Definition:
(what you probably know)
Global warming is a phenomenon of increase in the earth's average global
temperature, due to the effect of green house gases such as CO2, CH4,etc. These
gases trap the heat from the sun and keep it in the atmosphere. The phenomenon
is analogous to the green house , when plants are kept in an environment where
rays allowed to enter via screened windows but are unable to eacape (Radiate)
back thus, increasing the temperature. The emissions from industries,
vehicles, cattle, are prime reasons of greenhouse effect.
Look at it this way, by burning a 40 year old tree trunk you are giving out
the carbon products to the atmosphere, what the tree has spent 40 years to
collect.
Now stop a moment and try to to absorb the magnitude of destruction we are
causing.
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What is Global Warming/Green House effect?
Distribution of factors : The cause and the effect
Global warming is projected to have significant impacts on
conditions including temperature, precipitation and glacial run-off. These
conditions determine the carrying capacity of the biosphere to produce enough
food for the human population and domesticated animals. Rising carbon dioxide
levels would also have effects, both detrimental and beneficial, on crop yields.
The overall effect of climate change on agriculture will depend on the balance
of these effects. Along with the other factors, agriculture has been shown
to produce significant effects on climate change, primarily through the
production and release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and
nitrous oxide, but also by altering the earth's land cover, which can change its
ability to absorb or reflect heat and light, thus contributing to radiative
forcing. Land use change such as deforestation and desertification, together
with use of fossil fuels, are the major anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide.
What is causing it?
- Changes in greenhouse gases due to industrial and vehicular emissions and
tropospheric aerosols.
- Agriculture contributes to greenhouse gas increases through land use in
four main ways:
• CO2 releases linked to deforestation
• Methane releases from rice cultivation
• Methane releases from fermentation in cattle
• Nitrous oxide releases from fertilizer application
- Livestock and livestock-related activities such as deforestation and
increasingly fuel-intensive farming practices are responsible for over 18% of
human-made greenhouse gas emissions, including:
• 9% of global carbon dioxide emissions
• 35-40% of global methane emissions (chiefly due to enteric fermentation and
manure)
• 64% of global nitrous oxide emissions (chiefly due to fertilizer use.)
-
Livestock activities also contribute disproportionately to land-use effects,
since crops such as corn and alfalfa are cultivated in order to feed the
animals.
- Altering the earth's land
cover, which can change its ability to absorb or reflect heat and light, thus
contributing to radiative forcing.
- Volcanism
- Solar variability
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