Jesse Sartain Weblog

Global Warming, I’m Causing It

Humans and Jesse Sartain By Muhammad Haidir.

Humans and Global warming

Most of us have heard about global warming and how it is slowly chewing away into the life of our beloved mother earth, about how it has caused several noticeable changes in the weather patterns due to climate change resulting from the emission of green house gases. It has raised some environmental issues as well, both directly and indirectly from the pollution of these green house gases, be it from the rising sea levels due to the increased in the earth’s surface temperature or the susceptibility of the our health factor due to the irregular heat and cold exposure.

Doing our part, is it enough?

Some of us are doing our part to help the environment through various means from recycling our recyclable products, changing our wasteful habits to installing solar panels and harnessing wind power as an alternative source of energy for our house. Some big corporation and major industries are doing their part as well by promoting and sponsoring awareness campaigns, making sure their waste discharge, by products and their gas emission abide and comply by the health regulatory boards. These discharges go through several processes to be classified as environmentally friendly before being discharge and released into the environment. Some of them have also implemented various tactics, methods and technology to reduce their energy and resources usage. From installing water saving devices to researching new technologies to reduce carbon emission, all these in an effort to reduce our carbon emission the release of more greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

Renewable energies

Self sustaining and renewable energy sources holds great promises for a greener and cleaner future. Harnessing nature’s forces for our benefits such building dams, wind driven turbines and thermal generator to utilize geysers are just few of the examples. The latest technology introduce into the scene is the ability to be able to harness the energies of waves to generate electricity. Man kind are so desperately seeking alternatives for sources of renewable energy as each passing day we are pushing the supply limits of our natural gas and fossil fuels to the brink of extinction. The supply and demand balance will soon tip greatly as our supplies of energy continue to deplete and individual countries continues to increase their energy consumption.

Taking Turkey as a case study, Kaygusuz (2007) reported that the country have shown energy increased in energy consumption at an average of 4.3% annually since 1990. In comparison to its increased energy usage, its carbon dioxide emission has also whooped up to an alarming figure of 193 million tons in the year 2003. Multiply the figure with all the developed and developing countries and then we fast tracked it 10 years down the road. It is no longer a surprise that we our fossil fuels supplies will be facing depletion sooner then predicted by the experts.

We are to blame?

Are ‘we’ humans really to blame for the rise in the global temperature and the current condition of mother earth. We would question ourselves as we observe for the past few years as headlines in the news showcase stories of cities and countries being hit by early frost, late frost, sudden blitz, ice storms and hail storms. Notice are sometimes displayed and to alert people to prepare and brace themselves with the coming of snow storms, cyclones and many more of such similar examples. This can be used as environmental indicators and evidence as to how distorted our weather patterns have gone. At present carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are the main Green house gases deemed to be the culprits behind global warming.

However there are several ideologies out there calcimining that this is part of a natural cycle. They explain that as we see the trend in the rise of the global temperature for the past few centuries and how they have declined in recent times. Maybe that explains the unexpected surges in late and early frost.

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Will Global Warming Cause the Next Ice Age?

Next Jesse Sartain Ice Age By Robert F Allison.

One major problem in the debate over climate change is a general lack of knowledge on the subject. People usually don’t think about where their electricity, gasoline, or toilet paper comes from. Part of this acceptance comes from the way industry separates products from the production process…When we turn on lights in L.A., we don’t see the plants and coal mines that generated the power…Only those paying careful attention make the connections. Another part of the problem is that we are reluctant to question science, which has such prestige that people rarely stop to question who is funding research and whether that could compromise findings. (Gibson 17)

Most people also don’t understand how the theory of global warming works. They think that a really cold winter is evidence that global warming is a myth. However, scientists that support the ideas of global warming are referring to long-term climate change. Climate refers to environmental patterns over a long period of time. Weather refers to short-lived events, and can have isolated extremes. One of the predictions of many scientists is that global warming will cause more extreme weather: hotter summers, longer droughts, colder winters, and stronger storms. According to their theories, Europe could be tossed into another ice age because of global warming, not turned into a tropical paradise. This is because of the effect global warming could have on ocean currents.

Skeptics will often find any opportunity to attack the views of scientists based on some isolated weather event, or the lack of such an event. If the scientists predict increasing frequency and intensity of hurricanes, skeptics will point out that this last hurricane season was extremely mild, with the only intense storms hitting Mexico. Ultra-conservative commentator, Rush Limbaugh, doesn’t just consider global warming to be a myth; he calls it a hoax and a religion. “It’s got salvation, got everything in it. It has the primary ingredient of every religion: faith. Because none of it can be proved” (Limbaugh 4). Limbaugh also takes issue with the use of the word “consensus” by global warming activists, and is right to do so. “Consensus and science-I got blue in the face saying this-don’t and cannot mutually co-exist” (Limbaugh 4). If scientists had reached any sort of consensus, this would be a dead issue. Most scientists agree that the temperature of the earth has been gradually increasing, but that doesn’t mean they agree on the possible causes or consequences.

A survey of more than 530 climate scientists from 27 different countries showed that 82% of the scientists agreed that global warming is occurring. Only 2.6% said they “strongly disagree.” When asked if current scientific knowledge can allow for a reasonable assessment of greenhouse gases, two-thirds of the scientists disagreed with the statement.

The question most people are most keen to ask climate scientists is probably “do you agree or disagree that climate change is mostly the result of anthropogenic (man-made) causes?” Slightly more than half (55.8%) of climate scientists surveyed agreed, 14.2% were unsure, and 30% disagreed. Interestingly, more scientists “strongly disagree” than “strongly agree” that climate change is mostly the result of anthropogenic causes. The survey clearly shows that the debate over why the climate is changing is still underway, with nearly half of climate scientists disagreeing with what is often claimed to be the “consensus” view. (Bast 4)

The study goes on to clarify that the question wasn’t whether humans have any effect on climate, but whether they are mostly to blame. It’s certainly quite possible that humans are having at least some effect on the climate, but nothing can be proven with any certainty.

Some skeptics believe that mankind is too insignificant and could not possibly have so much influence on the environment. S. Fred Singer is a well-known climate change skeptic. He has been trying to gain support for the theory that climate change is a natural, cyclical process. He believes the earth has a 1,500-year cycle of warming and cooling, with minor ice ages interspersed with interglacial periods. Singer claims that his research shows this cycle going back at least one million years, often with abrupt changes. At one time, Greenland was quite green, with crops and livestock farming. Warm waters were abundant with fish and seals. There were two thriving settlements, but they were eventually lost to glaciers, malnutrition, and starvation. Dairy farmers were even forced to eat their cows. This was due to a 1.5 degree Celsius drop in average temperatures between 1100 and 1400. “Denmark would not re-colonize Greenland until 1721, when the Little Ice Age was losing its grip on the huge island. Today, 150 years into the Modern Warming, Greenland has 50,000 people” (Singer xii). Singer believes that these cycles are caused by solar changes, not greenhouse gases.

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The Effect of Green House Gases

Jesse Sartain Effect Of Green House Gases By Eleanor B. Jhonsons.

Earth, the only planet in our solar system or as far as evidence indicates the only planet in the whole Universe that supports life, was not like as we see it now since its beginning. Earth has been able to give a safe home to life because of its unique place in the solar system; it’s neither too close to the Sun nor too far away. As Earth is situated away from the Sun preventing it from being a hell of a warm place, there was the possibility that it may have been freezing cold for life to form and flourish here. But thanks to the greenhouse gases present in Earth’s atmosphere that play their role in keeping it warm enough.

Greenhouse gases are those gases residing in Earth’s atmosphere that absorb and emit radiation and thus, keep Earth warmer. The ‘Greenhouse Effect’ is the natural process through which these atmospheric constituents absorb sunlight. Sun, the only star in our Solar System, emits light that reaches Earth’s atmosphere. The greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb the long wave radiation emitted by Sun which warms the atmosphere and these long wave radiations are emitted both upward and downward; the downward emission of radiation by atmosphere is called the ‘Greenhouse Effect’.

The greenhouse gases present in Earth’s atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and ozone. Water vapor is the most abundant gas and plays the lead role in warming earth causing 36-70% of ‘greenhouse effect’. Carbon dioxide contributes 9-26%, methane 4-9% while ozone’s share is about 3-7%. Some of the other greenhouse gases present in much smaller quantities are sulfur hexafluoride, hydro fluorocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons, per fluorocarbons and nitrous oxide. Two of the major components of Earth’s atmosphere, oxygen and nitrogen are thankfully not greenhouse gases otherwise earth’s atmosphere would have been far warmer than it is now.

Although, these greenhouse gases have been playing a major role in providing life on Earth the perfect temperature to survive, since the Industrial Revolution human activities have caused increase in quantity of green house gases in the atmosphere. More greenhouse gases will trap more and more heat from Sun giving rise to the Global Warming phenomenon. Rising temperatures can be potentially hazardous to all kinds of life forms on Earth and a major cause for rapid melting of glaciers which in turn will cause sea level to rise submerging many coastlines worldwide. Although, environmentalists are forcing the issue and many Governments are taking steps in the right direction, it is not the greenhouse gases but human intervention in nature that is to be blamed.

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