Global warming – Fact or Fantasy?

The term “global warming” has been bounced around a while now. For many years we have been hearing about this once unfamiliar phrase, but is this something that we have to be concerned about in reality, or is it just some random hypothesis made up by mad scientists? What is global warming and is it real? Could it be happening as we speak?

What is global warming and what are some of the effects?

Global warming is when the Earth’s average temperature increases due to greenhouse effect, which is caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide. There is 70% chance that Global warming will continue for another 10 years. The Greenhouse effect consists of 4 main things, which are: Cs, Methane, Nitrous oxide and Carbon dioxide. So moving on, a frequently asked question is what these 4 things do to cause Global warming, well I will explain each and every one of these effects now.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
Chlorofluorocarbons are used in many things, E.g. Old fridges and aerosols (see picture below) etc. When these types of materials are thrown in the bin and crushed the Chlorofluorocarbons left over will spill in the atmosphere. The amounts of gasses leaking into the atmosphere have reduced due to less Chloroflucarbons being used. E.g. less spray deodorants are being used and more roll-a-balls being used. Also because technology has improved most fridges do not use Chloroflucarbons.
Methane
Methane is produced (and found) in waste areas and in some farms especially cattle farms because cow’s flatulence releases methane (as the picture on the left depicts). The wheat and methane could be separated. When there are some people who bin paper rather than recycling it could increase the methane level. However if we recycled the methane instead then we could gradually decrease the methane levels rather than increasing them.
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide can be found mostly everywhere but it gets harmful when found in things like cars, trains, buses, factories etc. It is harmful because it pollutes and heats up the atmosphere more. When fossil fuels burn the reactants are carbon dioxide and water. Everyday 70 percent of the world at least contributes to carbon dioxide being in the atmosphere. People walking or cycling rather than using a car can solve this. The picture on the right shows carbon dioxide trapping heat in it around the Earth and this is mainly how global warming is caused.
Nitrous Oxides
People using nuclear power plants produce nitrous oxides but that isn’t the reason why the Earth’s atmosphere is increasing. The main reason to our Earth’s atmosphere increasing is that when people are using the power plants the uranium that gets mined from it does. If plant food is used (too much) then it won’t all get absorbed and it’ll just stay there. This produces nitrous oxide. We can improve this by using renewable energy, such as solar energy. This way there will be less nitrous oxide and the Earth will be less polluted. (Picture to the left of NOx in a car)

What causes global warming? Global warming is caused when a human burns coal, oil, or natural gas. This is because their waste gas is carbon dioxide, which is emitted into the atmosphere by infrared radiation and trapped around the Earth when the Sun reflects light onto the Earth. (See carbon dioxide picture on page 1). Greenhouse gases trap some of the heat in the Earth’s atmosphere and this is slowly melting all the ice in Antarctica and the Artic and other icy countries. Therefore this will lead to major flooding on a national scale, country by country as well as increased temperatures everywhere. The more dense countries will be the first to be flooded, e.g. Bangladesh. As a result, it could potentially ruin the world. Although this will happen after our generation, it is still our responsibility to be sustainable for the future and our future children. Statistics show that the U.S. and global annual temperatures are