Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming

Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming

As of late, global warming has been in the headlines. After Climategate questioned current assumptions about the main driver in Earth's climate, original decrees that "debate is over" have not held as much sway as beforehand. (Petre) Many persons claim that, in fact, the sun is the main driver of climate change. That sunspots cause noticeable shifts in our climate. Man-made global warming, the prominent theory of today, says that specific gases, especially carbon dioxide, drive climate. (Marshal)

As specific greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) capture energy from the sun, the planet's temperature rises. This is called the greenhouse effect. These gases keep Earth's average temperature approximately 60 degrees warmer than it otherwise would be. The heat would leave the atmosphere, in the direction of space, without greenhouse gases. Before the greenhouse effect begins to take effect, solar radiation must be absorbed by the Earth's surface by first passing through the atmosphere. Some of the solar radiation, to be sure, is reflected by the earth and its atmosphere. (EPA)

(NewScientist)

Ways in which to help mitigate the effects of global warming include adaptation through sustainable development -- through the implementation of alternative energies, although currently these technologies are too crudely developed to replace cheap oil -- cooperation among individuals, corporations and governments. Important questions to ask are: What is the relation between levels of sustainability and greenhouse gas emission What is the pace of change?

Sustainable development has numerous aspects. What is economically and socially viable? What truly helps to mitigate environmental impacts, such as carbon and plastic footprints? Limiting climate change creates the opportunity to bolster environmental capital; for example, ecosystems and environmental resources. Measures such as these would help to protect human systems and habitats. By reorienting an economy in such way as to prevent climate change, negative effects of rising temperatures -- like exacerbated poverty -- can be avoided. (Stop Global Warming)

In our individual lives, much can be done to lessen our carbon footprint, to live frugally in such a way so as to live in a sort of smart luxury. Faults in isolating carbon as the main source of dangerous climate change, such as carbon-based life forms depend on the gas, inform us as to best orient are response to environmental changes.

Other ways to prevent or reverse global warming include geo-engineering -- or terraforming -- the planet. The basis of this idea posits that the Earth's climate can be manipulated by human technological advents. One tactic being considered is the launching of sulfur particles high into the stratosphere in order to lower the temperature of the Earth.

According to Jeff Goodell, author of How to Cool the Earth, "the impacts of this [on both the atmosphere and the Arctic] are being explored by a number of climate modelers," Goodell says. Still, data and conclusions on this option is scant. Such proceedings also take on a geopolitical nature. Who controls the technology and, by extension, the Earth's temperature? Temperature management entails manipulating the amount of sunlight the Earth reflects, as opposed to absorb. One technique calls for the placement of thousands of square miles of reflective sheets in the desert to reflect sunlight. This has grave implications for the ecosystems of the desert, and it is uncertain whether it would work.