Cosmic Essays

Chapter Two:
The Causes of Global Warming

Greenhouse gases are very popular in the debate over global warming. The discovery of the effect of greenhouse gases is credited to Svante Atthenius, a Swedish scientist who published a paper in 1896 about the effects of greenhouse gases on earth’s surface temperature. Carbon dioxide and other gases from industries burning fossil fuels would build up in the atmosphere and trap heat like the roof of a greenhouse. The carbon dioxide would not be absorbed back into the earth fast enough as it usually does and would absorb the heat energy from the sun that would normally escape into space. (Moore 8; Cooper sec. 1) Arrhenius also predicted that doubling the amount of CO2 would create a 5–6° rise in temperatures over the centuries (Leroux 20).

Carbon dioxide is only one gas that builds up in the atmosphere. There are many other gases in the atmosphere, including water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide and small traces of other gases. These gases all have their own effects on the atmosphere. Many can be absorbed into the ocean or into forests, but this takes time. Removal of carbon dioxide takes 50–200 years. Nitrogen warms at a rate 200 times more than carbon dioxide and is release by power plants and industries burning fossil fuels. Excess methane is produced by agricultural industries. The warming effect on the atmosphere is ten times greater than carbon dioxide, but only stays in the atmosphere for a dozen years (Berger 32-33). Even manufacturing cement effects the composition of the atmosphere. Primordial carbon dioxide is trapped in rocks in the earth and some is released through this process as lime is extracted from limestone. Of course, cement only plays a small part. Many natural occurrences, such as volcanoes, do the same thing, but the burning of fossil fuels is releasing CO2 faster than these other methods (Gribben 201).

The ocean and forests do absorb these gases, but it is hard to tell at what rate. As trees are logged and processed for human use, the ability of forests to absorb large amounts fails because there are fewer trees. Not only that, but trees release their stores of the absorbed carbon dioxide through fires and through decay caused by deforestation. The soil also stores Co2 that is released once a forest has been harvested. Burning fossil fuels is not the only contributor to global warming.

Many studies have proven without a doubt that global warming is happening, and that human processes such as industry, agriculture, and deforestation are having a huge impact on the environment. Skeptics still ignore this. They set out to prove that nothing is happening with the atmosphere, that the earth can take care of itself through natural processes, and that the majority of scientists around the globe are either wrong or have political agendas for creating hype.