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The greenhouse effect is a
benign feature of the ecosystem . Certain gases in the atmosphere, such as
CO2, CH4 , N2O, O3, CFC, allow the sunlight reach the earth but prevent
the heat from escaping and thus the temperature of the earth remains
stable. But nowadays the greenhouse gases absorb sunlight and infrared
radiation which produce heat and it increases continuously. In principle ,
the temperature of the earth also increases. And this is so-called
"Green House Effect". At present, the concentration of
carbon dioxide doubles that before the Industrial Revolution . And the
global temperature has increased about 1.5~3.5¢J. Human beings have
altered the composition of the atmosphere. Coal-burning factories and
motorcycles release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than oceans
and forests can absorb. Consequently, the carbon dioxide content of the
atmosphere could double the present level within the next fifty years. People may ask: "Is it a
serious problem? " My answer is: "Yes!" The global warming
can effect us in many aspects, first of all, the level of the oceans has
risen. The part of some land will be covered. Strictly speaking, some
islands may disappear quietly and without leaving a trace. In addition,
the global warming causes crisis to the ecosystem and agriculture. Some
animals and plants suffer a lot of difficulties due to the global warming.
To sum up, the greenhouse effect not only affect human lives but also
cause pecuniary loss. And people have to pay much money to get to the
greenhouse effect. Needless to say, we should take this problem seriously. The global warming affects our
human daily lives. And we must find the strategies to decrease the effect,
which are caused by global warming. Indeed, human being have caused a lot
of harm to nature, but the final victims who will be badly hurt will also
be humans themselves, and now everyone must help. We must keep this in
mind-- WE HAVE ONLY ONE EARTH .
This is from AJET, Taiwan. The
student is Ledia Lee(KGHS). In recent years, the world gets
more and more polluted. Pollution, air pollution in particular, has impact
on our life. Today, I'll focus on "the greenhouse effect." What is "greenhouse
effect"? In our air, there are gases which can absorbed the infrared
and the ultraviolet ray, without which the temperature will become higher.
CO2, CH4, N2O, O3 and CFC are among them. These five different gases have
different influence on the "greenhouse." If CO2 can have twice
as much effect, then CH4 can have ten times as much, N2O a hundred times
and CFC ten thousand times. Besides, the steam of water can also lead to
greenhouse effect. Nowadays, with the grouth of human activity, those
gases are released in the air. As a result, the temperature increases. If
the situation goes on, it is estimated that in 2030 the greenhouse effect
will influence the Earth twice as much as that before the industrial
revolution. Well, we have every reason to
control the phenomenon. If we don't, the temperature will be even
increasing, and so will the sea surface become higher. Here is the case.
If the average temperature increases by 1.5 ~3.5 degrees of Centigrade,
the sea surface will rise by 20-110 centimeter. It will cause the loss of
plenty of land and money. Some countries will even disappear. Besides, the
ecology and agriculture of each country will be deeply affected. It may
also affect our health and water. In a word, the "greenhouse
effect" will really cause disaster to us. Everyone must help. We should
try to discover methods to control the situation. In addition, we should
treasure the forest and try to plant more. It can't be overemphasized that
we should face up to the problem and solve it, and we can save our Earth. Best Regards
Hello, I'm Chris Daum and I live in
Bangkok, Thailand. I attend the International School of Bangkok. I'm a
sophomore right now. I have been researching global warming for my English
class and have found out some stuff, which you may find interesting. I
don't see this global warming thing ever effecting my life much and I
doubt that it ever will. I think that allot of people that complain about
global warming don't know much about it and watch too much captain planet.
Forget the environmentalist propaganda and listen to the facts. This whole
global warming issue is not a threat. It's true that global warming is
occurring and we do create allot of pollution but there is little to worry
about. Allot of people base their
concern on these weather predictions, which claim that we are headed for a
catastrophe but they are wrong. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) creates weather prediction models for the future. The IPCC
models predicted a global temperature rise of two degrees over the last
one hundred years. Turned out that temperatures only increased by half
that amount. The models have already exaggerated global warming by a
factor of two. It's get even worse. According to IPCC estimates, global
temperatures should have risen by half a degree in the 1980's. Satellite
measurements of global temperatures tell us that there was an increase of
less than one tenth of a degree. These satellite measurements are the most
accurate known. The models exaggerated by a factor of five. Okay, there is a little information that I've picked up from
the book "Global Warming" which is in the Opposing Viewpoint
series of books. I hope that this has helped convince you that this global
warming problem is nothing to worry about. Don't put so much faith in
weather predictions, which are for so far into the future.
Hello Chris, We are a small school –
just 12 boys & girls – learning on a farm in the hills of western
India. Often we take a random message from iearn & discuss it. We’ve
chosen your message today. You wrote: “Forget the
environmentalist propaganda and listen to the facts. This whole global
warming issue is not a threat. It's true that global warming is occurring
and we do create a lot of pollution but there is little to worry about
…… The models exaggerated by a factor of five.” We appreciate your courage
– and the research you have done - to take a stand, which is opposite to
a popular trend of concern. We’ve learnt to avoid exaggerations, even
for a worthy cause. Our conclusions though are different, both in
direction and the facts we’ve researched. Have you heard of
lemmings? They are rodents that commit mass suicide by rushing over a
precipice over the sea and plunging to their death. Imagine a conversation
between two lemmings. “Let’s slow down, we
are rushing too fast towards the precipice – at this rate we’ll all
die in 10 minutes.” “Hold it, stop worrying,
that’s an exaggeration by a factor of 5 – we still have 50 minutes” Chris, then there is the
runaway greenhouse effect. E.g. Methane gas is 20 times more effective
than carbon dioxide in trapping solar radiation. Billions of tons of
methane gas are held in the tundra ices. Even with the slow warming of the
permafrost, release of methane is a nasty example of a feedback loop that
might drastically swing your estimates up by a factor of 20. The ozone hole permitting
cosmic radiation in general and ultraviolet light in particular, apart
from contributing to the greenhouse effect, has already reflected in the
dramatic increase of skin cancer. Ultraviolet radiation also renders seeds
sterile, inhibiting germination (and lessening carbon dioxide sinks).
Another term for the end of birth/germination is extinction. We think that
there is some cause to worry about global warming. Like you, we also feel
that its pointless to be worried like chicken licken that the sky is about
to fall on our heads. Instead of getting all heated up, lets all cool down
and use our energy to reduce, reuse & recycle to lessen our ecological
footprint & arrest - even a slow trend towards global warming. After
all, do we have a spare planet? Farhaan, Anusha, Natasha,
Oovi & The Redstone Community, India
As I read this, I really
began to think about the future of our earth. I had researched about
global warming and the greenhouse effect is causing global warming. The increasing in
concentration of greenhouse gases in atmosphere, is the most common reason
of global warming. This leads to the greenhouse effect more serious and
then warms the earth. Since the industrial revolution, people increases
the emissions of greenhouse gases by burning of fossil fuels by industry,
transportation and also burning of trash. And because of deforestation,
the plant respiration is reduced, so more CO2 throw out to atmosphere
rather than oxygen. There are also causes by nature, but it is taking
place very few amount of emission. If world’s temperature
continues to rise, the sea level will also rise. And as another effect of
global warming, the insects and diseases may increase and also the summer
droughts would produce more forest fires. And there will be a greater
chance of malaria. Furthermore, the water quality will decrease due to
flooding. We will have floods more likely due to more intense rainfall.
Therefore, you got that this is so serious problem. So, we need to get
good solutions even it worked very small amount. Thus, the solution will be
planting more as you mentioned. And, to reduce the emissions of greenhouse
gases will be good solutions. Of course, we can’t stop the industry, but
we can reduce our trash. Also, the recycle of paper will be good solution
for deforestation and global warming. But, I think there are much more
solutions to protect our earth. What can we do to protect our land? This
will help our future. Naoki Oya International School Bangkok
My name is Logan
Hamel and I am writing to you as part of a project I am doing in history
class here at International School Bangkok Thailand. I agree that the
greenhouse affect is becoming a major concern for us because as more of
the rainforest is destroyed and we pollute are world it is becoming more
and more serious. I also think we need to do something about it. If the
sea level rises than it could destroy many habitats which are at sea level
causing many species to go extinct. It also could destroy a lot of
property. I have even researched that the difference in temperature will
be equal to that of the difference from now since the ice age. This is
obviously becoming a huge problem. I think the first thing we need to do
to slow down this process is to encourage wealthy countries to give some
money to the third world countries that are having problems of becoming
bankrupt. That way they won't have to cut all the raiforest down for
money. This could help control the gasses in the atmosphere slowing down
the green house effect. Although I have also heard that the green house
affect could be good for the environment. For example, I read that some
scientists think that it will increase agricultural output in Russia and
China. I heard that there was a comittee that voted on this and decided
that the advantages of the greenhouse effect will out way the
dissadvantages. What is your opinion on this?
That was a balanced piece of
research, Logan. We have just two points.
Instead of wealthy nations giving money to poorer counties, why not cancel
debts which in most cases were exploitative in the first place. Norway has
already initiated this movement. The enormous suffering due
to ecological migration & loss of property on the one hand cannot be a
justification for the (dubious) benefits that might accrue to some
countries because of the greenhouse effect. Do means justify the end or do
they need to be congruous? What's your opinion? The Redstone Community,
INDIA
This is by Yang Jun-jie, KSHS
student in Taiwan Theme: Protect Our Environment Greenhouse Effects According to what I saw from
books, greenhouse effect may not be as dangerous as we thought, due to
auto-regulations of our planet earth. High carbon dioxide
levels, as we all know, causes greenhouse effect that rises the planet's
temperature. Higher temperatures mean more rain, and rain washes CO2 in to
the ocean, where corels and other marine creatures turn it into their
shells, which, in turn, become limestone and are therefore locked inside
the earth's crust. So, if we can protect corel
reefs, they may help us by turning potentially hazardous CO2 into harmless
limestone! Best Regards Sylvia Li |
