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Here is an essay on ‘Global Warming’ for class 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Global Warming’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Global Warming
Essay Contents:
- Essay on What is Global Warming?
- Essay on What is the Evidence that it is Occurring?
- Essay on What are “Greenhouse Gases”?
- Essay on What is the Global Warming Potential of Different Greenhouse Gases?
- Essay on What are the Current and Predicted Concentrations of CO2 in the Atmosphere?
- Essay on What is the Greenhouse Effect?
- Essay on What is being done to Curb Climate Change?
- Essay on What are the Predicted Impacts of Global Warming?
- Essay on What Can I Do to Reduce Global Warming?
Essay # 1. What is Global Warming?
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The earth’s climate is predicted to change because human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The heat-trapping property of these gases is undisputed. Although uncertainty exists about exactly how earth’s climate responds to these gases, global temperatures are rising.
Our earth’s average temperature stays pretty much the same from year to year. Sometimes, it gets very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. And some years may be a little hotter than normal but it may be a little cooler at other places.
So, there is very little change in average temperature of the globe. The current average global temperature is about 57°F (14°C). If there is a rise in this average temperature, then we have global warming. In the last 100 years, the average temperature rose less than 1°F.
On earth we get energy from the sun’s light. It gets hot outside if the sun is shining brightly on a summer day. The reason it warms up is because the earth is absorbing some of that solar energy. However, not all of the energy is absorbed.
Some energy is reflected back into space in the form of light. This reflection allows the earth to be seen as a star from other parts of our solar system, just like we can see the moon and other planets. Energy also leaves the earth in other forms like heat, for example, which is called infrared light.
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In order for our earth to stay the same temperature from year to year, the energy arriving at the earth (solar radiation) must be the same as the energy leaving the earth (infrared radiation). If we have more energy leaving than arriving, the earth will cool down and we could have another ice age. If we have more energy arriving than leaving, we will have global warming.
The reason the earth could retain more energy than it gives off has to do with the air around us and what it is made of. When we burn wood, coal, or gasoline in our cars, carbon dioxide (CO2), is released.
Carbon dioxide is a gas that can’t be seen or smelled, but it does trap some of the infrared energy emitted from the Earth and prevents that energy from going back out into space. If the amount of CO2 in the air goes up, the earth will heat up, which the start of global is warming.
Essay # 2. What is the Evidence that it is Occurring?
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Global temperatures are rising. Observations collected over the last century suggest that the average land surface temperature has risen 0.45-0.6°C (0.8-1.0°F) in the last century. The surface of the ocean has also been warming at a similar rate.
Studies that combine land and sea measurements have generally estimated that global temperatures have warmed 0.3-0.6°C (0.5-1.0°F) in the last century. About two-thirds of this warming took place between 1900 and 1940. Global temperatures declined slightly from the 1940s through the 1970s; but have risen more rapidly during the last 25 years than in the period before 1940.
Essay # 3. What are “Greenhouse Gases”?
Some greenhouse gases occur naturally in the atmosphere, while others result from human activities. Naturally occurring greenhouse gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Certain human activities, however, add to the levels of most of these naturally occurring gases. Carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere when solid waste, fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal), and wood and wood products are burned.
Because CO2 absorbs energy emitted from the Earth and prevents it from going back out into space, it is called a greenhouse gas. There are several other greenhouse gases. Altogether, these other gases absorb about as much infrared energy as CO2 does. So, CO2 is responsible for about half of our global warming and all the other gases combined are responsible for the other half.
Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from the decomposition of organic wastes in municipal solid waste landfills, and the raising of livestock.
Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during combustion of solid waste and fossil fuels.
Very powerful greenhouse gases that are not naturally occurring include hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs), per-fluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur fexafluoride (SF6), which are generated in a variety of industrial processes.
Essay # 4. What is the Global Warming Potential of Different Greenhouse Gases?
Each greenhouse gas differs in its ability to absorb heat in the atmosphere. HFCs and PFCs are the most heat-absorbent. Methane traps over 21 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide absorbs 270 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide. Often, estimates of greenhouse gas emissions are presented in units of millions of metric tonnes of carbon equivalents (MMTCE), which weights each gas by its GWP value, or Global Warming Potential (GWP).
The GWP of a greenhouse gas is the ratio of global warming, or radiative forcing—both direct and indirect—from one unit mass of a greenhouse gas to that of one unit mass of carbon dioxide over a period of time. While any time period can be selected, the 100 year GWPs is usually used.
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The GWP values of greenhouse gases are as follows:
Essay # 5. What are the Current and Predicted Concentrations of CO2 in the Atmosphere?
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are at a 420,000-year record level, and they are climbing. The 420,000-year Antarctic Vostok ice core record only shows natural CO2 concentrations up to ˜300 ppm. Current man-made CO2 levels are above this ˜364 ppm in 1997 or ˜370 ppm and rising at greater than ˜1 ppm/Yr. CO2 is expected to climb to 600-1200 ppm in the next century, if current fossil fuel consumption trends continue.
Essay # 6. What is the Greenhouse Effect?
The greenhouse effect is neither new nor necessarily bad. In fact, without the greenhouse effect, life as we know it would probably not exist on the earth. The greenhouse effect is the warming of the earth’s surface from heat trapped in the atmosphere.
For at least 4.6 billion years, solar energy released by the sun’s nuclear furnace has penetrated the earth’s atmosphere. About half of the solar energy reaching the earth’s surface is reflected back into space or absorbed in the upper atmosphere. The other half is absorbed by the earth’s land and water masses.
As the earth absorbs solar radiation, it is heated and emits a less intense form of energy but at longer wavelengths. Much of this energy passes unimpeded through the atmosphere. The dominant gases in the atmosphere—nitrogen (77%) and oxygen (21%)—have little effect on the radiated energy.
But some trace gases in the atmosphere, like water vapor (1%) and carbon dioxide (0.03%), behave differently. They absorb the longer-wavelength energy or reflect it back to the surface. Like a blanket, these minute concentrations of greenhouse gases trap the radiated energy, converting it to heat.
These trace gases in the atmosphere create roughly the same effect as the glass panes of a greenhouse, allowing sunlight to pass through but trapping some of the radiated heat. This accounts for the name “greenhouse effect.”
Without the natural phenomena of the greenhouse effect, the earth would be about 60°F cooler (or 33-35°C) than it is today, an icy, uninhabitable planet.
Yet, today’s concern is that human activity may be tipping the earth’s delicate environmental balance by significantly increasing the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and enhancing their insulating effect.
Essay # 7. What is being done to Curb Climate Change?
The 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is one of a series of recent agreements through which countries around the world are banding together to meet this challenge (of climate change).
Other treaties deal with such matters as pollution of the oceans, expanding deserts, damage to the ozone layer, and the rapid extinction of plant and animal species. The Climate Change Convention focuses on something particularly disturbing: we are changing the way energy from the sun interacts with and escapes from our planet’s atmosphere.
By doing that, we risk altering the global climate. Among the expected consequences are an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s surface and shifts in world-wide weather patterns. Other— unforeseen—effects cannot be ruled out.
Today, action is occurring at every level to reduce, to avoid, and to better understand the risks associated with climate change. Many cities and States across the country have prepared greenhouse gas inventories; and many are actively pursuing programs and policies that will result in greenhouse gas emission reductions.
At the national level, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) coordinates the world’s most extensive research effort on climate change. In addition, EPA and other federal agencies are actively engaging the private sector, states, and localities in partnerships based on a win-win philosophy and aimed at addressing the challenge of global warming while, at the same time, strengthening the economy.
At the global level, countries around the world have expressed a firm commitment to strengthening international responses to the risks of climate change. The U.S. is working to strengthen international action and broaden participation under the auspices of the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Essay # 8. What are the Predicted Impacts of Global Warming?
In the mid-latitudes, the amount of moisture in the soil will probably decrease in the summer. Higher temperatures will melt the snow earlier in the year and the land will have a longer time to dry out. Crops that now grow in these regions may not survive this added warmth and dryness. But other changes, such as the amount of rainfall and local temperature differences, may affect which crops will do well and which ones will not.
Winters in the northern polar zone could be 18 degrees warmer according to some studies. This increase in temperature could cause sea ice to melt, which can result in a rise in sea level. Just how much it will rise is not clear.
As it gets warmer, there will be more evaporation from large bodies of water. This increased evaporation will cause more clouds and more rainfall. Scientists are pretty certain that there will be increased precipitation in the northern polar zone, but in other areas they are not as sure. Some regions may actually have less rainfall than there is right now.
Some scientists think that there may be more hurricanes as a result of global warming. However, there are so many factors that lead to tropical storms like this, that it is uncertain what will happen.
Also, some scientists think that certain diseases, like vector-borne diseases and heat-stroke, will become more widespread. One of these diseases is malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes. Some say that an additional 20% of the world’s population, which would include southern parts of the United States, could live in areas where you can get malaria.
Essay # 9. What Can I Do to Reduce Global Warming?
There are many things you can do to help:
i. Conserve energy – Since most electricity is produced by the burning of fossil fuels, reducing our consumption of this resource lowers emissions of greenhouse gases.
ii. Reduce your reliance and usage of things which run on fossil fuels. This means purchase fuel-efficient vehicles and electrical appliances that consume less electricity.
iii. Do not burn garbage and other waste materials. Compost the biodegradable waste.
iv. Recycle – By forcing the reuse of materials such as paper and plastics, you are lightening the load on the Earth and thus directly reducing the impact of climate change.
v. Read more about global warming and its impact.
vi. Disseminate the information about global warming.
vii. Use bicycle for short distances – Use solar appliances wherever possible.