GLOBAL WARMING

THE IGNORED MENACE

Global warming refers to climate change that causes an increase in the average temperature of the lower atmosphere. Global warming can have many different causes, but it is most commonly associated with human interference, specifically the release of excessive amounts of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), water vapor, and fluorinated gases, act like a greenhouse around the earth. This means that they let the heat from the Sun into the atmosphere, but do not allow the heat to escape back into space. The more greenhouse gases there are, the larger the percentage of heat that is trapped inside the earth’s atmosphere.

Without a natural greenhouse effect, the temperature of the Earth would be about zero degrees F (-18°C) instead of its present 57°F (14°C). So, the concern is not with the fact that we have a greenhouse effect, but whether human activities are leading to an enhancement of the greenhouse effect.
There has been a general, but not global, tendency towards reduced diurnal temperature range (DTR), (the difference between high and low daily temperatures) over about 50% of the global land mass since the middle of the 20th century. Cloud cover has increased in many of the areas with reduced diurnal temperature range.
As temperatures rise, disease-carrying mosquitoes and rodents spread, infecting people in their wake. Doctors at the Harvard Medical School have linked the recent U.S. outbreaks of dengue fever, malaria, Hantavirus and other diseases directly to climate change.
Super powerful hurricanes, fueled by warmer Ocean temperatures are the “smoking gun” of global warming. Since 1970, the number of category 4 and 5 events has jumped sharply. Human activities are adding an alarming amount of pollution to the earth’s atmosphere causing catastrophic shifts in weather patterns. These shifts are causing severe heat, floods and worse.

The biggest cause of global warming is the carbon dioxide released when fossil fuels like oil and coal are burned for energy. So when energy is saved global warming is resisted.
Tragically, we are about half a century away from being ecologically and economically bankrupt because of global warming We can just do our bit by choosing an efficient, least polluting vehicle, buying energy efficient appliances and trying and incorporating the use of compact fluorescent bulbs instead of the incandescent bulbs which we normally use and last but not the least by weatherizing our homes and cutting our heating and cooling expenses and reducing the burning of fossil fuels.
After all, the advent of changes in global climate signals that we are now living beyond the Earth's capacity to absorb a major waste product.