Global warming: what can we do to minimize it?
Summer is becoming hotter and longer. The climate is getting abnormal and unpredictable. Could our wasteful use of fuels and careless emissions of fumes to the air causing this global warming?
This summer is scorchingly hot. It is like standing on red-hot sands during dog days in a wide stretch of barren desert. Taking a bath gives a cool relief, but perspiration comes out right after. What an uncomfortable sticky feeling throughout the day!
Scientists say that this global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect of gases we’ve thrown out to the air. These are the carbon dioxide from car exhausts, manufacturing and petrochemical plants; nitrous oxide from fertilizers and fossil fuels; methane gas from livestock, manures, decaying materials, landfills, and marshes; chlorofluorocarbons from refrigerants of air conditioning units; ozone from industrial and chemical plants, and other hydrocarbon products.
How do these gases affect global warming?
These gases, also known as greenhouse gases or GHG, absorb most of the radiation from the sun. When solar radiation enters the atmosphere, 2/3 of it are absorb by the Earth’s surface, and 1/3 are reflected back to outer space by clouds in the atmosphere.
Half of the solar radiations that penetrate the atmosphere are infrared and these heat up the air directly, while those of higher frequency are absorbed by the sea and land surfaces upon reaching the ground. A portion of these solar radiations that reached the Earth’s surfaces are reflected back to outer space by sea ice, iceberg, permafrosts, glaciers, and snow.
During the cold clear night, these heat are dissipated and reflected back to space as infrared radiations, where they are absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This absorption of infrared radiations changes the rotational and vibrational states of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere causing these gases to emit more heat energy thereby increasing the temperature in the atmosphere.
The atmosphere radiates these heat to all directions. Some dissipate to the colder fringes in outer space, and some are reflected back to Earth where they step up global temperature. This increase in temperature depends on the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and on the amount of heat emitted by these gases during the absorption of the infrared radiations reflected from the Earth’s surfaces.
Solar radiation does not cause global warming. In fact, the Earth will freeze at a chilling minus 18 degrees Celsius even with the 2/3 of solar radiations absorbed by the Earth. It is the absorption of infrared radiations by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the emissions of thermal heat that cause global warming.
Most of the time we do not feel so much heat because they are dissipated in very wide areas such as in space, large bodies of water, land masses, and in plants. But as the concentration of greenhouse gases becomes higher, more infrared radiations reflected from Earth’s surfaces are absorbed by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere resulting to more heat emissions, and these increase the air temperature that cause global warming.
Trees and plants help minimize the effects of global warming. They absorb carbon dioxide from the air and give off oxygen and water during photosynthesis to cool the air. That is why it is very important that we plant more trees to minimize global warming. If we will not act today, there will come a time, in fact it’s starting already, that even plants will not give off water and oxygen to cool the air anymore.
Though plants “exhale” carbon dioxide at night, they usually absorb carbon dioxide from air to produce oxygen and water to cool the air. But during hot and dry conditions, plants close their pores to conserve water, and switch to a process called photorespiration wherein they use up oxygen instead and give off carbon dioxide. A recent scientific study confirmed this, and found out that the stomata of plants do not open wide to give off water and oxygen when there is a high concentration of carbon dioxide in the air. Instead they give off more carbon dioxide, adding up to the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
And this is not the only problem. The bodies of water such as oceans, seas, lakes and rivers that absorb most of the heat of the sun to cool the Earth are also absorbing lots of carbon dioxide, making them more acidic. And what happens when the water is acidic? The marine ecosystem is adversely affected causing destruction to coral reefs and marine lives.
The maximum concentration of carbon dioxide for an adaptable life on Earth is 350 parts per million per volume, but we have exceeded this level now up to a dangerous level of 390 ppmv!
There is no definite solution in sight yet even in a foreseeable future. Scientists estimate that carbon dioxide will stay in the air for another 300 years or more. The sea will become hotter and more acidic each day to the extinction of marine lives, and humans eventually. Scientists warned that 20% to 30% of corals worldwide are already destroyed, and more dead zones are appearing in coastal waters from decreases of oxygen and acidification of waters due to carbon dioxide absorption. The level of carbon dioxide in sea water is almost at saturation point. We must act now before it’s too late!
Though nitrous oxide and methane have greater warming effects: 298 and 25 times respectively compared to carbon dioxide, they do not last longer. Carbon dioxide on the other hand stays in the atmosphere for 300 years or more. It constitutes a minimal 20% of the greenhouse gases on the air, but it is the greatest source of anthropogenic or man-made greenhouse gases, which is about 60%.
The fearful consequences of global warming are now being felt worldwide. The sea ice in East Siberian Sea shrank 38% below average in 2007 — a meltdown of 210,000 square kilometers per day that is equivalent to the size of the United Kingdom. The massive ice sheets at the southern fringes of Greenland lost 101 billion tons of ice annually since 2003 up to 2005, and it is estimated that this will cause a 16 feet rise in sea level if all of these ice sheets will melt.
The ice meltdown in the Arctic is also endangering the lives of polar bears to extinction. The permafrosts in Siberia are thawing, showing up for the first time in thousand years the organic matters that were buried underneath them. The volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajökull has been blamed on the thawing of the glacier which allowed the strong pressure of magma underneath to create fissures on the surface resulting to eruption.
These drastic effects of global warming have disastrous consequences to the inhabitants of this planet Earth. The thawing of permafrosts in Siberia can release hundred billion tons of methane, and the heating up of bodies of water due to carbon dioxide absorption can trigger the release of another hundred billion tons of methane trapped under the beds of oceans. These massive releases of methane may trigger a devastating cataclysmic runaway climate change resulting to mass extinction events.
Besides the inundations of coastal cities around the world due to the meltdown of sea ice, iceberg, glaciers and permafrosts, and the severe droughts and rapid desertification of large areas in other parts of the globe, the extreme temperatures of global warming will also create more stronger cyclones, tornadoes, and typhoons that will wreck havoc and more destructions to properties, farms, livestock, and human lives.
Some of these frightening scenarios are already happening in our present time. The highest time to act is now. Let us stop blaming each other, and set aside our wrangling as to who will bear the bigger share in cost to solve this problem.
The Kyoto Protocol was a good start but not much was done. The Conference Of the Parties (COP-15) in Copenhagen held last December 7-18, 2009 was worse. It adjourned without agreeing on anything. There were 35,000 delegates from 193 nations, but they could not agree on how much reduction in temperature and what allowable carbon dioxide concentration in parts per million. And there were more heated debates as to who will take the bigger share in funding the project to solve this problem. Will it be the developed countries, the developing countries, or the underdeveloped countries of the Third World?
Everyone has a duty and a responsibility to help preserve this planet Earth. The Copenhagen Summit might have been a failure, but we can make our share to make this world more habitable. Let us reduce our fossil fuel consumption, and conserve more energy. Let us minimize our use of nitrous oxide fertilizers. Let us stop the emissions of chlorofluorocarbon and other ozone-precursor gases to the air, and protect the ozone layer from destruction. Let us switch to safer and cleaner energy alternatives such as solar, wind, and water. Let us plant more trees to absorb more carbon dioxide from the air and to help cool this planet.
Let us protect our planet Earth. Let us oppose all geoengineering manipulations such as HAARP, chemtrails, cloud whitening, and cloud seeding that may dangerously alter the delicate balance of our natural environment.
Our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren are at stake. Let us help each other and work together to minimize global warming. Let us make this Earth a better place to live.