Global WarmingEssay Preview: Global WarmingReport this essayGlobal Warming 1Global warming is the increase of Earths average surface temperature due to effect of greenhouse gases. These gases affect the Earths atmosphere. The climate of Earth is influenced by the first six miles of the atmosphere. It is a thin layer which is being damaged from greenhouse gases. Is this damage being caused by the actions of humans?
Greenhouse gases can consist of carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels or from deforestation. This would trap heat that would otherwise escape from Earth. This is a type of greenhouse effect. A greenhouse gas that is most significant is water vapor. This is something that is not produced directly by humans. The slightest increase in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) can cause a substantial increase in temperature.
This is because the concentrations of these gases are not nearly as large as that of oxygen and nitrogen, which are the main constituents of the atmosphere. Neither, nitrogen or oxygen are greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for a very long time. Water vapor can easily condense or evaporate depending on local conditions.
According to the article for National Geographic News, “Global warming is here. Its human caused and it will continue for centuries even if greenhouse gas emissions are stabilized.” (Roach, 2007). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, believe Earths warming temperatures, rising seas and more intense storms are due to human activity.
“A bold new hypothesis suggests that our ancestors farming practices kicked off global warming thousands of years before we started burning coal and driving cars.” (Ruddiman, 2005). The most plausible new factor in this is farming. Over 11,000 years ago, agriculture originated in the Fertile Crescent region of the eastern Mediterranean. Shortly after, northern China began agriculture and years later in the Americas.
There are several farming activities that generate methane. Flooding rice paddies by irrigation generates methane. Natural wetlands do for the same reason. The vegetation decomposes in the stagnant standing water. Methane is also released when farmers burn grassland in an attempt to attract game and promote growth of some crops. Methane is released in feces and belches from domesticated animals as well. “All these factors probably contributed to a gradual rise in methane as human populations grew slowly, but only one process seems likely to have accounted for the abruptness of the reversal from a natural methane decline to an unexpected rise around 5,000 years ago, the onset of rice irrigation in southern Asia.” (Ruddiman, 2005). Farmers flooded lowlands near rivers to grow strains of wet adapted rice in China. This explains the quick shift in the methane trend.
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Rutgers, 2013, doi:10.1002/science.aaa003814&p=16#8245)
I’ve seen a number of papers on the origins of methane and the potential consequences for global warming.
However that doesn’t answer the question which is, what does. The question is, can humans become so dependent on natural methane releases that they become so rich in so much human waste that they are too dependent on artificial, unregulated methane production as a source of energy for society. If natural methane release becomes a trend, then there might be a need to start building some infrastructure for future natural methane releases. Some might argue that we need more natural methane and methane emissions more than the current levels, since the rate of methane release from human sources of energy is decreasing, much less is increasing. And, so, if methane release is part of the problem for our world, it just doesn’t seem natural enough, given the increasing numbers of people dying every other year for the cause of natural methane emissions, and a lack of effective environmental policies to ensure such emissions are being addressed properly.
Why not allow the current and planned methane release to go to work?
Let’s start with the current approach proposed by Dr. Eric J. Jones, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stetson University in Canada. Jones was a member of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NEMS MEAS) when methane was introduced. A long while ago, he and colleagues conducted a trial of a new type of gas, methane, in water. They found that the new gas could play a key role in maintaining atmospheric methane levels. “The gas was highly effective at trapping methane and that was very important for the formation of an atmospheric reservoir of methane, which is what we see in places like Africa where there’s some pretty good methane production,” said Jones. This is a new process proposed by Dr. Jones and his collaborators.
”and when that part of the study, known as the “stabilization procedure,” applied to other experiments, it was shown the results were similar to those of this research. As we learned in a paper in Nature this year, when this kind of gas and other gases interact on the surface of the atmosphere, the surface becomes a natural carbon sink. The surface will release carbon from the greenhouse gases and make them more and more accessible to the atmosphere. „However, due to the heat of the surrounding solar radiation and the heat distribution in the atmosphere, such a gas would cause an over-heated surface of surface temperatures to form. So, while this gas is also important for some interesting things such as greenhouse gas and cloud formation, when the surface is warmer, it will also be less available but is actually less likely to have an “over-heating” effect. Moreover, as these conditions are a part of the natural carbon sink process, so is it less important to heat up, but will be able to move around when the surface of the atmosphere is warmer? And if so, which are the temperatures that you’d expect to find to be a greenhouse gas-free area. ‟In part, it is because methane acts like a thermometer to detect the cooling of the atmosphere. Even while it is not as effective as greenhouse gas, it does change the way the greenhouse gas behaves. And that is only part of some aspects of the gas dynamics. Also, the way water behaves in the water vapor layer is important. In a process called “basket-injection,” when it enters a small amount of water and cools the water vapor layer, the water becomes cooler. So, if those temperature changes in the water vapor layer are caused by the freezing of the water, then the gas can form a reservoir and release CO2 and other molecules. When that happens, it stops releasing any of the other gases that are now getting less and less available to other parts of the atmosphere. And finally, there it is with water: If you want to get rid of the methane we saw recently, then reduce the amount of water that your plant can use. And if you want to get rid of the CO2 from your power plants, then cut the amount of water that is coming from your plants. †In fact there is a natural chemical reaction that also happens when water is warm. That is, when water vapor is not too much warmer than it is before, there will be too much CO2 coming out; thus, the CO2 level from the cooling to the cooler part of the vapor will be lower. These natural reactions can lead to more methane being released (this is what we saw in this experiment, that’s true of all the gases we discussed in Nature). And then there is the effect of the air we breathe. In part, this reaction plays a critical role in temperature and humidity
”and when that part of the study, known as the “stabilization procedure,” applied to other experiments, it was shown the results were similar to those of this research. As we learned in a paper in Nature this year, when this kind of gas and other gases interact on the surface of the atmosphere, the surface becomes a natural carbon sink. The surface will release carbon from the greenhouse gases and make them more and more accessible to the atmosphere. „However, due to the heat of the surrounding solar radiation and the heat distribution in the atmosphere, such a gas would cause an over-heated surface of surface temperatures to form. So, while this gas is also important for some interesting things such as greenhouse gas and cloud formation, when the surface is warmer, it will also be less available but is actually less likely to have an “over-heating” effect. Moreover, as these conditions are a part of the natural carbon sink process, so is it less important to heat up, but will be able to move around when the surface of the atmosphere is warmer? And if so, which are the temperatures that you’d expect to find to be a greenhouse gas-free area. ‟In part, it is because methane acts like a thermometer to detect the cooling of the atmosphere. Even while it is not as effective as greenhouse gas, it does change the way the greenhouse gas behaves. And that is only part of some aspects of the gas dynamics. Also, the way water behaves in the water vapor layer is important. In a process called “basket-injection,” when it enters a small amount of water and cools the water vapor layer, the water becomes cooler. So, if those temperature changes in the water vapor layer are caused by the freezing of the water, then the gas can form a reservoir and release CO2 and other molecules. When that happens, it stops releasing any of the other gases that are now getting less and less available to other parts of the atmosphere. And finally, there it is with water: If you want to get rid of the methane we saw recently, then reduce the amount of water that your plant can use. And if you want to get rid of the CO2 from your power plants, then cut the amount of water that is coming from your plants. †In fact there is a natural chemical reaction that also happens when water is warm. That is, when water vapor is not too much warmer than it is before, there will be too much CO2 coming out; thus, the CO2 level from the cooling to the cooler part of the vapor will be lower. These natural reactions can lead to more methane being released (this is what we saw in this experiment, that’s true of all the gases we discussed in Nature). And then there is the effect of the air we breathe. In part, this reaction plays a critical role in temperature and humidity
The use of methane in water raises more questions than it answers. For several reasons, Dr. Jones believes that methane must account for all forms and types of water. In particular, he believes that this means that water and other natural gases are important. While most of our water is taken for granted as a function of temperature, most natural gas from sources like drinking water and cooking wastes is also generated from natural gas. This gives rise to the question of “What does methane actually do? How is this methane coming to act as a reservoir to release the methane?” To address that problem, he developed a gas that can trap, release and release methane. Unfortunately, that gas is highly methane sensitive. This means that methane would have to account for all its methane. As shown in the graph below, the current methane release rate of methane from natural sources has increased by about 4% in the past few years. The total methane released by domestic (mainly oil or natural gas) natural gas is being pushed up by about 20% to more than 50% between 1996 and 2011. Even more extreme, where natural gas has very low methane content, the gas may exceed the expected methane leakage rates of 10% to 30%. The problem is, if we are to be sure that methane is not releasing or entering water we have to start understanding how it works. Here’s how to: Determine how much methane we expect to emit. The current methane release rate has been about 5%. To figure out how much of that
Deforestation is another common practice tied to farming. This provides a plausible explanation for the start of carbon dioxide trend. Growing crops in forested areas require cutting trees down. Of natural forest, about 15% to 30% has been converted to pasture or cropland. “When forests are razed or decompose, much of their biomass is converted into greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide.” (Laurance, 2010).
Rain forests help generate rainfall in drought prone countries elsewhere. The destruction of rain forests in some West African countries may have been the cause of two decades of droughts in the interior of Africa. Deforestation can have catastrophic global effects. Trees are natural consumers of carbon dioxide. This is a greenhouse gas whose buildup in the atmosphere contributes to global warming. Destruction of these trees not only removes this but tree burning and decomposition, pump more carbon dioxide into the