Interesting facts about Global Warming

April 4, 2012 | In: Geography Facts

For the past 10 or 20 years, the main subject about the weather is the so-called Global Warming. What is this phenomenon and is it really happening?

The global warming is also known as the Greenhouse effect. What does this really mean? The greenhouse effect is when the temperature rises because the sun’s heat and light is trapped in the earth’s atmosphere.  This is like when heat is trapped in a car. On a very hot day, the car gets hotter when it is out in the parking lot.  This is because the heat and light from the sun can get into the car, by going through the windows, but it can’t get back out.  This is what the greenhouse effect does to the earth.  The heat and light can get through the atmosphere, but it can’t get out.  As a result, the temperature rises.

The sun’s heat can get into the car through the windows but is then trapped. This makes a car, a building, or the earth’s atmosphere, hotter. Once the light is inside the car, it is trapped and the heat builds up, just like it does in the earth’s atmosphere.

But sometimes the sun can work for, and not against us. The greenhouse effect makes the earth the perfect spot for that people can live on it.  Without the sun, the earth would be freezing, or on the other hand it would be burning hot.  It would be freezing at night because the sun wouldn’t heat up the planet at all.  We would not get the sun’s heat and light to make the night somewhat warm.  During the day, especially during the summer, it would be burning because the sun would be up with no atmosphere to filter it, so people, plants, and animals would be exposed to all the light and heat.

Although the greenhouse effect makes the earth able to have people living on it, if there gets to be too many gases, the earth can get unusually warmer, and many plants, animals, and people will die.  They would die because there would be less food (plants like corn, wheat, and other vegetables and fruits).  This would happen because the plants would not be able to take the heat.  This would cause us to have less food to eat, but it would also limit the food that animals have.  With less food for the animals that we need to survive, we would even have less food.  Gradually, people, plants, and animals would all die of hunger.

Ok. After this global warming essay, let’s begin with facts. Here are some statistics that will raise some questions:

• The global fleet of motor vehicles is estimated at 850,000,000 (2010).
• The global fleet of motor vehicles has been recently growing at the rate of 16,000,000 per year.
• Motor vehicles account for 80% of all transport-related energy use.
• About 75% of the annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is due to the burning of fossil fuels.
• The remaining 25% is attributed to anthropogenic changes in land use, which have the effect of reducing the net uptake of carbon dioxide.
• Other patterns of land degradation, deforestation, overgrazing, over-cultivation, urban sprawl, desertification, and  the net uptake of carbon dioxide, indirectly contributing, however slightly, to global warming.

So, before you turn on the lights, be careful that you turn them of when you don’t need them anymore.