It's also not just about using alternative energy power systems in your home. There are many other ways you can cut down on global warming at home. “Recycling is probably one of the other biggest ways you can reduce your carbon impact on the Planet” (Raviare, 2010). Recycling aluminum, glass and plastic make it easier to reproduce more, and it can save half of the energy needed to make these from scratch. Recycling paper reduces the amount of trees being cut down for paper products, and allows them to do their job, removing harmful carbon dioxide from the air that can, in the long run, help produce oxygen.
While there are many positives of going green there are some negatives as well that need to be taken into consideration. One of the many effects of going green is what you can do in your households, which in this case your flooring options. Part of the problem in going green lies in the confusion and contradictions over what it really means to be green. For example, “bamboo flooring is often considered an eco-friendly alternative to hardwood” (Beach, 2011). The bamboos that many get to be applied as flooring in their homes are from China. When you look at the reality of bamboo flooring being made in china and how it gets to the United States can be a little humbling. Transporting these bamboos flooring pieces take up a lot of fossil fuels. This is making bamboo less eco-friendly than local products that can be used as flooring.
The threat of global warming can still be greatly diminished if many can cut emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. While global temperatures would rise, the most dangerous potential aspects of climate change, including massive losses of Arctic sea ice and permafrost and significant sea level rise, could be partially avoided. Greenhouse gasses are taking over the global warming process by an alarming rate. “Much of the warming is due to human-produced emissions of greenhouse gases, predominantly carbon dioxide. This heat-trapping gas has increased from a pre-industrial level of about 284 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere to more than 380 ppm today” (Boulder, 2009).
There are two main types of greenhouse gasses. One of the most common forms of greenhouse gasses that can be commonly familiarized by almost anyone is called Carbon Dioxide. Carbon Dioxide is a gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in Earth's atmosphere. It is one of the vital gasses that we as humans need to intake in order to breathe. On the other hand, Methane is another greenhouse gas that may not be so common. Methane is a gas that is used to produce energy. This gas is flammable and can be found throughout the earth in various places.
Carbon Dioxide can come from a numerous things. Carbon Dioxide can come from fossil fuels and deforestation. Carbon dioxide is produced during respiration by all animals, fungi and microorganisms that depend either directly or indirectly on plants for food. When you breathe in oxygen from the air around you, it travels through your body and is converted to carbon dioxide. This happens by the time you exhale. Deforestation is known as cutting down trees. When you cut down trees, Carbon Dioxide gets released into the air which is eventually inhaled by a person of the global village. Methane on the other hand is a totally different kind of greenhouse gas. This mainly comes from cattle and Rice Paddies along with nitrogen oxides that mainly originate from farming.
The information about Methane can let us know that global warming has been an ongoing issue by how it is produced. The video: Guns, Germs and Steel is a prime example of how farming back in the day could have led to some of the effects of global warming. Like said before, Methane comes from cattle, rice patties, and nitrogen oxides from farming. Farming that never emerged in Australia, caused tons and tons of greenhouse gases to be emitted into the air. This caused a revolution of farming techniques around the world, and some are still used today.
Another way that society isn’t so generous in helping the environment and its global warming problems is the use of power plants. “Power plants released 72% of the greenhouse gases reported to the for 2010, according to information released Wednesday that was the first catalog of global warming pollution by facility. The data include more than 6,700 of the largest industrial sources of greenhouse gases, or about 80 percent of total U.S. emissions” (Cappiello, 2012).
The global village can do a number of things to reduce gas emissions. We can for starters, switch to alternate food sources. This could mean eating greener. Going from processed meats and foods that require shipments overseas to eating local fruits and vegetables can help our ecosystem as well. When talking about eating green, going vegan is not the only way to accomplish such a task. Eating organic meats and grains can also help the ecosystem tremendously.
Another way that we as the global village can reduce gas emissions is an alternate transportation option. While we are going to generate gasses from driving motor vehicle, reducing the number of motor vehicle can cut down on the amount of gas we emit into the atmosphere. Instead of taking your car to work that can be located right around the corner, walking or riding a bike once or twice a week can cut back on the gasses that we in the global village emit into the air. Even if you ride a community transportation bus or subway, in the long run, it will cut back on gasses that are put into the air that can lead to a healthier planet for all.
Refutation
While all of these points are valid and prove that global warming is actually happening, one could have arguments as to why global warming isn’t happening. This is the main point made by global warming scientists. Data does in fact show that temperature and CO2 are correlated. Global warming scientists say that an increase of CO2 causes global temperatures to rise, but this is not the case; a rise in global temperatures causes a rise in CO2. Temperatures can also start to rise before CO2 begins to rise. This happens because of the oceans. CO2 released by natural or man-made sources is mostly absorbed into the ocean, when the global temperature raises it gradually increases the ocean temperature which releases CO2 and other gasses into the atmosphere. Also most of the warming occurred way back when industrialization was not as grea. Now take a look at our atmosphere as it relates to greenhouse gasses. “CO2 makes up .03% of our atmosphere, a very small amount of our atmosphere. Other greenhouse gasses like water vapor make up 1-4% of the atmosphere. Now take a look at where CO2 comes from, all human activity combined produces 6.5Gt of CO2 per year. Volcanoes alone match that number. All animals combined produce 150Gt of CO2” (Boulder, 2009). So humans produce a very small amount of CO2 which itself makes up a very small amount of our atmosphere. Water vapor is acknowledged to be the major greenhouse gas, and all of that is produced into evaporation. With this being said, it is safe to say that the reasoning behind your accusations about CO2, fossil fuels and how taking care of our ecosystem will help global warming isn’t exactly true. This is because global warming doesn’t really exist but rather a made up accusation led on by many scientists with little to no scientific data to back up their evidence.
Global warming is a very complex complicated issue. The rate of temperature change may only be predicted. Still, the global village is taking action to possibly reduce its contribution to the CO emissions and also to reduce the pollution. If we are mistaken and later will be discovered that humans contributed to the global warming insignificantly, our children will have a cleaner and safer planet to live on, anyway. On the other hand, if nothing is going to be done, present generation will leave to the decedents both bad environment and bad economy, as the resources begins to exhaust.
I believe that global warming is an ongoing problem in the global village. If actions are not taken to slow down the process of global warming, the earth is only going to get hotter and hotter until wildlife and crops start to suffer. Although many people have started going green, the problem of global warming is continuing to intensify the global village because of an increasing greenhouse gas emissions, continued global deforestation, and the ongoing burning of fossil fuels. These problems are the source of global warming and need to be looked at in all seriousness if this problem is actually going to digress.
References
Beach, H. B. (2011, March 29). Cons of going green. Retrieved from
Boulder, A. B. (2009, January 02). Global Warming Can Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Retrieved from
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Cappiello, T. C. (2012, August 14). Greenhouse gas power plants. Retrieved from
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Raviare, J. R. (2010, July 20). How Going Green Can Reduce Global Warming. Retrieved from