By Julie Purvis
June 13, 2010
SCI 275
Mitigation Strategies and Solutions for Global Warming page 2 Take a look at the world around us and think what it may look like in 20 years. Every day this environment is changing and not always for the better. Things we do in everyday life are destroying our environment. For instance, driving cars, using electricity from coal-fired powerplants, or heating our homes with oil or natural gas, all have devastating affects on our environment. One of those affects is global warming. There are people who dispute the effects of global warming, but scientist have proven that levels of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have increased by over 10% since 1950, while average temperatures have risen by over 0.5°C/1°F in the same period (n.d. Global Warming and the Greenhouse Effect). What is global warming? Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth’s surface air and oceans. This is a result of greenhouse gas; such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane that traps heat and light from the sun in the Earths atmosphere. This is known as the greenhouse effect. A good example of the greenhouse effect would be your automobile. When you leave your car parked in the sun on a hot day with all the windows up, the temperature of your car will rise. This happens because the heat and light from the sun can enter into the car through the window, but it cannot exit. This is what the greenhouse effects do to our earth. The heat and light can get through the atmosphere, but it cannot get out. As a result, the temperature of earth’s surface air and oceans rises. Although the greenhouse effect is what allows us to live on earth, if too many greenhouse gases get trapped in Earths atmosphere, earth can get unusually warm. The unusual rise in temperature would lead to several
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