Would Using alternative sources or energy dramatically reduce the need to burn fossil fuels and risk of global warming?

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                                             Reducing global warming

Our planet, Earth, is surrounded by a shield of atmospheric gases consisting primarily of nitrogen and oxygen. The sun produces radiation which is most intense at short wavelengths. The atmosphere is almost transparent to this radiation and is absorbed by the earth’s surface. When the land and sea are warm they radiate the energy they have absorbed at a longer wavelength, some is reabsorbed and re-radiated back to earth by atmospheric gases. Although eventually escaping into space, it is retained long enough to warm the atmosphere. This is the greenhouse effect, and the gases causing it are greenhouse gases.

Without global warming, the earth’s average temperature would be much lower; resulting in a drop of 33 degrees from its current 15 degrees to -18 degrees, an ice planet. However, excessive amounts of greenhouse gases could increase the greenhouse effect, causing an up rise in global temperatures as well as changes in precipitation patterns.

Global warming will affect our every day lives as shown in the leaflet however there are several ways in which the amount of greenhouse gas emissions could be significantly decreased. These are displayed below;

Reducing Deforestation

Carbon Dioxide is a major contributor to global warming. It is released from factories, powerstations, road vehicles but most of all it is produced during the process of deforestation. Deforestation involves tree reduction. Trees play a unique role in the global carbon cycle as they are the largest land-based natural mechanisms for removing CO2 from the air (CO2 is also removed by oceans and oceans organisms).Through photosynthesis, forests are able to absorb and store large amounts of CO2 in their structures; individually they absorb around 13 pounds of CO2 per year and one acre of forest absorbs about 2.8 tons of CO2. When forests are cleared or burnt CO2, methane and nitrous oxide are released into the atmosphere. Each year, deforestation contributes 23-30 percent of overall CO2 in the atmosphere by countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, Burma, Mexico and Thailand. Therefore, while more and more carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere, there are less and less forests to remove it. Deforestation both releases huge amounts CO2 into our atmosphere and destroys our means of absorbing and storing this substance. The destruction of the earths forests not only contribute to global warming, but also undermine the long-term ability of the Earth’s atmosphere to neutralize green house gases. The Earth’s defence mechanism against pollutants are called ‘trace radicals;’ gas molecules which interact with greenhouse gases, making them harmless. There are limited quantities of these trace radicals in the atmosphere, and as more greenhouse gases are released more trace radicals are used up. This diminishes the Earth’s ability to stabilize the atmosphere.

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The causes of deforestation are varied. The most important include logging, the conversion of forested land for agriculture and cattle raising, urbanization, mining and oil exploitation. However there has been a tendency of highlighting small scale migratory farmers as the major cause of forest loss. These farmers settle along roads through the forest, to clear a patch of land and use it for growing food or cash crops. In tropical forests, this leads to rapid soil degradation as the soils is too poor to sustain agriculture. Consequently, the farmer is forced to clear another patch of forest using the degraded ...

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