens by over-aggregating, overgrazing, using chemical fertilizers, practicing harmful agricultural methods r deforestation. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION CHEMICAL POLLUTION According to a study conducted it proves that over 1 billion pounds of synthetic chemicals are released into the environment every day. These chemicals are in the form of chemical fertilizers, detergents, pesticides, plastics, clothing and almost all the manmade products. Consumers are affected by these chemicals but the people who play a major role in manufacturing them are at the health risk and are negatively seriously affected. This problem is related to the production of these chemicals and then disposal of these chemicals in seas and buried in the ground. About 77 billion pounds of toxic chemicals are dumped into the sea. EXAMPLE One organization named “Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation” long ago dumped 43.6 million pounds of chemical waste into the Love Canal located in New York near Niagara Falls. Three ounces of these chemicals can kill more than a million of people at once. In result of the exposure to such deadly chemicals the nearby people were badly affected. These people developed various types of deadly illnesses, many women faced miscarriages and a great number of children were born with defects. AIR POLLUTION According to a study in the United States more than 200 million sources of air pollutions are added into the atmosphere every year which is equal to 1760 pounds of pollutants per person. For instance Acid rain is the major source of causing air pollution because it damages lakes, streams, vegetation and wild life. Another major issue impacting the human lives is global warming because the level of carbon dioxide has exceeded up to 40 % since the year 1860. In the recent years over the 134 years there has been the highest amount of temperature change. Southern and northern ice caps have been warming us for centuries but what will happen if these caps had melted? Therefore, the constant disappearing of plants, use of fossil fuels is the reason which causes the greenhouse effect. My design takes the environment into consideration and brings attention towards something that is very important to all the people in the world being carelessly neglected. There are many ways through which we can restore importance by ignoring our many habits. Most Americans feel that they have mastered over the nature and environment and they have a complete faith in technology. When they face environmental crisis like shortage of gas and oil then they believe that “science will save us” but belief on technology’s role in environmental problems is highly premature because science is not the answer to every environmental problem. Another solution to these ecological problems are that due to depletion of the natural resources there will be a shortage of these resources in the market place there more exploration of oil and gas will take place it will encourage methods that will save energy. There are many more approaches towards finding a solution for example, units and people spreading pollution in the society will be considered as criminals and there should be severe penalties against them. Government should form a proper system that would not tolerate pollution and polluters within the society. Plastic should not be used because it is one of the reasons for causing ecological crisis because the plastic does not burn therefore paper bags must be used. There are many alternatives potential enough to replace the many fossil fuels causing global warming for example coal can be replaced by the wood it will help us prevent from over using our forests. Coal gasification can also be used as a replacement for petroleum. There are also many renewable energy resources for example biomass in which ecologically harmful fossil fuels can be replaces. These are the ways through which we can live a longer and healthier life because as we all are well aware that our natural resources are on the verge of extinction therefore through implying such methods we can have a brighter future. REFERENCES Ward, Barbara, and René J. Dubos. Only One Earth: The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet. New York: W.W. Norton, 1972. Print. Earths Energy Balance. Greenbelt, MD: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center, 1997. Print. Kump, Lee R, James F. Kasting, and Robert G. Crane. The Earth System. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. Print. Eldredge, Niles. Life in the Balance: Humanity and the Biodiversity Crisis. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1998. Print. Read More