Global Warming is something that has been happening for a long time. The temperature of the earth has been increasing more or less continuously since the time of the cave man. Approximately 18,000 years ago the earth began a gradual process of warming up after more than 100,000 years of Ice Ages. Much of North America, Europe, and Asia lay buried beneath great sheets of glacial ice.

Since the end of the Ice Age, Earth’s temperature has risen approximately 16 degrees F and sea levels have risen a total of 300 feet! Forests have returned where once there was only ice.
Technically, we are in an “interglacial phase,” or between ice ages. The question is not really if an ice age will return, but when.

If Global Warming stops, then you can start worrying! It means our warm interglacial phase is over and we may be heading into another Ice Age! Therefore we as earthlings should do our part and help prevent our mother Earth from dying. You should have already feel the urgency to save our once beautiful and pure Earth. Global Warming is not something that will affect the future generations but us. Do not give our Earth away!

If the climate changes as current computer models have projected, global average surface temperature could be anywhere from 1.4 to 5.8°C higher by the end of the 21st century than in 1990. To put this temperature change into context, the increase in global average surface temperature which brought the Earth out of the last major ice age 14,000 years ago was of the order of 4 to 5°C. Such a rapid change in climate will probably be too great to allow many ecosystems to suitably adapt, and the rate of species extinction will most likely increase. In addition to impacts on wildlife and species biodiversity, human agriculture, forestry, water resources and health will all be affected. Such impacts will be related to changes in precipitation (rainfall and snowfall), sea level, and the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, resulting from global warming. It is expected that the societies currently experiencing existing social, economic and climatic stresses will be both worst affected and least able to adapt. These will include many in the developing world, low-lying islands and coastal regions, and the urban poor.

The Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997) represent the first steps taken by the international community to protect the Earth’s climate from dangerous man-made interference. Currently, nations have agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of about 5% from 1990 levels by the period 2008 to 2012. The UK, through its Climate Change Programme, has committed itself to a 12.5% cut in greenhouse gas emissions. Additional commitments for further greenhouse gas emission reduction will need to be negotiated during the early part of the 21st century, if levels of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are to be stabilised at reasonable levels. Existing and future targets can be achieved by embracing the concept of sustainable development – development today that does not compromise the development needs of future generations. In practical terms, this means using resources, particularly fossil-fuel-derived energy, more efficiently, re-using and recycling products where possible, and developing renewable forms of energy which are inexhaustible and do not pollute the atmosphere.

Almost 100% of the observed temperature increase over the last 50 years have been due to the increase in the atmosphere of greenhouse gas concentrations like water vapour, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and ozone. Greenhouse gases are those gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect .The largest contributing source of greenhouse gas is the burning of fossil fuels leading to the emission of carbon dioxide. More than 80% of the worldwide energy demand is currently supplied by the fossil fuels coal, oil or gas. They are non-renewable as it took nature millions of years to generate this resources and yet, we are using them up within the next decade. It will be impossible to find alternative sources, which could replace fossil fuels in the short or medium term. The energy demand is simply too high.

Carbon Dioxide from Power Plants

In 2002 about 40% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions stem from the burning of fossil fuels for the purpose of electricity generation. Coal accounts for 93 percent of the emissions from the electric utility industry.

Coal emits around 1.7 times as much carbon per unit of energy when burned as does natural gas and 1.25 times as much as oil. Natural gas gives off 50% of the carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, released by coal and 25% less carbon dioxide than oil, for the same amount of energy produced. Coal contains about 80 percent more carbon per unit of energy than gas does, and oil contains about 40 percent more. For the typical U.S. household, a metric ton of carbon equals about 10,000 miles of driving at 25 miles per gallon of gasoline or about one year of home heating using a natural gas-fired furnace or about four months of electricity from coal-fired generation.

Carbon Dioxide Emitted from Cars

About 33% of U.S carbon dioxide emissions comes from the burning of gasoline in internal-combustion engines of cars and light trucks (minivans, sport utility vehicles, pick-up trucks, and jeeps). Vehicles with poor gas mileage contribute the most to global warming. For example, according to the E.P.A’s 2000 Fuel Economy Guide, a new Dodge Durango sports utility vehicle (with a 5.9 liter engine) that gets 12 miles per gallon in the city will emit an estimated 800 pounds of carbon dioxide over a distance of 500 city miles. In other words for each gallon of gas a vehicle consumes, 19.6 pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted into the air. A new Honda Insight that gets 61 miles to the gallon will only emit about 161 pounds of carbon dioxide over the same distance of 500 city miles. Sports utility vehicles were built for rough terrain, off road driving in mountains and deserts. When they are used for city driving, they are so much overkill to the environment. If one has to have a large vehicle for their family, station wagons are an intelligent choice for city driving, especially since their price is about half that of a sports utility. Inasmuch as SUV’s have a narrow wheel base in respect to their higher silhouette, they are four times as likely as cars to rollover in an accident.

The United States is the largest consumer of oil, using 20.4 million barrels per day. In his debate with former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, during the 2000 Presidential campaign, Senator Joseph Lieberman said, “If we can get 3 miles more per gallon from our cars, we’ll save 1 million barrels of oil a day, which is exactly what the (Arctic National Wildlife) Refuge at its best in Alaska would produce.”

If car manufacturers were to increase their fleets’ average gas mileage about 3 miles per gallon, this country could save a million barrels of oil every day, while US drivers would save $25 billion in fuel costs annually.

Carbon Dioxide from Airplanes

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that aviation causes 3.5 percent of global warming, and that the figure could rise to 15 percent by 2050.

Carbon Dioxide from Buildings

Buildings structure account for about 12% of carbon dioxide emissions.

Methane

While carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas, methane is second most important. According to the IPCC, Methane is more than 20 times as effective as CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Levels of atmospheric methane have risen 145% in the last 100 years. Methane is derived from sources such as rice paddies, bovine flatulence, bacteria in bogs and fossil fuel production. Most of the world’s rice, and all of the rice in the United States, is grown on flooded fields. When fields are flooded, anaerobic conditions develop and the organic matter in the soil decomposes, releasing CH4 to the atmosphere, primarily through the rice plants.

Water Vapor in the Atmosphere

Increasing water vapor is the most prevalent and most powerful greenhouse gas on the planet, but its increasing presence is the result of warming caused by carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. Water vapor holds onto two-thirds of the heat trapped by all the greenhouse gases. As the Earth heats up relative humidity is able to increase, allowing the planet’s atmosphere to hold more water vapor, causing even more warming, thus a positive feedback scenario. Because the air is warmer, the relative humidity can be higher (in essence, the air is able to ‘hold’ more water when its warmer), leading to more water vapor in the atmosphere, says the NCDC. There is much scientific uncertainty as to the degree this feedback loop causes increased warming, inasmuch as the water vapor also causes increased cloud formation, which in turn reflects heat back out into space.

Nitrous oxide

Another greenhouse gas is Nitrous oxide (N2O), a colourless, non-flammable gas with a sweetish odour, commonly known as “laughing gas”, and sometimes used as an anaesthetic. Nitrous oxide is naturally produced by oceans and rainforests. Man-made sources of nitrous oxide include nylon and nitric acid production, the use of fertilisers in agriculture, cars with catalytic converters and the burning of organic matter. Nitrous oxide is broken down in the atmosphere by chemical reactions that involve sunlight.

Deforestation

After carbon emissions caused by humans, deforestation is the second principle cause of atmospheric carbn dioxide. (Deforestation is responsible for 20-25% of all carbon emissions entering the atmosphere, by the burning and cutting of about 34 million acres of trees each year. We are losing millions of acres of rainforests each year, the equivalent in area to the size of Italy. The destroying of tropical forests alone is throwing hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. We are also losing temperate forests. The temperate forests of the world account for an absorption rate of 2 billion tons of carbon annually. In the temperate forests of Siberia alone, the earth is losing 10 million acres per year.

In a December, 2005 study climate models at National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) show that climate change may thaw the permafrost located in the top 10 feet of permafrost, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. “People have used models to study permafrost before, but not within a fully interactive climate system model,” says NCAR’s David Lawrence, the lead author. The coauthor is Andrew Slater of the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. “Thawing permafrost could send considerable amounts of water to the oceans,” says Slater, who notes that runoff to the Arctic has increased about 7 percent since the 1930s. According to the NCAR press release (December 19, 2005 )permafrost may contain 30% of all the carbon found in soil worldwide. In areas to a depth of 11.2 feet climate models (assuming business as usual scenarios) show permafrost presently in an area of 4,000,000 square miles shrinking to 1,000,000 square miles by 2050 and 400,000 square miles by 2100. With a scenario of low emissions (assuming a high degree use of alternative energy sources and conservation) permafrost is still expected to shrink to 1.5 million miles by 2100………In a USA Today (December 26, 2005) interview David Lawrence says, “If that much near-surface permafrost thaws, it could release considerable amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and that could amplify global warming,” …..”We could be underestimating the rate of global temperature increase.”

In a study reported in the journal Science June 16, 2006 researchers say that thawing permafrost may add to the buildup in atmospheric greenhouse gases significantly, stating that present climate models do not include releases of Siberian carbon dioxide from permafrost. Dr. Ted Schuur of the University of Florida traveled to Siberia and secured samples of permafrost soil up to 10 feet in length, maintaining it in a frozen state until arriving back in his laboratory, where the thawing soil was attacked by microbes, releasing carbon dioxide in the process. The frightening scenario that scientists, Sergey A. Zimov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ted Schuur and Stuart Chapin III of the University of Alaska, paint is one of hundreds of billions of tons of greenhouse gases entering an already destabilized atmosphere this century, spurring yet more warming in a positive feedback syndrome. Extend this scenario to Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia, where permafrost underlies much of these regions and there’s no other way to describe it. We’re in trouble.

About 50 billion tons of carbon are estimated to be held in a frozen state in the tundra, and now the tundra is beginning to become a source of carbon dioxide. In the 1970′s University of California biologist Walter Oechel studied carbon dioxide emissions in the tundra, which until this time had been thought of as a carbon sink. Doing further tests in the 1980′s, Oechel discovered that this was no longer the case, that warming temperatures had changed the tundra to a net emitter of carbon dioxide. Says Oechel, ” We found to our great surprise that the tundra was already losing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. So that by the start of these experiments, which was in 1982, the tundra had already warmed and dried enough, that its historic role as a carbon sink had reversed and changed. It was now losing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. That was totally unexpected.”

The greenhouse effect

When sunlight reaches Earth’s surface some is absorbed and warms the earth and most of the rest is radiated back to the atmosphere at a longer wavelength than the sun light. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb some of these longer wavelengths before they are lost to space. The absorption of this longwave radiant energy warms the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases act like a mirror and reflect back to the Earth some of the heat energy that would otherwise be lost to space. The reflecting back of heat energy by the atmosphere is called the “greenhouse effect”.

The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 36-70% of the greenhouse effect on Earth (not including clouds); carbon dioxide CO2, which causes 9-26%; methane, which causes 4-9%, and ozone, which causes 3-7%. It is not possible to state that a certain gas causes a certain percentage of the greenhouse effect, because the influences of the various gases are not additive. Other greenhouse gases include, but are not limited to, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons.

Global warming causes by greenhouse effect

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (see above) act like a mirror and reflect back to the Earth a part of the heat radiation, which would otherwise be lost to space. The higher the concentration of green house gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more heat energy is being reflected back to the Earth. The emission of carbon dioxide into the environment mainly from burning of fossil fuels (oil, gas, petrol, kerosene, etc.) has been increased dramatically over the past 50 years, see graph below.

Fig. 1: Cause for global warming: Carbon dioxide emissions in million tons per year over the last 200 years. (graph taken from http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Global_Carbon_Emission_by_Type_png)

Fig. 2: Global warming cause: Concentration of carbon dioxide has dramatically increased in the last 50 years (Source: NOAA)

Fig 2: Trends for greenhouse gases: Carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (NOx) concentrations in the atmosphere are still increasing. For the other major greenhouse gases, the steady upward trend has been broken. (Graph taken from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Major_greenhouse_gas_trends.png)

Fig 3: From which sectors do the major greenhouse gas emissions come from? The lower part of the picture shows the sources individually for the gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, respectively. (Graph from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Greenhouse_Gas_by_Sector.png)

The increase of greenhouse gas concentration (mainly carbon dioxide) led to a substantial warming of the earth and the sea, called global warming. In other words: The increase in the man-made emission of greenhouse gases is the cause for global warming. For the effects of global warming see below.

Conclusion:

Someone who respects Nature and regards mankind as a part of a larger whole would never dream about using up non-renewable resources in a short time nor would this person contaminate the environment with large amounts of pollution.

Global warming doesn’t primarily ask for a technical solution but for a different thinking and attitude. We must regain the true meaning of life . We incarnate to train those personality traits, which will finally lead to perpetual harmony with ourselves and with our environment as well as to inner calm and peace. This goal can only be reached with a respectful treatment of Nature.

 By anonymous: The lesson from global warming is to base all decisions on deep respect and consideration for Nature. The true cause of global warming is our thoughtless attitude to Nature.

 Global warming is a dangerous threat to us, earthlings. There have been cases of deaths due to climate change. A study by sciencetists at the World Health Organization (WHO) determined that 154 000 people die every years due to effects of global warming. From malaria to malnutrition to people dying of heat wave when temperature climed above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. These numbers could almost double by 2020.

Agricultural yields could be modified; zones where carriers of diseases such as cholera and malaria are present could be extended. Many growing populations living in tropical zones could be particularly impacted by climate change. Other populations could be displaced as a result of rising sea levels. Peoples could also see their way of life modified, like the Inuits of Kuujjuaq (Northern Canada) whose mayor, Larry Watt, ordered air conditioners in June 2006 after temperatures reached 31 °C!

Climate change could “bring some health benefits”, such as lower cold-related mortality and greater crop yields in temperate zones, but these will be greatly outweighed by increased rates of other diseases.

Also there will be increasing storms and floods. Global Warming has increase precipitation, mostly in the form of heavy rainstorms. In a report issued in November, 1999 the Britain’s Meteorological Office warned that flooding in Asia and Southeast Asia would increase more than ninefold over the coming decades. Floods are already increasing worldwide.

Consequences for marine creatures and animals:

The damages done to animals and marine creature are as bad. Although coral reefs cover less than 0.2% of the ocean’s area, they are food to 25% of marine fish species. An example of coral reef bio-diversity are the reefs of the Florida Keys, which sustain 500 species of fish, more than 1700 species of mollusks, five species of sea turtles, and hundreds of species of sponges.

While investigating the widespread loss of Caribbean coral, Hernandez-Delgado found a colony of 800-year-old star coral — more than 13 feet high — that had just died in the waters off Puerto Rico.

“The prognosis is not good,” said biochemistry professor M. James Crabbe of the University of Luton near London. “If you want to see a coral reef, go now, because they just won’t survive in their current state.”

Coral bleaching is happening all over the world in many countries. Whenever coral is stressed by higher water temperatures, even only 2 or 3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer, it may expel the algae that nourishes it and gives the coral its color, thus coral bleaching. Coral usually recovers from bleaching, but it cannot survive the stress of constant warming waters. Second to rainforests in biodiversity of species, coral reefs have been called the rainforests of the sea.

Temperatures in the Antarctic and Arctic has increased significantly to the point that sea ice has diminished in the both regions. In the Arctic this has meant a decreased habitat for the polar bear.

The polar bear depends heavily on the capture of ringed seal, because this seal has a very heavy lipid layer. This fatty tissue is especially needed by the female, who banks on the energy stores for the winter when she gives birth to a couple of cubs.

The decreasing Arctic ice will vastly diminish the chances of polar bears capturing these seals, because the bears stalks seals using the seal’s breathing hole in the ice.

The polar bears around Hudson Bay number about 1200. In late fall they wait for the formation of sea ice to allow them to hunt seals. Nowadays ice melts off the Hudson Bay three weeks earlier, which means that much less time to pursue and feed on seal pups.

 It also means they have that much less time to gorge on seals and increase their bodies’ fat stores. Compared to polar bears 20 years ago, the bears around Hudson Bay are 10% thinner and have 10% fewer cubs.

Melting sea ice is leaving greater and greater distances for polar bears to travel in their hunts for food. In December 2005, marine biologists reported that they found 4 polar bears drowned off the northern coast of Alaska last fall. They also described seeing more polar bears in the open sea, some as far as 60 miles offshore. They noted that 20% of bears seen in the area in September 2005 were in the water, while in previous years, records show that 4% of sighted bears were swimming.

Similar situations are happening to blue whales, gray wolf and woodland buffalo. How should we protect these mammals from extinction? Are they going to be the dinosaurs of tomorow? Save them while we still can. Do not wait till matters get worst, till then all the impact has been done, and whatever you do then can never change the fate of those animals.

Consequences for the climate:

Retreat of Glaciers

Melting of pack ice

Rise in average sea level

Frequent floods and droughts

Increases in extreme climate events such as hurricanes and cyclones

 Some of these change have already started and can be traced back to global warming. In particular, this is the case with the melting of glaciers. These climate changes are clearly going to have consequences on the flora and fauna. It is forecast that a large number of species are in danger of disappearing.

Credits: http://www.planete-energies.com/content/7_11_6_the_consequences.html

You know what? Every piece of paper you waste, every time you step out of your class leaving the lights and fan switched on without anyone inside, every time you think a bottle can’t recycle much and you threw it away instead of recycling it, a simple action or thought of yours is just like fuels adding to destroy the earth. We believe every action done will have an impact on the environment. Thus, through daily actions individuals can do their part to save the Earth.

Reduced

- Bringing your own shopping bag. This can reduce the use of plastic bag, which is not biodegradable.

- Use fans instead of air-conditioners. Air conditioners are one of the highest electrical consuming appliances.

- Reduce the amount of time spent playing computer and do not put your computer on standby mode. Computers are electrical consuming appliances too and in standby mode, electricity is still being used.

- Use public transport. This will help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being produced.

 - Switch off electrical appliances when not in use. This will help in saving electricity.

- Use energy saving appliances. This will also help in saving electricity.

- Walk or cycle to places nearer than using car.

Reuse

 - The water being used to wash rice, could be use to water the plants as well.

Recycle

- Paper products, such as newspaper, could be recycled.

- Plastic bottles and tin cans can also be recycled.

- When throwing rubbish, take out materials that can be recycled.

Reaching out on the community:

- Organise workshops for secondary school students to raise awareness among school community. E.g. camps.

- Visit nursery schools to educate children from young to save the environment by practical ways. We believe education starts from young, we can instill in the younger generation on how they can do their part for the earth and motivate their parents to do so as well.

- Work with NTUC Fairprice to encourage use of recyclable bags, reach out to the community discouraged use of plastic bags, methods such as giving freebies, coupon system of rewarding those that bring their own bag.

- Provide recycling platforms in school, allowing individual to voice out their concerns for the environment.

- Change normal bulbs to energy-saving bulbs for homes in the neighborhood. Help to educate the community especially those that do not know how to go about saving the earth.

- Get involved in the school’s green activities, Green Auditors Club. – Gather groups of passionate youth that love the earth and organising outing for interaction to take place. Learn from one another ways to conserve the earth.

- We reduce the amount of time spent playing computer every week.
- Use public transport instead of taking taxi when going out.
- Whenever the classrooms/corridors’ light are not switch off, we made effort to switch it off. 
- Encouraged our parents to use energy saving appliances.
- Walk or cycle to places nearer than using vehicles.
- Create awareness among our community, educating our family members and friends. 
- We actively participate in recycling programs organised in our school.

Reaching out on the community:

- Created a facebook group, (http://www.facebook.com/s.php?q=groups&init=q&sid=7023c0b37dfaf263c04fd7ff580a021b#/group.php?gid=52446808630) creating awareness among our community. Videos have been put up to educate the people, discussion are held, people from all around sharing their views on the environment. It currently have 95 members.
- We got involved in the school’s green activity; we joined the Green Auditors Club and actively participate in it. We help to reach out to the school community and provide recycling platforms in school.
- We attend environmental camps (edurace), talks and programs like the Aqualife program. 
- We take part in poster competition to raise awareness.
-  We conduct spot-checks in school to ensure that no electricity is wasted.

The travel experience is just not as lonely as driving because there are other people with you. Once in a while I would see a neighbor or friend, and it was always fun to chat in person.

2. You can use your travel time for leisure:

On a bus or train you can read a book, play a game, or even chat with your friends on the computer if Internet is available. When you drive you have to concentrate on driving.

3. Public transit helps the environment:

This is true for areas with high population density. When you ride the bus or train you are sharing resources with your community, and that cuts down on pollution. Walk to school or any other place if possible, take the public transport than making your dad or mom drive you all around like a princess. Taking public transport help save fuel and it reduces air pollution that eventually will lead to decreasing of global warming. Make a difference today, make the choice for yourself and the Earth.

95% of energy that is used to produce cans from virgin ore, can be saved by recycling aluminum cans.

By changing one of your light bulbs to a qualified energy saving light bulb, we can conserve the energy to light 3 million homes for up to a year. That also saves $600 million dollars in yearly energy bills. Not only that, but, the equivalent to 800,000 cars gas emissions will be eliminated.

6.5 million tons of carbons by emissions are eliminated when 7 million tons of metals are recycled. It’s like removing 5 million cars off the roads for a year.

The amount of aluminum cans thrown away in a 3 month period can make enough metal to rebuild a whole fleet of commercial airplanes.

Tin is another metal that has great value. Did you know that tin, when recycled, is so pure it can be used as stannous fluoride, it is the stuff that fights cavities in our toothpaste?

17 of our lovely, oxygen producing, trees have to be cut down to produce about 1 ton of paper product.

50 million tons of paper is used each year. In America people who work in offices throw away enough paper to build a12 feet high, wall that could connect New York City to Los Angeles City.

An acre of trees can be preserved by recycling 1 ton of paper products. A year’s worth of newspaper is produced by chopping down 30 million of our precious trees.

37 percent of our garbage is comprised of paper products. 1 glass bottle that is recycled can save enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for 4 hrs.

The amount of glass jars and bottles recycled in the United States for a year, when lined up can reach the Moon and come half way back to Earth. That is a lot of glass.

Juice and soda containers that are made from plastic can be recycled to make material for an insulation product used to fill that warm jacket you wear and the sleeping bags we use to camp in the forest we may not have soon if we don’t recycle. Also, carpets, brushes, sponges, parts for automobiles (pads), even tennis balls. Only about 12 percent of these kinds of materials are recycled.

7 million tons of clothing and textiles are discarded. All of these materials can be reused and made into new products for mattress filling, absorbing products (sponges), wadding, and felt that is used to create fiber for clothing.

FIVE REASONS TO RECYCLE:

 - Natural resources- recycling will save our much needed resources.

- Energy- recycling will save our much needed energy.

- Clean air and water- recycling will preserve these precious elements.

- Landfill space- recycling will save the landfills from overflowing.

- Money- is the most important.

Recycling can create lots of new jobs.

Credit: http://www.stumblerz.com/recycling-fun-facts/

1. The leading cause of global warming is from water vapor, then carbon dioxide emissions, nitrous oxides, and chlorofluorocarbons (used in household appliances like air conditioning).
2. Chlorofluorocarbons are expected to be eliminated and put out of use by 2030 to help slow down global warming.
3. The biggest business sectors that are contributing to global warming are the following: Industry, Transportation, Residential, Commercial, Agricultural.
4. Methane is the second biggest cause of greenhouse warming. Gas from cows is a big contributor to global warming.
5. A big enough volcano eruption could cool the earth for one or two years because sulfuric acid from the explosion would combine with water vapor to form a “shield” that would reflect some sunlight away from earth. Such an eruption would be quite catastrophic, though.
6. The coloration of aerosols (miniscule particles in the air) generally changes their relationship with the sun. Lightly colored aerosols reflect light back away from earth (as a white t-shirt) while darker aerosols generally absorb heat (as a hot asphalt road when it is sunny).
7. Generally, wispy clouds, such as cirrus clouds, trap light and thus warm the atmosphere whilst thick clouds generally reflect sunlight.
8. Ice/snow cover cools the earth by reflecting sunlight.
9. Without water vapor’s effect on the atmosphere, the earth would be at below freezing temperatures.