Does anyone have any information on global warming i can put in my essay?

Question

i need to know some of the causes and effects of global warming and what we can do to prevent it i would appreciate if it was your own words but its ok if there not and you can add some humur to it if you can.

Answer 1

Here's a couple of good articles I came across:
http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article632266.ece
http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article1315905.ece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist

Answer 2

Aresol (lyk hairspray) cause the ozone layed to decrease and so that makes global warming...
to prevent it ban aresol-containing products

Answer 3

causes- gases, traffic, farting, wasting energy
effects- burining earth, melting ice caps

Answer 4

this is my long answer on global warming
maybe there is something in here you can use,
and they are my own words ,ill try to be funny as well


POLITICS
ecologists and scientists who work for politicians ,get paid by these politicians and they have downplayed the facts because solutions are expensive and means change and change effects many peoples incomes,and upsets profit margins,so most of the world is kept in the dark of the real things that are going on.

most people doubt if humanity EFFECTS THE ENVIRONMENT,and now the climate change

thousands of people have no doubt about it and the many who are dead are past caring

many people forget about desertification
desserts are like a fire they gobble up the edges with the heat and so grow.

forrests regulate the climate ,they absorb heat during the day and release it at night ,that is why desserts are freezing at night and cooking during the day

Forrests produce water ,and regulate the atmosphere we breathe (the absorb carbon )as well as protecting the earth from the sun
when forrest are being exchanged for ashalt,concrete and desserts
what is gonna keep this planet habitable for us

the carbon production is something else on top
and this seems to ocupy people the most
and the polution is something else again
all are factors in climate change

Global warming is a very complex collection of many effects

this text is limited to effects of people in the country,industrial effects on the environment and the internal combustion engine as well as the over all effects of cities ,is another story

climate change is caused principally by desertification ,and most desertification is caused by man
the thinner ozone layer helps to speed this up.and this is caused mainly by air polution ,also as a result of mans actions

DEFORESTATION

in the past
the Building of the Spanish Armada deforrested Spain
the Phoenician trading fleet turned Lebanon in a dessert
Ganges Khan put everything to the sword and torch, then filled the wells with sand,
the sun finished of the job and whole countries turned to wastelands.
He would have been envious of the effects of modern day farming.Slash and burn destroys the protective vegetation (which helps to form the soil ),
leaving it open to the Sun ,and then ,wind and, water erosion.
The Plough turns the soil ,killing micro-biotic life (essential to soil building) and accelerates the drying out .
Pressures of the :vehicles, cattle and rain impact brings the salt to the surface.

Mono cultures ,aided by chemicals Exhaust and pollutes the soil .
Adding to this the effects of overgrazing has resulted in large scale desertification.

expanding populations and expanding farming ,that has to keep pace with the expanding populations are very strong forces that encroach upon the rainforest's
clearing them for farming and settlement areas .

In Mexico is a famous jungle that the Media has been trying to save for years
the Naturists ,and the government ,keep watch .laws are made for protection the wild and to forbid logging.
TV put out a series of documentaries
there are campaigns in the News papers
and all of this has not made the slightest difference

Rainforest's always are in third world countries and always in third world countries corruption and the need for money s highest

ON THE GROUND
go to the countries on the equator ,check what has happened in history
and listen to what is going on in the many disaster areas on this planet today,(and there are more each year )

: i have seen lands that have been turned from jungle into desserts by people in a matter of a couple of years ,because of the slash and burn method used by settlers and expanding agriculture,and i have seen rivers dry up because of deforrestation in many places in Africa and Mexico ,

there are natural cycles in the planets life
but a lot is influenced by mans existance ,and this is increasing with overpopulation,putting strains on Natural resources and increasing contaminations as well as destructions of essential componants the ensure living conditions for all life forms

in North Africa,India,Mexico ,millions of people are effected by land loss and desertification and some have died as a result

in china, thousands of what used to be farmers are running for their lives from the dust storms that have burried their towns and turned their lands into dessert,

,the Sahara is growing by 7 kilometers a year
and all of the desserts we know are a results of mans actions ,and they are increasing ,not getting less ,in the dinosaurs days ,there were no desserts.

collectively this planet is drying up because of bad farming practices like,over grazing and fertilizers,


each degree rise in temperature means 10%crop loss

and there is less and less water (because of deforestation),to irrigate this production ,
and there are less and less farmers to do it..
who are overpumping deep carbon aquifiers
who are plowing more and more unstable lands because they have lost so many million hectares to desertification ,
because of bad farming practises ,such as using fertilizers and heavy machinary or over grazing

RISING SEAS
The northpole is melting ,and we will know it without ice in our life times.
this does not affect the sea level because it is ice that is already in the water.but the melting ice from Green land and the south pole ,are another matter

Global warming is in theory reversable,but it will mean global co operation between all countries ,and taking into account human nature and the world politics ,it is unlikely that this will happen,

At least not untill we are all in the middle of planetary disastres and it becomes a battle for the survival of humanity every where.

SOLUTIONS
if you want to help the planet ,plant a tree every week ,if everyone on the planet did we we would be able to reverse the destructive processes

reduce carbon emisions,and they are already working on that by alternative forms of energy and regulations on carbon producing materials,aerosol cans,burning rubbish,industrial chimneys,powerplants etc.

the capture of carbon and the production of water and assist the aquiferous manta.

the world bank pays large subsidies for reforrestation to capture carbon and the best tree for this is the Pawlonia

Waterharvesting projects ,such as millions of small dams.to redirect over ground waterflows from the rains into the ground to supply subteranian water supplies.

the protection of existing forrests.

stop building more highways,urban planning to include vegetation stop building cities encourage people to return to the land to conduct their business from there which now has become possible thanks to the internet.

education to motivate people to auto sufficiency by building more home food gardens.

education on environmental awareness
education on family planning to curb over´populaion

Agricultural education and improvements to follow the principals or sustainability and soil management.

more environmental or land ,design to prevent bush fires,such as--fire breaks

,more dams.regulations and control for public behaviour

alternative effeciant public transport to discourage the use of the internal conbustion engine

recicling wastes,limit water use

Source(s) Lester E Brown is the director and founder of the global institute of Environment in the United states .he has compiled a report based on all the satalite information available from NASA,and all the information that has
come from Universities and American embassies WORLD WIDE ,
his little book--a planet under stress , Plan B has been trans lated into many languages and won the best book award in 2003

i am a Permaculture Consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government in Guerrero Mexico

Answer 5

You are welcome to an essay I wrote........You may think the last line is humorous, or you may think it's true!



Effects of Entropy

It was during the 70’s that the Energy Act (1976) arose. My degrees, Thermodynamic Engineering and Environmental Engineering (fancy names for Energy Engineer), were only then being taken seriously. There is a genuine interest in the mind boggling numbers associated with exponential growth, I hope you find this even more mind boggling. The energy used to put a deck of cards in order far exceeds knocking them out of order is nothing compared what is happening as we go through the J-curve of the effects of Entropy (a good indicator of Entropy is money, as the world economy inflates, so goes money – and Entropy). (In my views) the Laws of Thermodynamics reign supreme over the Universe. We are already using 20% more energy than the Earth can provide. If all greenhouse causing agents are stopped being used today, it would take at least 100 years to get the global warming momentum to settle. While the masses wait for the Engineers and Scientists to save the world with a “by the time I get cancer there will be a cure for it” attitude, this is an example of what is;
Nobel chemist Frederick Soddy pointed out over 70 years ago: “Debts are subject to the laws of mathematics rather than physics. Unlike wealth, which is subject to the laws of thermodynamics, debts do not rot away with old age and are not consumed in the process of living. On the contrary, they grow at so much per cent per annum, by the well known mathematical laws of simple and compound interest”1
Economist Herman Daly explains the inevitable consequences that result when society pits the mathematical notions of compound interest against the physical reality of thermodynamics. He says that while debt can grow at compound interest forever, real physical wealth cannot continue to grow at the same speed “because its physical dimension is subject to the destructive forces of entropy.”2 He concludes: “Since wealth cannot continually grow as fast as debt, the one to one relation between the two will at some point in time be broken- i.e. there must be some repudiation or cancellation of debt. The positive feedback of compound interest must be offset by counter acting forces of debt repudiation, such as inflation, bankruptcy, or confiscatory taxation, all of which breed violence.”3
At every step in the entire production and exchange process, work is done; namely, energy is expended by both humans and machines. Part of that energy is absorbed into the product and part is wasted. This means that the more stages in the economic process, the more energy is lost. The same principle is at work in the production process as in the simple food chain. In highly industrial societies the stages of the economic process continue to proliferate, meaning more and more energy is dissipated all along the line; and the resultant disorders create even greater long-range problems for society.
Take, for example, your morning English muffin. The very process of modern petrochemical agriculture used to grow the wheat is extremely energy inefficient. But once grown and harvested, the folly is compounded many times thanks to our national mania for processed food. Here are just some of the energy steps that go into making your English muffin. (1) The wheat is taken by a fossil-fuel-driven truck made of nonrenewable resources to (2) a large, centralized bakery housing numerous machines that very inefficiently refine, enrich, bake, and package English muffins. At the bakery, the wheat is (3) refined and often (4) bleached. These processes make for nice white bread, but rob the wheat of vital nutrients, so (5) the flour is then enriched with niacin, iron, thiamine, and riboflavin. Next, to insure that the English muffins will be able to withstand long truck journeys to stores where they will be kept on shelves for many days, or even weeks, preservative (6) calcium propionate is added, along with (7) dough conditioners such as calcium sulfate, monocalcium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, fungal enzyme, potassium bromate, and potassium iodate. Then the bread is (8) baked and placed in (9) a cardboard box which has been (10) printed in several colors to catch your eye on the shelf.
The box and muffins are placed within (11) a plastic bag (made of petrochemicals), which is then sealed with (12) a plastic tie (made of more petrochemicals). The packages of English muffins are then loaded into (13) a truck which hauls them to the (14) air-conditioned, florescent-lit, Muzak filled grocery store. Finally, you (15) drive two tons of automobile to the store and back and then (16) pop the muffins in the toaster. Eventually, you will throw away the cardboard and plastic packaging, which will then have to be disposed of as (17) solid waste. All of this for just 130 calories per serving of muffin.
Not only have tens of thousands of energy calories gone into the entire process, but medical evidence suggest that both the additives and the lack of fiber in refined breads may pose a serious hazard to your health. In the end, the energy that was added to the muffins at each step of the process was insignificant compared with the energy that was dissipated at each step of the process.
Of the total amount of energy used in the food system, less than 20 percent actually goes into the growing of food. The other 80 percent is consumed by the processing, packaging, distribution, and preparation of the foodstuff. Almost twice as much energy is used to process your English muffin (33 percent) as was used to grow the grain it was made from (18 percent).4
The food processing industry is now the fourth largest industrial energy user in the nation—after metals, chemicals, and oil. Some sources estimate that food processing currently consumes nearly 6 percent of the country’s energy budget. As far as the industry is concerned, apparently, the more the better. For example, between 1963 and 1971 the per capita food consumption in the United States increased by 2.3 percent. But the tonnage of packaging grew by 33.3 percent and the number of packages by 38.8 percent.5 I apologize for such old statistics, but that is when I first started to put information as this together, these are 30 year old figures, one can only imagine the statistics today.
Along with the growth in packaging has come a new industry; an entire army of “food technologists” now busy themselves making sure that our food supply is given just the right artificial color, scent, flavor, texture, and so on. Nothing can be left to chance. As one food technologist puts it, “It’s hard to compete with God, but we’re making headway.” Indeed they are. Some $500 million in synthetic chemicals is added to our food every year—2,500 additives. In 1979, each American consumed an average of nine pounds of additives, nearly double the amount in 1970. Four million pounds of dyes wind up in the food supply annually, a full sixteen times the amount used in 1940. Today, we eat more synthetic and artificial foods than the real thing.6
Convenience and processed foods, which are promoted as ways to liberate the individual from the “drudgery” of spending more time in the kitchen in food preparation, are in reality chaining humanity to the effects of ever greater entropy. The little time saved in the kitchen is more than outweighed by the amount of work time (human energy) given over to earning the money to pay for the increasing prices of the processed foods. Each step of the food processing takes energy, and as the energy flows through the food chain we witness a concentration of power in fewer and fewer food technology corporations, the decline in the healthfulness of the American diet, and the increased use of nonrenewable energy.
Food processing is representative of other major industries—such as petrochemicals, auto, truck and air transportation, and synthetic fibers—that grew up in the era of high energy flow. All appear to be generating greater value (more products, more “convenience”) while all the time they are actually squandering the precious energy resources of the planet. Again, the economic system fosters the illusion of creating a more ordered, more materially valuable world, because consideration is given primarily to value added or entropy decreases, but rarely ever to energy dissipation and entropy increases.
If the Entropy Law were fully acknowledged, society would have to face up to the notion that every time we use part of the stock of available matter and energy it means two things: first, that one way or another, the individual, the institutions, the community, or the society ends up paying more for the disorder created in making the product than the value derived from the use of the product; second, less energy is available to be used by other people and creatures sometime in the future. This reality flies in the face of the way we have viewed the world for the past several hundred years. The entire Enlightenment world view is inspired by the principles of Newtonian mechanics, Cartesian mathematics and Baconian scientific methodology. Capitalist and socialist systems attempt to organize the physical world on the basis of these basic conceptualizations. Central to all three ideas is the notion of absolute repeatability of observation (the scientific method) and the absolute reversibility of all processes (universal mathematics and mechanical processes). In the real world, however, nothing is observable in the same manner twice and no occurrence is reversible. The Entropy Law tells us that all physical reality unfolds in only one direction and that while there must be a -X for every +X in math, there is no such reversibility in the physical sojourn of the world around us. It is indeed bewildering that we have been attempting to organize the world for these past few centuries on the basis of mechanics, mathematics and the scientific method, when the real world simply does not conform to the central assumptions of reversibility and absolute repeatability. The reality is that when we leave this world, we leave it less well endowed as a result of our presence. When we glorify high energy production, then, what we are really promoting is an ever greater consumption of the finite store of resources of the planet. Seen in this way, the gross national product is more accurately the gross national cost, since every time resources are consumed they become unavailable for future use.7
Actually, the term consumption is a misnomer, for nothing is ever consumed. A thing is used, usually for a very short period of time, and then discarded. Any way you look at them, the statistics are mind-boggling. As a nation, we annually discard 11 million tons of iron and steel; 800,000 tons of aluminum; 400,000 tons of other metals; 13 million tons of glass; and 60 million tons of paper. Add to this 17 billion cans, 38 billion bottles and jars, 7.6 million discarded TV sets, and 7 million junked automobiles.8 The figures are no less awesome on the personal level. In 1974 the average American used 10 tons of mineral resources, including 1,340 pounds of metal and 18,900 pounds of nonmetallic minerals. In a lifetime, each American uses on an average approximately 700 tons of mineral resources, including nearly 50 tons of metals. If we add fossil fuels and wood, the per capita usage more than doubles to 1,400 tons. And this amount excludes water and food needs.9 Again, these are 1974 figures, you can imagine where these numbers are now.
It has been said before that the world could not possibly support another America. Looking at these figures, it becomes apparent that even one America is more than the world can afford now. Imagine if the entire world tried to produce and consume as Americans do. It has been estimated that a middle-class American lives a style of life that is equivalent to the work produced by 200 human slaves.10 Buckminister Fuller refers to us as possessing 200 “energy slaves” that run on nonrenewable resources. Another way of looking at it is in terms of number of calories needed to sustain life. An average human diet consists of 2,000 calories a day. Yet the amount of energy calories we individually consume every day – in our cars, our electricity, our processes foods, and so on – amounts to about 200,000 calories, or more than a hundred times the quantity we absolutely need.11 In terms of energy consumption, though Americans number only 225 million people, our energy needs are equivalent to that of over 22 billion individuals. Maybe we are decendants of cows instead of monkeys?

1. Herman Daly, “The Econimic Thought of Frederick Soddy” in History of Political Economy.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Dennis Hayes, Rays of Hope.
5. Ibid.
6. Orville Schell, “Inside the Food Technology Bazaar” in Mother Jones.
7. Jeremy Rifkin, Entropy, A New World View.
8. Hayes.
9. Jackson Davis, The Seventh Year.
10. Barbara Ward, The Home of Man.
11. G.Tyler Miller, Energetics, Kinetics and Life: An Ecological Approach.

Gary Ramos
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