Greenhouse gas effect and ways to stop them Term Paper

Greenhouse gas effect and ways to stop them - Term Paper Example This paper also seeks to suggest plausible ways on how to reduce GHG emission in order to diminish the impacts of global warming. Data from various sources revealed that the primordial effect of increased GHG is global warming, which is also implicated in changes in the pattern of precipitation and rainfall, sea water level, melting of glaciers, and animal and plant species composition and distribution. Several strategies to reduce GHG emissions are reforestation, proper waste disposal management, and the use of renewable energy such as water, solar energy and thermal energy to generate electricity instead of using fossil fuels. Introduction Greenhouse gases (GHGs), consisting primarily of water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are those gases that can absorb infrared radiation from the atmosphere. These gases are capable of trapping heat, resulting to warming of the earth’s surface (Snyder et al., 2009; Rea y and Hogan,2010). Greenhouse gas emission and the human activities associated with increasing GHG concentration in the atmosphere, is perhaps one of the most controversial issues worldwide yet to be resolved. In fact, it has been reported that since the industrial period, the concentration of these GHGs in the atmosphere has been constantly escalating (Krupa and Kickert, 1989; IPCC, 2011). A time-lapse carbon dioxide monitoring conducted by Muller et al. (2007) revealed that the present CO2 concentration in the troposphere is, by far, the highest level ever recorded during the last 670,000 years, making CO2 the most anthropogenically-driven GHG. Meanwhile, the total amount of atmospheric methane was revealed to have increased by as much as 15% at the end of the 18th century and almost tripled over the last 150 years. Although methane concentration is much less compared to that of CO2, Ramaswamy et al. (2001) reported that CH4 is actually 23 times more potent as a greenhouse gas in comparison to CO2. Ramaswamy and colleagues (2001) also provided evidence that nitrous oxide is even more effective per molecule as a GHG than CH4 and 296 times more potent than CO2. The presence of GHGs in the atmosphere accounts for the phenomenon known as greenhouse effect, so called because the mechanism by which it works is reminiscent to that of a greenhouse. Shown in Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating the processes governing the greenhouse effect. As sunlight strikes the planet, radiant energy from the sun with short wavelengths is absorbed by the earth’s surface without being caught trapped in the atmosphere (Krupa and Kickert, 1989). As this energy is absorbed, it warms the earth’s surfaces and is then re-radiated back into the atmosphere at longer wavelengths. Once again, this long-wavelength energy is captured by GHGs in the atmosphere and is reflected in different directions. Energy directed upwards is released into space while energy directed downwards, wh ich accounts for 90% of the long-wavelength emission, goes back to the earth (Pidwirny, 2006). It must be noted, however, that the greenhouse effect is a naturally-occurring phenomenon. In fact, it makes the earth habitable (Krupa and Kickert, 1989).On the other hand, if GHGs in the atmosphere increase beyond the normal range of GHG levels, the greenhouse effect is enhanced, posing a great threat to all of earth’