...price of gasoline for automobiles and other governmental and company funding. There are many other costs that are less obvious. These costs are the effects fossil fuels have on our environment and on human health. Air pollution caused by the burning of coal and oil as well as dust in mines is causing problems for human health. The environment is suffering from acid rain, global warming and water and air pollution. Many times, the costs go unpaid for and unnoticed. It is imperative that we as a society take responsibility and strive to reduce the negative effects of fossil fuels on our environment. The global warming is a major environmental issue that is caused by the use of fossil fuels. When fossil fuels are burned, carbon dioxide is emitted. It captures heat in the earth’s atmosphere. What is happening is that the more carbon dioxide emitted the warmer the earth’s climate is getting. I know some may be thinking that warm weather is great! Keep the global warming and the carbon dioxide coming! Global warming, however, is seriously dangerous for our society, economy, and our environment. Global warming can cause coastal cities to go under water due to a rise in sea level because of melting glaciers. Agriculture will be greatly affected as well. If...
Words: 723 - Pages: 3
...Everyday we breathe pollutants that can cause use a lot of harm, and even death. We are destroying our planet because we over used the resources that we have. The atmospheric issue that I chose is global warming, and the indoor air pollutant is Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Climate change is changing our health, economy, and communities. Climate change is an increase in the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere. The air pollutants that contribute to this issue are chlorofluorocarbons, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide green house gases, and aerosols. These air pollutants are causing a tick blanket in the atmosphere trapping the heat and making the planet warm up. In the 20th Century the sea level has increased by an average of 7 inches. When the temperature reaches a certain point, glaciers will retreat, altering water supplies for everyone. With an increased temperature there will be more disease carrying mosquito infecting more people. One solution is to have cleaner technology. Modern technologies can help reduce the carbon pollution and other harmful pollutants as well. Renewable energy such as solar electric vehicles, nuclear power, and natural gas will help decrease global warming. Greenhouse gases need to decrease so that the Earth will not warm up as fast. Planting more trees and cutting less is also one of the solutions. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are chemicals found in house hold cleaners, varnishes and waxes, home interior products such as paint, building...
Words: 373 - Pages: 2
...Alexis Brown Mrs. Persichetti Chemistry 02 May 2011 Global Warming The Earth is warming and human activity is the primary cause. Climate disruptions put our food and water supply at risk, endanger our health, jeopardize our national security, and threaten other basic human needs. Impacts such as: record high temperatures, melting glaciers, and severe flooding and droughts, are becoming increasingly common around the world. In the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore discusses his efforts to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide. Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President, clearly states the current issues with the planet and explains if no changes are made soon, it will lead to disaster. In the beginning of Al Gore’s presentation, he displays one of the first pictures of earth from space; the moonlight provided enough light to be able to see a crisp and distinct picture of earth’s spherical shape. Topics such as: Infrared radiation, high temperatures and Carbon Dioxide remained the key points throughout the documentary. Infrared radiation, above average temperatures, and Carbon Dioxide are all causes or effects of global warming. Not only is infrared radiation harmful to the earth, but it can be beneficial as well. The same infrared radiation that destroys the beautiful ice caps in the artic is also responsible for keeping the earth's temperature relatively constant over time. The amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) intake has literally topped the charts....
Words: 669 - Pages: 3
...President Al Gore’s 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning. Al Gore has been a long-time speaker and against global warming, and has advocated toward environmental energy efficiency and alternate fuel resources. In the years following his time in the White House, Gore focused significant time traveling throughout the world presenting the adverse effects related to global warming. This led to the creation of his documentary An Inconvenient Truth” A personal evaluation of this film considers the issue of the earth’s rising temperatures, the arguments and implications of global warming, how this topic challenged and broadened my understanding of science, and what significant elements I have taken away from viewing the film. This film is strongly connected to the Science/ Description breadth area because of its exploration of the earth’s construction and how humanity affects our planet, and many of the earth’s natural processes. According to the film, “The greatest venerable part of the Earths ecological system is the Atmosphere” (An Inconvenient Truth). One of the film’s global implications is that humans have the capability to irresponsibly damage the thin and protective layer of the Earth’s atmosphere called the Ozone. Each year, the Ozone is being thickened by pollutants causing more radiation from the sun to be trapped in the Atmosphere. In turn, the atmosphere steadily warms, hence the term, global warming. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) argues that...
Words: 690 - Pages: 3
...Helpful Tips to Decrease Global Warming Global warming is impacting the world by increasing the average global temperature and causing many changes that are not visibly noticeable. These changes are costing us our healthy planet and safer world because of the serious effects it has on the climate and our lives. The causes of global warming can be reduced by taking action and altering our life styles in several ways. Taking action to help minimize global warming will have a huge impact on the amount of man-made air pollution that is produced. Global warming is the reason for the warmer climate on Earth. “There are more and more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, more heat is trapped which makes the Earth warmer… known as Global warming” (Greenhouse Effect). Our actions on Earth are one of the variables that contribute to global warming and will affect the Earth if continued at the current rate. It has already shown noticeable consequences to our climate, surroundings and weather. “There has been three periods of global warming since 1850; the most recent warming was originally thought to have been caused by emissions by man of carbon dioxide” (Global Warming Science). Between these three periods the Earth cooled leading to the changes in climate “for the past 11,000 years” according to Global Science. Global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect which is the cycle of light, heat of the Earth’s surface and Earth’s atmosphere. “The greenhouse gases reach the Earth’s...
Words: 1293 - Pages: 6
...Global Warming Research The Global Warming is a reality that most of us overlook.The majority of the world population is in the dark about Climate Change. Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Humans are emitting more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, faster than the absorbing rates of plants and the oceans.As a result , the Earth's atmosphere is overloaded with heat-trapping carbon dioxide, which threatens climate with disastrous consequences. Global Warming has become the biggest environmental and humanitarian crisis of our time.There is still time to cease this environmental crisis , but we must act now.The global greenhouse gases are the main reason of this Global Warming disaster . We should create awareness of Global Warming because it is disrupting millions of lives in the forms of destructive weather patterns and loss of habitat. The most important cause of this problem is global companies and the industrialized countries like Japan, the United States that thanks to their businesses and their desire to win money every time ,by these means also pollute the environment. The gases that they emit are concentrating and are causing alterations in the climate that have been steadily increasing and according to the scientists it was since the industrial revolution because it was the moment in which man had more action on the nature.The emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-term changes in the components...
Words: 1199 - Pages: 5
...The world’s degrading right in front of our eyes and furthermore we’re the cause of it. The world’s our responsibility to take authority of, because who's else would it be? So why don't we do something about it? It might be as simple as advocating a tax. The atmosphere contains various gases like carbon dioxide that warms our atmosphere by trapping the heat the sun emits. Consequently, the trapping of the heat from the sun called the greenhouse effect hurts our atmosphere if overproduced. Earth's worldwide temperature is inevitably rising to an all time high every year. As a result, global warming becomes more and more ominous. This global warming has in fact been an issue ever since the industrial revolution era. Humans are mostly to blame...
Words: 1677 - Pages: 7
...lack self-reflection or awareness. Our current generation is pretty much messed up because we have eradicated and moved away from the ancient way doing things or thinking. For me I feel that predicting our future is important because first of all we would like to think about the future we would like for ourselves and our upcoming generations. Flying automobiles like cars is an epitome that has been seen in cartoons and movies. It is an interesting concept to deliberate about and also we have to stop and think for one second if the idea is realistic or not. With the way the world is moving in a very fast pace I feel like 100 years from now we will destroy ourselves and our environment. Issues of environmental and ecological problems, global warming, food scarcity crisis. The first kind of problem facing the world today is environmental and ecological problems of the World....
Words: 1159 - Pages: 5
...Global Warming Anita Orzel Southern New Hampshire University Global Warming The earth has undergone periodic changes known as global cooling, and global warming. Today’s global warming is unique, due to human influences. American people should be concerned, as the world's scientific experts agree that industrial and land use activities are having an unfavorable impact on global warming. Burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, gasoline cause buildup in greenhouse gasses, in addition, deforestation, and destruction of ozone layer create global warming. Earth will suffer serious environmental damage if there are no precautions taken now to reduce global warming pollution. To prevent further damage to global warming caused by human activities, policies must be implemented and diligently enforced, all nations need to partake in action plan to implement policies such as fossil fuel conservation and recycling programs. Greenhouse gases help sustain life on earth by trapping heat from the sun and keeping the earth warm. Some greenhouse gasses develop naturally some occur from human activities. Naturally occurring gasses are, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide (An Overview of Greenhouse Gases 2009). Human activities, such as, burning of solid waste, fossil fuels such as, oil, natural gas, and coal, wood, raising of livestock, and industrial activities add to the greenhouse gasses, and destroy the ozone layer. Lynas M. (2006) burning fossil fuels release...
Words: 2415 - Pages: 10
...This has created an every growing social issue. This attitude has led to the loss of biodiversity that will inevitably bring the collapse of ecosystems. We take more resources from the earth and space as our population increases.As a result we are disrupting the habitats of animal species that live in undeveloped areas. As we expand our range to make room for new communities we inadvertently displace the natural order of insects, animals and plants that occupy the land. Our attitude towards growth and technology serves human needs and comfort at the expense of animals, organism and the ecosystems that sustain them. Our reliance on technology is hurting the environment at an unprecedented remarkable rate. The automotive industry for example causes pollution from manufacturing the cars that we all adore. Consequently, the ozone layer is being destroyed and is changing life on Earth as we know it for all species. We must embrace the long term affects of our actions in order to better managed our nature resources and...
Words: 2775 - Pages: 12
...Global warming is a severe problem facing the world today. Based on the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report (AR4 2007) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as Earth’s climate began to change due to the rise of global temperature, there will be an increased tendency for drought, melting of ice sheets in Greenland or Antarctica and this will pose a major threat to human existence. The greenhouse effect is much to be blamed for global warming as carbon dioxide accumulated at the atmosphere will prevent most of the outgoing infrared radiation at the atmosphere from escaping into outer space. The main source of carbon dioxide emission is the burning of fossil fuels to generate energy in order to meet our daily requirements. Although the dependable energy supply by fossil fuel is essential in our every day life, because of its adverse effect is why the government should implement policies to encourage the use of renewable energy resources to conserve the environment. Fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, uranium, natural gases are non-renewable energy sources, which mean these resources cannot be re-made or regenerated. In contrast to that, renewable energy resources like hydroelectric energy, solar energy, wind energy, and geothermal energy do not deplete, or it will take a substantially long time to deplete them as it can be replenished by nature. Statistics has shown that there is an increase in the investment of renewable energy over the pass few years, in 2007 more...
Words: 1116 - Pages: 5
...have very serious impacts on the environment and people affected, such as in March 2014 when the only long-term geologic repository for nuclear waste in the United States suffered a radiation leak, with the initial report showing that 13 workers tested positive for radioactive contamination. However, aside from the waste, nuclear is a very clean recyclable energy as the atoms used to cause the reaction can be reused several times before they run out of energy. Nuclear power has low social acceptability partially due to the risk of leaks from toxic waste which can cause terminal illnesses such as cancer. Risk also stems from accidents or malfunctions causing meltdowns, which cause large areas to become susceptible to high radioactivity, affecting thousands, and making places un-livable. Accidents such as the 1986 Chernobyl incident in Ukraine caused an estimated 4000 deaths, although this figure is still debated over. Thirdly, many of the public worry about the risk that a terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant could have. Nuclear power has high economic costs due to the mass safety precautions, scale, and cost of equipment when built, as well as refuel costs, maintenance and operation. Construction costs often go into the tens of billions, and for a typical 1,000 MWe BWR station, the approximate cost...
Words: 1090 - Pages: 5
...to jelly and trouble the fish life which made it hard to fishers to make a living. In the book excerpt “ Countdown Acid”, it was recorded that normal rain also holds very small amounts of acid particles in it, but none that can harm or damage anything. The story “ To build a fire” by Jack London from Literature for composition, London discusses that modern needs for man had turned humans into selfish people taking advantage of nature. The story “Butterflies” by Patricia Grace from Literature for Composition, Grace displays a message that we don’t really know what really happens to animals or nature until we experience it happen. The article “Now or Never” by Bill McKibben from Literature for Composition, McGibben emphasizes that global warming is getting stronger when carbon dioxide or other gases are emitted into the atmosphere. Conclusion: I believe it is literally impossible to control acid rain if addressed to the public, the only way to maybe stop it is if we can convince the public to force political figures to take actions to control how wastes are released by industries. Acid rain is one of the most dangerous...
Words: 1688 - Pages: 7
...for that work. Incineration converts the materials deemed as wastes including paper, metals, plastics and food scraps into fly ash, bottom ash, combustion gases and heat (Denilson et al., 1996). In some instances the heat produced by incineration can be used to create electric power. In the United States there are a total of 113 incinerators that are working and out of these, 86 are used to produce electricity (Brebbia et al., 2014). The last incinerator in US was built in the year 1997 and ever since there has been no new incinerator built (Brebbia et al., 2014). The reasons for the halt in building incinerators in US was due to the public opposition regarding the costs of building, identified health risks and environmental pollution it causes and the increase of other practices like composting and recycling (Brebbia et al., 2014). Incineration is a very effective method in eliminating the wastes that would have been deposited on land and creating energy that can be used in various sectors like electricity generation. In as much incineration is used as a source of energy making, it poses great risk to the...
Words: 2590 - Pages: 11
...Coal is a fossil fuel like oil and gas. Fossil fuels are all formed out of organic matter deposited, decomposed and compressed, storing all the carbon involved under the earth's surface for millions of years. Some of the advantages of coal are - * Easily combustible, and burns at low temperatures, making coal-fired boilers cheaper and simpler than many others * Widely and easily distributed all over the world; * Comparatively inexpensive to buy on the open market due to large reserves and easy accessibility * Good availability for much of the world (i.e. coal is found many more places than other fossil fuels) * Most coal is rather simple to mine, making it by far the least expensive fossil fuel to actually obtain * Coal-powered generation scales well, making it economically possible to build a wide variety of sizes of generation plants. * A fossil-fuelled power station can be built almost anywhere, so long as you can get large quantities of fuel to it. Most coal fired power stations have dedicated rail links to supply the coal. However, the important issue as of now is whether there are more advantages than disadvantages of fossil fuels like coal! Some disadvantages of coal are that - * it is Non-renewable and fast depleting; * Coal has the lowest energy density of any fossil fuel - that is, it produces the least energy per ton of fuel * It also has the lowest energy density per unit volume, meaning that the amount of energy...
Words: 1142 - Pages: 5
